River of Clouds

One of the samples I received from Secret Santa Alana – thank you! It has a very nice fresh and vegetal smell, hinting at sweet peas, and the leaves are light grey-green and twisty. In three minutes I have a golden-green liquor, faintly aromatic with buttered vegetables.

The taste is very mild, and includes a little vegetable/seaweed flavor, a tiny bit of toastiness, and some natural sweetness. The astringency is very low, coming across more as just a slight pucker than a real dryness. Not punchy, but a pleasant green nonetheless.

And the song – Al Green’s “Take Me To The River”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngrXi5Dwk2I

The tea leaves had a delicate fragrance. When dry they almost had a faint hint of chocolate (or maybe I’m just going mad). Anyway, when I brewed this tea, it was refreshingly light and extremely delicate. I will have to tweak the steeping times though, because I don’t think I steeped it for long enough.

I was expecting some delicate green taste, so I was surprised to get an immediate impression of oolong. It’s honey-grassy, quite nice, and the taste develops and follows through. It stands up to subsequent infusions, and keeps its moreishness. Well worth buying, you can get it at Whittards without having to go to snobby expensive tea specialists. All the same, it tastes to me like a reasonably agreeable oolong.