Once again, I wildly overbought green tea this year so I could do some educational comparison sessions. This time, I’m focusing on three kinds of Anji Bai Cha, two from Seven Cups and one from Camellia Sinensis.
Tea bush: Baiye #1 (White Leaf #1)
Location: Anji County, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province
Picking date: Early April 2025
Price in USD/g: $1.19
For the side-by-side comparison, I steeped 2.4 g of leaf in 120 ml of 185F water for 4 minutes, resteeping as needed until the tea faded. I also did a more normal session with 3 g of leaf in 250 ml of 185F water, with times as above.
The dry aroma of this tea featured honey, green beans, pastry, and soft florals. In the first session, I got initial notes of green beans, snow peas, pastry, honey, lilac, and other florals. Subsequent steeps were consistent, revealing green beans, asparagus, grass, pastry, and lilac florals. The tea never got overly bitter, though at a 2:1 leaf/water ratio, it was potent!
The first steep in the normal session had notes of green beans, asparagus, honey, pastry, nuts, lemon, and florals, maybe lilac. Subsequent steeps were more vegetal, with some cucumber, although the nutty, pastry goodness persisted. The tea got a bit drying when forgotten about. The final steeps faded into grass, green beans, and some floral hints.
As expected, this was an excellent, if pricy, Anji Bai Cha. There wasn’t a lot of citrus, but the florals and lack of bitterness made up for that. The sweet, pastry notes were a nice bonus. You could tell that this tea was picked sooner than the others while the leaves were sweeter and less vegetal.
Flavors: Asparagus, Cucumber, Floral, Grass, Green Bean, Honey, Lemon, Lilac, Nuts, Pastries, Snow Pea, Sweet, Vegetal
