This was another early 2020 sipdown. It was also the first Australian tea I ever tried. For whatever reason, I had passed on the opportunity to try the teas that What-Cha had been sourcing from Australia in prior orders, but after receiving a free sample of the Australia Arakai Spring Premium black tea with one of my orders, I decided to bite the bullet and order several of What-Cha’s other Australian offerings so I could compare them. I was not expecting much from them, but I ended up being pleasantly surprised. This green tea may have been my favorite of the bunch.
I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a 10 second rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 fluid ounces of 176 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was followed by 15 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes.
Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves produced aromas of hay, grass, orange blossom, and orchid. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of malt, corn husk, raisin, fig, prune, and sour cherry. The first infusion introduced aromas of pineapple and mandarin orange. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of grass, hay, cream, corn husk, orchid, malt, honey, and golden raisin that were chased by hints of prune, fig, pear, orange blossom, green apple, mandarin orange, and pineapple. The bulk of the subsequent infusions added aromas of apricot, pear, green apple, spinach, cooked lettuce, plum, and lemon zest to the tea’s bouquet. Stronger and more immediately detectable notes of pear, mandarin orange, green apple, and pineapple came out in the mouth alongside impressions of minerals, apricot, cooked lettuce, spinach, butter, plum, sour cherry, honeydew, and lemon zest. As the the faded, the liquor continued to emphasize notes of minerals, grass, hay, cooked lettuce, and lemon zest that were chased by lingering hints of apricot, plum, green apple, honey, pear, prune, mandarin orange, cream, golden raisin, honeydew, and corn husk.
It’s always been rare for me to find overwhelmingly fruity green teas, but that was very much the sort of tea this was. Prior to trying this tea, I do not recall ever encountering such a fruity green tea. Though it peaked very quickly and faded just as quickly, this tea was incredibly enjoyable from start to finish. Definitely consider giving it a shot should What-Cha ever stock it again.
Flavors: Apricot, Butter, Cherry, Corn Husk, Cream, Fig, Grass, Green Apple, Hay, Honey, Honeydew, Lemon Zest, Lettuce, Malt, Mandarin, Mineral, Orange Blossom, Pineapple, Plum, Prune, Raisins, Spinach
