This is a wonderfully sweet and complex tea without the vegetal taste that most non-green tea lovers find distasteful. It’s quickly climbed my favorites list to the top three, and my fiancé, who is rather impartial to tea, enjoyed this as well. I enjoy it both cold and hot, and I would not recommend using sweetener with it (though if you had to, I’d recommend light agave or a touch of honey).
Like many teas on my favorites list, this holds up to abuse rather well. My first brew ended up lukewarm before I remembered I was brewing some tea. It was still delicious! I was expecting it to be incredibly bitter, like other grocery-store green teas or sencha. Thankfully this tea doesn’t get that heavy, bitter taste.
I only add two pinches of the tea to my cold cup before adding hot water (195 F). If the cup is pre-warmed, I try to take the tea out before 2 minutes. Two minutes is what I usually consider the longest steep-time for green tea, though Lung Ching has proven me wrong.
If you’re watching the leaves sink, take out the leaves when most of the tea has sunk to the bottom. Using this method, you can go for a second steep but definitely not a third.
