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Barbara drank Emei Snow Buds by tea-adventure

59 tasting notes

I received a free sample of this with my order. As I couldn’t find any instructions on brewing temp & time, I just stuck to my average green tea temp & time (80 C/ 3 min).

De dry leaf smells very ‘green’ with a note of seaweed. The smell is very similar, though mellower when brewed.

At first it has a very fresh, somewhat ‘peppery’, brisk taste with some astringency. The sides of my tongue tintle a little. After a few mouthfulls the taste mellows and a sweeter note presents itself. It’s as if some component of the tea coats the inside of your mouth and thus changes your perception of the taste. In the aftertaste I think I detect something mineral like, although I’m not entirely sure. It’s something I haven’t tasted in other teas before.

This is an interesting tea, though not really to my taste. Perhaps I’d review it differently during a hot summer day, when I prefer more ‘fresh’ tastes. If you like straight green teas, this tea definitely is worth trying, despite my not being overly enthousiastic. After all tastes differ and my palette may just not be mature enough to adequately appreciate this tea.

EDIT: I decided to remove my rating because I just can’t honestly rate a tea that is evidently of good quality but just isn’t to my taste.

Preparation

175 °F / 79 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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Bio

What to say about myself and my tea drinking habits? I’ve been staring at the screen, reading other’s bio’s and still can’t come up with something worthwile. I’ll just stick to the basics.

I generally prefer white, green and oolong teas to black teas. As I read a scientific report that stated that black teas lower the level of stress hormones in the blood, I try to add a few cups of black tea every day.

Overall I prefer black teas to be flavoured. The white, green and oolongs may be flavoured or straight.

I brew my teas per cup, mostly in my – much loved – Kati mug with Cha Cult strainer. I’m rather a stickler for brewing time and temperature, so I use a tea timer and watercooker with temperature indication.

I also love a good cup of coffee and especially cappuchino. As far as I’m concerned, a good cappuchino requires a real milk/foam topping, not something made with skimmed milk, powder or the like. Unfortunately a lot of cafes still haven’t caught on to that one and serve low quality coffee and tea (type vending machine and bagged fannings). I hate it when, on a cold winter day, the choice is restricted to bad coffee, bagged fannings or a cold softdrink… :-(

As for rating teas, I more or less make the following distinction:

100:
Nothing is perfect. Probably won’t be using it ever.

98 – 99:
Nearly too good to be true.

90 – 97:
Exceptional.

80 – 89:
Excellent.

70 – 79:
Good. May rebuy depending on price and availability.

60 – 69:
Ok I’ll finish the cup and maybe even have a second, but probably won’t finish the entire package as I have other – (far) better teas in my cupboard.

< 60:
I feel cheated. I won’t ever be buying this again.

< 50:
This really is no good.

< 30:
I hate this. I want my money back.

1:
Beyond horrible!

PS: Recalibrated my ratings according to this index on 23 feb 2013.