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It’s been a while since I posted a tasting note. I attribute this lack of reviews both to having a weird form of writer’s block (palate block? flavour description block?) and to drinking teas I’ve already written about. I have at least five tasting notes I need to write before I can mark some teas as sipdowns. Not having written about some teas is also one of the many, many excuses I’ve made for delaying Daylon’s package for an embarrassingly long time. (I promise it exists, and you’ll be drinking spring Longjing in November!)

Here’s another Chanoka matcha from Nio, which I think comes from the same farm as their Chanoka Silver. I don’t have enough experience with Japanese green teas to understand what’s special about the Okumidori cultivar, so this will be a learning opportunity. I steeped 2 g of matcha in a mason jar containing around 100 ml of cool water. Once again, I got foam!

The dry aroma is an unusual combination of chocolate, cream, green veggies, and umami. Sadly, the chocolate isn’t prominent in the matcha itself, though it does retain a creamy texture and hints of cocoa. I also get kale, green pepper, grass, spinach, and umami. The matcha is sweeter than most, though with a kick of vegetal astringency near the end.

This tea gets major points for its sweetness and limited astringency. I’m beginning to understand why people might drink matcha voluntarily, though it’s still not my preferred tea type.

Until October 31, you can buy two tins of matcha and get the third one free. You can also use the code LEAFHOPPER15 to get 15% off everything on the site, possibly including Advent calendars (I get a small commission when you use this code).

This is the second and last green oolong I bought from Ethan at the beginning of this year. He Huan Shan is close to Da Yu Ling, though I haven’t seen many oolongs labelled as coming from this area. Floating Leaves had a good one several years ago. I steeped 6 g of this winter 2023 harvest in 120 ml of 195F water for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of green apple, orchid, umami, and grass. The first steep is restrained, with orchid, narcissus, green apple, grass, and umami. The next steep has notes of orchid, narcissus, lilac, butter, grass, and something fruity. The tea has a lot of umami and is a bit brothy. The next couple steeps open out into green apple, coconut, pineapple, florals, umami, and grass. Steeps five and six give me softer coconut, butter, grass, umami, and florals, maybe orchid and narcissus. By steep eight, the fruit is basically gone and the tea is floral and grassy. The tea stays sweet and indistinctly floral for many more steeps, with a grassy undertone that never really gets bitter.

This is a solid oolong that’s a little too reserved for me. It’s sometimes hard to dial in the fruit, and though the longevity is great, the flavours are sort of muted. The vendor indicated that this could be a storage issue, so this oolong should probably be consumed quickly.

For a spring project, I decided to compare three Mingqian teas: Bi Luo Chun, Longjing, and Anji Bai Cha. In total, I bought 340 g of green tea, which in hindsight is a lot of green tea. I seriously overestimated how much green tea I would be able and willing to drink, which is why this little experiment is still ongoing. For Part 2 of this three-part extravaganza, I bought four Longjings from Teavivre, Treasure Green, and Seven Cups.

Tea bush: Seed-grown Heirloom Quntizhong
Location: Shifeng Mountain, West Lake, Hangzhou, Zhejiang
Picking date: March 31, 2024
Price/g: US$1.68

As part of this project, I wanted to compare the more prolific Longjing No. 43 with the traditional Longjing variety, which is said to be more floral and complex. Seven Cups sells both of these teas. For the comparison session, I steeped 2.4 g of all four teas in 120 ml of 185F water, starting at 4 minutes. This produced very potent, not to say bitter, steeps! I later did a more typical session, steeping 3 g of leaf in 250 ml of 185F water starting at 4 minutes, refilling the cup as needed.

The dry aroma is of candied chestnuts, hazelnuts, roasted grains, butter, spinach, and faint florals. The first steeps are quite bitter, with notes of chestnuts, hazelnuts, roast, and grain. Subsequent steeps feature roast, hazelnuts, green beans, other veggies, and orchids. The final steeps are grassy, roasty, vegetal, and faintly floral.

Bowl steeped, the florals appear. The first couple rounds have notes of chestnuts, hazelnuts, roasted grain, butter, spinach, asparagus, orchid, sweet pea, and lilac. The florality is most notable after the tea has been steeping for a few minutes, particularly in the aftertaste and the bottom of the cup. The next few steeps are nutty, buttery, vegetal, and floral, with a pronounced floral aftertaste and some asparagus/spinach/grassy notes. The final steeps are grassy, with vegetal and floral hints.

More floral and complex than the Dafo Longjing, this tea still has the nutty, smooth, roasted profile that’s typical of dragonwell. This tea is also less sweet than the Dafo. The differences were hard to detect at first, and they were more apparent in the regular bowl steeping session than in the comparison session. If you love Longjing, this is definitely the one to get, though I think most people would be happy with any of these four teas.

For a spring project, I decided to compare three Mingqian teas: Bi Luo Chun, Longjing, and Anji Bai Cha. In total, I bought 340 g of green tea, which in hindsight is a lot of green tea. I seriously overestimated how much green tea I would be able and willing to drink, which is why this little experiment is still ongoing. For Part 2 of this three-part extravaganza, I bought four Longjings from Teavivre, Treasure Green, and Seven Cups.

Tea bush: Not specified
Harvest date: March 20, 2024
Location: West Lake, Zhejiang
Price/g: US$1.83

Treasure Green sells two grades of dragonwell, with this being the more expensive one. Apparently, it comes from a higher altitude than their regular Longjing and is made by a tea master with 70 years of experience. No information is provided about which Longjing variety it is. For the comparison session, I steeped 2.4 g of all four teas in 120 ml of 185F water, starting at 4 minutes. This produced very potent, not to say bitter, steeps! Following the vendor’s instructions, I then steeped 3 g of leaf in 150 ml of 158F water for 25 seconds, and subsequently used 148F water for steeps of 35, 45, 60, 90, 180, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of hazelnuts, chestnuts, roasted grains, char, and butter. This tea has a heavier roast and some bitterness, with candied chestnuts, grains, beans, kale, florality, and butter. It has a pronounced beany aftertaste. Later steeps feel quite rounded and nutty, though the tea is somewhat vegetal and bitter.

Using the vendor’s very gentle steeping instructions, I initially get soft, round notes of butter, chestnuts, roast, green beans, and other veggies and a tea that’s smooth, sweet, and slightly drying in the mouth. Steeps three and four add green peppers, lettuce, grass, and spinach, with the roast and nuts nicely counterbalancing the veggies. The final steeps feature beans, lettuce, nuts, roast, and grass, and have some woody bitterness and dryness. The nutty aroma at the bottom of the cup is lovely!

This Longjing is all about the roast, which is done pretty well. Steeped according to the vendor’s instructions, it’s nutty, sweet, smooth, and pleasant. I like a bit more florality in my Longjing, but that might be a personal preference.

For a spring project, I decided to compare three Mingqian teas: Bi Luo Chun, Longjing, and Anji Bai Cha. In total, I bought 340 g of green tea, which in hindsight is a lot of green tea. I seriously overestimated how much green tea I would be able and willing to drink, which is why this little experiment is still ongoing. For Part 2 of this three-part extravaganza, I bought four Longjings from Teavivre, Treasure Green, and Seven Cups.

Tea bush: C. sinensis cv. Jiukeng
Location: Qiandao Lake, Chun’an County, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang
Harvest date: March 30, 2024
Price/g: US$0.56

I included this Longjing, which is affordable for a Ming Qian offering, because I’ve enjoyed it in the past. For the comparison session, I steeped 2.4 g of all four teas in 120 ml of 185F water, starting at 4 minutes. This produced very potent, not to say bitter, steeps! I later did a more typical session, steeping 3 g of leaf in 250 ml of 185F water starting at 4 minutes, refilling the cup as needed.

The dry aroma is of green beans, orchids, spring flowers, chestnuts, roast, and butter. The first few rounds are very floral and vegetal, with Chestnuts, orchid, magnolia, green beans, and asparagus. The tea is predictably bitter, with some mouth-puckering effects around my gums. Subsequent steeps feature green beans, chestnut, kale, orchid, spring florals, and other veggies, with the finish being grassy and vegetal.

The bowl steeped tea is a lot more palatable. The first couple steeps have notes of green beans, spinach, asparagus, chestnut, butter, very mild roast, orchids, and grass. The tea has a pronounced but not unpleasant vegetal character and some bitterness. The middle steeps are a bit more nutty, though with plenty of green beans and other veggies and persistent though subtle florality. The final steeps have notes of lettuce, beans, grass, butter, and faint roast.

This is the least roasted and most beany of the four Longjings. Like the Shifeng Longjing from Seven Cups, it’s also quite floral, with nice orchid and spring flower notes. To me, this is the most springlike of the dragonwells, though it’s perhaps not that representative of what a “benchmark” longjing should be.

For a spring project, I decided to compare three Mingqian teas: Bi Luo Chun, Longjing, and Anji Bai Cha. In total, I bought 340 g of green tea, which in hindsight is a lot of green tea. I seriously overestimated how much green tea I would be able and willing to drink, which is why this little experiment is still ongoing. For Part 2 of this three-part extravaganza, I bought four Longjings from Teavivre, Treasure Green, and Seven Cups.

Tea bush: Longjing #43
Location: Xinchang County, Shaoxing City, Zhejiang
Picking date: March 21, 2024
Price/g: US$1.04

As part of this project, I wanted to compare the heirloom Longjing variety with the more prolific Longjing No. 43, which is supposed to have a nuttier, less complex flavour profile. Seven Cups sells both of these teas. For the comparison session, I steeped 2.4 g of all four teas in 120 ml of 185F water, starting at 4 minutes. This produced very potent, not to say bitter, steeps! I later did a more typical session, steeping 3 g of leaf in 250 ml of 185F water starting at 4 minutes, refilling the cup as needed.

The dry aroma of these long, beautiful, mainly unbroken leaves is of chestnuts, butter, roasted grains, green beans, and spinach. The first steeps give me candied chestnuts, hazelnuts, roasted grains, green beans, and asparagus, with some woody bitterness. Did I mention these steeps are potent? Later steeps feature more candied chestnuts, along with beans, other veggies, and slightly bitter roast, with the final steeps being roasty, nutty, buttery, and vegetal.

Bowl style, the first few steeps have notes of roast, chestnut, hazelnut, grain, butter, asparagus, spinach, and faint florals. The tea has a strong vegetal backbone balanced by smooth, nutty, roasty flavours and no bitterness or astringency. The next few steeps give me green beans and a wonderfully round, nutty, buttery, roasted grain profile. The final steeps have notes of butter, nuts, green beans, and lettuce.

If you bowl steep this tea, it will reward you with a nicely roasted, sweet, nutty profile with pleasant beany notes and no bitterness to speak of. The flavours are well integrated enough that it’s hard to pick them apart, and there are absolutely no off notes. Overleafing this tea will yield less pleasant results. This Longjing is well made and deceptively simple.

I’m always up for trying another unsmoked lapsang, so I was excited to see this Hua Xiang Xiao Zhong in Teavivre’s catalogue. I steeped the entire 5 g sample in 120 ml of 195F water for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of peaches, citrus, sweet potato, florals, honey, and malt. The first steep has notes of peach, orange, raspberry, other red berries, sweet potato, honey, orchid, and malt. The tea has a nice, syrupy quality but is a bit drying in the mouth. The next steep is even more peachy, with a lovely peachy aftertaste. Steeps three and four are more malty and woody, but with plenty of peach, honey, berries, orange, and sweet potato. By steeps five and six, the jammy berries are taking over the peach, and the tea has more of those lapsang notes of malt, honey, wood, minerals, and light tannins. The final few steeps have faint hints of fruit, along with malt, wood, honey, tannins, and minerals.

For the price, this is a pretty good lapsang, though I don’t think it compares to the offerings from Wuyi Origin. I’m a fan of the peach and berries, and the tea’s longevity is good. The flavours are lighter than they could be, perhaps because I was using 5 g instead of my usual 6. If you like unsmoked lapsang and are ordering from Teavivre, I’d say this would be a good tea to add to your cart.

Thanks to Teavivre for the sample! I think I’ve tried and enjoyed this tea before, though it’s impossible to find my note in the huge list of reviews. I wish they’d put the most recent ones at the top so we don’t automatically see things written twelve years ago! I steeped 2.5 g of leaf in 250 ml of 185F water for 3 minutes, refilling the cup as needed.

The dry aroma is of chestnuts, butter, artichokes, and green beans. The first steep has notes of chestnut, butter, light roast, artichoke, spinach, and green beans. The next few steeps are sweet and nutty with artichoke and asparagus. The tea is smooth, nutty, and sweet, and the vegetal notes don’t take over until the final steeps. I get green beans, lettuce, and grass at the end of the session.

As expected, this is a much nicer longjing than Teavivre’s basic version. It’s nutty and smooth, without the vegetal bitterness of lower-quality dragonwell. The only thing I miss is the florality that sometimes features in this type of tea.

I received this tea as a free sample in my last order. It seems to be the least expensive longjing in Teavivre’s catalogue, and I don’t think I’ve had it before. I steeped about 2.5 g in 250 ml of 185F water starting at 4 minutes, refilling the cup as necessary.

The dry aroma of these extra-long, sometimes broken leaves is of chestnut, sesame, orchid, and spinach. The first steeps have notes of chestnut, sesame, butter, faint florals, spinach, kale, and green beans. I taste some bitterness that I typically don’t get with higher-quality longjing. Subsequent steeps are buttery, nutty, and vegetal, with cashew, chestnut, sesame, kale, spinach, umami, and beans being prominent. The final steeps have some bitterness, along with lettuce, spinach, nuts, and faint sweetness.

This is a nice entry-level longjing, though there are better ones on the market. I’d recommend this tea if you like nutty longjing and don’t mind a touch of bitterness.

I won this tea in a recent giveaway. Apparently, I’ve written about it before, though I have no memory of drinking it. I didn’t pay as much attention to this tea as I wanted since I was swamped with work and grabbed the first green tea I saw. I steeped 2.5 g in 250 ml of 185F water for 4 minutes, refilling the cup as necessary.

The dry aroma is of asparagus, green beans, lettuce, corn, and grass. The first steeps have notes of corn, spring flowers, butter, asparagus, beans, lettuce, and grass. This tea is quite vegetal, though it has some sweetness. The tea becomes more vegetal in the middle, with asparagus, beans, spinach, lettuce, and butter. The final steeps have notes of spinach, asparagus, and grass, with touches of bitterness.

This green tea is much more vegetal than the ones I’ve been drinking recently. It has a nice brothy quality, but otherwise it tastes like a fresh but generic Chinese green tea, which is not at all a bad thing.