I wasn’t all that impressed with the last Mao Feng I tried, which was from Teapigs. A box I’d had previously was seriously nice — pale green liquor, very grassy flavour. The more recent box was yellow-brown and very bitter, without a hint of the tea I remembered so vividly. That’s why I bought this, in an attempt to rediscover a variety of tea I used to love.
First impressions with this one are much better. The dry leaf smells sweet and almost hay-like. Brewed, the liquor is a very pale yellow-green. I waited for the water to cool, and gave it a carefully watched 2 minutes. It was worth the attention, because I feel I’ve been rewarded with a palatable green tea.
The taste here is sweet, wonderfully nutty, with a vegetal note lurking in the background. It’s one of the nicer green teas I’ve tried recently, and there’s not the slightest hint of bitterness or astringency. This surprised me a little, given that the leaves are more grey-black than green, but there you go. The nuttiness becomes more prominent as the tea cools, which is nice. That’s a characteristic of green tea I can really get behind. All told, a really pleasing tea. I only have a sample tin, but that’ll be enough to be getting along with. I only really wanted to reaffirm my feelings about Mao Feng, and I’ve certainly done that!
