I have bad news, sadly it is another one of those days where I cannot think of anything witty to open today’s tea review. I just found myself staring at the screen and nothing of note came to mind. It would be best to assume that since the world outside my window is covered in snow that my brain decided to hibernate. Perhaps I have been spending so much time researching lately that my mind fizzled, that means that tonight I will be spending folding stars.
Today’s tea is Mountain Organic Indonesian Green from Tea at Sea. Grown on the Halimun Mountain (800m above sea level) and fed with spring water and mountain air. Very similar to the Mountain Organic Indonesian Oolong I reviewed the other day. In fact at first glance I thought they were the same tea, but on closer inspection the color was a bit more vibrant for the Green tea and the aroma was subtly different. At first I noticed the creamy, sweet, honey notes blending with baking bread and a touch of floral, similar but stronger than the Oolong, but there is a kelp and lettuce undertone giving it more of a vegetal quality. It is less heady and more fresh vegetation than the Oolong.
Once the tea leaves relax in their hot soak (the term agony of the leaf seems so incorrect, it always looks to me like the leaves are relaxing and stretching out to enjoy a hot bath) the aroma is a bit mineral at first with a touch of fresh kelp. It then fades to a mellow sweetness with a very gentle citrus note, like orange blossoms. The liquid without the relaxing leaves has a very faint aroma with honey tones and a very faint hint of vegetal.
At first sip the taste is fruity, like biting into a juicy plum. After the initial fruity sweetness it fades to vegetal tones and ends with an aftertaste of sweet cherries. The more I sip the more little hints of flavor pop through, a bit of mineral here and bit of baking bread there, quite tasty!
Giving it a second visit I notice the aroma of the leaves steeping and the tea is for the most part the same except it has more of a delicate quality. The taste is also more delicate losing most of its fruit notes and leaving subtle sweetness and notes of artichoke. I found this tea fascinating, it was so similar to the Oolong that I tried earlier and yet was different enough that you could clearly tell it was a different tea.
For Blog and Photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/02/tea-at-sea-mountain-organic-indonesian_5.html
