Temple Of Heaven

Ok friends of the 80’s, like, I had this bummer of a day…totally.
But I had a few minutes between meetings and drove by yet another
Asian Market I have yet to try and Bam! For 99 cents I get 4 ounces of solid
gunpowder green. A dash in my press, steeped a cup or so and man,
the day just got a lot better. As others have noted, this is a bit smokey, a little cloudy, and not the most beautiful color of green you will find, but the taste is rich and full. This is an in your face green that could handle any type of food or seasoning. I am thinking enchiladas…oops sorry, back to the tea. At this price, I will never have to drink bagged green again!

This tea is available where I do my regular food shopping so I occasionally pick it up. As has been remarked upon by other tasters it is an usually strong tea flavorwise so I usually cut the quantity of leaves down by 1/3 or even 1/2. It has a spinachy taste, more the dark green vegetal taste than the bright springy green. It makes a swampy green liquor, reminds one of something Yoda might drink on a cold Dagoba night. It leaves a lot of sediment in the cup, but it’s hulky-green color often hides this sediment until the last sips remain. The flavor changes little when it cools or is cold, so it is a good and thrifty all purpose tea. It is easily made, tolerates wide range of temp. The leaves are broad enough to prepare without filters or mesh or any of those tools. It takes lemon very well, and if you make simple syrups it takes a ginger syrup very well.

This is my mainstay tea. I make a thermos of it every day. Sometimes come home at lunch and do a second steep on the leaves with good results (slightly cooler water on second steep – around 170).
Robust, nice astringency. Smokiness without being overpowering.

This is another tea-in-the-work-kitchen experiment. At least it lives up to expectation. A good solid gunpowder! Slightly smoky. I think I brewed it a little on the hot side, I generally like my greens done with water that’s not quite so hot, but being fussy about water temperature at work is fussier than I usually feel like dealing with. It survived the hot-hot water so hoorah!

This is nice so long as you don’t use too much – 1/2 a teaspoon per cup is plenty – the quantity of leaf seems to be more of an issue than the steeping time; I let this go for up to about 20 minutes as I couldn’t finish it all in one go and it was still pleasant, not astringent. Nice smoky smell but not overpowering like a Lapsang Souchong. I added some fresh mint to the teapot too for a Moroccan-y experience.

Brewed strong on purpose; drinking medicinally to chase off a bad case of cruds. Like drinking a healthy serving of vegetables.

I’m amazed at the longevity of this tea—-I’ve had my box for longer than I can recall, and it brews up just fine. Usually gets dragged out for antioxidant purposes when I suspect somebody’s exposed me to a cold or flu bug. In the summer, I brew with home-grown spearmint and ice it down.

Haven’t had this in awhile, so this is off of memory.

Very strong for a green tea, slightly earthy. Doesn’t seem to be very sensitive to water temperature; I’ve had it with water off the boil and didn’t notice the sourness you would find when you overheat most greens. It’s a great everyday tea: cheap, ubiquitous, and forgiving.

My @work tea at the monent….

Found this by total fluke at the grocery store near I work. Yummy!

A tea with a lot of sediment, needs a good strain. Nice smokey aftertaste