Sloppy Gong Fu this morning, opted to get more use out of my Kyusu though rather than a Gaiwan. I don’t drink green teas often, so it doesn’t get as much love as I wish I could give it. It’s a gorgeous piece of teaware…
I’m definitely still enamored with this tea; it’s easily my favourite green tea from DAVIDsTEA which makes the fact it’s not carried year round such a sad thing for me. I did buy a decent amount of it though; it’s rare I find a green tea I actually like without strings attached to that statement, so I’m holding onto this one as much as possible.
I used 5g of leaf for this session, and my pot is 150ml. Any more leaf and the flavour would have been too heavy/strong for my personal tastes. I didn’t keep super close track, but I believe I had somewhere between six and nine infusions. I didn’t really time any of them; I just sort of went with gut feeling in the moment for the length of the infusions.
The first few were definitely the most enjoyable; very rich and buttery with strong notes of artichoke, edamame, and crisp leafy greens. It’s got a lovely and strong umami flavour to it overall. The buttery quality definitely waned later into the session, but the vegetal notes remained sans buttery taste/mouthfeel.
Undertones in the first infusions, and then more of a body flavour in later ones, were bright, sweet and fresh fruit juices – and I don’t mean like the kind you buy in a bottle at the grocery store, but that natural juices of the fruit that dribble down your chin as you bite into it: white peaches, and a little bit of a quince flavour. Way more fruity in the end of the session; almost more so than the vegetal elements.
Overall, there was just a very prominent freshness to the taste. It didn’t matter if it was the vegetal elements or the fruit juice notes – everything was natural and, well, fresh. I don’t know how else to say fresh – it just was. Made me feel like I easily could have been outdoors, in a field by like a babbling brook or some such nonsense. Maybe that’s ’cause there was also mineral notes to the tea, and a sort of “dewy” quality. I also was using a combo of teaware that sort of evoked the imagery of a garden too; snail teapet, and a cup with hummingbirds, water lilies, and water pads on it. It just all come together very nicely though.
Really, really good/peaceful session.
Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts regarding the teas, and not the company’s.
