White Monkey

With years of coffee snobbiery I have created a finely tuned palate, or so I thought. Either that or this tea demands too much concentration in order to taste anything.

This tea removes the flavor from hot water.

I have tried 3,4,5min steep times and varying water temperatures to no avail.

Very delicate green that reminds me of both Adagio’s White Symphony and Green Anji. As with many greens, more of the flavors come out as the tea cools. It also tastes sweeter as I go.

just make sure and brew it about 1-2 minutes longer than the instructions call for. also let it cool just a bit – and then the lovely flavors are allowed to come out and play.

So I finished my sample today. This tea is one of the smoothest green teas I have drank to date. I will definately be reordering this as soon as it comes back in stock.

It has a murky, pale green color. Smells like my grandmother’s old house – specifically the kitchen – which was stuffy because she never opened any windows.

Light in taste, and very smooth. It’s a little sweet, but mostly tastes like vegetables. Or grass, maybe grass. I think it’s one of those teas you drink on chilly, foggy days. Not rainy days, but damp and gloomy. The days where you have absolutely nothing to do. I miss those days. I’m rambling.

I did not have high hopes for this one upon opening the package. It smells like alfalfa. How could it possibly taste good? Well, if alfalfa tastes like White Monkey, I’m going to Petsmart and brewin’ me up some alfalfa.

Steeped to Adagio’s recommended 2 minutes I found it much too light. Steeping to 3 minutes provides the best initial steep in my opinion. It’s still quite light, but 3 minutes gave me a flavor more akin to tea than hot water. Delicate, clean, and refreshing, White Monkey hides a pleasing sweetness under all that alfalfa bluster.

I’m often a fan of brewing directly in a glass cup, and for White Monkey this yields an interesting change in the taste profile if left unfiltered. What starts out light, sweet, and without a hint of vegetation (and frankly orgasmic) slowly becomes richer, more buttery, and pleasingly vegetal. The scent moves from a nice fresh alfalfa to a gross overcooked broccoli with a connecting flight in boiled spinach. This tea is a filthy trickster, its scents belying its flavors.

A second infusion doesn’t recapture the initial sweetness, but does develop a surprising honeydew melon note. It also takes on a lingering creamy mouthfeel I don’t particularly care for in tea, but it’s not bad. A third infusion at 5 minutes cut back the creaminess while introducing a vaguely citrus, vaguely melon rind flavor to the honeydew. You could probably squeeze out a fourth, but I took the rind note as a portend of bitter doom.

It is what it says, a light vegetal green tea with a nice sweetness. A slight brothiness which I like. By no means my favorite and sadly forgettable even now as I write this. It’s ok.

Experience buying from Adagio: < More later, but overall positive >

Age of leaf: I was not able to find this information on their website. : (

Packaging: This was a decent sized sample that came in an opaque plastic package nicely decorated with their colors, the weight and the name of the tea on it, and information on the back about Adagio.

Appearance and aroma of dry leaf: vegetal and spicy; looks similar to Pi Lo Chun: light and dark green curly leaves; some broken pieces.

Brewing guidelines: Standard parameters for my green teas Labeled as 0.4 oz tea = 6 cups of water. Glass Bodum pot where leaves are free to roam. Stevia added.
……….1st: 177; 1’
……….2nd: 178; 1.5
……….3rd: 187; 2’
……….4th: 187; 3’

Color and aroma of tea liquor: standard green tea aroma: vegetal, mildly sweet; yellow green color.

Flavor of tea liquor: very good: vegetal and spicy; mild flavor on the forth steeping.

Appearance and aroma of wet leaf: a number of fragments were floating in the water when steeping, but all the leaves were floating on top for each steeping. Overall OK quality leaf: a number of broken pieces with many full longish leaves and small buds, with a few stems.

Value: reasonable for the flavor you get from the leaf: $24 / 8oz.

Overall: I recently bought four samples from Adagio (all green teas). It’s still early (I have two more samples to try) yet to form any kind of solid opinion about Adagio’s unflavored green teas, but after being disappointed with their melon seeds, I have more hope for them after trying this tea. Although I am not impressed with the quality of the leaf (The Puritea’s White Monkey looked better), until I tried this tea I have never had a green tea that smelled and tasted spicy, so I am impressed with the flavor. I may buy this one if I can get it for a good price; who knew, a spicy green tea?!

In the package: I’m going to assume that this “vegetal” thing that everyone is referring to is that spinach aroma I’m getting. There’s a sharp, mid-palate sweetness in the dry tea as well.

Steeped: I know I should ask forgiveness for saying this, but it smells an awful lot like cooked spinach. It could be worse, at least it does not smell like canned spinach.

Taste: My southern palate is referencing spinach with a little bit of bacon, of all things. Not as bitter as turnip greens, but spinach-like with smoke undertone. Completely drinkable without sweetening as long as one keeps in mind that it’s really, uhhh, vegetal. Honey brings out the smoke but doesn’t make it taste better, really.

This brew was just on the edge of being bitter, I really need to buy a thermometer for the water! The smell is wonderful, very sweet. I find the flavour a bit fruity, mostly due to hints of melon. Otherwise it is quite vegetal, with a dry aftertaste.