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“This is a basic green tea with vegetal notes and a woodsy aroma. It has a smokey taste, it is slightly astringent but not bitter. Plain Green is not my favorite but in has an obvious base of green...” Read full tasting note
“2/10/14 3g/6oz/180F/3min. A western style brew. This made a lightly vegetal faintly astringent green tea. A pleasant but unremarkable cup, something I would say, ‘hey, nice tea’ about if I...” Read full tasting note
“I’ve debated a long time about writing this review. I got sent these teas by DCS, because they weren’t to her liking, and I then passed it on as it wasn’t to my liking. This is perhaps the best...” Read full tasting note
“This was pretty good. I really like my green teas to be bitterness free, so I steeped it at a pretty cool temp. Doing this yielded a really sweet cup, which I like, that was a bit mineral-y but...” Read full tasting note
Mountain Roasted tea is our premium tea harvested year round and roasted to perfection. It has a nice roasted taste and smell blended in with the more subtle fresh flavor of the tea.
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1st steeping of this was pretty nice. It’s not my favorite Green I’ve ever had, but it’s got a nice, woody, smokey taste, along with some strong vegetal notes. I don’t have much to say about this tea other than it’s nice, but maybe a second steeping will help with that.
The dry leaf smells very grassy and doesn’t have the same hay like, barn smell that Shan Valley’s Valley Green had. For me this is a positive. After a quick rinse the wet leaf smells like a roasted oolong, that toasty caramel smell and a sweetness of grapes.
The flavor is sweet, raisin like, and roasty. My favorite teas tend to be oolongs so this is right up my alley. It is more astringent than I expected, but it is pleasant.
Flavors: Caramel, Grapes, Grass, Raisins
Warning: Long note ahead! At heart (and work) I am a scientist. I take copious notes when I am in the mood.
The dry leaf smell is definitely Roasted Green Tea. Yum. The leaves are large, and not as tightly furled as other teas I’ve had, but tight enough to not be fully unfurled after a two minute steep.
It came as a generous sample in a vacuum sealed, plastic lined, foil baggie with a large, clearly printed label. The label is colorful, which is nice, but provide no brewing instructions. The back side of the package is clear so you can see the tea leaves. I quite like the packaging, but I wonder if the transparent packaging will protect it from UV at all.
I washed my leaves in room temp water before brewing.
The post-steep smell of the leaves is the normal slightly floral smell of green tea. Not overly fresh, but it has lost the roasted smell.
The first steep was strong in roasted smell and taste, almost to the edge of a bit too dark for my tastes, but still definably green tea.
The second steep is still pretty strong on all notes. 1:30 steep. Perhaps I added too much leaf. The leaves are still not all the way unfurled.
This is probably one of those I would end up resteeping again and again and again merely because it still has robust flavor, but because of how strong it is, but it’s not one that I would WANT to have gallons and gallons of unless I was serving a bunch of people for dinner. The tea is not too strong to distract from the flavor of food, but IMO not one I personally would showcase .
On the other hand, it is still giving up a good burst of caffeine with each steep. Probably more suited to a morning/afternoon tea than an evening tea.
The third steep is at a nice level for me, still fragrant, but not too dark or robust. But I tend to like my teas on the lighter side to the tongue while fragrant to the nose. I believe most of the leaves have unfurled, but they’re still crinkly.
I’m going to stop and save the fourth steep for the morning, else I may be up all night. Stem to leaf ratio is smaller than I tend to expect, but that’s probably contributing that ongoing strong flavor.
This tea was not what I was expecting, but it wasn’t a bad tea. It’ll probably need experimenting with until I figure out the best way to brew it to my personal tastes. Overall, I think it’s a good everyday type green if you’re one that likes the taste of roasted greens. I might brew it in the mornings if I need a strong pick-me-up and take the rest to-go. Next time I brew, I’ll probably try using less leaf (if I remember).
I was sent this sample free for review and am under no obligations to provide a positive review. I’m using the ingenuiTEA by Adagio Teas.
Great review! Such good detail. I also wish that the package had directions on it. I don’t know much about teas like this and didn’t do a wash first. I was less than happy with it. Maybe now I should try it again following your directions. If you were to give it a score, what would it be?
I admit that the first two steepings I was generally unhappy with. I think next time I’ll wash with hot water to take some of the edge off. It actually settled quite well during later steepings, I was surprised to see I could leave it to sit in hot water for a long while and it wouldn’t go bad. A good thermos tea, I’m thinking, once you get pass the first few infusions.
I’m not quite comfortable with the numeric rating system yet, but for the moment it’s one that I would consider buying again only for the ‘sits well in a thermos’ quality, otherwise, it’s only average. (C+?) Maybe that translates to a 78? I need to figure out a scoring system of my own. Actually it was like (#steep) (1)D, (2)C-, (3) C, (4+)B-…. if that makes any sense. I went through 6 infusions before I got bored but it still tasted like tea, but I was brewing the same 2tsp of leaves for 16ozH2O each time. =)
lol sorry, that might have been much more than you were asking.
Getting a bit of mineral flavor, which I think is an effect of the roasting. I agree with Sonofabrat there’s something oolong-ish about this tea; it’s on the darker side for a green tea and tastes quite robust, with the vegetal notes at a minimum. If I’m going to drink plain green, this is the style I like, so I am very happy with this sample. Shan Valley’s other green samples were quite good too, but I think they planned them with the idea that this one would be the strongest and most toasted, the first flush would be the greenest (as in most raw and most vegetal) and the valley tea would be the middle ground between the two.
Thanks Shan Valley for the free sample. On first appearance, the leaves of this green tea are quite dark. After the first steep the aroma of the leaves surprised me a lot. While I smell the expected woodsy-ness and smoky aromas, there’s a strong smell of something very rich (think tobacco or burning pine) that comes through a lot. While I’m not big on strongly roasted greens, this aroma really surprised me. The tea itself is quite easy to drink. It’s pretty roasted and doesn’t lie too heavy on the palette, just make sure you steep at a bit lower temperature to not bring out too much of the astringency that can come through with “oversteeped” roasted greens unless ya know, you’re up for that kinda thang
Flavors: Pine, Tobacco, Wood
As I mentioned in previous tasting notes, this tea as a hot tea didn’t impress me much. However, as a cold brew, it was pretty refreshing, so I cold brewed it again. This time, I didn’t leave it in the fridge for more than maybe 8 hours or so, which prevented the bitterness I tasted last time. It’s a refreshing, though a bit generic-tasting, iced green tea.
