Gunpowder Green Tea (Zhu Cha)

Tea type
Green Tea
Ingredients
Green Tea Leaves
Flavors
Broccoli, Char, Earth, Grass, Hay, Lemon, Mineral, Roasted, Seaweed, Smoke, Spinach, Straw, Vegetal, Wood, Pepper
Sold in
Not available
Caffeine
Medium
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by TeaVivre
Average preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 1 min, 45 sec 7 g 9 oz / 258 ml

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28 Tasting Notes View all

  • “I broke into this one a couple of days ago to drink with my fiance. I brewed it for a minute and then poured out a glass for each of us. I was expecting this to be overwhelmingly smokey, but this...” Read full tasting note
  • “This tea was a sample from Teavivre that I have taken forever to get around to. :( I did make this tea once with a scoop of spearmint, but I didn’t feel it would be fair to rate this without...” Read full tasting note
    80
  • “This is a sample graciously sent to me from Teavivre – I am very inexperienced with green teas so I figured I would go for this one to broaden my horizons. It tends to be universally well reviewed,...” Read full tasting note
    78
  • “Hm. Finishing up the sample they sent me. Eyeballed the infuser basket in my mini teapot. Very sweet. Doesn’t taste as much like smoke as Adagio’s gunpowder does, but that’s okay with me. I love...” Read full tasting note
    92

From Teavivre

Origin: Fuding, Fujian, China

Ingredients: Leaves been rolled into a small round pellets

Taste: Smoky flavor and sweet aftertaste

Brew: 1-2 teaspoons for 8oz of water. Brew at 203 ºF (95 ºC) for 1 to 2 minutes (100 ºC) for 1 to 3 minutes (exact time depends on your taste – a longer time will give the tea a stronger taste and color)

Health Benefits: Like all green teas, the benefits of gunpowder tea are many and varied. A cup of Gunpowder green tea contains up to 200 mg of catechins, that are known to give green its anti oxidant benefits. Several studies have shown that the catechins in teas can act as so-called “hypolipidemics” – that is they lower the amount of “bad” cholesterol in the body (called LDL), while increasing the amount of “good” cholesterol (called HDL).

About Teavivre View company

Company description not available.

28 Tasting Notes

100
673 tasting notes

Really good! i like how its a little spicy! :D

Preparation
3 min, 0 sec

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75
128 tasting notes

Water: 8oz at 180 degrees

Leaves: very tiny rolls of leaves

Steep: 1m

Aroma: Smokey

Color: Deep golden yellow

Taste: Once this tea was brew one thing that caught my eye right away was the color. It was the darkest green tea i’ve made with a yellow hue compared to the normal light almost clear liquid. The aroma was quite smokey almost similar to a Oolong but lighter. I didn’t really get too much taste from it.

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 1 min, 0 sec

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90
12 tasting notes

Ah, Gunpowder.. The first loose-leaf tea I’d ever tried, and it holds a special place in my heart. I’ve since tried several different varieties of this tea, and Teavivre’s is probably the best I’ve had. Slightly smokey, slightly sweet. Especially great for the price.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 1 min, 0 sec

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64
15575 tasting notes

Cold Brew Sipdown (532)!

So, this tastes to me the way that postage stamps smell – and I know that doesn’t sound very appealing, but I’m actually finding that despite the bizarre comparison I’m enjoying this a fair bit more than I would have expected to. I mean, I guess there is something sort of satisfying about licking the back of a stamp? I think it’s a mix of the veggie notes and smoke though that’s creating that flavour profile for me, though I’m not certain on that? I don’t know – ultimately I think this tea is somewhat neutral for me. Gunpowder just isn’t my favourite or least favourite type of green tea…

nouveau-tea

This review made me laugh… I used to collect stamps as a kid and licking the backs of them was such a treat? Maybe I’ll pick some up for nostalgia haha.

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40
1048 tasting notes

It seems like it has been forever since I have reviewed a Chinese gunpowder green tea. I used to love teas like this when I was a little younger and still have something of a soft spot for them. When I want a green tea to just throw back and not think all that much about, gunpowder green tea is normally one of the first teas I seek out. This one, however, did not do all that much for me. In looking over the other reviews for this tea, you’ll notice that my opinion of this tea most definitely marks me as an outlier. I just do not get the high ratings for this one.

Though I normally brew gunpowder green teas in the Western style, I opted to gongfu this one. After a brief rinse, I steeped 7 grams of loose tea pellets in 5 ounces of 180 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was followed by 14 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 10 seconds, 13 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea pellets emitted vague aromas of grass, hay, lemon, and roasted vegetables. After the rinse, I found emerging scents of cooked spinach and seaweed. The first infusion then brought out hints of smoke and straw on the nose. In the mouth, I picked up notes of smoke, hay, grass, cooked spinach, roasted Brussels sprouts, grilled lemon, and seaweed. Subsequent infusions brought out notes of charcoal, roasted carrot, wood, minerals, earth, broccoli, and cooked cabbage. The later infusions mostly offered notes of minerals, charcoal, earth, smoke, and hay with fleeting hints of seaweed and cooked cabbage occasionally noticeable in the background.

I know that Teavivre lists this as their basic, introductory gunpowder green tea, and it may seem that I am being more than a bit hard on it, but here’s the deal: despite offering a lot of flavor, I did not find this to be all that good of a gunpowder green tea. Once the leaf pellets unfurled, it was obvious that this tea was mostly grit and chop. Each infusion was murky and chalky, leaving a persistently dusty, musty feeling in my mouth. The tea was surprisingly astringent too, though it thankfully never turned bitter. While gunpowder green teas are almost certainly never going to be super high end, this one was decidedly lower in quality than I was expecting. A number of other reviewers clearly liked this tea, so feel free to take this review with a grain of salt, but I do maintain that there are better gunpowder green teas out there.

Flavors: Broccoli, Char, Earth, Grass, Hay, Lemon, Mineral, Roasted, Seaweed, Smoke, Spinach, Straw, Vegetal, Wood

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 7 g 5 OZ / 147 ML
LuckyMe

It’s been years since I’ve had a gunpowder green tea but it’s a decidedly low end tea. I’ve yet to have one that tastes good straight.

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78
53 tasting notes

Always a good standby for green tea. Sometimes I just have a taste for the dark body and smokiness of gunpowder and this is one of my favorites. Wonderful quality for a very inexpensive price.

Flavors: Grass, Hay, Smoke

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 0 min, 15 sec 1 tsp 6 OZ / 177 ML

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85
672 tasting notes

I had to go to a doctor this week and it seems I may have irritable bowel syndrome, which sounds like something that would befall one’s crotchety great-aunt but apparently not. The doctor said it is mostly brought on by caffeine, stress, wheat, and dairy. I was like, sure, I’ve been living on caffeine, stress, wheat, and dairy, but it was 2017 in the U.S.A., was I going to skip ice cream when the country might implode at any moment?

So now it is 2018 and the consequences have arrived. I am trying to cut back on caffeine but I figure a little green tea is probably fine, most of the ones I own are fairly low on caffeine anyway, and drinking water and peppermint with no relief is more than I can stand.

God, I am talking about my health and diet, I have officially become an old person.

__Morgana__

I am wondering if I have the same thing. I’ve had digestive issues for the last month or so. I’ve been swilling Immodium and Pepto Bismal, and they solve the problem at least temporarily, but they also make me feel as though I have a rock in my stomach.

Evol Ving Ness

Sorry, Tamarindel. This sucks. Hope there are easy enough ways through this.

Tamarindel

Thanks @Evol Ving Ness, it’s a royal thorn in my side right now, but given a couple of weeks, it will hopefully clear up. I just have to stick to bland foods for the time being, and bland foods suck :/

@Morgana Get yourself some probiotics and drink a lot of water! Obviously I can’t diagnose you, I don’t even know yet it if I have it (it takes several tests to be sure), but probiotics are kind of a go-to for most digestive problems.

Evol Ving Ness

Yes, they do, but everything becomes workable when it is necessary. Here’s hoping it’s a short stint.

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86
103 tasting notes

Gunpowder is a fitting name for this tea. It has a not-so subtle peppery bite that is brought out by an equally stinging high temperature. This tea is best gulped quickly, while still just too hot to drink. On cooling, the pepper flavor slips under the somewhat soggy tasting green tea.

Flavors: Pepper

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 2 min, 30 sec 7 g 16 OZ / 473 ML

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75
1379 tasting notes

This is from the 2013 season and I believe they are currently getting in this years crops so unfortunately my review will not help with future purchases. At the very least if it’s from the same crop area as last year I can give you an insight to it’s quality and flavour.

The leaves are small and tightly rolled with a few pieces of stem present. They are dark green in colour with a high shine and a floral, somewhat peppery/spicy scent.

Water : 3oz / 85ml 203℉ / 95℃
Use 7 Grams Tea
6 steeps : rinse,10s,25s,40s,50s,70s,90s
Gaiwan
Rinsing time is around 3 seconds

First Steep – 10 seconds
Colour is dark yellow green and has a dry pepper scent which matches it’s dry form. Flavour is mild but has floral and mineral tones that I liken to grass.

Second Steep – 25 seconds
Stronger and with a touch of astringency. Like buttered broccoli with a touch of pepper. A little dryness in the after taste.

Third Steep – 40 seconds
Pretty full on in flavour, reminds me of a mild raw Pu Erh. Again a little astringency and also some earthy tones and spice. Also getting a raw pea flavour.

(By the way my husband has tasted many teas with me but this one he thought was an Oolong by taste alone, he was surprised it was a green).

Fourth Steep – 50 seconds
Mild and similar to the first steep. Grass, raw pea and low earthy tones. No astringency but it is dry.

Fifth Steep – 70 seconds
Pepper, light wood, grass. All mild and again no astringency but some dryness.

Sixth Steep – 90 seconds
Very grassy and with some sweetness though rather dry at this point. Remains peppy and non astringent.

Overall – A very peppery and grassy tea that changed over steeps and became very raw Pu Erh like. Very strong flavour for a green and dark flavour at that but enjoyable at the same time. Gunpowder green has never been a favourite of mine but this was a nice and unusual green for me. I wonder if this years crops will be stronger?

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80
152 tasting notes

Yellowish green in color with a nice sweet aroma. This tea has a sweet taste with a slight bit of smokiness. I get the flavors of roasted asparagus and carrots.

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C

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