Huang Shan Mao Feng Green Tea

I finally got to trying my sample of this tea this morning. I had a really hard time getting out of bed and wanted something gentle to wake up with. I’ve found Huang Shan Mao Fengs to be pretty great for that type of craving in the past, and this one didn’t let me down. There’s something very round and fluffy and comforting about it.

The dry leaves smelled wonderfully green, buttery, and sweet. They were also fascinatingly rich green and fresh-looking. I steeped it in the Breville for 3 minutes, which yielded a nice mellow cup. I was worried about bitterness at 3 minutes, but there was none in sight. Less buttery and more floral than I was expecting from the scent. A very nice stand-by. I do wish this had different packaging rather than coming in an not-reseable bag. I’ll have to drink this quickly since I have no spare tins at the moment, but that shouldn’t be a problem.

(This sample was generously provide to me by Teavivre. Thank you Angel and the whole Teavivre Team.)
Dry Leaf: I get a sweet vegetal aroma. I can even see someone say grassy.
Wet Leaf: I get a vegetal aroma almost like a boiled green bean or something close to that.
Liquor: Clear and pale.
Taste: I get a light refreshing sweet vegetal flavor. The broth gives your tongue a slight dryness on your tongue that is nice.
Overall Opinion: I give this tea a 90. It is crisp, light refreshing and totally reminds me of drinking a Long Jing. If you are a Long Jing tea drinker I think you will enjoy this tea also.

The dry leaf smells very fresh and grassy, and they’re also very long leaves! I used my bamboo spoon, since it is rather wide and flat by contrast to a regular teaspoon.

I brought the water to a boil and let it cool a few minutes before using with about 2 spoons of the dry leaf. I think I may have let the water cool too much, as my brew is very very mild, and I am not getting really much flavour at all. I did notice that some of the leaves hadn’t been fully submerged in the water, so I am having a second steeping to see what happens. So far, I like the Taimu green tea better, but it might’ve been my technique and brewing.

Thanks to teavivre for sending this one to me. I still have one more green to try, the Bi Lou Chun.

I’ve been on a bit of a tea logging hiatus lately as I’ve not been feeling very well but I’m back for now… Time for some backlog (backlogging?)

This is another from Teavivre’s Green Tea sample pack, I picked it at random since I’ve only got two left to try and neither was particularly calling me over the other.

The dry tea is quite fresh and floral and there are definite grassy notes mixed in but what surprised me was the amount of “nut” aroma I was getting, it actually reminded me of the Dragon Well Long Jin (which I also tried from this sample pack) in how nutty it was.

After a quick rinse my first steeping (30 sec) gave me a very pale gold liquor that smelled of sweet floral notes mixed in with nuts and a touch of summer grass. The flavor, though mellow, was quite nutty compared to the brewed aroma and contained a few buttery undertones alongside the sweet floral highlights. The mouthfeel was rich and creamy while still being rather light and there was no bitterness or astringency what-so-ever.

My second cup (1 min) was a pale yellow color and the scent carried a few more floral and buttery notes compared to the first cup. Flavor wise I also found a few more buttery tones, to the point where it was almost pastry like, while the grass notes hung in the background (which made for a very interesting contrast). The floral flavors moved into the finish of the sip while the mouthfeel lost a bit of its rich creaminess.

The last cup (1:30 min) was the most floral (in both taste and flavor) of them all, as well as being the least sweet. The majority of the nutty and buttery notes had disappeared and the summer grass flavors were now at the forefront. The mouthfeel had also shifted, still light but with just the slightest touch of creaminess.

In the end it was a lovely experience, the progression of flavor and scent changes over the course of the steepings made for a wonderful afternoon.

TeaVivre sent me some samples of their greens from last year.
When I received the package, I was quite impressed with labels. They have marked down production dates and manufacturers! Bag also had some storage and brewing instructions, and it was nice to note that wulongs, greens, white and blacks had distinctive shelf lives. Aluminium bags with TeaVivre’s labels contained smaller, sealed bags used by manufacturers.

This is fairly cheap, and judging be the leaves pricing seems fair. These aren’t strictly Mao Feng, bud and leaf. There are some lower leaves, some leaves have a bit of oxidation, some twigs etc. Leaves are generally whole. Leaves are fairly long, making production date (5/20/2011) seem realistic.

There seems to be two major tastes whirling around here. Weird, little ill-balanced round, almost milky taste, which changes into a light vegetality. I didn’t like the initial milky taste, and the vegetality should have been little stronger to balance that out, methinks. Aftertaste is fairly pleasant, round and soft, if slighly uninteresting.

Overall, I think this is fairly priced, quite decent tea. I have had a couple of casual glasses of this, and those I enjoyed a lot. Now that I sit down and drink this properly with focus, tea feels lacking in many ways. Then again, which green from 2011 isn’t now? This isn’t top tea, but TeaVivre isn’t asking a price of such from this. I would be happy to recommend this for a casual drinking, and I have very positive image of TeaVivre now.

Decided to brew this up more chinese style today by putting a lot of leaves in a glass and just letting it brew inside the glass. Try it this way! I wasn’t getting much sweetness and flavor out of this one with my gaiwan but now the tea seems much better. It’s a very classic Chinese green. There’s a scent of fresh cut grass and the first sip is pretty grassy. However, there is a nice aftertaste of sweetness and it lingers on your tongue for a few seconds after. On the second steeping the grassiness went away and the tea became much sweeter and fruity. Definitely can find some peach overtones

Backlogging (so, based almost entirely on my notes)

Experience buying from Teavivre http://steepster.com/places/2857-teavivre-online—

Age of leaf: advertised as spring 2011. Received fall 2011, brewed up days later.

Appearance and aroma of dry leaf: Beautiful looking leaves which look similar to Jing Tea Shop’s HSMF; smells fresh and possibly not as smoky an aroma as other HSMF teas.

Brewing guidelines: Based on information from their website, I went a little hotter of the later steepings. 10 grams tea, 5 cups water. Loose in glass Bodum pot. Stevia added.
……….1st: 170; 1’
……….2nd: 182; 1.5’
……….3rd: 186; 2.5’
……….4th: 192; 3’

Color tea liquor: pale yellow.

Flavor of tea liquor: Good, mild. Second steeping had a little more flavor, with a hint of something like cinnamon. The forth steeping had little flavor.

Appearance and aroma of wet leaf: They have a fresh, deep-green look to them, with a possible hint of cinnamon.

Value: Reasonable for a HSMF at less than $3/oz.

Overall: I was not very impressed with this tea. Nothing really stood out about it accept the appearance of the leaves. Looking at the wet leaves revealed a quality pluck: mostly bud sets with a number of whole leaves and buds. And in general I like the way HSMF leaves look (I can’t think of what it is about them at the moment, though). We tried China Cha Dao’s grade 3 HSMF the same day, and we liked the flavor of China Cha Dao’s better than Teavivre’s (although the quality of China Cha Dao’s leaf was clearly not as good). If you like HSMF, then this is an OK tea for the price.

Fantastic tea!

Wonderfully light and refreshing tea! Medium-low astringency, very vegetal, with minimal to no bitterness. Only reason this is under a 90 is because it is a bit too mild in flavor for my taste in green teas. Otherwise, I really do love this tea!

Dry leaf: vegetal.
Wet leaf: cream corn, sweet, umami.
Flavor: cream, sweet, spinach.

Sipdown! (54 | 184)

Another little Teavivre sample down!

This is pleasant, it has a nice nuttiness to it that reminds me of sunflower seeds, and there’s also a creamy vegetal flavor, similar to edamame or lima beans. I get some very soft hay and dry grass elements as well. Then at the end of the sip, a mineral note appears along with a gentle, earthy smokiness that brings to mind gunpowder green tea.

I will say, I’m not really finding anything special about this one, though I’m sure it is quite old so that may not be fair. The smoky aftertaste also lingers a while and that’s not my favorite either…