Lu Shan Yun Wu Green Tea

Thank you TeaVivre for the green tea samples for review!

This is a very yummy one. It reminds me of my favorite rich and creamy Laoshan green tea, but with more fresh crisp asparagus flavor! Very fresh and sweet and delicious :D

This was fantastic!!! I opened the packaged and reveled these glistening moss agate curls. They were so cute and fragile. The smell was intoxicating. It was a deep rich vegetal aroma. I placed them inside my warm kyusu and waited. The aroma deepened into a robust nut and seaweed scent. I brewed up a cup and was taken back. The initial sip was a thick sweet and bold soup. This green tea is slightly spicy with deep chestnut tones. The flavor continued consistent for several steepings. I am in love with this companies spring teas! This one was fantastic and deeply rich!

https://instagram.com/p/2Yn8M4zGTk/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

https://instagram.com/p/2Z0i4rzGSS/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

Today is tournament day! I am fighting PHR and honestly I have no idea if I can win, see PHR are really good at killing things…and the Scourge (in particular me) is really good at dying. I hold the record for the lowest kill to death ratio, meaning I am really good at dying, which is funny because it doesn’t mean I am bad at winning. Depending on the scenario, I might be very well suited to win, because my big advantage over the PHR is speed, they are super slow and I am the queen of speed!

It is spring, meaning it is time to revel in the spring harvested green teas! This week will be all about greens, specifically a set of five green teas from Teavivre! Today’s green tea of choice is Lu Shan Yun Wu Green Tea, a curly and very green leafed tea from Jiangxi Province in China. This particular tea was plucked April 10, 2015, which, if I remember my calender correctly, means it was harvested between Qing Ming and Gu Yu, making it awesomely fresh. The aroma of the tea (which is also known as Clouds and Mist Tea) is a blend of nutty and vegetal, it has a bit of spinach, some toasted sesame, a distinct yet mild roasted peanut note, a sharp note of artichoke, and a finish of raw asparagus. It smells super green, and very fresh, like a pile of vegetables right out of a garden…and like someone is roasting nuts in the kitchen.

Into my tall plum blossom gaiwan the leaves go, to have their dance with the water. After steeping the aroma becomes really intense, pretty much all the nutty notes have vanished, replaced with a mountain of vegetal notes. It starts with a very strong cooked asparagus, a nice note of cooked spinach, a bit of broccoli, and a finish of bell pepper. It kinda smells like food and honestly makes me more than a little hungry for stir fried vegetables. The liquid is fairly mild on the first steep, with notes of sauteed vegetables (primarily bell pepper and asparagus) and finish of gentle nuttiness.

First steeping, and wow, this tea is not mild, it packs quite the vegetal punch! It starts out sweet and nutty, like roasted peanuts and a hint of honey. Then boom, sharp asparagus, slightly bitter yet leafy kale, crisp bok choy and bell peppers, and a surprisingly sweet finish, kind of like the sweetness of carrots without the taste of carrots.

The aroma of the second steeping is sweet and vegetal, there are notes honey and peanuts, followed by asparagus, spinach, and a bit of bell pepper. The taste, well, remember last steep how the aroma made me hungry for stir fried vegetables, well the taste kinda satiated that craving. It is a blend of stir fried (in sesame oil if we are being really fancy) bell peppers, asparagus, bok choy, and a touch of broccoli. If this sounds delicious to you, then let me tell you, it is. I am a sucker for really vegetal green teas (yes, yes, I am sucker for teas in general, but shush) and this one takes the cake. The aftertaste is a touch of pepper and then a bit later a bloom of honey.

Third steeping time! The aroma is more sweet than vegetal this time around, with notes of honey and toasted sesame overpowering the more gentle notes of bell pepper. Ok, so here is where it gets weird, this steep has one of the best tasting notes ever, it tastes like capers but without the pickle aspect, it is really quite awesome and unique. Mix this in with gentle black pepper, bell pepper, and a touch of bok choy and you have a green end to a very green tea.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/04/teavivre-lu-shan-yun-wu-green-tea-2015.html

I really like the roasted chestnut flavor of this tea. There is also a sweet note at the end of the sip while the tea is fairly warm, but as the tea cooled the sweet flavor disappeared, and a bitter note took its place. I’m not sure if the water I used was too warm, or if my two and a half minute steep was too long. I have some of my sample left, so I’ll give this another try with slightly cooler water. If I could keep the chestnut flavor and sweetness throughout the cup this would be an easy favorite green of mine.

I’m withholding my rating until I give this another try.

Cute little curly leaves. They’ve dark green color, bit of greyness. Really strong, sweet and fresh aroma, also there is strong roasted nutty aroma. I enjoy this oily fresh aroma always. Only sad thing is this seems to give only three steepings according to the Brewing guide, which is quite few compared to others.
Wet leaves have also really strong aroma. It’s sweet, nutty and fresh. They seem to be small leaf particles and buds . Tea has golden yellow color and smells really good. It has that lovely oily fresh green tea flavour. Roasted chesnut, nuttiness (althought I don’t know how chesnut tastes). It also has some vegetal notes with sweetness. Getting only couple steepings is a minus, but this is really good tea overall.

Backlog:

I love the chestnut flavor (and aroma) of this tea. Sweet and delicious. It has a pleasant toasty flavor to it, reminiscent of the flavor of a freshly roasted chestnut. A delightful creaminess in both taste and texture.

This is less vegetal and more nutty. Usually, I expect a vegetal tone to a green tea, but I like that there’s more nutty flavors than vegetative. If you’re one who tends to shy away from a green tea because of the strong vegetal overtones, this would be an excellent tea to try.

Lovely taste, restorative, a beautiful tea! Read more here:
http://sororiteasisters.com/2014/06/07/lu-shan-yun-wu-green-tea-from-teavivre/

Thank you ANGEL for these generous samples! I have never tried this before, so I was excited to try it today. Opening the silver packet, I saw small, dark green, powdery spiral leaves. It smelled so delicious and green and fresh! WOW! It was even nutty smelling, kind of like a darker oolong.

Upon steeping, I steeped for 45 seconds and saw that the liquid was a light-medium yellow. It smelled great and seaweed-like. YUM! It tasted excellent. There was a good amount of character to the taste. Mildly nutty, dark, green, fresh, and vegetal. I love it. There is no bitterness to it at all, which is a huge plus. Overall a great tea! I will have to add this to my staple greens.

Tea provided by Teavivre for review

Smelling the dry leaf to get a sense of what to expect, I picked up on a sweet, grassy, fragrance with a hint of melon.

The Initial sip was nice but not too flavorful aside from a hint of musky (?) green tea flavor. Until the sweet and grassy notes appeared during the aftertaste. A nice vegetal buttery flavor lingers during the aftertaste as well. Finishing off my first steep, the initial steeps always seem nice; no bitterness, bad flavor, clear liquor. But much of the flavor I like takes time to develop in my mouth.

Second steep brought more flavor to my initial sips. The sweet, grassy, vegetal characteristics come together and their fragrance from the tea cup is enjoyable.

Third steep had a refined, well balanced blend of the previous flavours. Everything I excepted from the after taste was present during the initial sipping. It was a bit dry, but otherwise nothing negative stood out.

I haven’t tried Lu Shan Wu before but I like it. It’s fairly easy for me to steep (sometimes I have to experiment to get a good cup, and this wasn’t fussy), and the tea has a nice balance between being flavorful but not in an overly obnoxious way. It’s more relaxing than refreshing, and has a heavier body than what I might expect.

Tea steeps: rise, 25s, 45s, 55s

Deliciously fresh smelling green tea with a sweet and somewhat grassy flavour.

I just received another lovely package of samples from Teavivre, and decided to try this one first. I do not think I’ve ever had this varietal before, so I’m looking forward to it!

First thoughts on opening the package – it’s super fresh smelling, and leaves are small and curly.
First sip- this tastes like Laoshan green! Very soy beany and buttery. This tea has a favorite note for me- sesame seed oil. This tea is delicious! I followed Teavivre’s recommendation of 3 minutes, and I think that may be too long. It was a little bitter towards the end.
The second steep of 4 minutes is very different from the first. Not nearly a s sweet, with a great deal of nuttiness. I prefer the first steep. I will try it with a shorter steep next time.