Lincang Maofeng

I think everyone who has been reading my reviews realizes that I have been going to great lengths to finish the green teas I have bought over the past year. This was one of my later acquisitions and I recently bumped it up in the rotation since I tend to like Yunnan Mao Feng green teas. I seem to recall buying this because the price was ridiculously low for an organic tea. That should have tipped me off to the possibility that this may not have been the highest quality organic green tea, but I could not resist. I learned a lesson from that. This was the most boring Mao Feng I have ever had by a long shot.

I stuck with a Western-style preparation for this tea. I simply could not motivate myself to gongfu it. For one thing, most of the leaves were broken, so I figured it would make a mess. Also, it just was not that interesting. I started off by steeping a teaspoon of loose leaf material in approximately 8 ounces of 175 F water for 2 minutes. I then conducted a second infusion at 3 minutes and stopped there.

Prior to infusion, the dry leaf material emitted mildly smoky, grassy aromas with a hint of nuttiness. After infusion, I picked up aromas of hay, smoke, grass, and pine with touches of chestnut and citrus. In the mouth, I mostly picked up fairly weak notes of malt, hay, grass, lemon, chestnut, pine, smoke, and minerals. The second infusion produced a slightly stronger nose with greater citrus, smoke, and pine presences and a touch of indistinct floral quality. The mouth followed suit with stronger chestnut, pine, smoke, malt, and lemon notes to complement a growing minerality and lingering touches of hay and grass. I got a little bit of floral character, but could not place it and quickly gave up trying. I also picked up hints of asparagus and seaweed.

This was a disappointment. I cannot do much more than reiterate that I found this tea to be boring. Actually, I will go a step further and call it unengaging as well. I definitely would not recommend this to anyone looking for a good example of a Yunnan Mao Feng.

The Lincang Maofeng tea from the Tao of Tea is one that I enjoy drinking in the morning. It’s my go-to tea when I can’t think of anything else I want to have. It has a light smokey flavor, but other than that it’s not particularly special. It’s like that pair of jeans that you wear when all of your others are dirty. It’s not bad at all, but it’s not a “favorite”.

This is a yummy pan-fired Mao Feng from Tao of Tea.Unsurprisingly, the quality is quite good. I’ve yet to bump into a mediocre (much less bad) tea from this purveyor. The flavor is slightly vegetal but also a bit nutty and sweet. The liquor has a somewhat viscous texture—not exactly silken but more like licorice root—except that the flavor is Mao Feng!

I am surprised by the middling ratings on this organic offering, as my first impression of Lincang Maofeng, only this afternoon, has been quite positive.

Nothing remarkable about this tea. It makes a great blending tea with other teas that I find too strong however.

This is surprisingly smoky to me, with a strong waft of tar and pitch on the back end of the tea. I almost want to say this was stored in a old Lapsang container, it has that same dry quality. However, I would be surprised if Tao did that. Otherwise, it does have some vegetal spinach-like character and heavy charcoal. Maybe not my favorite.