Alright, it’s time to celebrate another sipdown. I started working my way through a one ounce sample packet of this tea a couple weeks back, but only managed to finish it a couple days ago. I found this to be a nice green tea for everyday drinking.
I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a very quick rinse, I steeped approximately 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 175 F water for 10 seconds. I followed this infusion up with 10 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes.
Prior to the rinse, I picked up on a slightly smoky, grassy aroma from the dry tea leaves. After the rinse, I picked up more clearly defined aromas of grass, corn husk, and smoke. The first infusion produced a similar, though slightly stronger aroma. In the mouth, I was able to detect mild notes of corn husk, hay, grass, wood, malt, and smoke underscored by a hint of minerals. Subsequent infusions saw nutty and fruity qualities emerge. I began to pick up on aromas and flavors of roasted chestnut, hazelnut, tangerine, green apple, honey, and lime zest. Cream and oat notes also began to emerge. Later infusions were very malty and vegetal. I mostly noted aromas and flavors of corn husk, grass, hay, malt, cream, and oats underscored by roasted chestnut, minerals, citrus, and smoke.
This was a solid, approachable Yunnan green tea. It was not the deepest or most complex Yunnan green I have ever tried, but I still found it to be respectable. As mentioned above, I think this would probably work best as an everyday green tea, though I could also see it making a great introduction to Yunnan green teas.
Flavors: Chestnut, Citrus, Corn Husk, Cream, Grass, Green Apple, Hay, Hazelnut, Honey, Lime, Malt, Mineral, Oats, Smoke, Straw, Wood
