Organic Midnight Jasmine

This was another one of the samples I received from The Teaguy back around March or thereabouts. At one point in time, jasmine green teas didn’t do much for me, but I have warmed up to them quite a bit over the course of the past 1-2 years, so I was happy to see this tea was one they opted to send me. This particular tea is a basic Chun Mee scented with jasmine. I am, in truth, not the hugest fan of Chun Mee, as I find it to be a very basic, boring kind of green tea, but this one surprised me by working very well with the jasmine. Since Chun Mee tends to be vegetal and somewhat acidic, the jasmine essence was not able to overpower it, instead producing a nicely balanced scented tea.

I opted for a two step Western infusion process when it came to brewing this tea. First, I steeped a full teaspoon of loose tea leaves in approximately 8 ounces of 176 F water for 2 minutes. I then conducted a second and final 3 minute infusion.

Prior to the first infusion, the dry tea leaves produced the expected scent of jasmine coupled with noticeable scents of grass and hay. After infusion, I picked up a stronger jasmine scent coupled with touches of grass, hay, and spinach. In the mouth, the liquor offered delicate notes of jasmine, grass, hay, spinach, lemon, seaweed, and touches of napa cabbage and/or bok choy. The second infusion revealed that the freshly used tea leaves still retained a good deal of jasmine scent as well as aromas of grass, hay, and spinach. The only differences I noted were that the jasmine scent was weaker and there was a touch of seaweed on the nose this time. I did not find any new flavors in the second infusion, but I did notice that the liquor became more vegetal and more citrusy overall.

While this was a very balanced blend, and I certainly commend The Teaguy for producing something of a different jasmine green tea, I still do not possess the warmest of feelings for Chun Mee. I find it to be basic and boring, and though it kind of worked in this blend, it did not add much in the way of complexity or intrigue. Overall, I am far more likely to reach for a jasmine green tea that offers more complexity most of the time, but this was not bad in the least. Even though it was not exactly my cup of tea, I would not caution others to avoid it.

This is one of the samples The Teaguy sent me ages ago. My mom, in particular, appreciates this one greatly. She loves jasmine greens the most out of everyone here. She rates this 100.

The suggested steeping parameters are perfect and made up a silky-smooth floral cup, with jasmine and lilac notes that are distinctive yet don’t overpower the palate. I thought it was overdone when I saw the dark yellow-green colour of the broth, but nope! All is good.

I have this weird thing where I find jasmine greens subtly “salty”, and this one is not an exception. It didn’t hinder my enjoyment of the cup though, hot or cold. Will hold off on rating it though until I’ve gone through more of the package.

Thanks again, Teaguy!

Edit: Smoke note is subtle, but I pick it up more when I allow my cup to cool. My mother, who vehemently hates smoke tea, doesn’t appear to notice it though, so we will keep this between you and me, Steepsterites!

Thank you to the teaguy for supplying this sample. I started by measuring out 5 grams of leaf and getting my glass teapot for this one as I want to bleed off that heat as fast as possible. Since I want the jasmine to come out and then not the astringent flavors. With green teas, I dont wash the leaves, they open up just fine on their own, and green has less staying power than oolong or puerh, you wind up loosing too much of the flavor.

First infusion I got a very strong jasmine aroma and slight floral and grassy notes which is pretty common for green teas, it was a little overshadowed by the jasmine but not overly so. The flavor was sweet, balanced, slight tanginess, and grass and floral. There was a bit of astringency on the tail end which is fine, a little astringency with greens is normal and expected.

Second infusion brought out more of the grassy sweetness, there was still a teeny bit of astringency on the back end but it was slightly reduced, the tanginess was gone for this infusion, but I still got floral and sweet notes. The Jasmine was still pretty predominant but the other flavors are coming out more in this infusion.

Third infusion the jasmine flavor came down a little more, and more of the sweetness is coming out now as the green tea flavor takes over a bit more prominence. Maybe even a bit of honey flavor, the astringency is also almost gone at this point. Grass, floral and sweetness are the main flavors and aroma.

I figure this will steep out maybe two or three more times 4-7 infusions is about normal for a green tea. Keep your steeps short on this tea, otherwise some of that bitterness could get intense.

I highly recommend this tea for fans of jasmine, and for fans of light balanced green tea. It has a very good balance between green tea flavors and jasmine.