Gunpowder Green Tea

For the price, it gets the job done when I don’t want a “flavored” green tea. Very mellow flavor.

This tea is decent. It’s not glorious, but when I want to be lazy or brew Western Style, this is what I go to. The leaves are not of the best quality, but that’s kind of what you paid for with this tea. I only brew this in Western Style, the leaves would simply fall out of my Gaiwan since they have been chopped up a bit.

Overall, a decent tea, but not what I have everyday.

Not an exceptionally delicious tea, but the price is right and the taste is decent. It also serves me well when I want to experiment with flavorings, and I find that some cloves, cardamom, and orange zest spruce it up nicely.

Honestly, being a lover of lightish teas, I enjoy this tea. It’s really light! I don’t really drink any green teas, but I could totally get into this!

This is a good basic green tea. Nothing fancy, but sometimes that’s what you need, especially when you don’t feel good and want tea but don’t want to waste the good stuff. I can’t really describe the flavor beyond “green tea” but it is nice and inoffensive. Also, bonus points for the fact that there are nice sized pieces of leaves in here instead of being tiny flakes like most of the other loose offerings from Twinings.

Very gentle, smooth and easy going green tea. It has no astringency nor biterness. There is a hint of sweetness in the background. I recommend this green tea for people who dislike green tea for its distinctive taste.

Quick Review

I was trying to brew this gongfu style, but i feel that I messed it up. It could be that the water was too hot (170 F) or that it’d be much better off Western styled. I’ll have to play around with this while I still have some. Perhaps I’ll brew it Western style at work and add a second review…

Notes: Bitter & astringent

Rating for the session: 60/100

This is one tea that I have been meaning to review for some time. I ended up with a ton of it several months ago and have been working on polishing it off ever since. In a way it is kind of a difficult tea to evaluate fairly. Compared to most gunpowder green teas it is very simple and light in terms of aroma and flavor, yet it is also attractively full-bodied with a comparatively thick texture in the mouth. It isn’t the highest quality leaf in the world, yet one must also understand that the quantity and quality relative to price are both more than fair. Overall, you sort of get what you pay for with this tea, but for what you’re paying you could do worse.

I prepared this tea using the two step Western infusion process I tend to favor for many Chinese green teas. I started off by steeping one teaspoon of loose tea leaves in 8 ounces of 175 F water for 2 minutes. I then followed this infusion with a 3 minute infusion at the same temperature.

Prior to infusion, the dry tea leaves emitted light scents of char, hay, and grass. After infusion, the aromas of char, hay, and grass remained and were joined by aromas of roasted vegetables and lemon. In the mouth, I detected mostly muted notes of lemon, roasted Brussels sprouts, hay, grass, and char. The second infusion was somewhat milder than the first. The lemon and char aromas and flavors were slightly more pronounced and there was a very subtle mineral presence on the finish.

I’m not certain that I can justify a high score for this tea, but I will say that I think this is a good tea for when one is looking for something simple and straight-forward. Since it lacks complex aroma and flavor profiles that change significantly over the course of multiple infusions, I would also expect it to pair well with a range of dishes. It has its uses and it is somewhat appealing in certain ways, but it is also not the sort of tea about which I can get excited. Still, I would encourage anyone interested to try it if and when you are looking for something affordable, basic, and filling.

This tea gives off a wonderful scent of the farm. Tan in color. The tea dries out my mouth just a little after sipping, but despite that it’s a comforting flavor.

I wonder if I should steep it in slightly cooler water (I let the kettle sit a minute after boil with about 24 oz in the kettle). Also I let it sit for 4 minutes after steeping to cool down a bit.

No time for specific taste details right now, another brewing later.