Spring Laoshan Green

I tried three 8 oz steepings with 1 teaspoon of these leaves, 2 min at about 175F each time.

The dry leaves smell like dry hay and, unexpectedly, chocolate.

1st
The leaves partially unfurled. The liquor has a powerful nutty aroma that I can smell with my face feet away from the cup as I pour it. Putting my nose down in the cup gives the nutty aroma plus a weaker aroma of something like something with sauteed onions. The appearance is a very light yellow green liquor, crystal clear.

The taste is light and smooth, with a slightly creamy feel and a body that is surprising for something so faint in color that only steeped 2 minutes.

This has a strong nutty flavor and a pleasant amount of light bitterness. There is little sweet and less than gum-tingling astringency. Swishing around my mouth turns the nutty flavor to something more like coconut. There is a sweet and bitter aftertaste, with a faint bitter coming in first and then a stronger sweet remaining.

This cup of tea went fast.

2nd
There are several nice sized dots of tea oil floating on the surface of this cup. The liquor is greener and darker in color. There is significantly less nutty aroma. The creaminess is gone, leaving the nutty flavor and some bitterness. Astringency is more present.

There is a slight vegetal, green flavor moving in reminding me of, edamame?! The nutty flavor gets some mint character.

The aftertaste makes me think “Wow.” It is an almost tangible sweet with some floral notes.

The nuttiness is stronger and harsher. I make my rating based on this more complex and interesting cup.

My stomach feels full and sloshy, and I’m not sure where this tea is going (will it get meaner?), but I forge ahead. . .

3rd
The color is lighter and much more brown than green. There is an aroma of steamed edamame over the cup, but the aroma is light overall.

This taste gets an “ooohh” from me; it tastes like the water used to steam a batch of edamame but with a sweet kick, and not sugar sweet, but tea sweet. The edamame is the only real flavor note. Bitterness is gone, and a bit of creaminess has come back.

The “ka-pow” aftertaste is gone, replaced by just a respectable sweet aftertaste.

My fears were unfounded. The 2nd steep gave up all the leaves’ fierceness. This cup is mellow and friendly. The volume of the flavor is on the order of something like the first steep of Tazo China Green Tips.

I appreciate that this adventure in a cup has been made available in an affordable sampler. I think I could be happy enjoying just the first and second steeps here.

I am not a big green tea lover. At all. I actually have a bit of a dislike for it, but I tried this First Picking Spring Laoshan Green once again a few days ago. I had been drinking it in the spring and early summer but had ignored it for a while simply because my preferences of drinking pu’er and oolong was setting in once again.

So I pulled this out and made it in a porcelain gaiwan. From memory, I thought that I could get away with steeping this one a little hotter than usual…I tried 200 degrees and had absolutely no problem with about a dozen steepings. This tea could have easily lasted for quite a bit longer than that, but for me a dozen steepings is enough with green tea. One of the most incredible qualities of this tea lies in its cooling, almost fresh spearmint like mouthfeel which builds up as time goes on. I think that in simply trying and comparing this one to other great Chinese green teas, it is obvious that it is coming from a much different climate. It is not as hearty or grassy as many greens, and is going to have much more of a delicate personality. This is not a weak tea however, it simply insists upon being sweet and candylike rather than just “grassy”. In that respect, it is one of the best green teas I have ever tried! It has so much to say, and is worthy of being a part of a regular rotation of teas, even for those of us who tend to steer clear of greens in the first place.

Made this for my mom this morning. She said that she wanted to drink more green tea, and so I brought in the best green tea that I currently own. Was careful not to scald it with over-hot water, or to overbrew it, but still when I proudly brought her the cup and she sipped it, her reaction was “it tastes like medicine”. Fail.
Will try her with white tea next time.

Lol, used a bit too much leaves (the whole sample) and the taste(and the smell) I got is impressively similar to a fried flatfish. Never got anything like this from a proper amount of leaves so the moral is: do not use too much :)

I have a hard time getting my green teas in.

It’s not that I don’t like them-I do, but I like black teas better, and the way my Zoji boiler works, I have to be certain I am done with black teas for the day before I go green or white. Problem is, I may have consumed 5 cups of black before my machine is cooled enough for green and by then, I am near my limit for the day. Well, I am drinking tea a bit later today, so that’s good news for my greens!

I was nervous about liking this one, but the reviews were so glowing, I went ahead and got some-glad I did. The dry leaves are very dark green, tightly twisted and curly. The aroma reminds me a bit of the floral in a green oolong as well as a green vegetable.

Brewed leaves turn cooked spinach green. Brewed aroma is mostly vegetal with maybe some light creamy and toasty notes. Liquor is pale, more yellow than green in color.

Flavor is mostly vegetal mostly with dominant notes of cooked spinach. I was hoping for the notes of carmelized green beans, but don’t taste that yet. Reminds me a lot of Teavivre’s Xin Yang Mao Jian. This is kind of sweet, very smooth, and zero bitterness. I like this quite a bit. I’m on my third steep and I haven’t tasted any notes of vanilla soymilk-and I would think I would recognize that since I drink it a lot. However, I didn’t buy the tea for soymilk notes and I like it just fine the way it is. I’m not sure 6 months ago that I would try these types of greens-I was mainly Moroccan Mint and Jasmine. I can thank Steepster for helping me to expand my horizons.

Steeped per Verdant Tea’s instructions. 4 grams of leaf in 4 oz of water. Quick rinse. 2 second infusion. Beautiful colored liquor, like gold sunlight. Some haze, but not enough to detract from the appearance. First impression of the aroma is a soft grain character. Similar to wheat or spelt. Some sugar-like sweetness as well. The taste bears this out. Wow. So soft and smooth, beautiful texture. Some grassiness, and honey as well. The aftertaste lingers nicely. An inviting and delicious tea.

After getting used to this tea and having an idea of what to expect from it, it didn’t excite me the same way some Japanese greens do each time I prepare them, but it was very nice to find a green tea that I enjoyed this much from another region.

The first steeping always has a nice honeysuckle sweetness; it isn’t a strong flowery aftertaste, but the initial part of the sip tastes like honey that is soft and sweet like the smell of honeysuckle (maybe orange blossom honey?).

Further steeps are greener, more like chestnuts, or snap peas. It was a good one.

A perfect tea for a dull, monotonous early winter morning. The flavor is so green and grassy that it reminds me of easy spring days and lawn mowing. It’ll be a long time before we see anything green again here in Utah, but at least I can taste it in my cup.

Other teas I’ve tasted from Verdant have been too subtle for my palate, but Laoshan Green is a heavy mouthful of flavor. Perhaps it’s because I over-brewed.

This is a very fickle tea, but if you are willing to put the effort in it will reward you. The nose of both the dry and wet leaves is outstanding, with a strong smell of salt and brine. The flavor is much more mellow, but it is delicious. Just make sure your water temp, timing and tea/water proportions are exact. I’ve made it three times (first infusions) in the last two days, and I am still playing around with the brewing, as I know I haven’t reached its full potential yet.

As for their suggestion to eat the spent leaves, well, I wouldn’t recommend that. My tasting notes for the spent leaves are bitter grass.

Editing this note after my fifth try: this tea could win an award for its fickleness. I think I am closer to reaching its potential (still not there), and the flavor is very nice. It has a light salt/brine taste that was present in the nose. Using a thermometer and timer with this tea is a must, and even then be prepared to experiment

Last edit: having finally figured out how to consistently brew this tea, I’m definitely giving it a bump in the ratings (I previously was holding it down, because I wasn’t a fan of wasting tea with a 50-50 brew success rate). It is flavorful, it is fantastic, it is exactly what I am looking for in my green tea. Hopefully you just hit the right brewing combination before I did. I found not exceeding 45 seconds works best for my first brew, and then about 25 seconds on the second.