Spring Laoshan Green

A very pleasant light green tea. Tasty and very vegetable like. I admit to not giving this tea the full attention it deserved since I was distracted by internet things. I will have to drink this again and write a more detailed note later.

Cold brewed this one overnight out of curiosity. Not bad, but it doesn’t have the same magic or subtlety of the hot brew. Much more vegetal, strong grassy tones, and that dusty punch of a stronger green.

I could have had the same result using much cheaper and less interesting tea, making this experiment feel slightly wasteful.

When it comes to tea, I’ve always been indifferent to just plain green. Things are different now.
Never before have I found a green tea with such a lovely (and completely un-bitter) flavour. This tea has notes that I’d never imagined green tea could have: it vegetal, buttery, smooth and sweet. AND it’s nourishing and rich, like broth.
So, how good is this tea? So damn.

This tea has a taste of vegetables with a little bit of bitterness. In later steepings there is a broth and vegetable taste

Open brewed in a glass pitcher, 30sec- 40sec- 50sec

This is one of my favorite teas. I did a little session right after a tasting of a Shi Feng Dragonwell; they seemed similar in my mind and I wanted a quick and fairly direct comparison. Jury’s out on my end: This tea is tastier.

Compared to the dragonwell, it’s not as full bodied in the texture and nut flavor department but it has an umami character I’m really diggin, a little soy, a little buttered green beany. It’s also sweeter, which I am truly a sucker for. The spiciness in this green is more peppery and less mineral. It’s not quite as complex, lacking in late floral notes and with the subtle spiciness peeking out only in later infusions and as the tea cools. Overall it’s more green, more umami, more sweet upfront, less floral, less full bodied and nutty and less spicy (until it cools, at which point it becomes very delightfully spicy!)

Maybe I’m a pleb for rating a less complex but more delicious tea higher on the scale but I can’t lie to the smiley faces above the numbers. The dragonwell made me :) but this tea is really making me :D

I am always happy to try a new Laoshan tea. Unfortunately, I am starting to run low again. After finishing the sample of this tea that I received from Verdant, I only have two more left (I have another spring green and a spring black from another vendor). I won’t be able to order any more for the foreseeable future due to upcoming medical expenses, but I guarantee that I will acquire more Laoshan tea as soon as I am able. This one is definitely on my shopping list.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a very quick rinse (I do not always rinse green tea, but wanted to make sure I washed away the grit and leaf dust with this one), I steeped 5 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 175 F water for 10 seconds. This infusion was followed by 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 noted that the dry tea leaves emitted mild aromas of sweetgrass, asparagus, soybeans, and hay. After the rinse, the aroma became intensely vegetal with a hint of nuttiness. The first infusion produced a similar, albeit slightly more balanced aroma. In the mouth, notes of sweetgrass, hay, soybean, asparagus, and spinach were immediately detectable. I also picked up on an indistinct nuttiness that I could not immediately place. Subsequent infusions were more robustly grassy and nutty on the nose and in the mouth. I began to pick up distinct impressions of chestnut at this point. I also began to note aromas and flavors of corn husk, lime zest, and honey. Later infusions were mild, offering predominantly sweetgrass, corn husk, and chestnut aromas and flavors underscored by minerals, asparagus, and soybean.

Normally, I enjoy the later harvests more than the spring harvest when it comes to green teas, but here I found that I enjoyed the spring harvest more than the autumn harvest. Compared to Verdant’s Autumn Laoshan Green, I found this tea to be more robustly vegetal and grassy, but with just enough nuttiness and underlying fruitiness to keep it interesting over the course of a session. I like my green teas to be really vegetal, so this hit the spot for me.

Got this as a part of their sampler deal, not entirely sure if it’s this specific Laoshan Green (the labeling on the bag wasn’t terribly specific), but the flavor notes look close enough.

Steeped about 2-3 of the tightly twisted long leaves in a ~100 ml gaiwan at 180 F to start, added some hotter water in later then back to cooler (I think the hotter water actually brought out some really nice flavors in this). The aroma was nice, crisp, grassy and the color was a light gold green. The taste was a wonderfully refreshing nutty, creamy and quite sweet for most of the steeps with some grassiness in the beginning and more sweetness and vanilla towards the end with a really long lasting sweet aftertaste. Overall, I really enjoyed this, it was hardly astringent at all and held up for a surprising number of steeps (I think 8+).

I keep requesting this as my sample from Verdant, but have yet to actually purchase. still wondering why. Lovely tea. delicately creamy and pleasant aromas of white chocolate and mint in dry leaf, and radicchio, chestnut, s. sweet, bitter, round, delicious.
A hotter steep proved interesting: maybe i’ve been influenced by the season, but I kept smelling pumpkin and nutmeg, eventually giving way to a bitter finish.

Spring 2022.

Good old laoshan green tea. I don’t drink it as much as I used to but I like having some on hand for those times I crave something warm and toasty.

Despite being nearly a year old, this sample still retains a lot of wonderful aromatics and has a crisp, vegetal taste. There’s the nutty soy milk flavor characteristic of Laoshan tea along with notes of flowers, bean curd, honeydew, fennel, and pine.

I’ve now cleared out all of last year’s Chinese greens from my cupboard just in time for the new spring teas on their way from Teavivre.

Mmmmm. :)

I had some friends over to play a boardgame (Lords of Waterdeep, highly recommended), which meant that I had to clean up, and in particular had to clear alllll the crap off my table. So now they’re gone and I have a nice clean table, which means I finally have room to set up my kettle and gaiwan and associated paraphernalia. I’m testing out the new gaiwan that I got from Verdant as well (this one: http://verdanttea.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/gaiwan_dripglaze_springblossom_110-LARGE.jpg). It’s bigger than the little 100ml one that I’m used to, which is now missing a lid thanks to my dog. :/ It holds anywhere from 120-200ml depending on how full I fill it. I think it’ll be very useful for when I have friends over for tea, but it’s a bit too large for just me. I’m also still figuring out how to pour from it without spilling everywhere, lol.

This is a really lovely tea, though! The aroma when you first open the bag and stick your nose in is amazingly sweet and fresh, and the aroma of the wet leaves is similar, but more vegetal and beany and savoury. The first few steepings in particular were very sweet and creamy, and I can definitely see where the “vanilla soymilk” comparison comes from. As the steepings progress, more soybean and then crisp vegetal notes arise, but very little astrigency or bitterness. I was expecting it to be energizing, but I’m actually finding it to be quite relaxing. Wow, these fresh spring harvest green teas have been a bit of a revelation to me, because I usually favour blacks and oolongs, but this and Verdant’s Dragonwell were both super delicious.