Long Mei Yunnan green tea of Zhenyuan Autumn 2015

Enjoying this one this morning. I’ve had this tea before from Spring 2015. I even have some of the Spring 2015 still in my cupboard. I really liked it then but the dry leaf smells different from the two. Autumn has more of a fruity scent and the Spring has more of a straw scent to it. I will have to brew both up together and see if there’s a big difference. It might also have to do with the Spring one starting to age.

I brewed this at 80C in my tea mug. It’s strange a few reviews say this tea is astringent. I found very little astringency in it. Maybe it had to do with the brewing. It’s a sweet nutty tea with a bit of fruitiness. There’s a bit of green pea in there too. It reminds me a bit of some bi luo chun teas. Think I will try this one at 70 to see if I get more fruity flavour from it.

This is the first green tea I have had for a year and a half.

As Janchi says in the review before she’s a fussy one! The first time I ended up with an bitter mess. – That cant be right, can it? I was being a bit careless (water was left over from another tea but had cooled a bit, not sure the size of the pinch of leaves). So the next time round I used less leaf and made sure the water was 70c, and was greeted by a lovely cup.

Peas, nutty, greens, sweetness & a hint of something perfume. Much much better! I’m having again and there is a slight lemon citrus in there, its all very pleasant.

Only ever-so-slightly dry, astringent, and a slight bitterness when at the bottom of the cup, the last sip or so (grandpa style).

I liked it even though this isnt the sort of tea I usually drink

About 2-3g in an 90ml gaiwan with 75-80C water for short 20-30s steeps.

Quite tricky to steep this – it seems a bit of a fussy tea, and a smidge too much leaf or too-hot water brings out way too much astringency for me. But when I hit on the right combination, it’s worth the trial and error: pleasantly sweet, fine-bean-vegetal, a little lemon, and white grape flesh, with a smooth buttery mouthfeel.