Imperial Xinyang Mao Jian Green Tea of Henan

Decent green! I got the 2022 harvest of this tea from my recent YS order, and it’s pretty nice. Beautiful buddy leaves with a rich and complex aroma in the dry and wet leaf, slightly unique from other greens with a higher emphasis on the herbal aspect. Beautiful pale green liquor with a decent flavour but lacks a bit of potency and nuance. Texture is smooth and slightly bitey but not much else, character is okay, finish & aftertaste is decent, cha-qi is mediocre to decent, and steep longevity is pretty decent, could go up to steep 7. Overall, a great tea that could’ve been an 80+ but lacked just a bit for it to reach the mark. However, great value though.

[Spring 2020 harvest]

Here’s another Yunnan Sourcing green tea that I rolled the dice on this spring. This one turned out to be my least favorite of the bunch.

The leaf appearance reminds me of eyelashes. Extremely thin, delicate pale green leaves covered with small flecks of white. Dry leaves have a pine and tree sap aroma that becomes pungent when dropped into a heated vessel.

I steeped it grandpa style using 180 F water in an 8oz mug with 1.3g of leaf initially, then upped to 2g as the flavor was too light. The brewed tea had some pine and eucalyptus aromas but tasted fairly nondescript. Light vegetal notes which were overpowered by the accompanying bitterness. Flavor was slightly better gongfued but more or less the same. Once again, more bitterness than flavor. Resorted to cold brewing it to finish up what’s left and it does okay as long it’s blended with a flavored tea. On its own, the cold brew isn’t great. Stubbornly bitter, drying, and tending towards astringency.

I left the lid off the porcelain teapot so I could watch the leaves brew. It’s a beautiful tea. The leaves sink. On first sip, I questioned how often I would want to drink this kind of pungent, heavy Chinese green. Told myself ‘whatever, don’t bother with that thought now’ and continued brewing. As I sit here after the fourth steep, I realize this tea is incredible (well, I thought that after the second steep) and strikes some kind of note within me. It’s balanced. It didn’t upset my stomach. I am tea high. Togo — thanks.

95+

[Spring 2018 harvest]

This is an interesting green tea with quite a herbal character. The dry leaf smell is pungent, sweet and nutty. I also get an aroma of vegetable broth and sage. On the other hand the wet leaves smell of pine, grass, cauliflower, lemon balm and a touch of mint and basil.

The taste is kind of refreshing, with a strong sweetness, umami and a peppery finish. There are flavours of pine, sweetcorn, asparagus and nuts. Overall, I found the taste to be quite exciting. The aftertaste is also nice. It is has a vegetal bitterness and is a little biting. It reminds me a bit of tea tree oil. When brewed well (which, admittedly, took me a while to figure out), the mouthfeel is awesome – thick, brothy and soft.

As for brewing the tea, I found high leaf/water ratios to work the best, which is common for higher grade green teas. In order to avoid overly strong bitterness and astringency, one can reduce the temprerature as well as adopt a careful brewing, especially when pouring the water into the teapot.

[Spring 2017 version]

What an incredible tea. Tons of flavor, lots of complexity, long-lasting durability, very affordable… It checks every box. It also works extremely well both gong-fu and grandpa style. I don’t know what to fault this tea on, so I’ll give it my highest rating yet.

The complex flavor profile includes grass, vegetal umami, fruit, saltiness, and sweet spice. Flavors pop on your palate, but are balanced and always very pleasant. Also, flavors rise and fall throughout the session as if it were a puerh. New flavors are highlighted with different infusions. This even occurred while drinking grandpa style. Long-lasting complex aftertaste as well.

Maybe I’m gushing a little over this tea while it has me in its caffeine-induced sway, but this is an absolute masterpiece and a joy to drink. I can’t imagine a green tea being much better than this.

If you are fan of sencha, I would highly recommend you try this tea. There are definite parallels – grassiness, umami, some saltiness, fruit, etc. – but I think this tea offers more complexity and durability.

*

Dry Leaf – very sweet (like strawberries and cream flavoring!), pine, light beer malt, sugared berries. In preheated vessel: roasted corn, tomato vine, sun-dried tomato

Smell – mint, vegetal (corn, edamame, tomato vine), cooked blackberries

Taste – summer grass, vegetal (roasted corn, cooked spinach, edamame), some slight saltiness like edamame and salted cantaloupe, hints of sweet cinnamon and chocolate. Aftertaste of light mint, cantaloupe and hint of blackberry. The strawberry-cream note from the dry leaf is hinted at in the aftertaste as well.