240 Tasting Notes

84
drank 2010 Manmai by The Essence of Tea
240 tasting notes

A re-visit to this and the Mansai made me realize how aroma and flavor are really not the only characters of a tea to consider. Texture is important, as is qi or energy, or simply how the tea makes you feel. This tea makes me feel amazing.

Flavor-wise, I’m still really focused on the flinty, grassy, greenness of the tea, and find the texture a little light, but this tea has powerful, golden, glowing energy to it, and that’s just something that’s hard to consistently find.

Updated blog post: http://tea.theskua.com/?p=498

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80

Have been tucking into the 2010 harvest of this tea lately. My perspective on green tea aging has changed a little bit. I don’t think every green can handle time, but some of them manage to keep much of their character and evolve a little in pleasant ways. This one is drinking fine after a year. I eventually burn out on the charcoal, toasted chestnut, and mineral-forward elements of almost any Chinese green, but in the meantime, this provides a light, crisp, refreshing spring brew.

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73

I’ve been drinking this regularly for the past few weeks to sate my craving for green. It’s done well, but in my estimation is far from exceptional matcha. Standard, workable, and without flaw, but does not excel. Whisks up a nice dark green frothy cup, with minimal bitterness, and some solid cucumber and melon tones.

Cofftea

You make it sound pretty exceptional. :)

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80

Farewell, fair Nannuo. Okay, THIS was the best in the series. No, really. In the second of two brew sessions, I finally got the flow down with this tea. It takes some intuition, otherwise it gets crushingly dry and cottony. Otherwise, light, perfumy, and with delicate fruits. I think it’s a solid, punchy tea, but responds to a lighter hand of brewing. The steeped leaves certainly showed the largest leaves of the set, as well as the least cooked and most consistent processing.

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_skua/5719644481/in/photostream
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_skua/5720204454/in/photostream

teaddict

“Dry and cottony” is an interesting description. I’m imagining a sensation I would think of as astringent, perhaps, but can’t really come up with something more specific from that description. Can you expand on that a bit?

teaddict

And while I’m at it, do you have a strong sense of the different growth locales now after sampling this series of teas?

TeaGull

To some degree, the different regions stand out. Each tea is obviously different, but I think I would be hard pressed to name most of the regions given a blind sample. I think Bulang and Menghai are characteristic, but Bada and Mengsong are somewhat indistinct. Nannuo also unique, but more subtle. Part of the problem with the Peacock series is that the plantation leaf and rather heavy processing bury some of the subtle signatures that help the regions stand apart, I think.

teaddict

Interesting. I’ve got enough puerh right now that I can’t really justify buying something like this series unless they really provide a really clear illustration of the differences. At present rates I’ve got quite a few years’ worth already.

TeaGull

There’s better tea to be had, in my opinion.

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79

Really surprised to see I hadn’t review this tea yet, I’ve been enjoying it’s delectable greenness for a couple of weeks now. This tea appears to be an easy brewer, as I’ve tried a wide range of leaf ratios (up to 2.5g/oz!) and temperatures and it seems to stand up to most of them. At the cooler range, the tea comes across as pretty bland. But even with a high ratio and warmer temps, there’s never any aggressive bitterness. Flavors stick in the melon and cucumber notes, especially in the finish. It also has a fantastic returning sweetness. A good value, I think.

Preparation
160 °F / 71 °C 0 min, 30 sec
Shinobi_cha

Shh…. but I think now you know what this tea is like: http://steepster.com/teas/dens-tea/1010-sencha-fuka-midori (because it is, I think, the exact same one!)

TeaGull

I would believe it. And to think, I paid only twice what Den’s charges.

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64

Almost done with the Peacock series. One left, after this one. I do believe this is probably the best in the series. Still, I consider it only above average. It opens with a strong orchid and fresh mushroom aroma that subsides into the cup. The first steeps are delightfully sweet and thick, but the middle steeps can be easily over-brewed to produce an astringency that strips any and all saliva off the tongue, making your mouth feel like sand. It lightens up in the later steeps, but empties out quickly. There is some “orangeness” to this tea that makes it a little tame, but otherwise, I think it’s an above-average Menghai sheng.

Tea: http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_skua/5710271892/
Leaves: http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_skua/5709709129/

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48

Continuing to work through the last of these Peacock series samples and I must say I think I’m fatiguing of Menghai’s compression and of plantation tea. In many ways, there’s nothing wrong with this tea, but there’s also little exceptional about it. I do appreciate being able to single out a region, but the production kind of renders down and sanitizes whatever character might show. There’s moderate fruitiness, classic sheng glow, and lots of astringency from the abundant dust. Finishes in honey.

Tea: http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_skua/5687591452/
Leaves: http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_skua/5687591120/

Nathaniel Gruber

Sounds like a fairly common Sheng. Thanks for the review.

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77

Finishing off my sample of this tea with a heavy amount of leaf. This is a very nice clean, bright, juicy and straw-like Yunnan green. Tons of strawberry, melon, and peach. Tends to get a little terse, grassy, and bitter if treated too heavy and too hot, but otherwise produces a very spring-like beverage. I found it a little aggressive in the vegetal, herbal, planty spinach notes, something I don’t think works as well with the basket roasting or the light fruit notes, but more with the kelpy, cholorphyll heavy styles of green tea. Nice buds in the steeped leaves.

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88

This tea impressed me. I think my previous experiences with Wuyi teas have been with poor quality tea. Instead, this has a fantastic texture, little to no astringency, and only the slightest bit of sourness in the mid-steeps. There’s a long, incredible returning sweetness with hints of plum and spice. Delicate and floral in aroma, but robust, caramelized and sugary in flavor. I used Wrong Fu Cha’s “Brewing Rock Tea” (http://chahai.net/brewing-rock-tea/) as a guide and it helped me produce some really fantastic tea. Great tea.

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38

A couple added notes from my final session today. The mid-steeps carry the slightest hint of sourness. There’s a long, long returning sweetness, that comes almost minutes after swallowing, which is nice, but not enough to save this tea. Finally, yesterday the tea gave me a strong clay-like dry grip, so today I used my stainless steel electric kettle, only to still get that sensation, so it’s either my water, the tea, or my water and the tea.

Tea: http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_skua/5622330318/
Leaves: http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_skua/5621742445/

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