DISCLAIMER: At the outset I should say that I have very little green tea experience, and even less positive green tea experience. I have yet to try brewing a loose green tea. Most of my experiences (other than random restaurant experiences prior to my interest in tea where I wasn’t really focusing on what I was doing and those I’ve written notes about here) have resulted either in completely tasteless cups of colored water, or completely tasteless but bitter cups of colored water. I thought for certain it must have been an acquired taste that I would never, ever, ever acquire.
After doing some very basic research, I determined that the reason for my awful experiences was essentially temperature and steep time related (though water quality may also have contributed). So I significantly lowered my water temperature and lessened my steep time, and things started going better. But I still haven’t tried high grade loose green tea, only bagged Tazo, Twinings and Numi variants.
With that said, I am liking this one a lot. Compared to others I’ve tried, it is very flavorful in a vegetal way, sort of cabbagy/spinachy, but I don’t find it grassy. And it’s sweet, not at all bitter. The first time I got this result I said to myself, “Self, this must be what all the green tea fuss is about, more or less.”
The flavor comes across at 175 degrees, but even moreso at 140 degrees. I’m using two bags in about 16 oz of water and the bags are the full leaf version.
