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“How is everyone else doing during this worldwide pandemic? We’ve got a shelter-in-place order going in Ohio, and while my line of work is deemed essential, I’m still going crazy on the weekends...” Read full tasting note
A delightful green tea produced in only in small quantities by ethnic Black H’Mong families in Lung Phin, Ha Giang province. Different from other green teas in that it is fired and dried by hand in a wood-fired cast iron pan rather than a drum oven. The tea is produced from the leaves of wild tea trees that grow close to the family home at altitudes of 1500 metres. The shallow soil (with a relatively high pH level) and rainfall pattern only allow three short flushes of growth every year each with their own distinct character.
The tea is produced entirely by Mr Po and his extended family a few kilometres outside Lung Phin village. Most of the tea produced is sold at the colourful local market which is held on the Monkey and Tiger days of the Lunar week from where our name for this tea derives.
Tiger Monkey tea has a smoky aroma and a taste that develops over infusions between earth and woody notes with suggestions of straw, peat and moss as well as the pine forest. Like other wild green teas it is naturally sweet with little bitterness.
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How is everyone else doing during this worldwide pandemic? We’ve got a shelter-in-place order going in Ohio, and while my line of work is deemed essential, I’m still going crazy on the weekends because of all of the closures and the lack of social interaction. This has somehow driven me to buy a bunch of fancy isopods and store them in little isopod houses made from sterilite bins and tupperware under my bed. If this goes on for much longer, I’m going to need to buy a shelf to hold all of them. Instead of riding my horse on the weekends, I’ve been taking her on walks into the forest like a 1500 pound dog so I can lift up rocks and logs to find nifty ‘pods. It’s becoming a problem.
About this tea, though. It’s lovely! And I’m not even a green tea person. The notes on this were “smoky, mineral, marine” if I remember correctly, and all of those are spot on. It’s sweet on the way down your throat with a pleasant hint of astringency when you first take a sip. Vegetal umami notes generally scare me away, but whatever the “marine” is here isn’t that bad. You mainly get it from the aroma. Smells like a fresh ocean and nothing of it is present in the actual taste. Love the peat moss smokiness, too. This is quickly becoming a favorite. All of the Vietnamese teas I’ve tried from Hatvala are, actually! The descriptions are spot on and the prices are very reasonable. Thank you, incredibly short supply chain that leaves you one step away from the original producers.
Flavors: Marine, Mineral, Peat Moss, Smoke, Sweet
I really wish I did not just google isopods.
So admittedly, the deep sea isopods and tongue-eating louses of the waterways are horrifying, but the landlubbers? Adorable. Look up lemon blue cubaris and dairy cow isopods. They hit a maximum of 0.75" and bumble around harmlessly, looking for rotting wood to munch on.
egads. If you say so. haha
Well….you learn something new every day!