No. 8 Mao Feng Shui

Todd shared this tea with my last weekend when I met up with him at Anime Oasis in Boise. I brought the teabags home with me and made a small pot for my breakfast this morning, before meeting with a realtor.

It steeped up a lovely yellow and had a strong bean aroma, reminding me of Bi Luo Chuns I’ve had in the past. The flavor reminds me of Bi Luo Chun as well, in that I’m getting that strong, forward savory bean flavor on my palate that I always get from those. It’s quite vegetal, and I’d say aside from the sharp bean note I taste a leafy green taste closest to aspargus and spinach, with a subtle sweetening toward the end of the sip, a bit like a cross of florals and very wet melon.

It’s a nice green tea, savory, smooth, and lacking astringency, and accompanying my breakfast nicely.

I poured the water slowly and at a distance from the hot water tap at work, to cool it down enough for green tea.

This is a nice, smooth tea. It’s very vegetal, with a strong asparagus note. Good job, Steven Smith.

Free sample in a sexy, sexy little black folder.

I am going to ramble about my tea journey with this one. I love Mao Fengs and fruity greens, but I rarely purchase them. I started off on steepster being a Sencha lover and someone thinking he’d love dark ripe Pu-Erh’s and oolongs. Now, I stay mostly in the comfort zone of greener oolongs, whites, and blacks….constantly complaining that some green oolongs aren’t sweet or fruity enough, never mind there are green teas that do just that.

I generally stay away from greens because they are often too vegetal for me, never mind they price slightly cheaper than oolongs. As for this tea, it makes me think of rain in bamboo filled mountains. The profile is light, creamy, vegetal like sweet peas, bamboo, a little floral, and fruity like honeydew and eating whole strawberries…including the stem. I know, I am odd. The tea is straightforward, but it very clean, elegant, and sweet tasting for a green tea sachet. I got four brews out of it total, starting with 2 1/2 minutes, 3, 4, then grandpa styling the last two. I still prefer oolongs to greens even though I think this is a better tea than the Alishan. WTF is wrong with me?

So far, I have been experiencing an absolutely miserable weekend. The last couple days at work have been brutal in all kinds of ways, I’m prematurely feeling the pressure of an upcoming career change, I’ve been helping my parents deal with a sick goat, I’m behind on housework, and I’m in the early stages of what is looking to be an awful sinus infection. Still, I’m pushing on and distracting myself with more pleasant things. Right now, I’m typing this review. That is much more pleasant than focusing on sinus pressure. Last night, my pleasant distraction was the long-awaited sipdown of this tea.

In the glass, this tea is interesting, as to my eyes it appears to be a little more yellow than green. On the nose, I get mild aromas of wet grass, hay, straw, bamboo, and melon. In the mouth, this tea is very light-bodied, offering lovely notes of wet grass, hay, straw, bamboo, melon (not quite cantaloupe and not quite honeydew, almost like a bit of both), cream, and vegetables (I’m picking up asparagus, green beans, and garden peas). The finish is mild, clean, and soothing, with lingering traces of vegetables, cream, grass, hay, and straw.

In the end, I really liked this tea and do not understand the low reviews on this site. This is a very simple, clean, elegant, straightforward green tea that rewards repeat visits. It is perfect for a cool evening or a sunny afternoon. It may not be the most complex green tea in the world, but its easy-drinking approachability and nice separation of flavors are really admirable.

A fantastic, sweet green tea! This was very light and definitely brightened my day during the “after-lunch lull”. A definite new favorite!