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In my kitchen cupboard reserved for tea, I have an artificially created black tea shortage. I store my black and green teas on the top shelf and my oolongs and whites on the bottom. However, I rarely drink my green teas, and many of my black teas are either Darjeelings (which dwindle slowly because I Western steep them) or too expensive for regular consumption (SLX Black, that Lapsang from TheTea). I therefore go through my oolongs much faster, relegating many of my black teas to the “tea museum” in my closet. In an effort to change that, I’m trying to sip down some of my old green teas, notably this one from 2016.

Using Teavivre’s instructions, I steeped around 4.5 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 185F for 15, 25, 40, 60, and 90 seconds, plus a few uncounted rounds at the end of the session.

I always get a kick out of these flat, fuzzy leaves. The dry aroma is of chestnuts, green beans, and umami. The first steep has notes of chestnut, butter, beans, spinach, grass, and asparagus. The second steep is even more vegetal, with lots of cruciferous (a.k.a. bitter) veggies like bok choy and broccoli, but a sweet aftertaste. The next couple steeps are sweeter, with lots of chestnut balanced by beans and cruciferous vegetables. The nuttiness fades around the sixth steep, which is when Teavivre tells me to stop, but I got another couple vegetal steeps because I’m a cheapskate.

I Western steeped my remaining 2.5 g at 185F for 3, 4, and 6 minutes. The sweet, buttery chestnut is a lot more prominent in the first steep, with beans and asparagus in the background. However, subsequent steeps are milder, with spinach, green bean, and mineral notes and a faint sweetness.

For something I’ve been avoiding for so long, this is an inoffensive, surprisingly drinkable tea with pronounced chestnut notes. I’d say gongfu is the way to go, since I got more out of the leaves this way.

Also, apparently I’ve reviewed this tea before, but have no memory of it.