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Bright grass, vegetals, and nuttiness. Many others have described this tea so thoroughly and beautifully — I just let myself enjoy it. The leaves are so flat and slickery that I think I spilled and poofed more of them onto the counter than I ever have during preparation. Like trying to contain glitter. Large glitter.

The only echo I wanted to make was of derk’s note that the wet leaves smelled like leeks and beef… I was all ready to assume that was a niche-nose note, but I opened up my pot and I’ll be damned… that curiously empty smell of unseasoned, boiled cow muscle with a little not-quite-onion-yep-that’s-definitely-leeks ghosting in. I didn’t get this scent or flavor anywhere else but from the wet leaf. Nice pin, derk!

Warming leaves smell like potato chips with salt and oil, roasty, smoky. Feels like I’m about to take an unctuous bite rather than a sip. Immediately after pouring, the wet leaves smell like roasted, in-season asparagus — super green and full of umami. Pour is nearly-neon yellow and smells of peas, asparagus, almonds, salt, potato. Taste is much more mellow, with a medium bodied asparagus broth, grass, the tiniest peck of astringency, creamy rice. Pineapple and sugar scents at the bottom of the cup.

Nori and sesame, like that shaker concoction that health food restaurants used to keep around, coming from the wet leaves after the second pour. Nose is not nearly so pronounced on this steep, but still lovely like an asparagus soup or risotto — vegetal and creamy. Tastes of roast, umami, a tinge of floral that I can’t quite grasp, still some minor astringency and definite vegetal notes. More pineapple and cotton candy at the bottom of the cup!

Something like fried okra chips coming off the leaves now — like a crispier, oiler, toastier green than the asparagus was. Still pouring bright yellow, but the nose is starting to empty a bit. Some more grass and astringency in the mouth, with seaweed and steamed rice, though I’m getting some barely-there fruit notes as I swish, too.

Spinach from the leaves as they give up their fourth pour, and further steeps start tasting like a more generic “green tea” profile.

The savory character of these Chinese-style greens continues to absolutely delight me.

I had a sampler of this a while back and didn’t decide to reorder; should have trusted myself, but the folks on the AU Facebook are so friggin’ bonkers over this offering that I felt like I should give it another chance.

I initially brewed it up and felt like it was lacking, so I added some almond milk and maple to it. All I could taste was cloying sweetness that the tea didn’t support, so I dumped it and started over. Left it plain.

Sigh. It’s fine. It’s truly fine, it’s not repulsive. But oy VEY, I don’t get it. Yes, there are butterscotch notes; yes, it’s sweet; yes, there’s some lapsang doing it’s smoky thing. There’s a lot in the nose; a smattering of it translates to the taste. Bourbon? Eh. I tend to the nerd-side of whisk(e)y, so I’ma let that slide. The base is just. so. thin. There’s nothing there to push all these potentially big flavors into climax; they just sort of putter around in the fishbowl without any destination.

I love love love the artful descriptions AU pours out, and I love their big unique inspirational reaches, and I have loved a couple of their single-origin teas (I see from browsing Steepster that I missed a yellow that sounds gorrrrrgeous before I discovered them). But, eh… all the flavoring in the world can’t fix a meh base. Can we imagine for a minute what a good malty, strappy brown-bread black could do here? Or a barrel-aged pu-erh accent? A brandy oolong? Guhhh.

Here’s to trusting one’s self, Steepsterites… cheers.

Warmed leaf notes of linalool oxide, baby powder, mango. A little wet dog/fur.

I just barely got 5g in my 5oz pot before reading the 3g recommendation. But I feel okay about it; 7g is my default, and there is a LOT of room between these leaves. Some of them are absolutely monstrous. And beautiful! So many colors in the dry leaves — greens, browns, yellows, blacks, and reds.

I let the first steep go to 30 seconds, as the whites I’ve been enjoying lately seem to do really well with a heavy-handed opener. It’s also where Nathan started the white we drank in-house.

Smell coming off the first steep, best I can describe, is like a very light Moo Goo Gai Pan sauce. Light soy, white mushrooms, stock, sesame. Herbs, linalool oxide, a whiff of jasmine. Rice.

Cooling in the mouth. More linalool (this flavor is slowly growing on me). Smooth and slick mouthfeel. Second steep brought some hay and barnyard on the nose, umami. A bit of astringency in the back of the throat, with further notes of pine, mint, light potato.

The leaves in the pot now smell quite herbaceous, with olive oil and white florals (reminds me of women’s perfumes)… like mom is making chimichurri down in there.

Scents off the pour are dissipating with the third steep, with fleeting tobacco; the cooling linalool is still there, astringency is moving forward in the mouth, a little potato and maybe some olive. It kept pouring with strong color and good mouthfeel, but no more flavor revelations. I didn’t really get citrus or tropical, which is what I was expecting. No bother.

I will likely stick to 5g brews, so I have 2 more. I’m probably not a repeat buyer at this price point — but this tea is lovely and from an unexpected place (I believe the Callisto folks told me Eva has a black coming soon, as well). I’m grateful I got to have some.