Mei Leaf

Excellent great tea. Beautiful toasted nut and fresh grass aroma. This was the tea I used as my introduction to gong fu style brewing and is still my favourite green tea as well as one of my top 5 teas in general. I brew it at a low temperature.

Rate no. 1
My first loose tea on this new journey.

Harvest: Spring
Origin: Yunnan, China
Type: Ripened Pu Erh
Approximate Altitude: 2600m

Dark chestnut tea. Aroma is earthy and wood. Taste is earth, dry leaf, a bit of leather, some light pepper and green grass on the back of the tongue. On the second steep the taste was more dry leaf and less Earth with a nice warm tingling on the tongue. By the third steep all the flavours mellowed out and toned down.

First thing I noticed when warming up the leaf is a beautiful sweet baked cake aroma. The first, second and third steep is a naturally sweet grassy tone; and once it hit the back of the throat it has a great lingering sweetness that will stay with you through the whole tea session. Steep four through eight has a slightly burnt sugar/toffee and more of a grassy tone to it. Beautiful tea that you will not regret trying!

I could start a religion to this tea. Specifically, the second steeping of this tea. So far, I’ve only been brewing it western style but I’m excited to try a gongfu session with it now that I’ve bought some more. This is a really delicious tea with a really amazing, lingering mouthfeel. It’s very velvety, warm, and just takes over your whole mouth.

The tea is naturally sweet with just a touch of ginseng (it’s worth noting that it was roasted with ginseng, and doesn’t have actual ginseng in it). I don’t really taste fruit in this, but everything else described by the company is present. It’s really one of my favorite teas through all its infusions, and even retains its nuances when cold. (If I get through three or fewer infusions in a night, I usually throw some hot water in with the leaves and pop the whole thing into the fridge for an indefinite amount of time).

Beautiful astringency with fresh grassy notes and nutty, toasted finish. If brewed with colloer water it really brings out the umami and freshness of the leaf. A beautiful example of Long Jing.