New Century Tea Gallery

Well, this is my 300th review on Steepster, and I’m going to forego my usual “cut to the chase” review approach to say a couple important things. Skip to the REVIEW section if you don’t want to hear anecdotes.

I’ve been going through a lot of big changes in life lately, and finding that a lot of things are distracting me from my productive potential. Social media was the big one. I took measures to get myself away from it and have been feeling a lot more focused and clear-thinking since then. I thought I’d spend more of my free time on hobbies, not frittering it away on likes, comments, statuses, and posts. Reviewing tea has always been a relaxing hobby for me, but lately I’ve found myself just not feeling it. I’m having trouble describing things or devoting my attention to it long enough to write a detailed review, and I find myself having “productivity guilt” when I do it more than I ever used to, not viewing it as very productive anymore.

The result is that this 300th review seems like a good stopping point for me. I might still review teas on here in the future. I’m not sure yet, but if I do, they will be really brief, just a few short sentences on my impressions and a rating, not the more detailed reviews I typically write. (I can hear some of you thinking “I don’t know you and I don’t care”, haha).

It feels fitting for me in a way that my 300th review is a tea given to me by a friend. He knows I’m a sucker for good green tea and brought me a refill when I ran out of my first bag (also a gift from him).

REVIEW:

The scent of the leaves after the first infusion is like cooked spinach, forest foliage, toast, and pistachio.

The first infusion has a rich, spinachy taste, with subtle sweetness equal to subtle bitterness, the former gradating into the latter. There’s a bit of a pecan-like nuttiness to it.

The second infusion has a stronger scent, like leaves and rain, and a really subtle floral scent. This infusion is definitely more sweet and rich. Good balance of umami and sweet flavors with just a subtle hint of bitterness in the finish to balance things. As for taste, this infusion reminds me a lot of matcha, maybe a little like pecans as well.

I find most green teas only seem to give around 3-4 good infusions, even when brewing Gongfu style, but this tea is a pleasant surprise, and I find myself enjoying at least 5 infusions in a gaiwan before it starts to lose its flavor.

In terms of flavor, this green tea doesn’t knock my socks off like some have, but it’s a really enjoyable everyday drinker, one I’m glad to come back to. It’s mild and easygoing.

4gms / small Gaiwan / 180F / 15sec – Gorgeous golden liquor, slightly toasted aroma. Wonderful toasted Oolong flavour began with first steep through 4th. Subtle changes in tongue feel begin to develop on 5th steep. Beautiful golden colour holds through 7 steeps, flavour lightens slightly, but could continue to steep longer. Wonderful tea to try, very glad to have added to my tea chest.

The dry tea has a bit of a seaweed smell, which depending on your perspective could be good or bad. When brewed the aroma backs off to grassy, and it tastes slightly vegetal but not overwhelmingly so. When we sampled this in the shop the owner resteeped it a couple times, and the resteeped cups had a similarly pleasant but milder flavor.

Despite the fact that I’ve liked all the oolongs I’ve tried, I haven’t bought very many yet. This tea makes me want to go out and get lots of different kinds to compare.