Treasure Green Tea Co.

sipdown!
used to drink this gong fu but i’m drinking it grandpa style for my final infusion from this bag. really intense honey and fruit aromas, strong hints of nectarine, and a bit mineral. very forward floral taste, notes of ripe stone fruit, somewhat similar to a good artificial peach flavour (although this is not a flavoured tea). slightly mineral aftertaste, overall extremely pleasant. definitely one of my faves.

For a spring project, I decided to compare three Mingqian teas: Bi Luo Chun, Longjing, and Anji Bai Cha. In total, I bought 340 g of green tea, which in hindsight is a lot of green tea. I seriously overestimated how much green tea I would be able and willing to drink, which is why this little experiment is still ongoing. For Part 2 of this three-part extravaganza, I bought four Longjings from Teavivre, Treasure Green, and Seven Cups.

Tea bush: Not specified
Harvest date: March 20, 2024
Location: West Lake, Zhejiang
Price/g: US$1.83

Treasure Green sells two grades of dragonwell, with this being the more expensive one. Apparently, it comes from a higher altitude than their regular Longjing and is made by a tea master with 70 years of experience. No information is provided about which Longjing variety it is. For the comparison session, I steeped 2.4 g of all four teas in 120 ml of 185F water, starting at 4 minutes. This produced very potent, not to say bitter, steeps! Following the vendor’s instructions, I then steeped 3 g of leaf in 150 ml of 158F water for 25 seconds, and subsequently used 148F water for steeps of 35, 45, 60, 90, 180, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of hazelnuts, chestnuts, roasted grains, char, and butter. This tea has a heavier roast and some bitterness, with candied chestnuts, grains, beans, kale, florality, and butter. It has a pronounced beany aftertaste. Later steeps feel quite rounded and nutty, though the tea is somewhat vegetal and bitter.

Using the vendor’s very gentle steeping instructions, I initially get soft, round notes of butter, chestnuts, roast, green beans, and other veggies and a tea that’s smooth, sweet, and slightly drying in the mouth. Steeps three and four add green peppers, lettuce, grass, and spinach, with the roast and nuts nicely counterbalancing the veggies. The final steeps feature beans, lettuce, nuts, roast, and grass, and have some woody bitterness and dryness. The nutty aroma at the bottom of the cup is lovely!

This Longjing is all about the roast, which is done pretty well. Steeped according to the vendor’s instructions, it’s nutty, sweet, smooth, and pleasant. I like a bit more florality in my Longjing, but that might be a personal preference.

For a spring project, I decided to compare three Mingqian teas from three companies: Bi Luo Chun, Longjing, and Anji Bai Cha. The vendors were Teavivre, Treasure Green, and Seven Cups. I received my last shipment of tea on Thursday and did the Bi Luo Chun comparison session over the weekend.

I chose Treasure Green as one of my vendors because it had pre-orders for spring tea up in the first week of March and sold all three teas I was interested in. As a Vancouver-based vendor, it also had fast shipping, which turned out not to matter because the other vendors sent their tea much later.

Tea bush: Not specified
Location: Wuzhong, Jiangsu
Picking date: First week of March 2024
Price/g: US$1.23

For the session, I steeped 2.4 g of all three teas in 120 ml of 185F water, starting at 4 minutes. This produced very potent steeps! I later did a more typical session, steeping 3 g of leaf in 250 ml of 185F water starting at 4 minutes, refilling the cup as needed.

The dry aroma is of green beans, butter, orchids, and faint pear. The first round has notes of green beans, new peas, butter, cucumber, soft florals, asparagus, nuts, and other spring vegetables. The tea is quite soft and it’s hard to pick apart the flavours. I also get a fruity aftertaste similar to pear. Subsequent steeps are more cruciferous, with broccoli, asparagus, kale, minerals, sugar, pear, and pops of lemon. I get a bit of earthiness in the final steeps, along with soft florals, minerality, grass, and spring veggies.

Of the three teas I tried, this one stood out for its minerality, soft orchid florals, and cruciferous vegetables along with the predictable green beans. The tea was very soft, which made it pleasant to drink but hard to describe. I could definitely taste the fruity undertones, but those cruciferous veggies tended to drown them out. It was still a high-quality BLC.

Sample from omgsrsly not generally a fan of oolongs so i wans’t expecting much on this one. Overall not bad, but sort of middle of the road. I can see how others would really enjoy this one

I’ve started posting little snippets of tea to instagram… Don’t know if I’ll do tasting notes or anything, but. I’ve finally got a phone that takes semi-decent photos.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CA08K2oJtJA/

Didn’t measure my leaf, but filled my gaiwan about halfway with dry leaf. Flash-rinsed at boiling, which I drank. Smooth, floral, sort of fruity in the way of apricot.

Second steep at 95°c, about ten-ish seconds. Aroma is light, sticky drop-fruit. Taste is definitely more floral, not hearty. Not bitter. Tip of your tongue sort of jasmine/lily. Continuing off this steep, as it cools there’s a juicyness to it that I can’t really pinpoint down to any specific fruit. A faint drying quality on the tongue as well.

Third steep, done the same. Bit more fruity, again in that creamy sticky drop-fruit area. Treasure Green suggests ‘lychee’ which fits, especially as I find it pretty perfumy/powdery and floral.

Fourth does switch into more astringency and drying on the tongue, but a not-quite apricot, ‘creamy’ fruit flavour under it. The roast is starting to come through a bit more as well, but not enough to affect the flavour. Just this dry honeyed note.

Old sipdown #12. This tea I actually remember, because it’s ancient (pre-2010) but actually still had some flavour! It was mostly just lychee florals on black, though, not the juicy lychee that I wish someone could accurately put into tea. Wouldn’t bother with it again.

Sipdown! I think this was what I finished off – the writing has worn off. It was a fairly floral oolong – orchid/lilac, I believe – and not bad despite its age. I’m less keen on these floral oolongs, though, and prefer creamy ones.

Smells sweet, borderline peppery, like—I don’t know, chocolate with a side of black pepper chips. The pepperyness manifests as a slightly tanic taste at first sip but then the rest settles out into that smooth sweetness I associate with a lot of Chinese blacks, and that sort of raw cocoa dryness I get with a lot of Yunnans.

Been steeping this one fast and loose in a 60ml gaiwan, ten-twenty seconds give or take.

Few steeps in the smell is more warm spice and vague citrus.

dry leaf aroma of charcoal/brown bread,
in the warm gaiwan it’s more like burnt toast, brown bread, seaweed, almond butter

After the rinse, the leaves have a very nutty aroma, somewhere between overly roastd peanuts and almonds

Brewing at 100C with 8g of leaf in 140-150ml

1: Very buttery and smooth, with a thickness that coats the throat, really nice floral notes, very nice lingering sweetness, and a cooling sensation during the swallow, woodsy notes, and some astringency, I get a lingering aftertaste that’s very candied, reminds me a bit of lychee, lots of minerality in this one

2: Stonefruits, such a nice mouthfeel, honey, butter, woods, minerals, pear, very roasty aroma

3: peanuts, peach, butter, honey, minerals, roasty aroma, lingering peachy orangey after taste.

This is really complex tea but these notes I’m getting are mostly fragments in like a very subtle flavour profile, that’s coated in minerality, it tastes like I’m using mineral water, my tongue is still tingling several minutes after finishing that steep

4: minerals, spices, orange, cooked apple, citrus

5: I seem to have brewed this steep weakly it just tastes like mineral water

6: actually it might just be losing the complexity.. I’ll try to brew the next one really strong

7: yeah well it’s stronger, sort of roasty tasting, mostly minerals, I’ll probably brew a few more but I doubt it’ll do anything new now

This was just under $1/g the lack of durability is a little unsettling but the first 4 were really good

This is the same as their house 2010 Bingdao Shou 200g cake, but in a smaller and cheaper waffle brick form.

Really good shou – super clean, sweet, date, dark chocolate, walnut, mineral, all with a really heavy thick texture. This shou still has a bit of green in the leaf too! However, this is a pretty expensive shou, it was $26 CND for this 75gram waffle brick.

Full review on Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/2010-puerh-mini-waffle-brick-shou-treasure-green-tea-company/

I bought this in store, without actually smelling the dry leaf, only the wet leaf (she just had like a whole bunch outside in this like basket thing, not really sure why) so when I got home and opened it, and the incredibly potent vegetal smell washed over me, I was overwhelmed. Soybean/edamame, grass, celery, and hints of lemon so delicious that I sat there stunned, just inhaling it for several minutes. It smelled similar to a laoshan green in a way. Anyways, the brewing:

lettuce, edamame, grass, it’s very creamy in both texture and taste, theres even subtle hints of florals, some roastiness and quite potent astringency, a bit bitter at first. There’s kind of a meaty texture behind the creaminess, even almost like tofu, with added notes of beats, peas, spinach, hints of soap or even.. toothpaste? It’s a bit minty; It has a significantly thicker texture than I’m used to in greens, at times it could almost be mistaken for an oolong, were it not so vegetal. It gets a bit more bitter as the session goes on, though never with any real strength.

I got 5 or 6 really nice steeps out of this, I’m glad I picked some up. It’s one of those teas I really want some of my friends to get to try (the ones who if you ask them what kind of green tea they drink, they say .. like, “the normal kind”)

Alright, so I’ve got this little single-serve tuo cha, this tea was under Treasure Green’s green tea section, and the pu’erh section, obviously it being xiaguan tea factory, it’s some kind of pu’erh but it’s different, I don’t really get how but .. anyways,

At first, it tastes very green, light, thick, sweet, but also very reminiscent of a young sheng in its lightness and a hint of sweet smoke, even leather-like, or wet cardboard..? With bitterness which is quite pleasant, and astringency, it has a strong kick of bitterness but there’s a sort of smoothness to it too, and lots of mintiness in the aftertaste, sweet grass, grapefruit, blood-orange, bitterness grows stronger with each successive brew. Pine needles, spearmint raspberry, dry earth.

It’s like everything I like about young shengs, the sweet pleasant bitterness, but with so much more depth and character.

I love how fruity it is in later steeps: So much orange, grapefruit, and like.. blue-raspberry, it’s very soothing and hydrating, but there’s quite a sense of power to the tea, and enough complexity to suit anyone. Verry bitter though, so if you dislike bitterness, then probably stay away from this one, also this one’s really durable, it lasts like at least 15 steeps here, and fades out really slowly, so it depends on your tastes really :)

Olivia, the tea master at Treasure green, just gave me this tuocha to “play with” after me and my best friend sat at her tea bar and tried 3 or 4 different teas over like 2 hours, (including this one) she was really generous, and it was a lot of fun. (Don’t worry, we both bought some tea), I probably wouldn’t have written a review for this, because 1) reviewing pu’erh seems incredibly difficult to me, and 2) I feel like pu’erh should be something that I have to myself, where I don’t need to worry about the analytics, but anyways, I really, really like this company and wanted to give them some exposure, however small, so if you’re ever in Vancouver, do yourself a favour and check it out! :)

This sweet and savory tea, from OMGsrsly, is way too easy to drink. It’s been a while since I’ve had puerh or done short concentrated steeps with a tea all day long, but this tea never punished me for it. There was even a moment where I may have forgotten it for a bit (5 minutes), but it remained relatively delicious.

The flavour profile reminds me somewhat of Butiki’s White Rhino tea and coffee cake. Not bad.

I think this is what OMGsrsly gave me… It’s hard to tell. Either way, always, much love and thanks for sharing!

Rinsed twice for about 1 minute, then steeped for two. It’s quite dark, and, still not completely opened. Ugh. Not sure I’ll steep it again, as… This is weird. Wood, wet wood is what I get. Wet wood and an odd sweetness that I’m not fond of all. I can’t finish the cup. :(

Another OMGsrsly sample, wheeeeee!

I wasn’t super huge on this one…it tasted kind of like a typical young sheng, but with the flavours on mute? If that makes any sense? Like, the most pronounced characteristic of this tea for me was its bitterness, which is kind of weird to say because it wasn’t actually overwhelmingly bitter, especially compared to other shengs. I just didn’t really find much of anything to balance that bitterness out or otherwise add interest…

This totally could have been user error on my part, but I’m happy with the shot I gave it (thank you again for the sample!) and this isn’t something I feel the need to buy or try again.

ooooooh tea from omgsrsly I think i’m going to be drinking this one for the rest of the day. I pulled this one out for a hope at something a little more exciting. this is sweet, haylike, with a hint of bitterness should you steep it for too long. i am quite enjoying this one and i’m curious as to how it will fare for the rest of the day. Plus, the leaves are really pretty! more to come later i hope.

omgsrsly sent this one my way. I’ve never tried anything from this company so it’s nice to branch out. i’m sort of with dex on this one. It seemed much to fussy. When i was able to get the right balance of time and temp it was pleasant enough but then i’d have random steepings that just didn’t taste all that wonderful. even with essentially flash steepings. I’m ok with this though, because i know i have lots of other puerh that i adore :)

As Dex mentioned ages in the review, my bag is marked sheng, but this is DEFINITELY the shou.

This is a lot easier on the nose than the last one I tried today. And I also went through my shou bag and opened all the ziplock baggies so they’re upright and exposed to the air a bit. So hopefully that’ll help out some of the stronger shou mellow out.

As this is a tuo, and it’s tightly packed, I’ve done 2 pretty long rinses. The liquor is dark amber, but not black. And it’s still not completely unfurled. Oh wait I lied. It’s almost completely black now.

https://www.instagram.com/p/-HrUs2R5I2/

But the flavours here are a lot more bearable. It still has that forest compost flavour, and isn’t sweet and gentle like the shou I tried from Sil last night. But it’s a lot more mild. I was just reading the description on the website. Earthy. Yes, indeed it is. Also very woody. As I steep it, it’s turning into that fresh hewn lumber taste.

Not bad, but again, not really flavours I’m into right now. I’ll share what I have around and keep a couple tuo’s for further tasting.

Yay! I put my computer back together, and set my kettle up on my desk again.

So of course I had to make some tea.

This one is pretty good. Like Dexter mentioned, it’s pretty starchy. I’m enjoying it, but it’s not a favourite. I used the whole packet so I can’t try it in my travel mug, but I tend to like the burnt/spicy notes these types of teas can get when you grandpa style steep them… or just forget them in your timolino for 6 hours…

Whoops. This one is also FROM Dexter. Thank you!

The leaves of this tea are just beautiful – really golden and fuzzy. It’s just ok for my tastes. Really sweet potatoe – pretty starchy. Those aren’t my favorite notes in Yunnan blacks.
Nce but not a necessary rebuy.

https://instagram.com/p/87IszYOE8o/?taken-by=dex3657

I am such an idiot……
Do you have days where you see something on the news, or you observe an incident that makes you question how you see the world, what you believe. I’m not talking about anything heavy, just something that makes you pause and question. I think of it more as emotionally challenged than upset. Anyway……I’m having one of those days…
So I come home from work and look for tea. I don’t want to make a decision so I just reach into my sample box and pull out a package from the wonderful Miss OMGsrsly. Perfect mini tou sheng….. A few minutes later I’m looking at the tea in my cup and the leaves in my teapot, this is weird. Why is sheng this color? Shrug oh well…. first sip and I’m looking at the package, and the looking it up on here…..yep I’m an idiot…. This isn’t sheng. Why did I think it was. Let’s try this again with shou steeping parameters.
Whatever this is it’s really good. Mmmmmm really earthy in a good way Smooth, yummy, sweet. I really like this. It goes perfectly with salsa, avacado, and lime tortilla chips. I don’t have specifics, but this is what like about shou…..
Now if I can just figure out why I’m watching Gone Girl…. I hated that book.

This is confusing me. Steeps 1 and 2 were really nice but mild. A little sweet, a little earthy, not bitter, not grassy. Steeps 3 and 4 were astringent and bitter, didn’t really like it. Steeps5 and 6 were still a little bitter and quite grassy.
In my experience sheng usually starts out bitter and grassy and gets milder in later steeps. Maybe user error but I was trying hard to be conservative with steep times.
This isn’t the one to convert me over to sheng. Thanks for the sample OMGsrsly. :)

This tea is beautiful – the dry leave are just amazing to look at – the wet leaves are just so pretty. I don’t think I should be drinking this one tonight. I was drinking another moonlight tea yesterday that was just spectacular. I think this is paling in the shadow of the other one rather than showing how good it really is. If I had tried this one first I would be raving about it, but IMHO it’s not as good as the other.

OMGsrsly recently wrote about this with words like savory and umami. While I’m not disagreeing with that – those aren’t the words I would choose. The problem is that I’m not quite sure what the right words are. Sheng, sweet, green. hay, lets start with those. Given a cup of this blind – there is no doubt it’s pu’erh – but it’s really mild and that mustiness goes away in later steeps. It is sweet, but later in the sip. It’s not astringent, or bitter, but these is a little sharpness to it.
I like it, I would happily drink more of it – but if I had to choose, the other one all the way.

Thank you so much OMGsrsly for sharing both these amazing teas with me. (I might need you to pick up more of these for me in the future….)
https://instagram.com/p/03sratuEwT/?taken-by=dex3657
https://instagram.com/p/03s5YKOEwd/?taken-by=dex3657