Organic Island Green Tea

Last cup of this. Hopefully I’ll see it at another craft fair or some thing. It’s a nice green tea with warm, toasty flavor. :)

Sipdown 6/22 – Backlog
Cold brew.
Doesn’t taste of much – clean generic green tea.

I don’t know what it is that I’ve done to this one, but I’m not getting much in the way of fruitiness anymore. Instead, I’m getting a primarily artichoke flavour (have I ever said how much I love artichokes…?), with a distinctive butteriness and a hint of black pepper. It’s stronger than I remember my initial cup being, with a much more savoury quality from the outset. I think I’ve started to brew it longer in slightly hotter water, so that might account for it, but I’ve alsohad a cold _very_recently, so maybe my tastebuds just aren’t on par. Either way, I have to say that I really like it!

As it cools, I start to get a mild floral, and just a hint of the stone fruit flavour I commented on in my first note. It also becomes just a little drying. An interesting one, this! I’m down to my last cup’s worth, and I’ll surely miss it when it’s gone.

Sipdown (230)!

I feel like this gif kind of perfectly sums up the hot mug I’m drinking right now, so I think I’m just gonna leave you with that…

http://retrogamerblog.com/post/160825018312

This piqued my interest solely on the fact it was from Hawaii. The leaf is very pretty, for it is a cross between gunpowder green and bi lou chun. The leaf is rough yet vibrant. The small dark emerald curls have a scent of fresh spinach leaves, roasted chestnuts, and almond. I warmed my kyusu and tossed some in. I steeped this away as the bag instructed me, and it yielded a clear jade soup. The flavor is a sweet rough grassy. I grab at some asparagus, roasted veggies, and a good base of sugar water. That is about as interesting as the tea became. This is a very easy drinker. The leaf is basic and plain. I feel this best depicts the “starbucks” of tea. A tea that is smooth, sweetish, and plain, so as to suit the masses tastes.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BKGqgiqAo7X/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

This one kind of fell flat for me the several times I’ve had it.

It wants to be one of those strong green Chinese teas, flavor wise, but instead of blooming at the back of the mouth, it sort of falls flat and sour. There’s a hint of bitterness, but no astringency, which is nice. But that sourness…where is it coming from? Instead of being grassy, it’s almost cucumbery, which makes it feel like it’s lacking depth, or strength or something.

It might be for someone, but not really for me.

…and yes, I did brew it at 195.

I ruined this tea with people… https://www.instagram.com/p/BJjAR9fAnWw/

Used 175f without knowing it was suppose to be 195f because that sounds so odd to me. I drink Japanese greens so I’m not use to killing the leaf.

Brewed it on my own at 195f and found a thicker texture and stronger taste. It’s odd that it requires 195f, but if you do it this way it’s more like a thick baozhong oolong than a green tea. Going to open another bag and mess around with it because this group buy flopped which means experiments : )

I also got this through the regional group buy. This is a very nice green tea. It has a light tasting natural sweetness to it. It had very little umami taste and something of a vegetal taste. It was overall very good. As it was naturally sweet I wasn’t tempted to add sugar to it. I would also note that this was a very light colored green tea.

I brewed this three times in a 200ml kyusu with 6.9g leaf and 175 degree water. I steeped it for 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min.

Acquired through the Regional Group Buy.

The directions say 195 degrees, but since I don’t have that setting on my kettle, I went with 190 and then lowered it to 185 in the middle of the session. Prepared semi-Western, semi-gongfu method, with a glass tea pot. Steeping times: 2, 3, 4, 6.

I don’t know when the tea was processed, but the dry leaf aroma smells very fresh and interesting. It’s both savory and sweet, with notes of buttered boiled beans, peaches, and sea salt. I let the leaf sit in the pre-heated pot for a bit and smelled a more vegetal aroma, which reminded me of Lu Shan Yun Wu. The wet leaf aroma – still savory – is also sweet, this time in a high mountain oolong way.

Overall, the liquor is light green, clean, and full-bodied, having a bright and crisp personality. The texture is creamy. Infusions one through three taste like the wet leaf aroma – savory with the sweetness of a Taiwanese. Wenshan Baozhong specifically comes to mind. The last sips leave me with a dry mouth, but a long-lasting nectarine aftertaste. A minty note makes an appearance in the aftertaste after I finish the third infusion.

I then took a longer break that lasted a couple hours. The fourth infusion tasted completely different – sweet and grassy like a young sheng.

This kind of green tea doesn’t suit my tastes. I prefer the sweeter varieties over the savory. And after having tried a few Wenshan Baozhongs, I concluded that while I can stomach them and do like how they taste, I don’t particularly go out of my way to experience them over and over. Regardless of these thoughts, I do think that this green tea is good quality. But it has flavors that someone else would appreciate more.

From the LP Group buy, and one of the main reasons why I readily got some.

This was one of my favorite teas of the selection. It is very green, very crisp, and pretty refreshing. The taste was closer to something like a Baozhong to me personally since it did have some vague tropical profiles along with some hints of florals. Overall, the tea is light with a savory thick body. Sticky rice does come to mind in part. I’ll add more notes soon since I can’t remember more specifics at the moment. Know that I greatly enjoy it.