Meng Ding Yellow Buds

Today I bought a few teas into work because I thought I could get them out of the way… aka, these were ones that I thought wouldn’t taste good.
A yellow tea was easily picked because I have yet to have a good yellow tea. All the yellows (only six) that I have drank have been a bit musky and odd with the nut notes.

This one however was a bit thicker and had some fur on it which made me think different when I opened it up. The look of the leaf appealed to me so I took my time and measured everything out right at work and ended up steeping this twice :)

The nutty notes work quite well with the warmth that this tea is at when steeped. The ‘funk’ isn’t detected in this tea which makes me quite glad because I’ve really disliked my yellow tea journey so far. The yellow from What Cha was close, but it was too strong. This one is a bit delicate but still lets you know who it is.

Thanks Amanda, I probably would have never bought this to try after all my other experiences. Glad I tried it :)

The dry leaf of the Meng Ding Yellow Buds look like a mix between long yellow grains of rice and leaves from dragonwell (Long Jing) teas — oblong, a bit flat, with a yellow-green cast to them. They smell grainy, a bit vegetal, and a bit sweet.

The taste during both steeps was consistent — very vegetal and green-beany. Mild, not very assuming, and frankly, not very different from many green teas I’ve tried.

Full review at: http://booksandtea.ca/2015/11/four-teas-from-mei-mei-fine-teas/

I forgot how much of a time consuming giant pain building an under-ocean building is on the Xbox 360. Oh what I would give for a pile of sponges! Really though, the PC has it so much better when it comes to building beneath the waves, they even come with pre-built undersea temples…but we are getting an ancient Greece mash-up pack, so for once the Xbox feels superior. I wonder what on earth they will make the Ghasts into, see Ben and I spent a goodly amount of time trying to come up with an ancient world (not just Greece) mythical texture pack, and that one stumped us. Excitement abounds!

Today is a bit of a preview review for MeiMei Fine Teas, a soon to be shop I discovered on Instagram and facebook, they were awesome enough to send me some teas to sample, so I decided to start off with their Meng Ding Yellow Bud (or Mend Ding Huang Ya) a really beautiful Yellow Tea from Sichuan, China. These are beautiful little buds, almost looking like they are fresh from the tea plant, doubly so when they are steeping, and for a fun fact, have been on my to-try list for a while, so happy dance! The aroma of the leaves is gentle and green, light notes of green beans and asparagus, a hint of sweetpeas and bamboo leaves. With these green notes is a hint of toast and grain, buckwheat, chestnut and wheatberries blend really well with the green notes.

I decided to brew this in a tall glass to really showcase the leaves, and what a glorious plan that was! Steeping was so pretty! The aroma of tea is almost entirely all green, notes of green beans, cooked bellpeppers, artichokes, asparagus, and sweetpeas blend with a hint of chestnut and delicate floral undertones. It is a vegetal smorgasbord and a bit mouthwatering, I do love me some vegetal teas, I find them so refreshing, especially this time of year.

So sipping, unlike with a gaiwan or teapot, I do not remove the leaves, basically this is similar to bowl steeping but with a glass. I occasionally need to blow the leaves floating on the surface away, strain with my teeth, or just eat a few because tea is tasty. The first ‘steeping’ for lack of a better way of putting it is green and smooth, initial notes of honey sesame sweetness give way to artichoke and asparagus. The longer the leaves steep the more notes of green beans and sweetpeas pop out, with a tiny bit of pepper at the finish, and a lingering aftertaste of flowers.

Refill time! I like this tea because it does not seem to really get bitter, I can lounge and slowly sip while not getting a face full of overbrewed, so big win there. The second sipping session with this tea is both more sweet and more green than the first. Starting with slightly nutty honey sweetness and a delicate hint of distant floral, then it moves to green beans and artichokes and just a hint of asparagus. I got several refills out of this tea, in fact I am currently lounging with a cup, have been sipping it while playing Minecraft, several hours later and it is still delicious. I have a sneaking suspicion that when MeiMei Fine Teas opens I might have to get a stash of this tea to permanently have on hand!

Blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/07/meimei-fine-teas-meng-ding-yellow-bud.html