China Moon Palace - Chun Mee

I don’t usually wake up craving anything but heavy black tea, but it’s a lovely sunny morning, i woke up to birds and sunlight instead of an alarm clock (a gift in itself!) and in a flight of fancy, started the day with this, which is in my itsallabouttheleaf.com review box.

More comments when I write a real review, but I think I actually steeped it properly (no small accomplishment for a morning tea slob!) so that I can accurately assess it.

When I read through the TeaFrog listing, I had to have this tea. I don’t really know why, but a pan fried green tea translating to “precious eyebrows” seemed intriguing. Overall, the tea is delicious. I used a little more for my standard pot than I normally would. I brewed for two minutes, hot with no additives.

The dried leaves are small, dark and curly, this is from the pan frying. The brewed tea has all of the attributes of typical green with a bonus. The aroma is vegetal with a little toast to it, the liquor is a pale brown color, the taste is similar to Dragonwell, it is definitely vegetal, but it is smooth and not bitter, I have the feeling if oversteeped it would get bitter, but right now it is not. Finally, the tea finishes with a sweet aftertaste. Absolutely fantastic.

Not sure why, but the inside of my mouth is feeling a little sore. I hope I’m not getting sick. I felt a little achy yesterday, I was really dragging on my run today (of course it was ridiculously hot which could have something to do with it) and I know there’s something going around. The 4 year old was visited by the puke fairy Sunday night. Neither of my kids are big pukers, thankfully, so I’m hoping it was the stomach virus I’m told is on the loose around here. And I’m hoping I don’t get it.

This is my last TeaFrog sample from both sample orders and so something of a milestone. I just placed my order for those things from both sample sets that I liked enough to get more of and I didn’t put this on the list. But now I’m second guessing myself. Initially I didn’t think it was anything special, but then again I don’t think I’m tasting it properly because of my mouth issue. I will say that as I sit here typing, I’m finding the aftertaste from the second steep of this really wonderful. It’s sweet, almost sugary, with a very light, very subtle essence of slightly roasty vegetable that almost isn’t there.

I love the way this looks, too. The eyebrows are adorable. Like tiny green commas; almost like green caraway seeds. I can’t smell the dry tea because of the fruit smell-impregnated sample packet. But I’m having a lot of fun looking at it.

I’ve experimented with different times on this one. I started at 1:30, then went down to 1 for a resteep. Then with the rest of the sample I started at 2. All at 175 degrees.

Right now I’m drinking the 2 minute steep. The liquor is pale yellow, basically clear, with some visible solute but not nearly as much as I typically see in sencha, for example. It smells delicately and sweetly vegetal with a dab of butter and an interesting almost floral note.

At two minutes I’m getting a flavor that seems like it would be due to the pan fried nature of the leaves, or perhaps I’m just projecting. But it’s a lightly carmelized vegetal flavor with something dusky at the finish.

The deliciousness of this tea, I’m discovering, isn’t necessarily immediately apparent. I almost wrote it off because it didn’t have a strong initial flavor. I was thinking, oh no, one of those green teas that is indistinguishable from plain hot water. But as it turns out, the lack of seriously strong vegetal flavor initially (reminiscent of drinking the run off from your steamed vegetables at dinner) is part of the charm of this tea and there is a lot of flavor if you’re patient enough to linger over it.

Dammit. I wish I had stuck this in my order. Now I’ll have to wait until I have enough reorders to merit free shipping, and since I just ordered pretty much everything else I like of TeaFrog’s that is bound to take a while. Sigh.

A very nice Chun Mee. Pleasant fruity tones to this and a smooth, thick texture. Very soothing to sip on a cold, rainy evening.

On to something unflavored. The liquor is a light but vibrant green and the aroma is very vegetal with hints of butteryness and sweetness. Yummm… the mouth feel is on the thicker side and the taste matches the aroma. Almost broth/soup like.

This is a typical Chun Mee like Green…pretty straight forward. A little grassy but ok.

really crisp and sweet… really sweet.
I maintains the vegital quality of Chunmees but it’s just to clean tasting.
totally awesome

To day I pulled this sample I bought from Tea Frog out of the pantry. I am a little stuffy today from all the recent rain kicking up my allergies. The dry leaves smelled slightly sweet and floral (maybe Jasmine?). I brewed for two and a half minutes at 170. The wet leaves smelled more vegetal with only a hint of the dry leaf smell. The tea is a pale amber in color and smells similar to the wet leaf. The taste is slightly astringent with the same vegetal base note, mildly nutty and slight sweet aftertaste. I don’t know if I would but this again, I’ll have to try again when I am less congested but it is a pleasant tea to drink this morning.

Review by Mike D: “This green tea is also known as “precious eyebrows” due to its descriptive leaf shape. The rolled leaf is delicate, and boasts shades of dark jade green. A slightly sweet smell to the very small, uniform leaf size, indicative of good finishing and quality tea…”

Read the full review at: http://www.itsallabouttheleaf.com/374/tea-review-teafrog-chun-mee-china-moon-palace/

Review by Mike D: “This green tea is also known as “precious eyebrows” due to its descriptive leaf shape. The rolled leaf is delicate, and boasts shades of dark jade green. A slightly sweet smell to the very small, uniform leaf size, indicative of good finishing and quality tea…”

Read the full review at: http://www.itsallabouttheleaf.com/374/tea-review-teafrog-chun-mee-china-moon-palace/