Getting back into all of these green teas has proven extremely rewarding. They provide me with a prolonged energy boost and a fresh, clean, pure feeling that I have been missing for months. After polishing off the last of the 2016 Cui Ming, I turned my attention to a 25 gram sample pouch of this tea. Prior to trying this tea, I had read about Liu An Gua Pian, but had never tried it. I’m not sure how this tea compares to some of the others on the market, but for the price, I found it to be enjoyable.
For this session, I chose to utilize my trusty gongfu method. I gave the tea a super quick rinse and then steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 175 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was chased by 13 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes.
Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted mildly vegetal, nutty aromas. After the rinse, I detected clearer aromas of chestnut, hazelnut, grass, hay, asparagus, and seaweed. The first infusion introduced a subtly sweet nectar-like aroma and a hint of indistinct fruitiness. In the mouth, smooth notes of grass, chestnut, seaweed, hay, asparagus, and hazelnut ruled the day, though I was able to make out faint hints of some kind of fruit and nectar in the background. Subsequent infusions introduced parsley, cilantro, leaf lettuce, buttered kale, roasted sunflower seed, zucchini, and mineral impressions. The fruitiness increased and began to kind of remind me of a mixture of apple and cantaloupe. The nectar-like note also remained. The later impressions displayed a fine minerality and subtle lingering impressions of nuts, grass, hay, kale, lettuce, seaweed, and roasted sunflower seeds underscored by hints of cilantro and parsley.
This was an interesting tea and I do not feel that my description does it justice. Honestly, I kind of doubt that this would compare all that favorably to some really high grade, ultra fresh Liu An Gua Pians (for a supposedly high grade tea, I noticed plenty of broken leaves), but for what this was, it was rather tasty. I could see this making a good introduction to this particular type of green tea.
Flavors: Apple, Asparagus, Butter, Cantaloupe, Chestnut, Coriander, Grass, Hay, Hazelnut, Kale, Lettuce, Mineral, Nectar, Parsley, Seaweed, Zucchini
