Nonpareil Te Gong Huang Shan Mao Feng Green Tea

Another short tasting note for this sipdown, which people may or may not see with Steepster being so wacky!

As I have said many times before, this is one of my favorite green teas. I’m not a big connoisseur of green teas, but I’ve had a good number of varieties, and to my taste it doesn’t get much better than this. Lots of natural, nutty chestnut flavor, a bit of butter, but not too much, a bit of sugar snap pea. I think it’s the nuttiness that I love. Yum.

I feel like such a newbie today. This is the last of the spring samples from Teavivre to review. I think this is the third year I have sampled this. I should know what I am doing. Apparently that is not the case. I way under leafed. It is still very good but its just green tea. You know what I mean? All the wonderful characteristics that I know are here never have the chance to shine. It happens. I have one packet of this left, and I will prepare this gong fu (with skill) next time. I can tell you from last year this is an amazing tea.

I passed half of my samples on to a friend at church. She says she loves green tea. Upon questioning her, she drinks bagged tea from the grocery store. That means she has no idea how amazing green tea really tastes. I wrote out a page of simple instructions for her (that today I should have read). I told her if she puts the leaf any where near the microwave it will cry out to me and I will be forced to smack her fingers. I haven’t heard them cry out so I guess she is safe. Can’t wait to hear back from her.

Clicking recommend even though I messed it up.

Sipdown!
I have no idea what the count on my tea collection is right now, & I’m not going to do the math today. Sil sent me 38, I got 4 from Verdant, & their bundle box is also en route, so who knows, & really, today who cares?

This lovely green tea is gentle & buttery, with a rich flavor of sunflower sprouts, which I love. Thanks again to Angel & TeaVivre for this sample. :)

Smells very fresh, nutty, a little sweet and somewhat floral. When steeped the leaves become so green!

This is the best green tea I have had the pleasure of sampling thus far. It was lighter than other Mao Feng’s that I’ve had in the past, but it tasted so excellent and fresh! I found it quite chestnutty, with mineral notes and a little buttery.

Thoroughly enjoyed, definitely one that will be stocked in my cupboard. Many thanks to Angel and Teavivre for the sample!

Once again this spring, Teavivre sent a box of amazing samples to try! Thank you, Teavivre!

I have held off on a detailed review of this tea because Huang Shan Mao Feng is one of my favorites, and here is one that purports to be “nonpareil”. I wanted to try it while I could focus on the tea alone, with no food distracting from the flavor.

With food is actually how we usually serve Huang San Mao Feng. The first time I ever tried it, I sipped it by itself and thought it was very mild and was not going to be a good choice with our meal, but I served it anyway and was surprised to discover that it went beautifully with the meal. The tea seemed to change to suit the situation.

With this batch, I put the leaves in my hand as the water heated and I breathed on the leaves again and again, checking them for the light, wafting aroma. At first there was very little, but gradually I began to smell fresh spring plants, and then….smoke. Not like Lapsang smoke, but more like a beloved grandpa was smoking some fine, cherry pipe tobacco and left the room ten minutes ago. So I guess a sweet tobacco aroma is what I was getting.

The liquor is pale. The aroma is soft, but it is mostly the ghost of the scent of buttered steamed veggies and a hint of nuttiness. I did not pick up on any astringency, and though briskness was mentioned I didn’t get that either. There was a mineral flavor that is crisp and clean to me, and I believe that is what makes this tea pair well with food.

When the tea is alone, the mineral flavor serves as the front of the sip and gives way to the mild, fresh vegetable taste and nuttiness. When paired with food, the mineral flavor sweeps away the taste of the food, cleansing your palate and allowing you to taste the gentle freshness of this tea even with the richly seasoned food that is sold here as “Asian food” at the buffets. So while I agree that this one is palate cleansing, to me it seems to accomplish that task through the mineral freshness rather than what I think of as astringency.

The leaves are so pretty after steeping that I had to eat one before drinking the second steep! They look Ike tiny string beans in the basket. There is a bite to the leaf even after two sweepings, and a briskness is definitely present in the leaf itself.

I am most of the way through steep number two. This still has nice flavor. The memory of the leaf I ate is still with me, adding a little kick to this as I sip. This is a mild tea, like my other well loved Huang Shan Mao Fengs, but they present mild versions of delightful flavors that are some of the most desirable flavors of green tea.

Mild, buttered steamed veggies, nutty, soft, the barest hint of astringency if you look for it, and delicious.

Thank you, Teavivre!

This is a tea I’d wanted to try for a while, and I was lucky enough to get a sample from Nicole_Martin at the NYC meetup on Friday. The tea is very delicate, but what flavor there is is really lovely. It’s a bit sweet, faintly creamy, and nutty. There’s not much in the way of vegetal notes. This could be a good green for people who don’t generally enjoy green teas, I think, since it’s so gentle. I’d like to get my hands on some more of this – when I do, I think I’ll try brewing with a significantly higher leaf/water ratio (this time I used about 1.5 tsp/8 oz. water) since I’d like to see the flavors pop just a little bit more.

More fancypants Chinese green tea from Teavivre, yay. This smells and tastes wonderful, sweetly nutty and buttery smooth. Like the other huang shan mao fengs I’ve had it’s relatively light, more aroma than taste; that said, it’s a lovely pick-me-up.

I’m becoming quite fond of my little glass teapot (giving my brew baskets a break!)—I love watching tea leaves expand.

I didn’t even realized until I searched this tea to write a note on it that I had tasted it before. Oh well, I enjoyed it, so I don’t mind another taste!
Thanks to Angel at Teavivire for the sample!
Once again, I got nuttiness right away, and I do associate it with chestnut. I like that this straight green has a little sweetness and isn’t too vegetal. If I were to order a straight green, it would likely be this one.

Free sample from Teavivre. Thank you.

I opened the packet and smelt a rather lovely grassy, late spring aroma. The leaves were light green and looked very inviting. Upon steeping they became a very bright pale green. The aroma from the wet leaf was nutty and vegetal, perhaps buttered squash. The liquor was a pale yellow green, hinting at a delicate flavour and it did not disappoint.

Note to self: Make sure the cup is the right way up before you start pouring.

Once tidied up I was able to sample the tea properly. Although the wet leaves had a strong, pleasant aroma, the liquor was far more delicate. It hinted at both floral and nutty notes and did not hit me in the face strongly with them at all, although these notes became stronger as the tea cooled. It was very refreshing with a lasting sweet aftertaste that made me feel like my breath smelt of spring flowers. Lovely.

Thanks once more to TeaVivre and Angel for this sample!

Again I must preface this note with a disclaimer that I am not a green tea aficionado. As an allergy sufferer, I need strong smells and tastes to penetrate my constantly tormented sinuses and taste buds. A lot of green tea selections seem to have flavors that are much weaker than the black tea powerhouses that I prefer. Plus, I require a more electrifying caffeine jolt in the morning to bring me back to life.

When I opened this package, I noticed the fresh quality of the long green tea leaves. This is probably because the harvest was less than two months ago. The unbrewed odor was very faint and somewhat grassy.

I steeped the leaves for two minutes at 185 degrees as directed on the package. The color of the brewed tea was an extremely pale greenish gold, just a tad darker than clear. I didn’t detect any aroma emanating from my cup, even when I pushed my snozz deep inside of it.

The flavor was…there…but it lacked definition, depth, and power. It wasn’t unpleasant. It wasn’t bitter. It was illusive. After really concentrating and focusing hard during a cup and a half of sips, I was finally able to register a ghostly sweet and lightly grassy taste on my palate.

If green teas are your preference, and your sinuses are in much better shape than mine, you probably won’t find anything dislikable about this selection. However, if you are olfactorily challenged (as I am), you may find yourself pining for TeaVivre’s Premium Keemun Hao Ya or Yun Nan Dian Hong – Golden Tip black teas (as I did).