Special Gunpowder Green Tea

I swear the last time I had this (years ago) it was very smoky. This is more roasted and kind of reminds me of a mild genmaicha. Very cheap. I paid $2 for 4 ounces. Others said I overpaid as they got it for $1. Way better than the price would suggest. Halfway through the cup I iced it – made a very refreshing iced tea.

Ok friends of the 80’s, like, I had this bummer of a day…totally.
But I had a few minutes between meetings and drove by yet another
Asian Market I have yet to try and Bam! For 99 cents I get 4 ounces of solid
gunpowder green. A dash in my press, steeped a cup or so and man,
the day just got a lot better. As others have noted, this is a bit smokey, a little cloudy, and not the most beautiful color of green you will find, but the taste is rich and full. This is an in your face green that could handle any type of food or seasoning. I am thinking enchiladas…oops sorry, back to the tea. At this price, I will never have to drink bagged green again!

I just finished a small bowl of tofu stir fry with rice and wanted to finish the experience with a green tea. Gunpowder has been on my mind recently and I have two boxes of this brand (for some reason) so I might as well give it a try now.

The loose tea consists of dark green small balls with not many but a few stalky bits mixed in (so not great quality but this was only cheap). It didn’t smell of much either other than having a peppery floralness.

Once steeped this tea is dark yellow in colour and has retained it’s un-steeped scent.

In flavour it’s darkly floral with a slight toasted with a little sweetness.
There are also cabbage like vegetal tones which compliment my stir fry rather well.

As far as strength goes gunpowder greens are generally one of the stronger tasting greens and this is no exception. This tea always makes me think it’s an Oolong in disguise.

It’s nice enough for everyday drinking but the quality isn’t great so really you get what you pay for.

Inexpensive, great little loose leaf tea. I’m surprised how much tea you can buy for only one dollar.
Note to self: There is an expiration date at the bottom of the tea box.

12/6/12 – This tea is still really good. Not my daily drinker. It reminds me of licking a copper penny for some reason. I’m fine with this.

11/5/13 – I finished up this tea today. This tea stayed fresh for a year. This one will be purchased again since it is easy and find, and tasty. Goodbye copper penny tasting tea, bye-bye for now.

Loose
Appearance: dark green gunpowder curls
Aroma when Dry: nondescript
After water is first poured: dusty, sweet (eastern)
At end of first steep: vegital, sweet (eastern)
Tea liquor:
At end of first steep: dusty green
Staple? No, will usually drink type if around
Preferred time of day: any
Taste:
At first: vegital, slightly grassy smooth hints of creaminess
Additives used (milk, honey, sugar etc)? No
Lingers? Yes, with faint creamy buttery notes

TTB 10

I am enjoying this greenpowder green although it is almost ascetically basic. I also must have slightly oversteeped it, which makes it taste slightly roastier than it normally would. It’s very grassy too – I’m guessing it’s supposed to be. I still don’t have as much experience with green tea as I would like to have.

All in all, an okay, decent simple green. Not anything crazy or overtly crave-able, but just fine.

This tea is available where I do my regular food shopping so I occasionally pick it up. As has been remarked upon by other tasters it is an usually strong tea flavorwise so I usually cut the quantity of leaves down by 1/3 or even 1/2. It has a spinachy taste, more the dark green vegetal taste than the bright springy green. It makes a swampy green liquor, reminds one of something Yoda might drink on a cold Dagoba night. It leaves a lot of sediment in the cup, but it’s hulky-green color often hides this sediment until the last sips remain. The flavor changes little when it cools or is cold, so it is a good and thrifty all purpose tea. It is easily made, tolerates wide range of temp. The leaves are broad enough to prepare without filters or mesh or any of those tools. It takes lemon very well, and if you make simple syrups it takes a ginger syrup very well.

I had a hard time finding this one because I kept thinking it was “Tower of Heaven” ….because I’m obviously a sucker for pixels and chiptune (honestly, though, I can’t get through the first panel of that game, I’m so bad at it).

I think I need to get myself used to gunpowders, because all of the ones I’ve tried haven’t been quite what I was expecting. I got this at the local Asian market (hahaha not going there anymore because the owner’s wife always pressures me to get married to my weird colleagues that she knows and now I’m scared that she’ll actually try to set me up), which has a really nice collection of East Asian teas. However, besides Numi’s gunpowder, I can’t seem to find any others in town…

Right out of the box, the dry smell reminds me of a county fair in Idaho. I mean, the whole bit — cows and hay and horses and alfalfa and goats and Idahoans. It’s a bit off-putting, I concede, but it’s also kind of nostalgic. Once brewed, it’s strong and spinachy — and while I don’t mind the spinach, I think I may be brewing it a bit too strong. It looks like the other reviews suggest fewer leaves per cup, so I’m going to try that and see how it goes.

This is nice so long as you don’t use too much – 1/2 a teaspoon per cup is plenty – the quantity of leaf seems to be more of an issue than the steeping time; I let this go for up to about 20 minutes as I couldn’t finish it all in one go and it was still pleasant, not astringent. Nice smoky smell but not overpowering like a Lapsang Souchong. I added some fresh mint to the teapot too for a Moroccan-y experience.

Brewed strong on purpose; drinking medicinally to chase off a bad case of cruds. Like drinking a healthy serving of vegetables.