Winter Send Message

I am currently working on drinking the last few portions of a Winter 2020 pick of this tea. Storing in jars must be the way to go, because this tea is still flavorful! The first time I bought this tea, I bought a smaller amount first, realized I would want more, and immediately bought about 150g, hoping it would last me a year. It sure did, with plenty to spare!

This was one of the first oolong teas I ever tried. At the time, I was a green tea junkie and just wanted something new and different, but still definitely green tea, around. This fit perfectly. It has the staple buttery, boiled spinach green tea taste up front, with a tone of something floral in the mid and after taste. It’s the right amount of floral, not so much that I’m drinking perfume, but enough that I can almost tell what flower it is. Unfortunately, I live in succulent land, and the amount of flowers I can recognize is slim. My immediate thought is jasmine tea. This has a similar, milder floral property as jasmine scented green tea my family likes to order at dim sum restaurants.

I’ve had this tea for a while, and experimented with different temperatures. I like 185F (85C) which is the “white tea” setting on my electric kettle. (Side note, so far I prefer boiling water for white tea.) I brew 20 seconds to start, plus 5 seconds per infusion, this tends to be perfect and lasts me up to 6 infusions. I could go longer, but I don’t like to push my green tea until it’s flavorless…

The wet leaf smells like cooked and salted zucchini, boiled spinach, and flowers. The liquor smells exactly the same. It has a slippery, buttery body, and an accompanying flavor of a lightly salted stick of butter. Afterwards, there is some astringency, but no bitterness. A taste that reminds me a lot of eating or licking raw dark leafy green vegetables (swiss chard?) lingers on the tongue.

I’d say this is definitely one of my favorite green teas of last year. I will treasure every bit of it, until it’s time to rotate it out for something new. I leave here a stunning review in hopes that you might try this tea, because it’s delicious and deserves to be known.