Green Zoubrovka Tea from Kusmi Tea

GreenZubrovkaTea Information:

Leaf Type:  Green

Where to Buy:  Kusmi Tea

Tea Description:

Green Zoubrovka is the green tea version of the exclusive Zoubrovka blend. It’s a green tea from China flavored with sweetgrass, which adds a subtle texture of honey to this beverage.

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

This has a very strong vegetal aroma.  It smells earthy and grassy.  The dry leaf looks like a large gunpowder tea.

To brew this tea, I used my Breville tea maker and added 2 bamboo scoops to the basket and 500ml of water to the jug.  I set the temperature at 180°F and the steep time for 2 minutes.

The result is a cup of tea that tastes very much like green tea.  Gunpowder green, to be specific.  But there is a little more to it than that.  I also taste the sweetgrass which adds sweetness as well as more of a grassy note.  While many green teas taste somewhere between ‘vegetable’ and ‘grassy’ … this tea definitely leans more to the grassy than the vegetable.

There are sweet notes, honey-like flavors, hints of mint, and a clean grassy note.  I can see how this tea would not be for everyone.  If you tend to like that heavier, buttery quality to a green tea, this one will probably not be one of your favorite greens.  On the other hand, if you appreciate the soothing vegetal/brothy qualities of a green tea, this one is going to be right up your alley.

The texture is brothy, reminding me both in taste and texture of sipping a hot broth.  This would be a really nice tea to have on hand when feeling under the weather because it has that soothing quality to it – like drinking a hot cup of chicken soup.  Only better because it’s tea.

While it is quite soothing, it also has an invigorating quality to it that I find quite appealing.  It would be a good tea to drink later in the afternoon when you’re feeling a little drained of energy and need a boost.  Sweet, a little bitter (but in a savory sort of way), and enjoyable.  It has a moderate astringency that is slightly drying.

Overall, a pleasant cup of tea.