Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Teavivre
Tea Description:
A great find for those looking for a more green tea with more character! Like several of our other teas, Liu’an Guapian is deservedly in the list of China’s top ten teas. Made only from larger, mature leaves that are rolled up during processing, the dry leaves have a distinctively plump shape to them – giving rise to its Chinese name of “melon seeds”. Very uncharacteristic for a green tea, it has a quite sweet taste and strong aroma, that is also overlaid with an almost smoky, spicy tang.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
For the longest time, my favorite of the Chinese green teas has been Tai Ping Hou Kui (which is also available from Teavivre here), but I think my taste may be shifting, as I’m finding this Liu An Gua Pian Green Tea from Teavivre to be absolutely amazing … so good, in fact, that I may just have a new favorite Chinese green tea!
The leaves look like little tiny scrolls that have been rolled up. I don’t know if they really resemble any melon seeds that I’ve seen before, but, they definitely look to me as if a lot of work goes in to these little scrolls … each leaf so carefully rolled up by hand, they are beautifully crafted. They slowly unfurl and open up to release their amazing flavor … they are fun to watch brew, so do yourself a favor and brew them in a glass teacup or teapot and watch them do their thing!
And the flavor is sublime! So sweet and so juicy tasting. The flavor is soft and there are very few vegetative tones to this – if you slurp the sip you can notice faint hints of vegetation but, mostly what I taste is a sweet, fruity note to this at the start, and by mid-sip, a spice note seems to develop. This spicy-tang (as mentioned in the above description, and I find it to be spot-on to describe what I’m experiencing) seems to come forward strongest in the aftertaste.
A really unique and delicious Chinese Green Tea … this is the green tea for those who think they don’t like green tea for it’s strong, grassy overtones because this tea doesn’t have those grassy notes! This tea is just … so different! I love it!
