Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Arum Tea
Tea Description:
This gentle green tea has a sweet vegetal aroma. The mild floral flavors are smooth and refreshing.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I’ve had limited experience with Indonesian teas. That is to say that I’ve tasted many more Chinese, Japanese and Indian teas than I have Indonesian teas. So, I’m always excited for the opportunity to try more!
The dry leaf of this Organic Green Tea looks very much like I’d expect an Oolong to appear with dark green leaves that have been wound into pellets. (Think about the pellets of a Tie Guan Yin Oolong as an example.) But this tea smells much more “green” than an Oolong typically smells. I believe that the longer oxidation process of the Oolong tea (however long or short that may be) allows other aromas to be developed. The aroma of this tea smells a bit grassy, reminiscent of a freshly cut lawn with the faintest hint of a flowery fragrance in the background.
I noticed the difference in aroma (between this Organic Green Tea from Arum Tea and a greener Oolong) to be especially apparent when the tea was finished brewing. I brewed this tea in my Breville One-Touch tea maker. I measured 2 bamboo scoops of tea into the basket of my tea maker and then poured in 500ml of freshly filtered water into the jug and set the controls for 180°F and 1 1/2 minutes.
The tea brews up light in color: a clear, very pale spring green. And it is very aromatic! I could smell the vibrant, fresh grassy tones. The fragrance reminds me of the aforementioned freshly cut lawn. Imagine the smell of the air after the first lawn cutting of the spring when the grass is new and green. Now imagine how the air would smell if after mowing the lawn you trimmed the flower hedges. There’s a slight floral element in the air along with the fresh grassy notes. That’s the aroma that filled my kitchen after this tea was brewed! What a delight to experience!
The tea is very flavorful! Sweet with notes of vegetable and a light buttery note. There is notes of flower in there too, just as the aroma would suggest. I had kind of expected all those flavors before lifting the cup to my lips but what I wasn’t prepared for was the fruit notes of this tea. I taste sweet notes of melon! A juicy honeydew melon! Nice!
I like that the flavor is sweet but there is a certain savory element that arrives on the palate toward the tail to offer some contrast and complexity to the taste. It’s not overly “kelpy” or “seaweedish” which I like, because I’m not a big seaweed fan.
This is a very light, smooth, pleasantly sweet and refreshing tea. I would highly recommend this to those who are looking for something that is somewhat familiar to the usual green tea but with some really interesting differences too. This is deliciously familiar but intriguingly different!
