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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!

liberteas

Anne (aka the Mad Tea Artist) has celebrated her 29th birthday for many years now. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her hubby and her youngest daughter. Her oldest daughter is married and has bestowed Anne with the proud title of "Gramma" and her grandson is about the cutest boy you ever did see. Anne started her journey with tea as a casual drinker and became more serious about her tea drinking when she realized that she couldn't drink coffee. Shortly thereafter, she started becoming obsessed with the beverage and she started creating small-batch, artisan blends of tea that she sold online as LiberTEAS. After a few years, she realized she wasn't cut out to be the sole proprietor of a business so she closed LiberTEAS and started reviewing teas online. She met Jennifer through another blog that they both reviewed for and they decided to start their own review blog. This review blog! Throughout her journey as a tea reviewer, she discovered 52Teas and became enamored with the idea of creating a new tea every week. When the founder of 52Teas decided he wanted to move on, he offered the business to Anne but knowing that she wasn't cut out to be a sole proprietor, she instead offered the company to her oldest daughter who employs her as the Mad Tea Artist for 52Teas!

This post was posted in Green Tea