Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Teasenz
Tea Description:
The most flavorful and fragrant of all Chinese green teas. Xin Yang Mao Jian’s small, roundish leaves with fine, white hairs develop into an intense green color when brewed, producing a refreshing liquor that transports you to a relaxing, calming world after a long day. Robust flavor, lingering fragrance and an invigorating taste.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I think I fell in love with this Xin Yang Mao Jian Green Tea from Teasenz at first sight. The leaves are gorgeous! Long, slender, elegant looking leaves that are beautifully deep, forest-y green with tiny white fuzz. I could tell by looking at these leaves that I was in for a top notch Chinese green tea.
Of course, I’ve come to expect nothing less from Teasenz. They seem to always deliver some of the very best teas I’ve tasted!
And this is a remarkable Mao Jian!
The dry leaf aroma is somewhere between steamed spinach and kelp, leaning more toward the steamed spinach. The brewed tea also has a strong vegetal note, but, I find that the flavor is less vegetative than the fragrance would suggest.
Oh, sure, it still has a vegetative taste to it, but it’s not as strong as I expected it to be. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that I expected more of a “spinach-y” or a “grassy” or even a “kelpy” sort of flavor but this is more like a sweet vegetable, like maybe a steamed artichoke heart.
This is sweet! It has a strong sweetness to it that seems to develop on the palate, starting off rather light, and then by the time I reached mid-cup, the flavor is intense and it lingers long into the aftertaste. Just after the sweetness washes over the palate, I start to notice the nutty flavors develop. It finishes with a delicate astringency. The aftertaste remains sweet long after the sip.
A really lovely Mao Jian. This one gets high marks!
Organic Nonpareil She Qian Dragon Well Long Jing Green Tea from Teavivre
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Teavivre
Tea Description:
In the early Spring, when the tea buds just appeared their face on the trees, the harvest of She Qian Dragon Well is ready to begin. The tea gardens in Hangzhou are busy making the first flush teas. The fresh leaves of She Qian Dragon Well are all in one bud with one leaf shape, as straight as an upstanding flag. The beautiful shape also brings enjoyment to the brewing.
Organic She Qian Dragon Well Tea can reach your requirements for both quality and health benefits. A good starting of the year is in Spring; a taste of good spring tea is from She Qian Dragon Well.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
FRESH! This Organic Nonpareil She Qian Dragon Well Long Jing Green Tea from Teavivre is the brand new harvest from Spring 2014 – wait a sec – this IS Spring 2014! It doesn’t get fresher than that!
The leaves are beautifully jade green, and they produce a liquid that is very pale green. The flavor is very fresh, pure, and clean. There is a sweet, nutty flavor to it that reminds me of chestnuts. The chestnuts have a slightly buttery taste to them too, and there is an invigorating “green” taste. This is nutty, vegetal, buttery and pleasantly sweet.
I like the mild flavor of this, it doesn’t have an overpowering vegetative tone. It has a well-balanced, nicely round flavor. The texture is soft and brothy.
The flavor is complex with the top notes of sweet chestnuts, steamed veggies that have been lightly drizzled with melted butter and as I continue to sip, I start to pick up on a light, apple-y mid-note. There is a hint of savory taste in there … almost salty or perhaps kelp-y might be a better way to describe it. It’s not a strong note, it tastes like someone added about half a pinch of salt to my steamed veggies!
Teavivre has been a long-standing favorite company of mine and this tea is a perfect example of WHY I love them so much. This is one of the finest Dragon Well teas I’ve yet to taste. It is so fresh and I can taste that freshness in every sip.
Magical Mao Jian Green Tea from Teasenz
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Teasenz
Tea Description:
Small and curly leaves that are reminiscent of our bi luo chun but with a stronger, more vibrant taste. If you are looking for a highly refreshing green tea that leaves a fresh, clean taste in your mouth, then magical mao jian is just what you need.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Mao Jian has been, for a long time now, one of my very favorite Chinese green teas. And this Magical Mao Jian Green Tea from Teasenz is delightful! I’m not sure why they chose to call this Mao Jian “Magical” but, it’s tasting magical to me!
Sweet and vegetative with a moderate astringency that leaves the palate feeling tingly clean after each sip, this Mao Jian is pleasantly invigorating and yet mellow and soothing to drink.
The flavor is sweet and light. There are hints of a toasty nutty flavor in the background. The foreground has a crispness to it, and the vegetative taste is somewhere between sweet/grassy and savory/vegetables with maybe just a touch of butter to accentuate the flavor of the veggies. But even with that light touch of butter, the astringency of this tea seems to wipe the palate clean, readying it for another sip. The buttery notes never become heavy or inundating.
I find that as I sip on this tea, my worries seem to melt away and I just sort of lose myself in the cup! That’s what I like best about Mao Jian … and this one is top-notch!
Mao Jian Green Tea from Little Red Cup Tea Co.
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Little Red Cup Tea Co.
Tea Description:
Our Green Mao Jian Tea is pure whole leaf organic Chinese tea, Fair Trade certified and sublimely drinkable. A marvelous tea to accompany you throughout a busy morning and into the early afternoon, a tea both for the dedicated tea consumer and one for the casual tea drinker as well.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I just came in from a massive marathon of holiday shopping, and I can’t think of another tea that revitalizes me quite the same way as a sweet, lush green tea like this Mao Jian Green Tea from Little Red Cup Tea Co. There is something just so … enlivening about green tea that seems to re-energize my drained “batteries.”
Mao Jian is one of my favorite green teas, because it has a sweet, vegetal flavor that is very fresh tasting but without a bitter grassy taste. This is more like a young, spring-green grass note that evokes thoughts of the dew that might form on the grass early in the spring mornings in a grassy field. There is a slightly savory quality to this cup as well that hits just after mid-sip. Savory … yes. Bitter? No.
And this is an excellent Mao Jian. It tastes light and refreshing, and I can feel it revive me as I sip after what has been a very long day of shopping. I like that this tea is organic, I like that it’s fair trade … and I like the way it tastes and how it’s giving me a much-needed jump-start!
Sichuan Zao Bei Jian Black Tea from Upton Tea Imports
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Upton Tea Imports
Tea Description:
An extremely well made special tea from Sichuan (Szechuan) province. One of the finest black teas available today. Reddish liquor, clean taste, mellow flavor. Exquisite!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
What a lovely black tea – this Sichuan Zao Bei Jian Black Tea from Upton Tea Imports. It is so well-rounded … so full of flavor. It is smooth and mild, but, it also has a certain heartiness to it.
I love the flavor of this tea … it is smooth from start to finish, with minimal astringency. No bitterness whatsoever. As I mentioned at the start, it is very nicely round, it seems to fill the palate with flavor without overwhelming it, providing a good, strong flavor without being overly aggressive.
There are lovely notes of fruit to this tea, reminiscent of sun-ripened stone fruit … a sweet plum, perhaps, and sweet currants, but without the hints of sour that often accompany a plum or currants. The sweetness is somewhere between fruit and caramel. As I continue to sip, I notice a drying astringency beginning to develop, but it is a very slight dryness, reminding me of the dryness that might accompany a dry red wine.
In fact, that is what this tea reminds me of … a sweet, dry red wine. Robust and full, but mellow and sweet. Just a very enjoyable cuppa – a nice afternoon tea.