Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Life in Teacup
Tea Description:
This top quality Huang Shan Mao Feng was harvested from abandoned tea fields in Yellow Mountain. The fields are isolated from mobile roads. Therefore, only simple manual management is possible. The tea didn’t have any pesticide or artificially synthesized fertilizer. Although it’s not certified organic, it’s organic tea by the real sense.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is a very refreshing green tea.
The dry leaves are very beautiful, long and withered with a beautiful variety of hues of green starting from a very pale, almost yellow green to a bright, deep green that reminds me of the colors of the Pacific Northwest in the late spring. Very vibrant and beautiful.
The flavor is remarkable as well. The sip begins with a delicious sweetness that has a savory side to it as well as the sweet, remind me a bit of the sweet taste of green beans. As the sip continues, I notice that the savory tone develops slightly as the sweet subsides. This is the kind of flavor I think of when someone uses the term Umami.
Toward the tail of the sip, there is a fair amount of astringency that is clean and dry, leaving only a hint of the sweet, savory tastes that the palate enjoyed throughout the sip. With this aftertaste, the palate is almost begging for another sip. This is the kind of tea that is difficult to put down once I’ve started drinking it; and makes me long for more once the cup is empty.
A wonderful tea experience is in store for those who seek the “Semi-wild” side of this Huang Shan Mao Feng!
Yongchun Fo Shou (Bergamot) Oolong Superior Grade from Life in Teacup
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Life in Teacup
Product Description:
Production Year: 2011
Production Season: Spring
Production Region: Fujian Province, Yongchun County
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is a very interesting tea for me, one that I was very excited to try. Oolong tea is one of my favorite tea types, and if you’ve read very many of my tea reviews or tasting notes, you’re probably also aware of my love for bergamot.
I brewed this as I usually would an Oolong – in my gaiwan using short steeps. I started with 45 seconds, and increased each subsequent infusion by 15 seconds. I then combine two infusions into one tea cup.
The first two infusions, I found myself searching earnestly for the bergamot flavor. I could taste the flavor of the Oolong, certainly, with a lovely vegetative flavor and hints of floral. It is a remarkably smooth Oolong with very little astringency. It is a delicious Oolong, and there are hints of a citrus tone in the distance, but, it is not a strong, palpable flavor.
By the third and fourth infusions, the bergamot was more apparent. Still not a strong presence, but certainly more evident than in the first two infusions. The flavor was tangy and citrus-y but also pleasantly floral. The Oolong had become even smoother than the first cup, with much of its vegetative taste melding with the other flavors of the tea to create a very harmonious, seamless taste.
With the fifth and sixth infusions, the bergamot was stronger than the second cup, but, this is still not an Earl Grey kind of bergamot where the flavor is very obvious. It is more like the essence of the bergamot fruit, and I appreciate that it offers a different perspective on the bergamot. This cup seems to focus more on the bergamot and less on the Oolong, with the soft mouthfeel being the most distinct characteristic from the Oolong.
A very lovely tea experience … from start to finish. I like that it surprised and challenged me as a tea taster, and that it gave me a different look at a fruit that I had become very familiar with … but, now I realize it was in a very limited way. This has opened my mind and eyes to the beauty of bergamot.
Huang Shan Yun Wu (Yellow Mountain Cloud) from Life in Teacup
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Life in Teacup
Product Description:
Production Year: 2011
Production Season: Spring
Production Region: Anhui Province, Yellow Mountain
Style: Chao Qing (stir-fry to kill enzyme)Small amount of leaves of this tea end up a lot when brewed in hot water. Therefore, use less than normal amount of leaves.
Taster’s Review:
This is a fantastic green tea, one that I’d recommend to someone who is just starting out with green tea because it is not too overly grassy tasting (which can be somewhat off-putting to someone who is new green tea). It is pleasant and mild, and yet so rich in flavor.
The sip begins with a pleasant savory flavor that tastes vaguely of stewed vegetables. It is a vegetative taste, but, it is quite unlike the vegetative flavor that I often encounter with green tea. This is a unique kind of flavor that is quite rich … like vegetable broth. The texture of the tea further emphasizes the brothy quality of this tea.
Quickly the sip transitions to a sweeter flavor: a honey-esque sweetness where I can almost taste the floral nectar. It doesn’t have a strong and distinct floral taste, however, there are hints of floral notes that seem to dance around in the background, enticing me to take another sip so that I might pinpoint exactly what I taste. Sweet and incredibly pleasant. There is also a hint of spicy taste, similar to fresh ginger that lies beneath the surface, and peeks out every now and again to keep me intrigued.
A wonderfully contemplative tea, this Yellow Mountain Cloud!
2011 Pre-Qingming Shi Feng Long Jing (Weng Jia Shan) from Life in Teacup
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Life in Teacup
Product Description:
Production Year: 2011
Production Season: Spring, harvested on April 5nd
Production Site: Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, Weng Jia Shan (Geographic Patent Site). Single estate.
Taster’s Review:
This is a delightful Long Jing. The liquor is a pale green … very pale green! It is so light in color that I thought that this would surely be a thin tasting tea, but, it is not. It is quite lush; thicker than the color would lead one to believe.
The flavor is sweet and it has a creaminess to it that is evident in both taste and texture. There are hints of nutty tones throughout the sip, and a very mild grassy tone. It’s a barely-there kind of grassy/vegetative note, noticeable but not strong.
I would like to say that I took the time to steep this one in my gaiwan, and ordinarily I would have. But, I was feeling lazy this evening, so I did it the easy way: in my Breville One-Touch. I steeped it for 2 minutes at 170° F, and it still produced a beautiful, lightly fragrant, delicious cup.
A truly refreshing, delicious Long Jing. I recommend this to all the green tea enthusiasts out there! It’s amazing!
2009 Shou Mei from Life in Teacup
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Life in Teacup
Product Description:
Production Year – 2009
Production Season – Spring
Production Region – Fujian
Taster’s Review:
I have not tried many Shou Mei teas, because when it comes to white teas, Shou Mei just isn’t as popular as Bai Mu Dan or Silver Needle varieties. And while it tends to be considered a “lower grade” of white tea, I appreciate that it has a stronger flavor than those of a higher grade, while still maintaining many of the flavor characteristics that I enjoy about white tea.
Of those few that I’ve had the opportunity to try, this Shou Mei from Life in Teacup is one of the best. The leaves are large and fuzzy, and range in color from silvery (the color of the fuzz), to green to light brown.
The flavor of the liquor is very pleasing. It starts out sweet, maintaining that sweet profile throughout the sip, and it lingers long into the aftertaste. Notes of fruit and flower weave their way in and out throughout the sip. Fruit wise, I notice hints of apple and peach.
The mouthfeel is soft and smooth and thicker than one might expect from a white tea. It has a mild brothy kind of quality to it, but it’s a sweet rather than savory brothy. There is very little astringency to this cup. The finish is sweet and dry. More than any other white tea, I would liken a good Shou Mei to a fine dry white wine.
I like to sip on white teas later in the day, because even though the evidence is inconclusive on whether or not white tea is lower in caffeine than other types of Camellia Sinensis, they seem lighter to me and seem to soothe me and help me relax more than a green or black tea can. And this tea is certainly calming my spirits this evening!
Cheers!