Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tea Description:
Wow, that’s a mouthful. And this tea is a mouthful of deliciousness. This organic Chinese green tea is sweet with just a hint of almost salmon-like butteriness. I’ve paired it with lemon verbena, marshmallow roots and lemon-, marshmallow- and pastry- organic flavors. Be prepared to have your socks knocked off with this one..
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I was excited when I saw the announcement for this Lemon Meringue Mao Zhen Hair Needle Green Tea as the tea of the week for March 23rd from 52Teas! I love Lemon Meringue Pie! And I got even more excited after I read our SororiTea Sister Nichole’s review of this tea. I really couldn’t wait until I was able to find the time to sit back and enjoy this tea!
My first sip or two of this tea were not as impressive as the rest of the cup for me. I took those first couple of sips when the tea was still very hot because to be honest, I couldn’t wait to try it. I mean, hello? Lemon Meringue? I want!
But the tea hadn’t cooled enough yet for the flavors to really emerge the way they began to after a few more minutes of cool time. After about six or seven minutes, the flavors really began to establish themselves in the cup. Now I can taste the tangy lemon notes – imagine lemon curd but not the lemon curd you’d buy on the grocery store shelves! Think to a homemade lemon curd or even to your (insert name of baking relative here)’s lemony filling for their lemon meringue pie. That’s the lemon flavor I’m talking about! It’s bright and sunny and vibrantly lemon-y, but not so tart that I’m puckering. There’s enough sweetness to the ‘filling’ taste that I’m getting a strong, assertive lemon-y flavor but I’m not puckering as if I just bit into a lemon wedge.
After the lemon note, I taste the fluffy marshmallow notes that mimic the sweet, creamy meringue flavor and even a hint of buttery pie pastry. Delicious!
And I’m happy to say that the green tea flavor isn’t lost in this tea. I taste grassy, vegetal notes from the green tea. Instead of “melding” or “marrying” with the lemon meringue pie flavors to create a unified flavor, this tea tastes very much to me like lemon meringue pie + green tea. It tastes like a nice balance of the two and I like the way I’m getting a slightly savory flavor from the green tea that contrasts with the sweet, dessert-like flavor of the lemon meringue pie.
The second infusion was even nicer than the first, because the lemon tones down just a little (still a very lemon-y tea!) and the green tea has become a silkier, smoother taste with a hint of creaminess that works beautifully with the marshmallow notes.
A really delightful tea. I think this particular tea is best served hot. Not piping hot like my first couple of sips were, but after it’s cooled a few minutes so that the flavors can develop but before it becomes cold to the point that it’s like iced tea. I find that the flavors become a little more muddied when the tea becomes cold. So drink it while it’s hot and it’ll be like you’re eating a piece of your favorite lemon meringue pie but without the fat and calories!
Lemon Meringue Mao Zhen Hair Needle from 52Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tea Description:
Wow, that’s a mouthful. And this tea is a mouthful of deliciousness. This organic Chinese green tea is sweet with just a hint of almost salmon-like butteriness. I’ve paired it with lemon verbena, marshmallow roots and lemon-, marshmallow- and pastry- organic flavors. Be prepared to have your socks knocked off with this one..
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Lemon Meringue in a cup. . sign me up! I adore this tea. It really tastes like a slice of lemon meringue pie. I loved it so much I actually just picked up 3 more packs. When I first saw this one the site, I knew I would like it and automatically added it into my cart, just didn’t realize how much I would love it.
The dry leaf smells exactly like a homemade slice of lemon meringue pie times ten. The smell is almost overwhelming but amazing. I had people stopping by my desk and asking me if I had a lemon candle on my desk while the tea was brewing. The green tea is there and provides a fantastic richness. I think I’m going to have to order some Mao Zhen Hair Needle on its own and see what that tastes like. I think its the first time I’ve had this particular green tea and am wondering what all it is adding to the flavor.
I’m loving this one and will be sad when my stash is gone. Reminds me of my mom’s amazing lemon meringue pie. So Good! And crazy helpful for when I’m craving something pastry like while I’m on this diet of mine.
Superfine Keemun Mao Feng Black Tea from Teavivre
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Teavivre
Tea Description:
Keemum Mao Feng, one special variety of Keemun black tea origins from Qi Men County in Anhui province of China, has famous reputation for its peculiar aroma and shape. It has also been made widely familiar as one of the four world’s best black tea. It is carefully processed so that the shape of the tea leaves resemble that of the Mao Feng Green Tea. This is why it got the name “Keemum Mao Feng“.
With the thin and twisted strips of tea leaves and peculiar aroma (fruity mixed with orchid-like), those russet interwoven tea leaves look neat and taste wonderful.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I’ve tried a couple of different Keemun black teas from Teavivre and enjoyed the ones that I’ve tasted – so it’s no surprise to me that I’m also enjoying this Keemun Mao Feng from Teavivre. What can I say? Teavivre has never failed me yet!
When I opened the pouch of this tea, I could smell the fruity notes immediately. Hints of flower just beneath the delightful fruit notes with hints of earth in the background.
To brew this, I used my Breville One-Touch. Two bamboo scoops were measured into the basket of the tea maker and 500ml of water was poured into the jug. Then I set the parameters for 212°F (boiling) and 2 1/2 minutes. A few minutes later, I had a delightfully fragrant pot of tea. The fruit and flower notes are still there, tempting me to take a sip.
I’m not one to resist temptation, so after allowing the tea to cool to a drinkable temperature, I gave in to the temptation and began to enjoy this wonderful tea.
The fruit and floral aromas translate to the flavor. It tastes fruity, reminiscent of stone fruit (I taste plum) and notes of orchid. I also taste a raisin-y sweetness to this. It has some wine-like notes to it too, I taste notes of black currant toward the finish and the slightly dry astringency toward the tail play to that wine-like character.
Quite often with a Keemun tea, I experience a smoky note, but I’m not getting a strong smokiness from this one. Perhaps hints of smoke in the distance. This one is more fruity and wine-like than it is smoky.
It’s a satisfying tea, I think I’d want this one as an afternoon pick-me-up rather than a morning tea. It doesn’t have the really strong, malty flavors that I like a morning tea to have (and generally, Keemun teas don’t!) but it does have that beautiful fruity flavor that I like in an afternoon tea.
A really nice Keemun. Then again, you can’t go wrong with Teavivre. If you haven’t yet tried a tea from Teavivre, you really should! They are one of the finest tea companies from which I’ve had the great honor to review teas.
Nonpareil Te Gong Huang Shan Mao Feng Green Tea from Teavivre
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Teavivre
Tea Description:
The historic Huang Shan Mao Feng is well-known as one of the ten famous Chinese tea. This Ming Qian Huang Shan Mao Feng is a kind of pre-ming green tea. Pre-ming tea has strict requirement of the picking time and its making standard, thus the bird-tongue appearance could been perfect formed, as well as the brisk flavor. Both of which are favored by tea lovers.
Our Nonpareil Huang Shan Mao Feng Green tea is Te Gong grade. Te Gong refers to two Chinese words: 特(tè) and 贡(gòng). 特 is short for 特级, which means the tea’s grade is nonpareil; while 贡 is short for 贡品, meaning that the tea was used to be paid as tribute to the emperor.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
What a pleasure it has been to try Teavivre’s newest green teas from this spring. They taste so fresh and wonderful!
This Nonpareil Te Gong Huang Shan Mao Feng Green Tea – quite a name! – is lovely. I am a fan of Mao Feng Green teas anyway, they’re one of my favorite of the ‘ten famous’ Chinese teas. I enjoyed two infusions from one measurement of this tea, and I found both to be quite good.
The first infusion was delicate in flavor at first, and I found that the flavor developed as I continued to sip. I’m not sure if this is because the tea was cooling slightly or because the flavors developed on the palate after taking a few sips. Either way, this is a tea that requires a patient palate, but don’t worry, that patience will be rewarded soon enough!
It is a beautifully sweet flavor with notes of fruit. I don’t often experience fruity notes with green tea (usually I experience grassy or vegetal notes, but not so much of a fruit note as this Mao Feng offers), and it reminds me of a combination of sweet grapes, melon and apple. There is no tartness to these fruit notes, so think only of the sweetest grapes and apples, with the lush, juicy taste of a sweet honeydew melon. This is a tea you want to slurp to get the most out of these fruit notes! Aerate the tea on the palate and you’ll be happy with the result.
I added thirty seconds onto the steep time for the second infusion. This cup offers a deeper flavor with even more sweetness. You definitely want to take this tea for a second steep! There is a lot of flavor to this second cup. Sweet with nutty flavors, and the fruit notes are still there too. This time, I taste less of the grape and more of the melon. There is a little bit of vegetative taste that comes through now too, but there is more fruit than vegetable to this cup. It’s a very refreshing cuppa!
Of the two infusions, the second is my favorite, but the first was certainly worthwhile too. I enjoyed both and what I liked best is that both were so different from one another – it was like taking two adventures with one tea. An exceptional Mao Feng!
Xin Yang Mao Jian Green Tea from Teasenz
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!