Nonpareil Te Gong Huang Shan Mao Feng Green Tea from Teavivre

NonpareilHuangShan

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 QianHuang Shan Mao Feng was picked on March 23, 2013, 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:

I’ve had the opportunity to try many different Mao Feng Green Teas, but this Nonpareil Te Gong Huang Shan from Teavivre is one of the very best that I’ve ever encountered.  It has an outstanding flavor.

These gorgeous green leaves produce a clear, soft green liquid that tastes earthy and sweet at first, and then as I continue to sip, I notice different flavors develop.  The taste and texture is soft and creamy, with the cream notes falling somewhere between milk and butter with slight vanilla-like tones.

By the time I’m at mid-cup, I begin to notice a crisp apple-y taste that is sweet with hints of tang.   The tangy note develops further into something that is more savory than tangy toward the bottom of the cup.  It’s a nice, well-rounded tea.

I really enjoyed this Mao Feng from Teavivre .  Be sure to take this tea through its paces because it can deliver several flavorful infusions!  A true delight to drink.

Organic Nonpareil Ming Qian Dragon Well Long Jing Green from Teavivre

Organic Nonpareil Dragon Well Long Jing from Teavivre
Organic Nonpareil Dragon Well Long Jing from Teavivre

Tea Information:

Leaf Type: Green

Where to Buy: Teavivre

Tea Description:

Produced in Tianmu Mountain(天目山), Lin’an County, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang, China

Harvest time: March 8 – March 10, 2013

One bud with one or two leaves

Dry tea is shaped straight and pretty

Soup presents tender a yellowish green color, tastes sweet and brisk; aroma lasts long in the middle and back part of the tongue.

Fresh aroma with chestnut flavor

Low caffeine (less than 10% of a cup of coffee)

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

When I received my samples of the new spring teas my first tasting selection to sample was Organic Nonpareil Ming Qian Dragon Well Long Jing Green from Teavivre. The aroma is strong, awakening, and  as fresh as a tea can smell. The dry leaf is so pretty and bright green. The flavors range through various steepings from nutty, buttery, vegetal, and salty, but every single steep brings forth the freshest flavors you could imagine.

When steeped properly there is absolutely no astringency and of course no bitterness. There is also a lovely light sweetness to the flavor that can be detected at different levels through the various steeps. The color is very light so do not be tempted to over steep this lovely tea. Take your time with it and let the flavors be gently caressed out of the leaf with shorter steep times which will provide you a longer and more relaxing brewing session. Green teas like this one from Teavivre are deserving of your time and focus. I do not recommend a tea like this for an out the door on the go tea. You can do that if you wish, but I feel it is cheating the tea from providing all that it has to offer and really just cheating yourself.

Some teas are great for an on the go pick me up and get me going for my day ahead tea. This Long Jing however is a relaxing, meditative, sip and consider type of tea that will rock your world in a totally different way if you give it time and allow it to. I find that while this tea is refreshing, and so lightly fresh, it has a brothy mouthfeel, verging on creamy in some steeps. I love it when a tea can bring out both feelings, light and fresh, yet thicker in the mouthfeel, as it is an unusual combination.

Teavivre brings us so excellent offerings in their new spring line, and I am really amped up to try them all but today I shall sit with this tea, looking forward to many steeps to come. It is absolutely lovely. See all of Teavivre’s Spring Teas here and learn how you can get samples of all of them for free!