Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Shan Valley
Tea Description:
This first flush green tea is from the Kokang region of Myanmar, close to the Yunan region in china. This is considered the highest quality tea that is available to the public in Myanmar.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This tea is interesting because it really seems like two different teas: when it is served hot, I get a different set of flavors than as it cools. Both are really delicious, though!
When served hot, I get a fresh and exhilarating flavor that is rich and brothy without tasting overly vegetal. In fact, there are very little distinct vegetative flavor to this green tea and I found that quite surprising.
There is a lovely buttery note to this – not so much a creamy, sweet butter flavor but more like a browned butter. I’m picking up on a slightly smoky note to this as well as distant notes of flower and a nice fruit note that is like a hybrid fruit of melon, sweet green grapes and a hint of citrus that is particularly noticeable toward the finish.
The hot cup is a beautifully sweet tasting tea with notes of savory and smoke. As the cup cools, I notice the flavors changing a bit. I still get a pleasantly sweet cuppa, but, the aforementioned buttery note becomes more creamy now and less like a brown butter.
This is sweet and creamy! Mmm! I still taste those notes of fruit and flower, and I’m not tasting quite as much of a smoky element as I noticed with the hot tea. It’s still very subtly there in the distance. The fruit notes seem more pronounced now, and I’m tasting primarily fruit and cream with the cooled tea.
A really WONDERFUL tea – I’ve been so impressed with the 2014 teas from Shan Valley!
Blue Spring Oolong Tea from Imperial Tea Garden
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Imperial Tea Garden
Tea Description:
In rural China, Blue Spring Oolong is commonly referred to as the compassionate oolong tea. The name stems from ancient folklore of Guan Yin the Iron Goddess of Mercy, of which this now famous Ti Kuan Yin style tea was named. Legend has it that drought stricken villagers offered a passing stranger some water. With the compassionate offering, Guan Yin revealed her true identity and spilled the water into the dry earth and a blue spring appeared miraculously. In honor of their benevolent Bodhisattva, the Fujian villagers began adding blue mallow flowers to represent the crystal blue spring water.
Blue Spring Oolong’s smooth and mellow character will enhance any tea party. The compassionate nature of this tea make it suitable for gathering with old friends and making new ones.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is a lovely little Oolong blend. The dry leaf is BEAUTIFUL with the purple blossoms that are tossed along with the Oolong tea leaves.
Even though I don’t always infuse my Oolong blends in my gaiwan, I decided to go with a gaiwan brewing for this particular blend because the blend looked more like an Oolong tea than flowers to me. I don’t know if that’s a suitable reason for my choice, but that’s the excuse I’m going with. That and I like using my gaiwan. I like to watch the tightly wound pellets of Oolong tea dance around in the hot water as they unfurl and release their flavor.
My first cup was the combination of infusions one and two following a 15 second rinse. This cup was delicate with a flavor that was predominately floral with lingering honey-esque notes. In the distance, I could taste some hints of roasted nuts, but, it was a very distant flavor in this cup. I suspected that I’d become more acquainted with these flavors in later infusions.
Indeed! The second cup had stronger notes of that sweet, nutty flavor, but even stronger than the nutty flavors were the intensified floral notes. The honey-like notes were showing signs of softening. This cup was really all about the flower! Slightly sharp, but not unpleasant at all, it had a very beautiful character to it, something that evoked thoughts of springtime in Southern California, when the jacaranda trees are in full bloom.
The second cup was where I started noticing the creaminess emerge, and I like the way the creamy notes melded with the nutty flavors to offer a sweet, creamy taste that was slightly nutty and slightly toasted. The floral notes seemed to give this dimension an almost vanilla-like flavor.
By the third cup (infusions 5 and 6), I noticed the unification of the nutty flavors with the honey and floral tones. It became a very fluid, seamless type of flavor, very silky and luxurious to drink.
This tea offered a very enjoyable Oolong experience – it’s one I’d be more than happy to experience again … and again!
Daughter’s Ring Early Spring Green Tea (Ming Qian Nu’er Huan) from Teasenz
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Teasenz
Tea Description:
A farmer needs to work seven days, just to produce about 1.5 kg of this artisan tea, picking only the most-tender leaves from large-leaf tea trees in Simao, Yunnan. Afterwards, each ring is carefully hand-rolled piece by piece, requiring patience and mastery of advanced tea processing skills. A pure organic and luxury green tea.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Beautiful! These leaves are so amazingly graceful! They are rolled in perfect little rings, and the leaves feel soft and fluffy as they’re still covered with their downy fuzz.
They slowly unfurl in hot water, and it’s fun to watch them do their thing as they brew. I highly recommend steeping these in something that you can watch the brewing process. I realize that the website recommends a ceramic teapot for brewing, but I brewed this in my gaiwan so that I could watch the tender leaves do their graceful dance as they gently infused the hot liquid.
The cup that sits before me now is the results of the first two infusions, and this tea is delicious. It is delicately fragrant. The flavor is lightly vegetal with notes of butter and nutty tones, reminiscent of a nutty browned butter. It isn’t bitter, grassy or overly astringent.
There is a subtle floral note to the cup that seems to gradually build, and is especially noticeable in the aftertaste. The notes on the website suggest a jasmine note, but, I don’t know that I’m tasting jasmine. It is a very gentle flowery note that melds seamlessly with the other flavors of the cup.
This is a really remarkable green tea from Teasenz: I love that it’s organic, I love that it offers several delicious infusions (I got two cups of tea out of one measurement of leaves, infusing the leaves for a total of four times), and quite simply, I love this tea! Then again, I’ve been very impressed with all the teas that I’ve tried from this company! This is one company that you should put at the top of your shopping list!
Organic 2014 Puttabong Darjeeling First Flush from Happy Earth Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black (Darjeeling)
Where to Buy: Happy Earth Tea
Tea Description:
A delicate floral first flush with layers of complex and exquisite notes. This tea proclaims the arrival of spring!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
The more I think about it, the more I’m loving spring! My favorite season of the year is autumn, but, I’m adoring all these amazing first flush teas that I’ve had the opportunity to try this spring! And this Organic Puttabong Darjeeling First Flush from Happy Earth Tea is absolutely dee-lightful!
The dry leaf aroma is earthy with notes of flower and hints of fruit-like sweetness. The brewed tea has a delicate fragrance: very light floral and fruit notes. The earthiness is also subdued once the leaves are brewed.
The flavor is sweet and tastes much the way the scent suggests. Hints of earthy tones with a warm, woodsy note. Sweet, crisp floral notes. And just beneath the earthy/woodsy notes, I start to pick up on the fruit-like flavors. There are grape-y notes that are especially noticeable at the finish and in the aftertaste. I can feel that “tingly” sensation on the tongue from the grape notes.
This has some dry, tangy astringency develops slightly as I continue to sip. My first few sips I didn’t notice much astringency at all, and now that I’m halfway through the cup, the astringency is more obvious. The astringency and the grape-like notes give this a delicate wine-like finish.
As the tea cools, I pick up on more of those lovely grape-like notes. I find that the earth notes seem to soften, and the fruit and flower intermingle, offering a sweet, stunning flavor. I think my favorite temperature to drink this is after it’s cooled about ten minutes – it’s still on the warmer side, but not hot. Not cold. The astringency is softer at this point, and I’m enjoying a really beautiful tea with intriguing fruit notes and delicate whispers of flower that dance on the palate.
Another lovely tea from Happy Earth Tea! Really, you can’t go wrong with their selection of first flush teas – no matter which one you choose. I’d have a difficult time trying to choose a favorite!
Temomi Shin Cha Green Tea from Sugimoto America
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Sugimoto America
Tea Description:
Temomi Shin Cha is one of the rarest and highest quality Japanese green teas. The word temomi means “hand-rolled”. From the meticulous picking of the best young tea leaves to the final process of kneading the leaves to fine needles, the whole practice is done by the hands of elite temomi artisans. A method used in Japan centuries ago, the temomi technique is vanishing due to the adoption of today’s machines to produce tea. Temomi Shin Cha is offered to the Japanese Emperor each year in a ceremony celebrating the first tea of spring.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I have tried Shin Cha teas in the past, but I have never had this very rare Temomi Shin Cha tea before. What an amazing opportunity to try it!
This is one of the finest green teas I’ve yet to try.
The dry leaf is long and elegant. The photo above almost suggests an appearance of a Japanese Sencha, and … it does look a little bit like that, except that the leaves are longer. These aren’t a finely cut leaf, they’re the tender, young leaves – whole – that have been assiduously rolled by hand. Each tiny, beautiful leaf has been rolled into a long, very slender, sleek “needles.” They’re gorgeous.
Since I do not own a kyusu, I steeped these leaves in my gaiwan. My gaiwan is not the “standard” gaiwan, it has a fairly wide, shallow chamber and it is the perfect size to accommodate these precious leaves. How this tea is brewed is very important. The temperature should be only 100°F – yeah! I did a double take on that temperature too. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a tea where such a low temperature was required!
Fortunately, my Breville One-Touch doubles as a variable tea kettle as well, and while it doesn’t have a setting for a temperature so low, it does show the temperature as it builds and I was able to pull the kettle at 100°F. The steep time is 2 minutes. After two minutes, look at the leaves and see if they’ve opened. They were beginning to open at this point, but not fully open, so I gave the tea one more minute. After the extra minute, I strained the tea and sat back to enjoy my this rare tea experience!
The color of the tea is very pale. But even though there isn’t a lot of color to the liquid, there is a LOT of flavor and texture. It is sweet and the texture is thick. Thicker than any other Japanese green tea I’ve ever tried (Matcha is not included in that statement.) It is rich and buttery with a strong vegetative taste that is somewhat grassy. Sweet and grassy.
In the literature that comes along with this tea, it says:
Temomi Shincha is consumed in small amounts, very much akin to enjoying a rich and strong flavored espresso.
And I get that. No, I’m not tasting espresso here. But it does have a very strong and forward flavor, just like you might experience if you were to be sipping on an espresso – but without being brash like espresso can be. Hey, what can I say, I’m not into espresso … I’m a tea drinker through and through.
For the second infusion, I used 130°F water and steeped for only 1 minute. This cup is not quite as thick as the first was, but it maintains the same level of flavor and the same sweet, grassy, rich taste that I enjoyed in the first cup. Still buttery, but because it isn’t as thick, it doesn’t seem quite as buttery or creamy as the first cup was. It still has a really luscious texture though, it’s just a little lighter. I notice a bit of astringency to this cup.
I brewed my third infusion the same way, but I added 15 seconds onto the infusion time, steeping for 1 minute 15 seconds. The extra 15 seconds made a difference, and I’m getting that same soft, thick texture that I experienced in the first cup with this cup. It’s thick and buttery and delightful.
This third cup may be my favorite of the three. It has the same rich, brothy texture of the first cup, but with a softer vegetative presentation, the flavor is a little softer and this accentuates the creamy texture.
And because I wasn’t quite ready to say goodbye to this tea just yet, I decided to do something that I don’t ordinarily do: eat the leaves! I brought the kettle to a boil, and poured the boiling water over the leaves to soak them for five minutes to remove any tannic qualities of the leaves. So after I finished drinking this tea, I enjoyed a warm salad of tea leaves and a light dressing of sesame oil and orange. It was tasty!
This is – unquestionably – an exceptional tea and offers not just a journey that’s well worth taking but also represents an opportunity to taste a rare tea that is available only in limited quantities. I highly, highly recommend this tea to all those who truly love tea.