Yunnan Mao Feng Green Tea

This is a very buttery and mild green tea. It’s utterly delicious, however. The liquid is medium yellow and the taste is vegetal but not as strongly so as some green teas. Overall, I think that this would make a great introduction to green teas for those who hesitate: it’s got some veggie but not too much; it’s got quite a bit of butter, and it’s not at all fishy. Overall, it’s delicate and discreet, but not a simpering wallflower.

I would most certainly consider this to be a go-to green tea and will invest in a larger size.

This is a favorite green tea. There is a slightly peachy/fruity/camphor note in this tea that is distinct from the nuttier edge of a Dragon Well. Also, this is a particularly mellow tea. It is possible to find bitterness in it, but you really have to try: very hot water or very long steeps or way concentrated. And it has amazing ‘legs’ for a green tea—I just keep going for 8 or 10 infusions.

I brew this one with a wide range of conditions: the leaves are so light and loose that it’s hard to eyeball accurately, but it’s so forgiving that I’m not often motivated to measure it. Anything from 0.5-1 grams of tea per ounce/30mL water, water from 160-180 degrees, steep time 15 seconds (for high concentration/hotter water/early steeps) to more than a minute (lower concentration/cooler water/later steeps). Its a rare green tea that even holds up well with brew-in-advance hold-all-day in the thermos.

A couple of weekends ago I waded through my tea and pulled out some samples to put into the “to be drunk soon” sample pile. This was one of them.

My first thought was that the leaves are just really, really gorgeous. They have a lot of color variation from medium-dark green to silvery white, and they are, as the description says, for the most part long and twisty.

The sample was in a sealed packet, but the plastic made it difficult for me to distinguish an aroma from the dry leaves. I find that to be the case with all plastic packets, not just the one this was in.

The liquor is a very pale greenish yellow, and the steeped tea’s aroma is faint and a little like sweet grass or maybe clover, slightly floral.

The taste is very light and mellow, not as vegetal as the only other mao feng I’ve had. I almost wonder whether the sample is suffering from age or whether my taste buds haven’t yet adjusted back from the lapsang souchong I had before this (I did attempt to clear my palate, but I might not have done a sufficient job of it). It’s tasting almost like a white tea to me, like a shade or two more intense than a silver needle. But with the same “fresh water” taste. The other notes on this found it to have a more robust flavor, so I suspect user error.

I am going to refrain from rating for now and try it again on a rested palate.