Xinyang Green Tips

I woke this morning craving a good China green. While this was steeping I tried to fix my wife’s computer and toast a bagel. Pretty sure the steep time was ok. However, this marvelous tea does not go with bagel/cream cheese/blackberry preserves. Not even a little. It was like sucking on a dandelion stem. I made faces. So I shoved the bagel in my face and slowly tried cleansing my palate. I was halfway through the mug before it became the sweet buttery veggies with a cleansing bite cup I remembered. This is an excellent tea and I am lousy at pairings.

I have been going full speed since Tuesday. I spent this morning in the library watching video lessons for my college course. The instructor did send out an email saying he knew the first class session was like drinking from a fire hose. Pretty much sums it up. He gave us an extra day to complete our first assignments. I have just completed the background prep work so I can try to start on homework this afternoon.

Ahhhh! I wasn’t intending to try any of these samples today, but opened them to sniff, and this one just smelled delicious! I love green teas with this super vegetal aroma/flavour! Thanks Peony Tea and Derek Chew for these wonderful samples!

I carefully measured out what I thought was 5g of tea, and used 250mL of water at 80C.

The result is deliciously sweet and vegetal (exactly to my liking!), but unfortunately also rather bitter/strong. I probably should have known better; this happens to me too much! I will try with my standard 1.5 tsp next time, and will likely end up with something amazing. I did add another ~150mL of cold water to the tea (temperature isn’t important for me) and it’s much more drinkable watered down, but I think 2 min was also a bit too long. This tea reminds me quite a bit of Treasuregreen’s Emerald (Silver), both in the sweetness and the intense vegetal flavour. I have no idea as to the type/origin of that tea, so this gives me a bit of a clue as to what it could be. With that tea, I think I use 1 tbsp and steep for 30 seconds, resulting in a honey-sweet first infusion, and a more vegetal second infusion, so I feel like I can get the same out of this tea. Looking forward to it!!

Beautiful emerald green, twisted leaves with a strong vegetal aroma. This tea is naturally very sweet, highly vegetal with hints of creaminess. There’s nothing spectacular about this tea, nothing fancy about this one. I find it is a good everyday green tea, especially if you like the strong vegetal notes.

Not sure whether this was from Sil or Kittenna but either way, big thank you!
This was tasty green. Vegetal and sweet like Gyokuro, but lighter. Tasty!
Rating: 85

Many thanks to D. Chew for sending me this and other samples of their tea to try and review. They were delivered to work right after a HUGE lunch so this was a perfect way to settle my tummy and unwind. There is a distinct sweetness to this tea and a slight light maybe spinach quality to it. I won’t rate yet becasue I want to give this tea proper attention later.

I needed a break from all the flavours happening in my mouth with the tea craziness today so I opted for this one. This was just what I needed. Nothing to add beyond what’s already been said about this tea, but I will say that it’s just the break I needed from my flavored teas. :)