Huang Shan Mao Feng Green Tea

12/2/2020
Late Night bowl tea using water just off boil. This is my last of this sample.
Aroma is sweet and enticing. Leaves are small and often broken making first steeping in bowl a challenge to drink cleanly. May have been better suited for gaiwan.

Tasting notes: spinach, vegetal, seaweed

Brothy mouthfeel

Gong Fu Sipdown (588)!

From last weekend, on one of the super rare occasions where I was actually craving green tea. A shocker, I know! I actually really enjoyed this tea though – I only had like six or seven infusions (because that’s generally all I can do of a green before I’m over it) but I found the flavour really fresh and light; lots of buttery green bean and edamame notes and a bit of snow pea. Really evocative of Spring time and fresh greens. Kind of invigorating feeling? If that makes sense…

I don’t know that the green teas from Teavivre are necessarily AMAZING quality or anything – but I don’t really drink enough green tea to be super aware of the differences and, when I do want green tea, it’s usually Chinese that I’m in the mood for. So havings a handful of the little Teavivre sample packets of different greens is a good option for me to still have some green in my cupboard without being crazy about it.

Pictures: https://www.instagram.com/p/BvZtUOEl5mF/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXOWyXjEp4g&t=0s&index=28&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ

Aroma of wet aged grass and loam

Flavor is much improved by lower steep time: higher steep times result in a loam-like flavor I found to be very unpleasant. Short steep times still have a slight aftertaste of loam, but the main flavor is smooth, grassy, and autumnal.

Would only recommend provisionally

Now that I have reviewed a higher end Huang Shan Mao Feng, it’s time to review a slightly lower end tea (and I do emphasize the word slightly considering that this appeared to still be a somewhat higher end tea). One thing I appreciated about this tea compared to Teavivre’s Nonpareil Te Gong Huang Shan Mao Feng was that it offered a bit more strength in the flavor department. As teas of this type go, this one produced an excellent drinking experience and was about on par with its higher grade counterpart.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After the rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea buds and leaves in 4 ounces of 185 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was chased by 15 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry bud and leaf mix emitted aromas of minerals, chestnut, honey, and straw. After the rinse, I noted new aromas of hay, malt, soybean, sweet corn, and chestnut blossom. The first infusion then introduced lettuce, grass, and pea aromas. In the mouth, the tea liquor offered notes of chestnut, straw, malt, hay, soybean, sweet corn, and grass that were underscored by hints of butter, cream, and peas. The subsequent infusions introduced cooked green bean, butter, umami, cream, and pine aromas. Mineral, lettuce, honey, and chestnut blossom notes appeared along with umami and cooked green bean impressions. I also caught some fleeting hints of fennel, pine, sugarcane, and spinach. The final few infusions emphasized durable mineral, cream, malt, hay, and umami notes alongside amplified spinach impressions and cooked green bean, chestnut, and pea hints.

A very aromatic and flavorful green tea, this was like the Nonpareil Te Gong Huang Shan Mao Feng but with more charisma. Honestly, drinking this tea was like taking in an early summer day at my residence in liquid form. I have several large Chinese Chestnut trees in my yard as well as a hay field immediately in front of the house, and in June and July, the scents of grass, hay, and chestnut blossom fill the air when the yard and field are being mowed. If I breathe in through my mouth during that time of the year, I frequently also taste those things, and I love that. So, all of that being said, drinking this tea was an extremely pleasant experience for me. Though it was not as fancy as the other Teavivre Huang Shan Mao Feng I previously tried, this was more of a drinker’s tea, full of heady aromatic components and strong flavors with a nice, thick body and the expected mineral-heavy mouthfeel. I think it would make a fantastic daily drinker or a wonderful introduction to Huang Shan Mao Feng for those who are curious.

I’m not sure I’m posting this note in the right place since most other reviews of this tea are so old, but the package just says Huang Shan Mao Feng without any modifiers like Premium or Organic. I was excited to read on Teavivre’s website that this is a floral green tea reminiscent of my beloved Taiwanese green oolong. I steeped 5 g of leaf in a 150 ml teapot at 185F for 30, 60, and 90 seconds, plus steeps of around 3, 3, 4, 5, and 10 minutes.

The dry aroma is of savoury veggies like asparagus and beans, orchids and other florals, nuts, and seaweed. The first steep is lighter than I expected, with strong beany, saline, and vegetal notes and a floral sweetness that is indeed similar to high mountain oolong. (However, this tea can’t be mistaken for anything other than a green.) I also get that chestnut taste I associate with a lot of green teas and a slight bitterness. The next steep is buttery, beany, slightly bitter, and floral, with asparagus and kale making it more vegetal than I prefer. It was gone within a few seconds of being poured, an indication that this tea is surprisingly easy to drink. Steep three is a little more vegetal. I lost count on the fourth steep, which amped up the bitterness to levels I found to be unpleasant. The aftertaste is of spring flowers, including lilacs, and grass clippings. The final steeps are pretty bitter, though I also got lazy with the timing.

I’m not sure what to think about this tea. The florals are great, but it becomes bitter easily. I also steep out my green teas until the (bitter) end of their flavour, which is perhaps not the best thing to do. It somehow feels wrong to make three steeps of a tea and then throw it out, even with my extensive tea museum.

And here I am doing nothing productive on a Sunday (again) because it is caffeine day and I’d rather devote my time to steeping teas. This seems to happen a lot.

This green is quite vegetal, Notes of hay and cut grass that has been left drying in the sun for a few days. Light hints of spinach and fruits (apricot, citrus, chamomile), lightly bitter and yet still tasty.

Thanks again to Angel & Teavivre for this sample.
This is such a beautiful and delicate looking tea, with a flavor that is vegetal, mineral, even floral, and a little nutty as well. I shared steepings of it this afternoon with 2 of my college harp students who came over to work on a duet, and we all enjoy several rounds.

Finally, my tea samples came in! Getting down to the nitty-gritty, this tea is really pleasant! Really juicy and floral, and no discernible bitterness. This is definitely going on my “buy again” list!

My box of samples arrived from Teavivre today and this was the first one I tried. I don’t have a lot of experience with tea, especially green tea where it was mostly limited to what I got at Asian restaurants. That was usually on the bitter side or Jasmine tea. So, this was definitely my first experience with this tea.

I did a quick rinse followed by three steeping of 30, 60 and 90 seconds. The dry leaf had a smell that reminded me of spinach even though it wasn’t exactly spinach. I’m frequently finding it hard to find the right descriptors for the smells and tastes and this is no exception.

After brewing the first steeping the now wet leaves had the same smell only much more pungently. The first steeping was a very pale yellow and had the same taste but not as strong. The taste reminded me of sort of a spinach/peas/zucchini combination. As the tea cooled, the taste became a bit more pronounced. There wasn’t any bitterness or astringency in the first steeping.

The second steeping was quite good with just a hint of astringency at the finish but in a good way, not at all unpleasant. The third was starting to become a bit more astringent but was still quite drinkable. At that point I’d reached my saturation for the night so called it quits there.

Overall, though I found the smell of the wet leaves to be almost too intense to be pleasant in the tea it was much more subdued and the overall effect was quite nice.