China Anhui Huangshan Yun Wu Green Tea

Okay, I’m back. It seems that something happens every single time I attempt to start catching up on reviews, but here I am once again. I will be posting about a couple major life updates in some of my upcoming tasting notes, so anyone who is into that sort of thing will probably learn more about me than they ever wanted to learn. If you are not one of those (hopefully) very few people, then I guess you’ll just have to deal with it. Anyway, this is a review from my vast backlog. I finished my 25g pouch of this tea several months back, but I cannot recall precisely when. I have something of a complicated relationship with Yun Wu, and really Anhui green teas in general, but after a bit of back and forth with this one, I got to a point where I greatly enjoyed it.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I started things off by steeping 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 167 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was followed 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 tea leaves presented delicate aromas of grass, roasted sweet corn, butter, cream, and summer squash. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of zucchini, malt, and hay. The first infusion then introduced an aroma of sugarcane coupled with much subtler scents of chestnut and bamboo shoots. In the mouth, the tea liquor offered up subtle, deftly layered notes of grass, butter, roasted sweet corn, summer squash, and cream that were balanced by fainter impressions of cucumber, zucchini, hay, chestnut, bamboo shoots, and sugarcane. The bulk of the subsequent infusions brought out aromas of cucumber, lettuce, coriander, parsley, and basil, as well as stronger aromas of chestnut and bamboo shoots. More immediate impressions of zucchini, hay, chestnut, and cucumber appeared in the mouth alongside notes of malt, minerals, coriander, lettuce, and parsley. I also picked up on subtle flavors of lemon, lime, basil, snap peas, bok choy, kale, and fresh green cabbage. As the tea faded, the liquor emphasized notes of minerals, lettuce, grass, zucchini, summer squash, hay, cream, butter, malt, and chestnut that were chased by lingering hints of cucumber, snap pea, lemon, kale, parsley, and coriander.

This was an extremely refined Chinese green tea. I also found this tea to be kind of a grower of an offering in the sense that it took several tries for me to understand and appreciate it. Fortunately, it was well worth the effort. If you are a fan of very nutty, creamy, vegetal green teas, this one will likely be up your alley.

April 2021 harvest.

By this point, I’ve determined that of all the green teas I’ve had, lighter Chinese green teas are my jam. The ones that are clean and spring water sweet with nuances of flowers, vegetables and nuttiness. Hints of citrus and spice (in this case, green peppercorn) are always welcome. Those with minimal bitterness, astringency, grassiness and beaniness. This one follows the trend of being delicate and I find it delicious and good for my body.

Whether it’s a Lu Shan Yun Wu or, like this, a Huang Shan Yun Wu, I would consider this style of green tea among my favorites.

Thank you for the freebie, What-Cha :)

Smooth and subtly vegetal at first, revealing notes of green bean and corn with a slight sweetness in the finish. Absent of any bitterness, this tea is a gentle one, with balanced flavors that are light but still enjoyable.

This tea has quickly become a favorite. Nutty, buttery, sweet corn notes. No astringency or bitterness. I’ve brewed this western-style in a little glass teapot, starting with 1min and increasing by ~30sec each steep, up to around 3min. Always a great cup, and enjoyable through several steeps.