Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

Posts Tagged ‘Green Teas’

China Moon Palace – Chun Mee Tea is a pretty typical Chun Mee like Green.  It’s a fairly straight forward and good “go-to” Green Tea…everyone should have a few “Good ole standby’s”, ya know?  As for flavor…it’s a little grassy but not overly grassy.  There are hints of buttery and hints of semi-sweetness – but only hints.  The after taste is a little vegetal but doesn’t linger on for too long and doesn’t have a bitter aftertaste of some greens – which I appreciate!  Overall this is a good green tea to have on hand and anyone who likes green teas should try this at least once!

You can purchase the Chun Mee directly from the TeaFrog website.

Opening the package, the dry leaves smell grassy and have a perky sweetness about them that I’m eager to try (too much time spent drinking roasted and musty green teas has drawn me from teas like this). Two teaspoons of leaves, two cups of water, and three minutes later, I had a pale green brew with a much deeper aroma than the dry leaf had. Deeper, yet still as sweet, the grassy notes linger as well.

Deliciously smooth. The grassy flavour does not overwhelm, as some greens are apt to do. For such a lightly flavoured tea, the brew seems to carry a moderate amount of thickness to the mouthfeel. However, even those light flavours are complex by themselves, making each sip a lingering pleasure, if left to settle on the tongue.

The sweetness and delicacy of the brew leave one with a very refreshed feeling, and it is a very enjoyable tea to drink. I gladly give it a 77 out of 100 on my personal enjoyment scale, and would certainly recommend it.

You can purchase the Dragonwell Green directly from the Mark T. Wendall Tea Company website.

I prepared this tea in an almost reverential mood because the reputation of Mark T. Wendell teas is excellent.  And I was not disappointed.   Their River Mist Green tea is a great delicacy.  According to the Wendell web site, this tea is an “unusual Chinese green [which]  has abundant silver strands among the twisted green leaves and unopened buds. It’s supple, rich flavor is easy on the palate and a treat to drink.”  

This is no hyperbole at all.  This tea is a clear winner.  I’ve been tasting a lot of green teas lately noticing which ones manage to forge a distinctive identity on the memory of my nose and palate.  River Mist Green is a winner in terms of delicacy and refinement.  This is a tea to be sipped with attention and pleasure and not to be slurped down efficiently (and I do like teas that deliver huge flavor and caffeine while being hastily slurped). 

Mark T. Wendell’s River Mist Green is of the former company.  Choice, classy, and charming, it can serve as a centerpiece for entertainment or for quiet times alone.  I enjoyed every sip as if it were a delicate wine.  The tea does not have any overtly vegetal notes, which will be a recommendation for green tea lovers who don’t want to drink spinach juice.  This tea, instead, is what I would call bright, fresh, delicate, and refined.  It’s a very swanky tea but also an eminently affordable one.  

You can purchase the River Mist directly from the Mark T. Wendall Tea Company website.

These tea leaves are awesome. They look like they’ve been pressed in a book like wildflowers. Flat spiky leaves that smells delightfully like something like I’d like to have as a vegetable side dish with my dinner; well spiced green vegetables. Almost reminiscent of green beans. Once brewed up, the spicy green bean scent is enhanced tenfold.

The tea is very light colored, and as mentioned very, very fragrant. It’s both savory and sweet with hints of nuts and grass. The cup does leave some astringency to it, but just enough to make you want to drink more. Green teas can run the gambit of so tannic they make you pucker more than lemons all the way to spring water. This tea is slightly tannic but nowhere near the lemon end of the continuum.

This is a very enjoyable cup of tea – light, flavorful, fragrant, and just plain yummy.

You can purchase the Dragon Well Green Tea | Shi Feng Long Jing directly from the Canton Tea Co. website. Save 10% right now when you use the code IIATL at checkout!.

The leaves of the Castleton Darjeeling are very green and twisted. When I first tried one of these 1st flush Darjeelings a few days ago, I was thrown off by how similar the 1st flushes are to green teas. I don’t have any prior experience with Darjeelings, but I really thought that they were black teas and perhaps the later flushes are. I don’t know.

What I do know is that this tea is much more like a green tea. If you go into it, like I initially did, expecting a robust black tea that would take milk and/or sugar you will probably be disappointed. However, I’m going into this tasting thinking that this is a green tea.

The dry leaf had a very green smell, but not vegetal; almost a bit musky, but not off-putting. This Castleton brews up a rich, golden hue similar to that of apple juice and has a medium floral aroma. The first sip begins slightly buttery, followed by a light floral taste. As the cup begins to cool slightly, the fruity scent begins to come into play. It is a bit hard to identify the fruity taste however that Darjeelings are famous for (well, from what I’ve read).

This tea is pretty good, but is best when drank before allowed to cool too much. A light, pleasant floral aftertaste lingers between each sip.

You can purchase the Castleton FTGFOP 1st Flush 2010 Darjeeling directly from the Lochan Tea website.