Actually this tea review is for this one and Royal Tea Bay – Rizhao. I’ve got RTB -Rizhao in Sept and was not that enthused with it. Since I didn’t have any Rizhao tea around to compare it with, I thought it was possible my taste changed. So I ordered my favourite Rizhao from the Aliexpress seller Han Xiang Ecological Tea.
In comparison of the two teas dry, they both smelled good from the bag. Pretty similar – a nice fresh green scent. Both teas had the same twisted shape but this tea from RTB had bigger leaves. Brewed both up with 8oz , 80C, 1 min.
The both brewed a similar bright yellow colour but the tea from HXET was a lighter brigher yellow. The tea from RTB was a little bit murkier, not so clear. When I took a taste of the HXET it was still as good as it’s been in past years: butter, spinach, nutty, creamy, sweet. So good. Then I took a taste of the RTB tea. It tasted completely flat. No taste at all. I let my palate clear a bit and tried this tea again. After waiting a few minutes and taking a sip , it was a bit better but was a plain green with none of the underlying creamy, spinach taste the other one has. It was non astringent with a very faint nutty flavour to it. When I would take a sip of the tea from HXET it had so much flavour it just overshadowed the RTB tea so much , I couldn’t taste it at all.
This tea from HXET has always been really good and this harvest is still holding true.
I enjoyed comparing the two and think I will do a comparison of the HXET Rizhao with some Laoshan Greens I have. They are all grown in about the same area and I think they are all very similar.
