Master Matsumoto/ Postcard Teas

Ashman is home, and I figured the salad we had for lunch might not have stayed with him. I set out some cream puffs to thaw and decided to give my final bit of this tea the Verdant cocktail shaker treatment.

Mine is actually one from Revolution Tea intended to flash chill tea. If I remember correctly you got it free if you purchased four boxes of their teabags. I picked up a stainless steel cocktail shaker cheaply at an estate sale but it always leaked when I shook it. This clear plastic one from Revolution does not.

While steeping the tea gong fu style, I got chocolate aroma as usual. Green and oolong teas often have chocolate notes to me and while it is unusual to find them in a Japanese green tea, this actually has been finished in a Chinese style.

I served the tea in sherbet glasses so we could enjoy the pretty foam, but I’m having trouble getting all of the foam out of the shaker. I will have to learn a workaround so it has that lovely frothy top like in the pictures in the Verdant email.

I feel like this was the best possible sendoff for the last little bit of this highly unusual and tasty tea. In spite of its age, it was still quite good.

I have only about one teaspoon left of this tea and have never added a tasting note? How can that be?

I grabbed this today thinking it would fulfill my final prompt in the scavenger hunt – a tea with spinach/artichoke notes. It may be cheating, though, as I have to squint really hard to get some artichoke out of this.

The first impression when smelling the dry leaves is milk chocolate. I have always thought it odd that many green and oolong teas have a strong aroma of milk chocolate or cacao to me. One Da Hong Pao I tried had powerful chocolate aroma.

Here the chocolate smell is mostly in the dry leaf but does come through a little in the flavor. This is smoothest when hot and becomes a bit astringent when cool, but not bad. It is a little grassy, as I expected. I think I like it best with food, but it is good standing alone as well.