88
drank Xinyang Green Tips by Peony Tea S.
6105 tasting notes

Ahhhh! I wasn’t intending to try any of these samples today, but opened them to sniff, and this one just smelled delicious! I love green teas with this super vegetal aroma/flavour! Thanks Peony Tea and Derek Chew for these wonderful samples!

I carefully measured out what I thought was 5g of tea, and used 250mL of water at 80C.

The result is deliciously sweet and vegetal (exactly to my liking!), but unfortunately also rather bitter/strong. I probably should have known better; this happens to me too much! I will try with my standard 1.5 tsp next time, and will likely end up with something amazing. I did add another ~150mL of cold water to the tea (temperature isn’t important for me) and it’s much more drinkable watered down, but I think 2 min was also a bit too long. This tea reminds me quite a bit of Treasuregreen’s Emerald (Silver), both in the sweetness and the intense vegetal flavour. I have no idea as to the type/origin of that tea, so this gives me a bit of a clue as to what it could be. With that tea, I think I use 1 tbsp and steep for 30 seconds, resulting in a honey-sweet first infusion, and a more vegetal second infusion, so I feel like I can get the same out of this tea. Looking forward to it!!

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 2 min, 0 sec
Babble

Out of curiosity were you sent samples for free? Or were these samples that were included with an order?

Kittenna

These were for free, but it was a short-time offer limited to non-US residents. They wanted to figure out shipping times to other places.

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Comments

Babble

Out of curiosity were you sent samples for free? Or were these samples that were included with an order?

Kittenna

These were for free, but it was a short-time offer limited to non-US residents. They wanted to figure out shipping times to other places.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

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Bio

I have always been a tea fan (primarily herbals and Japanese greens/oolongs) but in the last year or so, tea has become increasingly more appealing as not only a delicious, calming drink, but as a relatively cheap, healthy reward or treat to give myself when I deserve something. I should clarify that, however; the reward is expanding my tea cupboard, not drinking tea – I place no restrictions on myself in terms of drinking anything from my cupboard as that would defeat my many goals!

My DavidsTea addiction was born in late 2011, despite having spent nearly a year intentionally avoiding their local mall location (but apparently it was just avoiding the inevitable!). I seem to have some desire to try every tea they’ve ever had, so much of my stash is from there, although I’ve recently branched out and ordered from numerous other companies.

I like to try and drink all my teas unaltered, as one of the main reasons I’m drinking tea other than for the flavour is to be healthy and increase my water intake without adding too many calories! I’ve found that the trick in this regard is to be very careful about steeping time, as most teas are quite pleasant to drink straight as long as they haven’t been oversteeped. However, I tend to be forgetful (particularly at work) when I don’t set a timer, resulting in a few horrors (The Earl’s Garden is not so pleasant after, say, 7+ minutes of steeping).

I’m currently trying to figure out which types of teas are my favourites. Herbals are no longer at the top; oolongs have thoroughly taken over that spot, with greens a reasonably close second. My preference is for straight versions of both, but I do love a good flavoured oolong (flavoured greens are really hit or miss for me). Herbals I do love iced/cold-brewed, but I drink few routinely (Mulberry Magic from DavidsTea being a notable exception). I’m learning to like straight black teas thanks to the chocolatey, malty, delicious Laoshan Black from Verdant Tea, and malty, caramelly flavoured blacks work for me, but I’m pretty picky about anything with astringency. Lately I’ve found red rooibos to be rather medicinal, which I dislike, but green rooibos and honeybush blends are tolerable. I haven’t explored pu’erh, mate, or guayasa a great deal (although I have a few options in my cupboard).

I’ve decided to institute a rating system so my ratings will be more consistent. Following the smiley/frowny faces Steepster gives us:

100: This tea is amazing and I will go out of my way to keep it in stock.

85-99: My core collection (or a tea that would be, if I was allowing myself to restock everything!) Teas I get cravings for, and drink often.

75-84: Good but not amazing; I might keep these in stock sparingly depending on current preferences.

67-74: Not bad, I’ll happily finish what I have but probably won’t ever buy it again as there’s likely something rated more highly that I prefer.

51-66: Drinkable and maybe has some aspect that I like, but not really worth picking up again.

34-50: Not for me, but I can see why others might like it. I’ll make it through the cup and maybe experiment with the rest to get rid of it.

0-33: It’s a struggle to get through the cup, if I do at all. I will not willingly consume this one again, and will attempt to get rid of the rest of the tea if I have any left.

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