LuckyMe Send Message

This one is not for me. It tastes like black tea which I really don’t like. I didn’t pick up any of the flavor notes that others described. No honey, no peach, no butterscotch, nothing except a generic black tea flavor.

Another winner from NaiveTea! The dry leaf is very sweet smelling, with the aroma of exotic tropical fruits. I steeped it according to package directions (50s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 90s, and 2m). The first steeps tasted unmistakably of succulent passionfruit. As with their lychee oolong, the passionfruit takes front and center here and complements the buttery oolong in the background. It has a similar juicy sweetness and thick mouthfeel. Nothing artificial about this tea at all. After about 6 steeps, I cold steeped the leaves in the fridge overnight for a fantastic iced tea.

The smell of the dry leaf and the taste of brewed cup are fishy, similar to bonito flakes with a deeply vegetal aftertaste. Even at the lowest brewing temperature of 140 F, there is very little sweetness and mostly bitterness. Tastes like your drinking water from a fishy lake. By far the foulest tasting Japanese green tea I’ve had yet.

Update: brewed it gongfu style and that slightly improved the taste but not by much. The real problem with this tea is it lacks depth/complexity of higher quality Taiwanese oolongs. I actually preferred the lower grade Alishan to this one.

I was excited to try this tea after seeing all the glowing reviews but after brewing it 3 different ways, I’m pretty underwhelmed so far.

I first steeped it according to the package directions – (1 tsp of tea per 8 oz of 185F water for 3 mins) and found it weak. I then upped the tea leaf to water ratio (1 tsp for 4 oz of tea) and used slightly hotter water (195 F) after an initial rinse. Still, no dice. Then I reverted to my standard oolong brewing method: 2-3 grams of tea, 4 oz of 185F water, 2 minute steep following a brief rinse. Got a slight floral note with some nuttiness and astringency. I followed with three more infusions increasing the steep time by a minute and bumping up the water temperature. These steeps opened with a vaguely floral sweetness and an astringent finish. The 3rd infusion hit the sweet spot and the flavor began fading out after the 4th. So I transferred the wet leaves – nice full leaves with stems – from my gaiwan to a teapot, covered with fresh water and left to cold steep in the fridge. Hopefully the iced tea will take away the bitterness and bring out the fresh green flavor.

I have just enough left of my sample for one gongfu session and will report back later on it.

I wasn’t too impressed with this tea the first couple of times I tried it, finding it fairly bland and tasteless. All of the positive reviews baffled me so I figured it must be me…and it was! I have lately gotten into the habit of brewing green teas uncovered as many greens fare better that way. But this tea works much better with the lid on. I added enough leaves to cover the bottom of the gaiwan, poured in 175F water, and let it go for 2 minutes. This time, the tea was much better. Creamy spinach and green been flavors emerged along with a faint sweetness. Still a very light tea brew though. I may have to experiment with water temperature and brew times, but this is an enjoyable tea for sure.

I had the last bit of this tea today and decided to do a farewell review. After playing around with the brewing parameters, I went back to Verdant’s gongfu guidelines and this time, combined the infusions before drinking. The combined short infusions really brought out the tea’s flavor. Thick mouthfeel, sweet and juicy florals. It’s also best to let this tea cool a bit before drinking. That floral notes really came through once it cools to room temperature.

The first time I brewed this tea, I winged it with 1 tsp of leaf and 4 oz of water in my gaiwan at 175F for 1 minutes. The resultant brew was weak and somewhat vegetal. Even the second infusion with hotter water and a longer steep time turned out weak.

I got better results by following TeaVivre’s guidelines and steeping 2g of tea. I loved the aroma of the dry leaf, nutty and deeply vegetal. But the tea liquor didn’t have the same complexity and flavor that the aroma did. It tastes like a standard Chinese green tea. The flavor is faintly vegetal, mostly chestnut and a few buttery undertones. There’s no bitterness or astringency a characteristic shared by all of the TeaVivre green teas I’ve had so far which I think is a good thing. It’s much lighter in body than most green teas, almost like a white tea.

Not a bad tea, but not one I would return to.

My foray into Chinese greens continues with this unique, long leaf tea from TeaVivre. Their Long Jing dragonwell is already amongst my top 5 green teas and this one looks like a dragonwell with extra large leaves.

What stands out most to me about this tea is the smell of the leaf, both dry and wet. The dry leaf smells faintly of kombu and when the leaves are wet, they smell strikingly similar to dashi (fish broth). Thankfully, very little of the dashi aroma made it into the cup. There is a note of seaweed in there which is oddly contrasted with a fruity note I would describe as melon or pear. Not much vegetal flavor and virtually no astringency at all.

Overall, a very delicate and light-bodied tea. Quite different than the green teas I’m used to. I prefer grassier tea but I wouldn’t refuse this if it were offered to me. Definitely worth a sip and I’m glad I got to try it. I brewed this in a 150 ml gaiwan using about 7.5 leaves (roughly 1 gram) and got 2 good steeps out of it.

Picked up a sample of this at Adagio the other week. I brewed it hot even though the instructions said to cold steep it. I’m wondering if I should have just followed the instructions on the bag instead. The dry leaf smelled promising in the bag – very blood orange and citrusy – but once steeped it developed a sour, potpourri-ish flavor that tasted like orange Kool Aid. Adding a little sugar helped but still couldn’t rescue it.

It’s not as revolting as some other Adagio herbal teas I’ve had, but pretty lousy nonetheless.