Taiwanese Green Tea

Tea type
Green Tea
Ingredients
Green Tea Leaves
Flavors
Not available
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Bulk, Loose Leaf
Caffeine
Caffeine Free
Certification
Organic
Edit tea info Last updated by Sannetea_Lulu
Average preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 8 oz / 236 ml

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7 Tasting Notes View all

  • “This tea has a lovely, pleasure-inducing fragrance and it also tastes delicious. Sweet, grassy, buttered baby spinach with almost a hint of roasted caramel. It is a full bodied green, too, which...” Read full tasting note
    87
  • “So, it is November, the month that aspiring writers use to practice their novel skills with the awesome event that is NaNoWriMo. I have debated doing it a few times, tried it twice and did not do...” Read full tasting note
  • “Another sample from Sanne Tea – thanks so much! The leaves alone look like a unique green tea – it looks like a blend of many different types of green tea somehow. So many different shapes of...” Read full tasting note
    87
  • “Well this is interesting. I used care when preparing this one as Sanne indicated it could be temperamental. I used 3g in my press with water heated to 175F. The first cup @60s is very yellow and...” Read full tasting note

From Sanne Tea

Taiwanese green tea wasn’t produced for the global market until the mid 20 century. An American tea trade company opened a new office in Taiwan and aimed to market Taiwanese green tea to the global market. Since most Taiwanese tea farmers had little knowledge of how to produce green tea, the company introduced Chinese green tea masters to Taiwanese farmers, and let them teach the Taiwanese the green tea making methods. In the beginning, green tea was only produced in the North of Taiwan, including Taipei, Taoyuan, and Hsinchu city.

By the 1950s, Taiwanese green tea was shipped and sold around the world. North Africa alone, the main buyer, imported up to 3500 tons of Taiwanese green tea per year. Surprisingly, Japan was one of the most important Taiwanese green tea buyers. In the 1960s, the population of green tea drinker was bulging in Japan, and the production of domestic green tea couldn’t match the consumption. High quality Taiwanese green tea became the best alternative to Japanese green tea. At the same time, the famous Japanese green tea strain, Yabukita, was transplanted to Taiwan to make Japanese style green tea. In fact, Taiwanese green tea was deeply affected by China and Japan. However, to distinguish Taiwanese teas from others, Taiwanese tea farmers have produced many high quality green teas with Taiwanese characteristics.

This Taiwanese Green Tea comes from Pinglin District, New Taipei City, near the Feitsui Reservoir area. For centuries, the environment has been strictly protected in this area. Mr. Chen, the fourth generation of his tea family, earned the organic certification in 2010, and became one of only 22 organic tea farmers in this area.

Unlike non-fermented Japanese Green Tea, Mr. Chen’s Taiwanese Green Tea is lightly fermented, about 5%, making the tea less pungent and less bitter than Japanese Green Tea. After it is picked, the fresh leaves go through a short withering process. Unlike other green tea makers who pick immature tea buds, Mr. Chen only picks the well-grown tea leaves, which contain sufficient nutrition to generate exquisite flavors. After harvest, the fresh tea leaves were naturally withered under the sun and gentle breeze. Compared to blower withering, natural withering keeps the tea’s innate aroma. Next step, the stir is the key for making excellent green tea. Insufficient stirring would make tea smell moldy and fusty; over stirring would lose the freshness of green tea. Only an experienced tea master can adjust the amount of time and temperature during stirring, extracting the correct notes from the fresh leaves to impart a wonderful sweetness.

The leaves of Taiwanese Green Tea have a natural bright jade green color with a white color on the tips. When brewed, the tea liquor has a clean and light green color with vivid freshness and subtle green grass smell. The tea brings you a very brisk feeling, mixed with a savory dried nori palate and a sweet herbaceous taste. After drinking, the fresh feeling and nori palate changes to a sweet sugar cane flavor. This exceptional tea demands a delicate brewing method to reach its full potential. The water temperature should be between 176 to 185 Fahrenheit or 80 to 85 Celsius to avoid any astringent taste being released from tea leaves. Apart from hot brewing, the cold brewing method is believed to retain more natural nutrition and more sweetness is gained from tea leaves. Put 6 grams of dry leaves into 1000 ml of room temperature spring water, and store in the refrigerator for 8-12 hours. It is a perfect fresh beverage for everyone!
When ordering 75 grams of Taiwanese Green Tea, the tea will be shipped in its original package, sealed by the farmer.

Origin
Style of Tea: Taiwanese Green Tea
Harvest Date: August, 2015
Oxidation Level: Light (5%)
Roasting Level: None
Location: Cuku, Pinglin District, New Taipei City
Picking Style: Hand Picked
Cultivar: Jin Xuan (No. 12)
Farm Elevation: 500 meters

Brewing Guidelines
Water Temperature: 176-185 F degrees / 80-85 C degrees
Steep Time: 1st/60 seconds, 2nd/90 seconds, 3rd/120 seconds, adding 30 seconds for subsequent infusions
Suggested Serving Size: 3 grams / 240 ml water
The same tea leaves can be steeped 5 times.

About Sanne Tea View company

Sanne Tea is the place where you can find high-quality and pesticide-free Taiwanese tea. The founder came from a Taiwanese family that loves and drinks tea for several generations. We want to share our enthusiasm and passion for Taiwanese tea and natural farming with the world. As our commitment, we source and sell 100% natural, zero pesticide teas. We are very excited about the teas that we have to offer, and are very much looking forward to meeting other tea lovers here.
 
 We worked hard to find the Taiwanese tea that is 100% grown in Taiwan and build the relationships with local farmers, not to mention that the tea has to be affordable. We, along with several tea farmers who we trust, would like to promote true Taiwanese tea to the global market. 
 
 Thank you for visiting us and please go to our website:www.sannetea.com

7 Tasting Notes

87
152 tasting notes

This tea has a lovely, pleasure-inducing fragrance and it also tastes delicious. Sweet, grassy, buttered baby spinach with almost a hint of roasted caramel. It is a full bodied green, too, which I love. Plus, organic! I could easily have this as a staple.

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921 tasting notes

So, it is November, the month that aspiring writers use to practice their novel skills with the awesome event that is NaNoWriMo. I have debated doing it a few times, tried it twice and did not do so well, see for all of my love of writing (having written hundreds of pages of research, not to mention almost 700 blog posts) I am absolutely awful at telling stories. I just can never get my brain to work that way, I end up turning the stories I am writing into overly detailed research rambles. Well, on twitter the other day, the infamous Lazy Literatus mentioned the brilliant idea of NaNoTeaMo, a tea blog for every day in November…and you know what, I am going to give that a try! Wish me luck, I am notoriously bad at blogging everyday, but it is something I really want to do, and if I succeed maybe I will buy myself a special tea or a new cup or something. (Not that I need any more teaware, such a hoarder.)

Remember the other day I did the back to back comparison of Oriental Beauty from Sanne Tea? Well that same farmer also made a Taiwanese Green Tea, Mr. Chen is all about organic farming, having earned the very strict Tse-Xin Organic Mark after switching to Organic farming. He decided to switch to this after seeing a fellow tea farmer passed out after breathing in too many pesticides, he took the man to a local hospital and essentially saved his life…I can certainly see how something like that would put the fear of pesticides in a person! Of course making the switch was hard, but once the balance of predator, beneficial insects, and plants was established the trees flourished. Fascinating stuff, I always enjoy learning about the farmers behind the tea I drink, just like I love learning the tea’s history. This tea has a bunch of fun info about it, like a lot, a whole blog in of itself, so if you have the time I recommend giving it a read, especially if you like learning about the history of a specific kind of tea.

Ok, now on to the actual tea itself! The leaves are pretty cool, big fluffy things that could pass for a Bao Zhong if it felt like infiltrating the Oolong clubs (I imagine tea has a very interesting life, clearly) the color ranges from deep pine forest green to bright new growth green, quite the verdant rainbow. The aroma is not very strong, faint notes of vegetal and tea leaf, life fresh off the bush green tea leaves. It has a freshness about it, very much so a green aroma, even though it is not very intense.

After the steeping of the leaves, the aroma is stronger, as does frequently happen (not sure I have ever run into a tea that has a weaker aroma after brewing, that would be weird) the notes are buttery and nutty, much like tahini and a touch like peanuts. Alongside these notes is a sharp vegetal note reminiscent of artichoke and a bit of bamboo leaves. The liquid is sweet and buttery, a little floral, and a bit like honey, it is mild and refreshing.

First steeping time, the mouthfeel is very smooth, bordering ever so slightly on buttery, but not quite there. The taste is also really smooth, not a single harsh note about this steep, starting out with gentle sweetness of chestnut and moving to the most delicate touch of distant flowers. It is ghostlike, you can tell there are flowers, but they are too far away to put a correct name to. The finish is sweet with a gentle spice to it like nutmeg and a lingering bamboo leaf aftertaste, giving that bit of green.

Second steep, the aroma is mild and refreshing, a gentle honey and distant floral note and a touch of butteriness. This steep starts out mild and gently sweet, notes of chestnut at the start and moving to buttery green, like gently sauteed spinach and bamboo shoots. It is a very mild tea, but because of its mildness it has a refreshing quality, reminding me of a palate cleansing drink after a strong food.

Third steep was very similar to the previous two, I found that this tea did not change much during the steeping, just maintained the gentle presence and refreshing nature. I will say one thing, this was a very clean tasting tea, it reminds me of that clean breeze on a spring day that brings in distant flowers and the promise of an evening rain.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/11/sanne-tea-taiwanese-green-tea-tea-review.html

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87
4170 tasting notes

Another sample from Sanne Tea – thanks so much! The leaves alone look like a unique green tea – it looks like a blend of many different types of green tea somehow. So many different shapes of leaf and colors. I used the suggested three grams of leaves for a mug, so about two teaspoons. The flavor makes for a fantastic green tea – so sweet, buttery, maybe hints of nuttiness. The second steep somehow maintains the sweet and buttery of the first cup but also completely different – more savory without being astringent… and I sipped it down much too fast! I could swear there were even marshmallow and coconut flavors added to the second steep! There are so many layers to this tea, I can’t begin to figure it out. I’m not sure I’ve tried many Taiwan green teas, but this is a good one. I can taste the quality and healthiness! Green tea can’t be any better than this.

I loved reading Mr. Chen’s story – the farmer of this tea – his commitment to only grow teas that he loves and his family taking shifts through the night prepare the teas properly. I’m sure many tea drinkers have thought about what it might be like to operate a tea farm but there must be so much work that goes into farming tea. Many Taiwanese tea farmers believe that their tea farms should have zero pesticide residue while USA rules still allow 5% pesticide residue. I can really taste in the flavor of the cup that Mr. Chen knows exactly what to do, especially reading this in the description on sannetea.com: “Mr. Chen only picks the well-grown tea leaves, which contain sufficient nutrition to generate exquisite flavors. After harvest, the fresh tea leaves were naturally withered under the sun and gentle breeze. Compared to blower withering, natural withering keeps the tea’s innate aroma. Next step, the stir is the key for making excellent green tea. Insufficient stirring would make tea smell moldy and fusty; over stirring would lose the freshness of green tea. Only an experienced tea master can adjust the amount of time and temperature during stirring, extracting the correct notes from the fresh leaves to impart a wonderful sweetness.” There is so much to learn about tea!
Steep #1 // 2 tsps // 27 minutes after boiling // 60 second steep
Steep #2 // 25 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep

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1719 tasting notes

Well this is interesting. I used care when preparing this one as Sanne indicated it could be temperamental. I used 3g in my press with water heated to 175F. The first cup @60s is very yellow and tastes of sweet corn. There is zero bitterness and no noticeable astringent drying. The aftertaste is sweet and grassy. As the cup cools the flavor becomes more mineral stream. The second cup @90s has a light green tint. The taste is bold nori. There is enough bite to be interesting without being bitter. The aftertaste is sweet and grassy. The bite mostly subsides as the cup cools. The flavor remains unchanged. I do notice a slight tingle in the cheeks. I like the tingle but imagine a slightly reduced steep time would remove it. I don’t have time today to continue with this one though it should go 3 more steeps. I do have a cold brew working in the fridge for tomorrow.

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80
661 tasting notes

Another sample from Lulu. Thanks Lulu!

I messed up a bit with the first brewing and had enough to make another brew, thank goodness. This is another tea from the farmer Mr. Chen Shi Yi, that does all organic teas.

One of the things I love about green teas is the buttery, nutty flavours but I’m always up for something different once in awhile. I found this one smelled buttery when brewed but I didn’t get much of that buttery nutty flavour in the taste. There was a good sweetness that lingered on the tongue. On Sanne Tea’s website it is mentioned that it was tricky to brew to get the right sweetness and no astringent flavour released from the leaves. I ended up with a bit of astringency even though I used the right temperature.

In spite of the fact that it brews up a good golden yellow it tastes quite light. Overall a good cup

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79
128 tasting notes

Water: 8oz

Leaves: large long semi-twisted dark green leaves

Steep: 60s, 90s, 120s

Aroma: vegetable

Color: Light yellow

Taste: This tea had arrived in good condition, upon opening the packaged i noticed that these leaves were much larger and longer compared to other green teas I’ve had. As for the aroma it was tough to pinpoint due to it being very faint coming from the dry leaf but i would say vegetable. One to brewing this tea was difficult to measure due to the size of the leaves so i did my best to guess the proper amount as i poured them into my new french press (my mom bought it for me recently) I’ve been playing around with it & works great for tea!). looking at the laves steep they remind me more so of a Oolong tea. Appearance the cup had great clarity with no cloudiness. As for the taste it was very light faint & smooth with no bitterness. 90s darker color, same flavor, 120s same color & taste as previous cup. I decided to stop the steeping at the 3rd cup b/c i didn’t notice any changes besides the color & felt there would be none if i were on the 5th cup. I may go back later and try the last two steeps if so i’ll update this note. Overall i found this to be an alright tea to drink with no bitterness as it brews for longer periods of time.

Thank you Sanne Tea for this sample

Update:
150s & 180s same as 2nd cup
I pared it with half of a lemon garlic Falafel warp (my first time having one, good but wayyy to salty)

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 8 OZ / 236 ML

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