Little Melon Seed (Lu An Gua Pian)

Tea type
Yellow Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
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Caffeine
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Certification
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Edit tea info Last updated by Rellybob
Average preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 1 min, 45 sec

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5 Tasting Notes View all

  • “It smells like water from boiled veggies, like asparagus, chard, and spinach. Not really my favourite tea smell. My face is probably pretty ridiculous right now. I want to taste this tea, and give...” Read full tasting note
  • “Went camping in the North Dakota badlands this weekend! We go there to mountain bike the Maa Daa Hey trail, which is always an adventure! We brought along several friends, some who had never done...” Read full tasting note
    81
  • “Tried it at 185F for two minutes since the Zojirushi was cooling down from a 205 steep, but I didn’t think it was much different than the brew I did a few days ago. Not bad, but not worth the...” Read full tasting note
    71
  • “Disappointing, considering all the wonderful things I’ve heard about Lu An. It wasn’t bad, but as far as green teas go I’ve enjoyed other varietals more. Bland, underwhelming, lacking any complex...” Read full tasting note
    39

From Silk Road Teas

A competition grade yellow tea from Anhui Province. Grown on a small organic farm, the rich green color leaves, once opened, remind tea drinkers of a melon seed, small and round with a serrated edge. The taste is clean and naturally sweet and makes for an exquisite cup of tea. Steep in water between 165 and 185 degrees for two minutes.

About Silk Road Teas View company

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5 Tasting Notes

2291 tasting notes

It smells like water from boiled veggies, like asparagus, chard, and spinach. Not really my favourite tea smell.

My face is probably pretty ridiculous right now. I want to taste this tea, and give it a fair shot, but…

Yeah, ok. It’s green veggies and bean sprouts and it’s SWEET. Weird. I might get through 1/4 of my mug (I steeped it per Silk Road’s normal parameters, which is 1 tsp tea for 2 cups of water).

Umm, thank you, CrowKettle, for sharing this one with me. Definitely not something I’ll be buying myself, but green teas are always worth a try. I’ll be giving the rest of the sample to a friend to try.

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 2 min, 0 sec
keychange

Haha love it. It’s hard when you really want to try and say something redeeming about the tea but honestly can’t. But hey, you know what you don’t like.

Fjellrev

Weird, I wonder what it would be like to make stock with it for soup.

OMGsrsly

It might work for something like that Japanese soup where you pour hot tea over rice and other tasty things.

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81
289 tasting notes

Went camping in the North Dakota badlands this weekend! We go there to mountain bike the Maa Daa Hey trail, which is always an adventure! We brought along several friends, some who had never done anything like it before. It started out so great..and then it got BLAZING hot. We were about 5 miles from our campsite when it was over 100 degrees. And when I say 5 miles, I mean 5 miles of crazy difficult uphills and hairy downhills. Being from up north, we just aren’t used to that kind of heat, especially while exercising!! Let’s just say, even though I brought along my tea, I didn’t get any tea this weekend. Too stinking hot, and no energy to make iced tea. Advice for any aspiring bikers: go in the early morning, or evening! Even though we felt like we had just survived the end of the world by the end of the bike ride, we had seen some pretty amazing scenery. Stuff you just don’t see unless you get out there and find it! I was hoping to see mountain lion tracks, but alas. We saw some scat however that we thought was probably mountain lion..that’s just not as cool. :P We did see a little horned toad tho! Everything else was probably too smart to be out in the sun. :)

On to the tea. This is my first Lu An Gua Pian. The leaves are dark green, long and twisted. Aroma of the dry leaves is nice.
First steep, I am sadly underwhelmed. Perhaps I didn’t use enough leaf? It has a very nice full mouthfeel but little flavor. Any flavor I am picking up is mildly vegetal and sweet. I notice the leaves haven’t un-twisted yet, so maybe that’s why.
2nd steep I went for two minutes. The leaves are unfurling more now, so maybe now the taste will amp up a bit……..There is more flavor than the first steep but it’s still very light. My tongue is tingling a little, and the sweetness is still nice. It’s just so mild! It’s a little strange. It feels so full in the mouth but the taste is so quiet……I am liking it more and More as it cools. The mild vegetal taste reminds me of good garden cucumbers. Very fresh. No bitterness as of yet.
3rd steep 3 minutes. This is probably my favorite steep. Very pleasant. Very silky. Nothing about this tea is over the top. I would view this as a contemplative tea, one to take the time to sip while sitting on the front porch. I don’t have a front porch, but that’s what this tea is made for. :)

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 1 min, 0 sec
Bonnie

Sounds like a good and exhausting trip! The bikers here are a hardy bunch too. The altitude and heat may get to you although this time of year, you have to stop late afternoon because of thunderstorms but it is spectacularly gorgeous. Glad you had such fun!

Rellybob

Thanks! It was a great time despite the heat!

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71
39 tasting notes

Tried it at 185F for two minutes since the Zojirushi was cooling down from a 205 steep, but I didn’t think it was much different than the brew I did a few days ago. Not bad, but not worth the additional expense though Silk Road calls it “competition grade”. Maybe that grade is wasted on my uneducated palate? I still have a lot of this tea left so maybe will try a cooler than 175F steep and see how that goes.

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 2 min, 0 sec

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39
11 tasting notes

Disappointing, considering all the wonderful things I’ve heard about Lu An. It wasn’t bad, but as far as green teas go I’ve enjoyed other varietals more. Bland, underwhelming, lacking any complex flavor.

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