Chun Mei Green Tea (Zhen Mei)

Eventually it had to happen. I just poured the last of this wonderfully sweet hay scented leaf into my press. Verily, verily, I say unto you; my heart is heavy with sadness. Yet, will I rejoice in the goodness of the cup that awaits. I shall lift up my cup in song and celebration. Yes, in remembrance of the time we have shared old friend, will I sip. Forgetting now the sorrow of our parting I shall carry the joy of our time together in my heart until the day we once again are united.

This is my first Chun Mei, at least as far as I know!

The aroma and look of the leaves was completely different from the green tea I drank yesterday. This was not as brightly green, and had a completely different aroma. No wet cooked turnip or mustard greens here!

I accidentally used too much leaf. The first sip was astringent and a little sour, my fault. I had already resteeped the leaves so I did what I had read in an article on serving tea in Britain through the years. I read that sometimes tea was made extra strong and the hot water pot was used for people to adjust the tea to their liking. I picked up the kettle and added water until I had the right amount for the amount of leaf I used. All better!

This is still a drying tea, as it is supposed to be. It is neither bitter nor sour. It makes me think of sunshine on dry hay. I made four steeps and combined them all into one pot after tasting a sip from both the first and second steep unmixed. There is plenty of flavor left. I shall enjoy having this as my morning green!

Thank you, Angel and Teavivre!

A reason to drink today! As of today I have been blessed to be a father of my little angel for 5 years today. Since I can’t “drink” on the job this will do nicely. Still a good brew but “nutterbutters” I steeped it too long and it’s orange. I have found that’s a sure fire way to know you have steeped green tea for too long. It turns orange. Still pretty good though. Cheers.

As it turns out, night time is not a good time for drinking this tea. I had a craving for something full of umami and and hint of smoke. Shoulda stuck with my Tencha Houjicha from Den’s. That’s a tasty tea that’s low on caffeine!

This tea is tasty too! Clearly I wouldn’t have pumped myself full of caffeine at 9PM if it wasn’t. :) It’s a total mystery to me how this tea can taste like concentrated umami and other teas can taste like fruit or chocolate. Tea is magical! There is something really familiar about the flavor in this one. It’s like a food that I can’t put my finger on. What is it??? It smells like the inside of a Chinese dry foods store. Where they sell dried squids, dried scallops, dried mushrooms, dried herbs and roots and nut and berries. Dried everything you can imagine! It smells like that store. Any body have experience with such stores know what I’m talking about? Next time you pass by a store in China town with open bins of mysterious dried things for sale, walk in and take a good sniff. Then try this tea and tell me if I’m crazy.

I found a tiny bit of this left over as well, and so I’m in use-up-samples mode before I compile my order of new teas for 2012.

I’m bumping this up a bit having had it on the heels of the Xin Yang Mao Jian. The two are so different that I’m able to appreciate this cup a lot more than the last time I tasted it.

The Xin Yang Mao Jian is delicate and shy. This is big, bold, strong and a bit unrefined (but not in a bad way). I love the Xin Yang Mao Jian in my delicate little gaiwan but I feel like I should be drinking this Chun Mei out of my 16 ounce mug with the Ester Island face on it.

The color is a deep golden and yet the flavor has very little roast this time. This is like an untamed thicket of rioting green foliage.

I’ve had a few smokey green tea before but this one is unique. It has a cool tingly sweet aftertaste that reminds me of orchid and ginseng oolongs. It didn’t come out till the second steep and is most strong in the third. I hadn’t experienced it in a green before neat! It is a bit bitter at the front and charcoaly, but the lingering taste on my tongue and in my throat are worth it. Thanks Michelle for sharing this one!

I was looking through my sample box, looking for a green tea this morning, and I stumbled across this one. I can’t believe I forgot I had it!

The dry leaf is a dark-scented, almost like a light Darjeeling. The pieces are small and fairly broken, and although I’m drinking it out of my TARDIS mug (I can’t get over it. It’s fantastic.) it’s a mid-range light yellow.

It tastes the way it smells, sort of a darker green with hints of pepper and cucumber. It’s a bit bitter, but as my tea kettle only does 180 and 212 with accuracy, I had to guess for the 195. It’s good, though. It’s a hearty green.

Ooh, here we go. This is what I like in a green tea. I know it seems weird, but I didn’t know what I was “tasting for” in them before. I had experienced so few that I didn’t know what characteristics I liked and wanted to pursue.

The smokiness pleases the black tea lover in me. It’s more in the scent than the taste; subtle. I don’t exactly taste the plum that Teavivre describes, but I sense some sort of creaminess that I’m also liking. There are no strong vegetable or seaweed tastes to it, which I’m still adjusting to. Maybe a little nuttiness. Anyway, this is really good. I’m going to have to explore Chun Mei, I think.

Another free sample generously provided to me by TeaVivre!

Dry leaf: Small and dark green leaves that smelled of spinach. They were whole, but the leaves were so small that they resembled a BOP grade, almost. I understand the reasoning behind the short steep time when looking at the leaves.

Steeped leaf: Once steeped, the liquor is a light brown – the fact it is so dark is surprising given I’ve steeped some greens for 2 minutes and only gotten a pale green. The smell is quite brothy and savory, and as it cools, almost…floral, strangely enough.

The taste is…strong. And very different. It’s drying like a white wine on the tongue, but not thin or watery. It seems kind of bitter, but that plum aftertaste was there – it seemed a bit metallic, though. It is definitely memorable and different than any other green tea I’ve tried. As it cools most of the dryness and the sharpness in the aftertaste fades away. It leaves more of a sour nuttiness in its stead.

Overall: I’m glad I got to try it but I don’t know that it’s a tea I want to keep on hand. It could be the fact that it shares so many qualities with wine or sake – I don’t drink alcohol because I can’t stand the taste and so this is has unpleasant associations to me. Maybe later steeps will be more to my liking?