Anji Bai Cha Green Tea

July Sipdown Prompt – your oldest green tea

I love this tea, so why did I let it get past the best by date? I have such a tendency to reach for black tea or flavored greens that I don’t get around to my unflavored greens.

Nowhere near a sipdown, but I will continue to drink this as a big glass of cold tea this summer so I will have an excuse to buy fresh…and drink it on time.

This is my final spring 2022 green tea from Teavivre. I’ve been interested in Anji Bai Cha for a while, and decided to order a sample along with my green tea gift set. I steeped about 4 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 185F for 30, 30, 45, 60, 80, 120, and 240 seconds, plus a few uncounted steeps. I also bowl steeped about 1.5 g of tea in 200 ml of 185F water for 5 minutes, adding more water as needed.

The dry aroma of these pretty needle-shaped leaves is of green beans, citrus, umami, and nuts. The first and second steeps have a brothy texture and notes of green beans, soybeans, asparagus, citrus, orange zest, chestnuts, and umami. The next couple steeps become more vegetal, with asparagus, spinach, grass, butter, and beans, though the citrus is still detectable. The tea is not getting as bitter as other greens. The final steeps are predictably vegetal, though some of the citrus and beany flavour remains.

Bowl steeped, the tea reveals all of these notes, plus some spring florals around the middle of the session. The umami isn’t as pronounced, and there’s no astringency. The tea just fades into grass and veggies.

I’m glad I decided to purchase this tea. The citrus and chestnut make the vegetal profile more dynamic, and it never becomes as bitter as some of the other green teas I’ve tried. This is one of my top three teas from this Teavivre order, along with the Bi Luo Chun and Huo Shan Huang Ya.

My spring greens from Teavivre arrived at last after being stuck in customs for nearly 60 days. I was worried about the delay affecting freshness but if this Anji Bai Cha is any indication, they seem to have held up pretty well.

Upon opening the pouch, I was greeted with a potent aroma of freshly mowed grass, straw, and green beans. I steeped just under 2g in an 8 oz glass, grandpa style. Super delicious. Notes of warm grass and fresh spring vegetables. Thick with gentle chestnut and a green pea like sweetness. Clean tasting and has a light and airy quality to it despite being full bodied. Just a wonderful tea all around and well worth the wait!

Instagram photo: https://bit.ly/3feLfXN

I had read that one of the reasons Anji Bai Cha is so healthy for you is because less of the theanine is converted to chlorophyll, and therefore, it has a much higher theanine content, ~3-4% higher than most green teas. Theanine has lots of health benefits, if curious, there is a lot of data on it. I personally like the relaxation aspect but it doesn’t make you sleepy at all. Adds concentration and mental alertness.

The dry leaves are long and slender, a pale green, sharp looking. The dry leaves had a slightly grassy aroma, and the extremely pale yellow-greenish liquor also had a slightly grassy aroma with hints of fruits, citrus.

Deeply umami. Rich and smooth mouthfeel. Slightly nutty, maybe chestnut. Definitely vegetal: Asparagus, celery, green beans, some soybean notes. Don’t quote me but I believe the high presence of amino acids also contribute to this thick mouthfeel, the brothy-ness, a little sweetness in some infusions, and alas, a complex tea. It’s full of amino acids that help lower cortisone, therefore reducing stress levels.

Very nice.