I ordered a mystery box from The Sweetest Dew, and this was one of the teas I got. This is a wok fried Mao Feng from Qimen, which is apparently saltier and more edamame forward than regular Mao Feng. Following some instructions on TeaForum, I steeped 3 g of leaf in 120 ml of nearly boiling water for 60, 70, 80, 90, and 100 seconds, plus 2, 3, 5, and 10 minutes.
The aroma of the dry leaves is of smoke, grass, and salted edamame. The first couple steeps are smokey, salty, sweet, and slightly drying, with vegetal notes similar to lettuce and edamame. Though I usually find smoke to be off-putting, this tastes like slightly charred barbecued veggies with lots of salt and is actually kind of fun. Steeps three and four are still smokey and saline while becoming more vegetal, with kale and asparagus added to the beans. By the next couple steeps, the smoke is mostly gone and the tea is increasingly vegetal, though still somewhat sweet. The final steeps have a light, vegetal flavour with some minerality.
It’s hard to give this tea a rating because it’s so far from what I’m used to drinking. However, I think it’s high quality and well worth trying if you know what to expect. The wok frying really comes forward in those first few steeps.
Flavors: Asparagus, Drying, Edamame, Grass, Kale, Lettuce, Mineral, Saline, Smoke, Sweet, Vegetal
