GREEN HILL TEA: "JADE OOLONG (PREMIUM)"

{ That's some jade there, all right. }  

Jade Oolong, (Premium) by Green Hill Tea.

My students wanted to know what "jaded" meant. Of course, I knew the basic meaning: to be tired, cynical, unenthusiastic. But going to the more obvious meaning, it means a faded green, a pale echo of the bright color we see in our mind when we imagine that color.

Green Hill does not identify the source of their Jade Oolong, other than to say it's a high-mountain (2200 feet) crop from China. Generally speaking, I like to know where a tea is from, because I'm still learning and want to educate my palette as I taste. 

So in this case, I rely entirely upon my observations. I infuse with water just below boiling. Unfortunately,  here at work, I rely upon an electric kettle of filtered water, rather than my Japanese white charcoal setup I have at home. 

Dry, the leaves are tight and richly green, and quite fragrant. Wet, they take on a seaweed aroma, not unpleasant, which reminds me of the scent of the seashore. I depend on my sense of smell for my first introduction to a tea, and this is . . . okay, but not an unadorned delight. So this tea is not all about the aroma of the wet leaves, then. Good to know.

The wet leaves are a characteristic Chinese oolong: large leaves, which have readily opened up in the first steeping. So not very tightly twisted. Quite a bit of complete leaf, some broken, very little stem.

FIRST STEEPING. The liquor is -- wait for it -- a pale, jade green. You didn't see that coming at all, did you. The tea is good, quite good. It's a straight shooter, with a moderate vegetal quality, a flowery high range, and very little at the bottom of the register. Smooth, but with a hint of drying, a touch of an edge, which sharpens the senses. This tea wants you to stop and pay attention to it, rather than sitting good-naturedly and minding its own business. I enjoy its smoothness, and the huigan, or aftertaste (one of the few Chinese words I easily remember, so I use it often) holds in the mouth for minutes. Again, quite a straight shooter. The flavor of the tea and the huigan are closely linked, and I do not get a wide variety of flavors that develop in my mouth and nose over time. Though the tea liquor itself is green, it doesn't taste green, if you catch my meaning. It tastes golden-orange: mellow, a hint of brightness, burnished, open, not overpowering.

SECOND STEEPING. On the second steeping, I went rather long, with a moderate amount of leaf. The appearance of the cup is still a clean, pale green, as transparent as you would hope it would be. The cutting edge of the tea has arrived, and the vegetal note is more pronounced. This is not an especially assertive tea, so if you want a tea so strong you can stand a spoon up in it, you'd be better off with a meaty assam or an opinionated Ceylon mix. But even here, the smoothness and laid-back quality of the first steeping is long gone. This oolong is balanced between the acidic brightness, the slight dryness, and the overarching floral smoothness. Nicely done.

SO WHAT ARE THESE OBSERVATIONS ALL ABOUT? you may ask. I want to remember what I drink. I want to remember what I think when I'm cupping tea. Flavor and aroma are tightly bound to memory and place, and I want to capture some of my life I pass through it. This moment is green oolong, lightly sharp flavor, blue sky, end of winter, bare trees, deadlines I need to meet, anxiety I'm holding down, beloved by family, enjoying my teaching job, quiet moment in the midst of some familiar struggles, needing more sleep, wishing I were traveling, enjoying Shakespeare's "As You Like It," and trying to get back to work captioning. In other words, pretty much a normal morning, with a lovely cup of tea worthy of attention, rather than just let slip by unnoticed and unmarked.

Tasting Notes: Green Hill Tea: OC Royal Pu-erh

Brainsssssss.

I love tea, even though it's been a while since I felt up to writing about it. But the full moon is out, and the forces of darkness are resurrecting The 39 Steeps blog, dragging it from its shallow grave to shamble among the living again. Brainssssssss.

Or something like that. Really, I'd like to just talk a bit about Green Hill Tea's OC Royal Pu-erh.

The zombie imagery suggested itself to me by way of drinking this powerful, deeply black pu-erh, which I can feel pulsing through my nervous system. And with my wicked mood this morning, it seems even more appropriate. Brainssssssss.

The Royal Pu-erh looks like a typical yellow-tippy Yunnan tea, coming in loose-leaf rather than in compacted form. It's a shu pu-erh, from all appearances, meaning it was processed to hasten its appearance of aging.

Now, when this process was invented, it was viewed by aficionados as a way of cheating the system-- of taking a tea and making it look older than it really is. People can't always wait around for a green pu-erh to age 30 years to drink it, and the market had exceeded demand. So clever manufacturers took the green pu and ran it through some sort of wet-heat process, whereby the tea was artifically made to darken and take on the appearance of a time-fermented tea. Quelle horreur! The real problem was that often this type of shu was passed off as an aged tea, when it was not. And these shu pu-erhs may not age as well as a properly prepared and cared-for green pu, thus making them a bit less valuable.

That being said, there's much to enjoy about a shu pu-erh, drunk on its own terms, without any pretension that it is something it is not. A shu-pu (a phrase you can pop out in your next business meeting, to wow the customers and make them think very highly of your intellect) can be very enjoyable and fun as a self-drinker, without any need for further aging.

Now to Green Hill Tea's OC Royal Pu-erh. This does not appear on their Web site, and hopefully they will begin to market it along with their other excellent offerings. (As a reminder, I love, love, love their lapsang souchong, which they also market under various names as bohea lapsang and so on. Easily the best lapsang I've ever encountered.)


THE PREPARATION

RINSE: 10S
I prepared the pu in my Yixing pu-erh pot, and gave it a 10-second rinse, then poured it over my Yixing and warmed up my cups and fairness pitcher. This way, everything was happily warmed up for the next step.

RINSE: 10S
And I did it again. Typically, with shu pu-erh, I don't enjoy the first couple steepings because they taste more like what I suppose is the storage facility than the tea itself.

STEEPING 1: 15S
The first steeping was lackluster, though bracing in its effect on my nervous system. Dark mahogany in color, the liquor has a nicely earthy, mushroomy aroma, with a lightly tangy spice in the high notes.

STEEPING 2: 15S
Well, this steeping had to be made after an hour wait, so the tea was, again, rather lackluster. My life keeps interrupting my ability to sit down over a long tea session, and these gaps in the tea production obviously affect the next steeping.

STEEPING 3: 15s
The leaves in the pot smell precisely like the liquor, which is kind of surprising, because that is not typically the case. The pure black leaves have no begun unfurling yet (at least, not so I would notice), and the tea session is still in its infancy. The liquor is a nearly opaque black, with a reddish tint, still, when viewed in the clear pot. Now the tea takes on an astringency, a dryness, with a woody dampness that softens the impact of the astringency. So far, I'm not bowled over by the pu-erh, but I'm interested to see what the next steepings will do. I've read that pu-erh drinking doesn't even really get started until the fifth steeping.

STEEPING 4: 20S
The tea is staying fairly consistent: fairly light, woody, but the astringency has diminished noticeably.

STEEPING 5: 25s
I thought to lengthen the amount of steeping time, to make the tea have a bit more personality. The pu has taken on a lighter transparency, with the reddish tint more pronounced. Aroma is pronounced and there's a pleasing mouthfeel: full and satisfying. It's a nice, though rather light, pu. I was sparing in the water to give it a greater strength, but it still sits a bit too lightly on the palate. For future, I'll lengthen the steeping times a bit.

AND THAT'S ALL I CAN WRITE! Cramming writing into my schedule is so difficult at this time in my life, and this little blog post has been interrupted so many times, that I am frustrated about the experience. Bleh. Well, at least the tea is good! I feel a bit less zombielike, though my mood is still black as I would think the undead would experience, as they cannot enjoy tea.

REVIEW: Green Hill Tea, Lapsang Souchong (Two Grades)

Green Hill Tea

(Please note update at end, with personal e-mail from none other than Norwood Pratt about this tea.)

My Internet friend, George Zhang, sent me several very delicious Lapsang Souchong teas recently, which were very popular with my family and friends. Also, a reviewer on TeaReviews.com, who is the resident Lapsang Souchong maven, wrote that Green Hill's LSs were "da bomb." I anxiously await her formal review on the Tea Reviews Web site to hear the rest of her thoughts.

You can purchase this tea here: http://greenhilltea.com/id20.html. Strangely, George's Web site does not reflect the various grades and prices of his different Lapsang Souchong teas, including those reviewed here. I would recommend contacting them directly via the Web site, in order to ensure you are getting the correct product. It is definitely worth the extra effort, and George Zhang is very helpful.


THE BACKGROUND
For me, as I've chronicled elsewhere, when I began my journey into the world of tea, I discovered LS many years ago, and I overdosed on it. After that, I have avoided smoky teas (including Russian Caravan, and some English Breakfast blends). When I mentioned this on Facebook, George challenged me that he thought his LS could win me over. I took him up on his challenge. He won.

I would like to invite you, fair reader, to explore high-end Lapsang Souchong further in a couple other blog posts I created regarding Green Hill's Lapsang Souchongs. In particular, the location and method of preparation for these teas, and how they are set apart from cheaper, less authentic LSs, may spell the difference between loving and hating this kind of tea. I know many people cannot stand Lapsang Souchong, who might love this tea because it is grown in the ancestral home of this type of tea, using just the right type of leaf, smoked in just the right way with just the right kind of pine tree. Because these specialized elements cost a lot to bring to the market, it's good to know that this is definitely worth it.

Link here:

http://39steeps.blogspot.com/2009/04/interesting-video-lapsong-souchong-tong.html

and especially here:

http://39steeps.blogspot.com/2009/04/review-lapsang-souchong-from-dong-mu.html



THE TEAS

Lapsang Souchong Special Grade

PREPARATION: 3 minutes, water just under boiling, 1 tsp to 1 cup

"Special" grade is the Green Hill Tea middle grade of LS. It was smooth, light, and the smoke was not at all overwhelming. There was a very pleasing huigan [sweet aftertaste] of roasted honey, which was quite surprisingly sweet for an unsweetened, smoked tea. Even my seven-year-old boy was able to drink this with no sugar or milk, because it was not in the least bitter. The liquor is a beautiful golden color.



Silver Tippy Lapsang (Top Grade)

Preparation: 3 minutes, just under boiling

I heated up the pot with the steam as the pot came up the boil. The aroma that came from the pot was very surprising-- bright, almost floral, with only a hint of smoke, but not at all overwhelming. Wow, so very fragrant.


THE CUP

SMOOTH, smooth, and very smooth. Very restrained, not too smoky at all. The cup is a very shiny, rich amber color.

My wife said: "Smooth. I'm not tasting any bitterness on my tongue right now."

It's in the aftertaste that the very high quality of this tea declares itself. The lingering huigan is honey, pine smoke, and a wisp of orchids or lilacs. Surprisingly mild, fragrant tea, and as smooth as glass or spun silk, without a hint of the acrid burn or heaviness one would expect from a typical Lapsang Souchong. What an extraordinary cup of tea.


UPDATE: Patty at TeaViews.com writes:

BTW, I mentioned that tea to Norwood Pratt in passing (in an email), and received this back --

"I bet I know that Bohea you love--it's from the Jiang Family back in the Wuyi Nature Reserve if I'm thinking of the right stuff--simply the world's best."

REVIEW: 2001 Pu-erh, Green Hill Tea

My friend George Zhang, who lives in China (GreenHillTea.com) sent me a 2001 pu-erh, for which I am very grateful tonight, because I'm depending on it to help me through a surprise all-night project. I don't know much more about this specific vintage of tea, but I'm looking forward to trying it out. George has been very generous, and I look forward to trying a new kind of pu-erh.

For those who haven't read my previous forays into pu, I'll tell you now that I'm a novice who is very keen to learn more. I'm becoming fairly aware of what is happening in my mouth, and I'm very good at following directions. So I'm following George's suggestions, which he wrote on the packet of pu-erh he sent.


THE LEAVES
The leaves look like a normal loose-leaf black tea's: small, brown-and-black twists. Dry, the leaves smell earthy, of course, but also of berries and fruit. I am creating a rather relaxed gong-faux setting for myself tonight. I don't have Chinese gongfu or Yixing, so my great-grandmother's porcelain Japanese teapot will have to do. I'm hoping for a bit of the Qi, or the energy, or what have you, to sustain me on what's turning out to be a late night. I will try to have steepings that range from 10s to 30s, in general, and just see what happens.


2001 PU-ERH GONG-FAUX FLIGHT

RINSE
I rinsed twice for 20s each, with very hot water. This is to wash off any dust, and it helps to smooth out the flavor of the tea later. I am using reverse-osmosis Culligan water, which I have switched to from my normal Brita-filtered tap water, which I wasn't too happy with.

1st Steeping: 35s
My first steeping was about 35s long, water just off the boil. Pu-erh is drunk with lots of short steepings, which allow the different layers of flavor to be revealed as they develop. Longer steeps are certainly possible, but the short-steep method is one that most pu-erh connoisseurs enjoy the most.

From what I understand, it seems this is a cooked shu pu-erh, not a bitter green one. The cup is dark brown but perfectly transparent to the bottom of the cup. This first steeping is pretty restrained, which is pretty common with this type of tea. I detect an oaky nuttiness ("Oh, I'm detecting nuttiness"), and a very buttery-smooth, slightly dry mouthfeel, with a slight tickle or burn at the very back of my throat after I swallow. When I get toward the bottom of the white porcelain cup, I see the liquor really has a peach, almost pinkish tone to the color.


2nd Steeping: 20s
I'm sitting here, with my nose stuck in the cerulean blue pot, trying to think of how to describe this aroma. It is very mineral, but very forestlike-- like cedar, and like mushrooms, and like a gravel path. The taste of the tea is a bit more bitter than before, not quite as smooth. Definitely, this steeping has sharp edges to it. There's a rather pleasant heat, or burn, in the throat as it goes down.

3rd Steeping: 25s
On the third steeping, the liquor is still fairly dark brown, but it's getting lighter. The aroma in the cup is still very woodsy, and the leaves are a bright, spicy smell, but not as mineral as before. The aroma is a subtle, wine-like scent, very rich and complex. I am definitely starting to enjoy the smell more as we go along.

SIDE NOTE: ON WRITING REVIEWS WHILE DRINKING TEA

This is probably something that could exist on its own as a complete blog post, but I'm thinking about this in the middle of the tasting, waiting for the next cup to cool a bit, and trying to caffeinate myself into a long night of working.

I was reading The Leaf recently, and an article struck me-- I'll have to source it later, when I have the energy-- which talked extensively about reviewers who did not really know anything, and who were more interested in talking than in listening to others more wise than themselves. Well, naturally, this struck me as being about me, because I'm blogging. But I'm definitely trying to learn and digest what I'm learning, and I hope I do not pass myself off as anything other than what I am-- an enthusiast who is eager to know more.

At any rate, in the article, the writer mentioned how important it is to just stop and close the eyes, smelling and tasting the tea, rather than thinking of what I'm supposed to be writing about next, or how I'll describe this, or how to stay interesting to a reader, rather than simply being. This is probably the trap of any critic: being more in love with the act of critiquing than in the thing itself.

And here I am: People are kind enough to send me samples of their teas, and I am more than happy to write about my experiences, in hope that someone may be edified in some small way. And, of course, to chart my own course, so that at some point, I can go back to my own writing and move forward rather than simply go in circles. But in the middle of this, I may be missing some of the more rarefied heights of tea meditation, as I type at a laptop instead of sitting crosslegged in a Japanese garden somewhere. But nevertheless, I love what I do.

Finishing the third steeping, as it cools, I find the mouthfeel is lighter than before. I'm going to go and start my work, and I'll come up here and continue my review later, when I need my next shot of caffeine.

4th Steeping: 20s
The 2:27 a.m. steeping is substantially lighter in color, a transparent, dark amber-pink now. A new, high, bright taste is appearing now-- a little like buttered popcorn, oddly enough, though that description seems a bit misleading, because there is now a rather dry, clean mouthfeel, and no burn in the throat to speak of. So far, this is my favorite steeping, because the lightness and sharpness of the flavors really suit my palate.

5th Steeping: 25s
The tea's appearance is now that of a second-flush Darjeeling: light, transparent amber-pink, perfectly clear, very clean looking. Drunk hot, the tea has very little flavor to it that I can detect-- tastes like hot water. I'll let it cool and allow my palate to refresh, so I can hopefully get something from this. I look forward to starting to experience subtleties that would have been drowned out earlier.... And allowing the temp. to drop a bit, I am experiencing the return of a mineral quality to the flavor, very bright and distinct. That heavier, buttery, oaky flavor from earlier is just the faintest whiff, underneath the sharper dry, metallic taste I get now. If drunk while cool, this is not very appealing, so best to drink when moderately hot.


6th Steeping: 45s
I'd like to say, it's the middle of the night, and I have a lot of energy to complete my work. I have no idea how I'll feel in the morning, but right now I'm doing fine. The pu-ehr is working its magic, and I'm lucid but not jittery. Note to college students: Quit drinking coffee for all nighters-- which used to cause me GI distress and serious nervous tension-- and switch to drinking a pu flight instead.
I'm not entirely happy with the flavor of the tea at this point, because again it seems like rather mineral-tasting water when drunk very hot. Cooled down to Warm, the tea remembers itself a bit. The mouthfeel is rather watery at this point, though, so I think I'll hang it up and finish the tea flight.

OVERALL IMPRESSION
The pu-erh seems to have a lot of Qi, which I believe is the term aficionados use to describe the energy in the tea, which is distinct from the effects that can be explained by caffeine alone. Thank you, George, for another great tea experience!

2009 Spring Longjing tea, Green Hill Tea

2009 Spring Longjing tea (Dragonwell), GreenHillTea.com

http://stores.ebay.com/Green-Hill-Tea

I'm a pretty enthusiastic tea drinker, because it affords me so many opportunities to indulge in surprising flavors and aromas. Recently a friend of mine, George from GreenHillTea.com, sent me a sample of his Dragonwell-style tea, and I loved it.

Now, because this is a moderately priced longjing that does not originate in West Lake (although it does come from the correct region, Zhejiang Province, China), I feel a need to curb my enthusiasm. But I don't want to. I like it!

For years, I have focused almost entirely on Darjeeling and other Himalayan highgrown teas, which have been my passion and great pleasure. But in the last year, I've finally been delving into the Chinese greens and oolongs. And me being me, I feel a need to learn everything I can about the new types of teas I'm drinking.


THE HISTORY
Throughout the centuries, China's emperors demanded tribute teas from the various regions. This is the origin of the Chinese 10 Famous Teas. The list is somewhat changeable, but everyone agrees that Longjing (or Lung Ching, or Long Jing, or other interpretations as the Chinese is transliterated into English) is at the top of the list. Happily, the world is now allowed to drink what used to be the privilege of emperors and their favored friends.

Longjing literally means "Dragon Well" tea, which is because all the dragons who live in wells really like this tea. Or something. Anyway, a fanciful name for an unusual tea. The leaves look quite unusual: they are flattened spears, with a slightly shiny appearance. This is because each Longjing-style tea needs to be processed by professionals who use the 10 Steps, or 10 hand motions that must be precisely followed to shape the tea like this.

I think the reason a lot of people like to drink green teas scented with other things (ginger, or flowers, or fruits), is because they haven't ever tasted a green like this, which naturally has so much complexity that to put something in it would be absurd.

This tea is the 2009 Spring Flush Longjing, which means it was only picked a couple weeks ago, and it's perfectly fresh. They're still right in the middle of the Spring harvest season, which is finishing up shortly, I think, and they're working around the clock to produce these teas. To get an idea of what goes into making the great green teas of China, please read this article: http://the-leaf.org/Issue1/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/chinas-legendary-spring-green-teas.pdf

I am thinking about how the best first-flush Darjeelings seem to bend toward how this green tea is tasting: brilliant, complex, bright, and wonderfully fragrant. I've never noticed how a black and a green tea could be so similar, but it's like that sweet spot where Mozart and Beethoven seem to reach toward one another.

Now, Longjing is traditionally sourced from a single place, Zhejiang Province, and from the West Lake. (However, there are many 'longjing'-style teas, which are made in 14 different provinces throughout China. But it's important to try to find a tea that comes from the right province, in the same way you would want your champagne to be from Champagne.)

There are about 30 different subvarieties of Zhejiang Province longjing, and this one comes from JiuFen Mountain, in JinHua. George tells me it's quite an ordinary longjing-- fairly moderately priced, around $90 per pound-- and it's not the very high-end tea from the region that can run easily over $200 per pound.

Because I don't have a wide variety of experience with longjing to weigh this tea against, I can only enjoy it on its own, freshly and without preconceptions.

Note to self: Definitely go search out different grades and styles of Zhejiang longjing!


THE PREPARATION
Water brought to boil then cooled to 80C, steeped 3 minutes in Great-Grandma's porcelain Japanese teapot.

THE LEAVES
Ridiculously Fragrant.

The aroma that met me when I opened the packet of 2009 Spring Longjing from GreenHillTeas.com was knock-your-socks-off intense, an exquisite citrus-and-ocean-green scent that I just cannot believe hasn't been turned into a perfume by some French parfumeur.

THE CUP
The liquor is a pale yellow, perfectly transparent liquid. The flavor is same as fragrance-- pine, citrus, ocean, sweet, and delightful.

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS
Well, because I can't compare this against other longjings, I can only say that my family and I truly enjoyed the experience. It's very pleasant, every once in a while, to find a moderately priced tea that one can derive great pleasure from. In the words of MarshalN, of A Tea Addict's Journal:

Remember -- good tea is rarely cheap, but cheap tea can be good, and most importantly, expensive teas are not guaranteed to be good at all.

REVIEW: Green Hill Tea, Silver Needle White Tea, Spring 2009

YESTERDAY, I reviewed Red Leaf Tea's 2008 Bai Mu Dan white tea, and found it to be very restrained, perhaps to a fault. As I wrote then, "Peony White is a white, unprocessed tea that is called bai mu dan in Chinese, and it is one grade lower than silver needle, bai hao yinzhen." The tea left me wondering about how drinking the 2009 would compare. because I'd be drinking it fresh.

Well, unfortunately, I don't have Red Leaf's 2009 to compare (yet), but I do have the Spring 2009 Green Hill Tea Silver Needle. This tea is very fresh, having just been plucked a couple weeks ago.

PREPARATION
The Web site suggests boiling water, 3-7 minutes steeping time. I am going to use water at a slightly lower temperature, boiled then brought down to 70C, for 7 minutes, the first time I steep this tea. I do find the lower temperatures to be helpful with white teas. However, I will also make my second pot at a higher temperature for a shorter time, to see how the tea fares.

THE TEA
Silver Needle, or Bai Hao Yin Zhen (also called white beatitude), is a Chinese white tea that is created by plucking the most tender buds at the very first plucking of spring. White tea has become quite famous for its health properties, which are the enhanced by the fact that this tea is (relatively speaking) untouched: it's not fermented, not heavily oxidized, and so on.

THE LEAVES
Beautiful olive or forest green buds with fine silver hair, gives the tea a shimmering silvery quality. Upon steeping, the leaves become a lovely spring green, with very little aroma.

THE CUP

Pot 1, 70C for 7 minutes
This tea is a transparent, pale gold with a moderately strong green flavor and a very slight, drying astringency in the mouthfeel. The aroma is very faint. The tea is very clean and smooth, with a bright tone. I notice a very faint floral note very high up, perhaps being picked up by my nose more than by my mouth. The flavor is a very singular event, without much layering or complexity, and it does not develop over time, but rather maintaining a very consistent flavor profile throughout the experience.

Pot 2, 100C for 3 minutes
Using fresh leaves, I steeped this in a different way to see what would happen. Tea is all about science!

This tea has a strong first impression as it his the palate, and then becomes progressively quieter and quieter. Slight dryness to the mouthfeel, and a touch of earthiness to the sweetness. About five seconds after each sip, there's a rather floral note that rises up and catches my attention. It's pinging a memory chord that I just cannot isolate. What is that flavor?!

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS
Quite a nice cup of tea. The white teas are a bit restrained for my palate, but nevertheless very pleasant, when I'm in the mood for something clean and subtle.

(The image, by the way, is of the Green Hill from the Sonic the Hedgehog video game. What can I say? It amused me.)

REVIEW: Green Hill Tea, Sencha

Green Hill Tea
Sencha
http://greenhilltea.com/id25.html


Green Hill Tea (Thank you, George) sent me a packet of Sencha to review. Their Web site provides the following information:

This is a traditional Japanese-style green tea with tightly rolled, needle-shaped leaves. It’s steamed and contains high antioxidants. It was picked in early spring. The liquor is bright in color, with a clean finish. This is the everyday green tea in Japan.

Brew hint: Place one tea spoon into a cup; brew with 175-195ºF water for 3-7 minute.

THE PREPARATION
4 teaspoons of tea, in 4 cups water that was taken to the boil and then pulled back to 80C, and steeped about 3:15 in Japanese tetsubin, a cast-iron pot with enamel interior. Yes, I know it's not a proper Japanese tea set, but I try to make do.

THE LEAVES
These leaves are very strongly fragrant. They're a forest green, and very tightly furled into needle shapes (just as advertised on the Web site). There is a grassy lemon smell. It's amazing how distinct the different teas can smell. Human ingenuity is so impressive to me. One reason I love tea, in particular, is that it is the culmination of thousands of years of human endeavor and creativity, and a drive to excellence and beauty. And these leavs are a prime example of that. How do they come to smell so sharp and lemony, with that green grass scent? I am so glad for my sense of smell! How lucky of the Japanese to be able to have this as their everyday drink.

THE STEEPED LEAVES
The leaves completely unfurled, revealing broken pieces, most maybe an eighth to half an inch, of a very even olive green complexion, with some stem that I didn't notice when the dry leaves were in these tight needle shapes. They have a faint (not overpowering) seaside smell, like seaweed, and salt water, and faint hints of that wonderfully complex smell of decomposition you get when walking on a beach. And with all of this, a touch of lemon or citrus. (Did I mention, I think smelling the leaves is a wonderful way to start to get to know a tea, even before tasting it.)

THE CUP
Green and transparent, but just a touch of cloudiness to it. The scent of the tea is very unlike that of the leaves, dry or spent. It's a very laid-back scent. It appears all the power of this cup is in the actual tastebuds, not in the nose.

The flavor is what I associate with Japanese food-- seaside, seaweed, grass... in short, a pretty good match for the scent of the leaves. There are bright, grassy notes, along with sort of a richness-- it must be that sense of "umami," the elusive fifth flavor, which is explicated here... http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15819485 This is a very fun read, though just slightly off topic.

This tea would go beautifully with some extremely rich dark chocolate, perhaps. I wish I had some to try out my theory!

The aftertaste seems to be sensed from the back of the throat, with a rich loamy sensation. Very nice. I almost think rich, dark aftertaste is nicer than the up-front brightness in the cup.

THE SECOND CUP
Ah, the all-important second cup, where the rubber hits the road, in my mind. I like to make at least two cups in one steeping, to let the second cup cool just a bit and allow the more complex flavors an opportunity to develop, by way of all the complex chemistry in a pot of tea.

The color of the second cup has taken on a more brown-gold appearance, and it is cloudier than its first cup.

It now has a much sharper edge to it. The flavors are more pronounced, the brightness enhanced. Had I only made one cup, my impression of this tea would be completely different. The mouthfeel is very full-bodied, for a green tea. The sharpness is primarily felt in the back of the mouth, like eating a very sharp grapefruit or something. There's a lemony fragrance that is quite pronounced. But the deeper notes, the umami, are very noticeable in the mouth, and that makes it, for me, a very satisfying drink.

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS
Thanks, George, again, for an enjoyable tea! It's a serious tea, and I am very grateful the opportunity to learn more about sencha with this sample.

Side note: My wife doesn't really love this tea, because she is very used to black teas. She needed a little bit of sugar to cut the edge off of it. She finds it to be a bit woody, not grassy. She had the second cup, though, and I wonder if she would have liked the lighter first cup better.

REVIEW: Green Hill Tea, Jasmine Pearls

My Facebook friend George sent me a few teas to sample, and his company's Jasmine Pearl Scented Green Tea is what I'll review today.

THE TEA
Green Hill Tea
http://greenhilltea.com/
Jasmine Pearl

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Upon opening the foil package, we were confronted by a very strong floral, almost perfume smell. I don't typically drink flavored or scented teas (particularly the chocolate-raspberry-souffle type flavors one often sees today), but I also know that scenting green teas with jasmine is a tradition with a long pedigree, so let's give it a try.

I do not know the background of the tea itself-- what tea farm it comes from, which time of the year it was harvested, that kind of thing. The Web site gives me the following:

PEARL JASMINE

It is made by rolling the tender shoots of the green tea leaves and buds into pearl shape and is scented with fresh jasmine petals. When steeped, these leaves unfold as if the flowers open up. The strong fragrant aroma from Jasmine Pearl tea is fresh and persistent. The taste is delicious and mellow. The hue of this tea is a light peach color. It goes well with savory foods, or it may be enjoyed alone as a soothing digestive.

Brew hint: Place one tea spoon into a cup; brew with 175-195 F water for 3-7 minute.

PREPARATION
4 cups water, 4 heaping teaspoons of tea pearls. Brought water to boil, let cool to 84C. Steeped in great-grandma's heated Japanese teapot. 2 minutes steeping time.

THE LEAVES
Before brewing, they were jade-green balls about 1/8 of an inch across, perhaps. As I understand it, rolling or otherwise manipulating teas into these complex, compressed shapes helps maintain the tea quality longer. That is, if there is less surface area available to react to the oxygen in the air surrounding the leaves, then the tea will stay fresher longer. Plus, they're more enjoyable to look at!

After steeping, the leaves did not keep their rolled appearance, obviously, but they were rather like long needles-- they stayed tightly furled, though no longer curled. The leaves after steeping were much less fragrant with the jasmine scent than they were before. Perhaps all that scent was transferred to the water?

THE CUP
The liquor's appearance is pale gold, without even a hint of green. The scent does remind me of the jasmine, but faintly-- an echo of the earlier scent, which seemed so strong when I removed the pearls from the packaging. I'm glad about that, because if the tea was that strong, I don't think it would have been pleasant.

The flavor is surprisingly restrained, for a jasmine-scented thing. I don't really taste the green tea, though I sense it in the rather dry mouthfeel. The tastes on my tongue have an odd "spiking" effect, whereby the flavor of jasmine suddenly pops up its head, then retreats, then pops up again later. I think it has something to do with my breathing pattern, and how the scent in the back of my throat is picked up by my nose as I inhale. That shows me that this tea is mainly being flavored by its scent.

It reminds me of that old story of the poor boy who told his upstairs neighbor (a parsimonious old rich gentleman) how glad he was that the rich old man would cook delicious-smelling food, because it made the poor boy's bowl of rice taste better. The old man was enraged by this and took the poor boy to court to make him pay for having his rice bowl scented by the rich man's food. The judge wisely made the poor boy take out all the money he had, and then shake it, causing the coins to jingle together. The rich old man's eyes lit up with satisfaction at the sound. "There," said the judge, "that sound will be your payment in full."

Anyway, this first cup of tea is all about the scent of jasmine, which gives flavor to the cup by way of the nose.

THE SECOND CUP
As always, I feel that I need a second cup of the same steeping, so that I can truly taste what the cup is all about. (This is what I do with my Darjeelings. How will this work with the greens? Let's find out.)

Second cup is noticeably darker in color, a richer orangey-gold color. The flavor now has a spicy note to it that hits near the tip of my tongue. This note was absent in the first cup. That jasmine note is the first thing that hits me, but it recedes a bit upon drinking more (I think my mind is surprised by the flavor, but then slowly comes to ignore it to focus on other impressions.) The green tea flavor now makes its entrance, where before it was overwhelmed by the jasmine scent. There's a lemony flavor somewhere in there. There are more complexities appearing in the aftertaste, like cherry, and wood, and perhaps a hint of green grass. There is that slight bite at the back of my throat to accompany the dry mouthfeel.

As always: Thank you, George, for the very enjoyable pot of tea.

( Cross-posted on the Facebook group, "A Cup of Tea Solves Everything")

REVIEW: Silver Needle White Tea, Green Hill Tea

Silver Needle White Tea
Green Hill Tea

Today I review Green Hill Tea's "Silver Needle White Tea." I have not drunk much white tea. This is a taste experiment, for which I can thank George Zhang (again) of Green Hill Tea.

BACKGROUND
Because I want to learn a bit more about what I'm getting into, I quote the company's Web site:

Silver Needle Tea

White tea is made from pure spring buds and harvested only a few days of the year. Once harvested, white tea is not oxidized or rolled, but simply withered and dried by steaming. Green Hill’s silver needle has exquisitely shaped buds and covered with white down. It has a slightly roasted and sweet taste. White teas are perfect to enjoy in the evening after a light dinner. Avoid drinking them after eating spiced foods, as much of the delicacy of their taste will be lost. .

Brew hint: Place one tea spoon into a cup; add boiling water for 3-7 minute.

And here is a little bit more background, this time from Adagio Tea's Web site.

White tea from China. Silver Needle is among the most revered of Chinese teas, produced in the Fuding and Zhenhe districts of its Fujian province. Gathered only in the few days of early spring, the preparation of this tea is governed by strict requirements to ensure a premium product. This dedication to perfection is evident in the cup, which is sweet and delicate with a clean, airy fragrance.

THE LEAVES
Almost all teas are handpicked-- at least, the good-quality teas are-- and this kind of tea is quite unusual. Instead of tea made from the leaves of the tea plant, these are made from the buds only. The buds themselves (how I would love to be in a tea garden during its budding, for the fragrance must be astounding) are pale silvery-green, with a white fuzz on the outside. They are perhaps a half-inch long, and are sharp points (hence the name). The aroma is sharp, like fresh-mown hay or grass. It rather tickles my nose to take a sharp sniff! It smells a bit like the feed they give cows on the nearby farm-- rich, with this almost vitamin-like sharpness.

THE PREPARATION
3 cups water filtered through my Brita pot; 6 level teaspoons (because it's not dense at all). Bring water to boil, let cool to around 80F. Steep 3 minutes. Listening to J. S. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, to get me into the proper tasting frame of mind. The music is light, effervescent, and airy, as I expect the tea to be.

THE CUP
This is a very clear cup, with a peach color, transparent to the bottom of the cup. It's very light, but it's still distinct. Very light astringency, but no bitterness at all. There is a very slight burn at the back of my throat. The flavor is reminiscent of cantaloupe, melon....

THE SECOND CUP
Ah, that all-important second up. As I always maintain, the second cup in a pot is always the best one, because the complex chemistry of the hot tea has had an opportunity to deepen the flavors, and add layers of complexity that are absent in the first cup. The color of the liquor has deepened a bit, to a richer brown-peach color, though still perfectly transparent. The flavor has become richer, with an almost pinelike overtone. Still a very restrained cup of tea.

OVERALL IMPRESSION
I don't have enough basis for comparison (against other white teas), but I would say this tea would appeal to those who want an extremely lightly flavored tea, with no hint of bitterness, but with a very slight bite. The flavors are pretty straightforward, without lots of development on the palate over time (that I can discern), but they still remind one of fruit and pine.

As always, thanks to George Zhang of Green Hill Tea for the opportunity to experience his gift of tea.

(Cross-posted at Facebook.)

REVIEW: Jade Oolong Tea, from Green Hill Tea

Jade Oolong tea, from Green Hill Tea
http://greenhilltea.com/id23.html

Thank you, George, for sending me this tea. My wife is requesting some tea, and I thought I'd make your Jade Oolong as this afternoon's review.

The Web site reads:

Jade Oolong Tea

Oolong tea is a partially oxidized green tea, and has some of the qualities of both green tea and black tea. Jade Oolong is not baked as long as Dark Oolong, the steeped tea has a light golden hue, sweet flora aroma, fresh initial flavor, and a sweet floral aftertaste which lasts after the sip. Oolong tea is a world famous natural health drink that is loaded with anti-oxidants and thus, many health benefits.

Brew hint: Place one tea spoon into a cup; add boiling water for 3-7 minute.

Okay, I'm surprised that we add boiling water to an oolong, but I'm certainly game.

THE PREPARATION
4 tsp tea leaves, 4 cups, steeped in cast-iron Tetsubin at boiling water temperature, with filtered H2O. Rinse leaves first in near-boiling water for a few seconds, before steeping.

I wish I had a decent Yixing purple-clay pot to prepare the oolong in, to allow it to control the temperature better. But the tetsubin shall have to do!

THE LEAVES
The dry leaves are various shapes, from irregular balls to oblongs, but the leaves seem to be a quite large size. They range from a light sage green to more of a dark, forest green. They are nicely aromatic, like freshly mown hay, and like spearmint, and grass. because the leaves are large, I'll have to use big, heaping teaspoons to keep the mass about the same as smaller, denser teas.

Nope, I can't do it. I can't pour truly boiling water on these beautiful leaves. I'll let the water cool down a bit, to maybe 200F, before steeping.

While I wait, I am aware of a very strong scent of honeysuckle. The leaves are waking up, and they are quite large-- some as large as the final digit of my thumb.

APPEARANCE
The cup itself is a very pure orange-gold, with only the barest hint of green. Pure, clean all the way to the bottom of the cup.

AROMA
the smell of the tea is that same honeysuckle scent. Quite fragrant.

THE FLAVOR
Very smooth, tasting of hay and grass. There's the faint bitterness I associate with green teas.

My lovely wife had the following interchange:

Me: "How do you like it?"
She: "It's good."
Me: "But how do you like it?"
She: "I like it."
Me: "But HOW do you like it?"
She: "Tastes like oolong."

At that point, I gave up and came back down to finish my review.

THE SECOND CUP
I know that typically with oolongs, you do multiple steepings. I will probably experiment with that next time I review this tea. But this time, I will follow my own advice and not pronounce on the tea until I've let it sit a bit, and then review the second cup. By letting the tea sit, it allows the complex catechins and flavinoids and theanine and other Tiny Tea Molecules to combine and recombine, making the taste richer and fuller.

The second cup is very grassy and clean, with just the faintest hint of the burn at the back of the throat. (Do I just have a sensitive throat? Who knows, but I like the sensation.) It really makes me think of being outside by a stream of clean water. There's a vegetal flavor up front, under the grassiness, followed by a taste of green apple, perhaps; or maybe other sweet fruit. The aftertaste is achieved by the slow diminishment of the vegetal and slightly bitter notes, leaving behind a sweet honey and grass flavor. But this tea is most alive at that first vibrant instant when the tea hits the tongue (whereas some teas are best discovered by the development of the flavors in the mouth over time). It's great as it hits the nose and mouth simultaneously, right up front.

Thank you, George and Green Hill Tea, for sending me this gift of tea. I've very much enjoyed slowing down my afternoon and listening to my senses, with a pot of your tea. I'll try a more gongfu approach (with multiple short steepings) in future, to see how this tea behaves.

REVIEW: Lapsang Souchong from Dong Mu, Fujian, China: Green Hill Tea

REVIEW: Lapsang Souchong from Dong Mu, Fujian, China: Green Hill Tea

PREPARATION:
3 cups water to 3 tsp tea leaves, boiling water, about 3.5 to 4 minutes steeping time, in my great-grandmother's porcelain "Made in Japan" teapot from circa 1910 or so. I thought to make enough for myself to really "get" the tea, but not so much that the last cup will go cold. Remove leaves after steeping time is over to avoid overbrewing. I went with a shorter brewing time, specifically because I did not want to be overwhelmed by strong pine smoke flavor.

THE LEAVES
Before steeping, fairly strongly smelling of pine smoke, I think (isn't that the normal way that Lapsongs are prepared?). Tightly furled, black leaves. After steeping: I confess, I forgot to keep them and tossed most of them. Those that remained in the pot were dark black in color, fairly large leaf, but I couldn't discern the aroma from too few leaves. Some stems.

THE AROMA
Very light pine smoke smell, not strong. A rich brown smell.

THE CUP
Transparent, dark golden-brown in color, smelling of the pine smoke.

The flavor is smokey, but like honey, too. It is not dry at all in the mouth, despite the smokiness. The smoke is really not overwhelming at all, though it is the most prominent flavor. After the tea sits in the mouth awhile, it starts to taste more like a nice Yunnan tea-- long in flavor, and the complex honey/herb taste starts to come to the front, as the smokiness recedes.


THE SECOND CUP
One must never judge a pot of tea merely by first cup. The second cup is where I believe the real nature of the tea is revealed, because the pot has allowed the antioxidants and so on to combine and recombine to add depths to the flavor that simply aren't there yet in the first cup. You'll have substance A combining with substance B, creating C. Then C and A combine for D, and C and B combine to create E, and so on. The heat of the pot allows all these complex chemical reactions to keep occurring, even after the tea leaves have been removed. Also, as the tea cools a bit, it allows your mouth to be able to notice the flavors more clearly.

To my mouth, the second cup seems more strongly flavored with the pine smoke. There is a bit more dryness on the roof of my mouth, which is quite pleasant. There's more of a golden flavor-- it's almost metallic-- hiding up behind the flavor of the smoke. That is very pleasant, indeed. It's good to stop between sips, to allow the flavors to unfurl. First is the pine, then the dryness, then this golden, metallic quality... then a very outdoorsy flavor, like taking a walk in the woods on a rainy day. The honey-sweetness (with no sugar or milk in the brew) is quite surprising in a Lapsang, and not what I had come to expect from this type of tea.


THE TERROIR
"Terroir" is French for, placeness. This is the word that describes how the environment the tea/wine/cheese is made make it unique and irreproducible in other regions. The Web site says:" Lapsang Souchong tea is really a black tea from its level of oxidation. It is grown in Fujian Province and a fine grade of this famous tea. It’s a pine-smoked tea that absorbs the scent during the drying process. It has been produced for centuries."

THE SOURCE
As mentioned above, when I first discovered my love for tea, I drank quite a lot of Lapsang Souchong. Of course, my palate was very uneducated, but I was having fun exploring everything I could find. At a certain point, though, I just burnt out on smoky teas and stopped drinking them.

However, George [redacted] on this Facebook board suggested this tea to me, from his company, Green Hill Tea. He said the Lapsang Souchong you typically find in a market is low-quality, not smoked over pine, and uses cheap leaves. I'll quote him (correcting some of his typos): "In the market, most Lapsang Souchong is smoked Lapsang Souchong. It's low grade and not smoked by pine. The real one costs more than $80 per LB, the smoked lapsang cost $12 per LB.The The leaves used to come from nature-reserved mountains and It's organic."

Further, he writes, "Thanks steven, This Lapsang Souchong from natural reserved mountain (DongMU villiage). It grows wild with grass and trees. The farmers pick it up during harvest season. It smoked use pine tree. (Now the sources is limit and the tree is very expensive.The price go up too.) .The finest Lapsang is very thin and in very small pieces. More over, It like wine, more years, It have more fine smells and more sweet taste. So the farmers sell it after 2-3 years to show the taste."

FURTHER RESEARCH
On the Seven Cups Web site, I found the following information about the tea from this specific region of China:

http://www.sevencups.com/tea_shop/product.php?productid=16732
Day 11 (4/27) Daytrip to Tong Mu Village (Lapsang Souchong Black Tea)
We'll take a break from oolongs to visit Tong Mu Village, nestled in the Tong Mu Natural Preserve, which is the home of Lapsang Souchong. You'll meet the family who has been responsible for authentic Lapsang Souchong for many generations, and see a 100-year-old tea factory constructed entirely of wood. You'll learn why this tea is smokey and have an opportunity to witness the whole process of making this special tea, starting with the famous black tea bush, the "Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong," in family's wild tea garden.

OVERALL RESPONSE
Honestly, I'm quite surprised. As my tea discernment has grown over the years, I've become extremely fond of the lighter teas, such as the Darjeelings, Nilgiris, Nepalese, and Sikkim teas of the first and second flushes. The heavy, thick teas just have stopped appealing to me. I thought Lapsang Souchong was one of the teas I wouldn't enjoy anymore and stopped drinking it.

But as I sip here, I'm struck by how light and airy the tea is, the natural sweetness of the cup-- that honey, fruity note is very expansive-- and yet how smooth the cup is. You'd think something smoky would catch in your throat, but it's quite pleasant, even with the faint ascerbic, dry mouth feel. I think this is probably the first time I've ever had a first-rate Lapsang, so I'm not really sure if it's that my palate has developed, or my technique, or if it's just the quality of the tea that has made this experience different. I don't think it's dislodged Darjeeling as the Queen of Teas on the throne of my tastebuds (to stretch a metaphor beyond its usefulness), but as a diversion, it's very enjoyable.

In short, I like it. It's a good tea. Thank you, George, for sending it to me.

------------------------

Upon rereading my post above, I'm struck by the fact that I don't really have very much experience at all with Lapsang Souchong. It's like giving a reviewer a great wine, and the reviewer says, "Wow, the wine is red! I had no idea wines could be red! How interesting. Is it made of grapes or something? Tastes like grapes."

I can't really compare this tea with other Lapsang Souchongs, simply because I have not drunk this variety of tea in the last 10 years or so. Not a very good basis for comparison.

Interestingly, I am still experiencing the aftertaste, some 45 minutes after I posted the review. The tea has taken on a fruity character in my mouth-- like bing cherries, with a subtle herb quality like maybe tarragon or anise. It's surprising to still be tasting a tea this long.