What Green Are You Drinking

[LuckyMe]

The first greens of spring 2020 arrived yesterday from Yunnan Sourcing. Anji bai cha was the first one I tried and it was delightfully fresh. Today I had Liu An Gua Pian "Melon Seed" Green Tea from Anhui, a new one for me. Nice snap pea and asparagus flavor, a bit similar to Dragonwell but less refined. A good tea nonetheless.

I steeped it grandpa style but may try gongfuing it next time.

[debunix]

Den's Organic sencha.

My spring subscription shipment from Obubu has not arrived, likely due to shipping issues between Japan and the US, and I realized with dread this week that I had drunk my way through all of my sencha from Obubu. I know people are getting shipments from some Japanese sources but because I was worried about timing I decided to check out Den's Tea, who are located in Southern California. Den's came through with sencha that arrived in the afternoon, just the 3rd day after I'd placed my order, and the same day when I'd had my final session of Obubu sencha for morning tea. Yay for Den's!

This organic sencha is vegetal, a bit more astringent than my usual preference, and quite 'light' in flavor: if you put asamushi and fukamushi sencha on a line, this would be just a bit farther from fukamushi than even the robust autumn sencha I was finishing from Obubu. I had actually opened a package of gyokuro-Hou from O-Cha recently (by accident because I'd not read the package and had thought it was a sencha, and I already had some open fancy gyokuro that needed drinking), and I was alternating this with the sencha, so my tastebuds were set even more gyo-ish than usual, and this Den's sencha stands out even more against that backdrop of alternating gyokuro and Obubu sencha, but still, it is *sencha*, and so appreciated.

Thank you Den's!

[debunix]

More Den's Organic Sencha. It is lovely today. I've gotten better with the brewing parameters and am really enjoying this morning's sweetness and hint of astringency.

I'm now eyeing my deliveries from my Obubu Tea Farm subscription (my second shipment arrived the day after the first, I am now sencha-replete!) and wondering whether I can justify opening one of them when my Den's packet has several days to go before it will be used up....

[luchayi]

@Janice
@faj
@Victoria
@LuckyMe

Taiping hou kui time! It's my favourite tea, unfortunately almost finished
This comes from liubaili mountain in houkeng
It has a strong mineral flavour, vegetal like sweet peas and orchid fragrance... there is also a nutty note because of the roasting process.

[Victoria]

Taiping hou kui time! It's my favourite tea, unfortunately almost finished
This comes from liubaili mountain in houkeng
It has a strong mineral flavour, vegetal like sweet peas and orchid fragrance... there is also a nutty note because of the roasting process.

@luchayi this sounds really special. Where did you get it?

I have a special 2020 Mingqian Shifeng LongJing that a friend sent to me. It has a light elegant profile, with notes of macadamia nuts, and hints of light sweet corn. Steeped in two very different vessels. The glass decanter was better with this tea than the very porous shigaraki shiboridashi.

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[faj]

I have a special 2020 Mingqian Shifeng LongJing that a friend sent to me. It has a light elegant profile, with notes of macadamia nuts, and hints of light sweet corn. Steeped in two very different vessels. The glass decanter was better with this tea than the very porous shigaraki shiboridashi.

I have not had long jing this year, so it is with a bit of envy I saw your pictures. Would you mind sharing the parameters you used with this tea?

Are there clay teapots with which you often get good results with Chinese green teas, or is glass or other neutral vessels your preferred method?

[Victoria]

I have a special 2020 Mingqian Shifeng LongJing that a friend sent to me. It has a light elegant profile, with notes of macadamia nuts, and hints of light sweet corn. Steeped in two very different vessels. The glass decanter was better with this tea than the very porous shigaraki shiboridashi.

I have not had long jing this year, so it is with a bit of envy I saw your pictures. Would you mind sharing the parameters you used with this tea?

Are there clay teapots with which you often get good results with Chinese green teas, or is glass or other neutral vessels your preferred method?

Hi @faj, I ended up really pushing this premium first flush Longjing because I prefer a rich flavor, richer than most people enjoy, so my parameters reflect that. The last time I used 5g/ 260ml/ off boil/ 3min filtered tap, leaving behind 1/3 liquid in glass decanter with each steep. Using off boil water temperature I got richer asparagus, water chestnut, macadamia nut notes, with a very pleasant mouthfeel. 3rd steep took a long time and was weaker so I just let it sit quite a while, taking slow sips.

The first time I tried it I did a side by side (posted above) using 4g/90ml/off boil/45 sec. in shigaraki shiboridashi and 4g/160ml/180f/2min. in glass decanter as seen in images above. With the exception of the first steep, the differences seemed pretty minimal between the two; nice dry mouthfeel, very light sweetness, macadamia nuts, hints of light sweet corn. By letting the liquor cool it became richer and deeper. 3rd steep seemed better, thicker.

With Chinese greens I’ll first use a porcelain gaiwan, then maybe a very thin walled kyusu by Yohei Konishi, or with Longjing glass so I can see the leaves sinking to the bottom.

I have a an extra 25g pack that I can send you, if you are interested you can pm me

[Janice]

@Victoria. Interesting brewing parameters. I didn’t buy any long jing this year, just TPHQ and anji bai cha. Some LJ is on the way to me from EOT tea club and I’m going to experiment with hotter water than I usually use. I have a Shawn McGuire that handles well even with very hot water.

[luchayi]

Taiping hou kui time! It's my favourite tea, unfortunately almost finished
This comes from liubaili mountain in houkeng
It has a strong mineral flavour, vegetal like sweet peas and orchid fragrance... there is also a nutty note because of the roasting process.

luchayi this sounds really special. Where did you get it?

I have a special 2020 Mingqian Shifeng LongJing that a friend sent to me. It has a light elegant profile, with notes of macadamia nuts, and hints of light sweet corn. Steeped in two very different vessels. The glass decanter was better with this tea than the very porous shigaraki shiboridashi.

Last year the longjing quality was really high, This year I have tried only 2 so I can't tell, but your one seems really good!
About Taiping Houkui... I have been in huangshan area some years ago and I know a farmers in Hou keng. I have also a Chinese friend living in Tunxi who really love this tea, so sometimes he sends me some teas. There are more than 26 kinds of shida cultivar, but good hou kui grow in the villages near the Ma river, in a remote area of taiping county after Xinming township. The harvest duration is 1 month, starting from 15 April from 15 May more or less and it's divided in : early, middle, late crop. The fist crop has usually a stronger floral fragrance of orchid or magnolia, the last one a stronger vegetal note and the middle one is something between. The one in the pictures is the late harvest and the floral fragrance is like a bouquet, so not only orchid. I always wanna learn more about this tea, so every year I search to try something different from the same area... this year was not easy beacause of the limitation with shipping during May. In general a good Hou kui should have the "Hou yun", a complex sweet aftertaste... I also like the strong minerality, because the best tea field are upon the mountains near a lot of rocks... Ok I stop talking, this is enough

[Noonie]

Last year the longjing quality was really high, This year I have tried only 2 so I can't tell, but your one seems really good!
About Taiping Houkui... I have been in huangshan area some years ago and I know a farmers in Hou keng. I have also a Chinese friend living in Tunxi who really love this tea, so sometimes he sends me some teas. There are more than 26 kinds of shida cultivar, but good hou kui grow in the villages near the Ma river, in a remote area of taiping county after Xinming township. The harvest duration is 1 month, starting from 15 April from 15 May more or less and it's divided in : early, middle, late crop. The fist crop has usually a stronger floral fragrance of orchid or magnolia, the last one a stronger vegetal note and the middle one is something between. The one in the pictures is the late harvest and the floral fragrance is like a bouquet, so not only orchid. I always wanna learn more about this tea, so every year I search to try something different from the same area... this year was not easy beacause of the limitation with shipping during May. In general a good Hou kui should have the "Hou yun", a complex sweet aftertaste... I also like the strong minerality, because the best tea field are upon the mountains near a lot of rocks... Ok I stop talking, this is enough

Thanks for sharing that information

[faj]

Hi faj, I ended up really pushing this premium first flush Longjing because I prefer a rich flavor, richer than most people enjoy, so my parameters reflect that.

I have never tried to infuse Chinese green tea this hot for this long. How would you describe the aromatics of such an infusion compared with a cooler/shorter infusion?

[debunix]

I brew more dilute, and I really like TPHK. Wing Hop Fung does not disclose precise harvest timing or origins, but the TPHK I have bought there has delicate vegetal flavor with some floral notes and a hint of cinnamon, and is still wonderful when I find the remains of a packet in the back of the tea cupboard.

This morning, however, it's Ippodo gyokuro infused in my lefty Shimizu Ken kyusu & being used to baptize a new Tenmoku wan by Hashimoto Daisuke via Artistic Nippon.

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[Victoria]

Hi faj, I ended up really pushing this premium first flush Longjing because I prefer a rich flavor, richer than most people enjoy, so my parameters reflect that.

I have never tried to infuse Chinese green tea this hot for this long. How would you describe the aromatics of such an infusion compared with a cooler/shorter infusion?

Many people might prefer using 4g/90ml/off boiling/25sec in gaiwan, or 4g/120ml/off boil/3min or until leaves begin to fall. The aromatics were very delicate, maybe some sticky rice, green apple notes. My notes during side by side tasting unfortunately didn’t log much regarding difference in aromatics between using 180f and 210f.

[Victoria]

I brew more dilute, and I really like TPHK. Wing Hop Fung does not disclose precise harvest timing or origins, but the TPHK I have bought there has delicate vegetal flavor with some floral notes and a hint of cinnamon, and is still wonderful when I find the remains of a packet in the back of the tea cupboard.

This morning, however, it's Ippodo gyokuro infused in my lefty Shimizu Ken kyusu & being used to baptize a new Tenmoku wan by Hashimoto Daisuke via Artistic Nippon.

Beautiful Tenmoku. Which Ippodo gyokuro were you sipping?

[faj]

Many people might prefer using 4g/90ml/off boiling/25sec in gaiwan, or 4g/120ml/off boil/3min or until leaves begin to fall.

Thanks for the information, that has me intrigued.

I would say my "default" would probably be around 75C to 80C (~175F), 4g in something a bit below 100ml, for 30 seconds or less for the first infusion. I have dabbled a bit with continuous infusion, but cannot say I was entirely pleased with the results. Now, most of my Chinese green tea drinking was at the beginning of my loose leaf tea journey, and Chinese green teas not being discussed much on the forum, it is a bit hard for me to tell what would be considered typical brewing parameters.