2024 Chinese green tea thread

[GaoShan]

It's that time of year again, when people start getting excited about the first green tea harvest! Every year, I wonder whether fancy green tea is worth the cost, so I finally decided to find out.

I've pre-ordered Teavivre's Mingqian Bi Luo Chun and Mingqian Long Jing, as well as samples of Mingqian Long Jing, Bi Luo Chun, Anji Bai Cha, and Meng Ding Huang Ya from Treasure Green. I may also order from Seven Cups when their green teas come in. Having three or four dragonwells at different price points should help me understand whether higher-priced green tea is worth it to me.

In terms of brewing, is there anything I should do differently with the good stuff? I typically grandpa steep 3 g in about 250 ml of water at around 185F (maybe 175F for Long Jing, depending on the vendor's instructions).

Are you planning to buy any Chinese green tea this year? (I'll let someone else post a 2024 Japanese green tea thread after the Thés du Japon débacle! )

[Janice]

The past few years I’ve purchased all my Chinese greens from Seven Cups. What they’ve been doing is offering a 20§ discount the first weekend they offer a new tea or teas. Of course I always end up buying enough tea to get free shipping! I like to space out my purchases so I can drink the tea soon after I receive it.

If you sign up for their newsletter you’ll receive notices of these specials.

I look forward to your evaluations of the different grades and sources of long jing.

[GaoShan]

The past few years I’ve purchased all my Chinese greens from Seven Cups. What they’ve been doing is offering a 20§ discount the first weekend they offer a new tea or teas. Of course I always end up buying enough tea to get free shipping! I like to space out my purchases so I can drink the tea soon after I receive it.

If you sign up for their newsletter you’ll receive notices of these specials.

I look forward to your evaluations of the different grades and sources of long jing.

I just saw your reply, so I apologize for not getting back to you earlier. Seven Cups charges $16 to ship to Canada, so I'm hoping to bundle all my teas into one order. I cleared this with the owner over the phone, who generously said he would do this. If I'm lucky, I might be able to get the sale prices, though I'm not counting on it.

Thanks for letting me know about their newsletter.

[vgamedude]

Seven cups already ran out of stock of one of their 2 new types of tea for 2024. Must be popular.

I personally have tried spring teas previously from Yunnan sourcing and also a few from Alex of Yunnancraft (2023 harvest) who frequents this forum and I've enjoyed both. I thought a Hou Kui from Alex was particularly good.

If anyone has some recommendations for Chinese greens fresh this year that are maybe a bit lower price than Sevencups but a step up and more than Yunnan Sourcing I'd be interested to have a look, I should probably get a bit more tea soon. Alex doesn't have any 2024 greens yet I can see.

PS: I noticed Taiwan Tea Crafts has some 2024 tea and I'm interested in trying more Ruby T-18 cultivar tea as well, if anyone knows how their tea is like their 2024 greens I'd be interested too, thanks.

[Janice]

Seven Cups has two new teas on sale this week - First Pluck Bi Luo Chun and Lao Cha Yuan Ganlu (Old Garden Sweet Dew). Sometimes more of a particular tea is available again later but I’m “addicted” to getting the new teas as soon as they’re available.

Seven Cups teas are not inexpensive but I like the quality and sourcing methods. I need to restrict myself to small quantities of tea so it doesn’t cost me that much per day. They have a Thursday newsletter and this time of year that’s where they announce sale teas and include background on them.

[GaoShan]

I've already got some beautiful pre-Ming buds from Treasure Green, which I'm having a hard time saving. My Teavivre order is on the way, and I've barely begun ordering from Seven Cups. Looks like my comparative tasting may need to wait a while.

@vgamedude, if you want a step up from YS, I'd recommend Teavivre. Their Anji Bai Cha was excellent last year, as was their pre-Qingming Bi Luo Chun. (I thought their regular BLC was okay, but not memorable.) I've also liked their Ming Qian and Superfine Longjing, though I haven't had it in a while. I also liked their yellow tea, though I can't remember its name. I think it was a Huo Shan Huang Ya.

@Janice, I snagged 25 g of that Bi Luo Chun from Seven Cups last week, and am waiting for their Anji and Longjing. I hope their teas are worth it!

[GaoShan]

Because I'm totally impatient, I'm drinking a pre-Qingming Meng Ding Huang Ya from Treasure Green today (3 g, 120 ml, 176F, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 80, etc.). I think this is my first yellow tea from Meng Ding. I get lovely notes of corn silk, butter, hazelnuts, green beans, and faint florals in a thick soup. The tea becomes more vegetal as the session goes on, but I also get some nice melon notes in the aftertaste. I can taste the roast more than I expected (I get some toasted rice in the aroma like a genmaicha). This yellow tea seems more delicate than the Huo Shan Huang Ya I've had in the past, though it's also more vegetal.

[GaoShan]

Over the weekend, I tried three pre-Qingming Bi Luo Chun from three different vendors.

Teavivre
Tea bush: Small-leaf tea bush species
Location: West Dongting Mountain, Wuzhong District, Suzhou City, Jiangsu
Picking date: March 15, 2024
Price/g: $0.78

Treasure Green
Tea bush: Not specified
Location: Wuzhong, Jiangsu
Picking date: First week of March 2024
Price/g: $1.23

Seven Cups
Tea bush: Seed-grown Heirloom Quntizhong
Location: Jingtingzhen (Xishan Island), Suzhou
Picking date: First pluck, March 28-29, 2024
Price/g: $2.00

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From left to right: Teavivre, Treasure Green, Seven Cups

I used 2.4 g of leaf in 120 ml of 185F water, grandpa steeped starting at 4 minutes. I can say this produces very potent tea!

All three teas were good, but the Seven Cups Bi Luo Chun was fantastic.

Teavivre: Green beans, green pepper, nuts, orchid florals, butter, pear, kale, citrus hints in later steeps
Treasure Green: Green beans, orchid, butter, sweet, baby peas, minerals, pear, lettuce, lingering fruity/floral aftertaste
Seven Cups: Heady lilac, magnolia, pear, , cantaloupe, green beans, asparagus, herbaceous, orange, lettuce, a little drying

I have to say that the potency of the steeps made it hard to distinguish between these teas, and I look forward to trying them individually at my usual 3 g/250 ml. I found the Teavivre to be nice and springlike, with no bitterness and the lovely fruity/floral aftertaste I remembered from the 2023 batch. The Treasure Green offering was more floral and mineral, with darker green veggies and again, very little bitterness. The Seven Cups First Pluck BLC reminded me of a gaoshan. I think that says it all.

[Janice]

I purchased several of the early teas including two kinds of longjings, and they’re tasting so-so to me no matter how I brew them. I think it’s a change in me rather than the tea but the test will be when I turn to anji bai cha as that and TPHK are my perennial favorites.

I’m craving teas with more intense flavors: Japanese greens and yancha. I start the day with a Chinese green because I want to drink those while they’re fresh, and then I move on to yancha from tasting sets I bought from EOT several years ago.

[GaoShan]

I purchased several of the early teas including two kinds of longjings, and they’re tasting so-so to me no matter how I brew them. I think it’s a change in me rather than the tea but the test will be when I turn to anji bai cha as that and TPHK are my perennial favorites.

I’m craving teas with more intense flavors: Japanese greens and yancha. I start the day with a Chinese green because I want to drink those while they’re fresh, and then I move on to yancha from tasting sets I bought from EOT several years ago.

I did a dumb thing and bought roughly 300 g of green tea for comparison purposes, and a week into drinking it almost exclusively, I want something else. Doing grandpa steeps instead of gongfu brewing means I need to drink the tea fairly quickly, which gets frustrating. Also, I'm having trouble accentuating the florals of my Bi Luo Chun without also bringing out the veggies. I wouldn't really describe them as bitter, but they have a kick while still being kind of soft, if that makes sense.

[vgamedude]

I've already got some beautiful pre-Ming buds from Treasure Green, which I'm having a hard time saving. My Teavivre order is on the way, and I've barely begun ordering from Seven Cups. Looks like my comparative tasting may need to wait a while.

vgamedude, if you want a step up from YS, I'd recommend Teavivre. Their Anji Bai Cha was excellent last year, as was their pre-Qingming Bi Luo Chun. (I thought their regular BLC was okay, but not memorable.) I've also liked their Ming Qian and Superfine Longjing, though I haven't had it in a while. I also liked their yellow tea, though I can't remember its name. I think it was a Huo Shan Huang Ya.

Janice, I snagged 25 g of that Bi Luo Chun from Seven Cups last week, and am waiting for their Anji and Longjing. I hope their teas are worth it!

One of my friends had a few left over teas from TeaVivre I got to try, but no greens sadly. I have heard more about their quality of Greens than I have their other teas, but they did have a Lapsang I enjoyed. Perhaps I need to try their greens at some point.

I recently made an order from Taiwan Tea craft however and I've been drinking some of their teas. The Gaba Green they have is a very interesting and unique tea, although it reminds me very little of Green teas actually, it is super unique. I've not had anything quite like it.

[GaoShan]

I just enjoyed my last 3 g of the First Pluck Bi Luo Chun from Seven Cups. It's still very floral, with notes that remind me of a gaoshan or baozhong. I'll be starting on my Longjing or Anji Bai Cha comparison soon.

[GaoShan]

This is the second part of my massive three-part Mingqian green tea comparison project! I compared four Longjings from three companies: Seven Cups, Teavivre, and Treasure Green. I also wanted to see if I could tell the difference between traditional Longjing and the No. 43 variety.

Seven Cups: Da Fo Longjing
Tea bush: Longjing #43
Location: Xinchang County, Shaoxing City, Zhejiang
Picking date: March 21, 2024
Price/g: $1.04

Teavivre: Organic Nonpareil Ming Qian Long Jing
Tea bush: C. sinensis cv. Jiukeng
Location: Qiandao Lake, Chun'an County, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang
Harvest date: March 30, 2024
Price/g: $0.56

Treasure Green: Lion Mountain Long Jing Master Craft
Tea bush: Not specified
Harvest date: March 20, 2024
Location: West Lake, Zhejiang
Price/g: $1.83

Seven Cups: Shifeng Longjing
Tea bush: Seed-grown Heirloom Quntizhong
Location: Shifeng Mountain, West Lake, Hangzhou, Zhejiang
Picking date: March 31, 2024
Price/g: $1.68

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Top left: Da Fo Longjing; top right: Teavivre Longjing
Bottom left: Treasure Green; bottom right: Shifeng Longjing

For the comparison session, I steeped 2.4 g of leaf in 120 ml of 185F water, starting at 4 minutes. This produced very potent, not to say bitter, tea! I then played around with the teas to get a better impression of their qualities.

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Seven Cups Da Fo Longjing: Candied chestnuts, hazelnuts, heavy roast, green beans, asparagus, woody, smooth
Teavivre Ming Qian Longjing: Lots of green beans, vegetal, chestnuts, orchid, spring flowers, butter, very mild roast, grass
Treasure Green Master Craft: Chestnuts, hazelnuts, heavy roast, beany, buttery, rounded, vegetal, smooth, sometimes grassy
Seven Cups Shifeng: Candied chestnuts, hazelnuts, roast, beans, asparagus, butter, orchid, lilac, other florals

These were all high-quality Longjings. Predictably, I liked the floral ones a bit more, and I was also surprised by how roasted and vegetal they were. The Teavivre Longjing was the least roasted and seemed to depart slightly from the general flavour profile. I could definitely tell the difference between the No. 43 and heirloom varieties, with the latter indeed being more complex.

Based on my preferences, I'd rather pay for a high-quality Bi Luo Chun than for a high-quality Longjing.