Yunnan Sourcing's Long Mei Green Tea

Yunnan Sourcing's Description
Zhenyuan a high altitude area of Simao produces this high quality delicate green tea. Picked twice a year in a 2 day period when the buds and leafs are young and small. The taste is light and fruity with slight nuttiness.

My thoughts
When I think of Yunnan Sourcing, my mind immediately goes to puerh and dianhong, and while they certainly specialize in those two, they have some wonderful green and white teas as well. I will admit that the lighter teas in my collection tend to take a back seat to the darker stuff, but that's just my personal preference. This is a tea I received in last month's tea club. I've said it before, but I love YS's tea club. It nearly always contains teas that I otherwise wouldn't order, but always end up loving.

Dry leaves - The leaves are long and twisted, and vary between a flat green and a shiny silver. At first glance, it almost looks like a white tea due to the amount of silvery color present here. The aroma is light and fruity with a hint of fresh hay.

Brewing parameters - 175F, 30s first, +10s after

Tasting notes- Fresh hay, fruity, almond, vegetal, lightly astringent

This tea begins with a very light and smooth fruitiness that brings you the feeling of summer, which is quickly followed by notes of fresh hay and almond. Just the slightest touch of dryness hits the back of the mouth late in the sip, but it's not nearly as aggressive as some green teas can be.

Later steeps lose some of the fruitiness and the hay notes become a bit more muddled into a general vegetal grassy taste, but the almond flavor really comes to the front of the profile. A bit more astringency has come to the plate as well, balancing out the sweetness of the fruit and smoothness of the almond.

This would be a great tea for spring and summer, as the crisp, lightly fruity taste could really complement the warming sunny weather. Of course, it's still great now if you need a brief break from the permanent cold gray muck of January. Is it spring yet?

You can buy this tea from Yunnan Sourcing here and here.