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.

What-Cha's Yunnan Graceful Purple 'Zi Juan' Purple Varietal Green Tea

What-Cha's Description
A brilliant and rare tea produced from purple varietal tea plants, with a smoky aroma and taste combined with a wonderful smooth texture.

My thoughts
I love me some Chinese green tea. There are so many different parts of the world that grow good green tea, but I always come back to China when I want a really good green. This is one I've had my eye on for a while, and purple varietal teas always intrigue me. This one is made from the Zi Juan varietal (a.k.a. Purple Beauty), which is a man-made cultivar, as opposed to the other two purple varieties (Ye Sheng and Zi Cha) that are both naturally occurring mutations.

Dry leaves - The leaves are rolled lengthwise into long points and look like a dark silver needle white tea. The aroma is definitely unique, with a smoky, earthy, vegetal pungency being at the forefront. It almost reminds me of a very young sheng puerh, but without the bite. I've had young shengs that made me sneeze from the pungency, and this wasn't nearly that strong.

Brewing parameters - 175F, 60s first, +20s after. What-Cha recommends a longer steeping time of 2-3 minutes, but I can't bring myself to steep a green for that long. I've ruined too many greens by oversteeping.

Tasting notes - Pungent, vegetal, smoky, green wood, astringent

Is this a sheng? The ever-so-slightly-purple-tinted soup gives off a pungent bitey vegetal aroma that immediately brings me to a very young sheng. Not at all what I was expecting from a green tea. The taste is similar, starting off with a vegetal bite, drifting into a mild smokiness, and finishing with an earthy, green wood, and legume blend. It does have slight hints of the soybean/grassiness that I typically associate with green teas from Yunnan, but those hints are mostly overpowered by the tangy vegetal pungency.

The second steep has mellowed out somewhat, but it is still a very sheng-like brew. I can detect very slight notes of green grapes or something fruity in the finish as well. Steeps #3-6 are mostly the same, with the sheng qualities taking the lead. I have to keep reminding myself that I'm drinking a green tea, and not a puerh.

For a green tea, this is certainly one of the most distinctly flavored brews I've tried. If you handed me this tea without telling me what it was, I'd almost certainly say it was a young sheng, and I'd probably even argue that point. This tea is worth trying simply because of its uniqueness, though it may not appeal to everyone due to its odd piquant aroma and flavor profile.

You can buy this tea at What-Cha here: http://what-cha.com/sale/china-yunnan-graceful-purple-zi-juan-purple-varietal-green-tea/

What-Cha's Vietnam Wild 'Tiger Monkey' Green Tea

What-Cha's Description
A wild growing green tea with a woody taste which develops with subsequent steeps

My thoughts
I never knew until recently just how much I needed Vietnamese green teas in my life. When I first got a couple different Vietnamese teas from What-Cha, I didn't really expect them to be much different that any of the Chinese or Taiwanese greens I've had. I couldn't have been more wrong. Vietnamese green teas have a distinctive potent grassy flavor to them that I love, but under that grassiness lies some of the most unique and noteworthy flavors I've ever found in southeast Asian teas. This 'Tiger Monkey' is one I've had my eye on for quite a while, and it hasn't disappointed.

Dry leaves - The leaves are quite small and twisted into thin points. The aroma is actually pretty weak, but it's mostly dry grass and hay, with just a hint of smokiness. One thing I've noticed about Vietnamese teas is that the dry aroma and the wet aroma are fairly similar, but differ greatly in pungency. This one is no exception.

Brewing parameters - 175F, 45s first, +15s after

Tasting notes - Grassy, dried hay, oak, cedar smoke, nutty

Immediately you're hit with the typical strong grassy/hay taste of a Vietnamese green. Some green teas can be a muddled vegetal mixture, but the grass and hay notes come through strong with these teas. A couple seconds after the sip, the flavor profile changes quite dramatically. The grassiness fades quickly and is replaced by wonderful nutty/woody/smoky elements. I tend to have a hard time distinguishing between different woody tastes and aromas, but this is pretty obviously oak and cedar. The nuttiness is mild and almost reminiscent of a long jing, but with the addition of a mild cedar smokiness. There is just a hint of astringency after the sip.

Subsequent steeps do indeed develop into a more defined and smoother brew. The grassiness loses some of it's potency after a couple infusions, and the woody/smoky taste becomes a bit more prominent. It's not a dramatic change, but I liked the later brews even more than the first. I made a total of 7 cups from these leaves and the last couple were fairly weak. After steep #5, you may want to tack on a little more time to get all these leaves have to offer.

It's quite a unique tea, and is definitely worth revisiting again. It wasn't my favorite Vietnam green, but it has some stiff competition from some of the other greens from the South China Sea. It is a very affordable tea as well (as are most of the Vietnamese teas), at $7.71 for 50g.

You can buy it at What-Cha here: http://what-cha.com/green-tea/vietnam-wild-tiger-monkey-green-tea/