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 Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2011 11:59 am
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Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2011 12:50 pm
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___________________Xi Hu Longjing Green Tea
_______________________________Tea Review: 16 January 2O11
Initial appearance: The dry leaves are yellow-green in color, almost olive-green, a little crumpled, and flattened.
Aroma: The dry tea has a grassy, earthy smell. Upon pouring in the hot water, there was instantly a warm, nutty fragrance -- a little woody, and very green-smelling. The brewed leaves are a pale yellow-green, a lot lighter than the dry leaves, and the liquid is similarly an extremely light color, with a hint of green and pale amber.
Flavor: The taste of the first infusion is very rounded, and definitely lives up to its reputation. It leaves a nutty, roasted aftertaste, while the flavor in mouth is fresh, earthy, and almost sweet, with the sharp bitterness hidden behind complex layers. The second infusion is obviously lighter than the first, and sweeter.
Overall rating: 10/10
This tea comes from the original Longjing Village near Xi Hu in Hangzhou because my parents, being tea enthusiasts, decided to visit Hangzhou over the summer while we were in China visiting family. You enter the village by means of a winding road through forests scattered with bamboo, and once inside the roadway becomes a wide dirt path. Those who live in the village stand at the doorways of their stores, beckoning loudly and dragging tourists by the arm to come in and sample their tea. From the road, you can see fields of tea bushes behind the rows of houses that line the entrance of the village.
Unfortunately, we were short on time, so we went into the first store and didn't have any time to explore or shop around. The woman there was genial, inviting us in to sit around a large table and offering roasted sunflower seeds while chatting about how the teas were made and other small talk. The tea was kept in huge storage containers, about 3-4 feet high and two feet wide- they might have been baskets, but I can't remember. The tea leaves were separated into three grades, with the lowest being dark brownish-green and the highest being yellowish-jade.
The proprietor distributed glasses to all the adults at the table, and also my male cousin, who was half a year younger than me-- but not me SOB. Either because she thought I looked too young or because I was a girl and didn't have authority? She was probably right, though, because I tasted some of the tea from my parents' glasses and honestly couldn't tell the difference between each grades. We ended up buying the middle grade, a golden olive green closer to the low-grade in color than the high-grade.
The photo is of the second infusion, since the first was so tasty that I finished it before remembering to take pictures...
It's a noticeably lighter color than the first, and the camera doesn't do so great a job capturing the pale green.
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Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2011 12:53 pm
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___________________"Celestial Seasonings" Decaf Green Tea with White Tea
_______________________________Tea Review: 16 January 2O11
Initial appearance: Packaged in individual tea bags, the color of the ground tea inside the bags is a dark greenish-brown.
Aroma: I brewed this tea simultaneously with the Longjing to compare them, and the difference is significant. Whereas the Longjing bursted with a strong fragrance as soon as it hit the hot water, I could only smell the Decaf after putting my nose up close to it. The aroma is weak and there's a little hint of banana, strangely, along with a typical grassy tea-scent. The color of the liquid is a deep reddish-amber, without any green tint. The camera does a bad job capturing the red tint of the water.
Flavor: This review isn't doing this tea any amount of justice, since I'm holding it up to the standards of the Longjing. On first taste the Decaf seems extremely artificial. The banana-smell has evolved into a flavor almost like formaldehyde, without much appreciable tea flavor.
Overall rating: 3/10
A friend gave this tea to me as a present, and it comes in a medium-sized cardboard box printed with quotes about tea and tea facts. The brand is "Celestial Seasonings," advertised as "100% Natural Tea," but it really can't compare to the Longjing. Maybe if I was drinking this on a different day, I wouldn't notice the discrepancy in taste, but I couldn't even finish this glass of tea because it tasted so false and chemical. Probably not a bad deal for the price, considering that the other tea was backpacked all the way from China, but not something I would drink regularly.
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Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2011 3:23 pm
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