First few marvelous sips of a tea that was included as a free extra in Imen's green tea tasting set from Tea Habitat. These teas have been sitting in their sealed packets in the refrigerator for some months now but this one was opened for the first time today:
Jin Chuan Xiang Tun Lu
It's small curls of delicate leaves, and has a floral scent in the package; the tea liquor is a lovely yellow, light and floral and vegetal and fresh in flavor--not the cooked nuttiness of long jing. Very tasty.
Apr 22nd, '16, 15:33
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debunix
Re: Official what GREEN are you currently drinking?
It's finally warm enough here to keep the back door open and enjoy the breeze while I drink up my 2015 Japanese greens and look forward to the arrival of 2016 Chinese greens. Most of the year I prefer Japanese greens and yancha, but spring and early summer belong to Chinese greens.
I ordered 2016 an ji Bai cha from Jing tea shop, taking advantage of their free shipping offer. Now Teatrekker has 2016 tai ping hou Kui in stock. I decided to try out a white tea from Nepal in the same order.
In the meantime I 'm drinking some Yame Gyokuro from O-Cha. I worked out a way to get a non-bitter brew, but next time I order gyo I'll stick with the higher end ones.
I ordered 2016 an ji Bai cha from Jing tea shop, taking advantage of their free shipping offer. Now Teatrekker has 2016 tai ping hou Kui in stock. I decided to try out a white tea from Nepal in the same order.
In the meantime I 'm drinking some Yame Gyokuro from O-Cha. I worked out a way to get a non-bitter brew, but next time I order gyo I'll stick with the higher end ones.
Re: Official what GREEN are you currently drinking?
The An Ji Bai Cha is sitting in a post office in China waiting to board a plane, but the TPHK that I ordered yesterday is already down the road from me and will arrive tomorrow. So I got out my Seong-il gaiwan which is just the right size and shape for those long broad TPHK leaves and used it to brew a few leaves left over from last year. It's a shadow of its former self, even with good storage, but that's what I expect of early green teas.
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Apr 24th, '16, 18:00
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Re: Official what GREEN are you currently drinking?
JRS22, Do you hold that cup by its "handle"? I have wondered whether that design is practical. Definitely nice-looking.
Re: Official what GREEN are you currently drinking?
I do hold the cup by the handle. It's wavy, so there's a grip. I usually use the cup with a smaller pot so it's only about half full.ethan wrote:JRS22, Do you hold that cup by its "handle"? I have wondered whether that design is practical. Definitely nice-looking.
I have two of these cups and the handles are like wings. They're beautiful in person and improve the experience of drinking mediocre tea. That won't be necessary today because my Teatrekker package is out for delivery!
Apr 25th, '16, 10:34
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hopeofdawn
Re: Official what GREEN are you currently drinking?
JRS22--I've been eyeing the new spring greens from Teatrekker. If you get a chance, I'd love to hear which ones you liked that might be worth ordering right away.JRS22 wrote: I have two of these cups and the handles are like wings. They're beautiful in person and improve the experience of drinking mediocre tea. That won't be necessary today because my Teatrekker package is out for delivery!
Apr 25th, '16, 12:35
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Re: Official what GREEN are you currently drinking?
Thanks to JAYINHK who posted a link to a review of water filters. The article inspired further reading & a look at Craigslist where I found a used British Berkefeld for sale. (Now called Big Berkey.) Tea made from water filtered by this system is definitely better than tea made from Brita-filtered water. I also prefer BB's water for drinking. I won't miss carrying gallons of Spring Water up to the third floor either.
The BB takes a lot of space; so, I would imagine used ones coming up for sale when people move etc.
The BB takes a lot of space; so, I would imagine used ones coming up for sale when people move etc.
Re: Official what GREEN are you currently drinking?
I like a very narrow range of chinese greens so I may not be the best source. I'm playing with brewing parameters for this years TPHK. When it arrives I'll order Budda's tea. Those 2 plus a big bag of An Ji Bai Cha are probably it for the year for chinese greens for me.hopeofdawn wrote:JRS22--I've been eyeing the new spring greens from Teatrekker. If you get a chance, I'd love to hear which ones you liked that might be worth ordering right away.JRS22 wrote: I have two of these cups and the handles are like wings. They're beautiful in person and improve the experience of drinking mediocre tea. That won't be necessary today because my Teatrekker package is out for delivery!
Re: Official what GREEN are you currently drinking?
Having sips of 2016 Sae Midori shincha from O-Cha.
Opening my tea canister is a knock out experience. This leaves have a room filling aroma that is absolutely lush with sweet, citrusy grassiness.
Seeing how this was my first try with this shincha, I didn't nail the brewing parameters. Even so, I can tell this is an amazing tea.
EDIT: by the way, is there going to be a 2016 shincha thread? I haven't been around TeaChat long enough to know how these things work.
Opening my tea canister is a knock out experience. This leaves have a room filling aroma that is absolutely lush with sweet, citrusy grassiness.
Seeing how this was my first try with this shincha, I didn't nail the brewing parameters. Even so, I can tell this is an amazing tea.
EDIT: by the way, is there going to be a 2016 shincha thread? I haven't been around TeaChat long enough to know how these things work.
Re: Official what GREEN are you currently drinking?
Yesterday, I had a long, long session with Ippodo's Nichigetsu sencha. They recommend 2 tablespoons per 7 oz. I only was brewing 5 oz so I lessened this to 1.5 tablespoons. They claim it is to the astringent side but I don't notice too much. I love astringency so perhaps what is high for some might not be for me. They recommend even more astringent senchas and I might get some of those soon. Good tea, nice aroma, slight bitterness, but goes down very easily. Very fresh tasting.
Re: Official what GREEN are you currently drinking?
Kondo-Wase shincha from thesdujapon. Not really much to say about it, other than each brew seems to vary wildly; only the astringency (typical for shincha I know) remains constant. Underneath, however, I do taste something (hints of the better teas I drank from shizuoka last year) that says it might be good a few months from now.
I agree. Last year there was one around this time, though the forums are in a bit of a upheaval it seems now, so maybe that has something to do with it.Griff wrote:Having sips of 2016 Sae Midori shincha from O-Cha.
EDIT: by the way, is there going to be a 2016 shincha thread? I haven't been around TeaChat long enough to know how these things work.
Re: Official what GREEN are you currently drinking?
My professor gave me some fukamushi from Shizuoka today. I threw a bunch in my shiboridashi and sort of regretted that choice very soon after. Either way, I managed to salvage the session and go for 8 steeps and periodically fished out left over water and diluted it. Very astringent all the way through. Bitterness was rather high in the first few steeps. Smoothed out to a sweet mellow flavor after a few steeps. A lot of tea leaves were ingested. It was on the back of a Yezi Tea Jasmine green pearl session. I got this as a sample. These were good... the jasmine flavor was mellow and pleasant enough. The actual tea was good enough to be assertive and balance the jasmine without coming out with off-flavors or unpleasant bitterness. The brew remained light and pleasant. Not necessarily my favorite I have had, but good. I went many steeps with that and have had it cold brewing in the fridge since switching to the fukamushi. I don't think I would ever buy it though. $17 for 2 oz is probably not something I am willing to pay for a Jasmine green.
May 3rd, '16, 11:39
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Re: Official what GREEN are you currently drinking?
Another session with the Wu Dui Mao Feng from Tea Habitat. I am so glad I paid attention to Imen's special offer for these tasting sets: I've still got a few more packets left, and they're keeping exceptionally well in their sealed packets in the refrigerator. And this Mao Feng is sweet, floral, delicate, vegetal.
Re: Official what GREEN are you currently drinking?
Surprisingly good Thai Nguyen green tea I bought in Hanoi. The store looked good, but they wouldn't open any of the vacuum sealed teas for me to try. They let me try a Thai Nguyen teabag and it was pretty good....enough that I figured I'd take a gamble on their tea. I wish I'd bought more as it is really lovely. Soft, sweet, lovely fresh aroma and delicate and smooth in the cup. Much better than the standard grades, which are rougher and don't have this characteristic sweetness and smoothness, and the flavor is cleaner too. Vietnamese green tea is a great budget green tea and is lovely on ice, too.
May 4th, '16, 11:06
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hopeofdawn
Re: Official what GREEN are you currently drinking?
Fighting off leftover remnants of flu, which reminds me why I hate the flu/colds so much--not only do they make you miserable, but they make it so I can't really enjoy two of my favorite things--tea and music.
Am drinking the last of 2015 Mao Feng from TeaTrekker. In retrospect, I should have made an effort to drink this tea a lot sooner--after a almost a year in an opened foil package, it's really lost any green freshness it might have had. I'm abusing the heck out of it--boiling water, long steeps--and I still can barely taste anything. Lesson learned, I guess!
Am drinking the last of 2015 Mao Feng from TeaTrekker. In retrospect, I should have made an effort to drink this tea a lot sooner--after a almost a year in an opened foil package, it's really lost any green freshness it might have had. I'm abusing the heck out of it--boiling water, long steeps--and I still can barely taste anything. Lesson learned, I guess!