Official what GREEN are you currently drinking?

[debunix]

Enjoying the Wu Dui Mao Feng again, from the Tea Habitat tasting set.

I hope Imen makes this offer again: it's been enough that I have ordered little other chinese green tea, and when I want my chinese greens, they're very special. Sweet stuff.

[daidokorocha]

Enjoying the Wu Dui Mao Feng again, from the Tea Habitat tasting set.

I hope Imen makes this offer again: it's been enough that I have ordered little other chinese green tea, and when I want my chinese greens, they're very special. Sweet stuff.

The Tea Habitat rare production sampler looks good... I recall you saying in this thread you purchased a tasting sampler (of greens I believe). Was it something similar to this and by special offer did you mean that you were able to get it for a discount at some point? Or by special offer did you mean that it really was just simply a special offer!

[daidokorocha]

Sometimes I think I should go the way of Chip and become exclusively Japanese greens. This is what I primarily drink anyway, but I always feel like branching out and drinking new teas. Nothing satisfies me quite like a Japanese green though. When I lived in Japan I rarely drink anything else because one doesn't need anything in life, really. This was me at my happiest - surrounded by Japanese greens 24/7 no matter where I went.

Speaking of Chip, I wish we'd hear more from him these days. He seems to have come back to life in the last week, so I hope he continues to become more active again.

[debunix]

Enjoying the Wu Dui Mao Feng again, from the Tea Habitat tasting set.

I hope Imen makes this offer again: it's been enough that I have ordered little other chinese green tea, and when I want my chinese greens, they're very special. Sweet stuff.

The Tea Habitat rare production sampler looks good... I recall you saying in this thread you purchased a tasting sampler (of greens I believe). Was it something similar to this and by special offer did you mean that you were able to get it for a discount at some point? Or by special offer did you mean that it really was just simply a special offer!

It was a serious of samples of competition teas from China, and it was mentioned in an e-mail newsletter. the Special offer part of it was that none of these teas were available outside of the full tasting sets, and only a dozen or so sets of tasting samples were available.

[.m.]

Last years Organic Chiran Sencha from Yuuki-cha. My first brew after opening the bag was quite disappointing even for an "old" tea. Today i did a gentle refreshing in a small glass pan before brewing. That has completely changed the tea, first 3 cups very yummy, then it started fading.

[JRS22]

Sometimes I think I should go the way of Chip and become exclusively Japanese greens. This is what I primarily drink anyway, but I always feel like branching out and drinking new teas. Nothing satisfies me quite like a Japanese green though. When I lived in Japan I rarely drink anything else because one doesn't need anything in life, really. This was me at my happiest - surrounded by Japanese greens 24/7 no matter where I went.

Speaking of Chip, I wish we'd hear more from him these days. He seems to have come back to life in the last week, so I hope he continues to become more active again.

I began my tea journey with Chinese greens but after years of experimenting with teas I've learned about on Teachat I drink mainly Japanese greens and yancha. Still when I get the spring newsletters about the arrival of new Chinese greens I can't resist.

I'm finding the TPHK and An Ji Bai Chai to be very similar in flavor so I'm probably doing something wrong when I brew the TPHK. There's an interesting approach on the Tea Hong website called Fire and Ice that I'm going to try next.

http://www.teahong.com/home/91066-taipi ... ional.html

[daidokorocha]

Sometimes I think I should go the way of Chip and become exclusively Japanese greens. This is what I primarily drink anyway, but I always feel like branching out and drinking new teas. Nothing satisfies me quite like a Japanese green though. When I lived in Japan I rarely drink anything else because one doesn't need anything in life, really. This was me at my happiest - surrounded by Japanese greens 24/7 no matter where I went.

Speaking of Chip, I wish we'd hear more from him these days. He seems to have come back to life in the last week, so I hope he continues to become more active again.

I began my tea journey with Chinese greens but after years of experimenting with teas I've learned about on Teachat I drink mainly Japanese greens and yancha. Still when I get the spring newsletters about the arrival of new Chinese greens I can't resist.

I'm finding the TPHK and An Ji Bai Chai to be very similar in flavor so I'm probably doing something wrong when I brew the TPHK. There's an interesting approach on the Tea Hong website called Fire and Ice that I'm going to try next.

http://www.teahong.com/home/91066-taipi ... ional.html

That is definitely not a technique I have seen before. Thank you for sharing. I'd be afraid to try it on such expensive tea and would probably practice a few times first. Did you do it yet? I'm anticipating the results. Too bad I never have ice on hand. I might have to get some just to try this.

I like to drink a lot of Japanese tea and yancha as well as a daily thing... perhaps there is something to this connection. I will report that I do not have the most experience with Chinese greens. My life has been filled with primarily Japanese green and yancha, some sprinklings of Assam and the eventual introduction of taiwanese oolongs. Later, I included Korean teas, Puer, yellow, white, and many other blacks. Still, despite green tea being my favorite tea by far, Chinese teas have always been lacking in my life. Perhaps they are the last thing I have yet to figure out how to brew very well. My Chinese greens do not always turn out poorly and I enjoy them enough, but sometimes I definitely feel that something is lacking and I imagine it is me and not the tea.. Despite this, after a while one becomes discouraged and gives up. Why am I wasting so much time, effort, and money on Chinese greens if I will not be satisfied by them?

Well... I think that all changed today. I started again with the En Shi Yu Lu. I have gotten some good cups out of this and have been enjoying it, but in general I feel like I could not hit its sweet spot. I decided to brew this one somewhere between a gyokuro and sencha and it turned out much better. I stuffed my shiboridashi with a great deal more of leaf than I had been and lowered the temperature to... well I don't know what to actually. The lowest temperature setting on my pot is 175, and then I just left it there for something like 15-20 minutes before pouring into a cooling cup then into the pot.

However, the highlight was the Dragonwell I have been enjoying. Each time I brew this it generally comes up sweet with notes of cinnamon and other spices with some nuttines. Changing water and water temperature has seen this tea go from incredibly light in flavor where one has to concentrate to taste it to tasting exactly like and only like a chestnut in liquid form, excluding the sweet and spice notes from before. Yes, well today after the success of the En Shi Yu Lu, I decided I will try to brew all Chinese teas as if I were brewing sencha. I have always heard people talking about floral in Chinese teas and honestly this is something I have never tasted ever. I finally got that today with this dragonwell. The first steep gave me a more pronounced nutty chestnut that retained the sweetness and spices. The second steep surprised me when I took a sip and had one of the most intense floral experiences I have ever had in tea. Continuing steeps also had their individual characteristics.

While I have tried brewing close to a Japanese tea before once or twice, I have never tried to brew it exactly like one before. I generally have tried variations on brewing that were similar to what is offered by TeaHong, Ten Ren, Tea Spring and other vendors. Those didn't work the best for me so I usually grandpa brew my Chinese greens. However, the double or tripling of the leaf and brewing similar to a Japanese tea did something to the tea for me that none of those methods could. I am eager to try it on all my other greens. To note for reference, the above teas are from Dragon Tea House, with the En Shi Yu Lu being their "premium" grade and their Dragonwell being "non-pareil".

Now that I've perhaps found my sweet spot with Chinese greens, I must sign up for the Tea Habitat newsletter. Thanks for the tip debunix.

[debunix]

Now that I've perhaps found my sweet spot with Chinese greens

Yay! They're definitely trickier to brew than sencha, at least for me, because each one responds best to different brewing; and there are some where I just can't overcome a strong cooked flavor that I find unpleasant no matter how I brew. But when I nail one just right, I like that floral sweet marvelousness more than most sencha.

[JRS22]

I tested the 'fire and ice' brewing technique with TPHK this morning. The tea was too weak because I underestimated the amount of tea leaves necessary, although it was the amount recommended on the website. Still, even though weak it's clear the flavor isn't as good as with my usual technique, so back to the pot.

Edit: I moved the leaves to my black Kinsai pot that I've been using to brew this tea. The tea was completely washed out - there wasn't enough flavor left for a second steep. So 'fire and ice' sounds dramatic but doesn't work for me.

[jayinhk]

Big (500ml+) porcelain pot brewing Thai Nguyen green tea (Northern Vietnamese). This tea can take the heat (90-95 Celsius) and produces a good, sweet brew. Economical and great for everyday drinking, It is not as floral and fruity as good Taiwanese green tea or good sencha, but is pleasant, goes down easy and costs practically nothing when purchased in Vietnam, even for the highest commercial grades. Not as delicate as a good longjing, it's more like a biluochun, but sweeter. Nice break from all the dancong, wuyicha and sheng I've been drinking over the last several days!

[jayinhk]

Sanxia biluochun, again in a big Northern Vietnamese porcelain pot. The Sanxia greens are always fruitier than the classic Chinese greens, which tend to be more savory. The Sanxia biluochun is also made with larger, shredded leaf, rather than tips a la genuine biluochun, but I definitely prefer the Sanxia greens to any Chinese greens I've ever tried.

[beforewisdom]

Official what GREEN are you currently drinking?

Rishi brand sencha that I bought from a Japanese tea place. The quality is comparable with sencha I had to send away for. The owners of the tea place tell me they communicate with Rishi so I don't know if the quality of the Rishi tea they sell for taking home is of the same quality you would get from boxes of Rishi at stores like a Whole Foods where I have also seen Rishi tea sold. Still, no shipping fees (though I did buy it after eating inarisushi and after drinking two pots of gyokuro, so the cost got more than made up for ) and comparable quality.

[JRS22]

After more than a week of nothing but 2016 Chinese greens I decided to switch back to 2015 Japanese greens today. Two kariganes - this one is a gyokuro karigane. Still good, but the hint of bitterness in Japanese greens is more obvious after acclimating to Chinese greens.

[debunix]

It's always nice to find an easily accessible tea that can sustain you when the 'finer' versions may not be available or may take more time and attention than you can give. I find that the inexpensive Maeda-en sencha I get at my Chinatown tea shop is just fine for cold brewed sencha, especially for sparkling sencha, even though I wouldn't use it for a morning session of hot tea.

And this is why I so love my SeaDyke TKY, which I am enjoying this morning: two weeks ago this morning I brought home the first of a pair of feral kittens, and while we're still working hard on taming and socializing them, I'm keeping them confined to my bedroom, which is not a place set up for brewing tea. So I am reduced to mostly tea that I can brew up in bulk and bring downstairs in the thermos, or other large containers. So: lots of SeaDyke TKY, and shu puerh, and Zhangshu Lake oolong cool brewed, and even a bit of sparkling sencha.....to bring it back to green tea.

I'm already worried about the teaware collection on the open shelving

Guardian of the tea by D B, on Flickr

when these little maniacs

Little maniacs by D B, on Flickr

are let loose in the whole house.

[Frisbeehead]

Lately I have been practicing using more leaf with my 2016 Chinese greens, with good results. With the Anji Bai Cha I definitely prefer more leaf and shorter steeping times, with temperature around 175-185F (78-85 C) or so. I am about to brew up some Mao Feng using similar parameters, I will report back how that turns out.