Gunpowder introduction

[skilfautdire]

Many of you surely have went through this situation in which a colleague, motivated by your talks on tea, finally gets out of his/her way to drop by a local chinese supermarket to get some tea, hoping to get the kind of tea you're talking about. Only at a cheaper price, (optionally hinting along the way that you don't have to order
expensive teas from China and Japan to get a good tea).

Well, a colleague offered me some gunpoder tea, bought at such a supermarket. I've never tasted that kind of tea before; in fact I do not know much about it. Wikipedia does not seem to say that it is an oolong, but rather a steamed green tea.

So I made some in my yixing. Steeped 1:30 minutes. The liquid was copper-brown. After two 100 ml cups, a good amount of power/dust has sipped through the typical fine-mehsed gong fu type funnel to float like some kind of fluffy sponge at the bottom of the cup. Never saw that from any other tea so far. And before the first cup I rinsed the leaves in hot water twice, the rinse water carrying away a lot of 'powder'. Again never saw that amount from any other tea so far.

The taste was not much. I let the second cup steep for 3 minutes but still, not that much of a taste. Very forgetable. The leaves in the teapot smelled effectively like powder, like some dust in some attic. It smelled like a room that was kept closed for some long time.

My questions are, does this describes gunpowder tea ? Would high quality gunpowder tea follow along this - the dust/powder smell - adding perhaps more taste ? Is the amount of 'dust' at the bottom of the cup that sipped through the fine mesh filter a normal thing for this type of tea?

Thanks for any comments.

[AdamMY]

Gunpowder tea is the green tea used in Moroccan mint tea, but its notorious for holding a lot of those small tiny particles. It generally has a slightly smoky flavor, but I don't know if anyone really makes a top notch gunpowder tea.

[Proinsias]

Sounds like you may have some old, low quality even for gunpowder, green or oolong tea.

I had always assumed that gunpowder green was fried and not steamed but I could well be wrong.

[Chip]

I never heard that it was steamed either ... I would doubt it. But then again, I don't look into gunpowder either.

Do not expect much from this entry level "loose leaf" green tea.

I am betting a bunch of us, when we were new to tea, searched for good gunpowder since gunpowder was one of our first exposures to loose green tea. Problem is, they are generally not so good. I had some decent ones, but none that were memorable.

Most green tea drinkers move on.

[teaisme]

Yes I don't recall ever seeing a gunpowder at a high price point.

Tried a couple, and from those that I have tried I would say there are better more complex 'smokey' green teas out there if that's your kind of thing.

[Chip]

I just remembered, last I looked, Upton had a whole bunch of gunpowder offerings and its cousins (Pinhead gunpowder, Temple of Heaven). And one "Recommended for those seeking a superior gunpowder experience."

Now that is a juxtaposition.

TeaSpring often has superior versions as well, though not called gunpowder.

[beachape]

Looking for good gunpowder is like looking for a good american macro lager. Sure some might be better than others, but eventually you need to take a step up to another level.

[gingkoseto]

Looking for good gunpowder is like looking for a good american macro lager. Sure some might be better than others, but eventually you need to take a step up to another level.

That's very true. Gunpowder is a cheap tea with heavy flavor. Even top grade gunpowder uses pretty old leaves compared with most other green teas. But I've also seen people who drink gunpowder and other lower grade green tea for life time without feeling like to take a step up. Higher grade Chinese green teas generally and averagely have lighter flavor compared with lower grade teas. Very often I see Chinese sellers put on their website that "to seasoned tea drinkers who love heavier flavor, the grade 3(instead of grade 1, the top grade) is recommended"

[DoctorD]

Looking for good gunpowder is like looking for a good american macro lager. Sure some might be better than others, but eventually you need to take a step up to another level.

+1

[skilfautdire]

Thanks for all the comments. The gunpowder I had did *NOT* look very appealing (compared to what I had so far: mao feng, sencha, tiequanyin, bi luo chan) and was perhaps looking for some comments along the line of getting a better grade of gunpowder in order to really evaluate it. But since the comments do not depict gunpowder as being an attractive tea, and since there's so many other teas that do look attractive, well, I'll simply forget about pursuing gunpowder.

EDIT: forgotten one very important word in the first sentence that makes a big difference

[Chip]

... good decision.

[Jack_teachat]

Looking for good gunpowder is like looking for a good american macro lager. Sure some might be better than others, but eventually you need to take a step up to another level.

It's like reaching for a Bud when what you really want is a Brooklyn!

[TubbyCow]

Looking for good gunpowder is like looking for a good american macro lager. Sure some might be better than others, but eventually you need to take a step up to another level.

So very true.

I picked up a huge thing of super-cheap-o gunpowder a few months ago, thinking I'd just ice it in big batches, since I prefer to use cheaper leaf for that. Tons of particles, smells like cigarettes, tastes like dirt. Learned my lesson there. Still trying to convince myself to throw out the rest.

[mbishop]

Strangely, I like gunpowder tea. It's definitely different from most teas...the flavor is smoky, and almost more of a black tea flavor. It's always "gritty" and has sort of manly feel to it. I heard they drink it a lot in northern Africa (hence why it was used in Moroccan mint), and in some ways I think the harshness of the tea parallels the harshness of northern Africa.

[GongFu]

Why not try lapsong souchong or hojicha as alternatives?