I was recently given some apparently very high priced chinese green tea that is unlike any green tea I've tried before, but the gift giver that gave it to me has no further information on it's name or sources.
The taste resembles medium sweet milk chocolate with a strong umami flavor.
Mar 31st, '13, 22:43
Posts: 132
Joined: Feb 5th, '13, 07:52
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Re: Which chinese green is this?
Could it be Chinese-grown Japanese style tea?
I find Matcha resemble chocolate sometimes. Also, Japanese tea often has stronger umami notes as far as I know...
I find Matcha resemble chocolate sometimes. Also, Japanese tea often has stronger umami notes as far as I know...
Apr 2nd, '13, 08:36
Vendor Member
Posts: 2084
Joined: Sep 24th, '08, 18:38
Location: Boston, MA
Re: Which chinese green is this?
Yeah it looks like a long jing style tea. Since you got it by way of your friend and you still got it in late March, maybe it's a high mountain Sichuan or Yunnan longjing style tea. Since your ID is chengducha, maybe it's a Sichuan high mountain tea? 
From the stem butt, it looks like a nice spring first harvest. But the leaf shape and leaf surface look like the processing could be improved and maybe it's full-machine processing - just a fast impression and not necessary accurate impression from the photo.
What's unami flavor? Is it somewhat seaweed flavor? If it happens to long jing style tea, that may mean the processing didn't follow the traditional long jing processing. But it's not necessarily a bad thing since you seem to like it anyway.

From the stem butt, it looks like a nice spring first harvest. But the leaf shape and leaf surface look like the processing could be improved and maybe it's full-machine processing - just a fast impression and not necessary accurate impression from the photo.
What's unami flavor? Is it somewhat seaweed flavor? If it happens to long jing style tea, that may mean the processing didn't follow the traditional long jing processing. But it's not necessarily a bad thing since you seem to like it anyway.
Re: Which chinese green is this?
Thanks for the help.

Umami is japanese for "MSG / glutamate" kind of flavor but not as in your face as with the pure chemical which is commonly used in junk food to produce a more appealing taste. I don't think there is any kind of word for it in the english language, but your guess of seaweed goes into the right direction as it's one of the foods with the highest amount of naturally occuring glutamate.What's unami flavor?