[Supreme] Huang Shan Mao Feng

[Consilium]

I recently picked up a big bag of this tea due to its constant appraisal as being some of the best green tea available. Much to my disapointment, I find this tea to be lacking in many areas, and would appreciate any green-tea wisdom any of you care to share in order to improve my enjoyment.



Over the course of a week tweaking brewing parameters, I find I have to almost completely fill the the 200 mL volume of the gaiwan I use. I typically let it steep long for a green, about 2.5 minutes. This just doesnt seem right to me, I've never had to use so much tea to extract so little flavor before. Has anyone had this problem with this tea before? Does it indicate that the tea I have is stale or of lesser quality?

Lastly, I dont even think the taste is so spectacular, but this could be related to the above issue. I should mention that I lean more towards sencha flavor, or even a Fu Jing if we are talking about China greens. This has little flavor and is boring, however it costs an arm and a leg. Whats the deal?

[Warden Andy]

What water temp did you use, and did you preheat the gaiwan? Maofeng is an easy tea to underbrew, and I'm not sure adding more leaf will get the flavor you want. In my experience, you could pile in the leaf, but if the water is too cool, or you don't brew long enough, it just tastes like stewed vegetables.

Also, where did you get this maofeng from? Maofeng normally isn't a very expensive tea.

[Chip]

I often glass brewed this green with decent results. You do have to use a decent amount of leaf, but I never filled a gaiwan. I seem to use .75 to 1 gram per 30 ml (1 ounce) water. Usually brewing for around a minute with this ratio for most Chinese greens. Mao Feng seems to need a little more brew time than most Chinese greens, so 1-2 minutes.

It can be light, gently floral with veggie coming forward if brewed stronger. But I have also detected smokiness in a TeaSpring offering when slightly overbrewed.

TBH, it is not a favorite of mine either. I last had a 2006 harvest.

By the way, I cleaned up your photo/post a little, you had some extra code in there.

[gingkoseto]

Huang shan mao feng is one of my favorite! Consilium, from your picture, the tea doesn't look like a top notch one but definitely decent enough by appearance. But of course sometimes taste doesn't match appearance. For this and most other green tea, you never need to put that much tea leaves in the cup. So I guess it's either something wrong with the tea or the water temperature used.

I have a first grade and second grade of this tea. For the first grade one, I will use around 190F water. For the second grade one, I will use near boiling temperature water. For the very best grade, I would use slightly lower temperature (around 180F I guess but I don't use a thermometer). But I only get a little bit of the best grade in mid-year (if I can get any), and finish it soon. Most of the time I have the first grade one and the 2nd grade one. I usually just put tea leaves in a mug, and when the leaves sink to the bottom, I start to drink. It depends on tea quality, as well as how patiently I wait and how fast I drink, sometimes the 2nd infusion is richer than the first one.

If the tea is stale, usually the tea will look pale yellow and the tea water will look yellow brownish.

[Consilium]

Thanks for the brewing tips. I took a combination approach and adjusted the steep to 3 minutes and used 90 degree water instead of 70 degrees. Also, I used 7.5 g in a 20 oz glass pot. This seemed to bring out more of the flavor. I have not tried it again in the gaiwan, I haven't had the time lately.

The broth is still almost clear, just a hint of green. Not an amazing brew, maybe I still need to work out a few things.

Chip:

I seem to use .75 to 1 gram per 30 ml (1 ounce) water.

Yikes, maybe now I'm using too little leaf! I probably would have been better off with nearly 20 g of tea for the pot size I used. Oh, and thanks for cleaning out the extra code for me Chip. I suppose I'm adding too many variables, maybe I should stick to one brewing vessel until I get it down perfect.

Such a finicky tea!