Green tea
All posts in the Green tea categoryShincha 2010: Get it while you can
Shincha procrastinators, make haste! O-Cha are running a last-minute special for those of you who are yet to stock up on this year’s shincha harvest. Use the SH617 coupon code at checkout to save 10% off their shincha. This offer runs out on July 1st though, and teas are running out of stock quick, so now’s the time to hurry:)
Shincha 2010: Organic Sencha “Warashima Supreme” from O-Cha
O-Cha’s Organic Sencha “Warashima Supreme” is a light-steamed shincha with a seductive aroma of white chocolate and berries and slender leaves resembling broken pine leaves. This sencha comes from Shizuoka and steeps into a mellow, light green cup, whose most dominant flavour is that of steamed spinach, accented by a hint of pepper and a slight sweetness.
Shincha 2010: Kagoshima Sencha Yutaka Midori
Open up your packet of Kagoshima Sencha Yutaka Midori, draw in deeply, and you’ll be hit with the heavenly aroma of extraordinary tea: forest freshness, met by the syrupy sweetness of blackcurrant and the tartier overtones of tropical fruits. You only get this kind of rich aroma when the tea is this fresh — and this good.
Shincha 2010 is here
Shincha 2010 is now shipping!
Bec and I received our pair of shinchas from O-Cha on Thursday: a 100 gram packet of Kagoshima Sencha Yutaka Midori, and a 50 gram packet of Organic Asamushi Sencha.
I’ll have some reviews for you soon, but just wanted to post a quick note for those of you who haven’t ordered your fresh batch of shincha yet. Shincha is the freshest tea around at the moment, and the good stuff never lasts that long. Head over to O-Cha (my favourite supplier of Japanese green teas) and view their selection of shinchas now.
Mao Feng Reserve from Teas Etc
If you want to learn more about tea, spend a week studying one specific variety. That’s what I’ve been doing this week with mao feng green teas, and it’s what I did in early March with ti kuan yin oolong teas. Both times, it has been rewarding to focus in one variety, sampling similar teas from different merchants. It’s a journey of small discoveries.
Today’s small discovery is this: Mao feng is not a very aromatic tea. It shares this characteristic with most Chinese green teas, but mao feng is particularly light in the nose. Mao Feng Reserve from Teas Etc, has a mildly sweet aroma hinting at chocolate or sweet corn, but you’ll barely detect it.
Huangshan Mao Feng from Life in Teacup
Huangshan Mao Feng has the special distinction of being of China’s famous Tribute Teas, teas which were hand-picked by Chinese emperors to become their tea of choice.
Huangshan is a mountain range in southern Anhui Province, and as such, Huangshan Mao Feng is a location-specific tea. Mao feng is produced elsewhere (I will be reviewing one from Zhejiang Province later this week), but Huangshan Mao Feng can be considered the heartland of mao feng teas.
Mao Feng from Oriental Tea House
Oriental Tea House is one of the finer establishments for tea lovers in Melbourne. I’ve eaten there a few times now, and have usually spent more than I’d intended, thanks to the trappings of yum cha. One minute you’re sitting there with a wallet full of cash, then they tempt you with some alluring peking duck, and before you know it, you’re back at the ATM pulling out more cash so you can buy a train ticket home. But man, that peking duck was tasty!
2010 First Flush Hawaiian Green Tea from Mauna Kea Tea
In Hawaii, 2010′s first tea harvest has come. The kind folks from Mauna Kea Tea, a small family-owned and operated tea company in Hawaii, sent me a sampling of this year’s first flush teas, as well as their sweet roast green tea. Today’s tea is their first flush green tea.
Right off the bat, I should note one thing: this tea doesn’t come cheap. At $20 for a 15-gram bag, each cup is costing a few dollars (depending on how many steepings you can get out of your leaves). But there are a few good reasons for this: the tea is organic; the cost of labour in Hawaii is higher than in India or China; and the tea is in short supply. This is the kind of tea you buy out of curiosity, to see what Hawaiian tea tastes like.
2010 Shincha: Pre-Order Now with a 10% Discount
It’s spring time in Japan, which means that the 2010 shincha harvest is just around corner. O-Cha.com have just started their pre-order sale, and you can get 10% off if you order now with this discount code: shincha2010.
Shincha comes from the year’s first harvest of green tea. Unlike other green teas, which are put into cold storage to maintain freshness, shincha is packaged immediately and sold as quickly as possible. It truly is the freshest of the fresh.
Bi Lo Chun Reserve from Teas Etc
Just a few weeks after reviewing Chicago Tea Garden’s Golden Bi Lo, I turn to Teas Etc’s Bi Lo Chun Reserve, a delightful green tea with a remarkable nose.
Bi Lo Chun is a specialty of tea makers in Jiangsu Province, China. This particular sample from Teas Etc (a free sample, by the way) features lovely white downy leaves, indicating that the leaves were harvested at a young age.