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!
Their tea is pretty good, too, though I would recommend sticking to their Chinese teas. I bought their Earl Grey and was sorely disappointed. But I have enjoyed their lapsang souchong, their longjing, and now, their mao feng.
Mao feng is a green tea made from leaves plucked during the early harvest. A pair of small leaves and a bud – the finest picking – is used for mao feng.
Oriental Tea House’s mao feng has a dry aroma of white chocolate. Funny that, considering the almost complete lack of sweetness in the tea’s flavour ? but such are the curiosities of tea. It infuses into a pale green liquor with a gentle, warming character. It has none of the verbosity of oolongs or black teas, and even in the realm of green tea it makes a mellow cup. It’s a humble tea.
The flavour is savoury, with notes of Chinese greens like bok choy and a subtle suggestion of sweet potato. Unfortunately, it also strikes me as somewhat washed-out, as if the tea has lost some of its finer flavours since it was harvested. Certainly, this tea doesn’t strike me as fresh ? but then freshness is a rare thing to come by in tea bought from shops in Melbourne.
Mao feng is available from Oriental Tea House.
I will be reviewing a series of other mao feng teas over the coming days, including Life in Teacup’s Huang Shan Mao Feng, Teas Etc’s Mao Feng and Narien Teas’ Zhejiang Mao Feng (which I am revisiting, after I reviewed it last year).
Veri-Tea wrote:
I’ve had the Mao Feng from Oriental Tea House as well, and also enjoyed it!
Michael wrote:
How does that Mao Feng differ from the three kingdoms Mao Feng on Teavana, or Golden Green from East Pacific Tea?
Eric wrote:
Good question Michael, though unfortunately I haven’t had either of those. From looking at the websites, they’re all mao feng teas, which means that they were processed in a similar way — but there can of course be a great deal of variance in terms of quality.
Michael wrote:
They all look tasty, I’m curious to see the difference in taste.