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.
As with the mao feng from Oriental Tea House, this mao feng consists of long, wiry leaves twisted into thin spears. There are a few pairs, but not as many as in Life in Teacup’s mao feng.
I decided to make this mao feng in a gaiwan, with a higher leaf to water ratio and a slightly shorter steeping time. With the previous two mao fengs, I opted for a larger teapot (a 2-person pot) with about a teaspoon and a half of leaf. The teas turned out well, but they required a longer steeping of about three minutes, and couldn’t handle much more than two infusions. Using the gaiwan and more leaf has let me get three solid steepings already, and I think I’ll be able to extract a pretty good fourth steeping as well.
What struck me on first tasting this tea is how much bolder its flavour is in comparison with the previous two mao fengs I reviewed. It bursts with vegetal flavours ? think green beans and bok choy. There’s a sweetness, the kind you get from stir-fried vegetables. It makes for pleasant, easy-going drinking.
Mao Feng Reserve is available from Teas Etc.
Jordan M. Williams wrote:
I enjoyed the review, and thanks for the advice on studying a single tea at a time. I’m going to have to apply this practice to my own tea studies.
Peter wrote:
I like Mao feng tea very much.It is a special green tea with good taste.