I never thought I'd get yet another opportunity to sample more loose-leaf tea from SpecialTeas, but one of my friends had a sealed packet of this tea and I was able to brew it up.

I must say, it stored very well and tasted very fresh.

As the commercial description suggests, this tea has a plum-like flavor. It is much smoother and less astringent or sour than typical examples of chun mee. Not quite as complex as my favorite two chun mee selections, which are both sold by Upton Tea Imports, Chun Mee Dao Ming and Chun Mee Moon Palace, both of which are also organic, but I think this tea was smoother and fruitier than both of those.

This is one of the many teas that was not sold by Teavana and was completely discontinued and unavailable after Teavana bought out and closed SpecialTeas. It makes some sense that they'd stop carrying this tea, as it was one of the more inexpensive of the SpecialTeas green tea offerings. However, I think it's sad, and is an example of what was lost in this buyout.

Thankfully, there are many good sources of Chun Mee; my favorite are from Upton, but I've had good ones from Arbor Teas and TeaVivre as well. All of these other teas, however, are brisker and more astringent than this one.

Add your own review

Login or Sign Up to comment on this review.