I was expecting to like this tea a lot, and I just didn't. It wasn't terrible, but I liked it considerably less than a number of much cheaper teas, and than most of the other green teas I've sampled from TeaVivre.

Wiry dry leaf has an intense aroma, very fresh, and suggestive of savory qualities, but also highly vegetal, suggestive of cooked spinach or asparagus. Upon brewing, the leaf is slow to unfurl and remains rather wiry through the first steeping.

The brewed cup is very flavorful, but less aromatic than I'd expect. Toasty aroma, a little grassy. Strong savory (umami) flavor, with a little sourness and some bitterness...leaves a deep, bitter aftertaste. The aroma is very mild, and there are only hints of vegetal qualities.

Leaves a metallic sensation on the palate, especially upon drinking the whole cup.

I really did not like this anywhere near as much as the other, less expensive tea from this region, the Hangzhou Tian Mu Qing Ding Green Tea, also from TeaVivre. I also preferred the Huang Shan Mao Feng from TeaVivre over this one, although that tea was a little more variable with respect to brewing conditions.

I found this tea to be hard to brew to my satisfaction. The flavor was often too strong but the aroma too mild. I liked it most when using a sparse amount of leaf, a very brief steeping, and a low water temperature.

As an additional note, I wasn't crazy about how I felt after drinking this tea. It seemed to have a lot of caffeine and made me feel a little on edge, and did not have as much of a relaxing effect as most tea has on me.

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