Thank you Dewey for this sample!

Dry leaf doesn't have much smell, but the minute the water hits the leaves there is an explosion of aroma that reminds me of very good Japanese sencha.

But once the tea has steeped it has a very different aroma, more like a Chinese green tea, very grassy, and with some toasty and floral tones. Flavor is strong and quite brisk, but pleasantly so. Strong umami or savory flavor. This is among one of the most umami teas I've ever tried, making it taste a lot like gyokuro or kabusecha.

Really potent, and brews very fast. Arbor teas gave a generic recommendation of a 2-3 minute steeping. I thought that produced a first cup that was too strong, and then I tried resteeping, and that did not go well. The resulting cup was bitter and astringent, but lacked most of the pleasant aromatic qualities and was also watery.

I liked this tea better if steeped for only a minute or less for the first cup, and not much longer for the second. This produces a first cup that smelled more vegetal and tasted smoother, but still very savory / umami. This tea still did not work as well as some for multiple infusions, but more of the toasty tones came out in the second cup this way.

This may be though because the sample I received was the bottom of the bag, and the leaf was more broken than it normally would be, but I did notice overall that the leaf looked much more broken than it does in the picture on the Arbor Teas' website...whether that's a question of handling post-shipping, I don't know.

Very enjoyable. But, for me, far too pricey for a tea that doesn't resteep that well.

Add your own review

Login or Sign Up to comment on this review.