Tea: Colombian Wiry Green Organic Tea (Formerly Colombian Green Tea)
A Green Tea from Simpson & Vail
| Brand: | Simpson & Vail |
| Style: | Green Tea |
| Region: | Colombia |
| Caffeine: | Caffeinated |
| Loose? | Loose |
| # Ratings: | 2 View All |
| Product page: | Colombian Wiry Green Organic Tea (Formerly Colombian Green Tea) |
Reviewer: Alex Zorach
✓ 1453 teas reviewed
✓ 219 of Green Tea
✓ 954 of Pure Tea (Camellia sinensis)
✓ 42 of Simpson & Vail
✓ 8 from Colombia
Review of Colombian Wiry Green Organic Tea (Formerly Colombian Green Tea)
January 31st, 2018
| Aroma | Flavor | Value | Total |
| 7 of 10 | 4 of 5 | 4 of 5 | 77 of 100 |
| Very Good | Good | Good Value |
Another lost review, apologies for the delay in posting. Thank you to Simpson & Vail for providing me with this one!
The dry leaf is wonderfully fragrant and also has a beautiful visual appearance, with long, narrow, fully intact leaves. The smell is suggestive of a number of high-grade Chinese teas, and made me excited to brew it. The smell leads me to expect sweet, sour, and savory flavors; it's vegetal and herbaceous, cool and fresh. There are fruity notes, almost like raspberry and cranberry, and a strange smell of porridge or cereal in the finish.
I liked Simpson & Vail's Colombia black tea better than that from Harney & Sons, I think it was from the same garden but a slightly higher grade (and price!) and was eager to try this one, mainly because the Colombian green tea from Harney had been disappointing.
Unfortuantely, the tea was not quite as mind-blowing as the black one. It was pleasant, but not quite as good as I had hoped based on the smell and appearance of the leaf. I did note that it performs best with boiling water, unusually for a green tea. I preferred steeping for 3 minutes, followed by 15 for a second cup.
Flavor is very strong and bold: moderately bitter, slightly tangy, and moderately savory or umami. Not very sweet, but there are aromas that suggest sweetness, some pleasant grassy, vegetal, and almost seaweedy notes that remind me of sencha, and other herbaceous notes that are a little like celery. Almost smoky...reminds me of some Chinese teas like chun mee or mao jian.
Finish is a little heavy, leaving a fairly strong bitter aftertaste with lingering vegetal notes, a little like asparagus.
This tea is not at all bad, it's just that the black tea was a truly world-changing experience, like, WOW WOW WOW like flavors that I've never had anything like, whereas this tea was a lot like a long list of good, but inexpensive Chinese green teas.
The price on this though, is not bad; whereas S&V's black tea is pricier than Harney's, for the green, S&V is cheaper. And either way, this tea is worth trying. I still recommend the black tea over this one, and left to my own devices would take any number of Chinese green teas over this one. But this was not bad!
