Thanks Dewey for sharing this with me! This was a smooth, mellow, mild green tea that was easy to brew and enjoy.

The leaf of this smells very fresh, a sort of sweet fragrance, almost floral, typical of high-quality, tippy Chinese green teas. It's pleasant but also hard to anticipate how it is going to taste, so I went into this one with pretty open expectations.

The brewed cup is less aromatic than I had hoped. The flavor is balanced and rich, with a mix of sweet, sour, savory, and slight bitter flavors, with probably the least bitterness and the most savory qualities. I find the aroma hard to describe, it's slightly vegetal and slightly fruity, and it almost hints at smokiness without actually being smoky. Finish is surprisingly sweet, almost honey-like. Astringency is pretty low but there is enough to impart some body.

This tea was easy to brew: fairly forgiving on brewing times and temperatures. I preferred it with lower-temperature (180°F or lower) water, but it tasted okay with boiling water, contrasting with some Chinese teas that get too harsh or develop off qualities. It also was hard to oversteep. If you sometimes forget to take your tea out, this will be better than most Yunnan green teas, which can get so strong as to be undrinkable if you so neglect them, especially on the first steep. That said I still preferred watching the steeping times carefully because this tea did have some subtleties of flavor and I think tasted best if brewed with care.

Overall I found this tea easy to drink and inoffensive, but not as aromatically complex as I had hoped for a tea in this price range. This is a good 50% or so more expensive than a number of other, bolder-flavored, more aromatic green teas from Yunnan Sourcing, that I would prefer to this one. I would imagine that a lot of people would prefer this tea because of its smoother flavor and more subtle nature, but I like teas that pack a bit of a punch. I also wish it was a bit more aromatic.

Bottom line? This is excellent quality but is not my favorite style of green tea.

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