Kayley green Ceylon

 

This follows reviewing nice black and white versions of Ceylon from a small producer, Kaley, sent for review.  It looks pretty good for green tea; long, twisted whole leaves, moderately dark coloring, rich smell.

Green tea isn't a personal favorite, but I've reviewed dozens of versions here, and I can relate to it.  I wrote about how that preference yardstick isn't critical in tea evaluation not so long ago.  It's helpful for a type to be a personal favorite but something towards the other extreme you can still evaluate.  

Some green teas are exceptions, in that I really do enjoy them.  The character of Longjing works out for me, that nutty / toasted rice flavor, versus some others being heavy on grass, seaweed, or cooked vegetables.  I really liked a steamed green tea from Thailand (from Tea Side), even though ordinarily that wouldn't be the best starting point.  Good sencha and gyokuro transcends that issue too; almost anyone could appreciate the pronounced umami, clean flavor range, freshness, complexity, and pleasant intensity.  We'll see where this stands.

I usually keep the reviews a bit "blind," not reading a vendor description of a tea before trying it, but I'll do it the other way this time, citing their description:

Black twisty tea leaves, unusual for a green tea, turn into a luscious leafy green with at infusion, revealing a light golden liquor. The cup is metered by addictively mild notes of seaweed that float in sync with a fishy vibe. Trifling sweet notes rise up to provide a striking counterpoint. A light vegetal fragrance is gently unleashed, enveloped by an air of bee’s honey. This Green tea is extremely delicate on the palate.

This tea is made from two leaves & a bud, is slow withered, pan-roasted, twisted to perfection, dried & packed within a day of plucking. The crowning glory of this tea is the high level of antioxidants & immune boosting natural goodness.

Alright then; let's see.

Review:

First infusion:  since I'm making this Western style I probably will only review two infusions of it.  It's quite pleasant.  In one sense it strikes me as brewed a bit lightly but if it were stronger it would be too much.  I'll try to sort out what that means, feeling internally conflicted about a likely optimum infusion strength.

For flavor it is vegetal, but in a sense that works.  It's not straight-grass or seaweed, but some aspects of both build into a complex flavor profile.  It has some umami range, for sure, in a form that works with the rest.  I suppose some of the more vague sweetness is floral, although saying that sometimes seems like a shortcut to avoid really identifying anything.  Most teas could reasonably be interpreted as floral.

A flavor-list approach to review might do this tea more justice than works out for some others, because you do get a sense of complex flavor range, of a lot combining and integrating.  There's nothing negative to bring up; that helps.  It's not too vegetal in any one way, there's no odd mineral or mustiness, no gaps in feel, aftertaste, or intensity.  On to that list then:  grass (but most of the range isn't that), seaweed, bell pepper (minor; that would be easy to miss), floral range, roasted sunflower seed, warm underlying mineral.

Looking at the vendor's list that includes fish and honey.  Odd they would describe their own tea as fishy, even if they thought so.  There's a fine line for any seaweed aspect to seem fishy, since the umami range is also present in seafood protein, and a vague sea-like theme runs through both, the smell of the ocean and such.  I could see interpreting some of the richness as comparable to a roasted scallop, the part that overlaps a bit with roasted sunflower seed, and the mineral.  Once you think "roasted scallop" it tastes a lot more like that, but in 100 years I wouldn't make that connection without a prompt or reminder.  

Oddly I like that part, and the overall tea.  It's crazy to say it tastes a lot like roasted scallops and then say that but it's an interpretation of a supporting aspect that integrates with the rest.  It's more vegetal, and mineral is as much an input as that warm, rich flavor element.  If you are "looking for" floral that stands out too, maybe along the lines of lotus flower, sweet, rich, and warm.  It helps a lot that it's all clean and balanced; shift the range so that a few of these notes dominate and it wouldn't work as well.  Stronger grass, seaweed, and green pepper wouldn't be pleasant for me, but mixed in this set I like it.  

Mineral is playing a much bigger role than I've done justice to explaining.  It's almost like tasting a penny, like copper.

I don't love it; I wouldn't want to drink a kilogram of this.  But then if I had a kilogram and used it for a daily drinker that might well change; I'm just not acclimated to green tea preference now.

I drank straight through 50 or 100 grams of jasmine green tea I picked up at my favorite local shop (Jip Eu) about two months ago.  It was odd "changing gears" to that extent, but I tried it there meeting someone and I liked it.  It was nearly free; somewhere around $1 for the amount I bought (which I think might have only been 50 grams, but I lose track).  Probably drinking more of this would go like that, that it would be nice to be on a different page.

after one infusion; not quite completely unfurled

Second infusion:  this is transitioning; that's cool.  I won't write notes for a third infusion because this will be enough to express though.  Richness picked up, mineral dropped back just a little, and a sweet floral aspect picked up.  Grass and seaweed are quite diminished.  I like it even better like this.  I would drink this regularly, even without acclimating.

The thing that works for me about Longjing (Dragonwell) that doesn't as much with other Chinese teas is the lack of that straight-grass, seaweed, and vegetable range.  There's a little of that but not much.

It's interesting noting the comparable input mineral contributes in this tea, related to their other black Ceylon version, or Ceylon in general.  It's pronounced.  To me that works really well, it's quite positive, but of course that take could vary.  I've been on sheng pu'er for a good while so I would see it that way.

The third infusion was similar but a bit narrower in range, picking up a touch more wood-tone, so not as positive.  It was still pleasant, not transitioning as some teas do so that you end up throwing out half or most of the extra round at the end.

All in all quite positive.  Some of that judgement does relate to personal preference, to this matching what I like best about some green teas.  Beyond that it seems "objectively" positive, well-balanced, clean in character, complex and intense.