I'm reviewing half of a green tea sampler set from ITea World, three grades of Maofeng green tea. It's represented as tying to a plucking standard and quality level:
Introducing our Green Tea Leaf Grade Collection, a specially curated collection designed to help you discover how the picking grade of green tea leaves affects its flavor, aroma, and overall tea-drinking experience. This set includes two renowned Chinese green teas—Dragon Well (Longjing) and Huangshan Maofeng—both made from traditional heirloom varietals. The only difference? The picking grade of the leaves. You’ll be able to taste three distinct grades:
One bud, one leaf
One bud, two leaves
One bud, three leaves
Each tea is handpicked and processed by the same experienced tea master to ensure consistency in craftsmanship. By tasting the subtle variations from these different leaf grades, you'll develop a deeper understanding of green tea and find the perfect grade for your personal preferences.
I'll have to see how that bud theme works out for the Longjing; it usually just looks like small leaves.
In terms of value this seems fine; maybe 40 cents a gram for pretty good green tea. It would be more in the Spring, and maybe it would make more sense to buy it then, even paying more, but for trying something novel (for people not already exposed to this range) they could catch back up on appreciating the fresh edge and intensity more later.
I wasn't keeping track of how many sample sets they've expanded to sell now. It's a lot. They're quite a bit better for this latest round of different sets than earlier on; the Dan Cong alone changes everything. They cost more too; that's how it goes with higher quality, higher demand tea types. Those earlier basic sets were great for just getting people started on basic oolongs and black teas, and such, but now these take another step. An aged tea set has been pretty good, better than I expected, and another Longjing set was about as good as 8 or 9 month old versions were going to be. Good Dan Cong is on another level, to me, and somehow theirs were way better than versions most often are.
Western vendors offer sample sets too, but they don't push into the range as far, or take up the same developed forms. Most will offer one or two sets, so that you don't need to buy whole cakes of sheng or 50 grams of each type, and can go back and order more of what you like. Yunnan Sourcing might sell 20 different sample sets, across a lot of types range, and maybe even more, but these are packaged in a novel way, set up to try each sample individually. Does it make a difference? Maybe not, usually. But it's ideal for sharing them, or traveling with them, or not getting to some for a few months.
Review:
Level 4, 2 or 3 leaves: fresh, bright, and vegetal, with pleasant sweetness and overall balance. I don't want to overdo it with stating and re-stating that this must have been fresher when first produced, in April of 2024. It's still good, this just wouldn't work for everyone into green tea. The vegetal part tastes a little like green bean. At least it's a relatively fresh version of green bean, not like well-steamed or canned forms. Still, it tastes like green bean.
Level 2, 1 bud and 2 leaves: slightly brighter and fresher, with a touch of nutty range. This is more what I like best in green tea. It's still vegetal, not that far off green bean, but it leans a little more towards sugar snap pea instead. Feel might be slightly thicker; I'll have to focus on that as I go to tell better.
Premier, 1 bud and 1 leaf: the flavor profile of this is different, with more separation from the other two than the first from the second. There's a savory note in this. That often reminds me of sun-dried tomato; maybe it's a little like that. It doesn't necessarily seem fresher and brighter than the others. The extra flavor range gives it more depth, but it's in a heavier and warmer tone.
I don't necessarily like this more than the second version, where it did map like that in the middle round; it seemed better than the first. It's just different. There is different vegetal range beyond that savory note, that's hard to identify. It's more like fresh soybean; back to coupling with some savory range. It doesn't really express the nutty aspect in the second.
I hadn't mentioned brewing approach. This proportion is moderate, for me, at maybe 5 grams per these 100 ml gaiwans (that probably fill to 90 at the most), so I used 20 or so seconds for the first round. I'll bump that a little, on to 30. Of course I didn't weigh or time any of that; I'm philosophically opposed to such things. It's just to pass on an idea of it.
Level 4, #2: a little grassiness is picking up, a fairly standard theme across a lot of green tea experience. I wouldn't say that I hate that, I also just don't like it. Flavors are generally clean, and decently fresh, but that grass flavor pulls it towards a steamed spinach effect. I eat steamed spinach, to be clear; I like it. And some seaweed, but this doesn't go there. It expresses some umami but not enough that it stands out. Feel is fine, but not full or rich, just present enough to support the experience. It's not bad, it's just also not great.
Level 2: this changed a good bit. Nutty flavor range is replaced by a much greater depth. It's a little towards the sun-dried tomato in the next version, just not a direct match. Some degree of nutty flavor is still present. I like the balance of this more, how it all comes together. Feel is a little fuller than the first version. Vegetal range is still in between fresh green bean and sugar snap pea, spanning both. To me that's pleasant, but it would just depend on preference. Someone else might interpret this as including kale as well, which I would take to be a more negative assessment (unless they love kale?).
Being brewed stronger probably shifted how the flavors come across. It's normal for some of that to happen across most tea types.
Premium: steamed soybean is a much stronger flavor input now. I actually like those, so this kind of works for me. I'd probably rather experience Longjing of this quality level, but I already reviewed a set of those, and there are three more in this set. I doubt that I'll be able to identify differences between the earlier one and that one, trying the teas weeks apart.
When you taste in comparison like this the other teas tend to set a benchmark level, not an earlier experience, or all earlier experiences. With enough tasting exposure you could place it against another range easier. For me I would have better luck with that for other tea types, for sheng pu'er, black teas, and a range of oolongs.
Sweetness is pretty good in this, and thickness is fine, with a touch more aftertaste experience carrying over. Some of that could serve as subtle quality markers. That's more or less a working concept that I made up, one that helps me place what I'm experiencing. The aspects that tend to identify tea quality the most don't necessarily directly overlap with those that make the experience most pleasant. But then people could value different parts, or different aspects within a range, so that's subjective, and variable.
For green tea freshness would be a main concern, and these all are giving up a bit for being 9 or 10 months old. From there distinctive flavor range would identify them as fully type-typical, kind of related to a quality issue, but different. For green teas intensity, rich feel, sweetness level, and clean effect (like "refinement," an emergent property based on different aspects) would all identify quality. Aftertaste expression kind of links with intensity, but it's something else as well.
To me this tasting a lot like cooked soybean and then sun-dried tomato and green bean beyond that is not an unusual theme (although I'm definitely no Maofeng expert), but back to preference it's also not completely positive. The tea is good, but again I'd rather drink Longjing. I'll brew these lighter next time, for more like 15 to 20 seconds, just to check on the difference that makes.
Level 4, #3: lighter doesn't work as well for this; the sweetness seems to back off, and it comes across more like water vegetables were steamed in. It's still ok, in one sense, but not as pleasant as the first two rounds.
Level 2: again lower intensity isn't better for this, but to me the style and character hold up much better at this lower infusion strength. Some intensity of flavor carries over better, even though it's also light. The nutty aspect still stands out, in a nice way. Vegetal range works well as a background input, not too focused on any one cooked vegetable theme. I suppose sugar snap peas stand out most. Grassiness doesn't enter in much.
Premier: cooked soybean is now coupled with more cooked vegetables; this is a bit like a much stronger version of broth than the first was. Warmth, depth, and some umami range stand out. The Level 2 version covers brightness and freshness better, at this stage.
Nine cups of these teas is so much. I'm curious about what one more strong round would be like, but it's getting to be a lot. I'll take a break, and I may get back to that, or may not. I would expect it will be more of that I've been describing, without much of a development or twist.
Fourth round, combined notes: after a short break I did go there. I do like these better brewed a bit longer, and they're holding up to this many rounds well. None of the three are improving, or evolving in interesting and positive ways, more just hanging in there. The descriptions from earlier rounds still apply.
Conclusions:
It's interesting liking the character of the Level 2 version the most, that flavor profile. The Premier version is definitely a little more intense, with quite a bit more umami experience, but I don't like the taste of cooked soybeans with a little sundried tomato more than nuttiness with some brighter vegetal background. The Level 4 version, the first, is more grassy, with more standard vegetable range.
I'm not sure this divide relates mostly to a plucking standard (what the material is made from). They didn't confirm that plant types were identical, although they might be quite similar, or the same, and there's nothing in here about microclimate / terroir, them being from slightly different places. Even being located on two different sides of the same hill could change things, a little, or broader inputs like elevation can. Of course I'm not going to speculate about specifics. They said that the same producer made them, implying that all other conditions were held to be as similar as possible, but who knows.
All in all this was an interesting experience. It's hard to place in relation to Maofeng I've tried in the past; it's been awhile, and I've drank a good bit more Longjing, and not very much of that compared to sheng pu'er. For a green tea drinker I think this would be all the nicer.
But then there's the freshness edge sub-theme; these must have had a little more of a fresh pop when first produced. They're not settling into warmer, murkier flavors, necessarily, but it's quite possible that the comments here about cooked vegetables would've been about brighter or more floral range aspects when these were brand new. I think exploring green tea right before the Spring harvest season is a little odd, but it could still make sense. You would need to place it for what it is, considering that as one input.
It might be interesting for them to bundle left-over 2024 versions along with new 2025 teas. I'm speculating about aging transition inputs, but in direct comparison you could try to sort that out, beyond different versions just varying for different reasons. Aged green tea isn't a common thing, but to me transitions across different time-frames are interesting. Black tea settles more over the first few months than people might expect, for example, and of course sheng pu'er does a lot more.
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