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the bit of green gives away the type |
I'm reviewing two more samples from Greengold, provided for review by Nika Sioridze. I covered background from talking to him about restoring an old tea farm and reviewing two really nice tea versions in this post (with more about them on their website or in a Facebook page). These next versions were among the most broken leaf included; I wanted to see how this grade or leaf presentation came across before writing a last review comparing the others in the set.
At first I didn't even realize one was green, because the leaf is so dark, but after opening the package and preparing it for brewing it was clear that this wasn't black tea. I suppose it could've been some kind of atypical version of oolong, the hybrid style versions some producers make. Even after tasting the tea it seemed a little atypical for green tea character, but still definitely green tea.
Review:
Green (GFBOP, which doesn't mean anything to me): this is brewed a good bit off optimum parameters, way overbrewed, so I would need to try it again to judge it based on a more ideal preparation. Brewing temperature should be a little cooler and infusion strength is too high, which dropping back proportion or timing would resolve. I can still make notes, and get back to that next round, since I typically use a modified Western brewing approach that enables making three infusions. I'm not really so accustomed to Western brewing now, and I can get complacent for brewing seeming automatic using a Gongfu approach, with changing infusion time round to round as an easy fall-back.
It seems fine, as green teas go. For those two issues it's not that astringent, a good sign. It's vegetal but the range is well off "straight grass" or cooked vegetables. It's really in between the toasted rice / nutty range of Longjing and including other vegetal range, a bit of grass, green bean, some bell pepper. For me liking Longjing best of all Chinese teas I like it. Umami stands out, but the flavor range isn't a close match for sencha (no seaweed, related to other flavor), it just leans towards those in that one regard.
This has to be better green tea than this preparation is doing justice to. Sweetness tends to show through a lot more once you get green tea brewing right, and the astringency and heavier cooked vegetal flavor would drop way back. Astringency isn't really an issue in this, although it could smooth out a little. Mineral base is positive, a flinty sort of dry range, that connects with a hint of dry feel for body.
I think once someone adjusted to get the best character out of it and moved past fixed expectations that lead to interpreting it as a mix in between other green tea styles it would benefit from both. There's really no benefit in placing it in relation to every other green tea out there; it's surely its own thing. For description purposes that helps, but for experiencing it that might add an interpretation layer that doesn't make the experience seem more positive, that makes it seem less direct.
black tea (GFBOP): it's pleasant. This contains more astringency than I'm accustomed to, for being that much more broken, so it requires an internal shift in expectations, that I'm trying a slightly different thing than the whole leaf versions I tend to always drink. That makes it sound like I'm questioning whether to add milk or not, and I don't mean that, it's not that far along the scale. It just has more of an edge, that other kind of feel. I'm relating a little to how astringency can be interpreted as bitterness, even though it's in a really mild form here, even though the two aspects really are different.
Brewing parameters aren't way off for this version. I've even went as far as using different proportions for both, not accustomed to using these different devices together, and really just not focusing in since I'm not all there in the mornings when I write these reviews.
Earthy flavor range stands out most. It's in between warm mineral and cocoa, and interpreting this as a mix of those two would work. Or it could seem a little woody, but in a catchy and aromatic way, including a trace of cedar or redwood edge. It's not the plainer "tastes like wood" effect that brewed out black tea tends to pick up once it's past a certain infusion round stage. The sweetness has a complexity to it; to me interpretation as including a warm floral aspect would make sense, along the line of rose petal. It's not citrusy in the sense that second flush Darjeeling can contain a pronounced aspect but one part of the flavor edge could seem related to grapefruit, or grapefruit peel. To me it's not sour but some others tend to invoke that description when I don't.
It's good; it balances nicely. There's room for adjusting results a little for this but I get the impression that this is basically what it's going to show. For how much the other two black teas transitioned I wouldn't be surprised if this varied a lot over Gongfu rounds, or in a second Western infusion.
Of course the only way to be certain of which brewing approach would work best is to try both, and it wouldn't hurt to try both more than once to account for minor parameter variations, or variation in interpretation related to the taster, my mood shifting some day to day. Or energy level; that's more of a concern. I'm not 100% there before 11 on any given Saturday or Sunday, when I often review teas. How much background shouting or banging is going on in our house changes things too; right now that's a medium level. I don't have the energy to feel upset about that today, which is usually not a good sign.
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looks a lot more like it |
Green tea, second infusion: much lighter, with diminished astringency, and a higher level of sweetness coming across. The feel picks up a nice depth and creaminess; that's unusual for a green tea. The mix of flavors isn't so different though, still including toasted rice / nuttiness, some cooked vegetables, a touch of grass, and umami. A brighter range stands out than did overbrewed, and using too high a brewing temperature, not exactly extending to citrus or light floral but pretty close to both. Based on interpretation someone add both to the list, light lemon citrus and orchid range floral, those are just non-distinct. It's nice the way that an aftertaste effect includes more of that range than the rest.
This green tea might have oxidized a little in processing, leading to some of that atypical aspect range (smoothness of feel, creaminess, subdued astringency, and more complex flavor range). That would explain the darkness of the dried leaf color. I don't see that as a bad thing. I've tried Thai or other SE Asian teas that were a bit off the narrowest range of a tea style before that were really positive, and I tend to value what works out well most, not only tea versions at the center of a typical type character. For a tea from a new region some of that expectation tends to automatically loosen, because there is no existing set of expectations for me to judge Georgian green tea experience against. This tea is good; that's the main thing.
Black tea: it evolved well, and improved, not a complete surprise after trying the last two versions and seeing them go through that. Astringency / dryness dropping back let a really rich feel and flavor range show through. That diminished dryness and heavy warm mineral stands out a lot, defining the rest of the experience, even though in a sense that serves as a base. The "tastes like tea" part is really complex, bunched across a narrow range, but intense, comprised of a lot of flavors. It's woody, in a sense, but again like the aromatic edge of cedar, but not the rest. One part is similar to the rich sweetness of molasses. Other warm flavor range could be alternately described as being like leather, spice, or floral range, even though those are all different. Maybe even towards brandy.
It's good. If someone really doesn't like that astringency edge in their tea, which would kind of make sense for someone on the Chinese black tea page, then it wouldn't be as good. For a CTC Assam drinker there is almost no dryness or edge to this, but then that tea range would almost always be adjusted by adding milk and / or sugar. This is a significant amount less astringent than Lipton, if that helps place it. It should be; that's tea dust.
Conclusions:
The green tea made a really nice, intense, positive character third infusion; green teas can be a bit durable like that. This black tea version is good but the green tea kind of stole the show, which is odd given that I tend to not like green teas as much. It had a nice smoothness instead of an astringency edge, and pleasant sweetness, towards floral and citrus range, with a mix of a lot more going on, even some supporting umami. That toasted rice range reminded me of Longjing, my personal favorite green tea type.
The black tea was good, pleasant and complex, without noteworthy flaws, but to me more in the normal pretty good black tea range, beyond flavor complexity and some aspects standing out a bit. I don't drink that much black tea that's broken leaf at all; probably if I was more accustomed to that now it would seem even better. It's on the opposite end of the scale as CTC, not harshly astringent, just in a different balance range than whole-leaf Chinese blacks I normally drink (or whole-leaf Darjeeling sometimes, as that has been working out). I think I might be judging it a bit harshly based on how good the other two black tea versions were; this would be the best Georgian tea I've ever had except for those (a short list, but it's pretty far ahead).
For being somewhat broken leaf versions these are really exceptional. That's probably partly related to them not being that broken; this would just be normal Darjeeling from most producers, or maybe more whole than the most typical versions of those. It would be interesting trying these Gongfu style but I won't keep writing review after review of the same teas. I liked them, and I'll leave the descriptions as these notes put it. It doesn't really work to say that they were good basic versions of teas; they were better quality than that, and more distinctive.
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a normal Bangkok neighborhood near our house, near Ari |
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blue pea / butterfly pea at the house; we can use a brewed version to test acidity in things |
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