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Maojian left, in all photos |
I'm trying two green teas sent for review by a somewhat local online vendor, a Thai business owner living in China now.
It can be odd trying green teas since they're my least favorite category. I can appreciate good Longjing, and sometimes buy fishhook style Vietnamese Thai Nguyen green tea if I see it. I can tell if Japanese green teas are good from trying enough but the general style doesn't match my preference, so I would never buy sencha or gyokuro.
To spoil the outcome these were surprisingly good, among the best quality green teas that I've ever tried. One might suspect that most of the best versions in styles beyond the few we know of in "the West" are only known of and drank in China, and when less known types make it out the quality is moderate. I had a related experience with Qimen (black tea) not so long ago, trying a range one would typically never encounter.
These citations of Instagram listings work as one reference, and local Thai online sales on Shoppee (like Amazon) are here and here.
Xinyang Wild Tea, floral fragrance, high mountain, organic, premium, ancient tea tree
490 baht for 50 grams, a bit under $15
Gaoshanxin Yang Maojian Tea (Grade 1, top 2 leaves)
Also 490 baht for 50 grams.
Both those prices are presented as discounted rates, from an original higher price. Under $15 for 50 grams of either does seem like a steal, given the review findings.
Review:
Xinyang Maojian: it was clear that these were high quality teas long before brewing them. The appearance is novel and promising, and dry tea scent rich, complex, and sweet. Both have tea dust inside the bag, from trichomes, fine hairs on the buds of fresh, high quality tea. I suppose it's conceivable that a tea could look beautiful, smell great, and contain tea fuzz and not be well above average quality tea but it would seem unlikely.
This reminds me of running across a grass blade looking green tea version in a Beijing market a decade back, sold only as high mountain tea, which I never identified further. It surely wasn't close to this good, but I wouldn't have known then either way.
Taste is rich. Umami comes across first, then vegetal range beyond that, along with freshness and sweetness. This is really in between aspects I would associate with other green tea styles, which means nothing, since I haven't tried much of the entire range of Chinese green teas.
Umami isn't as pronounced as in many Japanese green teas, but it's still pronounced. Richer warm tones include a toasted rice sort of aspect I'd associate with Longjing. Floral tone and vegetal range I can't really match to other green tea, but that would vary across many types. Vegetal range is close to sugar snap pea, very fresh and clean.
Xinyang Himajian: this includes richer, warmer tones. There is some umami present too, but the whole general range is shifted. It includes light, sweet, floral range too, but also warmer tones, not exactly matching the toasted rice in the other, but not completely different. It tastes a bit like barley tea, that one flavor aspect. Tisanes in general and barley tea in particular generally express a limited flavor range though, only so much complexity. This is far more complex, going further than pretty good green tea versions often do.
I'll have to look up how much these sell for to set up a baseline for reference after tasting, but these are clearly among the best quality green teas I've ever tried. I wasn't really expecting that.
This includes vegetal range too, more like a fresh version of green bean instead of sugar snap pea (so heavier). That may sound negative, as if cooked vegetables isn't a promising range for tea. I mean that these seem to express the flavor of a lightly steamed vegetable, retaining that freshness and sweetness, not the they resemble well-cooked vegetables of any kind.
There is plenty of floral range too, just occurring in warmer tones, I guess more towards lavender, but then isolating and describing floral tones isn't really one of my strengths. Feel is rich and full for both of these teas, with aftertaste experience carry-over. They're clearly exceptional quality teas.
As of the first round I like the lighter tone character of the other version better, but the way these aspects in this come together in this version, and the way refined complexity and intensity is expressed, make it slightly better overall.
Quality one can determine by a range of typical markers, which vary by tea type. It's an entirely different thing than match to preference. The description list for these teas indicates what great quality is for green tea: good balance, flavor intensity, positive flavor aspects, refinement, presence of umami (when matching the style), clean flavor range / lack of flaws, full feel (less of a determining input for green tea), and pronounced aftertaste experience. In general--which varies by specific tea type--flavor aspect range varies by type as much as quality, and heavier vegetal flavors indicate a lower quality version, with sweetness and lighter floral range standing out more in many better green teas.
Maojian #2: vegetal range shifts; this is much more complex. Brewing this in different ways would draw out far different results. Using cooler water would lighten flavors (this is well off boiling point but not cool, not 70 or 75 C); many people would prefer that. Brewing this using an approach closer to Western brewing might be more conventional, longer infusion times at a lower proportion, again shifting temperature to cooler water. It's easier, and it trades out experience of transitions for even more complexity.
Vegetal range is now dominant, with umami secondary. Flavor is centered more on green beans, versus sugar snap peas in a first infusion. Sweetness is great; overall complexity and intensity is perfect. I've tried some exceptional green teas before but nothing in this style, and not much at this quality level.
Himajian: warm tones pick up in this in an unexpected way. It adds a lot of mineral range, and umami approaching seaweed levels and flavor. It's still floral with some vegetal range, but it almost comes across as spice, for this being so novel and intense. I don't love a lot of seaweed flavor range but again this really works. It's just so clean; there is no negative fishy or sea-oriented flavor related to that, just dominant vegetal range, that is hard to place.
I had a fantastic version of well-roasted river weed in Laos once, an experience I never will forget; this isn't completely dis-similar to that. Maybe it would help to say that one part of the experience seems close enough to toasted sesame seeds, that flavor warmth and depth.
Maojian #3: this shifts again; I guess it will continue like that for both. A unique vegetal aspect enters in, like flower stem. Floral range still supports that, and sweetness is good, so it balances well. It could still be interpreted as tasting mainly like sugar snap pea; this shifting interpretation tends to focus on what changes, as reviews often do.
It's hard to describe how this balances, how complexity, refinement, intensity, and additional feel and aftertaste aspects support this.
Himjian: yet another pronounced shift in flavor range, but again it's hard to describe. Warm tones ramp way up, and they were already pronounced before. It might taste a bit like roasted almonds. It's not completely nutty in the sense of peanuts or cashews but still in that general range.
Maojian #4: I'll give this one more slightly longer soak and end the notes here. These will keep going.
A toasted rice / cashew sort of note picks up. Again brewing just a little of either of these for a shorter time at a lower proportion would be different; that would also be pleasant and interesting. Aftertaste expression may even pick up in this. Mineral tones and other supporting range also really supports complexity.
Himjian: this really is shifting towards a spice tone, in a way that's hard to isolate. It does taste a little like that roasted river weed, but there's no way that helps for most readers. The warmer spice range that picks up is a bit like aromatic incense spice, along the line of sandalwood. A higher level of structure picks up in the feel, of course nothing like the far more intense sheng pu'er range, but it is interesting that it changes. Aftertaste lends the experience greater complexity.
Both these teas are just fantastic. I had no idea that they would be like this. It made for an interesting surprise, trying versions that are more novel and higher in quality than I could've expected.
People who think that they don't like green tea might be surprised by these. Some people who already do like green tea might be even more surprised, that the range extends beyond what they have experienced.
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tea event in a Bangkok mall this week |
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