Green Tea Forum

Hushfield · Brown Belt Joined: 30 May 2008 Posts: 49

Hi all,

I'm very new to tea, and up until now I have only tried the following kinds of tea: sencha, kukicha, bancha and genmaicha. Since all of these are Japanese teas I thought I should try some other teas as well, so today I got some puerh (china), oolong (taiwan) and jasmin tea (china). I can't wait to try out these new and unknown flavours, really looking forward to that.

The description on the package of jasmin tea says that it is basically green tea which "has been laid on jasmin blossom to absorb its sweet scent". Is that the main difference in the production process of this green tea, and in which stage of the production process is this generally done? And do they add some of the actual jasmin blossom to the tea on purpose, or is this an (un)wanted result of laying the tea on the flower to absorb its scent? Also, does jasmin tea count as a blend?

I have (as I suspect many of you do too) the absolutely ridiculous goal of trying every single kind of tea out there, but what do you think I should try next, after I have finished these new teas? I really wanted to get some gyokuro as well today, but the price tag kind of scared me away since I could try three other flavours for less money. I will definitely get some of that in the future though...

Cheers,
H

Hushfield · Brown Belt Joined: 30 May 2008 Posts: 49

I caved! I had my first ever cup of gyokuro today.
buzzed

Oh my god. The grassiness.

Oni · 2nd Degree Black Belt Joined: 15 Mar 2008 Posts: 194

Just know that between tea and tea there is a big diffrence, in teashops they sell you low quality stuff, and if it is chinese tea than you must search even harder to really taste the real deal, for example yellow and white tea, most sold under this label is a knock off, fake, and long jing tea in teashops are the same, and in every famous tea category ( china`s ten most famous tea ) there are a lot of grades in the same type of tea, I think the internet is a good place to search for quality tea, you`ll find good tea faster than roaming the city and trying out all the teashops. Teaspring.com offers original certificate to famous teas, and for yun shan yin zhen for example the give a code which you can check on the chinese website that proves that it is not fake.

And for japanese tea these are the rules for buying:
"Have you ever tasted Japanese green tea? We guess most of the people have. But if you have drunk tea as following, it was not "Genuine".

The infusion is yellow.
Smells nothing or acetic.
Tastes like wood.
Bought from a general supermarket.
Tea bags or leaf in the loose paper and/or film package.
Tea leaf from bulk tin and sold in measure.
Do those mean anything to you?

Unfortunately, it is really difficult for Europeans to get Japanese green tea in good quality. The major problem is in the way of preservation. Even famous tea retailers handle Japanese green tea in the same way as black tea, so that Japanese green tea cannot keep the proper quality as it is.

Japanese green tea is perfect non-fermented (non-oxidized) tea. Unlike major Chinese green tea which is toasted, Japanese green tea is processed by steam in order to stop the fermentation. It means Japanese green tea deteriorates faster than any other tea due to its residual moisture inside the leaf.

All the tea leaves we provide are packed with nitrogen purge, which is keeping tea away from oxygen. We will be pleased to send you the samples of tea bags in nitrogen purged package, and you may see & taste the difference" this is a quote from a japanese tea seller you should consider this, the only place you can buy real japanese green tea is the internet, try japanese sites for example. (P.S. try using the correct teaware for each tea: houhin or mame-kyusu for gyokuro, tokoname or banko wear kyusu for sencha, raku, teawhisk, and chasaku for matcha)

Hushfield · Brown Belt Joined: 30 May 2008 Posts: 49

I shall correct the previous post and say: I think I tasted gyokuro. I already feared I would not be able to get the good stuff from a teashop in town, and was indeed kind of disappointed to see that the gyokuro brew was even more yellow than some of the sencha I have. (But it did taste a whole lot better though) Thank you for the excellent eye-opener of a reply.