Green tea is the most essential type of tea, and also one of the most misunderstood. Rare is the person who hasn’t experienced a bitter cup of green tea. When properly steeped, however, fresh green tea is one of nature’s great luxuries. This flight of green teas is designed to contrast the characteristics of the famous, refined, Eastern-Chinese green teas - represented by Long Jing - with the informal, vernacular style found in Western China - embodied in this flight by E’Mei Su Mao Feng.
Long Jing, or Dragon Well, epitomizes the delicate world of Eastern Chinese green teas with its all-bud composition and sparkling clarity. In Western China, we find a leafier grade of tea more commonly consumed, often scented with jasmine flowers, demonstrated in this flight by the Floating Snow Jasmine tea. This is made from a slightly lower grade of leaves, picked later in the spring, than the unscented Su Mao Feng, but they’re both the same plants from E’Mei Mountain. Lastly, we find an homage to Long Jing in Snow Buds, with its all-bud composition and flattened, “sparrow’s tongue” shape.
By contrasting Long Jing with Su Mao Feng, we can taste the difference in characteristic examples of Eastern Chinese and Western Chinese green teas. By contrasting the Su Mao Feng with the Floating Snow, we can sample the two most popular teas in the numerous outdoor teahouses of Chengdu, and get a sense of the effect of leaf grade on the character of the tea. By contrasting the Snow Buds with the Long Jing, we can taste the difference in terroir between Hangzhou (Long Jing) and E’Mei Mountain (Su Mao Feng).
Included in this flight:
-10g Su Mao Feng
-10g Floating Snow
-10g Snow Buds
-10g Pre-Rain Longjing
