Country of Origin: China
Leaf Appearance: downy buds with one or two larger leaves
Steep time: 30 seconds
Water Temperature: 185 degrees
Preparation Method: glass gaiwan
Liquor: pale, greenish gold
I thought the first day of summer was a perfect time to write about a fresh-as-can-be green tea. This one was only just picked on April 10th. It’s not quite a pre-qing ming pluck but pretty darned close. The name of this tea is quite a mouthful so let’s break things down a bit. Hangzhou is usually known for Dragonwell but many other teas produced there, including Qing Ding. The name means “green summit” which describes both the color of the leaf as well as the quality. Tian Mu is the mountain where it was grown. The name means “eyes on heaven” and refers to the pools on its eastern and western peaks.
The dry leaf was beautiful to look at. My entire sample consisted of needle-like downy buds with just one or two larger leaves. They positively danced in the water while brewing, making me very glad that I opted to use a glass gaiwan. Even when unfurled they were so tiny in size that I could only get a clear picture of a single bud set by placing them on my fingertip.
Although delicate in taste, this tea was aromatic and offered a lot of complexity. It was brothy yet clean with notes of chestnut and sweet vegetables. Sugar snap peas and perfectly cooked asparagus came to mind. Floral aromas also popped up in later infusions. There was no astringency or bitterness, even when the tea was brewed for a bit longer. It yielded multiple delicious infusions when I followed Teavivre’s recommended guidelines of increasing the brew time by about 20 seconds for each round.
Organic certification is not really something that I specifically look for when buying tea but it’s nice to know that this tea is certified by the USDA, EU, and JAS. I’ve got several other new spring harvested teas from this company that I’ll be sharing in the coming weeks. Have you tried this green tea or any others from Teavivre? Let me know about it in the comments!
Organic Hangzhou Tian Mu Qing Ding Green Tea sample provided for review by Teavivre.
Yumm ! Spring harvest teas, its the holidays for tea lovers..
Indeed it is 🙂