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Teaspring Emperor Longjing

OK, so I ordered some of the spring long jing from Teaspring and got it in 6 days, very quick but I live on the West coast (US) so that may have been helpful.On opening the box I noticed they do something that Imperial Tea Court does also but that I wonder about...they vacuum seal their bags but the bags aren't the resealable type (like for instance Upton uses) which makes it a little tough for me since I don't have good canisters around for lots of tea. However my lovely mother-in-law sent me a Gevalia gift box last week (surprise!) and it included a really nice stainless steel canister that has a seal...so I'm set at some level.

This morning then I opened the 50 grams of Emporor LJ that they sent me, and smelled it. Now, I ordered green tea from Holy Mountain at Christmas and it had this amazing sweet smell when I opened the bag...this LJ has that smell only stronger. Really nice. When people talk about "chestnut" I wonder if they include the sweet chestnut smell, because this smell reminds me of that and also of pistachios. It's a very nutty rich sweet snell. The leaves are flat when dry, and fluffy in the sense that they don't seem to cling together the way, oh, say sencha does? I don't know if that makes sense, but there you have it.

First brew about a tablespoon of leaves in about 12 ounces of Dannon spring water at 170 for about 140 seconds. Not a strong brew, and the leaves all float at the top. No sinking for the entire time. I wonder if when teas do this I should stir, but this time I wanted to see what they did. The lliquid is clear and not a deep color...but I know that depending on color to indicate flavor is not a wise thing. The flavor is good...I have trouble describing flavor, but the smell is the same at the dry leaf only more subdued and the tea seems to make the back of my throat tighten a little...it's not astringency, it's something else.It almost...dries the back of my throat out? And well the taste is smooth and not nutty but not sweet...it's refined though, more so than the other greens I've had.

Working on the second steep now...same as first only a little heartier, but I didn't time it. The thing I noticed about the Holy Mountian tea I bought at Christmas was that once air hit it it lost it's smell rather quickly (as in, it still has a little left right now but it's really starting to wane in the strength dept.) So I know I want to drink this tea pretty quick, relatively speaking. I guess I'd better get busy, ;)

Melinda

Reply to
Melinda
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Melinda,

Thanks for posting your comments about TS's Emperor LJ. I've been toying with the idea of getting some for myself. When you say the leaves sit on top, do you mean "in the water" or "on top of the water"? In the latter case, a quick stir would be necessary, I think. Second, I find that the second steep does not have to be longer than the first, and in many cases can be shorter, because the leaves have been opened and readied in the first steep. I would have said that 170 is too high a temperature, but you report that the brew was quite mild, so I guess the temperature was adequate. Did you also purchase the other TS LJ?

Michael

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Reply to
Michael Plant

Or maybe it was mild because the leaves, floating on top of the water, didn't really steep very much?

/Lew

Reply to
Lewis Perin

Hi Michael,

I meant that the tea leaves all cluster up near the top...all of the leaves in this brewing. Not floating on top of the water. They didn't seem to want to sink as quickly as some other green teas I've steeped. But the first steep wasn't enough to get them to sink anyhow...when I came back for the second steep, they mostly still floated near the top, but between the second and third steep I paused for about an hour or two and when I did the third they were sinking. The extra time being wet let them soak in the water I guess. I was still getting good color in the third steep. I compared that steep with a third steep of older (meaning I had done the first and second steeps two days before...no, don't ask...I don't like to waste tea around here and as long as it doesn't smell off or have something growing on it I usually will redo it just to see if it has anything left) Huang Shan Mao Feng, the Mao Feng had a slightly deeper color (deeper as in more golden) while the LJ was lighter. Both looked like they could've been a good French sauterne, that kind of color. The second and third steeps of the Emperor were a little more..not earthy. A little more "with body"...I don't know how else to say it. I am not doing this gung fu as I only got 50 grams of it and I am sending half to my husband who is away...so I don't have a lot to work with. However, the smell is still quite amazing, and it very much reminds me (as I said before) of that Snow Monkey from Holy Mountain. It may be unusual for LJ to smell like that, not sure. But there are other teas that smell similar.

I did get some of the Meijiawu LJ as well, and it's smell is decidedly more...well, really I don't want to turn anyone off here, but it smelled slightly (to me, first impression) like garlic or something. The tea smell is there of course, and I don't meant to say it smells exactly like garlic, only that this was the first thing that came to mind...more of a savory smell I guess would be best to say. Not as sweet nutty honey as the Emperor. The steeps there were not as organized as the Emp. was, I will have to report back on that later. Needless to say though it's better than other more standard LJ's I've had, mostly because it doesn't seem nearly as harsh and astringent. But I need some more time with that.

As far as the 170 being too hot...keep in mind that I am the person who doesn't get a darn thing out of Yinzhen Silver Needle because it's too subtle for me, and I am the person who can happily drink cheap China Gunpowder green off the local shelf...so YMMV, ;)

Melinda

Reply to
Melinda

Hi Melinda - am I to understand that you do greens gongfu style? Not sure I ever tried that.

Reply to
pat marson

I may have used the wrong term...I don't use a yixing pot per se, what I was referring to was using a relatively larger amount of leaf with a relatively shorter steep time and multiple steeps. That's all. Sometimes I do it and sometiems I don't, I'm still experimenting, :)

I put some pi lo chun (a lot relatively) in a glass of cold water and stuck it in the fridge overnight last night. It does NOT taste good...:/

Melinda

Reply to
Melinda

Try brewing it at room temperature, steeping it for only 15 minutes since it's a delicate tea. And, if you like it, steep it again, of course.

/Lew

Reply to
Lewis Perin

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