green tea secret (shhhhhhhhh)
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free skin care · Mon Feb 26, 2007 6:41 am

catski wrote:

samantha185 wrote:

catski wrote:

I love green tea. A friend in Beijing sent me some which is by far the nicest I've ever had.

I was in ChinaTown ( in London) today and I really didnt know which tea to buy.

The flavours vary a lot, dont they.. anyone here knowledgable enough to recommend..?

Hi, I'm not sure if I'm knowledgable enough but perhaps you can list down some names of the green teas that are available in London and I can give you my impressions/opinions on them? Smile

Samantha that's really sweet of you! If we could go to ChinaTown together, I 'd love it! The fact is there
are so many!

I think what I'll do is follow the tip of going for young leaves, and just sip and taste, and develope a more knowledgeable palate for types of green tea.

I've only tried white tea once, and I dont think it can have been great, or else ( more likely..)my palate was/is very very unrefined, because I couldnt really taste anything at all! It was like a cup of hot water to me!

Hi Catski I'll love to go London's ChinaTown one day Smile

But currently, being a poor student, I'm stuck in lil ole Singapore Neutral

But I found this site for you Smile

http://www.teaspring.com/green-tea.asp

Of all these green teas, those I've tried and recommend while working in the tea house are:

Bi Luo Chun - This tea can be light or heavy depending on just much tea leaves one uses but the one thing distinctive about it is the fragrance (legend/myths has it that this tea was originally called "xia sha ren xiang" - loosely translated as "astounding fragrance", before the Qing dynasty emperor Qian Long made it an imperial tea and called it "Bi Luo Chun" or "Jade Green Spring Snails" (very loosely translated sorry for butchering a lovely name haha) because of the shape of the tea leaves.
When buying Bi Luo Chun, go for finer (thin-looking) leaves with white fur. You might find it weird but this tea breed has very fine white fur-almost powdery on the young, best leaves. The color should be a medium green, not a dark green which signals old/oxidized tea leaves.

Long Jing - Dragon's Well from Suzhou/Hangzhou district (best place is called "Mei Jia Wu") or Shi Feng/Lion's Peak district in China. The two different places produces 2 different types of Long Jing: Suzhou-Hangzhou's tea leaves are known for having a very refreshing aroma and light taste while Lion's Peak's tea leaves are heavier in taste and also "mellower" in aroma.
When buying Long Jing, look for small leaves, those are the first picking (called "Que Se" - sparrow's tongue in tea lingo haha) and they are the best in terms of taste and fragrance. Again the color of the tea should be light-medium green and not dark (oxidized or over-fried/processed leaves which will taste bitter Sad

) or yellow (lower quality or past seasons' tea - the aroma will be much lessened even gone!)

Another 2 teas you can try are:

Huang Shan Mao Feng - From Yellow Mountain (Huang Shan) in China and it's taste can be a bit grassy but nevertheless distinctive and different.

Zhu Ye Qing - loosely translates as "Green Bamboo Leaves" so-called because of the shape of the leaves. However do note that though this tea is very refreshing it has a slightly bitter tang to it - very slight and I find it adds to the refreshing taste of the tea but some may not like it.

Oh yeah, another trick to choosing good tea leaves (unsure of how the sellers sell tea in London's Chinatown) is if they provide you with a sample, take 1-2 leaves and crush them in your hand and then take a sniff. This way the aroma of the tea is more accurately released and you should get a clear aroma (any sniffs of chemicals or 'sourness' etc signals something wrong about the tea!

But the best way to guage is still to ask them to brew a sample of the tea for you! That way you can guage the quality and more importantly if you like the tea Smile

This also helps in guarding against unethical sellers who will take good quality tea leaves and brew them and then take the brewed tea and sprinkle them upon lower quality tea leaves and sun-dry them and pass off the lower quality tea leaves (now scented with the aroma of the good tea leaves) as the higher quality teas!

Sorry for this really long post and I hope it helps you choose more teas to try Smile

p/s: And if you can find this cup in London - it's best for brewing/drinking green tea in, especially if it's just for you alone Smile

http://www.thefragrantleaf.com/gaiwan.html
http://www.thefragrantleaf.com/gaiwteaprep.html

Depending on the size of the cup, just put about 1-2 level teaspoons of tea leaves will do for 3-4 brews. And best to use water at about 80-90 degrees C rather than boiling hot water. That's because green tea, once oversteeped will turn bitter Confused

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