Short follow-up on my ‘moving tea collection’ saga. In a most incredible place when moving my stuff to a new flat, I found a few tea packs. It was enjoyable to brew a Guapian, a nice green tea from China I don’t drink often enough.
It all looks fine so far...
All fine, but this tea is from 2008. Drinking green tea after three years is like having a month-old donut. (There are exceptions). Well, maybe not, because this tea was drinkable. I’ve actually had some fun doing a ‘tepid gongfu’, basically a maceration of leaf in a little room-temperature water currently discussed by Babelcarp on Twitter. (I’ll develop on this in another post soon). But basically this tea is stale, and it has the flavour of all stale green teas: dust. Spinach leaves, bitter lettuce, paper (did you too chew bits of paper when you were a kid?), but especially that mouth-drying, flavour-less, dusty quality.
...adn the leaves do look nice (just minor discoloration)...
It’s actually an interesting parallel to wine that I didn’t notice at the time I wrote my wine and tea comparison series (see Part 1 – 2 – 3). All wines become more and more similar as they age. In youth, a Primitivo tastes as if it came from a different planet from a Gamay, but a 20-year-old Primitivo will have many things in common with a 20-year-old Gamay. Idem for white wines. Riesling will always have a different structure and texture to a Meursault but the honeyed, caramelly, nutty aromas will be the same for both when both are past their prime.
...but the colour says it all: this tea is stale.
It’s the same for tea: this Guapian tasted no different from a stale Japanese sencha, though essentially they are extremely different teas. And one more interesting parallel is the colour. Fresh Guapian has a light emerald, almost silvery hue. This 3-year-old example was yellow veering towards orange, just like a white wine that is too old.
Interesting post–personal, but informative. I would definitely be interested in following future tea posts, especially those on green tea. One cup a day is a must.
Welcome on board Max! I review tea at least once per week (though not always green, especially in this season) but you might also want to browse past entries: http://blog.polishwineguide.com/tag/green-tea/. Pozdrowienia!
Thanks! Nice to see you too working in the sensory domain. I don’t know what it is about green tea, but for me it’s best after a full meal. I also get the eerie physical sensation that it is good for maintaining a good body weight, which is no doubt one of its properties. I wonder if the Eastern Asians had the same intuitive sensation as to many of their consumptive products/produce. Or maybe I’m creating the sensation by having some prior knowledge of the matter. The challenge of modern science is really to define various kinds of “vibes”.
All teas have some kind of medicinal properties in the Asian understanding. Green tea, other than cooling the body, has a strong effect on your digestion, hence perhaps its ‘slimming’ effect. The same goes for puer. Young puer is actually green tea with a rougher energy. Generally I would say oolong have an opposite effects. It’s an interesting topic, although effects can differ from individual to individual, Cheers!
Yeah, some teas that have been over-withered or over-oxidised (especially in green tea) can turn out to be much more stale than the freshness that usually describes it. (or the grassyness)
If you cannot bare the “unfreshness” or “stale” feeling of the tea. I would suggest adding some herbs like cinnamon or saffron to lighten it up a little. Maybe lemons even.
but green tea is best fresh – black tea (the most oxidised) will probably be -still ok- after a prolonged packaging.