gurdymonkey | New Tea Day

Because

danabren gave me a gift certificate for my birthday and because I should probably drink more green tea (lower caffeine hit, lots of catechins), I took advantage of a promo from the folks at Yunnan Sourcing and my "Spring Tribute Green Tea Sampler" arrived this morning. Lest you think "sampler" means one-cup packaging, YS gives you 25 to 50 grams of each tea. (Figure 5 grams per brewing session.) It's a good way to explore new-to-me teas and overfill my pantry. Again.

Anyway, after a momentary dither about what to try first, I fired up the kettle and measured out some Pure Bud Silver Strand" First Flush. I completely forgot to check the website for brewing/steeping recommendations (turns out, there weren't any), so I used the green tea setting of 175F and steeped for about a minute. Anyway, I got a pale golden tea in my white cup with a fresh, spinachy scent, vegetal flavor with little astringency. A very nice, refreshing sipping tea that was still nce when it went cold in the cup. More of same on the second steep (I gave it about 30 seconds that time, would add 15 seconds for each additional steep).

I'll probably do another cup for a third steep and then throw the leaves in a spaghetti jar and cold brew the rest.