Author: Michelle

Posted on

Arbor Tea’s Emerald Spring Lung Ching

Emerald Spring Lung Ching by Arbor Teas
Green Tea / Straight
$17.95USD for 2oz

20170530-arborteasemeraldspringlungching

Arbor Teas has provided me with Emerald Spring Lung Ching for the purposes of providing an honest review. I received this product at no charge to me and received no other compensation.

First Impressions

I love a good Dragon Well, so I was pleased when Arbor Teas sent me a sample of their Emerald Spring Lung Ching to try. As mentioned in my earlier reviews of teas from Arbor Teas, they pride themselves on being organic as well as being environmentally friendly. I haven’t tested how quickly the packaging can decompose, but they do have a nifty video about how they went on the hunt for environment friendly packaging, stickers, and adhesives.

20170530-arborteasemeraldspringlungching1

The dry leaf of Emerald Spring Lung Ching has a very mild aroma. It smells floral to me, with a light sweetness. The flat leaves are beautiful, and I’m looking forward to steeping (and resteeping!) this green tea. Emerald Spring Lung Ching consists only of organic Chinese green tea so what you see is what you get.

20170530-arborteasemeraldspringlungching2

Did you know? Dragon Well is the direct English translation for Lung Ching or Longjing. Long is dragon and jing is well.

Preparation

Arbor Teas recommends steeping Emerald Spring Lung Ching in 180°F (82°C) water for 2-3 minutes. I steeped mine in 175°F water for 3 minutes (my Breville IQ Kettle has temperature settings for 175°F and 185°F, but not 180°F).

First Taste

Emerald Spring Lung Ching has a very soft aroma to it, it’s not overwhelming to the senses. This green tea steeps to a very pale yellow which is lovely to look at. I found that with the initial steep, Emerald Spring Lung Ching is a very pleasant cup of green tea. There’s no bitterness or astringency to note, there’s a buttery quality to this tea that is smooth and light floral notes. Because of the floral notes, there’s some sweetness to this tea that make it enjoyable.

20170530-arborteasemeraldspringlungching4

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Emerald Spring Lung Ching a total of four times. The colour gets to be a darker, more golden yellow with the subsequent steeps. There’s an increase in the creamy butter quality that makes this tea delicious. It reminds me a lot of some oolongs as sometimes oolongs can have a great buttery quality to it. The floral sweetness gets to be the strongest by the second resteep, and starts to lessen in intensity. As per my usual, when I resteep teas I added an extra 30 seconds in steep time for each subsequent resteep.

20170530-arborteasemeraldspringlungching5

My Overall Impression

rating4

I loved Arbor Tea’s Emerald Spring Lung Ching. I found this green tea to be delicious. It lacks the seaweed/vegetal flavours that a lot of green teas have, which I did appreciate as I think that it wouldn’t have balanced well with the natural butter and floral flavours in this straight green tea. This dragon well resteeps well, and I really enjoyed having this tea throughout the afternoon. I loved that it had a natural sweetness to it, since I tend to like sweets in general.

Curious about the cup rating system? Click here to learn more.

Posted on

Giveaway Alert!

20170529

One More Steep and JusTea have partnered together for a giveaway to help celebrate the release of JusTea’s new line of purple teas. One lucky winner will win JusTea’s Purple Rain, JusTea’s Purple Jasmine, JusTea’s Purple Leaf Tea, and a hand-carved Kenyan tea spoon.

The giveaway runs until June 3 2017 at 11:59pm PDT and the winner will be announced on the @onemoresteep Instagram account on June 4 2017.

To enter:

  1. Like and share the image on your Instagram account (tag @onemoresteep and use the hashtags #purpleteaexperience and #justeafarmers).
  2. Follow @onemoresteep and @justeakenya on Instagram.

For bonus entries:

  1. Tag a friend on the image (from the @onemoresteep account) that you think would love to try Purple Tea (unlimited entries)
Posted on

JusTea’s Purple Mint

Purple Mint by JusTea
Purple Tea / Flavoured
$15.00 for 60g

20170526-justeapurplemint

JusTea has provided me with Purple Mint for the purposes of providing an honest review. I received this product at no charge to me and received no other compensation.

First Impressions

I had never had purple tea before. JusTea’s website is quite informative about purple tea. Purple tea comes from the same plant as all other teas (green, white, black oolong), but it’s a variety that produces dark purple leaves instead of green. The neat thing that I learned from JusTea’s website is that purple tea changes colour! It becomes a purpley pink with the addition of some lemon juice.

20170526-justeapurplemint1

Purple Mint came to me in a resealable paper bag that’s lined with foil. The mint aroma is very strong, there is no question that this tea includes mint in the blend! Because of the strong peppermint and spearmint combination, I wasn’t able to smell the purple tea on its own. Purple Mint consists of Kenyan Purple Tea, peppermint leaves, spearmint leaves, and rose petals.

20170526-justeapurplemint2

Preparation

JusTea recommends steeping Purple Mint in 190°F (88°C) water for 3 minutes. I steeped mine in 185°F water for 3 minutes.

First Taste

Purple Mint steeps to a lovely yellow colour. The mint flavour is strong, and I find that the purple tea taste is quite similar to green tea. There’s some vegetal notes to the tea, as well as some buttery qualities to this tea. The mint flavouring is definitely first and foremost in this minty blend though, I think mint is just such a strong flavour that it shouldn’t be a surprise that it’s strong in a tea blend as well. What peeks through from the purple tea is tasty though, and reminds me a lot of green tea. I do wish that JusTea mentioned the processing type of the purple tea (I would put money on it being processed the way green tea is), since purple tea refers to the variety whereas green/white/black/oolong refers to the production process of the tea.

20170526-justeapurplemint4

I squeezed a bit of fresh lemon juice into my cup of tea and was a bit disappointed that the colour didn’t change as much as it did in the video on JusTea’s website. I think the edges are bit more pink? But it’s hard to tell. I do have another bag of tea to try from JusTea (which is the straight purple tea), so I’m hoping that will have more of an adventurous colour change. The lemon does brighten up the flavours, and actually make the mint flavour even stronger. If you’re opposed to the sourness of the lemon, a dash of sugar or a spoonful of honey will fix that right up.

20170526-justeapurplemint5

A Second Cup?

JusTea recommends resteeping their purple teas at least once. I tried twice, because I’m a rebel like that I found that the first resteep tasted very similar to the initial steep. The second steep was a lot milder, and I found that the mint flavouring wasn’t as strong as the first or second steep. I think JusTea was right on the money with the recommendation of one more steep.

20170526-justeapurplemint6

My Overall Impression

rating4

I loved JusTea’s Purple Mint. I really liked the mint flavours in this tea, and found that the purple tea reminded me a lot of green tea (which I love!). I was a bit disappointed that the colour didn’t change as vividly as I was expecting it to, but it’s something that I can live with since I don’t typically put lemon into my tea. The buttery qualities of this tea are enjoyable, and I think it tastes really good with or without the lemon.

Curious about the cup rating system? Click here to learn more.