Gunpowder Green Tea by Pure Leaf
Green Tea / Straight
$8.99 for 165g
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First Impressions
The thing that intrigued me the most about Pure Leaf coming out with bagged tea and loose leaf tea is that I’m used to seeing their products in the cold drinks section of convenience stores and grocery stores. I picked up the Gunpowder Green Tea at a local grocery store – from a quick online search I’ve found that Pure Leaf’s products are readily available in most major grocery retailers. Because it’s a new product, I picked up a jar that had a coupon attached to it (for an extra $2 off at the till).
Gunpowder Green Tea comes in a plastic jar. The label states that it is a single origin tea from Indonesia. This is a straight tea, where the only ingredient is simply green tea. Oddly enough, the instructions on the back of the jar states “Store in a cool, dry and dark place.” This is easy to do, but the jar is clear. While I can understand wanting consumers to see the product (because those tea leaves look great), the clear jar does not help with their own storage instructions. I’ll be nestling this tea in the middle of my tea cart, surrounded by other tea jars and tins.
The dry leaf of Gunpowder Green Tea has a very subtle flavour. It’s not overwhelming to the say the least. There’s a vegetal aroma to it with a mixture of what reminds me of seaweed. The tea leaves are beautifully rolled and coiled together. They are almost a dusty green-grey colour to me.
Preparation
Pure Leaf recommends using freshly boiled water and to steep for 3 minutes. My first attempt at steeping this tea was with boiling water (100°C/212°F) for 3 minutes, my second attempt was at 80°C/175°F for 3 minutes.
First Taste
When I followed the steeping instructions from Pure Leaf, this straight green tea was remarkably bitter. The tea itself has a savoury taste to it – heavy on the vegetal flavours but so incredibly bitter. It made me pull a face when I sipped it and honestly, I cannot recommend it when prepared the way that Pure Leaf recommends. Absolutely undrinkable when steeped with boiling water.
I started over with new tea leaves, and steeped the tea leaves for the same length of time but with cooler water. The result was a savoury cup of tea, light on the vegetal flavours but not bitter. When steeped at 80°C, Gunpowder Green Tea is light and has a smooth mouthfeel to it. There’s a slight saltiness to the tea that makes me feel like it’d go well with a meal.
A Second Cup?
I resteeped Gunpowder Green Tea a few times (at the lower water temperature) and found that it did well with being resteeped! The leaves open up a lot, and the flavour of this tea doesn’t change very much. I resteeped the same leaves a total of four times.
My Overall Impression
I thought that Pure Leaf’s Gunpowder Green Tea was just okay. If you’re going to steep this tea – please do not follow their steeping instructions, I think you’ll be sorely disappointed if you do. This tea does a lot better when steeped at a lower temperature. I think it’d even do well either cold steeped or sun steeped as the tea leaves won’t be burned like they were with boiling water. What I like about the tea is that it’s easy to find in stores, and they resteep well! It’s not going to be a green tea that I reach for on a daily basis, but it does taste okay and would do beautifully paired with a meal because the flavour profile lends itself to being savoury.
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