I wasn’t originally planning to taste these but felt it would be a missed opportunity if I didn’t. Here are the results. Everything with brewed at my tea testing strength. 1:75@2min
The way this is written:
Type (color of infusion)
Flavor notes
Aroma notes
Yellow (color is like Taiwanese green oolong tea)
Bitter, but drinkable. Slightly sweet, not stemmy, flavor is very mild though.
Aroma is of yellow leafs, dry and oxidative.
Nectarine (color is like Taiwanese green oolongs, slightly darker)
Bitter like chewing tylenol, drinkable, flavor does not linger.
Aroma is sharp, similar to the green leaf. Typical yellow leaf aroma is present. Green rooibos, cool-mist machines in summer.
70:30 Red:Green (color is yellowish brown
Not as bitter as Green, or Green:Red. The flavor is also very simple. I’d say undrinkable.
Aroma is like a mild green rooibos, tight. Slight apple (esp red delicious), lo han kuo shows up once the liquid has cooled.
Green (color is yellow/green like bancha)
Very bitter, flavors linger. Stemmy, burned sugar, honeycomb cereal finish, but you get the B hard.
Aroma is nice, its like a mix of green rooibos (herbal, spicy) and lo han kuo (dry, sweet, grainy), honeycomb cereal came out when the liquid cooled down.
Red (color is like boiled red apple skin broth, brownish green)
Very bitter, very astringent, brutal green stemmy mouth rape
aroma is apple-y, lo han kuo, boiled mushroom, cooling down makes you think of fruit tea.
Green-Yellow-Orange-Red (straw yellow)
Bitter, similar to RG, slight sweetness. Slight interesting package deal.
Aroma is nice, its most like the GR tea. Fungal wood, something smells starchy like the inside of bananas. lo han kuo. Cooling down brought spice and waxy aromas.
70:30 Green:Red (pale Chinese green tea)
Very bitter, slightly fruity, honeycomb aspect not as dominant as green only.
Aromatically a menthol-y cooling herb replaced the rooibos notes, lo han kuo is still there. Probably even more prominent now than in the pure green version of the tea.
Conclusion:
In terms of appearance and aroma:
Green leaf tea oxidizes orange, red leaf oxidizes brown, yellow stays yellow.
The most pleasant aromas came from the solid colors (green, red, yellow), not the blended ones.
Visually the most appealing was the tea made from green. Yellow and red leaves turn the liquid brown.
Green leaves seem to be the most aromatic.
In terms of taste:
Nothing was good, green had the most interesting flavor, yellow was the most drinkable, red was brutal, GYOR was an honorable mention.
If the opportunity arises next year, I will manipulate the leafs a bit. It’s clear I should avoid the color red.
Leave a Reply
I would love to hear from you