Tea: Baxian Green Maocha（八仙绿毛茶）
Type: Dancong Oolong Raw Tea
Harvest: Spring 2022
Region: Phoenix Village, Guangdong, China
Tasting notes: green cardamom, sweetgrass, spring violets, butter, radish greens.
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This tea is technically unfinished, it is still in its Maocha, or raw tea, state. This means that although it has passed through all the processes to take it from a leaf picked off a bush to a brewable tea leaf, there are still a few stages that it will undergo before being sold as a true Dancong Oolong (namely sorting and charcoal roasting).
Thus, this tea is raw, there are large yellow green leaves in it, there are stems and tea twigs, all of this usually gets removed before it arrives to the consumer, but we like this more earth experience and are happy to pass it on to you!
This version of the Eight Immortals Maocha has been dried in an oven, but not quite baked, thus one would call it produced in the Bouquet style, or Qingxiang. The leaves are still green and the aroma will be undoubtably grassier.
When brewed, the leaves exude a strong aroma of sweetgrass and green cardamom. The brew is a viscous gold which although being unbaked and unroasted is surprisingly heavy on the tongue. While the savoriness of this tea is a defining characteristic, the sweet vegetal notes of fresh spring violets is such a pleasant and unique taste that it really steals the show.
We spent a little extra on this high-quality Maocha just because it was so great, we can’t wait to compare it with its baked and roasted counterparts!
