Thursday, December 27, 2007

Mao Feng

Do you know what mao feng is?


I didn't. When I received this tea, I assumed mao feng was fancy, pu-erh speak. Wikipedia's article wasn't much help, saying only that it was a green tea from Anhui. Further investigation revealed references to keemun mao feng and golden monkey mao feng. A bit confused I turned to Bablecarp for a literal definition, and it turns out mao feng is a grading term meaning downy tip, a step above mao jian.

The dry leaf aroma was nutty at times, melon-ish at others.

After brewing it in a gaiwan first, then a kyusu--both had similar results, fruity, light, though the tea in the gaiwan had a touch of astringency--I decided to finally get around to experimenting with glass brewing. The method is simple enough, take a glass, dumps some leaves into said glass, add water, and from what I understand, this is a fairly traditional way of drinking tea in China.

First let me say this whole using-your-teeth-as-a-filter takes practice. While this method was attractive, I did not much care for the tea. It was lighter, chewy and nondescript, though the dregs had more flavor, fruity and astringent, that made it similar to a decent young sheng that's not too harsh.

The wet leaves are comprised of full leaves and lots of bits.


I welcome some feedback on this style of brewing. I used 3 grams per 8 oz at 160 F. Did I do something wrong?

4 comments:

Salsero said...

Here is Scott's description

http://tinyurl.com/2qebau.

I suspect that Mao Feng in this case means "anonymous green tea from Yunnan."

I have enjoyed it a lot brewing typically 3.75 g in 6 oz mug, 150° to 160° F, 1 m, 1 m, 2 m, 4 m, 6 m, and even longer.

Perhaps my fondness is due to local water or the very low price.

Wes Crosswhite said...

"chewy"

hehe

MarshalN said...

Maofeng can be green tea from anywhere (and most likely not Yunnan), although the best are usually from Huangshan in Anhui, but it can really be anywhere. Very often it's from Sichuan, actually.

I'd actually use hotter water for it -- fill glass half full of hot water (close to 90C or so), add leaves, top up the glass. Try it.

Bearsbearsbears said...

I think this maofeng is great. This and the cui ming were very good this year.

I don't glass brew, I brew in a large gaiwan or ~10oz pot for greens. I'm not a green tea nut like many of the bloggers, but I'm happy with my result.