Green Tea Sampler

By the recommendation of DiDi, I ordered a green tea sampler from Floating Leaves Tea. It includes genmaicha "brown rice tea," house green, longjing "dragon well," jasmine pearls and a sample of bao zhong.

So far, I decided to try longjing first since I learned about it first and it is supposedly a high quality green tea that's ideal for relaxation and thinking.

I'm not sure how credible my source is, but a temperature of 167 degrees fahrenheit is best for infusion and for longjing, a brewing time of 2-3 minutes is ideal.

This is my first experience of brewing tea using whole leaves. I now understand what it means for a teabag to have that "paper" taste and after enjoying longjing's gentle sweet aroma and airy nutty profile, I don't think I will ever return to the heavy feeling, dusty profile a teabag carries (at least by choice anyways). Green tea in a teabag tastes so much different, bitter and mostly uncouth. During tasting, I had an open mind and I felt that longjing definitely has an uplifting and relaxing affect both physically and mentally. I am so glad I got the sampler, I can't wait to taste the others. :)