Shan First Flush Green tea is a Myanmar grown first harvest green. This tea is sold by Shan Valley, online seller of Northern Myanmar (Burma) teas. This tea is a reserve tea that is available for a limited time.
Shan Valley sent me four teas to review, but today I’ll be doing a thorough review of Shan First Flush Green tea, my hands down favorite of the four. The first noticeable quality about Shan First Flush Green tea is the price – 6oz for $8 for a first flush green is a pretty good price! By the way, Shan First Flush Green tea comes in both loose leaf and tea bags.
Dry Leaf
Shan First Flush Green tea has a grassy marine scent to the dry leaf. It also has an interesting kelp ribbon like appearance. Shan First Flush Green tea is not flat like a Dragonwell, but bigger leaf than a sencha.
Steeping Instructions
Shan Valley’s steeping instructions are 2.5 grams of dry leaf to 16 to 20oz of 175f water. I decided to be a TEA REBEL and use 2.5 grams of leaf for 6 oz of water. REBEL I SAY!
Shan First Flush Green tea steeps up a light olive green with a musty earth scent.
Tasting of Shan First Flush Green tea
Shan First Flush Green tea sips in light, hint of citrus and vegetal, without being grassy. There is an earthy mellowness, a forest floor feel mid sip. End of sip, there is a hint of astringency with a lingering nutty walnut, floral and fruity flavor. I’d give the astringency here a 0.5/10 – it’s trying and it’s just a enough to get the aftertaste to stick nicely. Shan First Flush Green tea is not bitter.
I find Shan First Flush Green tea unique in flavor as it’s not buttery, grassy or creamy like other good green teas. Actually, Shan First Flush Green tea tastes like a mid to later steeping of a green raw pu’er because of the earthy, musty scent, and unique mix of floral, astringency and fruity sticky aftertaste.
Resteep: I did a 5 minute resteeping and found the astringency increased greatly. Flavor is quite similar for the first steeping, but lighter. If you wanted bang for your buck, do a resteep.
Comments
Shan First Flush Green tea is a unique green that is more on the earthy side. A very affordable first flush green! I’d say to check out Shan First Flush Green tea if you are looking for a green that has no grassy taste. Also, a pu’er love should take interest to Shan First Flush Green tea – it’s got that same vibe of a green pu’er, but no “pu’er party time” rush.
As I said early in this post, Shan First Flush Green tea was the best out of the four. This was the first tea I tried out of their line and the other 3 just couldn’t compare. Valley Green was similar to Shan First Flush Green but a more mellow and astringent. My reviews of the rest of the Shan Valley tea line will be posted on Steepster.
(tea provided for review)
