Choui Fong Green Tea

Region: Thailand is not well known as a tea growing country, producing only a few hundred tonnes of mainly black tea for local consumption. However, in Doi Mae Salong located 45 km north of Mae Chan district in Chiang Rai province at an elevation of about 1,500 meters there are some excellent oolong and green teas produced. The average annual temperature of 25°C and crisp, cool air provides the ideal conditions for tea. Many of the tea bushes growing in Doi Mae Salong originated from Taiwan, and most of the tea production is Taiwanese-style, made by descendants of soldiers who defected from the Chinese Revolution in 1949.

Leaf: large ragged barely rolled leaves. Black to brown with some silver frosted tip and leaf. A promising sweet nutty aroma.

Infusion – visual: Dark green complete shoots, semi rolled but unbroken. Slight oxidation.

Infusion – aroma: a clean sharp green tea aroma with a floral, toasted, edge.

Liquor – visual: golden liquor, slightly dull and turbid

Liquor – taste:

First steep: more China than Japanese in character. Clean, slightly astringent, and with a hint of bitterness, but a fine buttery, nutty finish

Second steep: this enhanced the sweet buttery smoothness and diminished any bitterness.

Summary: an interesting green tea from an unusual area – improved by multiple steeping and we suspect that it will amply reward patient experimentation with time, temperature and multiple steeping.