GUD BLOG: SINGLE POST

Great Green Monkey

Last night, I swung by Royal Oak’s Goldfish Tea to grab some bags of tea to brew at home, and I couldn’t help but order a cup to go. After my typical albeit momentary fit of indecision, I elected to go with Great Green Monkey.

Unusually large, the leaves of Great Green Monkey — also called Great Green Monkey King or Tai Ping Hou Kui — almost look more like dried crab grass clippings than tea leaves. It gives off a very immediate but pleasant sweet, vegetal aroma from the moment the water hits it, and it’s surprisingly full-bodied for such a pale-colored tea.

While the leaf is large, the flavor is not. Instead, it’s remarkably subtle — a bit sweet with little bitterness even if over-steeped.

The unusually flat leaf is apparently produced when the producer presses the leaf between two pieces of cloth or paper, and there’s a great deal more historical and production information available at Chinese Tea Culture.

I saved the to-go bag and re-steeped the leaves this morning to similar effect.  It makes a delicious cup that, given its mild flavor and heavier body, seems like a perfect morning or afternoon tea over which to meditate on and hope for the coming of spring.

Posted on 2011.03.07 by Evan Hansen at 12:04 pm
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