Don Mei : Hey teaheads! This is Don from Mei
Leaf. In this video : Flute Brewing Two Chinese
Green Teas. In this video I'm going to be
introducing you to the "Flute Brewer", and
then we're going to be using it to brew two
new 2017 green teas. This video is going to
go under the "Teawares" and the "Single Tea
Tastings" playlists. If at any point in time
you enjoy this video then please give the
video the thumbs-up. The more thumbs in the
air the more tea videos are going to come
your way, and if you haven't subscribed to
our YouTube channel yet then go click that
button. It's Saturday [in] August in London.
[It's] a bit of a cloudy day. As usual, I
am way behind schedule, so I need to film
this video, edit it, and put it online in
the next few hours. What I wanted to do today
is introduce you to our new brewer. This is
called the "Flute Brewer". Let me show you
it. This is an all-glass brewer. We call it
the "Flute Brewer". I've looked online for
other names for it. Some people call it the
"Tube Brewer". Other people, because of the
handles, call it the "Big Ear Brewer". If
any of you have seen, or know of, "The Beano"
- this is how old I am [as]. "The Beano" was
an English comic series. There was a character
in "The Beano" called "Plug", and Plug has
very similar ears. So we were considering
calling it "The Plug Brewer". Some people
at the [Mei Leaf] bar, our staff [call] it
the "Breaking Bad Brewer", because it's kind
of got that laboratory kind of feel to it.
Whatever you want to call it, it's a really
nifty new brewer that we have, and it allows
you to dispense of the Gong Dao Bei. So, normally
when you're brewing Gong Fu style you would
have your Gai Wan, or your pot, you would
brew in there, and then you would pour the
liquor into the Gong Dao Bei - the "fairness
cup" - which would decant the tea, and make
it all fair so that everybody tastes the same
thing. Well, with this, and with our "Connoisseur
Tea Brewer" - which is one of our best selling
items here; so this is the Connoisseur Tea
Brew. Both of these, what they allow you to
do, is brew Gong Fu style, essentially at
your desktop, without the need for a Gong
Dao Bei. So it strips down your amount of
teaware if you want more of a minimal session.
So with the Connoisseur Brewer the leaf goes
into the top chamber, you pour the water in,
and when the tea is ready you push the top
button here and it decants the liquor into
the bottom chamber, so this bottom glass chamber
acts as the Gong Dao Bei, and then you can
pour, and you can continue to reinfuse throughout
the day. We've done a video about this, [and]
I'll put a link in the description below.
With this "Flute Brew" it's very similar,
in the sense that the Gong Dao Bei is already
here. So the leaf goes into this chamber here,
and this glass has some nice slits cut into
it that act as a very fine filter. So you
pour the water in over the leaves, you allow
the tea to infuse, and once it's ready you
take the lid off, you very gently pull up
the glass tube, and that will leave the tea
liquor in the chamber below, and keep the
leaves ready. [Then] you can put it in this
glass lid. That keeps it nice and neat. Then
you can pour and serve yourself. [It's] really,
really nice. We've been using it a lot, and
it's a really nice way if you want a more
stripped-down tea session. The other great
thing about this is [that] it's all glass
- which is a great thing [and] we love that.
[It's] all glass, and also, it's really, really
great for seeing the leaves, especially "needle"
type teas - you know, the "Silver Needle"
[teas], or we're going to be brewing a green
"needle" tea today. [Also, teas] with longer
leaves; anything that you want to see that
beautiful bobbing up and down when the leaves
are brewing. So "needle" [teas] and longer
leaves are really, really great. It's also
[especially] good for green teas. You can
brew any tea in this, but green teas are really,
really good. Because it's made out of glass
it's not going to hold the heat as much as
some of the other materials, and therefore
it's not going to stew the tea in any way,
but you can use it for anything. The level
of space in here for the tea to expand is
pretty good. I would say that this is more
suited to "needle" and long-shaped teas. [Ball-rolled]
Oolong [teas] will work. but ball-rolled Oolongs
tend to expand upwards and outwards, and so
it's going it's going to get a little bit
tight in here, so I use this predominantly
for greens and black teas. But enough talking.
Let's get to brewing, so I'm going to be right
back with our first tea. Okay, let's begin
with our first tea. This tea is called Kai
Hua Long Ding, also know as "Naked Spring"
to us. This is one of our favorite green teas
at the moment. [It's] really, really fresh,
really, really sappy, [with] the essence of
spring. That's why we call it "Naked Spring".
Let's quickly SCOPE this tea. So this is Kai
Hua Long Ding. [For] the Season, [it] was
picked pre-Qing Ming, which means it was picked
before the 4th of April. So, [it's a] very
early spring-picked. This was actually picked
on the 25th of march, 2017. The Cultivar is
the Jiu Keng Zhong cultivar, which is a cultivar
not often used - or, we haven't seen a lot
of this cultivar being used - so it's an interesting
cultivar, the Jiu Keng Zhong cultivar. The
Origin is in Kai hua, which is in Zhe Jiang
province. Zhe Jiang province is on the east
coast of China, and it has a great reputation,
right? [It's a] wonderful green tea growing
province. It grows Long Jing, which is "Dragon
Well", [and] it growns An Ji Bai Cha, which
is "Jade Sword". So it grows classic, classic,
really, really high-quality green teas. But
Kai Hua is kind of right on the border between
two other provinces - so you [have] Zhe Jian
province, Jiang Xi province, and An Hui province,
[which are] all really amazing tea-growing
provinces. So it's right in that kind of triangulation
of those three provinces at the source of
the Qian Jiang river, [which is a] really
beautiful, beautiful area [which] is very,
very pure, [and] very, very untouched. [The]
Picking on this is [kind of] buds and one
leaf -- [well], usually predominantly buds,
[but] maybe buds and one leaf - and the Elevation
for this is 1,100 meters. So that's your SCOPE.
This is a really interesting tea, and if anybody
knows of he famous Si Chuan tea, "Bamboo Green",
or Zhu Ye Qing, that Zhu Ye Qing is a very,
very famous Chinese green tea commonly sold.
It's called "Bamboo Green", and it comes from
Si Chuan province, around Er Mei mountain.
We've been looking to buy-in "Bamboo Green"
for many, many years, but every time I taste
"Bamboo Green" I always find it lacks a certain
level of depth, or roundness. It's very fresh
[and] it's very vibrant, [and] it has a very
similar flavor [profile] to this Kai Hua Long
Ding, in that it's kind of got a very raw,
green taste to it, [which is] really, really
bright. But I find that a lot of the "Bamboo
Green" is a bit flat, and a little bit over-astringent.
This tea is relatively unknown compared to
the "Bamboo Green". It's like the kind of
the unsung cousin of "Bamboo Green". But I
really, really recommend that you guys try
it out. if you like "Bamboo Green" try it
out, or if you're interested in these more
fresh, buddy, green teas, then this is a great
one for you to try. The story behind it is
[that] it supposedly was brought into this
area of China, and started to be produced,
in the 1950s, when somebody brought in this
Jiu Keng Zhong cultivar for growth. So it's
been growing for over 50 years - it's been
produced for over 50 years - and it's quite
amazing that it doesn't have more of a reputation,
I think. Anyway, let's brew this. I've got
about 5.5 grams of the leaf here. This "Flute
Brewer" is - if you fill it to the top - 200
[milliliters]. So we're not going to fill
directly right, right, right to the top necessarily.
So that's 200 [milliliters], which is the
perfect, I think, nice Gong Fu sized portion
for brewing for yourself, but also brewing
in groups of, you know, a couple of people
- up to four people if you have the small
cups. I'm not going to rinse this tea. With
green teas that I know the origin [of], and
I know [have] been produced perfecty, I don't
need to rinse these teas. Also, I know how
light and delicate these teas are, so I really
want to maximize every single infusion I can.
The great thing about this brewer, as you
can see - I'm going to show you quickly before
I [filter] it out - is that you can start
to see it really brew, and you're going to
see those buds bobbing up and down with future
infusions. Okay. The color of the dry leaf
was kind of [a] nice kind of clay green - a
beautiful, slightly greyish green - and now
that the water has hit it it has brightened
up, and has become this kind of beautiful,
bright, lime-zesty green. I will show it to
you, just so that you can see. But, yeah,
you can see it's a lot brighter [and] a lot
lighter. I love the look of this tea, I think
it is a real "looker", this tea, and I love
the "Bamboo Green" from Si Chuan. I love the
look of that tea, but I always found that
the flavor wasn't quite up to scratch. Okay,
so let's have a sniff of these wet leaves.
[SMELLS TEA] Whoa! So, there is a warmth to
it, like a kind of summery warmth to it. [It's]
like a summer's day. It's got a little bit
of green grapes. [SMELLS TEA] [The] flowers
are there. We have like light flowers, [like]
lilies. It definitely has those sweet, warm
notes, but then the predominance is freshness.
The predominance is [green] bamboo, stems...
You know, I've been kind of drinking a lot
of wine recently - or tasting a little bit
more wine - and tasting the difference between
natural wine - [so] wine that has been fermented
with the grape skin. You get that kind of
slightly stemmy, slightly more sappy, slightly
more - I don't want to say "sour", but it's
got a little bit more [rawness] in it's flavor.
[SMELLS TEA] So I'm getting a little bit of
vegetables as well, like so I get some courgettes
- or "zucchini", as they're known in the States.
[There's also] green bamboo, lilies, [and]
grapes. [It's a] wonderful, great, great smell
- a great bouquet. Here's the liquor. [It's]
nice and light, [with] kind of citrine yellow,
[like] those kind of gemstones. The two teas
that we're tasting today are [both] light
green teas. It's interesting, because when
you start to explore green teas in more depth
you notice that the more expensive green teas
actually tend to be the ones that are very,
very light. It's all about, I find - with
the really, really amazing, incredible, top-drawer
green teas - it's about having this real lightness;
a light touch. [It's] the light-colored liquor,
[and] the lightness in the mouth, [which is]
very bright [and] very uplifting, and delicate
- very delicate - and yet full of aroma, [and]
full of aromatics that you tease out, and
[that] has long length. So that's the key.
It's all about having the lightness, but the
depth as well. That's where you find really,
really the top-drawer green teas. So you can
pour this, obviously, [into] small cups. The
great thing about this brewer is that you
don't need anything else. You can see how
simple my setup here is. I'm going to leave
that on the side. So, [literally], that's
all you need when you're tasting your tea.
Okay, let's give this a taste. First, let's
think about texture. [SIPS TEA] As I said,
[it's] light, but actually I would say it's
more medium [bodied]. It's got the thickness.
So [the] first impression is [it's] very light,
but it's definitely got the thickness, and
the aroma is starting to come through. [SIPS
TEA] This is all about springtime, [and] spring
cleaning. For me, this has a real kind of
"cotton fresh" taste to it -- you now, the
smell of fresh sheets, or sheets that have
been left out to dry in the air - in like
clean air, hopefully; somewhere where there's
some grass and some flowers. You just smell
[it] and it's got that linen, cotton freshness
to it. This is that. It's got that [really]
fresh, [like] ultimate spring-cleaning kind
of taste. [SIPS TEA] [There is] some nuts,
[like] raw nuts, milky nuts, raw cob nuts,
raw almonds - more cob nuts, which are kind
of English hazelnuts - that very raw and milky
[taste]. [SIPS TEA] [It's] sappy as well.
I'm getting that bamboo. You know when you
have like sugarcane, or something? [Like]
you have raw sugarcane - I don't know if you've
ever had that before - and you chew on the
raw sugarcane. Forget the sweetness of that
- because obviously it contains a lot of sweetness
- but that sappy [taste] is definitely in
this tea. There is some fruits as well, but
very light, and I would move it more into
kind of starfruit, with that interesting interplay.
It's not appley. It's not so intense like
apples, but it's got a little bit of that
freshness. [SIPS TEA] It's a real summer tea.
Now, it does have astringency. With all of
these green "needle" teas you're going to
get astringency. Don't forget [that] this
is the tip-top, first flush of the plant,
grown after the dormant period in winter,
so it's filled with catechins, okay? It's
filled with all of those [compounds] that
will lead to some bitterness and astringency,
and that's where I find that the "Bamboo Green"
[teas] from Si Chuan fall short. This was
[has] held it. It's [there], but it's elegant.
It's definitely [restrained] the amount of
bitterness and astringency. I would say there's
very little bitterness, but there is a certain
astringency - a kind of dry and puckering
sensation - which is, again, [a] very raw
feeling. You know, it suits the hold mood
of this tea, which is all about spring, fresh,
[and] raw, and that's what makes it so special.
You can, again, see how the buds are starting
to now move further down, and eventually they'll
just be bobbing up and down there with future
infusions. But this "Flute Brewer" really
allows you to get a good view of the [leaves].
By the way, I'm brewing with 80 degree [Celsius]
water, [or] 175 [degrees] Fahrenheit water.
So keep it cool. If you brew too hot with
this then you are going to pull out far too
much of that astringency. What's great here
is, as you can see [that] with very little
mess, I can be brewing this tea by myself,
or with friends, and I've got my glass still
with tea in it. I've got next infusion, I've
got my leaves - all nicely in a row, with
a nice diagonal, which was not intentional.
So this is the "Breaking Bad" style of brewing,
or the "Flute" style of brewing, and I really
love it. I really love this style of brewing,
especially for green teas. Okay, let's give
this another taste before we move on to our
next tea. [SIPS TEA] [The] green grapes are
coming back, so I'm getting a little bit more
of the sweetness of 
the fruit. [SIPS TEA] Mmm... When I say "green
grapes" I'm talking about, actually, more
the grape skin. You know if you take grape
skins... This is why it reminds me of those
natural wines a little bit, because it's got
that grape skin kind of taste. [SIPS TEA]
It's now starting to really bring out more
of the warmth. I'm getting those summer meadows.
I'm getting the hot air. I'm getting slight
kind of "cut grass" notes. But it's not green
in the sense of lush, verdant green, like
[freshly] cut grass, because it's actually
earlier than that. It tastes earlier. It tastes
more raw. It tastes younger. It's really,
really vibrant. So yeah, [it's] a wonderful,
wonderful tea to add to your collection, and
a great tea to brew in this "Flute Brewer".
Okay, [let's have a] quick smell of the empty,
what's now a Gong Dao Bei. Always, the smell
of the empty Gong Dao Bei, or cup, is going
to be warmer. I'm getting more milk notes,
[like] nut milks... [and] more flowers. [SMELLS
TEA] The flowers are actually more perfumed
than in the liquor. [SMELLS TEA] I’m getting
a slight strawberry note as well, which is
interesting [as] it's the first time I've
noticed that. [It's] very ripe strawberries
as well. [SMELLS TEA] Yeah, it's got a slight
strawberry note, and nut milks. Gorgeous.
Lovely. That's your first tea. That's Kai
Hua Long Ding, also known as "Naked Spring".
Right. Let's move on to our very special,
second tea. [This is our] second tea, and
the eagle-eyed amongst you will already know
which tea we're tasting. This is Hou Kui,
also known as "Monkey King" green tea, or
"Monkey Picked" green tea, and it is a Chinese
classic green tea, [which is a] very, very
high echelon, top-drawer green tea, that is
commonly given as gift tea because of it's
reputation. Whenever there's reputation, [and]
whenever tea commands a high price, you have
to be careful that you are not paying for
the tag, [but that] you're actually paying
for the quality of the tea. That's my job
here, [is] to make sure that we source according
to taste, and not just according to looks
or name. Now, I have three Hou Kui [teas]
in front of me. [From the] three of them I'm
going to give you a second to try to work
out which one you think is the highest grade
tea. I'll bring them over to you here. This
is number one. You can take a little look.
I'm not going to say too much. [That's] number
one... and, number two... and finally, number
three. Any guesses which one is the highest
quality? Well, common knowledge would say
that Hou Kui should look more like this one
here. [That is], very, very flat... very,
very thin... very, very delicate -- "wafer
thin" [so] you can see the light coming through
it. [It should be] very, very green, extremely
bright, [with an] extremely light green color,
and this is what most Hou Kui looks like [nowadays],
and it is a very high quality Hou Kui, this
one. Don't get me wrong, this is a high-quality
Hou Kui, and this is pretty much what you'll
see in [most] shops, and it's a good quality
tea. [Now], this one here is exactly the same
as this one, but a year old. So you can see
how, I mean, [I] think there's no other tea
which transforms as quickly - or degrades
as quickly - as Hou Kui. Hou Kui just degrades
super-quickly. I would even say [that] it
has to be within a year of you buying it [that
you drink it] if it's been kept well by the
seller. It's a very, very difficult tea to
transport. It's very, very delicate, pernickety
tea, and you can see how much it has changed
from one year to the other. So a year ago
[this] tea here looked very similar to the
other one - in fact, almost identical. So,
the problem with Hou Kui is the fact that
it's so delicate. Now, the reason for that
- or part of the reason for that - is because
they machine-press it. So they take the leaves,
they spread them out over mesh, and then they
roll it with a roller -- I say "machine",
[though] it's still kind of done by hand.
But it's done over a roller, and that squeezes
out all of the juice, brings it all to the
surface, and makes a very flat, very transparent
- or more transparent-looking - leaf. That's
great, because it makes a very beautiful-colored
leaf, [which is] a very pretty leaf, and the
flavor is there present for you as soon [as]
you hit water over it. The problem is that
it squeezes out all of those juices. All of
those juices are on the surface. There's no
leaf in here for the juice to stay locked
in [and] be protected, and therefore it degrades
really quickly.Just by leaving it out, even
if it's in a pack, it'll start to degrade
very quickly. So this year we were tasting
lots of Hou Kui [teas], and I was a little
bit nonplussed about what we were getting.
They were okay. You know, [there were] some
nice ones. Again, this is a very delicate
tea, so even though these are large leaves
you have to use a fair amount of them, and
the [flavor] is very delicate, and that's
what's prized about it. It's [again], that
delicacy; that lightness, whilst having a
richness and depth. I just found that the
samples that I was receiving were not good
enough. Then, I tasted this one here. Now
this one here is [Hou Kui] processed [in the]
fully handmade [way]. When I say that [it's]
a little bit, again, [very] difficult to say
what's fully handmade compared to machine
made. But basically what they do is they take
each individual leaf and they put it through
a little hole that has a little roller, and
that pulls the leaf through and crushes the
leaf, but it doesn't flatten it out, and it's
not having the same power as a machine-rolled
leaf. That means that the color doesn't look
as pretty, but all of the juices are locked
within this leaf, and it means that you get
a richer flavor, and it also means that it
lasts longer. So this is fully handmade Hou
Kui. We only got a very small batch of this.
It is high, high-priced tea, so we've only
got 10 kilos of this tea, I'll tell you. So
it’s a very, very small batch. When I tasted
it it blew away all the other Hou Kui [teas],
and I was mesmerized by it. So I just want
to show you these two, quickly again, together,
and then we'll get on with brewing. So you
can see [that], one, they look kind of almost
similar in terms of shape, but you can see
[that] one of them is a fresh, green color
- [a nice] dark, verdant green color - and
the other one is looking a bit brown, grey,
sad, and old. So, let's brew this tea, and
we'll SCOPE it at the same time. [The] Season
is spring 2017, and the Cultivar is the Shi
Da cultivar, which is slightly larger leaves,
[and] slightly longer. [For] the Origin, this
is from Tai Ping. It's really important that
you get these Hou Kui [teas] from the original
village area. This is [from] Xin Ming, Tai
Ping, in An Hui province. [The] Picking is
bud and one - sometimes two - leaves, and
the Elevation is around 700 meters for this.
So it's [quite a] high elevation for that
area. Right. This is the first time I've tasted
this tea since it's been received, so this
is actually my sample tasting. I have not
written my tasting notes, so I'm coming in
a little bit blind here. But you can see the
real joy of brewing this tea in the "Flute
Brewer". Look at that, how it just gives all
of the space for those leaves. There is no
crammed up leaves here. It really allows all
of the leaves to quite happily have enough
room to infuse, and that's really, really
important. Okay, so [there's a] marked difference.
[It's] really a marked difference, and I have
to say [that] the first time I received this
sample I looked at it and I thought, "Oh,
this doesn't look that good, because of the
fact that it's not as thin and as green."
But when I tried it - blind tasting as always
- when we tasted it we picked this one out
every single time, and I had to find out why.
I've got some footage. I'll show you some
video footage of them putting the leaves through
the small holes, so you can see how they make
it differently compared to the machine-made
Hou Kui. As I said, this tea is very delicate,
but has a lot of aroma. If you really [get]
in and start to explore it it has so much
going on. Let's see what it tastes like. Again,
as I said, I haven't written my tasting notes
for this, so this is completely blind. [It's]
really, really clear, the crissed-crossed
pattern. As you can see, it's been dried on
the sheets. It's got a really clear, crissed-crossed
pattern. I'm going to try to show you. It's
even more clear than on most Hou Kui [teas],
I think, because of the fact that it has not
been laid out too thin. See if you can see
the crissed-crossed pattern there. Ah, the
smell coming up from the wet leaves is great.
Let's have a little sniff of these wet leaves.
[SMELLS TEA] Oh, [it's] so, so rich! This
is what [I] found was very different compared
to the average Hou Kui [teas] out there, which
were too delicate. This one is rich [and]
bursting with torn, fresh green leaves, [and]
torn grass. [It's] very verdant. [It's] slightly
nutty. [It is] almost reminiscent of a Long
Jing, or a "Dragon Well, or "Imperial Green".
[It] has that kind of slightly nutty [taste]
... not as much, but it's there. [SMELLS TEA]
[There's] green chestnuts [and] orchid - [a]
a really, really strong, sweet orchid aroma.
The color of the liquor, I will show you.
Again, you're looking for lightness. You're
looking for brightness. You're looking for
almost kind of translucent. It's that that
you're looking for. You don't want rich color,
[and] you don't want cloudy tea for this one.
You really want it to be light, bright, and
almost flourescent. You can see some of the
hairs floating around. You can see [that]
this was young-picked tea. [SIPS TEA] Yeah,
[there'] minerality. I'm getting chalk. [SIPS
TEA] I'm getting almost like a slight kind
of coconut to it, but very, very light, [raw],
white coconut flesh. [SIPS TEA] I'm getting
sunflower seeds. So [it's] those kind of milky
notes with chalk. I'm not getting so much
of the grass at the beginning. [SIPS TEA]
I'm picking up the orchid through the nose,
[and] flowers, definitely. [There's] definitely
white flowers. [SIPS TEA] [There's] some sappiness,
[and] some vegetal notes. Again, [it's] similar
to "Naked Spring", [with] a little bit of
that kind of courgette - or zucchini flesh
- smell aroma. [SIPS TEA] But [it's] really
milky. I always find this with Hou Kui. There's
a kind of slight [predominance] of milkiness,
much more than any other green tea. You're
getting those nut milks. You're getting those
raw nuts. [For] the texture... [SIPS TEA]
I would say it's lighter. It's lighter than
the "Naked Spring", which is what you'd expect.
[I would say] it's a light tea. [It's] really,
really refreshing. The chalky dryness on it
is great as well. [There's] great minerality.
[It's] nothing too rocky or slatey. It's got
that gentle, chalky texture, [SIPS TEA] [with]
almost slight caramel notes just in there
are well, [which are] very, very light. [There's]
fudgy kind of caramel notes, [SIPS TEA] especially
in the empty cup - especially when I'm sticking
my nose in. [SMELLS TEA] Wow! I'm getting
a lot of fudge and caramel. That has really
surprised me, actually. [SMELLS TEA] Ooh!
[There's] vanilla fudge... amazing. [There's]
green coconut, [like] coconut water almost
- like, you know, fresh coconut water. [SIPS
TEA] [There's] a slight bit of that sappy
bamboo kind of taste that we had before with
the "Naked Spring", but much, much less. Okay,
[now] the second infusion. Notice that I do
brew these quite strong. Don't be fooled by
the size of these leaves. In fact, [because]
of the fact that they're such large, light
leaves you're using very small amounts. So
I'm using about 4 grams of this. It looked
like a lot more, right? But that was only
4 grams. They're very, very delicate, so gram-for-gram
you're actually using less leaf, generally,
when you're brewing Hou Kui, and therefore
you need to brew it a little bit longer, because
it needs to have a little bit more extraction.
The color has become a little bit more green
now, but again, really clear, really vibrant,
[and] really bright. [It's] almost got a slight
kind of blue tinge to it, it's so kind of
fresh looking. Okay, [this is the] second
infusion, Cheers everyone. [SIPS TEA] Mmm!
[The] orchid is coming out more. [SIPS TEA]
[There's] something green, [like] green sunflower
seeds ... pumpkin seeds, rather - not sunflower
seeds - pumpkin seeds, with that green skin.
[SIPS TEA] The grassiness is there, but it's
very, very light, [and] it's really, really,
really like spring meadows, but nothing too
in-your-face. [There's] certainly no freshly-mowed
grass - none of that. It's very, very, very
light [and] untouched - [like] just the breeze
of grass. [It's] just [like] walking through
a field [and] just getting a little bit of
the breeze of it. [It's] not like sticking
your nose into it. [SIPS TEA] It has something
else that I can't quite put my finger on,
which is why I'm stalling. [SIPS TEA] [Is
it] vine leaves, potentially? I think it's
vine leaves. You know, when you get those
Greek vine leaves - those stuffed Greek vine
leaves? It has that kind of slight vine leaf
tang to it too, which is really great. [SMELLS
TEA] The smell, again, [has] more of the warmth
[and] more of the vanilla notes, some of those
pumpkin seeds, and definitely some caramel
and fudge in there , which is quite a surprise.
This is a high, high grade Hou Kui. [Really],
the handmade stuff, in my opinion, may not
look as pretty, but it is much more flavorful
than your average, high-quality, machine-made
Hou Kui. That's not to say that we won't stock
some of this. I do love this tea as well.
If we can find some good stuff we will get
some in. This was really a small batch, [of]10
kilos, just because I love it so much. So
there you go. [There are] two green teas brewed
in the "Flute Brewer". If you guys are interested,
these are now in stock, and really, I think,
[are] a really nice, minimal way to brew tea,
especially these lovely, light green teas.
That's it teaheads. If you made it to the
end of this video then please give the video
the thumbs-up. Check out our YouTube playlists
and let us know if there are any videos that
you would like us to make. If you're ever
in London then come and visit us in Camden
to say "Hi!" and taste our wares. If you have
any questions or comments then please fire
them over. Other than that, I'm Don from Mei
Leaf. Thank you for being a part of the revelation
of true tea. Stay away from those teabags,
keep drinking the good stuff, and spread the
word, because nobody deserves bad tea. Bye
[WAVING]
