Thursday, April 30, 2009

Mango Green Decaf

Tea: Mango Green Tea Decaf
Vendor: Mighty Leaf
Price: $8.95 / 4 oz
Source: Nilgiri, India
Vendor Description: Mango Green Tea Decaf, is a sweet blend of decaffeinated green tea from the Korakundah estate in Nilgiri, India combined with mango piences and calendula. With an intoxicating aroma, this fruity and flavorful green tea provides the perfect introduction to those new to green tea, or simply looking for a delicious, caffeine-free green tea blend.

Leaf: This leaf has a brown-green hue to it. There are yellow blossoms mixed in amongst the twisted green leaf. There are small dried pieces of fruit in the mix. The leaf appears drier than a green tea from China or Japan. The shape of the leaf somewhat reminds me of a Darjeeling.

1st Infusion Parameters: 5g, 185F, 45s, 5 oz

1st Infusion: This infusion had a brownish caramel hue to it. Considering this was a green tea this was rather surprising. There is a light sweet aroma that quickly fades away. The flavor of the tea is very sharp. There is not much mango in the flavor of this tea at all. Most of the flavor from the tea is up front, but it is very short lived. It quickly dies off leaving not much on the back end. There is no astringency to the back.

2nd Infusion Parameters: 15s, 185F

2nd Infusion: The flavor was very similar to the first infusion. Not much flavor overall, and very short lived.

Rating: 2/10

Conclusion: I don't drink many green teas from outside of Japan and China, let alone decaf. This tea was somewhat of a reminder of why. Normally I don't drink many decaf teas either. The flavor was light in comparison with the tea flavor, and I acknowledge that flavoring a green tea is a difficult proposition, but it still could have been better.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I can't really understand that you as a tea specialist accept or even make a comment like this: "Black tea from Ceylon, decaffeinated using a superior CO-2 process. The latter is all natural and gentle, allowing tea leaves retain their delicate shape and flavor. Flavored with ripe tropical mangos. Makes a tasty cup of tea, both hot and iced." Shure this tea has a synthetically produced mango aroma. So how your comment on this tea can be so positive if the provider gives a description that makes me believe everything is natural in this tea? All the Adagio teas that have aromas pretend that their flavour is just because of the ripe fruits they contain. Is that fair in front of the customer?