Tao Of Tea: Mei Li, Green Kukicha & Jade Cloud

Currently, my favorite online tea shop is Tao Of Tea. I am not being handed mounds of cash every month to spend on tea so this is mainly due to financial reasons. I tried out some of their teas, enjoyed them, and now I buy in bulk from their inventory. Their prices are also extremely reasonable compared to sites like Verdant Tea or Camellia Sinensis while maintaining a good step in quality from Adagio. All these tea sites are awesome and highly recommended by many avid tea drinkers in the r/tea community on reddit.

My most recent purchase from Tao Of Tea included Green Kukicha, Jade Cloud, and Mei Li.


Green Kukicha

This is a Japanese green tea that tastes like a mix between Matcha and Sencha. It has a powdery, sweet, and vegetal taste with an optional mild, yet, sharp bitterness that can be brought out with slightly higher water temperature. This tea contains a heavy amount of stems, which is part of what give it a distinctive flavor over Sencha. If you're a fan of Japanese greens then I'd give this a whirl (I've never said or typed that idiom before in my life, nor do I plan on ever doing so again). I use a gaiwan (although I should be using a kyusu) and when I pour it out I pour it through a little hand held filter. I use 170-175°F water for about 40 seconds in a gaiwan.

Here is some brewed Kukicha with the cool container in the BG.

Jade Cloud

Pre-brew...

This Chinese green can be described as sweet, floral, and smokey. Unfortunately, it was hard to ever bring out a strong version of this flavor. I experimented with amount of leaf and water temperatures but never got a really satisfying cup out of it (minus 1 randomly awesome cup when I first got it, probably due to freshness). I won't be buying this tea again, but maybe there is somebody out there who can teach me how to make it taste right. My only guess would be that you may have to practically stew the leaves in order to get a strong flavor out of it (around 185-190°F), but I kinda doubt that.

Post-brew...

Mei Li

I really liked this Chinese tea... it had a bold and deep mildly sweet flavor and I SWEAR has a hint of chocolate on certain days... maybe I'm just crazy, though. I'd say this is my favorite of the three greens. I usually pour the water over the Mei Li in a gaiwan while the water is around 178°F and then let it steep about 45 seconds. Use a fair amount of leaf... nearing or at two teaspoons. This gives you some great Mei Li yummy goodness.

YUM. COME TO ME, MEI LI. Sounds like a girl.

Mei Li & Jade Cloud blend??

Hell yea. I used the last of my stash of both to try out a blend. It turned out to be great! I used a good chunk of leaf and 170-175° water for 45 seconds and got a good combination of both flavors. I'd side with a straight Mei Li brew but this is certainly awesome. Haven't tried the second steep yet... but I have no doubt in my mind that it'll taste good.

Lookin' good.

It got kinda messy in there. I liked it.