Renegade Tea Estate’s Sunset Garden | Tea Review

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With the longer days here, there have been some beautiful sunsets lately. So, the name of this tea seemed fitting.

Description: “The taste is nicely balanced – it has a grassy, vegetal flavour with hints of flowers in it.”

Instructions: 80°C/ 176°F | 3 g per 250 ml / 0.1 oz tea per 8.45 fl oz | Steep for 3 – 4 min

Review: When opening the pouch, there was an inviting smell of toasted nuts and roasted vegetables. The twisted needle-shaped leaves were a dark green-grey colour. The liquor brewed into a pale yellow and was slightly cloudy due to the “hairs” from the tea leaves. It smelled roasted and vegetal.

Regardless of the brew time, the liquor had an underlying toasted, nutty, and vegetal smell and taste. The flavour profile was reminiscent of Dragon Well, a Chinese pan-fried green tea.

The tea liquor’s roasted taste and astringency largely depended on the brew time. With a shorter infusion, the taste was sweeter and vegetal. With longer infusions, the roasted flavour was more intense and the drying sensation was stronger at the back of the throat.

The sweet spot was 3.5 mins as there was a balanced nutty and vegetable taste. The liquor had notes of roasted chestnut, spinach, and asparagus with a bit of dryness at the tip of the tongue. When cooled, the vegetal taste was stronger and there was a flash of a nutty taste before astringency at the back of the throat.

The wet seaweed green leaves remained somewhat twisted and had a vegetal smell.

Based on the Renegade Tea website, this green tea has been here at the farm since the start and I can see why! I enjoyed the tea best at 3.5 minutes as there was a nice complexity from nutty to vegetal notes and the wasn’t a harsh astringent quality. This would be a nice green tea for anyone who likes a roasted or vegetal green tea, enjoys Dragon Well (or teas like it) or wants to try a tea from Georgia (Europe)(4/5 rating).

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