Gunpowder green tea (珠茶; pinyin: zhū chá) is a very simple, yet warming and satisfying tea. With strong green vegetal notes and a touch of smokiness.
These deliciously organic tea leaves have been rolled into tight little pellets. Because of this, it is easy to brew too much tea in your cup because you don’t realize how much tea you really have until it all unfurls in the hot water. Use about half as much dry tea as you normally would, because they expand a lot while brewing.
Frontier Co-op describes this tea as:
This tea has a very rich flavor, with a hint of sweet smokiness. The leaves are rolled into little pellets that unfurl and ‘bloom’ in the cup.
Botanical name: Camellia sinensis L.
A robust tea to pair with grilled vegetables, seafood, chicken and pork. Or try Gunpowder in small sake cups with smoked salmon or mini pot stickers at a cocktail party.
This tea does go extremely well with food of any kind. Best served hot, without any milk or sugar. It has a very soft green tea aroma with that same vegetal quality that the flavor has. A slightly astringent aftertaste gently cleanses the palate while providing a deep toasty green tea taste.
Interestingly, there are several explanations for how Gunpowder green tea got it’s name. Production of gunpowder green tea dates back to the Tang Dynasty (618–907). Wikipedia says that the origin of the English term may come from the Mandarin Chinese term gāng paò de (剛泡的), simply meaning “freshly brewed,” which sounds like the English word “gunpowder.” However it’s much more likely that it was named as such because it resembles actual gunpowder: greyish, dark pellets of irregular shape used as explosive propellant for early guns. The name may also have arisen from the fact that the grey-green leaf is tightly rolled into a tiny pellet and “explodes” into a long leaf upon being steeped in hot water. Another explanation is that the tea can also have a smoky flavor.
This tea has a very classic green tea flavor with slightly more depth and character than your average green tea. And I was able to successfully re-brew the used leaves 3 times, then mixed the used leaves with olive oil and coriander and ate them as an accompaniment to my supper along with the brewed tea from the leaves. Delicious in so many ways!
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Comment by December 15, 2009 @ 7:20 pm
JenniferB said:
I’ve tried a few of Frontier Co-Op’s Teas before but haven’t tried this one yet…thanks for posting it!
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