03.19.08
product review: hairy crab
posted by Anne Lerch | 6 comments
I’m not in the habit of drinking tea in the evening, but today when I was at the grocery store I looked at the choices for tea, and decided to buy some Tazo Green Spring Tips tea. Then, after dinner (West African Chicken Peanut soup and rice, 
accompanied by an Italian Pinot gris), I decided to have a cup. As many of you know, I’m a tea novice; and I don’t know much about green tea, or what it “should” taste like. I don’t know all the ins and outs of preparation, either, so I just heated tap water until it was almost boiling in my teapot, poured it over my tea bag, and let it sit for 2-3 minutes.
The tea is also called “mao feng”, which translates to “hairy crab”—how could I not be curious about it? Anyway, at first sip, I thought: vegetal; clean hay; barnyard (specifically, horse manure). Suddenly I was swept back to my youthful horse-loving days, when I spent a lot of time in a barn. Barnyard. This was kind of turning me off; it wasn’t unpleasant, but not what I had in mind for an after-dinner cup. But wait. About a third of the way through the cup, a completely unexpected fruity thing started to happen on my mid-palate! The hay and barnyard were still on the roof of my mouth and in my nasal passages, but on my tongue and sides of my tongue was an astringent berry floral feeling. Acerola berry. Salivary glands I didn’t know I had sprang to life! Juicy, grassy. Really enjoyable!
I’ve had several cups of this tea since; it seems to matter a lot what temperature the water is when brewing, in order to get that fruity, astringent quality. Not quite boiling, 2-3 minutes brewing .For me, this is not a breakfast tea, but an afternoon or evening tea. It is widely available and reasonably priced, which makes it attractive for us novices.
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March 20th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Hi Anne, It is nice to read about your tea discovery. Green tips is Tazo’s nicest tea, in my opinion. Just one little thing though, mao feng means “hair tip”, or “hair peak”. Mao Xie is hairy crab.
March 20th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
Black Dragon, thanks for the correction. I don’t know Chinese at all; I got the translation right off of Tazo’s box! Maybe they meant “hair tips” in reference to the green “tips”? maybe you should e-mail them! I have been told that there is a loose leaf green tea called “hairy crab”; do you know what the difference is? I would love a chance to taste that too!
Either way, I am enjoying the tea. Any other suggestions for a decent, widely available commercial green tea that I might find in my grocery store?
March 21st, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Anne, “hairy crab” is a tea plant varietal from Fujian China. It is usually made into a very tasty oolong tea. I have never come across a hairy crab green tea, but I suppose it is possible that Tazo’s green tips uses this varietal. Maybe I should email them just to ask!? (But I kind of wonder if they would even know.)
I’m not sure about any good green teas at a grocery store. I’m sure most brands are decent, as long as they are not too stale. I feel that loose leaf tea purchased from dedicated tea vendors is always a better choice, both for taste and economy. Cheers
March 21st, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Thanks, Black Dragon!
I’m kind of new to tea, so I’m intrigued by your description of “hairy crab” as being the name of a tea plant varietal, rather than a type of processed tea. I guess it makes sense that there are different varietals of camellia sinensis, depending on various growing regions and conditions, but I never hear it talked about. I would love to find a source (in English) that describes various tea plant varietals and their attributes, whether they are planted on rootstocks, etc.
March 21st, 2008 at 8:48 pm
Anne, Black Dragon is absolutely correct. I double checked at the Tazo website and their China Green Tips is probably what you had. They say it comes from the mountains of Zhejiang which does produce a Mao Feng green tea. I’m pretty sure that the Mao Feng tea from Zhejiang refers to the harvest timing and style of 2 leaves and a bud that has a curved shape to it, and which are the earliest leaves picked, but it does not refer to a particular varietal. Mao Jian, also from Zhejiang, is the same tea bush but with a later harvest and therefore a different leaf size and shape.
Mao Xie, on the other hand, which Black Dragon correctly refered to as Hairy Crab, is produced in the Anxi regions of southern Fujian and is a type or varietal of tea bush used to make rolled oolongs. These oolongs are quite nice with a wonderful floral character.
March 24th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
I wrote a post on September 24 about three teas purchased under not-so-ideal conditions. All three were Oolongs. One was named Hairy Crab. The most endearing feature about the three teas was the way in which the Hairy Crab variety unfurled in the strainer! It looked like a crab trying to crawl sideways out of the cup. Due to improper storage, the tea itself was utterly forgettable by the time I drank it. I did get a lot of entertainment out of the “crab races” I held with the rest of it.