Three Green Tea

Pukka. I’ve always thought it was a deliriously cute name for a stuffed animal, or a barque cat. Well, today I’m drinking my first ever Pukka tea, and I’m crossing my fingers that they live up to my expectations for the name. Pukka’s been slowly gaining prominence in the bagged tea market for the last couple years, and now it’s easier to find on the shelf than it used to be. I finally decided to give them a shot when i noticed something interesting about today’s tea…

Today i’m drinking Pukka’s Three Green tea. Three Green tea is made from Fair Trade 100% organic sencha, Oothu (I assumed it was South Indian, turns out it’s from the Western Ghats so I was on the mark with that one) and Suoi Gang. Each of these three Greens is whole leaf, which i was also excited to see. However, what really grabbed my attention was the Suoi Gang is my first (i think?) Vietnamese tea: specifically, it’s produced in Yen Bai. I wish I had found Suoi Gang by itself so I’d have something to compare it to, but sometimes that’s not possible for an introduction. Three Green doesn’t have a great deal of aroma, but i guess it’s reminiscent of a bamboo grove (yup, i know what those smell like). Three Green has a slightly gritty texture owing to its whole leaf content. The taste is a great deal sweeter and lighter than I would have imagined; the Oothu and sencha (which apparently is a China Da Zhang Shan (much more commonly known as the smoky lapsang souchong)), i would not have been able to tell you that) blend especially well into a honeyed Oolong-like Green, and the Suoi Gang gives the tea a unique and fun tanginess. I think Three Green has indeed impressed me; so far Pukka is living up to the cuteness of its name.

Since I was recently encouraged by two of my “avid” readers to start rating my teas quantitatively (apparently I do a great job of qualitatively reviewing but some would like to know comparatively what’s worth their time): I’ll give Three Green a… 91% satisfaction rating? I need to come up with a detailed rating system. ^^;;