Chestnut and nut
Chestnut above all — the standard descriptor for good pan-fired Chinese green tea, plus the nut band around it.
Ban li xiang, chestnut fragrance, is what a well-made Longjing is supposed to smell of, and it is among the most-used notes in this catalogue. The comparison is to the cooked chestnut rather than the raw one, and it comes from the same Maillard chemistry as the toasted-grain band, which is why the two so often appear together and why pan-fired greens have both where steamed greens have neither. Around it sit almond (including green almond, a sharper and more marzipan-like note on some white and yellow teas), walnut and generic roasted nut. One entry needs explanation: areca, also called betel nut, is not a culinary nut at all, and its presence here is not a mistake. Binglang xiang — betel nut fragrance — is the traditional and specific descriptor for well-made Liu Bao dark tea, and it is the standard term within that tradition. Recording it under a nut heading is a filing convenience; the aroma it names is its own thing.
Which sense this is
Aroma. Volatile compounds, smelled through the nose or retronasally while drinking. Nearly all descriptive tea vocabulary is here, including words people say they can taste.
Compound descriptor. A familiar thing used as shorthand for a mixture of sensations. Nobody detects 'chestnut' — they recognise it.
Where it comes from
- Established chemistry
Maillard products from dry-heat fixation, the same family responsible for the toasted-grain band. Chestnut and toast are neighbours in cause as well as in description.
The chemical route is identified in the literature. Often a family of related compounds rather than one named molecule.
Types: type-green-tea.
- Processing step
Pan-firing and flat shaping in a heated wok. Longjing's chestnut character and its flat leaf come from the same operation.
A named production step reliably produces it. A statement about practice, not about chemistry.
Processing: process-pan-firing, process-flat-shaping. Types: type-green-tea.
- Processing step
The betel-nut note is the traditional marker of correctly made and aged Liu Bao, and is attributed within that tradition to its pile fermentation and basket ageing.
A named production step reliably produces it. A statement about practice, not about chemistry.
Processing: processing-liubao-fermentation, process-basket-ageing. Types: type-dark-tea.
Not to be confused with
- Fresh grass (Aroma) — Cut-grass green — the smell of the fresh leaf surviving into the cup, and the marker of a green tea that is actually fresh.
The phrases this covers
Editors write tasting notes in their own words. These are the exact phrases in the catalogue that this descriptor accounts for — the mapping is authored phrase by phrase, so nothing is grouped by a rule that guessed.
almond · areca · betel nut · chestnut · fresh chestnut · green almond · light chestnut · marzipan · roasted chestnut · roasted nut · sweet chestnut · toasted chestnut · toasted nut · walnut
Teas whose notes resolve to this
Derived from the tasting notes on each tea, not assigned by hand.
- Aged Liu Bao
- Bi Luo Chun
- Ceylon green tea
- Darjeeling first flush
- Darjeeling green tea
- Darjeeling second flush
- Duyun Mao Jian
- Enshi Yu Lu
- Gou Gu Nao
- Gyokuro
- Hojicha
- Hong Shui Dong Ding
- Huangshan Maofeng
- Jin Shan Cui Ya
- Kamairicha
- Korean green tea
- Laoshan green tea
- Liu An Gua Pian
- Liu Bao
- Longjing
- Lu Shan Yun Wu
- Matcha koicha grade
- Meng Ding Gan Lu
- Meng Ding Huang Ya
- Nong Xiang Tie Guan Yin (roasted)
- Phoenix Dan Cong
- Sejak
- Sikkim (Temi)
- Song Yang Yin Hou
- Tan Bei oolong
- Tencha
- Tian Mu Qing Ding
- Ujeon
- Weishan Mao Jian
- Wu Niu Zao
- Wuyuan Ming Mei
- Xing Ren Xiang Dan Cong
- Xinyang Mao Jian
- Yu Hua Cha
- Yuan An Lu Yuan
- Zhi Lan Xiang Dan Cong
- Zhu Ye Qing
Nearby
A tasting note is a comparison, not a measurement. Where the route from leaf to sensation is established it is labelled as such above; where it is not, the page says so rather than supplying a mechanism the descriptor has not earned. See the rest of the vocabulary for how the axes divide up.