Gunpowder green tea
Chinese green tea rolled into tight pellets that unfurl in water — a shape developed for durability in transport and now the standard base for North African mint tea. Robust, smoky-edged and far more forgiving of hard treatment than most green tea.
Character
Blunt, brisk and faintly smoky — a long way from delicate. The tight rolling keeps it fresher than open-leafed greens for far longer, which is why it travels and stores well.
- Flavour
- Smoky, Grassy, Mineral
- Aroma
- Toasted
- Mouthfeel
- Medium, Astringent, Drying
- Complexity
- Straightforward
- Notes
- woodsmoke, hay, mineral, green olive
- Aftertaste
- Brisk and slightly smoky, with a drying finish.
Moderate intensity: noticeable weight or grip, but neither dominates the cup.
Provenance and production
- Origin
- China
- Oxidation
- Unoxidised
- Harvest
- Spring
- Processing
- Withering → Kill-green (fixation) → Rolling and shaping
History
Rolled into tight pellets that resist air and survive handling, which made it the standard Chinese export tea for long sea voyages from the eighteenth century. Its role as the base of Moroccan mint tea comes directly from that export trade rather than from any Moroccan production.
Brewing
Western brewing (teapot or mug)
1–2 g/100 ml · 80–90 °C · 1 authored infusion
Moroccan mint tea preparation
1.5–2.5 g/100 ml · 95–100 °C · 1 authored infusion
Sun tea
1–1.5 g/100 ml · 20–40 °C · 1 authored infusion
Gongfu brewing (gaiwan)
3–4 g/100 ml · 75–85 °C · 4 authored infusions
No caffeine estimate is authored for this tea. TeaHQ does not infer one from its category, because category predicts caffeine poorly — matcha and gyokuro carry more than many black teas.
Common mistakes
- Steeping it briefly as though the pellets were open leaf
If you like this
Grouped by why they were suggested, strongest reason first. Nothing here is a blended score — a suggestion appears under the best reason that exists for it, and never under a weaker one as well.
Editorially linked
Someone wrote down why these two belong together. The note below is theirs.
- Qing Zhuan
'Qing Zhuan' translates as green brick and is a dark tea. The name misleads readers into expecting a compressed green tea, which is what gunpowder’s pellets actually are.
- Pinhead gunpowder
Grades of the same rolled export green tea. Pinhead is the tightest and smallest, and tightness of roll is the main quality signal in the style.
Similar sensory profile
Shares controlled flavour, aroma and mouthfeel descriptors. A looser match — two teas can share descriptors and still taste nothing alike.
- Vietnamese green tea
Shares 6 descriptors with Gunpowder green tea: grassy, mineral, astringent, drying, medium and toasted.
- Kang Zhuan
Shares 4 descriptors with Gunpowder green tea: smoky, astringent, drying and toasted.
- Konacha
Shares 4 descriptors with Gunpowder green tea: grassy, astringent, drying and medium.
- Sencha
Shares 4 descriptors with Gunpowder green tea: grassy, medium, drying and astringent.
- Xinyang Mao Jian
Shares 4 descriptors with Gunpowder green tea: mineral, medium, drying and astringent.
- Aracha
Shares 3 descriptors with Gunpowder green tea: grassy, medium and astringent.
Written comparisons
Where TeaHQ has set this tea against another in full, rather than deriving the comparison.
- Green tea styles compared — Five green teas spanning steamed and pan-fired, shaded and unshaded, roasted and fresh. The fixation method splits this category more than any origin does.
- Gunpowder vs sencha — Two rolled green teas that look superficially similar and are made for opposite purposes — one to survive a sea voyage, one to be drunk within months of picking.
- Longjing vs gunpowder — Two pan-fired Chinese green teas at opposite ends of the market, and a useful demonstration that shaping is a decision about purpose rather than quality.