Hi friends!! I am finally opening the teas that I bought from Renegade Tea and I am so excited to be reviewing them in turn. I was initially tempted to get their Spring Splash set, but this is my first time trying their teas so I decided to be a bit more moderate and just get three teas to try – one green, one black, one oolong.

Today, I’m reviewing one of their green teas called Renegade Life. Here’s the description of the tea from their website:

This green tea is a true renegade. We took a bit different approach on this one by letting it wither overnight which resulted in quite an interesting green tea in our selection. It has a nutty, a bit roasted aroma with hints of sweetness and umami in it. The taste is not as vegetal as most of our green teas – instead, you can feel notes of chestnuts and peanuts accompanied by a roasted flavour.

First Impressions

The dry leaves are long, thin, and very dark. Honestly, the colour reminds me of an oolong or even a black tea. In terms of smell, there’s a very sweet scent with strong nutty notes that’s making me excited to brew it!

Tasting Notes

The first steep produced a light yellow-green tea liquor that’s very sweet and nutty. I found it interesting that the leaves have a vegetal and slightly umami smell similar to a sencha, but the tea liquor is just pure sweetness with the nutty note.

From the second to seventh steep, the tea liquor slowly darkened to a light orange colour, resembling an oolong (I’m pretty sure this is because of the extended withering). In terms of taste, the tea was consistent throughout – sweet and nutty with a slight roasted note. I found that the sweetness of the tea was strongest in the first three steeps, with the fragrance of the tea lingering in the mouth after you swallow it.

The tea started getting lighter around the fifth steep and I generally ended my tea session around the sixth or seventh steep, which is pretty long for me!

Unlike the dry leaves, the spent leaves are green, not black and have a vegetal scent to them.

Overall Thoughts

This was a delicious tea. For some reason, it reminds me of a sencha without any umami – I think mainly from the sweet and nutty notes. It’s delicious tea and honestly, it’s making me super excited for the remaining two teas! I’ve actually managed to make this for a few of my friends and they loved it; one of them was also surprised that there was no bitterness in this tea, so I think this would be great for people who are getting into tea as well. I will be reviewing the black tea next, so stay tuned!