FORMOSA GUNPOWDER (Chinese Green tea). COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Taiwan. GRADE: Gunpowder. MANUFACTURE TYPE: Steamed green tea. CUP CHARACTERISTICS: A green tea with surprising body and captivating green tea taste. INFUSION: Tending dark green. INGREDIENTS: Green tea. TEA INFORMATION: Legend has it that the name Gunpowder was given by a young English clerk who thought the tiny rolled green balls looked like gunpowder. The tea leaves are specially selected for quality,size and style. They are then rolled into tight nuggets. The tiny pellets jingle and tinkle in your cup. Boiling water causes them to open up like flowers and sink slowly to the bottom in graceful patterns, which add a dimension of visual pleasure to tea drinking. This gunpowder produces a reasonably strong dark-green brew with a memorable fragrance, a slightly bitter but not unpleasant flavour and a long lasting finish. Gunpowder is more dense than other teas so one or two teaspoons per teapot is all that is required. Gunpowder tea keeps fresh a lot longer than other green teas and is favoured because of this characteristic.