Laoshan Black

Laoshan Black (Autumn 2016 – He Family Collection). This one is going on my keeper list. This tea is excellent. When I opened the package and smelled the dry leaves, the chocolate note was already present. After a rinse, the leaves smelled like a dessert. So many have reviewed this tea, I won’t go into much detail other than to say the Autumn 2016 release of this tea is very chocolaty and very, very smooth and sweet. I’ve had this same tea in its green form, and it is nothing short of miraculous the transformation this tea makes. I evidently still can’t post pictures, because I keep trying to upload a photo and it never shows, but I think the Laoshan green tea I received had an unusually high number of very new tender stems VS leaves, and I took a photo to show the tea. Perhaps the supply was running low and that caused the quality to drop. In contrast, this sample of Laoshan black had beautiful leaves.

2016 autumn. Carob. I agree with the reviews pointing out the complexity of the flavors, the various layers and dimensions, it is hard to unravel. I also got the milk-malty-chocolate, toasted rice, walnut, some fruit note and even some kind of liquor flavor, and I can see Verdant’s toasted marshmallow descriptor as valid for me, too. But if I had to sum all of this up: carob. A fascinating experience.

New to tea tasting, started with pu’er, and this is my first tasting with black tea. Seems like I am starting with a really good one.

Long aftertaste that grabs the tongue.

Wonderful tea by Verdant.
Produced 4 rich a flavorful steeps (200’f 20 sec, 200f 40s, 212f 1 min, 212f 5 min.
Immediately upon opening the bag my nostrils were filled with the delicate and sweet aroma of toffee. This aroma lingered in my room after I steeped my first pot. The scent did not mislead, delicious sweetness in every cup. One of the finest black teas I have had the pleasure of enjoying up to this date. Following the above steeping regiment did not result in any astringency or dryness. The tea was moist, sweet, full bodied but delicate through and through.

I got this as a part of Verdant’s sample pack. I brewed it for two minutes in near boiling water.

It turned out to be surprisingly light in color despite the fact that I brewed the entire 5g sample in a smallish (400ml) amount of water. Despite that it still had lots of flavor.

The leaves, when brewed smelled like raw potato that has just started frying.

The taste was distinctly malty, almost like a malty bread, and had elements of black pepper as well.

Overall, a delicious tea!

Second tasting of the day, laoshan black from verdant tea, I got this as part of their sample pack for 5$. Now I usually dont like black teas all that much, well other than chai. But I was incredibly impressed with this one.

The first thing that struck me as I poured the water into my gaiwan is nutty smokey scents. Very strong and very nice after letting it swirl on my pallet a little, I got a bit more smooth sweetness. I didnt pick up the cream or butter flavors that are often reported for this tea.

I brewed this in a 100ml gaiwan for 30 seconds, tasted the first steeping and then the second. The second was slightly darker and sweeter. A third infusion was closer to the first. Im guessing the leaves needed to open up a little with the first infusion with the short steeps I was doing.

Im very pleased with this tea and wont hesitate to place an order for a full package on my next order. Give it a try if you like nutty, sweet black teas without a hint of bitterness.

fourth and fifth steepings, I got a bit of astringency and moderate burnt/toasted sugar or caramel from it.

I drank this tea last night and really enjoyed the malty goodness. It is interesting. While this tea does have a very heavy malt flavor to it, it is also kind of unassuming if you aren’t paying attention to it. It is smooth and drinkable but nothing so bold as to make you sit up.

But it IS good and I found myself drinking it at an impressive rate while reading. And I think that is a pretty good compliment.

If chocolate existed in tea form, I imagine this is what it would taste like. The aroma and taste of this tea is of pure chocolate. The first steep was warm, sweet hot cocoa goodness. There’s a soft toasted marshmallow going on too. Almost no tannins to speak of. As the tea progresses, the chocolate moves to the background and faint notes of toffee and caramel appear.

This tea really deserves the hype its received on Steepster. It’s very delicious and comforting. I’ve already set aside a permanent tin for it because it’s going to be a perennial buy for sure.

Lovely flavor – definitely has hints of chocolate, which I loved. Very smooth, fragrant, full. Followed the directions and steeped 5g at 20 sec., with increases in 10 sec. per steep. Extremely satisfied and content with this tea! Absolutely lovely.

A nice tea.

This is beloved among Steepsterites but I have to say it tastes a bit thin to me. Used the whole 6g sample in my little teapot and went by the Western brewing guide.

Maybe it’s the harvest (it doesn’t say which) or maybe it’s a bit old or maybe it’s travelled too far and too long to where I am in Australia. Some other Verdant teas have blown me away though.. so it’s probably just an old sample.

Cocoa, chocolate, grains, sweet cracker. It’s still nice.

Was deciding between ordering some more Chinese blacks from either Verdant or Teavivre. I think I’ll go with Teavivre this time since I had the Yunnan Dian Hong Gold Tips around three years ago and still think about that sweet potato note to this very day.

Add this one to your Verdant order if you like chocolatey teas.

I had an elderly sample of this, and my attempt to drink up all the older teas continues so I served this at tea time on Tuesday as well as Wednesday after lunch.

Both times we served Swedish Pastry Ring that my youngest made and it was SOOOO GOOD. She asked which I preferred – the Kringle or the Pastry Ring, but it was really apples and oranges. The Kringle was so light and fluffy and soft, it really me so much of a Krispy Kreme glazed doughnut but with nuts, butter, and brown sugar in the middle. The Swedish Pastry Ring had an entirely different texture but was equally heavenly. The pastry had more body and was like a truly delectable sweet pie crust. The browned butter glaze sent me right over the moon.

The tea – this was surprisingly light for a black tea. The friend who had it with me the second day used to love black tea most of all, then found her taste switch to Puerh, then white or green. She enjoyed this, and I think it helped that it is a very light and mild black tea, not drying, and with a lot of oolong characteristics going on, including that signature mineral aftertaste. Sweet stuff!