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Always such a great tea to drink if you just need something delicious to enjoy without a lot of focus. Kept me going during a cleaning marathon!

I got one steep into a gongfu session with this and then realized I was far too busy and distracted.

Rinse and then a 6 second steep.

So far, very, very lovely. Intensely floral, very light, with notes of fruit and hay.

I’m going to set these leaves aside to dry and steep them more another day.

This is lovely. Lots of berry notes, with maple and vanilla. A hint of bitterness and astringency, which adds, rather than takes away from the tea. Very mildly sweet.

I get mostly black tea flavours from this blend, malt and fruity, but also a hint of green tea vegetal.

A great morning cup, and good both hot and cold.

I went into Verdant during my visit to Minneapolis and picked out a couple of things, and then asked for a couple of recommendations from the staff, for something unique and/or exceptionally good. This was one of theirs, and the person I talked to said it was a favourite of all the staff. I don’t have a lot of experience with pu’erhs so I’m excited to be trying this.

The dry leaf has a faint earthy and medicinal smell to it.

I put a few good chunks into my gaiwan and gave it two quick rinses with boiling water. After the second rinse the leaves were just starting to separate ever so slightly. Wet, the leaf smells earthy with a slightly burnt wood note.

My first steep, 5 seconds with just below boiling water. The liquor is bright and clear, a pale amber colour. On the nose, its the same as the wet leaf only fainter. The first cup is very mild tasting, not too much too it. Faint notes of earth, wood and camphor. A slightly pasty mouthfeel.

After a slight break to gobble down a mooncake, to make sure the rest of this sits well in my stomach, on to steep two, five seconds. The leaves are still partially caked together, but this time the liquor is much darker.

Stronger flavour, lots of wood and earth. The camphor has faded out a bit, though I’m getting a slight numbing mouth feel already, and a slight tickle in the back of my throat. Not a lot of nuances yet. I think I will steep a bit longer for my third steep.

Third steep, 10 seconds. The leaf is starting to come apart a bit more, and there’s a new fragrance that’s spicy in my nostrils, maybe more camphor and a touch of juniper. Lots of earth still there.

The liquor is a deep, reddish brown now. On the tongue, still mostly wood and earth, a touch of camphor and numbing, hints of wood smoke (nothing pungent like pine or cedar, maybe maple or poplar). and an interesting, almost sticky mouth feel under the tongue, but fairly silky everywhere else. Long after the sip is done, there’s a pepper and sandalwood note that comes out, and a warming sensation on the back of the tongue. There’s also some berry impressions that I can’t quite pinpoint. This is definitely developing nicely as the leaves open up more.

Fourth steep, 15 seconds. Even now the leaves are still clumped together a fair bit. The liquor is progressively darker, though this steep doesn’t have much fragrance.

Again, that sticky under the tongue mouth feel. Earth, a hint of bitterness, and a nice licorice flavour that quickly fades out to a sweetness on the back of the tongue. More camphor and numbing, and then a surprise burst of citrus on the finish, for just a moment.

Fifth steep, 15 seconds. Woody, earthy, slightly sweet, slightly medicinal. A little bit of smoke and nuttiness on the finish, and an almost slippery, coating mouth feel. A bit of licorice develops at the tail end of the finish.

Sixth steep, 20 seconds. Camphor, earth, a hint of bitterness. Numbing, a bit astringent on the finish. The sweetness and licorice is gone.

Seventh steep, 20 seconds. A bit bitter, smokey, earthy. A touch of sweetness is back, just fleeting mid tongue. The mouth feel is getting pasty again. There’s a sweet, floral note on a very long finish, and the licorice is back a bit.

This is interesting and I like it, but I don’t love it. I think there’s lots of steep left in these leaves. Only by steep seven had the leaves unclumped, so I’m going to set them aside for now and do some more steeps another time, but for now, I’m done.

I really want to love this, I really, really do. I adore blackberry mojitos (substitute gin for rum, since everything is less delicious with anaphylaxis.) And if I really pay attention to this tea, it has all the notes I’m looking for. There’s lime, mint and berry, which should be all good. But if I don’t really focus on those notes then all I get is tart, tart, tart with a touch of mint.

It’s actually quite lovely if I pay close attention, but if I’m just sipping it while doing other stuff, I don’t care for it all that much. Very weird.

I’ll probably finish this, and maybe play with the steeping to see if I can get less tart and more of the distinct notes to come out. Teavana’s very specific directions were 1-1.5 tsp, 1 min, 79C, which produced basically a cup of hot water for me. I put the basket in for another minute after it had cooled down enough to taste, and it was far better. Some sugar might help too…

I need to give this another try, because I kind of stopped paying attention mid cup, but what I do remember is that it was spicy and dry, better with milk and sugar but nice without, that I liked it, and oh god this is a bad choice for 7pm when you have to be up at 6am.

The sample of this I got has a lot of dust in it, so we shall see how well this steeps at 4 minutes.

This is interesting. It smells kind of fruity, something dark, maybe black currant? It tastes similar. Dry, a touch floral and dried fruit. No sweetness, a bit of astringency and a touch bitter. There’s a nice, cooling sensation, almost a subtle menthol note.

Not bad, not terribly impressive. Different from the blacks I usually like, but I’ll finish this sample and give it another shot.

Thanks to Dexter for this sample!

This smells like holiday spices – it takes me to Christmas, with sweetness, cinnamon, vanilla, and maybe all spice.

On the palette it’s actually very dry – none of the sweet smell translates to sweetness on the tongue, except right at the very end of the finish, and then only subtly. There’s a hint of bitterness from the black tea base, but a nice, round pumpkiny flavour to balance it out. Hints of cream and butter are also there.

A bit of sugar in the second half of my cup really pulls together the pumpkin pie impressions, and I’m really, really enjoying it now.

I was hoping to get a good second steep out of this cup but alas, the second cup isn’t very good. I added milk and sugar and I’m not getting much other flavours besides this weird metallic taste.