Verdant Tea (Special)

Here we go, the last tea from this month’s Blends Club. I don’t have any experience with raspberry leaf, so I have no concept of what this might taste like. I will say that this is the most annoying tea ever to measure… It’s big fluffy raspberry leaf mixed with tiny pieces of citrus peel and rooibos, so you have to stir it ten times to give it anywhere near combined, and even then the rooibos immediately plummets to the bottom, taking most of the citrus peel with it. Ugh. I had to empty my pouch into a tin to be able to leaf this properly and make sure I got some of everything. Not off to a good start! The dry leaf smells vaguely sweet and musty, I guess from the raspberry leaf? I steeped about two teaspoons for 5 minutes in boiling water.

Once the tea is steeped, I can definitely smell the rooibos along with that odd musty somewhat raw herbal/grassy scent. The taste is pretty meh, I guess I’m not a fan of raspberry leaf. It’s very musty and dry in the mouth, but the aftertaste is nice enough. I guess I could draw some connections to chamomile…? But in a weird raw herb way. Not for me!

So… this tea. This is definitely the one I’m least excited about. It’s a shame because I’ve tried the base tea plain and really enjoyed it, but when I open the pouch I can see (and smell) a ton of lavender… :( Now, lavender’s not as bad as a lot of other florals in my opinion (*cough*rose*cough*), in fact there’s something about it that reminds me of citrus. But lavender is all I can smell here, and that’s never good… Visually, this tea is a mix of wiry green tea leaves, lavender buds, coriander, juniper berries, and some other small chunks of herbal-y things. I brewed mine for 3 minutes at 175.

Hmm, yeah, I pretty much just smell lavender in the brewed tea as well, with a little bit of coriander mixed in. Ooh, and it tastes like almost pure lavender as well. I can’t even tell that there’s green tea in this blend, which is rather sad to me. Lavender tea! :(

Not rating as I feel somewhat biased… Although clearly this is a very heavy-handed blend, and that speaks to me of poor blending.

This tea is the start of what I have decided to be a day of trying several yet untried teas. I mostly want to do this because I’d like to get my list of rehoming teas up soon so they won’t be sitting on my counter, and I don’t have that many teas that I haven’t tried yet. But I have yet to break into any of the Blends Club teas, so away we go! This tea is the one that smells the best to me, so it’s going first. The oolong pellets here are very loosely rolled, and it gives the appearance that they’re not rolled at all, but are a bunch of very tiny leaves. I was very confused when I first opened the packet and saw them, lol… There are lots of little (and some big) chunks of random “herbal-y” things mixed in with the tea leaves (ingredients include tulsi, sarsaparilla, schisandra berry, and blue lotus). Dry scent is an interesting combination of savory herbal and licorice-like sarsaparilla. I let mine steep for 4 minutes at 190 degrees.

Wow, the brewed aroma is very different! It’s a lovely melange of creamy, nutty, slightly spicy, sweet, and a slight vegetal note. Taste-wise, there’s definitely a slight sharp spiciness from the sarsaparilla that presents itself mostly at the beginning of the sip. I do get flashes of licorice-like flavor throughout, but the tea itself is quite creamy and nutty in flavor, which is rather lovely. I have no concept of what schisandra berry and blue lotus taste like, so I can’t comment on what they contribute here, but I do get a light hint of something similar to pine. Overall, this is rather tasty and I can see it being an excellent latte. It’s almost chai-like in a sense. :)

I am a gin drinker. I love the intense, outdoorsy, almost medicinal flavour and scent of a good gin.

This tea, while nice on its own, just isn’t that reminiscent of gin for me. Both the nose and flavour are dominated by fennel, and I’m only getting much in the way of juniper and coriander on the finish, when I really want the juniper in particular at the forefront. The fennel also gives this a warming sensation, when I really associate gin with cooling, so that aspect is not what I was wanting or expecting either. This leaves a slight tingling numbness on the tongue and roof of the mouth.

The tea base is pretty subtle. I can tell there’s a white tea in this blend, but I couldn’t tell you much more about it than that.

At 3 minutes there wasn’t much of anything to this, so I gave it an additional 2 minutes of steeping.

The Blends club package came while I was away over the weekend, but I don’t think I will count them just yet to my cupboard since I am at 101! And that will hit 100 later today. Plus I didn’t count my swap from Cameron B., so if I just don’t count any new teas I can be make believe that I hit 100, LOL.

Anyway, the blends club. It’s getting pretty repetative. The teas this month feel like things I have seen before. Jingshan green with lavender? Check. Let’s add some coriander, yes? And this one, an oolong with sarsaparilla… where have I had that before? Oh yes, Sarsaparilla Tieguanyin and Wuyi Whiskey Trail. And why not throw in some tulsi? All of the flavor profiles are really similar. I got sucked back into the blends club when they reblended some of my favorite lost blends, but I am reconsidering again. It wouldn’t be too bad if I wanted floral, herbal, tonic-ish blends all the time, but I don’t. I’m going to give it to the end of the year because I want to see what they do with the holiday blends, but probably not much more beyond that.

So this one specifically. Well, it’s kind of herbal, and tonic-y. It’s also a little bitter and I’m not totally sure why. Overall it’s not bad, but it’s kind of boring. To me, anyway; I just don’t crave those types of flavors in my tea. Oh well, if anyone is interested it will be posted in the sales thread and for trade (as soon as I can get to that thread, since the boards are hardcore broken).

Long Awaited Sipdown (462)!

Man, I feel like I’ve had this tea for ages. It’s actually a little bit of a relief to be out of it now; though I did really enjoy it. I finished it off this time iced, with an extra long steep to draw out the roasty notes and then finished with just a little bit of milk. I also crushed the juniper berries prior to steeping as per the usual.

It was REALLY good! I feel like all my vanilla must have wound up in this last bit of leaf because it was extra, extra silky and creamy with the most potent vanilla notes I think I’ve experienced in this tea to date with great, strong roasty supporting notes and a creamier mouthfeel from the added milk. Hints of slight sweet and pine like juniper in the undertones but, man, the focus was TOTALLY on the vanilla. REALLY satisfying and as beautiful a sipdown as I could have ever hoped to get from this one!

Crushed up the juniper berries in this one prior to steeping it; I also overleafed slightly to get a richer flavour since I know there’s been A LOT of flavour deterioration with this tea since I first acquired it…

The combination of those two things were very beneficial though: this was certainly roasty with that toasty brown rice flavour and some light grassiness but it also had this wonderful bright sweetness that I haven’t experienced with the blend in a LONG time. A little piney on the finish too, from the crushed up junipers.

Toasty morning cuppa.

The flavour of this one is pretty shot now; it basically just tastes like any old Genmaicha blend. There’s nothing special about it anymore, sadly. That’s what I get for hoarding my tea like a mad woman. And so, on that note I’ve put this one in the sipdowns section of my stash…

Hopefully finishing this one off soon.

I need to drink this tea more, because damn do I really enjoy it when I do. Lots of roastyness typical to a Genmaicha, and then some squash notes and vanilla with tiny little hints of the juniper in the finish. This is old now, but still quite good.

This is a queued tasting note.

Enjoyed drinking this one on the way to work last week; in addition to the lovely toasty flavour of the rice the array of vegetal notes were quite soothing. Squash, green beans, edamame, and snap peas specifically. And then, you could just faintly taste the juniper in the finish as I nice pine note. Really peaceful. However, one of those teas I think you kind of just need to enjoy on its own – so no tea and song pairing for this one.

This is a queued tasting note.

Final tea from tea tasting day with Shauna.

I honestly didn’t think there was a chance of Shauna being able to nail down any of the flavours in this tea blindly, but I think it’s a phenomenal tea and I wanted to share it with her regardless. And sure enough I was right; she was so confused – except with one minor exception! She could tell this had a green base, and that’s certainly something! Her most interesting comment about this one was as follows though: “It tastes like something I’d drink when I’m sick. You know, kind of medicinal but also weirdly comforting”.

I’d wager the ‘medicinal’ quality was the junipers: I took extra care to crush them before infusing the tea. They taste much stronger that way! So, likely, she was tasting a mix of berry and pine which I can see as possibly being interpreted as sort of medicinal.

I decided to try practicing out doing a more serious, thought out tea and food pairing since that’s the next module I’m doing with class and the last week of Tea 103 did touch on this topic. I waited to see what my mom had planned out for supper and then picked my tea out afterwards!

So, tonight we ended up eating spinach stuffed ravioli with a parmesan topping (and the meat eaters in the family had chicken as well – but I am not a meat eater). I decided that because all of the flavours in that dish are pretty light that a full bodied, brisker tea like an Assam would be an inappropriate pairing. A medium bodied or lighter tea would probably be a more suitable pairing.

I picked this unconventional Genmaicha because I thought that the delicate flavour nuances wouldn’t drown out the flavour of the pasta, and the vegetal nature of the green tea would blend in with the spinach filling while the toasted rice notes would provide some contrast. I definitely really enjoyed the meal even if I’m not totally positive this was the best pairing I could have come up with. I think a medium bodied tea like a high grown Ceylon or something like a greener oolong with floral notes both would’ve tasted really good too.

As for the tea itself, it was very soft with a good balance of sweeter vegetal notes like spring beans and a subtle marine-like quality with some toasted rice notes and a slight nuttiness as well as a soft vanilla edge. The taste was very clean and well rounded. I couldn’t taste the juniper in this infusion but I also didn’t crush the berries before hand which is what I’ve been doing lately when I drink this. I still really, really love this Genmaicha.

Feels like it should be nap time soon…

Just finished off a pot of this one; was really craving the toasty notes in the blend. Tried something a little different though; last time I wrote about this someone (sorry – can’t remember who) recommended crushing up the junipers to get the flavour out of them, since it’s not usually very present normally.

Definitely made a difference; in the first few cups especially there were some very lovely pine notes with a little bit of a sap like aftertaste along with a crisp vegetal flavour and a whole bunch of toasted brown rice. Last few cups were way too strong though; they had a bitter snap to them, and were more sap like than pine flavoured. Will have to experiment with crushing the junipers a little more – perhaps Western style where the tea isn’t sitting/steeping as long. Or perhaps making sure there are less of them used at a time.

Big thank you to MJ who offered to mule this for me more than once, and to Kittenna who added it into her Verdant order for me; I now have 3 oz. of this delicious take on Genmaicha at my disposal!

Like I believe I noted way back when I first had this one; this tastes surprisingly more traditional than you’d think it would with all the added stuff in it – and actually more vegetal than roasty. The green base reads to me as very crisp and clean in taste with some nuttier notes to it, softened by vanilla notes and a gentle roastiness from the brown rice. Now that I have lots of this one I may try a sweetened cup, to see if I can amp up the vanilla a touch more; but I love this one as is too.

Only thing that makes me sad is that the flavour the juniper berries add seems to be super, super subtle/hard to pick out. I thought that maybe I was registering some pine notes from the junipers in this mug, but that may have been wishful thinking projected onto the tea. Has anyone experienced the junipers? I swear every review I’ve read has hand an off hand comment about missing out on that aspect of the flavour.

But still; I happily wasn’t disappointed by my reunion with this blend!

Sad Sipdown (123)!

First off, this is tasting note 1900! Woot! That means the next really big number is going to be 2000 – I think I need to start planning now for what tea I’ll celebrate that landmark with…

Thank you Cameron B. for sharing a cup worth of this awesome limited edition blend. I had no idea I wanted to try it until you wrote about it, and then after I did some looking in to it I felt like I had to try it even though I was hoping so much that I’d hate it. Why was I hoping I’d hate it? ‘Cause the only thing worse than hating a tea blend is falling in love with a limited edition blend. And of course, that’s what happened.

Aesthetically, the tea blend is beautiful! The deep green leaves make the yellow marigold really pop, and the juniper berries are super fun to look at. Smell wise, I don’t get a lot from the dry leaf, but steeping it smells like a high quality traditional Genmaicha; a little greener than roasty.

Taste wise; this is really smooth and silky. It weighs only slightly more on the green side than the roasty, but both are present and really well executed. I’m gonna have to agree with Cameron B. and say that the primary flavour I’m getting from the green base is butternut squash. Yummy! The roasty brown rice has a nice nutty quality to it as well that I’m also noticing. But most importantly, this has the most divine vanilla flavour. It’s gentle, but man is it present and very, very raw/natural. The vanilla really makes the tea, and honestly I haven’t tasted a vanilla flavour as amazing as this since Butiki’s Creamy Eggnog; which is pretty close to the perfect green vanilla tea. The green base here even shares the same buttery aspect alongside the very gentle vegetal taste.

I honestly don’t taste much of the Juniper berries (you’re right Cam, Junipers do have a sorta pine like quality to them) but I think I ever so faintly get a peek at the very, very end of the sip. If there’s one thing I’d want more of in this blend, it’s the Junipers…

But even so, I’m in love. I want more of this, like now. At least 2 oz. of it would make me a very, very happy tea drinker – ‘cause guys, I’m like 99% sure this is my Japon. It’s so smooth and silky and creamy, and rich in the most calming and pacifying way. And very subtly flavoured.

And dammit, ‘cause it’s limited edition! GAH!

Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox Round #3 – Tea #7
Oh, happy to try this blend! It looks to be yabao which I don’t particularly love mixed with a black tea… I have no idea what else, but it seems like some spices. I used around two teaspoons, a few minutes after boiling for 3-4 minutes. The color of the cup is a very light brown. Really, I thought there would be more flavor than what there is. First, there is an odd flavor, I can’t tell from what… maybe the yabao. The black tea itself doesn’t give much flavor at all, certainly no smokiness. Otherwise, the flavor tastes faintly like a spice cake. I don’t hate the blend, but I wouldn’t care to keep it around. Maybe Verdant’s blends would get better reception if anyone actually knew what was in them. The blends are never on their website, the ingredients aren’t labeled on the bag, and really, the only hints are what Steepster accumulates on the tea pages for these Verdant blends.
Steep #1 // 2 tsps. // few min after boiling // 3-4 min
Steep #2 // just boiled // 5 min

I’m not sure why they claim this is the “best black tea” Mr. He has produced because in every measurable way the regular version is better. The aroma is far too vegetal/raw for a Chinese black tea, the mouthfeel is thin even when I brewed it with extra leaf, even close to boiling hot water doesn’t extract much taste (observes the color difference… this one never gets the rich copper color of the other), and if you steep it longer the “citrus of amarena cherries” just gets overbearingly sour. The only thing that is on par to the later picked tea is the aroma of the dry leaf which still smells like dark chocolate.

Queued post, written June 25th 2014

Turns out we’ve actually got a reasonably good local clothes shop with women’s fashion. And it’s the sort of shop that carries clothes that matches my age group and taste fairly well. As in normal clothes without too many wild details, mysterious patterns or eye-bleeding colours on it and at a reasonable price. I needed to replenish my closet in the t-shirt department after I had a good thorough clean out earlier this month. Took a whole big sack of clothes to the charity shop, most of which were things that I never really wore anyway. So I didn’t actually lose very much that I was sometimes using. It just illustrated to me quite plainly how little I actually had to use. Most of what I threw out that I was actually using sometimes were things that I had worn holes in here and there.

So it was time for new things. This particular shop is right next to our grocery shop, so I’ve walked past it loads of times, but never been inside. Rather than bother with a train trip to the city and back, I thought I’d look there first. My luck was in, they were having a sale. Came home with five short sleeved t-shirts, one long sleeved top and one nice cardigan, and they even had a sale so I paid half price or less on half of them. Ha! This is definitely worth knowing!

On my way home in even started raining. Really great big drops of rain. This + succesful shopping = celebratory me, because the lawn is a bit yellow and the rainwater barrel is empty.

I remembered I had a genmaicha that MissB shared with me in the yet to try box and I thought something toasty and green sounded just like a good celebration beverage. So I took it and made a cup. By the time I discovered what it actually was, it was too late to change my mind.

This is not what I understand by genmaicha at all. It’s not a green tea, but an oolong. It has no puffed rice, but toasted rice. It has chai spices in it.

This is an oolong chai with toasted rice. The inclusion of some sort of rice doesn’t automatically make something a genmaicha in my book.

Hm.

Oh well. I will try to keep an open mind.

I can easily detect the carob and cinnamon in the aroma, and there is a toasted note as well, which I believe must be the rice. Underneath all that, and perhaps enhanced by it as well, I can smell the oolong base. Floral and a bit woody. Thankfully I can’t smell the coriander. I find coriander is far too sharp and strong a flavour for me in raw form. Husband grows it in the window sill for cooking use, and it stinks whenever he’s trimmed flower stalks and withered leaves off it.

The flavour is very cinnamon-y and sweet. I think it’s the carob in combination with the cinnamon that is making it sweet. I can taste the base tea when swallowing, but there is so much of the cinnamon and carob that I can only really tell that it’s there. I couldn’t say much about it. There might be a faint hint of coriander in the aftertaste, but it’s not so much that I’m certain I’m not imagining it there because I know it’s in here. There is an overall faint hint of toasted rice, but again it’s not very much.

It’s quite a pleasant tea, if a bit heavy on the spices. Not a genmaicha, though.

Cameron – while i agree with your comment that this was the best of the three…this is yet another one that i’m underwhelmed with, and finding no vanilla just a baguely sort of orange like tea that’s an oolong. another not really a fan of sort of thing for me…especially this type. Terri….i hope you enjoy! lol

barf. whatup non vanilla, gross jasmine tea. yeah….and that concludes my re-entry to the blends club. Give me back the first couple months please :( So disappointed by the “vanilla” themed month. I pretty much bought a month for my tea sister terri ‘cause she’s getting all of these lol

i don’t get vanilla…i get flowers and jasmine. my least favourite things…i’d rather have blergamot.

Absolutely delightful. Smooth. Chocolatey. No need for anything else. Like love.

Unfortunately that does it for my sample – I hope there is more of this in stock soon!

First, the aroma. The leaves smell like lovely dark chocolate brownies. They are small, black, curly leaves that looked delightful.

Then, the taste. Like a light (watery) cocoa, with a fuller body of flavor. I definitely can taste the malt flavor people meant, as well as the roasted rice flavor. The tea is bright tasting, and smooth. It reminds me of cocoa puffs, or cocoa rice Krispy treats.

I never tasted any tea like it. I received it in the 5 for 5 from verdant and am so glad I did! I would love to order it and am now curious about original LB and the green tea version.

I sipped down this one as well, by cold brewing the last bits of it. It was a little intense as a cold brew, but drinkable. It didn’t make it any more whiskey-like, but I didn’t really expect it to. Overall a decent blend but kind of boring (like I am finding many oolong-sarsaparilla blends). Next!