Verdant Tea (Special)

I love this Chai! I am so sad there will be no more. Cozy chai + book = awesome evening.

I love chai, so its not too hard to impress me on the chai front, but this chai. This chai blew my mind. I could taste the wonderful base, and all of the flavors were so amazingly mixed. This was one of those cups that I finished and then immediately went to the web site in hopes that they always kept this one around. It looks like it may be seasonal or a one time good deal, but I hope it sticks around because I am in love!

Actually drinking this one, and I’m not even going to try to be coherent. (Going to spend that energy on my overdue paper instead. Theoretically. Anyway.) I do really like this one, but we’ll see how I feel at the end of the ounce. I do think I need to try the base tea, though? Because I think I liked it in that other blend… Yeah…

I’m at a sipdown for this tea on this lovely Saturday :( I really enjoyed this tea! The final cup is crisp, bright and perfect for a sunny day like today. The lavender evokes a sense of peace and the bright citrus just cheers me up inside and out! Delicious and beautiful, here’s to a good day! I might do some painting, I started my acrylic painting course on Wednesday and it was just amazing! Relaxing and so freeing, and the three hours just flew by! I can’t believe how fast it goes when you are doing something enjoyable such as painting. Hoping to get back into it and keep with it even when the course finishes!

Anyways, goodbye lovely tea (that most other Steepsters despised :P) and maybe we will meet again! See previous notes!

Good morning steepster! It’s a beautiful Saturday morning, I just made a pile of pancakes and have leftovers for later, it’s partly sunny out, and I’m having a delicious cup of this tea to start off the day right. Today it’s even more crisp green tea with citrus, not as much lavender, and it’s just perfect for the morning. I’m going seed shopping with my mom today for seeds for our first garden, and will also pick up some other gardening goodies hopefully (watering cans, more hoses, etc). Looks to be a fine day on this 3 day weekend, and maybe even going to the lake tomorrow! See previous notes on this tea :)

Second tea of the day. Haha I really do enjoy this tea, so much dislike for it, but here I am, one of the few black sheep who quite enjoy this. Fresh, bright, buttery, and calming, an excellent morning tea. See previous notes!

Woooo I got my last month’s box from my friend!! Hehe more new tea!! I creeped on these teas on Steepster before receiving the box and was very excited about the selections! This is the first one I’m trying from the February box, as this definitely screams morning tea at me. And I love trying EG style teas without a black base!

The dry smell is really nice to me! Bergamot and citrus galore, with a sweet hint of lavender. If you like bergamot and lavender, you will love the smell of this! The leaves are very pretty and springlike too, bright green leaves. I enjoy my sundried Jingshan green, so I am excited to see this base in a blend in another blend, I think I’ve only seen it in summer garden citrus mint.

I didn’t really know how to steep this tea lol, so I used my best judgement – 2 minutes with 175 degree water. The smell during steeping morphed from lavender to citrus to strong lemon!! Very tasty smelling, almost savory when steeping was complete. Now that the basket is out, I really smell the grassy-honey scent of the Jingshan green base.

As for the flavor, wow, I really enjoy this. The first flavor is the green base, a honey grassy flavor that is quite delicious. This turns into a bright, rich citrus flavor, almost like a poppyseed cake with it’s lemony rich flavor. There is a bit of astringency in the aftertaste from all the citrus and bergamot, but it’s not overly mouth drying. As the cup cools, the lavender comes out more in the first flavor and mellows it out so the base is the aftertaste now. The citrus is decreasing. Very light cup, oh and the bergamot is also still presentI can never get over how much these teas from Verdant change just with the simple cooling of the cup. I love it!

Overall, this is a excellent tea for bright Sunday mornings or afternoon tea with lemon cake or cupcakes of some sort. It reminds me of a fresh dew covered garden with the flowers poking out for the first sun rays, or a rain kissed garden. Spring tea through and through. Recommend if you like citrus, bergamot and lavender!

This was one of the teas I took to work today. i don’t normally do well with green oolongs, but as I always say – if someone (Sil) is generous enough to send me a tea, I’m willing to try it. I was really expecting to drink a cup or so and then move onto something else. I actually drank this all day. Not something I would buy more of, but definitely better than I was expecting.
There wasn’t much floral to this one, wasn’t too grassy, didn’t have that weird green oolong taste that most of them have. For my tastes this was more green tea than lightly oxidized oolong.
Thanks so much Sil for sending this to me, different experience in green oolong – I learned something today.

First tasting note! Oh and a bit sad haha, I had my previous monthly box sent to my friend’s place as I was in the middle of moving when it arrived and didn’t know where I’d be lol, and I still haven’t managed to pick it up from her! (along with some Teavivre samples, some A&D, and a mug haha) so I will hopefully get them this weekend! But in the meantime, this month’s verdant blend box arrived to my new address today so I am trying this one out tonight and hopefully the rooibos!

This blend intrigued me! I am very excited for it :D it reminds me of my beloved Eight treasures Yabao blend with all the flowers but with a different base and some interesting additions of star anise and peppermint. Beautiful dry leaves as well, colorful and huge floral petals and lovely white tea leaves! The dry blend smells not really what I would have expected, the mint is definitely there and a subtle woodiness, that could be the star anise in there, it’s a deep, rich yet fresh scent. Very interesting!

I didn’t really know how to steep this one lol, the sheet says 30 seconds with boiling, but I did about 1.5 minutes with 185 degree water. The resulting liquor is a nice sunny light yellow color and smells very clean lol, not really floral or anything, just a clean, fresh scent. Hard to describe.

I tried a sip of this and hmmm. What to make of this tea haha. It is going to be very hard to describe…it’s very fresh and clean. Pure. Like I would imagine a river flowing through a clean flowery meadow would taste. A brook, if you will. The white tea is possibly the strongest flavor of the very delicate flavors that are here, and something that is reminding me of Eight Treasures, so probably the marigold and rose. There is a slight spiciness in the aftertaste that comes out, adding a golden glow to the bubbling brook haha. As it cools, I think I feel the freshness of the mint in the middle of the sip too. What an interesting tea, I am really at a loss for how to describe it, very subtle. I might also be completlely off base and steeped it wrong or something haha, but this is my perception.

I am excited for others in the blend club to try this tea so I can see if my perceptions are kind of accurate lol. Oh, as it cools, more of the star anise comes out, I definitely taste a sweetness and a spicy aftertaste. No rating yet, I need to form a better opinion of it haha. Beautifully interesting tea! I love this tea club, it never fails to provide some crazily unique teas!!

ETA – as it is almost room temperature now, man oh man there is definitely some star anise flavor going on! What a tea haha this has morphed into a sweet, rich flavor but there is a definitely cottony note to it. Yes, cotton. I think that is the flowers and base tea coming through. It’s satisfying and fresh. Now it reminds me of a fresh breeze with the clothes hanging on the line. The cotton. :D

This one’s from January, apparently, but I’m just trying it now. (What a coincidence, I just tried “midwinter robe” the other day.) I don’t recognize half the herbs in this (galangal? astragulus? shatavari? rhodiola’s a flower, right? or am I thinking of gladiola?) but it all blends together very smoothly. Not much to say right now, but it’s good. I could drink an ounce of this.

Okay, more research needed before going further into this tea. I smell and taste Lapsang smokiness, yet Steepster tells me it’s an oolong, which is normally something (I find) I have a strong, severe reaction to within minutes of drinking. I get violently nauseous, and while that’s all that happens, it’s really quite horrible. This is the first oolong in… many years… that I’ve had zero reaction to. Nice! This makes me think it’s a lapsang though instead of an oolong, especially because of the taste, so I’m off to figure out what’s what, and why.

…… and I’m back. Okay, so Lapsang is really only referring to the roasting process, which of course makes sense (although I do feel a bit silly). So it’s a roasted oolong, and that’s why I’m getting campfire/pine needles out of this. It’s earthy and slightly sweet, with lots of smoke and woodsy elements to it. I also get something gummy, resin-like out of this, maybe myrrh? Dunno.

I’ll have to re-steep this a few times to see what else I can get out of it. Verdant’s descriptions of cream and chocolate? Far from this experience for me, so far.

Thank you Sil for generously sharing this with me; I realize it’s no longer available, and quite pricey to boot. Truly appreciated!

Wow, I guess I’m adding the first tasting note? I am so not worthy of this honor. Or, rather, my badly written note is not. >.<

Got the box today, and I’m drinking this one because it’s caffeine free and I’m sleeeepy. I’m definitely getting orange creamsicle from this, except without the artificial weirdness (tasty weirdness, but weirdness) of the (cheap, supermarket brand) orange creamsicles I usually consume. I might have expected it to taste a little more like an earl grey, given the bergamot, but I g uess it doesn’t. And that’s cool. And I’m only getting a little bit of that weird mold note that I get from rooibos, so yay!

… maybe I’ll be more coherent next time I drink this. I definitely wouldn’t bet on it though.

A nice minty tea with some tulsi and licorice sweet finish. This would be good for anyone with a cold.

Yep this is still a keeper. It’s a shame they don’t make mixes anymore. Oh well I shall enjoy this one while it lasts. I taste mint.

Oh god how I love this tea especially when it feels like I might be getting a cold. I hate colds because they always seem to last forever and suck the energy right out of you. I have plans this weekend and a cold is NOT included. So time to drink lots of my favourite teas and kick any cold or cold wannabes in the butt before they start!

This is a really good tea that I like when I’m not feeling 100% especially if I think I may be coming down with something (cold,flu, etc.) It always helps me breathe easier. Well that and my favourite chai of course!

Since I’m not feeling that good and it is my day off I will drink lots of good tea to make myself feel better. I feel stiff and achy all over and I personally blame the weather for this. Now that it is not hot and muggy anymore but getting colder my body probably just needs time to adjust. That and I am not used to having time off. It feels really weird.

Okay I was going to write this note earlier but life got in the way. So my first cup of this was spectacularly awesome. It was a nice creamy mint that was perfect. Now for some unknown reason after that I found it got sometimes too sweet near the end. Similar to teas with Chamomile in them. So I would definitely recommend this to everyone as it is extremely yummy.

Finally trying this.

It’s actually pretty good. Lots of tulsi. Very herbal. A bit of pine from the yabao.

Not something I think I’d want to get again, but I have some of another 8 Treasures that I haven’t finished yet. And Yabao Snickerdoodle. And honestly, I think I’d rather have the ginger sage winter spa blend over any of the others, most of the time.

Smooth smoky, woodsy, musty flavour.

Subsequent infusions at 2 and 3 minutes were more flavourful. I would definitely try this one again with a longer first time infusion.

Rating: 83

Thanks to Kittenna for sharing with me!

I was skeptical about trying this tea because it smells so perfumey, but that also intrigues me. Floral teas smell perfumey to me but I love the taste so I was hoping that would be the case with this one. But this tasted awful. I could detect the jasmine which I liked, but it tasted just like incense of perfume. I love the idea of it, it’s not like any other tea I’ve tried, but I just can’t do it. Unless someone really wants this, I’ll probably throw it away. I’m only giving it a rating above 10 because I think it is a quality tea and I wish that I liked it.

This tea was a generous gift from CrowKettle :)

I packed up a servings worth of leaf to take to work with me this morning without really researching the tea first. I’ve never seen shu leaf that looked quite like this, but I didn’t think much of it, and rushed off to work. I brewed up my first steep as soon as I got here, and then checked out the Steepster page for it. I had no idea that CrowKettle had sent me such a treasure! I’ve never had the opportunity to try a puerh tea this old! Apparently it can go for 30 steeps??? I will definitely have to find a way to transport my wet leaves home with me after work so I can continue the adventure :D

As per my usual style for shu, I’m steeping this one “Western-ish” which is somewhere in between Verdant’s recommendation for Western style brewing of this tea, and the Xingyang Workshop’s Recommendation.

I’ve never had anything quite like this one! I’m used to shu tasting very earthy and foresty. This one DOES taste like ancient books and wood. Yet somehow it is very sweet and CLEAN. I’m upset because the air is so dry here, my sinuses aren’t quite right today and I’m sure I’m not experiencing this taste and smell fully. (so glad I have enough leaf to try it a few more times!)

Immediately after tasting, Esme by Joanna Newsom was playing in my head, so I will be listening to her lovely harp music while drinking it ALL DAY today.

“I believe love will always surround you
Brave as a bear with a heart rare and true
But if you are scared, if you are blue
I have prepared this small song for you:

Sweet Esme! Sweet Esme!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EHemagYSs8

I’ll update on subsequent steeps of this tea today in the comments if I feel it necessary :)

Broke this out this morning. It’s the first, and probably only February Amoda tea I’ll have, because the others are too floral for me, and I have sensitivities to florals.

This is pretty tasty, but honestly, it is no better than the Sheng Pu Erh I can get locally from David’s. They’re extremely similar.

I really like lavender, but it’s about all I taste here. Much too delicate for my clumsy palate.