Verdant Tea (Special)

Floral, pine, lemon. That’s what I’m getting here. Not a bad combination, but just not a favorite of mine.

I absolutely love this blend and want tons more of it. The fennel comes through the most and is amazing.

It’s not that I don’t like it, but I just don’t drink it. I’ve managed to give most of it away as samples. It smells like an herb store. One that operates out from the roots of a tree. All earthy and spicy and weird. Not something I crave often, if ever. Interesting, and drinkable, but not something I look for, flavour-wise.

With honey, in a thermos. It was nice to have after work, on the long and horrible bus ride home. I like the flavours, but I wouldn’t get it again. Ginger Sage Winter Spa Blend and honey is my OTP. Well, from Verdant. :)

(The bus driver apparently took a wrong turn and did a 25 minute detour, but DIDN’T ANNOUNCE ANYTHING or give anyone a chance to get off the bus, even though they passed a major transit hub. That sucked so much. Me sitting there, panicking in the back of the extremely crowded bus. Didn’t make it home in time to pack and go to a by-donation yoga class like I planned, either. :( I might still do yin yoga tonight, but I have to call and find out if they have a reduced rate drop in for first timers.)

I’m not feeling too great this evening, so I’ve turned to some comforting teas. Since I don’t want to use up my Ginger Sage Winter Spa Blend, I’m having this with honey.

It’s pretty good, but I still think it’d be better as an herbal. There’s not enough puerh in it to balance out the tulsi and other herbs (mostly tulsi!).

Sipping it with a small amount of honey.

From Dinosara.

I keep on reaching for the other Verdant tea she sent me, because I think I haven’t had it yet. But this is the tea I haven’t been drinking.

I’m sipping on it right now, having added some honey. It’s pretty nice. Spicy, sweet, earthy. I think that once I remember that this is the tea I need to start paying some attention to, it will go quickly. And it resteeps, as well. I’m just going to do one resteep as I have some other teas planned for this evening, but I’m pretty sure it could do 3 or more.

Thank you!

In other news, I bought a gel manicure kit. Instead of more tea. Umm. Go me?

Thanks, Dinosara. :)

This is mostly tulsi. Lots and lots of tulsi. Some spice from the galangal, some berry taste from the goji berries, and I can barely taste the actual tea.

It’s interesting. I like the flavours. But I’m not sure it really needs the tea part in it. It might do better as an herbal.

2/23/14 Morning gongfu. 3g/100ml gaiwan. This tea did not show well for me this morning – I’m going to revisit the steeping suggestions on the website before I try it again. There were all kinds of subtle fascinating aromas in the wet leaf that just didn’t make it into the cup at all this morning.

Sipdown! I’m on a roll this weekend.

This blend is still wonderful. The floral notes are predominantly rose and jasmine. There’s a thick, subtle sweetness to it. There’s something holding the sweetness in check – a woody quality that maybe comes from the juniper? I can’t pinpoint it but it’s a nice balance to the sweetness.

Three years ago, I promised a proper tasting note on this tea (http://steepster.com/Kaylee/posts/227110). Well, folks, I’m sure you have been waiting with bated breath for that note, and your wait has at long last come to an end. Over the top? Sure, but I’m feeling loopy.

I steeped according to package instructions. 1 tablespoon, 8 oz, 208f, 30-40 second infusions. Despite the leaf being three years old, it’s still fragrant and tasty. The dry leaf smells sugary sweet and floral with a hint of hay. In the first steep, the brewed tea smells like sweet cream and roses. The flavor is smooth, creamy, and predominantly rose. I’m guessing the creaminess comes from the vanilla. The second steep is still sweet, rosy, and creamy, but the end of the sip brings a cool minty freshness that builds as the cup empties. The third steep is far less creamy. It’s still floral, but also fruity like those fruit-shaped hard candies. I let the fourth steep sit for several minutes because a) I wanted to get lots of flavor out of it and didn’t expect any bitterness and b) I got distracted and forgot to remove the steeper on time. Both of those can be true at the same time, right? Anyway, there’s still a smooth, thick mouthfeel and the flavor is still sweet, with a note of citrus and a lingering minty freshness which I think is the tulsi.

The only other time I have tried an 8 treasures blend was at Ching Ching Cha when I nipped a bit from Phi’s pot. I recall that one being creamy too, but not as floral. Phi, am I retconning that? Anyone know if creaminess is characteristic of 8 treasures blends?

Not adjusting the rating that I gave on my first review because the leaf has gotten old and it’s unfair to judge it at this point. I would only lower it by a couple of points, though, and that is more a result of having tasted more teas now than this tea not being tasty.

I find this one really phenomenal. I’ve never had anything quite like it. Floral, but not overly perfume-like. Layered. I got at least 4 good steeps out of this one and each one was nuanced and lovely. I’ll write up a proper tasting note eventually, but I wanted to get it down that I enjoyed this blend.

Well… this one tasted how I expected an “8 treasure” blend from Verdant to taste. Prominent yabao, which is ok as I like its creaminess and different flavour, and other random herbally flavours. I like this one more than the Love & Joy Blend, but it’s not one I’d pick up. A cup of yabao every now and then is all I need (and preferably, it’s the pear-yabao that was part of a 12 days of Christmas swap in 2012). Anyhow, again a good selection IMO, because most people will not have tried yabao previously, and it’s pretty easy-drinking here.

Hmm. Not my favourite, that’s for sure, but this wasn’t too bad. I think I’m just not the biggest fan of herbal blends, and that’s that. It does taste as the description indicates – the chamomile is apparent, and there’s an appley aroma/flavour to the tea. I could also pick out a bit of cacao, but I’m not sure the combo quite works for me; apple and cacao? Chamomile and cacao? I actually think that if the chamomile was a bit more masked, I would enjoy this more – although I’ve learned to tolerate chamomile in blends, I don’t much care for it when I can really taste it strongly, which I can here. I might try this at a bit of a shorter infusion time to see if I came tame the chamomile a bit. The frankincence is also noticeable here (I only know this because of its inclusion in a previous Verdant blend, otherwise I wouldn’t have a clue what to taste for), but i

Second infusion, for I’m not sure how long (4 min?), was similar in flavour, although something else is poking out a bit that I don’t care for. I would have said something like juniper, but that’s not in this blend, so I’m not sure what it would be. I’m not familiar with all the ingredients (particularly linden leaf/flower), so it could easily be something like that.

I haven’t seen anybody’s else’s reviews on this one (because I’ve been lazy, I see that they are there), but I was pleasantly surprised by this tea. I put maybe 2 or so tsp of tea in the filter basket, and gave it a 45s infusion to start – quite delicious. No fishiness (that’s usually shu anyhow), no strange flavours, just creaminess and that wild sheng flavour that I’m familiar with. I’m drinking the second infusion now (I let it go for a minute), and I’m still pretty blown away at how good this is. This may in fact get me back into drinking my shengs from Verdant that have been sitting a while – I’ve given quite a few to my mom, who likes them more than I, but I think now’s the time to try them again myself.

Although the tea description indicates a “bright astringency”, I can’t say I’m catching any astringency at all; this is just smooth, sweet, nutty, and VERY enjoyable. Great selection, Amoda/Verdant – a perfect intro pu’erh, but with plenty of nuances for experienced drinkers to enjoy as well.

This one surprised me. I don’t know why but I was expecting not to be super into it, some vaguely recollected notion I haven’t been wowed by the few Verdant pu erhs I’ve tried so far and also didn’t love Master Han’s Wild Picked Yunnan Black. While this didn’t blow my mind completely I really enjoyed it, particularly the first steep. I was amazed at how overwhelmingly creamy and sweet it smelled, that whole “how can this be just tea leaves?!” reaction (it reminded me a little of my awe at Verdant’s Shui Jin Gui Wuyi Oolong, one of my all-time favorites). It was so full of aroma and surprising color and body for something only steeped 10 seconds (there’s Verdant for you!). And it continued to be flavorful for many resteeps, though the creamy sweetness recedes and something more savory steps in, with some dry woodiness I kind of like. There’s a good chance I didn’t wash my cup out well enough between this and the Della Terra Dirty Chai earlier in the night because the last few steeps had a weird (this sounds so gross but it’s true) band-aid-like aroma (a clean new band-aid!), that sort of plasticky sticky smell.

Another fail this February for me in terms of the Blends boxes from Verdant. That being said, I’m sure there are those who will really like the blends, so don’t like my wonky tastebuds dissuade you from wanting to try them out. Overall problem with this one? WAAAAAAAYYYYYY too sweet for me. Unbelievably cloying sweet. I thought about trying to cut it with another tea, but i’m far too lazy for that sort of thing ;) So the rest of my half of the tea will be parceled out to others who will hopefully like this one :)

So this is another miss for me in this month’s verdant box. For starters, i’m not a fan of their jasmine white. This is less offensive to me than the lavender, blergamot failure, but it’s still not a win.

I Also don’t understand verdant’s steeping parameters. it’s always 1 min…though to be fair this month there is a 2 min steep happening there. With this one, all i’m getting is chamomile, with hints of jasmine….the goji berry flavour is nowhere to be found. oh well… one left to try tonight and see how that one rates…

2/28/14 5g/waterchestnut yixing/190F Toasty goodness! Many many steeps of roasty nutty good tea.

2/17/14 Tea failure. I didn’t notice that we’d bought different water than usual until I took a sip of this tea and tasted nothing but flat dishwater. I’m disappointed especially because the leaf smells fantastic, and I am yearning to taste the tea properly but I can’t get for the right water until tomorrow morning. Commence wailing and gnashing of teeth.

i’m pretty sure dinsoara and i aren’t the only two people on steepster who have this in their cupboard. Come on people fess up! That being said…this will NOT be in my cupboard for long. this one is destined to visit some other sucker…er i mean tea lover. But sil? WHY would you do that to this poor tea? well let me tell you…this tea has nearly everything i hate about life in it. First off….it’s a green tea. Which, on it’s own does not make for hatred, but wait..what have we added here? BLERGAMOT! gahh!! the dreaded evil flavour to kill them all… bah! and then… just for a real kick in the face, to make SURE i would hate this tea, because after all, i can sometimes get past the blergamot in some teas…. what did verdant do?

sigh they added lavender. A flower that has no place in anything but bath products..and even then…only bath products that aren’t going to live anywhere near me. When my mother and i went to france for a month..it was almost impossible to avoid. and now.. it’s here.. in my tea..looking so pretty and innocent…hanging out with blergamot as if to say.. suck it sil… we’re in this together…

….all that and i’ve only opened the bag to measure out a spoonful into my mug.

brewing….waiting….the aroma takes over my house…my other half calls from the other room…WHAT IS THAT? are you putting on lotion at this time of the day? I thought you hated lavender…

no dear…it’s just that this tea and i have a date…i can’t let it win…

BEEEEEP goes the microwave… crap.. GAME ON!!!

alright tea… i’m on to you… i WILL drink at least a sip of your deadly poison.

cautious sip… noseful of blergylavender…GAH!

I’m pretty sure is what it would taste like if i started licking lavender soaps randomly in those tacky gifts shops…maybe add a little spinach and a squirt of orange and hey look…it’s a tasty soap salad.

feck. no thank you.

buries the rest of her half of the sample in terri’s teabox mwahahahahahahaha

(why can’t i rate a tea zero? also…not rating this as low as i want to, because admittedly some of you out there might actually enjoy the taste of lavender and blergamot…together in a taste hot green mess. At least the tea is pretty? cough)

When I made this today I had it confused with Mandala’s Special Dark and so I let it steep for 10 minutes both times.

And you know what? It still worked out wonderfully.

I re-steeped this three times, and it was really good! It still surprises me that 10 seconds is the right amount of time to steep, but apparently it is. APPARENTLY.

It started off as sweet and lightly creamy, but progressed to a woodsier brew. I probably could have kept going with it but I dumped my leaves into the sink and then figured it was time to move onto a different tea. But I am learning to enjoy puerhs more and maybe there’s something to Sheng.

This tea really made me happy I grabbed the Amoda box because I likely would not have had it any time soon and getting pushed out of my comfort zone is just what I need!