Verdant Tea (Special)

…and that would be sipdown 10.

I’m not sure what to make of this one. It’s sort of like an average cup of stuff going on. It doesn’t knock my socks off, it doesn’t wow me…but i don’t hate it. It just sort of reminds me of a bunch of the recent verdant blends. Rest of this is off to Terri so that she can try the blends as well. I just wish this had more OOMPH or something…

I’m not sure how i feel about this one. I don’t dislike it, but it sort of blends in to a more bland blend than i’d like. and i totally got distracted mid review looking at wedding venues again. Every now and then i feel the urge to at least look at a few things and try to figure all this crap out. But at the end of the day, there’s very much a part of my that kinda wants to keep it small a la city hall wedding with parents and a couple close friends before going out to dinner somewhere with some good music and food. Like 10 ppl max…. sigh decisions, decisions…

Sipdown (yay!). While I really liked the herbal notes in this, I’d prefer it without the oolong. This last cup, which was mostly tulsi, was really nice. :)

Thank you for sharing, Dinosara.

I don’t think I’ll be wanting this again. I have a bunch of my favourite tulsi tea, and I think I’m happy with that.

I fed the last of this to my BFF and she’s had an allergic reaction to it. I’m sorry, BFF! I didn’t mean for this to happen!

Too bad, because we both enjoyed the taste.

Thank you, Dinosara!

I forgot I had already tried this tea. :)

Thank you, Dinosara!

It’s very tulsi-y. Not much in the background at all. I think it would be more balanced with more actual tea.

Still, I do like tulsi, and this will be a relaxing cup to sip while I detail my kitchen and prep food for the next couple days. Yay working weekends.

I have this in my paws thanks to the lovely Dinosara. Thank you so much!

I steeped this super short. 2×3o seconds mostly to flavour some water. It’s tulsi and that root beer tree (sa… Whatever it is.) and a bit of toasty earthiness in the background.

This tulsi is super strong. Almost licorice or fennel flavoured.

And now I’m at work. So thank you again for the lovely teas. I’ll do more steeps of this when I get home and also edit this note because I’m having typing issues on my phone right now. :/

Had a not so great day at work, so enjoying delicious, delicious tea that I like, and not being adventurous with new tea. This joins the seemingly never ending list of teas that I like that are out of stock:
Piccadilly Blend, F&M
Assam Hazelbank, Whittards
Assam Golden Lion, Butiki
York Tea, Whittards
Lao Cong Zi Ya, Norbu

I like the new tasting note format.
This time I brewed this tea in a Gaiwan, Gongfu style. And suddenly the whipped cream flavor came out. Startling and nothing that I’ve ever encountered in a tea before.
I wish that Verdant still stocked this. Apart from this being one of the most beautiful teas that I’ve ever seen, I really love this flavor profile, and I haven’t gotten it from other dianhongs.

Delicious and beautiful Dian Hong, but not much different from Golden Fleece. Will try to have a comparison sip down of it, Golden Fleece and the Chinese Tea Company Dian Hong. Did not get any chocolate taste, but did get a beautiful sugary delicious delicious tea.
Points taken off for price and availability (none).

1/28/14 Gongfu practice in the evening. 2.5g in my 100ml gaiwan. I’m on about the 8th steep of this, and will probably write a reply to this note when I’ve finished. This tea opened with a strong orchid/apricot aroma, and has gently been adding astringency and spicy notes with each steep. I’m enjoying it a great deal. The leaves are still pretty tight, some more so than others. I think I’ll take this tea to the club tomorrow, and see what it’s like brewed by a more experienced and focused gongfu-cha student. I get the feeling there’s a depth to this tea that I am just not skilled enough to draw out.

‘Traditional Tieguanyin’ is one of the categories to fill in my fantasy tea collection, and this one will be tough to beat. I may not even try, at least until this variety goes away and I have to! This being my first year not in a northern state, I think I’ll absolutely have to try Dinosara’s cold steep on this, as I can imagine it will be terrific.

Another one that soothed me during my fight with the nasties (read: the worst cold of my life, thank goodness it’s gone and done).

Birth Day, Verdant and Teavivre orders arrive, and sipping this while watching Awkward and waiting for my hair to dry after stripping the color (currently, it’s flurorescent orange). It’s a good, fun day. :)

Yep, I do like this tea, even though I’m passing the last of it along to someone (that I hope) enjoys it too. On to the wishlist again! :)

Why do I enjoy this so much when many of you aren’t feeling it? Maybe it’s my first tulsi, so I’m biased. I really do enjoy it though — thus my third (?) cup in the past few days.

Gosh I love this tea. I wish I could pick out all the lovely flavors in it. Tulsi, definitely. Maybe something sweet and fruity, yet hard to place. A hint of licorice perhaps? Dunno. I just love it. A really unusual blend of flavors that I’m sipping way too fast.

1.5 tsp in 12oz.

This is my first tulsi (I think) thanks to Dinosara. Thank you for your generosity!

I had to look it up: does tulsi have caffeine in it? Oh, silly me. It’s part of the basil family. Okay, so I should technically love this. I love basil, I love herbals and/or medicinals…

I oversteeped this slightly from what I do most of my herbals, only because I was trying to get the kidlets to bed at a decent time. Well… before midnight, at least. It’s a weekend, yes, however my youngest seems to need less sleep the later he goes to bed. Kinda cruddy for me, the gal who has been working all night and sleeping all day until 4-5pm of late when the kids get home.

Anyway. To the tea! This is a fragrant blend of mostly mint and a few things I fail to place. It seems naturally sweet, slightly buttery/creamy, and has a nice minty savoriness to it. Each sip is a bit different than the last, and I’m surprised there’s rooibos on here; I saw zero in the bag, and I’m failing to taste it as well. All in all, I like this, and am so grateful to have finally tried tulsi!

So to be honest, I grew to love this tea. It’s just so good and calming and brings me down to earth. Sadly, I am at a sipdown due to liking it so much :( it reminds me of my beloved Ginger Sage Winter Spa Blend with more tulsi and pu’erh added! I bet I could make it by blending some teas, although I need more GSWSB soon, my last batch seemed to be missing rose petals :/

Anyways, let’s talk about this tea haha. As this is the last cup, it’s full of floaty bits and brewed up quite dark. Smells spicy and rose petally. Mmmm. But since it’s an at-work sipdown, I need to get back at it haha so won’t be able to log the taste. I’m sure it will end on a high note! Love this tea, and so happy I could try it! Upping rating a bit. See previous notes :)

There are some times when I want tea and I have no idea what one I want..I ponder over it and take out one, put it back, take out another, repeat…but tonight that wasn’t the case! I very clearly knew I wanted to have this tea before bed, with it’s savory spiciness and rich, earthy flavor. The tulsi really brings a lovely savouriness to this blend, I know it’s the tulsi as it’s the same kind of savoury that my beloved Rooibos Tulsi Herbal has. Hmm, I should have a cup of that one tomorrow, and break into my new 2 oz of it haha. But almost bed time now. It was starting to rain outside and might even wake up to snow, so a cozy tea sounded perfect before I hit the sack. Had a productive night too, of laundry and the take home exam for my class. Should be able to fully relax tomorrow! See previous notes on this delicious tea :)

Happy Friday! Man I love weekends, only 4 more hours to go at work! Hehe, it’s snowy and cold here again, I knew the warm weather wouldn’t last, but I hoped it would lol. Ah well, out come my rich, warming teas again! Ok this one is really really growing on me..it’s just so rich and almost savory…warming and delicious, even in the travel mug! This is starting my day off right. Loving it! See previous notes.

I had a cup of this earlier this week, but this week has been so crazy I didn’t log it. Oh, as an aside, the Tulsi Rooibos tonic from this same BOMC box, is so good I’ve been drinking it steady all week, probably half the bag is gone already LOL. Talk about going through a good tea fast!

Anyways, this is the other blend I have tried, still have to try Midwinter Robe tomorrow. The dry smell of this is wonderful, it reminds me of my beloved Ginger Sage Winter Spa Blend (which I need to order ASAP when I’m finished with all this house buying stuff!). There is a nice rose component, the tulsi is also there, and I think the rhodilia might also be there, as it’s also in Ginger Sage Spa Blend. A spicy, slightly floral, comforting scent.

I steeped about 1.5 tsp for 1 minute, I haven’t tried a longer steep time yet as I don’t want it to get too intense, especially caffeine wise in the evening. The steeped smell is spicy and warming, there is a fresh shu pu’er smell, nothing fishy or anything, just that earthy freshness like in Sichuan Caravan. The tulsi is there too, and it smells herby too haha, quite pleasing.

As for the flavor, this is rich and strong with flavor. Quite herby, with a definite tulsi component. It is a bit strong and you feel it a bit in the nose with that fresh sensation, but it has a surprisingly smooth and clean aftertaste, not bitter, actually the rose comes out a bit in the aftertaste. It is almost woody (probably the shu) but in a good way haha. Earthy and fortifying. A tasty blend that I think will grow on me, it feels like one I will start craving haha. Although maybe not quite as much as that Tulsi Rooibos!

Sipdown!! (129)

Thank you OMGsrsly for the chance to have another cup of this tea. It really is unique and quite good but I think I am content to see it go.

Sipdown!! (234)

I managed to burn the INSIDE of my nose today. I opened the lid of my roommates soup to smell it and forgot about steam and how hot it could be and ended up inhaling really hot steam. So I feel dumb but at least I have this tasty cup to take my mind off that.

It is an interesting tea because it is very different from most of my others. This has a herb flavor but it is not a herbal tea. And that works really well with the toasted rice of genmaicha. I am glad I got to try this but it probably won’t be a restock – not because it is not good but rather my tea preferences almost always gear towards sweet and I don’t think this would really be appreciated. Nonetheless, thank you Cavocorax for sharing it with me. I enjoyed it while it lasted.