Verdant Tea (Special)

This is the first tea I’ve tried with tulsi in it—it’s yummy and a very unique flavor. :) I’m a sucker for all things mint. I think I’d like this better iced, though, simply because it tastes a little basil-y.

I’ve been drinking this for the latter part of the day and haven’t made notes for an in-depth review, but it is pretty delicious. Started out pretty sweet with honey and apricot notes, and melding to a slightly bitter, green tasting flavor. Short steeps and 2 rinses for this one. Fresh and good! Will rate later as on my phone.

Dialing down my rating after a few lackluster steeps. I’ve found this tea to be wildly inconsistent. Sometimes it’s floral. Other times I get a blast of cardamom or the lemongrass flavor will dominate. It seems the taste of each brew depends on the pieces of flavoring and how many you them you scoop up.

A fantastic scented tea from Verdant. The dry leaf is fragrant and big chrysantheum flowers, cardamom, and lemongrass are visible in it. It smells quite similar to their Earl of Anxi tea, a an otherwise great tea spoiled by frankencense. This tea is a different story though. The floral notes of the tieguanyin pair beautifully with the chrsantheum flowers and accented with lemongrass and a hint of citrus. The cardamom is absent though. I think giving the cardamom pods a whack with a pestle and mortar before brewing will help release their flavor.

Backlog from the last session of gong fu fun at *Dinosara*’s beautiful cabin before she moved ); this one from her collection.
Quick rinse…
15 seconds: smells like and earthy puerh! Tastes a little earthy, but also sweet, like sweetened ceylon tea made from a fresh tea leaf. It has a certain silky mouthfeel that I associate with puerhs…
30 seconds: same as above, with an extra earthy smell.
1 minute: weak this steep. Sweet ceylon plus…. earthy sheng?
1 minute something…: Pretty much lost black tea flavor, tasting much more puerh-like, even with that mouthfeel, like vicks vapo-rub? Astringency that’s not astringency?! I have no words to describe it!
Overall, I found it interesting. I’m glad I just picked up the yabao from Whispering Pines today.

Occasionally, in the right mind-set, I can think of of different teas as substitutes for chocolate, butter, or vanilla ice cream. I reach for Mandala’s ‘black beauty’ when in the mood for chocolate, and now I can reach for this when I’m craving a delicious buttery mouth feel. The spinach aftertaste is just a bonus.

The third tea, this time from *Dinosara*’s collection, at our knitting/tea drinking extravaganza yesterday. This was a fun tea.
First steep, 30 seconds: ginger snaps in a mug! Cinnamon scent and cookie flavor!
Second steep, 45 seconds: more sugary, I can feel the presence of the oolong now and smell it in my aroma cup, but the flavor is still very cinnamony.
Third steep, 1:10: more floral, less sugar, cinnamon ever present.
Fourth (stopped keeping time here in my notes): pure brown sugar cookie in my cup! Really cozy tea!
Fifth: same as above, but the flavor was fading and it felt thinner.
Overall I think I would love this tea around the holidays!

GCTTB
I was really excited to see this in the box. I adore Verdant genmaicha blends so have been wanting to try this for quite awhile now. Not sure what I was expecting but this isn’t it. Its slightly vanilla, a little green, but not really toasty/roasty. This is ok but pales compared to some of their other blends.
Really happy I got to try it, but it wasa miss. :(

GCTTB4

I’m glad I got to try this, even if only so I could say I did. How often does a special Lady Gaga tea happen, right?

I can taste the vanilla and the rice in this, and it reminds me of a very toasty, very diluted rice krispie bar. However, I’m drinking this more for the novelty than anything else. There’s a back note to the tea I’m not liking very much, but I can’t put my finger on why.

Not really much to say here. I’ve kind of lost interest in green teas for awhile, although occasionally I enjoy a cup, but there aren’t very many in my collection anymore. I have Teavivre’s beautiful nonpareil cha wang tai ping you kui, some kai matcha in the freezer, some gunpowder green than Steph sent to me awhile back, the last of the meditative mind (teaspot), & this (sent by SIL, of course!). So…it’s ok, but not something I’d ever crave or want. It mostly takes like laoshan green, which is one of my preferred greens when I’m into them, and it makes for a nice afternoon cup, but that’s about it. Sip down.

Wow, this tea is so different. It’s one of those teas I just want to take out of the box and hog but I’ll leave it in for others to try.

It tastes like a soy milk with vanilla and green bean. I also taste the toasted rice. It really works together nicely. First few sips it was a really strange tasting green tea to me but when I got near the end , I was really missing it. Very tasty!

Overall a great tea! I would consider buying this one if they had it in stock.

Mastress Alita’s Monthly Sipdown Challenge
February 2022 → A black tea

I don’t have much to add for this one, but I did want to log it as my black tea for the sipdown challenge. I really love it. It’s heavy on the jasmine, so I think you’d really have to like floral teas to enjoy this one.

Looking back at my notes, I marked this tea as fruity, so I’m having it today as one of my fruity July teas. This one seems to be more flavorful with a shorter steep at a higher temperature, so I went back to my original steeping parameters. I was interested to see in the description that this tea also has other ingredients aside from the jasmine and black tea – vanilla, saffron, and blue lotus. What does blue lotus taste like? Or even saffron? I can’t say I’ve ever had either, or at least not the real thing (saffron).

As usual, I’m a day late to the sipdown party and am just now having yesterday’s themed tea for National Compliment Day. I went through my spreadsheet and found my oldest (and most importantly, caffeinated) favorite tea. Despite this being one of my favorites, I’ve only actually had it once before today I think. It was a special release from Verdant and so I was saving it. But for what? Today I suppose. I still have a good bit left and the flavor has held up nicely. Chocolaty and floral.

Second Steep
8 ounces water + 212 degrees + 20 minutes

The second cup is just as flavorful as the first, just as bold. I steeped this tea much differently than I did the first time I tried it, but it still turned out beautifully.

This tea smells wonderful! It is fragrant with floral jasmine and seems almost bursting with ripe fruit flavor. I love it, especially since it’s a black tea. I hope the fragrance transfers over to the taste.

This tea is incredible. It has to be my favorite of the Verdant blends. Unfortunately, this is one that is not for sale on the Verdant website. I can’t even seem to find the black tea, Yunnan Dian Hong, unless it goes by another name. Does anyone know? I would love to get some. This is a little bit tannic, a touch bitter or burnt, but with honey it is miraculous and with cream it’s even better.

This is the last of my Verdant blends club teas and I think after trying them I’ve realized that I would probably enjoy the classics tea club better than the blends. There have been several that I’ve thought I would love to purchase without the added scents/flavorings.

Second Steep
8 ounces water + 212 degrees + 1 minute, 30 seconds

This second cup is just as dark as the first. I can still detect the jasmine but now there is also a roasted flavor/aroma underneath. It tastes maybe just a little weak but it’s still good. I’ll just up the steep time next time around.

I’m not really a fan of this one, but then I don’t much care for white tea in general. The bergamot was apparent in the dry blend, but I cannot taste or smell it at all after steeping.

I haven’t had a bergamot white tea since Teavana’s Earl Grey White which was so temperamental. Hopefully this one will be a little more easy going. I can’t seem to find the steeping instructions that Verdant sent with the April blends box so I looked on their website and found the parameters for their Bai Mu Dan which is the base tea for this blend. I was a little worried that the recommendation is to use fresh-boiled water, but now I see in parentheses that it says 175 to 205 degrees so I will try that.

The tea leaves are large. Some are curled, light green, and fuzzy. Others are open and almost an inky or charcoal black. The dry leaves are very fragrant, and the steeped leaves have taken on a vegetal aroma. The liquid smells different though, sweet actually. The tea is not at all bitter and still retains some of the essence of the bergamot which is nice.

This isn’t a favorite for me, I think because it’s so lavender-heavy. I don’t mind lavender in small amounts, but it’s really all I could taste here. Leaving my previous rating in case this one-sided flavor is due to age. I think more than likely it’s because so much lavender settled to the bottom of the bag and I’m finishing up the pouch, but I could be wrong.

This is one of Verdant’s Intelligent Nutrients teas that I received when I was subscribed to their Blends box. This is no longer listed on their website. In fact, I was unable to find any of the Intelligent Nutrients teas so I’m assuming they are no longer making these. I don’t even think they are doing a Blends box anymore actually. It looks like they are doing a CSA box for each of the farmers they support which sounds like a really cool thing. I’ve participated in a CSA before and really loved everything about it. To see that they are doing the same with tea farmers is really exciting. I am curious to know what happened with the Intelligent Nutrients collaboration, whether it had run its course or just didn’t fit in with their new vision after moving to China. There were a few I enjoyed, some that I did not, and one that I absolutely loved. I still have quite a bit of each left so I thought I would have a cup of this one today.

The dry tea is long, dark, and twisty with a few small berries mixed in. Before steeping, it smells a little spiced. Not like a sweet spice, more like a spicy root. I can’t quite place it. After steeping, the aroma and taste is more of a roasted flavor. I can taste the lavender too, blending with the roast, but I probably would not have picked up on it if I hadn’t looked over the ingredients. It’s kind of drying but also sweet.