Verdant Tea

Wow perfection! This is the good stuff mixed in with Chocolate Chamomile Curiosity Brew! Just last night I was wishing I had some of this black tea without all the extras for morning and lo and behold David was two steps ahead of me having snuck a nice sample of this in with my order!
Yup THIS is the tea I want in the morning. THIS is the tea I want to mix strawberries in! This is bliss!
Flavors: Malty, Sweet, Chocolate, Leather, Spice – cinnamon and black pepper.
Mouthfeel is heavy and thick, creamy, and full.
Not drying on throat, no astringency, no bitterness.

This was one of the teas in my tea of the month package for May. I thought I’d give it a go while i was at work today. I tend to love Yunnan Black teas and this one sounded interesting to boot. I was not expecting to be blown away by a tea, but I was. This tea is very bold and savory… may be in love. I must add it made my snickers bar taste out of this world too. ;) Kudos to David and his team for this find that is going to cause me to place another order in under two weeks.

Upon opening the bag I see a dark green tea. I get whiffs of a creamy, vegetal tea with a hint of smokiness. Brewed this up gaiwan style at 175F. The wet leaves smell sweet, vegetal and creamy.

Taste reflects the smell. There is first a sweetness that hits your tongue and a wonderful green vegetal taste with a creaminess coating your tongue. At the end of the sip is a slight saltiness with a hint of smokiness.

In later steepings I started to get hints of something else and couldn’t quite put my finger on it (or would that be my tongue?). Searching though other tasting notes I found what I was looking for…walnuts. I believe I found that in Amy Oh’s tasting note.

This tea by no means blew my mind like most Verdant teas do, but it doesn’t mean it’s not a good tea. I just find Verdants green teas to be a little less mind-blowing than their other teas.

I have so been on a gongfu kick lately. It’s like, I kinda figured it out eventually and now I want to use my little ru kiln set all the time. I usually drink black teas first thing at work, so I figured, let’s do this one gongfu.

I tried to guestimate the amount of tea for my 6oz pot, since again I don’t have a scale handy, so I ended up eyeballing the tea and about 4.5tsp looked right again. Black teas seem to steep so fast that I can’t really rinse them without resulting in a dark, aromatic brew, so I end up drinking the rinses because who can waste that? This time the rinse smelled chocolatey and sweet potato-y. Like my western steeps of this tea, it tastes a bit chocolatey, but in this steep even more of the woody, minerally, smoky, peppery notes come out.

The first real steep (still only like 2-3 seconds) is dark, whoa, and the liquor has a piney smell to it. It smells kind of like the pine barrens (a type of forest we have here on Long Island, basically pine trees and little else). The flavor is bold and strong and I feel like I could have probably gone easier on the leaf in the pot, heh. The “roughness” that I perceived when brewing this western style really have come out, even in this super short infusion. I treated the subsequent steeps to extremely short pour-in-pour-out steep times. I did quite a few where more of the sweet potato came back, but the flavors were still a bit harsh for me.

At least in this sitting, I preferred this one western to gongfu style, but I think that has a lot to do with the amount of leaf I used. In another gongfu session I would definitely use less. But I also think gongfu has a tendancy to bring all the flavors to the foreground in various steeps, so they can’t just hide out like they can in a western steep. So the marginal elements that aren’t as appealing when you steep a tea western, aren’t marginal anymore. I enjoy this tea but it’s definitely not quite my style, and that is definitely emphasized in the gongfu session.

I am soaking wet since it poured on me on my walk from my car to my office today. No umbrella could stand up to that amount of rain! Which of course makes me all the more eager for a delicious tea.

For some reason my brain wasn’t working this morning and I added a bit too much leaf in my cup. Nevertheless, this is a delicious cup of tea. That little prickliness to the mouthfeel of it is so interesting, a bit smoky and a bit minerally. Then there are those roasted-grains, unsweetened chocolate (maybe even cacao nibs) notes that really fill it out and are what is particularly tasty to me. I still prefer the Laoshan Black mostly because smoky teas (even if they aren’t really that smoky, like this or a Keemun) aren’t really my favorite, though I do enjoy them on occasion.

Well I just got in from out of town and I have been inundated with tea! Samples from Teavivre and Fong Mong, and my order from Verdant. I didn’t really know where to start. I did order the Golden Fleece from Verdant but I didn’t want to dive into that one just yet. I decided I wanted to go for a black tea, western steep, from Verdant, and I chose this one. As I’ve mentioned before I’ve been getting into Chinese black teas lately, so I was already intrigued by this tea. Then I also read about it’s namesake and I can’t resist a dagger-wielding warrior woman, so that clinched the order.

The dry leaves are very nice looking, dark with golden streaks, spindley and curly. I can’t smell the dry leaf too well but what I do get smells nice grainy and malty. I steeped exactly according to the instructions on the website for this tea (western style). It smells heavenly. Dark chocolate, molasses, grains, malt, and there’s almost a spiciness that tingles in your nostrils when you take a deep sniff, like sniffing cayenne pepper.

The first part of the sip is sweet, almost honeyed, with chocolate notes that kind of shift from a sweeter chocolate at the beginning to a much darker chocolate toward the end. The flavors that build in the latter part of the sip are rougher, less refined than the first flavors. These are a little bit of wood, a little bit of smoke even that tingles in my mouth. Not smoky even like a keemun is smoky, but more the faintest whisp of smoke or maybe like the woody notes are a little charred. As it cools those flavors toward the end of the sip become stronger, making the whole thing a little prickly in the mouthfeel.

I enjoy this tea a lot, but I have a feeling I will enjoy the other black teas I bought from Verdant more. We shall see! It has a rough quality about it that I’ve found in other fine black teas; it doesn’t really keep me from enjoying the tea, but it’s not my favorite character in black teas, at least at this point.

Picked up some of the latest batch of this from Verdant recently, and had some this weekend. I think I may have overleafed a bit, because it was pretty strong (I was in a rush and didn’t measure), so I’m not really sure yet whether I’m a fan of this harvest or not. It was still good, but just a touch too potent.

Sipdown! 817 (finally added in teas from momo… sigh). I thought that I didn’t have any of this left, but apparently I did… and not just the remnants from one package, but two are apparently listed in my tea spreadsheet. Interesting – I’ll have to see if I can find the second one… I swear I finished it, though.

Anyhow! This is still pretty darn delicious, though I definitely prefer the heavier blacks in the winter, it seems. Dark, rich chocolatey flavours. Looking forward to another couple infusions.

ETA: My previous tasting notes indicate that I did in fact sipdown my other sample already, so 816! Hurrah!

Two cups of this one = a sipdown of my sample of the fall 2012(?) batch of Zhu Rong!

I’m finding this tea very, very much similar to Laoshan Black, as I have before. I had this in my thermos yesterday, and when I opened it up, I thought I had opened up the Chocolate-Covered Strawberry tea that I also had popped into my other Timolino, because the chocolate aroma was so intense and unmistakeable! Of course, a sip told me otherwise, and what a delicious sip it was, too :D I think either this or Laoshan Black would interchangeably satisfy my craving for straight, chocolatey black tea.

Comparing two cups of this tea from different batches; one from the first(?) batch, and one from the second(?) Or at least, that was the intention, but I’m having a bit of a breakdown/freak-out instead, so I will just drink them. Honestly, they taste pretty similar anyhow, and are tastily chocolate. Perhaps the newer one is a tad sweeter, the older one a tad more bittersweet cocoa. The leaves were certainly different – not all black, some were more golden and/or green.

Either way, it’s a great tea, but I think I prefer the Laoshan Black.

ETA: Re-steeped each for 2 minutes this morning. The newer version is still pretty good and chocolatey, but was maybe a touch oversteeped. Unfortunately though, the older version was definitely oversteeped, and is quite bitter/astringent. Very interesting! I’ll have to either milk/sugar it or dump it though :(

So the Golden Fleece is the only black I’ve actually purchased from Verdant (aside from a sample of Yunnan Golden Buds in the budset tasting kit); the rest are generous 2-3 cup samples provided by David Duckler with my orders. I really love getting to choose my samples – it allows me to try the teas I’m so curious about without gambling on a whole ounce which I may end up having to give away, or end up never finishing.

The first infusion of this one is smooth and dark, with a definite roasted, chocolatey sort of flavour. No real astringency or bitterness, although in comparison to the Laoshan Black, there is a touch, but ONLY because Laoshan Black is unbelievably smooth. The aftertaste here is of rich cocoa, which is… amazing. I feel like I could almost get my chocolate fix simply from drinking this tea and savouring the aftertaste!! I’ll admit – for whatever reason, I’m liking this one more as it cools (it’s at room temp now), because the cocoa notes are stronger. Although there’s a hint of sweetness, it’s definitely nothing like Golden Fleece.

(More notes to come on subsequent infusions.)

ETA: Second infusion (boiling/a bit longer than 3 minutes) was a little strong for me, perhaps because I reduced the water a touch (although it filled my teapot, so that doesn’t actually make sense). Either way, it wasn’t an astringency issue, simply it was just overwhelming, and I’m not in the mood for that tonight. So milk and sugar it is. And seriously?? This actually tastes like hot chocolate! The aftertaste is so cocoa-y. I want to feed this to someone and ask them what they think it is.

ETA again: Third infusion (boiling/3min) is pretty good, but although I drank some straight Laoshan Black tonight, I’m not in the mood for straight blacks, so milk and sugar again. I think I overdid it a touch with the milk though, as the tea wasn’t too strong this time, but it’s good and still cocoa-y. I feel like I might be able to get a fourth infusion out of the leaves as well, but that’s likely it.

Past sipdown – picked up a sample pack of this at some point (Spring 2019 harvest, apparently) and enjoyed a few cups of it. I never found it to be quite as special as it was made out to be – but I certainly still enjoyed the maltiness, and the incredibly golden, fuzzy leaves are pretty neat.

Backlog (from this past week). I’ve been craving straight blacks lately, and this one made its way to work for me to drink there. Reasonably tasty, particularly for the first infusion, but it doesn’t last much beyond that.

In retrospect, I shouldn’t have brewed anything new up tonight, because I am not at all in a mood for writing tasting notes. But I did, and it’s expensive stuff, so I shall write something.

Trying this again as I wasn’t fond of it the first time, but since then my black tea preferences have evolved. The aroma from the bag was quite sweet – I think I may have noted this before, though. I’m primarily tasting what I think might be raw sweet potato. I’m not really getting much chocolate, and there’s a bit of astringency/sourness on the sip as well, although to be fair I did give this one a full minute.

Either way, it’s alright, but I’m definitely way more into the chocolatey blacks.

ETA: Second infusion, same parameters (but half the water): still tasty enough, but I’m just missing those chocolate notes. :(

For whatever reason, I felt like doing a comparison of the black teas I have from Verdant tonight, so of course wanted to start with the highly regarded Golden Fleece! I used about 2.5 tsp of leaf in 8 oz. of water.

The first thing I noticed about this tea was the downy golden orange fuzz from the buds, which left itself everywhere – most noticeably on the teaspoon, and collecting at the top of the cup. Interesting! Unlike downy white teas, the fuzz here obviously was no longer solidly attached to the buds. I got a bit of a weird aroma while brewing; reminding me a bit of fermenting compost or something. A touch offputting, but I’ve smelled far more dodgy teas, and aroma doesn’t necessarily dictate flavour.

The first infusion, for 30s, is super sweet! So sweet and honey-like. The mouthfeel is SO smooth and creamy and velvety. No astringency, no bitterness. There’s a creamy aftertaste as well. Quite tasty; I’m wishing I had done a 1.5 minute infusion to better compare to the other teas though.

Second infusion (boiling/2.5 min): Oops, got distracted for this one, so there’s some astringency now. Same thick, creamy, velvety mouthfeel though. This infusion has a similar but darker flavour profile, and although it’s astringent, it’s still pretty enjoyable. I have to admit though, that the flavours in it do remind me a bit of fermentation, moreso than I get from other blacks. (Hmm, the astringency has dropped off a bit as the cup cooled. Tastier now.)

I might try another infusion (hopefully I didn’t ruin the leaves with that overly long second one), and am glad that I have an ounce to play with so I can try a few different things. This tea by far had the sweetest initial flavour that I’ve seen in black teas, which was absolutely delicious and intriguing. As I’ve said before, black teas are not my thing, so this would probably garner a bit of a lower rating than I’m giving it because it’s not a tea I’d keep around or drink often, as I’d prefer something lighter, but I feel like black tea lovers would adore this one! Glad to have tried :)

This is an amazing Oolong. It starts out with a distinct vanilla note that melds harmoniously with the natural creamy notes of the Oolong, it almost tastes like a cream filled pastry! As I continued to sip, I noticed a savory honeysuckle note emerge, as well as some Saffron-like flavors. The first cup of infusions 1 & 2 were primarily all about the creamy flavors, vanilla sweetness and so smooth and rich.

The second cup (infusions 3 & 4) were less creamy, but the creamy notes were still present, just not as strong as in the first cup. I began to notice a herbaceous quality emerge, and the honeysuckle-like notes became more of an orchid-like flavor. More floral, this time, less creamy, but still very good.

The third cup (infusions 5 & 6) was so different from the first cup that it is hard to believe that they are the same tea! The creaminess is pretty much gone at this point, but the floral notes are strong, and the vegetative notes have emerged slightly. This is also where I began to notice the fruit tones which are somewhat tropical. The tasting notes from Verdant suggest a juicy mango kind of taste, and I get that comparison, but this tastes more like a medley of tropical fruit rather than a distinct mango note.

An amazing Tieguanyin… AMAZING!

Superb tea that I simply call “Beautiful Journey” as it takes you to places both familiar and mysterious. I love Geoffrey’s description in his Steepster tasting notes, and have to say I agree completely with the other tasters who have rated this as such a fine Dancong Oolong. You truly must take the time to focus on the tea, and brewing it in small multiple steepings is the best. I happened across David’s (Verdant Tea) video on YouTube specifically showing his steeping method, which also serve as a nice reminder or guide for those who might be unfamiliar with a nice way to enjoy your oolong. Highly recommended.

First of all – the name of this tea is awesome and empowering. I love strong woman characters – pair them with tea and I’m passionate.

Short steeps in the gong fu teapot.

The first steeping was so sweet! Wow – it took me by surprise and brought a smile to my face after a long day of visiting with the inlaws (they’re here all week) AND I had a very important job interview today – have to figure out how to rearrange my life from jobless blogging to 40 hours a week, 9-5 super stressful job (if I get the job). So that’s where I was before i took the first sip. Afterwards was just a goofy grin, sipping the syrupy fruit/chocolate notes out of the first steep.

2nd & third steep – super savoury. It changed way more than I expected – but I’m definitely getting a well seasoned, thinly cut potato – fried crispy. I’m even getting the sensation in my chest of when I eat potatoes – a filling and satisfying feeling with an earthy, but savoury aftertaste. Homemade kettle chips! It really hits home and now I have all sorts of kitchen memories.
Oh at the end of the sip there’s a hint of sweetness in the 3rd steep – it almost tingles and when I breathe in with my mouth open it feels so refreshed! Like after chewing a piece of mint gum – but no mint flavour. Just the sensation.

On to more steeps :)

(My rating is based on the fact that Yunnan Blacks aren’t my favourite flavour profile right now – but this tea is so nuanced and full of surprises that is it by far the best I’ve tried so far! A great experience.)

I have finally decided to get started on the green samples that Autumn_Aelwyd has shared with me. I decided to be systematic about it, and have sorted them into two piles. One Japanese and one Chinese, and I’ve decided to start with the Chinese ones.

I picked this one for the first one because it’s the only one of them where I’ve had others of its type before, and been very ambivalent about it too. I have, however, to my knowledge only ever done it Western style and it has dawned on me recently that green tea seems to suit me a lot better when in much shorter steeps than that. So I shall see if it makes a difference with this one as well.

The first steep tastes and smells very familiar. The aroma is that particular thick, yellow quality that reminds me of cat breath when the cat has just eaten. I’m a cat person, so this is not nearly as bad as it may sound. It’s simply the strongest association I get.

The taste is the same as I remember and very like the aroma, only it doesn’t remind of of kitties. It’s thick and viscous and with a grassy sort of strangely salty-sweet note to it. It’s not quite what I would understand with the word ‘butter-y’ but it’s leaning strongly in that direction. It’s the thick and tough feeling to the flavour that gets me here. It’s a bit like it doesn’t want to be experienced willingly, I have to do battle with it first before I can even get it near my tastebuds. It tastes stubborn.

The only difference here from the Western style of this type is that this short steep is a little easier to subdue. More brittle, somehow.

The second steep is a reward to myself for having hoovered the lounge. There’s still the rest of the house to go, but two kitties in a shedding phase = hoovering being hard work. And thirsty work too. So I’m doing it in bits and rewarding myself with small breaks so as not to break my neck on it. It doesn’t help that hoovering is not exactly a favourite job… The lounge makes up about a third of the house anyway, so I’m well on my way.

I’m giving the second steep as long as the first, and the result is quite different. The aroma has a touch of lemon to it now and the flavour has gained a floral primary note. If I didn’t know better, I wouldn’t believe it were the same leaves. That thick, stubborn, cat-food-y sensation is nearly gone, and I can’t say that I miss it. This is more crisp and fresh, as opposed to the much heavier first steep.

If I have more Dragonwell in the future, remind me to skip the first steep entirely and go straight to the second.

Okay another bit of the hoovering done. About halfway done now and had to empty the dust bucket! O.o This third steep got five seconds extra. That floral note I found in the flavour of the second steep has moved into the aroma of this one. Instead, that little citrus note has sadly gone missing. That’s a shame. I would have liked to see that one developing a bit.

The flavour remains unchanged though. If anything, it’s a little stronger. There is a twinge of citrus-y undertone to it, but not enough that it really makes much of an impression. It’s possible it’s only there because I want it to be there. Overall, it’s floral and reminds me mostly of steamed green asparagus.

Nearly done with the hoovering now, and I’m rewarding myself with the fourth steep. This got the same amount of seconds as the third did. I should have given it a few more. The aroma is all but gone and this is like a much weaker version of the third, all except the floral note in the flavour. That one is as strong as before. The absence of the body of the flavour makes it all too dusty and floral tasting for me, so I’m skipping straight ahead to the fifth steep.

The fifth steep got a whole 15 seconds extra. The floral note is definitely subdued again, but it’s still there. Unfortunately the flavour doesn’t seem to want to be anything else than floral, and even with the longer steep this is still just a slightly stronger version of the fourth. I think I’m done with this. These water-y tail-end steeps hold little to no interest to me, and after two of these I do not feel like experimenting further.

So it’s time to find a conclusion to this. I still don’t much care for the first steep, and if I had done this Western style, I would have stopped there and written it off. The second and third were quite nice however, so those were positive experiences. Two good ones and one less so. I should think this lands us on the rating scale right about… here.

I have had this tea many times now and I can’t get passed the metallic taste. It gets a little sweeter on the tongue for me after the 8th steep, but I can’t make out anything else. I really have been trying just not doing it for me.

This tea was one of my teas of the month for May (at least I think it was for May). First off there is a WHOLE lot of ginger in this cup! I didn’t think their would be so fool that I am stuck my nose right in the bag and we’ll just say my sinus troubles might be over for the season. There is more to this tea like cinnamon, fennel, basil, etc, but sadly the ginger is all I am smelling at the moment.

The taste is heavy on the ginger too. It isn’t bad, but it isn’t what I expect from a chai either. I don’t say this very often about a tea from Verdant…but I am not in love with this one. I’ll give it another go tomorrow and see if I’m somehow missing everything else.

My wife is headed back East in a few days with our daughter to visit the family, and as a result our work schedules are ridiculous over both the last few and the next several days. I work days and she works nights, so the few hours of togetherness over the weekend were fleeting and gone. And so it was with a heavy heart that I turned to this month’s order from Verdant and specifically the Mi Lan Xiang – hoping to find a spark of inspiration in a sullen night.

I am truly blown away by this tea. Please don’t stop reading the review as I will go into more detail shortly, but my overall impression begs to be stated ahead of how I got there. So much of the experience this tea delivers is in the range of ethereal and doesn’t translate well in terms of trying to describe its flavor profile. Sure, those elements are there, and it is a lusciously juicy and intricate tea in its own right. To say that it is positivity in a cup would sound over the top and nonsensical if you are reading this but haven’t tried it yourself. Please do so.

I measured 5g of Mi Lan Xiang into my little 120ml gaiwan and then put my new Secura thermo-controlled boiler to the task of making my tea life easier and more fulfilled. (After watching David’s video sessions using a Zojirushi, I opted for the cheaper but more practical-for-my-wallet Secura.) Two successive flash rinses warmed the wares and it was time to see if the outlook for my night was going to improve.

Boy did it ever.

The thing that struck me first was the weight of the tea in my mouth. It has an almost simple syrupy consistency and reminds me of the way that a wake will lap at the sides of a boathouse in the cove after slowly rolling in from the thoroughfare. At first the bright taste of an undefined melon is there, and the combination of the scent and the flavor is intoxicating.

As the number of steeps move into the high single digits, a prevailing numbness and dissipating of any negativity builds and washes through my psyche. The flavor arc dances like a dervish, humming and swaying between nectar and spice never-ending.

This is the first tea that I have actually journeyed deeper into the teens with. I have tried with only one other and lost interest not in the taste but in the lack of change between steeps. To date, this is the most singularly enthralling tea that I have had the fortune to experience. Why is it after midnight and where can I put this moxie to best use?! This is one transcendent tea!