Verdant Tea

The wet leaf here actually has a very similar aroma to the golden fleece, but sharper. You know this is going to be black tea, not red.

My wife just handed me a square of Theo 70% chocolate with orange and I’m trying to get that off my palate more thoroughly before I start insisting that this tea has notes of bitter cacoa and orange zest ;-)

That being said, the two pair remarkably well. This tea lacks the long, lingering sweetness of the dian hong, but it has a thick mouth feel and does linger, although not nearly as long.

This is a truly excellent black tea. Something like a fig reduction over lamb — a risk, too easily off the rails but so fantastic if the balance is just right.

I suspect this is a tea that can very easily be mis-steeped.

I’ve been drinking this a lot, the aroma of the dry leaf is out of this world and the taste is smooth and complex. I wish that Verdant would print individual tea steeping instructions for the specific kind, because on the label it says three minutes but on the website it says one minute and it’s MUCH better following the website’s instructions. Anyways, great stuff.

I just received my first order from Verdant and I’m very excited to try out all of the teas I received. After reading the extremely fond, well written reviews I was most excited to try this one. I don’t have what you would call a “refined” palate, I’m sure there’s a lot that I miss in my inexperience but I’ll try my best. Let me start off by saying that the dry leaf smells fantastic. I honestly cannot think of proper words to describe the smell, but it was more pungent than I had imagined and very pleasant. Once brewed and allowed to cool off a bit, it was time to taste this wonderful tea. After reading the reviews, I knew I had to pay close attention to the texture of the tea, something I’m not used to doing. To me, it seems best described as a little bit thick or syrupy, and it’s a very pleasant sensation. On top of that, I get a drying sensation like that of silver needles I have tried. It’s as if I feel the little downy hairs of the tea buds dancing around on my tongue. The taste is primarily malty in a “bright” kind of way, with honey flavors comparable to Teavivre’s Yunnan Dian Hong Golden Tip. I’m enjoying this tea very much so far and I feel lucky to have been able to try it.

Not my cup I am afraid… :( Like previously mentioned in the comments – the taste is weird and I cannot even classify this as tea tbh. More like herbs.

Full length review over at Sororitea Sisters tomorrow morning :) YUMMY! Sip Down

I have been sipping on this one for a while but haven’t been able to jot down tasting notes yet and figure it was long overdue since I am now on my last cuppa! This is FAB!

It has a hint of pepper but is a bit smooth and creamy – especially at the end of the sip. The toast-like flavors are great! It’s savory. It has hints of wheat and/or barley, sweet corn, and woodsy notes and I think they are great! 2nd and 3rd infusions are sweeter.

Great cup!

This isn’t so much a tasting note as it is a note to those of you who “follow” me here on Steepster.

I’ve grown frustrated with the technical problems with this site, and I’ve basically abandoned all other social networks (Facebook, G+, MySpace, Twitter, Instagram &c.) entirely. The fact that most of what is in my tea cupboard right now aren’t in the Steepster database and I can’t add them makes it very hard to know how to use or enjoy the site. I haven’t actually read tasting notes here in some months. I haven’t read them thoughtfully and consistently in well over a year.

So, I’m giving up the ghost.

I’ve decided to consolidate all my activities onto my two blogs. The one is cooking specific, and I co-author it with a friend, so that won’t change. I tend to focus on Lent-friendly experiments (useful for you vegans) as well as happy accidents and solutions to fixing failed dishes — we both try our best to infuse a fair bit of geek humor into the posts. But my primary blog is just where I spew out all my thoughts. Mostly about religion and politics (less and less of this) but also about disc golf, music, art, I’ll be posting photography there — and now also about tea that I’m drinking.

So if you want to know what’s in my cup, or on my mind, or in my eye, drop by my blog.

But I won’t be ’round these parts anymore.

(Yes, I am drinking some of the last of my golden fleece stash today.)

I brewed up the last of this tea yesterday evening and throughout today.

I’ve been very distractible with work, and the gaiwan has been resulting in a lot of annoyed moments when I reach to find an empty cup. So, I brewed up full pots using quite a lot of leaf. Still more or less instant steep times, as though doing gongfu steeping.

The first three steeps produced a thick, frothing head when strained from the pyrex into the tea pot.

I’m on about my 8th steep at this point which means I’ve made something on the order of two gallons of this tea in the past 24 hours.

I am taking the last of it with me to qigong session in a few minutes.

I certainly hope that da hong of this quality proves to be far less elusive than we currently believe it to be.

Yesterday a prominent priest with a popular radio broadcast, blog and twitter feed both ping-backed and re-tweeted a blog entry of mine and my site got 708 unique views in one day. I think that doubled my unique views for the lifetime of the blog (just a few months).

So I’m celebrating with Golden Fleece.

The dry leaf aroma is maturing as it rests. Sweetness and fruit, but also roasted nuts, malt, and cacao.

The wet left is almost overpowering with a kind of toasted cashew or graham cracker scent.

And yet the cup itself is gentle. A sweet start but a dry finish.

With the second steep the characteristic thickness emerges as well.

One thing I notice with this tea is that the flavor is almost entirely in the nose, not on the tongue. I wonder if that’s true of other teas and I don’t notice?

I think the best thing I can do is compare this with the Yunnan Rare Grade leaf distributed by Upton Teas that I’ve been drinking for the past few months.

Everything about that tea is huge and bold and fruity sweetness.

By contrast, the golden fleece is more refined. Yes, the dry leaf aroma is big, and I’ve already waxed very poetic about the wet leaf. But at the same time, the actual notes themselves aren’t as … sticky.

Instead of syrupy sweet roasted fruit, this is more of the kind of caramel scents you get off a toasted bread that awakens the sugars in the bread or fresh baked honey top bread.

Molasses instead of honey.

The cup is also more refined. There is no astringency whatsoever. But rather than this making the cup sweeter, it somehow stretches that sweetness out rather than over the course of 5 to 20 seconds, more like 5 to 20 minutes. The flavors from the cup have been rolling around my mouth all morning even though I’m only on my fifth steeping after about two and a half hours.

Unlike other Yunnan gold, this tea retains more of the kind of roasted, toasted flavor one gets from the leaf into the cup. But again, very subtle.

The key with this tea really is the way it lingers. Be sure to only drink this when you have the time to let it stay with you and to be present with it.

I guess I’ll be the first civilian foolish enough to talk about this tea.

As soon as you unseal the bag and get that heady aroma that’s been trapped in there, you know you’re in for something different.

I actually got out a kitchen scale, weighed my gaiwan, and then weighed in David’s recommended gram of leaf per fluid ounce of the vessel.

Uncharacteristic of myself, I even gave the leaves a rinse so that I could ensure the first steeping I drank came off “awake” leaves.

The aroma off the wet leaves will leave you speechless. It is like that sensation you get when you walk into a humidor. I don’t mean the tea smells like cigars, although, to some extent I think perhaps it does, what I mean is that there is a particular physical sensation that goes beyond smell, when you walk into the damp, close, still, thickly scented air of a humidor. And smelling this tea leaf once wet, is like that.

With the first steep I understand what Geoffrey and David have been describing in terms of texture. Drinking this tea reminds me of the sensation one gets in the mouth after engaging in wuji qigong for the better part of an hour. There is at the same time a thickness of the mouth but your mouth is watering at the same time. I’ve now been typing, and taking a conference call, and haven’t sipped the tea for perhaps ten minutes and my sinuses are still registering all the aromas and tingling sensations and my mouth is still watering and thick.

I can actually feel the small heavenly circle flowing rapidly and if I were to stand up and correct my posture, I suspect the grand heavenly circle would open up almost immediately.

My ears are ringing.

I actually need to wait a few steeps to even begin using adjectives to describe the aromas off the leaf or the cup or the flavors from the liqueur. Neither my mouth nor my brain are entirely awake right now and I know that strictly speaking neither is this tea. So, expect a follow up later today with all kinds of pretentious wine tasting words in it.

NEW HARVEST! ZHU RONG!

Thank you Verdant for this sample of the latest Zhu Rong!

I had some of the first season Zhu Rong left in my cupboard, so I was excited to compare the New Harvest with what I already had side by side.

2 small Gaiwans, 2 glass cups and I was ready.

The scent of the dry leaf was different right off. The newer leaves were sweeter smelling. Wet and dry, the color on the first release was brown, and on the new harvest brownish-green.

The wet leaves smelled different also. The new release tea aroma was perfumy, spicy and cocoa molasses smelling.
I was scratching my head. What was that floral perfumey aroma floating around every time I enhaled? Coriander seed? Hibiscus flowers?
The first Zhu Rong had a definite molasses chocolate scent with an after aroma of sweet tomato. (The newer version had no tomato scent.)

The color for the New Harvest Zhu Rong was darker golden caramel.

Taste!
What’s not to love about the original Zhu Rong?
I love it and bought myself a hefty amount to enjoy!
That rich bitter-sweet chocolate molasses, cinnamon, yammy goodness was so irrisistable (and still is).

The New Harvest isn’t ‘better’ than the previous version but ‘different’.
(You can’t have the same exact flavor from a different harvest anyway!)
This tea is spicier with a bite on the tongue that is a teaser!
Such a creamy, dark chocolate and a smooth tea with that floral scent still puzzling me. Some molasses and spice moves about in the shadows, popping out now and then with a ‘ha gotcha’ splash of flavor. So many layers of flavor to sit and enjoy!

Somehow, I felt as though I was at a fancy European Chocolate Shop with the first Zhu Rong and then for the second Zhu Rong had traveled to the Middle East with glittering flavors from Exotic Spice Markets. There was even a fountain with fragrant flowers releasing their aroma circling around my head. This is what was so hypnotic!

New Harvest Zhu Rong is EXCITING! Even richer and more complex than the original! (I was going to say SEXY! instead of EXCITING! But I didn’t did I!)

Here’s some music, grab a scarf and dance!
http://youtu.be/Gff_5BA4QYM Sting
http://youtu.be/Hc3Jxx6dbJo

Iced Zhu Rong Yunnan Black!

I seldom review a tea 3 times! But, because Verdant Tea has created a buzz about cold brewing and icing various tea’s, I thought I’d experiment with one that they suggested.

A long, long time ago. When there were no laptops and no wi-fi! (Yes children, no Facebook or Twitter!) There was Chocolate Soda.
I can’t remember who made the stuff, but it was dark chocolate soda and I liked it.
It was a sad day when it disappeared. I couldn’t even go have coffee or hic’ Tazo hic’ because Starbucks didn’t exist either!

Not until now could my cool Chocolate craving be satisfied.
Here and now, I come to that chocolaty goodness in a cold beverage without it containing milk!
I do not like milky things when it’s hot! No chocolate milk, no hot chocolate.
Even if I have a gelato I’m looking for water right away because I don’t like the milky residue. It makes me thirstier.

What I prepared today was a pot of tea western style and then I continued with 4 steepings. I poured the tea over ice, quickly transfered the tea again before the ice melted into a covered pitcher and then into the frig. it went. That’s all I did!

Hours went by and it was time for the cold tea reveal!

I think the best way I like to enjoy this tea is to pour it into a fancy water goblet. The color sparkles like golden Russian Amber!

When I brought the glass close to my nose…oh the aroma of baked potato chips and cocoa was as full as rising steam.

I Swirled the Tea with my hand cupped over the top and then sniffed again as I would with a glass of wine! Slightly Smoky, Cocoa Honey!

There was no more time to wait. I wanted a sip of this glittering liquor.

With cool tea you can let a good amount swish and roll around, then back… taking your time before finishing the sip.
The coolness is noticed first as you would imagine, and then bittersweet chocolate, smoky orange honey and potato chips in an altogether impossible way. Something elegant rushes like stones skipping on a pond through your mouth. Yes, like skipping stones. So much rich, smooth, cool flavor.
My chocolate craving that has been going on for years (I ain’t tellin) had been satisfied.

OOPS! I must say that I sweetened the tea a ‘little bit’ but not much.

I also cold brewed some Laoshan Chai STRONG and used Ginger Syrup with it then Chilled the beauty…oh yes! This I would use with a liquor like Rum.

Tasty, cool. CHOCOLATE!

Second Review.

I love this Black Tea! It’s a tie… Laoshan Black and Zhu Rong for my #1 favorite Black Tea. I can’t choose between the two. I love them both!

“Remember Bonnie”…’a whisper in my ear….“this tea has a shorter than usual steep time”….
I followed the Verdant directions for my pot of tea and poured the most beautiful clear, deep chestnut brown liquor into my cup.

The taste was a velvety dark, almost bitter sweet chocolate.
Clean in the mouth and not acidic.
The Cocoa flavor was like chocolate nib with a sweet, bright, jammy Paso Robles Zinfandel flavor or Ruby Sonoma Port.
I absolutely tasted kettle cooked potato chips. What fun!
I decided to sweeten my cup a little which just enhanced the contrast between the potato, chocolate and fruit a little bit.

I resteeped 4 times, realizing 64oz. from 1.5 TB.tea. It makes the most wonderful iced tea when you are very full and still have leaves ready to give you more lovely tea!

I still am in love…tastes blissful! Bravo!

First tasting note
It is an odd occasion that this tea information was posted today May 23, 2012 and the tea arrived at my home today also, and today is my Birthday “64”! It was meant to be.

With the rain pouring down outside and a day that was going to be spent alone with no plans, the arrival of my Verdant tea was extra joyful. David (the owner of Verdant) put a little something extra inside my shipment besides the regular sample for me to try which brought a tear to my eye. The kindness of strangers as they say. More and more the people I encounter on Steepster, and several tea providers, are less like strangers and are individuals that I care about. Thank you!

I was determined NOT to do a complicated long review of this tea.
I followed the instructions on the Verdant site for Western Style preparation because it was later in the day when my tea arrived. Using Spring water I could count on a great pot of tea.

My first flavor impression was Chocolate. A big, then bigger, then huge mouthful of chocolate at first… followed by what I imagined was pecan pound cake. (Now I think the cake was not made with wheat flour but potato. I know…that sounds crazy.) The tea wasn’t vanilla, yam, cinnamon or malty tasting like so many other popular black tea’s. This was fruity (but not discernable as to what fruit) and clean. I hunted for some acid or tannin…but couldn’t find any. The smoothness was creamy and rich. The difference between this black tea and others was…well…this was like an expensive satin covered down comforter and the others are wool blankets, rough and kind of thin. Everything in a cup like liquid, shimmering amber gold.

I let the tea cool down. It was so good plain. Straight up it was sweet, genteel and smooth with NO acid at all! The finish was creamy and I am in love with it!

I love this tea! I really am amazed! This is the first Black Tea of any kind that I can and would drink straight up without sugar or cream always! I love the Laoshan Black but I think it’s a tie here. This is so mellow!

Second Steep Still amazing! I forgot to say that when I stuck my nose way down into the cup I was reminded of the fruity scent of wine inside the barrels at Fortino’s Winery where I worked one Summer but without sourness and just the sweet dry wine. The wine produced in that area of California was like liquid sunshine. Ripe sunkissed berries. That’s the fruit somewhere in the scent.
The flavor of this tea has no sourness either, but now I taste that distant berry. I feel the cedar and pepper on the front of my tongue but not at the finish so the smoothness is still good. Chocolate delight. Naked!
Third Steeping I’m not going into the flavor that much. I has all the same qualities that it had before. Such a strong leaf! What I have found at this point is another dimension. One that I stumbled upon because I had an Artist friend that cooked a fantastic dinner served outdoors in the evening served by candlelight. The end of the meal was followed by fine cigars and an aged, expensive Port. Here’s the part I want to share. This tea has the essense of fine cigars and port about it. A taste, scent…something.
There I’ve done it. I can’t explain why. See for yourself. I’m putting it out for you to tell me if I’m right or wrong! Because of this brilliance, I’ve upped the rating! I could not help myself!

Oh. My. God! This is really, amazingly good. I should not be surprised, though, as Verdant Tea never fails to elicit a positive response from me. David manages to select the very finest teas and I’m never less than impressed.

The aroma of the dry leaf is breathtaking. Delicious! It smells like fresh melon and flowers and indeed, it does smell like burning incense, just as the description suggests. I also detect the scent of fresh baked goods … my mouth is watering from the fragrance alone.

The flavor is also stunning, with notes of spice, wood, and an undertone of honey-esque sweetness. It isn’t as SWEET as some of the Oolong teas out there, instead, this has more of a savory tone to it, with notes of sweetness to offer contrast, rather than the other way around. The finish is dry with notes of mineral. And that’s just the first two infusions.

Looking forward to the next two infusions … but for now, I’ll post this note and offer another when I’ve gotten to the next cup.

Drank this quite a while ago and forgot to log. I opted to go with my now-standard brewing parameters, i.e. 1.5 tsp for a couple minutes, and it was delicious. Can’t remember what exactly constituted “delicious”, though! :(

Well, this tea and I have quiiiiite the history. The first time, I so epically steeped it incorrectly that it was undrinkable! I feel bad, because that note of mine should have moved to the back of the pile, so to speak, but it hasn’t due to silly Steepster still ranking a user’s aggregate of notes based on their first one.

Anyhow, I decided to go for a Western-style infusion today, with my standard 1.5tsp of leaf in 8oz. of water, and was rewarded with quite the delicious cup. Light, nutty and sweet, with a few more flavours that escape me, this is really quite tasty. I should have brought some of this one for my mom to try – it just occurred to me that I didn’t bring a single tea for her to try from the “straight oxidized oolongs” category, which I suspect she’d actually really enjoy (she dislikes all blacks, but enjoys pu’erh and green oolongs).

Anyways, like I said, really yummy. Oh – just catching some raisiny sweetness as I chugged down the last of that cup. Mmmmm!

ETA: Second infusion… not so great. I think this one really needs to be brewed gong-fu style to be thoroughly enjoyed. Perhaps this weekend!

Trying the last of my original sample tonight in a western-gong-fu sort of style (e.g. 15 second infusions). I used about 4g of leaf in my little glass teapot, and filled it halfway with ~205F water each time (so maybe about 5oz.?) Some of the infusions crept to closer to 20 seconds.

1: Woah, so sweet! A little toasty and nutty, but a delicious sweetness, and an oolong aftertaste that takes a while to show up but is perfect. This is amazing, seriously. Only marred by the aftertaste of ginger/galangal still on my palate after the Spiced Elderberry Pu’er (whoops).
2: Lost some of the sweetness now and is more grounded. It’s getting to that woody flavour that I find with oolongs, but it’s taken a sidestep off the beaten path as there are some fruitier, rounder notes in here too. I suck at descriptions. Lovely though.
3: Oh crap. Got an initial flavour of soap in this one, and it’s somewhat stronger (pot sat with wet leaves between 2 and 3). I’m wondering if the cup wasn’t well rinsed. Argh. Second sip not so soapy, but I’d blame the cup, not the tea. There’s some astringency coming out here, perhaps because the leaves sat. Maybe I need to reduce the infusion time after the leaves have been sitting (it was only for maybe 5-10 minutes, but still). I’m getting fruity notes now that I seem to have washed the soap off the rim of the cup by drinking it (blech). Still strong and woody-ish, but quite good. Just wish that astringency wasn’t there.
4: Back to reduced astringency (although still present a bit – I think these last two infusions were also closer to 20s, so maybe I need to watch that I keep the time to 15). Moving ever-more towards that woody profile.
(I might continue and update later, but stomach getting full and my mouth is revolting against the astringency).

It seems that, by contrast to a lot of other people on here, I tend to enjoy the first infusion quite a bit more than subsequent infusions (in most teas, including greens and oolongs). I don’t know if that’s because they tend to be sweeter and less astringent, or I just prefer the initial flavours, but I guess that’s just the way it’s going to be! Glad my Huang Zhi Xiang experimentation is finally working out, and thank you SO much to David Duckler for supplying me with some extra leaves so I can give it another couple attempts!

Ok! Giving this one another shot with better parameters this time. I used about 4g of leaf for 250ml of water in my basket infuser.

First infusion (30s/205F)
There’s a light, honey-like aroma to the cup. Delicious! There’s a sweet and malty sort of honey flavour, with an oolong aftertaste. Quite good (and a big change from last time!)

Second infusion (35s/205F)
There’s now a light, almost floral aroma. The brew is stronger, richer, and kind of woody with more astringency than I would like; I probably shouldn’t have increased the infusion time. My bad – I thought it smelled too much like hot water at 30s, and it was a split second decision! It’s definitely still drinkable though.

Third infusion (45s/205F)
There’s a similar aroma to the previous infusion. However, the flavour changes here – there’s less astringency, and I’m getting almost a fruity sort of flavour here. Actually, perhaps it’s wheaty. A flavour I would imagine that sweet dry hay might have (although I have no familiarity with it, just an impression of it in my mind). It’s hard to place exactly what it is. I prefer this infusion over the second, which is just too astringent for me.

Weird! There’s a bit of a lingering sweet aftertaste with this infusion too. Kind of like what fennel can leave behind, but more pleasant.

Fourth infusion (35s/205F)
This time, I cleverly(!) sipped from my cups prior to the next infusion to make sure things were tasting ok, so after tasting the third infusion I decided to drop the time back to cut the astringency (I missed taking a sip between the second and third though, otherwise I would have dropped the infusion time back down then!)

This one tastes much like the third to me, minus the astringency. Maybe I’ll be able to figure out the flavour now?? …nope.

Ok, so this time things were MUCH more successful, and I may have yet another go with the leaves I left downstairs. I realize I made a couple of judgment errors while infusing here, but I think that I need to stop with this tea until I acquire a gaiwan and learn how to use it. Also, I need to take some sort of palate-training course or something, so I can say more than “ok, so this steep is definitely different than the previous but uh, not exactly sure how…”

I’m going to hold off on officially rating this one again, because I still don’t think I’ve experienced all it has to offer. It would currently garner a rating in the low 70s according to my scale, but I believe it’s worth more than that! Looking forward to my future attempt(s).

Somewhat regretting my decision to go with the Western-style instructions on this one, with 5 long infusions, but really, I was too tired to go through a series of short infusions today.

First infusion (205F/3min)
Smells floral and sweet, almost like honey. But gah! This does not taste good! Super strong, astringent, and somewhat bitter. Yuck :( Definitely regretting the long infusion times now :( It’s really unpleasant, but I can taste that it’s delicious underneath.

Second infusion (208F/3min)
Crap, more of the same. I can’t even drink it. This is so disappointing. I can taste a flavour shift but I can’t handle the astringency and bitterness.

Third infusion (208F/3min)
Again, I can taste a change in flavours but it’s so astringent/bitter I can’t handle it.

Fourth infusion (205F/3min)
Similar to the third.

Fifth infusion (202F/4min)
I might be able to drink this one…. but it’s still astringent and bitter.

:( I am bummed. All that effort for nothing (and on an expensive tea too), and I have no idea what I did wrong. I weighed out 5g of leaf (as instructed), used filtered water, measured water temperatures, and timed my infusions, and I’m going to have to throw out at least 4 of 5 infusions. This may be one of the worst tea experiences I’ve had :( The bitterness is lingering in my mouth even now and it is so unpleasant. Moral of the story I guess is to start with gongfu-style brewing, or at least infusions of 25-30s, not 3 min even if the instructions say to use that infusion time…

ETA: How can nobody else have had the same experience as I just did? Reading the tasting notes, someone even steeped it for 5 minutes! My infusions are disgusting; I can’t imagine anyone actually enjoying them.

When I pulled the brew basket out of the water, I smelled such an interesting aroma. Definitely reminded of thai food, which is probably the ginger/galangal.

Although I rinsed it kinda twice, I just ran water through the infuser basket, and am not sure this is appropriate. I still haven’t looked up how to rinse a tea properly. Anyhow, I’m getting a bit of a fishy smell from it. Which oddly works with the ginger/galangal, but is weird to smell from tea. Hopefully I haven’t ruined it by a lack of rinsing!

Tasty and spicy, I can taste both the ginger and galangal, but neither is overwhelming – I have to say that this is probably the best use of ginger in a tea I’ve ever encountered. There’s also a berry note, which must be elderberry. A lingering savoury flavour remains on the tongue after one swallows, which is quite nice. I can’t pick out the pu’er in here, but it’s obviously tying everything together. Once I have a better idea of what straight pu’er tastes like I might be able to say a bit more as to that aspect.

Overall, I’m finding this to be a very savoury, interesting tea. The spicing is very well done, with everything blending together perfectly and nothing sticking out or overwhelming the rest. Definitely would help with a craving for thai food, imo. Probably not something I’ll keep in stock, but a fabulous tea to have tried!

ETA: Second infusion (same parameters): A little weaker perhaps, but the spices are all present and I can pick up the pu’er now (possibly because of a bit of an oversteep – it may have had more like 3.5-4 minutes as I got confused when the timer went off and thought I had water in the microwave… yeaahhhh). Still smells a little fishy, but it doesn’t carry over to the flavour. Just makes me think of fish sauce here though (as I said above, it works with this flavour combo).

I ordered an ounce of this when I noticed the stock was low a couple months ago. I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to try such a highly rated tea with descriptors that sounded right up my alley. Granted this was before I had tried any shu, I had to resist ordering them all, but picked up one of the newer offerings the Yanxin Reserve ’04 Nuggets for some comparison. I tried the nuggets first as an introduction and it was a lovely one.

This does have some similarities, but where the nuggets were sparkling, this is smooth and earthy. This is more coffee cake than angel food and I’m pleased I chose this for desert. It’s sweetness doesn’t kick in until the fourth infusion, but boy does it shine. And even in the first five second steep, this is the darkest cup I’ve ever seen. The sixth infusion is a bit smoky, the ninth has a hint of cinnamon and the tenth reminds me of toffee. I definitely get Amy Oh’s twig tea reference, this is just so more more velvety and deeper.

I want to stay up all night and drink this, the boys are already asleep, I’m just hoping it will keep till morning. Me thinks I love shu and am looking forward to trying the sample of Xingyang Golden Leaf David included with this order. I also can’t wait to order the Cornfields Toucha later in the summer and Peacock Village come fall.

Update: This tea is so generous, I’m enjoying my tenth mug (8oz), twenty-four hours later. I enjoyed 6 infusions last night and I believe this is my fourth today, a couple of them were light (both in color and taste) and minty (something I’ve taken as a cue it might be spent), but I just upped the time and it is so very vibrant and sweet (I also started getting some spice in the last infusion). So here’s to another wonderful night with a wonderful tea!