Verdant Tea

Thanks to Verdant for this sample!

I’m beginning to invision the Alchemist at Verdant like the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, fitted with a pointed hat and waving a rather long wand (or spoon in this case) while thunderous rounds of Mussorgskys Night on Bald Mountain play in the background. (Naturally there has to be thundering and lightening outside the windows too!) Right?

I’ve enjoyed 4 or 5 Verdant blends thus far and what strikes me is the amount of subtilty and restraint that other alchemists (blenders) can’t do. Most go too far. Do they assume that WE the public demand gaudy, overly flavored in-your-face tea as though we’re so used to tea as a Mcdonalds Menu Item, that we can’t taste the difference! Well hey buddy no! There are tea companies out there (Verdant being one I know of and there are others I’m sure) that has respect for restraint and finesse! WE DO have some tea sense! Thank you! Preach on!

Ok I like this blend…good bye.
(Just kidding)

I’m used to big malty or yammy tea in the morning. Assam, Laoshan Black. A great Pu-erh!
When I read that this was more mellow with good caffeine and low acid, I could see that this would be a great tea for those with tummy issues. But, would the taste still be rich enough?
The liquor at 3.5 minute steeping is a nice medium dark brown with a great brown sugar molasses scent. I fully expected the tea to taste like the smell wafting up. Instead,it was much more mellow. This was nice and juicy, fresh and sparkling from the puerh rich underbelly. Where you would expect acid there is a hint of malt…a bit of spice that is not distincty cinnamon.
This is my morning cuppa. La Dolce Vita! Add creme it whispered! So I did this, being Continental and all that (remembering Rome) coaching out of my cup the creamy caramel smooth flavor of my tea with the added discovery of a hint of saltiness and Scots shortbread. A bonnie tea!

I must confess that without sweetening, this is mighty fine. You could pair this with any breakfast because the blend is hearty.

I’ve had this tea for awhile, unopened. I was saving it for a special occasion, which wasn’t planned, but ended up being today.

The side-effects associated with migraine and fibromyalgia take over from time to time, and there’s not much I can do about it. Sleeplessness and depression are the two symptoms that I’m glad to get over with the fastest. Physical pain is easy to handle by comparison.
Today I woke up and reached for my Kindle Fire next to the bed. My daughter had a new entry on Facebook with a link to her blog that began with this quote:

“Stand at the brink of the abyss of despair, and when you see that you cannot bear it anymore, draw back a little and have a cup of tea” ~Elder Sophrony of Essex

Then she went on to quote me (shock):
My mother reminds me often that tea has a way of keeping you in the moment. It’s not like coffee which in our society is meant to keep you always moving forward.
Tea encourages the partaker to sit down and rest a moment. It is a sort of “reset” button for the weary.
If we push ourselves beyond what we can bear for the sake of being strong, we will fall over, teacup and all, and find staring up from the darkness of the abyss… far more terrifying than standing at the brink.

(Hum, I thought…something from an Elder (Monk) and my daughter to think about in the middle of my depression, and I went about my morning…considering those words from time to time.)

At about 4PM, I couldn’t figure out where the time had gone. I felt foggy headed and the depression had closed in on me.

I remembered the quote from the Elder (Monk) and went to my tea cupboard…rummaging about until I found the one unopened SPECIAL OCCASION tea that I had left.

Standing on the edge of the cliff as I was, seemed a great time for Hand Picked Spring Tieguanyin!

Without a care for the opinion of others, I smelled the leaves. They reminded me of the many years of art classes, the sweet scent of oil paint on my brushes and canvas (and on me).

When I rinsed the leaves, I was washing the gloom away with tea liquor like a new ritual, washing my hands and face with it’s pale perfume.

Each leaf was so dark I wouldn’t imagine it had seen more than the most gentle rays of sunshine.

I drank the tea.

Beautiful, delicate orchid, cool spearmint like a pool of mountain water…honey cream…that made me sit in another moment different than the one I had been in before.

Drinking the tea, I drew back from the ledge and the sadness was interrupted.

Through cups and cups, I continued to let the tea lift my spirit.
(Not only through the way natural chemicals in tea helps the brain, but through the exceptional flavor of this particular tea.)

Time and again, tea has come to my aid when my body gets the best of me.

I’m feeling…better!

Note that I moved this to 2012 from 2011Tieguanyin because I had all my notes under the wrong vintage! Oh yes! All the nice comments from Steepsters are therefore lost but not forgotten! Alas…old age strikes again!

If it were not for the awesome Verdant website (as I have said before) I would be LOST! The information on how best to brew each tea is invaluable to a rookie like me. I know how to cook, but I don’t know how to fix all these varieties of tea! Fortunately I have been acquireing several brewing pots…Gaiwan, Gongfu, PIAO, regular pots made of porcelain and glass and stainless infusers. AND an electric kettle which is essential since here at high altitude water takes longer to boil. AND (wait for it) a PUER KNIFE! Ok, it’s really pretty! Trays and cozys etc. Ya’ll know what I mean. It’s like I put on roller skates with jet packs and am fast tracking through the World of Tea’s over bumps and through bushes.
Now and then someone lends a hand so that I don’t fall and hurt myself. Thanks to you all for that!

I used my PIAO 1 pot for each steep and 1tsp leaves to 4oz water.

1.The instructions for steeping are to flush first to begin opening the tight green leaves.
Then, gently introduce the water to the leaves for a 1minute steep. OK. This done, the liquor became medium light gold with a tinge of green. A light lilac floral scent introduced the tea to my nose before my first sip. The flavor was creamy and salty sweet again with soft lilac and an aftertaste of buttered yukon potatoes. This is juicy tea. I noticed a mineral taste on the finish and hint of vanilla on subsiquent sips. The creaminess is outstanding and expansive with the juiciness of the tea…it goes on and on.

2. My steeping timer got away from me. I overdid it! Oh did the leaves chuckle at my ignorance! In fact I need to mention that you just can’t use a teaball for these leaves. No way would I use a regular tea basket either. My 1 teaspoon of dry tight leaves turned into at least 1/2 cup or more of large green wet leaves! AND they pointed their tea fingers at me and laughed! “ROOKIE!”
But the last laugh is mine. The tea was darker, but not bitter and I drank it all up! Still tasting buttery and good but not as great as it could have been.

3. Giving greater attention to the timing and fearing that I had stripped the tea of all deliciousness, I went with 1minute and 10 seconds. That and no more. What happened next was surprizing! The tea came back to life! Great color, wonderful flavor, sweetness and elegant floral bouquet! This time the tea is not as sweet as at first, a little nutty and less salty. The juice is there with cream and butter. I fell into my memory fantasy (you know what I mean if you have read my reviews before)…and had a tea/food moment. Grandma is in the kitchen making vanilla custard pie and the flavor of a steaming bowl of mashed potatoes with melting butter sits on a big oak table next to a window on a warm Spring evening. A gentle breeze has picked up the scent of lilacs growing in the yard and it is wafting in past lace curtains, mixing with the scent of the potatoes, butter and vanilla. That’s this tea. (I must be hungry)

I was thinking about how or when I would drink this tea. Most Oolongs I prefer by themselves. Naked! If you must, noodles and lemon with olive oil and salt would be ok I suppose, with some chicken, or a light spinach salad. But, no garlic or heavy herbs or strong cheese. This is just too delicate. Grilled mozzerella on toast…nice.

Having my own cup of this one tonight!
Ack how is it quarter after 8, I have to do something productive.

Well I have to say, a waft of cinnamon hit me in the face after pouring water over the leaves. I couldn’t ask for a better thing to hit me in the face :D

Sipdown :(

… because I’m going to pick up my Verdant package and I need more room on my special Verdant wall. Also – they taste so much better when they’re fresh, so I need to just suck it up and drink the teas while they are fresh and delicious! So there. :)

Yummy today! I’m starting my job tomorrow, the shift is only 8:30-1 and you have to wear a white shirt. I am going to spill SOMUCH freaking tea on my white shirts! This is not cool.

But what is cool? This tea. Aw, now that I think of it, I never did get to try it iced! But hot it’s so good, so I’m not complaining ;)

Rich and smooth, yet textured and grainy. Savoury and sweet – I could stare into the cup and be taken away for hours.

Today’s cup of Laoshan is unique! (and delicious as always)

Today I’m getting a slight raisin taste (probably closer to currant) and cinnamon! It’s like a delicious dark custard dessert, perfectly spiced and I can’t stop sipping! Tastes and feels like it is sprinkled with sweet cocoa just a touch of cinnamon. Nothing like too much cinnamon to ruin a dessert (for me anyways!), and this one is juuuust a hint.

I steeped in boiling water for 4 minutes – so if I ever want to recreate this amazing dessert-like experience, I now have it logged for ever

I’ve been drinking more straight blacks lately, and the more I drink the more I find similar notes in them (chocolate, malty, fried potato, savoury tomato, etc!).

However, as I return to this tea this morning I am picking out notes unique to it! That is exciting to me, because it was one of the first straight black teas I tried, and I thought I could pick out the notes. Now I actually can! The dry smell was so super dark chocolaty that I actually got excited. This is a feat for me at 6:30 in the morning as I zombie shamble around getting ready for work.

Today was not a day to stand on ceremony- I just needed tea to get me through! 2 tsp in the travel mug with boiling water. Meant to steep it for 3 minutes, ended up steeping for 7! Tastes sweet and slightly malty without any additions, while giving me the push I needed to not yawn all morning (although I just yawned when I typed ‘yawn’ – happens all the time. Are you yawning now? ;) )

Today I’m getting waves of flavour starting with brisk and savoury and ending on a sweet honey note.

Happiness is a hot tea. Isn’t that how the song goes? ;)

Autumn Harvest:

mm oh I am in heaven.
There is a lot I want to say about this tea, the 2012 Spring Tieguanyin and Verdant tea as a whole, but I’m too overwhelmed to put it into words at the moment.

Suffice it to say, this is the second tea that has brought me to the emotional brink. It’s hard to “type” about – it has made me speechless, breathless.

More notes to come – but I just want to say, this one reminds me SO much of homemade roasted pumpkin seeds – which is one of my most favorite things in the world.

I’ll be back!

Backlogging:
Krystalyen shared this with me and I made a previous tasting note but this is a more official review:

I was not expecting to like it very much due to it having several flavor components that I inherently dislike. I have to say my eyes have been opened to trying things I may not normally care for! What you may not like in one blend can be completely different when in the hands of blend masters such as Verdant Tea!

Upon first sniff of the steeped tea I get hit with three essential aromas, chamomile, not one of my favorites, mint, which I am in-fact partial to, and chocolate which, well, I love.
I could do without the chamomile. To me chamomile is something I use in herbal healing, a medicine, not something I enjoy as a flavoring but can tolerate as a medicinal herb. Now I am very familiar with Verdant’s teas and I have to say I am excited about the blend of two excellent teas – Big Red Robe, and Autumn Harvest Laoshan Black. I am sure that the base of this tea is going to be splendid at least! The aroma is sweet, but I am not picking up any fennel or cinnamon in the aroma.

First sip: cocoa and mint, a relaxed mint, and a good strong but not overwhelming cocoa flavor. The tea is crisp and sparkling almost as if carbonated! Nice! Like a chocolate champagne tea! This I can live with! I also picked up the cinnamon resting gently in the background! The tea leaves a clean crisp after taste on the palate from the mints but is not taking over any of the flavors at all. This is a bright light juicy tea and again I am surprised by a tea that seemingly has heavy flavor components yet is not heavy at all.

As the tea cools some the chocolate notes come out so well and as I left the cup to my mouth the chocolate essence takes over mmmmm just like sipping hot cocoa by a campfire! But wait, there is that lifting mint again, and wait, that sparkle that awakens the senses, and wait, a slight cinnamon, spicy, boost. As good as this tea stands all on its own I am tempted to stick some marshmallows in there or at least a splash of milk and a dash of sugar! Perhaps on the re-steep in the name of exploration! I really am not one to put additives into such perfection but this is a tea that is so deeply layered in surprises and mystery that it would be almost a shame NOT to try a few things with it!

Again, cooling down a bit more there is that ingredient I do not like in tea, chamomile! you know what? Its really not bad! Somehow Verdant knows just how to make a fool like me appreciate what I already know to be a healthy additive! Also just as the chamomile comes out to the forefront a little, it has an assist from marigold! As if they come skipping forward holding hands merrily through the light sparkle!

What a great experience in a cup! This will go on my shopping list! Verdant never disappoints! I also want to thank my Steepster buddy for sharing this with me!

Going on the shopping list! Verdant never disappoints! I too, like other steepsters do not really care for a few of the flavor components in this tea yet masterfully blended by Verdant with their fairy dust, I love this!
Chocolate that just swarms the senses, a light but not over whelming mint, chamomile that knows its place, and joined when cooling by marigold that leaves you smiling!
The light sparkly nature of this tea makes you almost think you are drinking chocolate champagne!
GAWD!
Thank you Kyrstalyen! Dang I will be getting this as soon as my tea budget allows!

This tea is old. Definitely a different beast than when I first bought it, but the flavour remains pretty intriguing – it’s light and almost a bit jasminey/floral, as opposed to the more green beany, chewy Laoshan greens. I don’t know if this is age-related or not, but IMO it has actually aged reasonably well to produce a cup of green tea that would still garner a rating of 80+ 7 or so years after it was picked, despite not being stored under amazing conditions. There’s a decent amount of it left in the bag, so I’m pleased that I’ll be able to enjoy the last few cups of it, since I was expecting at this point it would be a total loss.

TIL: green tea from good sources, stored in scentproof foil zip bags, actually is still fairly good, even when it’s older. Swap samples in regular plastic zip bags – nooope. This has been my experience over a decent number of teas in the past 10 months or so. (The main criterion I’m looking at is the development of that unpleasant metallic taste, which I associate with old/low-quality green teas.)

Backlog.

Managed to thoroughly contaminate this tea with a fruity-smelling travel mug :( So I still drank it, but it wasn’t great.

Verdant green tea #3 for the evening.

First infusion:
Hmm, my nose isn’t detecting any aroma. Maybe it’s tired. Mmmm, this is clearly different from the other two. I almost got the sort of tea flavour one gets from a black tea, which is interesting. It’s sweet as well, but much different from the dragonwell as there’s more body to it. I was strangely just reminded of an earl grey… yep, still getting that weird association. (It just occurred to me that I may be interpreting the citrusy note from my earlier review as the bergamot from an earl grey, but I can’t be certain).

Huh – I just went back to my first tasting note, and it totally isn’t meshing with what I’m tasting here, but I think I used a fair bit more leaf previously, given that I only steeped it for 1 minute that time. Also… wondering a touch if my teaball still had traces of Coconut Cream Pie lingering in it. Please don’t rag on me about the teaball – I know it’s less than optimal, but I only have two “open-water” infusers. Maybe I should have strained it instead. Actually, I had contemplated that earlier… I guess I forgot.

Anyways, this one probably is a poor comparison, in retrospect. I’m really thrown by how it’s tasting a bit like a black tea. Ah well. I know it was great the first time around. Might try a second infusion later, but I’ve kind of lost the will to bother at this point.

I think I should also compare these three in a more gong-fu sort of style (although I doubt I have patience for 3-second infusions, I could do 15 or 30 second ones). A fun experiment another night.

Oh man oh man oh man. This one smells pretty normal dry, but WOW does it smell delicious while steeping! Floral! Honey-like! Citrusy?! So much so that I cannot wait to try it! Screw normal logging procedures…

Yes. This one is delicious. Honey-like and a bit floral, this is not like green teas I’ve really had before. I steeped the first infusion (175F) for one minute, and I can taste it just getting to be the slightest bit astringent – next time I’d go for perhaps 45 seconds. Delicious green tea aftertaste as well. Ah. Yum!

Second infusion (175F/2min):
Smells floral. Tastes much like the first infusion, which trust me, is not an issue. YUM.

Third infusion (175F/2min):
Losing flavour here, but still good. A bit floral.

I’m very impressed. I don’t know if the flavours here are typical of a Jing Shan, but they are distinct and lovely. My note doesn’t do them justice. I’m just too distracted to write anything better right now.

The flavours do remind me of Treasuregreen’s Emerald (Silver), but it hangs on a lot longer with this tea, and astringency is definitely less of a problem. It’s also less vegetal.

Very impressed though! Another hit from Verdant :D Good thing, since I just made two more orders…

So this is one of the blends I have been eagerly awaiting to buy from Verdant. I know that a lot of people seem to not like Hibiscus in teas. I for one love it! I love the tart and sweetness to it. I find that if you steep it in half of the time it usually will be perfect and not too tart.

I steeped this for 2 minutes and it was great. I have had many hibiscus teas, but with this one I find that the hibiscus is there but not entirely in your face. As it was brewing I could smell the Fennel and mint. When drinking it, I could taste the hibiscus with a licorice backing to it. Since I love licorice I loved it. I could not really make out the ginger or orange that was in the mix, but I know I will come back to it and spend some more time with in. I was just eager to try it..:)

I’m getting mildly irritated at all of the papers that I’ve been writing/need to write, so I’m taking a short (well, maybe long-ish) tea break as I take notes on this and watch a bit of Mad Men. I got a sample of this in my first order from Verdant, tried it once Western-style, but didn’t really enjoy it. This time, I’m trying this out Gongfu style.

Dry leaf aroma: Sweet, almost chocolate-y. It reminds me of some sweet snack or dessert I had at some point in my life, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.

First infusion: Tea liquor has a golden hue. Light, slightly sweet, wheaty flavour. Creamy?

Second infusion: Maltier than the first infusion, and I’m definitely beginning to taste something honeylike. At one point I thought I could taste a spice that has a light ‘bite’ to it— cinnamon? Pepper?

Third infusion: Still wheaty, as if I had taken a bite out of fresh wheat bread. Ah, there it is. A little peppery. The creaminess/butteriness is fading.

Fourth infusion: Steeped this a bit longer than I intended to, whoops. Still quite malty, but the honey isn’t as prominent as it was in previous steeps. The creaminess is now mostly gone and has been replaced with a (slightly tingly?) peppery taste. And on that pleasant note, I think I’m going to head back to writing.

Many thanks to David, Weiwei, and the rest of Verdant Tea for such a delicious sample. I was initially greeted by jasmine. A nice surprise! But, then there was apricot, which combines well with the jasmine to add just a slight hint of vanilla. Touches of hard wood and honeysuckle ballances things out nicely, and crafts a very smooth and lingering aftertaste.

Thank you to Invader Zim for the huge sample of friendship tea!

I cower before green tea! If it were not for the instructions and videos on the Verdant website (THANK YOU!) I would not try brewing green tea at all. I am intimidated by the shape-shifting nature of some of them (or so I am led to believe). Reading through recent Verdant lessons about pouring this tea back and forth between two pitchers, straining the tea and keeping the steep time short, I thought my PIAO glass pot would work fine doing the same thing which it did! Pour, release, pour back through, release and drink it.
Sounds vulger my way, but then I’m alone at home. If I were to entertain, I think the flourish of 2 glass pitchers swishing tea back and forth would look tres’ smart!

My steepings here are 4 oz. pot each time. 2tsp. tea. PIAO teapot.
First steep
The liquor is blush yellow-green. The vegital flavor is fleeting…a tease and gone. Poof! Up front there is a mineral rock sugar sweetness I’ve read about but never tasted altogether in one tea-bite. Here it is. The elusive oneness…the tea without tannin, not bitter, or sour, no acid-rotten vegital ruination that we all dread…and the sigh of relief ah….! Juicy!

I have to do another steeping…off I go…
Second steep is a bit darker and there is some tannin. I noticed that the wet leaves don’t smell as vegital as I expected. They are beautiful dark green unbroken leaves, long spears like broad grass. The tea is juicy…very juicy…but not as sweet as the first steeping. I might like this steeped a shorter time. Usually you add a little time but here maybe not. Something went wrong. I did it. Steeped 20 seconds too long.

Third Steep…
I reduced the steep time which is much better. The mineral has returned and the tannin is gone. No vegital flavor anymore. The perfume of the liquor is floral reminding me of the Springtime blooming trees here in the Rockies, not flowers. Rock sugar which has that subtle aire of Cane Molasses is creeping up from the bottom of my little cup. When you live in the countryside in the Caribbean, you know that Cane Sugar and Molasses are the beginnings of RUM. People went out to the fields and made all three right on the spot, stills and iron pots in the cane fields. (Maybe not now…but when I lived in Puerto Rico they did 25 years ago). Add a little sweetening to this tea and the full sweet buttery rum appears….along with a steel drum and some good looking guys on the beach at Isla Verde! Uh…I got carried away!
(Sorry Verdant!)

So, I like this green tea! You won me over! I know how to brew this tea, drink it which is wonderful! Makes me giddy! This is not a dinner tea I think. This is a tea to enjoy talking with friends or with a light bit of rice or toast. A before dinner appetite stimulant.

This is the first green tea that I have ever tried that didn’t come from a vending machine. I hope I haven’t ruined myself for every other green! This is amazingly complex and bursting with flavor, it really opened my mind to what loose leaf tea is about. This is my first review (and first green) so I will save a rating score until I have a bit more experience and have something to compare it too.

The second infusion, western style, was like a bowl of perfectly seasoned boiled greens from my childhood in southern GA! I know that may not be everyone’s thing and sorry to David for the description as my ignorant palate isn’t picking up on all of the flavors that I’m sure are there! This is definitely one that I won’t mind honing my taste buds with! Well done Verdant!

EDIT After trying several others and gaining even just a small amount of perspective, it doesn’t seem fair to Verdant not to rate this one as it really is worth your consideration!

This was undoubtedly curious. Not much comes out of the bag, smell wise, but upon brewing (I did a single 10 second rinse) I was able to delineate many layers of flavor. I was most surprised by the role the fennel played. It was remarkably well balanced and a really nice afternoon cup.

So I enjoyed 13 or so sessions with this tea, five yesterday and the rest today. They were very quick steeps starting at 2 secs to 15 sec yesterday and only reaching a minute with the last two today. I used around two teaspoons of leaf to around 4-6 ounces of water, in the gravity tea infuser (read: Teavana perfect tea maker). The third and fifth infusions were probably my favorite, they were the most floral and green but I had some nice ones today as well that were more buttery and slightly spicy. For some reason I kept expecting this to be more than it was, which is a great spring Tieguanyin, like the Autumn harvest or another variety of oolong altogether (I had Oriental Beauty earlier in the day and I love how different it is), which is quite silly of me.

I actually brought this to work on Sunday and brewed it side by side with the Autumn harvest and go the tea makers switched around, but I was still pretty certain which was which, the Autumn was much more of a cool depth to it, but surprisingly they are both buttery. For fun we also brewed Teavana’s Monkey Picked Oolong, which I would assume is a Spring 2011 harvest (but who knows). Most of the co-workers preferred Verdant, except of course the boss lady who while she thought they were interesting commented, “I think ours is smoother, don’t you?”.

No actually not at all, I thought it was a little bit more pungent up front and finished quite dry, whereas Verdant’s two offerings left my tongue feeling silky and moist. mmmgood304 thought the dry leaf smelled like lilacs, I concur. Honestly it didn’t preform as well at work as it did at home, maybe it was the water, or the residue on the tea makers or the fact were were pouring out of paper cups into plastic sample cups, but it wasn’t until the third steep at home that I tasted the essence of spring and it was quite lovely.

I haven’t rated a tea in awhile and don’t feel like it tonight, so will probably withhold until the sipdown on this one. But I am impressed with the mouthfeel in early steeps and the sheer longevity of the leaves. I probably could have gone for several more infusions, but gosh I need to buy a gaiwan of a yixing pot. I am just grateful to be able to drink a tea picked this spring, just weeks ago, I find that amazing.

This is fantastic (so glad I have two samples). This is like Bai Mu Dan and Shou Mei on crack. It’s Soooo sweet and a bit more herbaceous. Wet leaves smell like rosemary and artichoke and I taste candied rosemary and some melon in this third steep. Husband said it tasted like bath water or brewed rocks (okay so he may be onto something with the mineral note) and he does not taste the sweetness. How?! I’m getting a divorce.

First steep was for 15 secs but when I saw all the recommendations for longer steeps I set the timer for two minutes, however a smelled it at 1 mins declared it too good not to drink and set the tea maker on my mug. So glad I did! Third steep is just under two minutes. Would like to try it with tea in the cup and cold brewed in the future. I also would like to acquire more of this and age it. And I want a husband who has taste buds that work. Edit: sister stopped by and shared two steeps with me. She said it’s yummy. Also researching theanine and I do believe I am tea drunk. I <3 my yabao

Dear gods this is delicious. So glad this is my introduction to shu pu’erh, because really this is heavenly. I have don’t know if I would have made the angel cake connection but its definitely there in the second steep and stronger in the third. It’s so light and sweet and vanilla-like and leaves the tongue with a cloud on it. Yep, heavenly.

The husband however continues to disappoint. I handed him a cup of this third infusion and though it’s totally darker than the clear yabao, after sipping it he says “This is the same as the last one you gave me”. Though he added it was more mineral. I asked if it was unpalatable to him and said “Not unpalatable, undesirable”. Further grounds for divorce.