Verdant Tea

When I was a little girl, my mother took me out to high tea for the first time, and I had a jasmine scented green tea. Since then, it has always been one of my favorite flavors of tea. This tea tastes like that, only, like, better by and exponent of ten. It smells like leaves after the rain (and jasmine), and the first thing you taste is the excellent oolong, then you get orange, and it has an intriguing aftertaste of saffron. One of my new favorites, I think!

Honey, cinnamon and creamy is how I would describe it. It has a great taste and lovely aftertaste. Extremely good black tea, but it still doesn’t beat my favorite Daoli Black Trip ^^

Huh. Did I really taste all those things I wrote about in my last note? Or was I just unconsciously channeling things I read that other people wrote? It’s a constant fear when I write tasting notes, and I honestly don’t remember tasting so much. It’s been a while, and I just don’t recall the experience clearly enough to judge my last note as accurate or not.

That and…I didn’t get any of those flavours past steep two. I suspect maybe I need to use more leaf. Though I did use 5g in a 4oz Sado Nosaka kyusu (Hojo-ware I got back in Feb! Beautiful tea sheen developing and I’m such a proud teapot mama. BTW, remeasured it since the first few times I used it, so my previous note stating it’s 5oz? Erroneous.) So note to self – 5 grams is NOT enough to get me satisfactory flavour after steep 2.

I alternated between boiling water and 200F water, because…well, uncertainty. I second guess myself a lot until I “nail” it, and this is a tea with which I still dither. First steep? Beautiful maltiness with a whisper of chocolate and the toast-like flavour I associate with darker oolongs. Same with the second steep. And yes, I picked up the metallic texture, electrifying on the tongue and evoking burnt toast (not to a crisp, just browned to the point where it has the slightest edge of charcoal. I like my toast DARK sometimes).

But steep 3 and onwards? Not very much. Metallic texture and not a lot of flavour. I tried steeping longer and longer, losing count of what steep I was on after a while. 1 minute? 2 minute? Similar results. Switched to a 100ml gaiwan. Same thing.

The long and the short of it? I messed up. Not changing the rating, will try again soon.

Also note to self – stop reading what other people write before posting your own note, ‘kay smartkitty? Just in case, y’know?

ALSO. Anyone know if Hojo’s line of Sado Nosaka clay teapots develop similarly to zisha and zhuni clays? In terms of absorbing tea flavours, that is. The minerals in the clay already give the rock oolongs I use it for a smoother, sweeter taste. And don’t get me wrong, I love it. But I also love it when a good yixing starts giving back after absorbing tea flavours for a while and I don’t actually know if Sado Nosaka does that.

My appreciation for darker oolongs has been slowly growing since I first started drinking loose-leaf tea in earnest last year.

I wanted the soothing buttery goodness of an oolong, but I didn’t really want the flowery-ness of a greener one, so I dug through the samples box and pulled this one out. It well and truly hit the spot.

I was a bit on edge – two of my boys got into a serious scrap, and one of them came out looking like he’s been through a war. I freaked out, to the point where I couldn’t do anything except shake. The Boy told me to breathe… and eventually I did. It really wasn’t as bad as I originally thought. So once I cleaned up the poor, scratched up fatty, I decided to make myself a tea to soothe myself back into complete sanity.

And wow, this tea… I didn’t fully appreciate it the first time around – probably because I mis-steeped the crap out of it – but this time I took my time and the results were gorgeous. GORGEOUS. Brewed it up in my new little sado clay kyusu acquired from Hojo just recently, about 5g of tea for about 5 oz. I can definitely see this being one of those teas where the more is the merrier. Alas, this was the last bit of my sample. Next order, Verdant!

Heated up, the leaves smell beautifully roasty. Chocolate and molasses, and brews up the same dark liquor you’d expect for that taste. Beautiful dark caramel, with a sort of full-bodied roundness in the mouth. I don’t know how else to describe it, it’s just a very complete tea. The metallic note in the description is definitely apt. It’s like biting into a deeply roasted walnut with the slightest hint of metal at the back of it. In a good way!

Now, I’m not sure what elderberries taste like, but there’s definitely a fruity note at the very tail end of the after-taste. Maybe the slightest hint of parcha? Definitely a sharp edge to the fruit for the first couple of steeps. I can’t taste it nearly as clearly anymore.

Around steep five it starts mellowing into something darker. I can definitely pick up on the slightest malty note here, without being overpowering. And it’s just such a soothing cup of tea! So many interesting flavours going on, that it’s hard to focus on much else. A classical or romantic era symphony frames the tea perfectly – the complexity just works you know?

Let’s see…I can taste burnt sugar, walnuts, dark chocolate… It has a certain quality that reminds me of cajeta quemada! I bet a banana would go well with this tea, and I can keep drinking without the worry of over-sugaring myself as is often the case with cajeta.

I made it to steep 5, but I plan to continue after dinner. I’ll write more!

Gosh, if I had been aware that I had not already posted about this one, I would have picked something else.

Very tired, can’t think.

Boyfriend quite liked this. I find it reminds me of ginseng oolong, with the licorice-y flavour right when swallowing. This happens with cooling. When it was still all fresh and warm and stuff, it was much more flowery.

This is all I’m capable off right now.

Could have lived without the ginseng-y flavour. That was not what I was looking for at all.

While I really like ginger in all kinds of food/drink (sweet, savory, etc), I found the ginger in this blend to be overbalanced. The name is very appropriate – this is quite spicy (fun!), and the cup has more depth in it than if you were just drinking thai ginger alone so I think it’s accurate to call it a blend (like chai).
However, it is mostly spicy ginger that I get, and when I blended it with a few different teas (yunnan golden buds, Laoshan Chai, etc.), it took over.

I enjoyed each cup that I had, but the Laoshan Chai was just so much better (for me) that I’d actually buy that one again, but wouldn’t choose this. It might have been me though, as others seem to have tasted the orange and fennel, and found it nicely balanced. I could imagine all three of those flavors going really well together.

This was sent to me “just for fun”. As I was pouring it out of the Yixing I knew it would be just that. The aroma was like some ancient maritime cedar forest. The first sip made my cheeks tingle. There is an incredible clarity in my mind. One of those teas that the Chinese have known about for eons while we westerners have been sitting idly with black breakfast teas. There is that certain something. That mysterious glow. That energy that others with more knowledge on Eastern philosophy can articulate. I can see how the ritual of tea can lead to a higher consciousness. Me, I love this tea. Please put it on the site David.

Just did a cold brew of this. My first…one. The Bergamot comes out more with the cold brew, I enjoyed it :)

About to take a shower and I thought I would have this. Nice and refreshing. This was one of the two teas from the alchemy Blends that I did not buy. The thought of Bergamot with green tea put me off a bit so I decided to go with the Golden Earl instead of this. Well….I like this more then the Golden Earl.
The dry leaf smells like lemon and lavender with the Jingshan’s sweetness in the background. I can not make out much of the bergamot oil. I get more Lemongrass and Lavender with the green, which I LOVE, but I know the bergamot is the whole point of probably calling it “Lavender Earl Green.” Almost a cookie mint smell to the tea when brewed..:)

About to do a second steep…

David was nice and gave me a nice size sample that is enough of another go of this another night. Maybe even make it iced…..

I received this as a bonus in my tea swap with Meeka. A nice gesture on her part, but now I wish I’d included something else too! ;) haha

The one she sent me looks a bit different from the Steepster picture but I’m pretty sure it’s close enough. Mine just says 糯香 instead of the Steepster one 糯米香, but from what I understand this sticky rice or glutinous rice flavour puerh (please correct me if I’m wrong). I’ve tried the raw variety before but not ripe. Now I don’t know if all these sticky rice puerh are made in the same way, but from the two raw ones I had the flavouring was the same. Now onto drinking this gift;

The first steep starts off with a nice creamy texture, and the familiar flavours of earthy ripe puerh and sticky rice.

After the tuo broke apart, it had a consistent flavour from my second steep to the sixth. I could have kept resteeping but these six were satisfying enough.

I quite like this type of flavoured puerh. If I didn’t already have a a big bag of the raw type I wouldn’t mind getting some of these. About the puerh itself, I think it’s pretty good for a ripe mini tuo cha. I’ve had much worse and this one did not offend my senses.

100ml gaiwan, 1 tuo, 6 steeps (rinse, rinse, 10s, 10s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 25s)
Note: I recommend using a strainer if you prepare this in a gaiwan. It is easy to get bits of puerh in your cup

We finally have summer around these parts! (Said the woman who has been out of the country for a fortnight. But it’s a small jump from England to Denmark, and we often have the same general sort of wheather.)

This is not something I would usually think very suitable for a morning cup, but today it’s warm and I’ve slept super comfortably in my own bed with my own pillow and with the fan turned on! I wanted something… fresher than the usual black or occasional dark, roasted oolong. I figured this was a good choice.

Also, the husband (omg I can write that now!) isn’t up yet. He’s definitely sleeping in this morning, so I didn’t have to think about what he wanted to drink.

I am working on drinking the supply down! It is therefore not okay to have to add to it just because I must have forgotten to add it in the first place. Anyway…

Once upon a time I had a sample of Verdant’s TGY, which, as I am wont to do, I brewed western style and was subsequently fairly underwhelmed by. I mean, it was good, don’t get me wrong. I even gave it 86 points, which you must concede is pretty high. It just wasn’t interesting.

“No, no, no,” said Spoonvonstrup. “You should short steep it.”

Well now. I didn’t have any of my sample left to do that, so Spoonvonstrup offered to share a sample with. I was a little torn. Part of me was sceptic that it would make such a large difference and that, these days, possibly greener oolongs were just not for me, but a larger part of me thought that it absolutely could and should not be true that something which had made people swoon in bliss all over Steepster should come across as so uninteresting to me. I was missing out and that’s not cricket. So I said, yes please.

Turns out Spoonvonstrup had already been planning a large number of other things to share with me as well, as has already be written about, but I count this one as the being the primary purpose of the exchange.

Well. I say ‘exchange’, but my attempt at a return package was returned to sender. I must have written the address wrong.

Anyway, I received a generous sample of this TGY on the clear understanding that I would short steep it.

So I am doing that very thing now, and this right here is the first round. I believe it’s a different harvest than the one I had initially, but I’m not expecting that to matter so very much in this experiment.

There is a slightly floral aroma to it, with a strong note of something that I can only describe as ‘some kind of tart fruit’. It doesn’t smell like apple or citrus or pineapple, so I’m not sure what exactly it is. It just smells kind of fruity and yellow-ish green.

The flavour is stronger oolong-y than I expected. I think that I was expecting something more soft and vegetal like a green tea, possibly because of the short steep, but this is definitely tasting like an oolong. It has that smidge of earthyness to it. Again the floral note is very low key and there is ‘something fruity’ going on.

Even the aftertaste keeps tingling and tickling on my tongue for a long time.

Now that I have a learned to recognise a chalky sort of flavour, I’m detecting that too. Well, it’s not so much that I’m suddenly detecting it where I didn’t before; it’s more that I’ve learned to put words on what it is, and therefore I am noticing it being there. I learned that in some green tea I had the other days. Emperor’s Mist and Clouds, I think it was called. That one had it pretty bad, but this one is not so much. I wonder if it’s actually my water that does it. I had a brief thought of buying some bottled water and trying a comparison, but as Denmark on the whole prides itself on having a high quality tap water, clean and drawn straight from the underground, paying through my nose for bottled water when it’s not strictly necessary strikes me as rather a waste of money. If I’m out somewhere and I get thirsty I have no problems buying some, but then it’s usually slightly carbonated and with some sort of flavouring added. Bottled still water… Sorry, I can’t make myself do that. Not even for tea. So either I’ll have to look into some sort of filtering system or wait until there’s something wrong with the pipes and I’m forced to use bottled water.

Anyway, that was a tangent. The point is there was a slightly mineral note, but nothing very significant.

The colour has gone all vivid yellow on the second round, and that ‘something fruity’ note is definitely citrus-y now. Lemon-y or lime-y. Not the fruit itself, though, but more zest-y.

The flavour is more mellow this time. While this also has a touch of citrus, this is more fruit than zest. I find actual lemon juice to be a sort of softer flavour than zest. Juice is broad and spreads out, where zest is pointy and stabby.

The flavour is definitely not zesty and there’s still only a little of it. Most of it is still that oolong-y earthyness with a little floralness to it, but not too much.

Really these first two steeps have been very similar indeed.

Round three strikes me as quite floral on the nose, but still with a good deal of citrus. That citrus-y note just seems to be getting stronger and stronger here, as if it’s something that have to be coaxed out of the leaves.

The flavour, however, remains the same as before, if perhaps a tad paler.

And I think I will stop the post here, although I don’t think I’m quite finished playing with these leaves. There is so much flavour still to go on, and as it appears to be so very consistent, I suspect I’m in for a rather long haul. It’s going to be a very long post indeed if I continue writing.

In conclusion, Spoonvonstrup was right. This really do need short steeping before it can shine for me. Although my socks have not been knocked into deep space with this one, it’s still oodles better than the uninteresting result of my very first go at it. I think maybe to do with how it’s much less floral this way. The rest of the flavour profile, curiously, is completely different too, it seems.

When I made my Verdant order some time ago, I knew from the start that I definitely wanted the Laoshan Black, I definitely wanted the aged woodfired TGY and I definitely wanted the honey orchid oolong. Then there was this one, which I had seen getting lots of positive comments, but on the other hand I tend to feel about green oolongs the way I feel about green and white tea in general. I need to be in the mood. I dithered about it for a while and eventually made an executive decision to save it for later.

“Myself,” I said, “save it for later.”
“Yes ma’am,” I answered myself.

This strategy paid off, because this was exactly the tea that was included as my free sample! How is that for lucky?

Then it sat around in the box for a while, because… in the mood, you know? Today, we had it, the boyfriend and I. Two steeps of it, to which I jotted down a few notes on the back of the empty pouch.

This actually reminds me of something. It occurred to me, as I was jotting down my keywords, that if you look closely, Steepsterites, you might actually be able to tell which posts I’ve written based on keywords and which posts I’ve written while actually drinking the tea in question. The former tend to be more to the point on the descriptions, where the latter often seem to want to be fairly long-winded. Or is that just my perception?

Anyway, for the first steep, I was struck by how extremely flowery it was, both in the aroma and the flavour. If I hadn’t known better, I would have assumed it was scented.

Something else in the flavour gave me a synesthesia poke too. I don’t know exactly what caused that experience. It definitely wasn’t the flowers, I don’t think, because flowers don’t usually come across that way. It was all bright, almost sparkly and very yellow in colour, all cheery and saturated, like a lemon. It’s been a long time since I’ve had that strong an experience. Usually it’s pretty mild, and I often I don’t even register it. I don’t have synesthesia with everything, it seems like it’s more a case of a number of random triggers. (Sometimes I wonder if it’s synesthesia at all, or if it’s just some other sort of random association)

At the very bottom of the flavour, there was something sweet. It was a bit sugar-y for me, and I suppose that’s what others have identified as Rock Candy.

For the second time around, the flowers had retreated a bit. They were still strong, but not as strong, and the flavour experience in general was a bit smoother. It was a little buttery at this point and something else which squints at notes I can’t decipher. Damn this lazy self-invented semi-shorthand note-taking! Oh yes! When I was pouring the cups, there was a note of something in it that reminded me an awful lot of cake. (That must be where the current muffin craving comes from).

The third steep is the one I’m making now, and it’s sort of under duress, because we had a curry for dinner today and the whole kitchen still smells of it. (An odd korma which, while tasty, was nothing at all like how either of us think of korma at all. Weird.) I believe this accounts for the weird aroma notes I experienced while pouring this steep. Vanilla and tobacco? Really, nose?

I. Don’t. Think. So.

Nostrils saturated with other strong smells, however nice, can do a number on you.

Now that I’m back at the desk, there’s not that much aroma left to speak of. I should point out, by the way, that as this was a large shared pot, these aren’t gong-fu steepings. I expect this is probably the last I can get out of these leaves before it turns boring on me. I have very little patience for when the flavours start to get thin, you see. I get bored with it very quickly at that point. So the aroma is all but gone here, but I can pick up some subdued flowers and something that strikes me as vaguely nutty. I’m not sure, however, if the latter is genuine, or if it’s the same sort of issue as the vanilla and tobacco from before. (It’s really very distracting!)

Nope, the nuts are there. The flavour has gone all nutty too. A bit sweet and a bit nutty, but almost all of the stronger vegetal oolongness is gone, so what I’m ending up with comes across largely as erm… nut water. Best way I can think of to describe it. There wasn’t really much cause to bother with this a third time around, or possibly I should have given it even longer than I did. Can’t be changed now, though.

Still, I think I might give the leaves a fourth go tomorrow, only I will transfer them to the small pot first so I can do it more gong-fu-ishly and use the small cups if he still wants to share.

Sample from a friend from Athens120 ml gaiwan, ~2gr tea, 93+C water, 45 sec infusion + 15 sec consquent

Dry leaves:
Appearance very small curly, mostly broken, very dark, maybe almost black. They do look that they got roasted to a very high degree. They do look like a green and I could assume that it’s the same leaves oxidized and roasted, but I might be wrong.

Aroma is roasted and malty, it’s almost like smelling chocolate malt(for brewing beer) but it has got a sweet quality, like dark dried fruits(if that makes any sense). I can’t say it reminds me of WuYi because it’s a bit to the sweeter side. I totally love the aroma and I can’t wait to smell it after steeping! Aroma is more to the roasted side than the oxidized side.

Color of brew: Dark amber, especially the first brews and if you brew a little longer, then deep orange and almost light orange the last brews. Amazing clarity but it’s easier for this style to have good clarity.

Gaiwan lid aroma: Amazing, especially the first brews, sweet, smooth, malty, dark candied caramel, overtones of chocolate. Amazing I won’t even smell the wet leaves.

Ok I smelled the wet leaves, they have an addition of smoke and light wood-ish :)

Wet leaves appearance: They don’t unfold much because of high roasting. Mostly broken (maybe because of my friend?), many buds and some leaves. Almost black.

Taste: Not very sweet, it’s got some smoke and wood to but ALL the fragrances come through amazing. Intense roasty, high roasted/baked bread crust, I won’t mention the aromas again…

Sweetish finish, beautiful aroma once again. Not much aftetaste and a very very light astringency, maybe from the roasting.
Medium bodied, light creamy texture and smooth though it’s very high roasted.

Amazing red tea mainly to the roasted side, but you can really see that Chinese people really know how to make Hung Cha. Respect to the roaster/tea master. I wish I could buy some but it’s very expensive for me. It really amazed me!

So this time I’ll try to rate a bit more technically, always by style:
Appearance: 15/20
Aroma: 18/20
Taste: 18/20
Body/Finish/Aftertaste/Qi: 17/20
Extra: 18/20
It could be lower because today I saw the cost of verdant teas but I guess I didn’t pay for it so… :)

Second tea, Early Summer Laoshan Green

120 ml Gaiwan, 2 gr tea, 78C water temperature, 1 min first steep +30 consequent

Appearance dry leaves: Curled very small stems and leaves
Color dry leaves: Dark green, maybe from roasting?
Dry smell: Nice, potent, nutty, a bit of roastiness and maybe some spicy hints.
Salivating, can’t wait to try them :)

Gaiwan lid aroma: Very light, nutty hints so I smell the leaves afterwards
Wet leaves smell: Mainly potent, nutty, vegetal and herbal undertones
Color: Pretty light green color
Clarity: Clear but not crystal clear, could be better

Flavor: As expected after smelling it plus some more roastiness, especially if you brew it at higher temps, not very sweet. Very vegetal, it has a nice hint of astringency that clings that gives a spicy aftertaste
Body:Almost full bodied, depending on the amount and steeping time
Aftertaste: Nice fading vegetal and spicy with a salty overtone, didn’t linger that much.
It has quite some stamina but main flavors just fade after 3rd brew and roastiness and a hints of astringency take over later brews.

Salivated just afterwards, wanting to try more, I even salivate now that I’m writing this, lol!
I don’t think it could got at near boiling temps, but I guess it could withstand some heat.
I could even eat the leaves, the ones I tried were lovely!

Overall a bit harsh and not very well ballanced, but I really loved the effect it had on me.
A bit bold but with good stamina, I really enjoyed the “flaws”. I’d rate somewhere around 80 again.

*This thing about rating is strange, I would never rate above 93(or something) so 80 is quite much and I’ve read some scientific papers about rating that are race-dependent so I thing there should be no numbers on the site

First of all I’m very happy because today I received some samples from a friend from Athens and I got my parcel from Taiwan with tea so I got like 10+ teas to taste! I started with two green and a red.

120 ml gaiwan, 2 gr tea, 78 C water, about 1 min first steep +45-60 sec for next

Dry leaves aroma: Vegetal, grassy, hint of nuttiness
Color: Light green, amazing clarity
Gaiwan lid aroma after steep: Sweet, vegetal, spicy undertone, hint of lime?
Taste: Sweet, grassy, vegetal, little spicy, mint and maybe lime overtone, mostly vegetal
Body: medium-light, light creamy texture.
Leaves examination after steep: Mainly whole, one leaf one bud, almost no oxidation

Not much stamina, though the amount was little. Taste faded out nicely in consequent brews though a bit fast.
Not even a hint of bitterness/astringency even when brewed at high temps, I love that quality in tea :)

Overall a nice everyday green for people that want quality, without any major flaws which is nice, but hasn’t got anything too special about it.
*Don’t know what the rating will be because of the strange bar but I would say somewhere around 80

One of the finest black teas I ever drunk. And the price is so right!
It tastes powdery with strong bittersweet cacao notes and smells like iris flower in full bloom, deep and mysterious. After tasting Bai Lin fromTeavivre or Black Gongfu from Zhi, one would think that it is impossible to get any better, then Verdant appears with his Loashan tea and beats them both. I am rushing to buy more while it lasts. Bravo David!

I’ve been drinking this tea Jingshan style all evening. 1.5 tablespoons to 6-ish ounces of water, 175F and refilling every once and again. Made it to five refills before I’ve decided to pack it in for the night. Could have probably gotten a couple more, too! Oh, I love this tea, and I love this brew style! I love the way it builds from very subtle to a very pronounced presence. Completely different experience from last time I brewed it!

This tea fills me with a sort of soothing energy. I could do anything, but not in a frenetic caffeine-crazed frenzy either. Calm, collected alertness, mental clarity. Gave my cat some catnip today, and watched her trip out every time she rubbed her face on that bit of carpet. Her highspeed hi jinks are a bit like my brain feels, only, again, without the frantic quality. I could get used to this.

Very sweet in the first few glasses, a bit drying. Love that punch of grapefruit at the end, delicious. Juicier as the steeps progress, and the sweetness does fade a bit, turning into a rounder flavour. Still grassy, still citrusy. I can definitely pick up on the basil from the description this time around. More basil-like than basil proper, but no less delicious. This would be lovely with Italian food!

Makes me wonder what this is like brewed iced. Probably the perfect summer drink! I’ve got 2oz and I’m already worried about when I’ll run out. Hopefully this is one of those teas that’ll be stocked every year, because goodness knows I’ll continue to buy it.

Nudged the rating up, because let’s face it – I’m addicted.

I never thought I’d find a green tea that would shake my obsession with senchas at large. What. A. Tea. Bravo, Verdant!

I had this tea tonight on a whim. The sample was sitting in my tea box, waiting to be tried, but I was pretty sure I was going to end up making another batch of my much-beloved SA matcha before bed. For whatever reason, I decided to dig through the tea box instead. This was the first little bag I pulled out after a blind rummage.

On opening the bag, I took a deep whiff and instantly picked out the citrus the description talks about. Wet, they smell distinctly green. A bit toasty, maybe? Or at least what I tend to attribute to senchas as toasty.

It brews up light, definitely, but not as light as the yabao. A clear, light yellow-green. Very pretty to watch the colour seep out from the Breville basket. (Don’t judge! I’m waiting on some new tea ware I just ordered! Including a gaiwan that will get some HEAVY use, I promise.) The liquor itself is indeed vegetal in scent, reminiscent, again, of sencha. At any rate, the scent seems intensely interesting to my pet rats, who keep trying to shove their heads into the mug whenever I put it down.

Hot, it tastes beautifully vegetal, but sweet. At the same time, there’s a distinct note of effervescence that only grows as the tea cools. And then, after you sip, the notes turn into a beautiful citrus flavour that lingers pretty much indefinitely.

I had a hard time placing the citrus. The description says lime, but that’s not quite it to me. Lemon isn’t it either, as the note isn’t quite as sharp as all that. I kept thinking of having breakfast on weekends when I was growing up, and I could not figure why. Then I remembered our grapefruit tree. It wasn’t much, but the grapefruits had a distinct sweetness and character that I have yet to find in any commercial offering. Sweet, but not overpoweringly. Tart and sour, but only perfectly so. THAT is what the tea’s aftertaste is to me – grapefruits from my youth. I miss that little tree – it was battered by hurricane Georges and finally succumbed in the ensuing tornados it caused.

As the tea cools, the grapefruit note starts to make itself known DURING the sip. It’s even more sparkly, just gorgeous. I could drink this forever. I’m getting more after my sample runs out.

Backlogging

I used the rest of the tea leaves that Meeka sent me, to make a nice big pot of this for my husband to enjoy. He said it tasted like a very manly tea… I don’t really get that but ok. ;)
The topic of similar teas came up and he mentioned a few that he could remember. I am more of a black tea fanatic than him, so understandably it is hard for him to remember all the black teas he has tried and their names. Usually he will say stuff like “that Taiwanese one I love” or “the one with chocolate flavour”.

Overall it was a positive experience and he was happy to have tried it once, but did not feel too attached to this. (In all fairness he is much more of an oolong guy.)

Final thoughts: My experience with this tea was mixed due to the hype. So I think I’ll make it a point to tone down my future reviews, award less high ratings, and hesitate to highly recommend anything. I don’t want to come across as snooty or elitist, this is my personal view and I know everyone here rates tea differently (and there is nothing wrong with that).

500ml of water, 2ish tsp, 1 steep
See previous note

Tea Swap with @Meeka

This particular tea caught my attention because so many people on Steepster have tried it and loved it. Over the past year I’ve tried a lot of different black teas so I couldn’t wait to get my hands onto this one. Okay and now onto the tasting notes:

Sniffing the tea liquor, I’m picking up on scents of honey, spices, raisin. It reminds me of a few other black teas I’ve tried.

The first steep tastes much like the tea liquor scents suggested, with the addition of chocolate, malt, and floral rose aroma. (Personal bias: I have a low tolerance for rose flavour)

Subsequent resteeps had the same consistent flavours. At the fourth steep I picked up on more roasted notes, but the rose aroma is really starting to rub me the wrong way.

Overall I didn’t notice too much weakening until the ninth steep, which while weak was still flavourful.

I kept resteeping, and even though most of the tea body is gone there still remains nice hints of sweet honey, raisin and cinnamon which slowly fade away as I reached the fifteenth steep.

This tea was enjoyable, but fell far below my expectations. The high scores and hype on Steepster made me believe this was going to be an amazing, mind blowing experience. But I’ve had other teas like this and I wasn’t especially crazy about them either. I do not want to sound unappreciative because this is indeed a very good tea, but it is not a personal favourite.

On the plus side, I am glad that so many people here are being exposed to such a well made black tea. It is a wonderful example of how beautiful and complex black tea can be.

100ml purion teapot, 2tsp, 15 steeps (based on Verdant Tea gongfu instructions: rinse, 3s, 3s, 3s, +3s resteeps)
I liked this resteeping method, I’ll have to try it out again on some of my other black teas.

continuing the challenge: Backlog

Had a big pot of this last night. Yum! I am so glad to have Laoshan green available to me anytime I want. When I moved back to the States, I thought I’d never get to have any again, and kept a vaccuum-sealed stash in my freezer.

Most folks who’ll be reviewing this tea will probably do so from the perspective of evaluating Lao Shan tea as a whole. I love Lao Shan greens, and I’ve had so many different kinds, qualities, and seasons, so this one is more focused on what makes this Autumn picking unique from the others, appreciated for its own strengths.

The dry smell from the bag is undeniably of cocoa.. of cocao nibs in particular. That’s somethig I find to be consistant across all Lao Shan teas in recent memory. I wonder why I never noticed that in Qingdao? Probably because I was living there, so I never took the time to stick my face in the bags and smell and appreciate. Also- no chocolate in Qingdao[ :*-( ], so maybe I lost my context. Why chocolate? Probably has something to do with that distinctive beany Lao Shan taste.

Consulting my notes, I see that the steeped leaves have a “delicious smell.” Hmm, usually I write more, but what can you say to that? Must have kept me from writing anything else.

The taste is crisp, lively, and subtle. It is certainly sweet, and there is something in the flavor that is making it positively addictive. Maybe it is some light savory and salt acting as a gentle support- sweet cream butter. There is Lao Shan bean, but it is a quiet force playing nicely in the background, walking on light tip toe so as not to disturb the calm coziness of the scene. Reminds me in a way of a quiet parent who picks you up to takes you to bed after you’ve fallen asleep on the living room floor. You remember them, you know it happened (counted on it, in fact), but there was no disruption to your dreaming.
Something in the taste also reminds me of Japanese green teas that have been dusted with matcha. I have a feeling that this would appeal more to the sensibilities of a lover of Japanese greens, even though grassy astringency is not actually rearing it’s head… grassiness is there more as a scent infusing the whole brew with a smooth, full mouth-feeling. It is a perfect, airy feeling of grass that is also solidly earthbound, mixed together with cozy cream.

More than anything with this picking, I am swept off to a place.

It’s a misty seashore, early in the morning. The air is cool and wet and smells of autumn, but there is also an intense warmth and coziness. You are standing in your robe with slippers on, in your fuzziest robe and blanket, watching the scene from warm within your woody cabin. A solitary retreat on the North Shore (except in this fantasy, the heat is on perfectly!). A feeling of subtle quiet, thoughtfulness… I’ve drawn a little heart here in the corner of my notes.
Or it is evening on that same sea/lake-shore after a long, full day. There is a crackling fire, and there are waves in the background. The ocean and water is so strong in this one, but it is that feeling of place.. of waves against rock.. not of brine.

Looking back on the description of this tea’s taste, I’m surprsed I can love it so well. Usually, I want my Lao Shan teas to taste like Lao Shan! The bean, the butter, the soil. This one is so much more subtle.. so much more of the autumn.. but the result is so lovely. The place that this tea takes me to is so strong. It feels like one of those original places of my own self.

- -(Tasting notes over: mini-proclamation begins)— —
Hurray for all of these autumn pickings! Who knew that tea could be so giving? Those who kowtow blindly at the Altar of Spring to the exclusion of all other tastes need to stop obsessing over questions of SUPERIOR GRADE this and TRADITIONAL SOURCES PROCLAIM that. Just quiet down for a moment and use your own tongue to appreciate all that tea is trying to offer you. Discover your own preferences, but not before you open yourself to new possibilities and taste with your own self.

Listen to the tea, and appreciate. It’ll never let you down.