Verdant Tea

With my first sip, I say “this is a Dragon Well?” Then I read the label again, and see that it is Dragon Well Style… not Dragon Well. And yes, it does look like Dragon Well, especially the dry leaves which are flat but a bit brighter green than most Dragon Well teas that I’ve tried.

But the flavor is different to me than a typical Dragon Well. While I love a good Dragon Well, I’m REALLY loving this too. There is an intense sweetness – like sugar! – and yes, I do taste a caramelized banana flavor too (the description suggests a bananas foster taste … and I get that, sans the cinnamon).

This is my tasting note for the first two infusions, more to come!

This was one of the samples that David kindly gave to me to try. Wow. So far I have done 5 steeps and it gets more complex. I get grape jelly on the first steep and then clove. I might have to stock this in the new year.

Thanks for the sample :)

Oh wow! This is the cleanest, sweetest, crispiest, nicest Jasmine I have had to date! Most Jasmine’s I can take or leave…but this one…I will TAKE any day! Very nice! No funky floral aftertaste…smooth and fairly creamy, even! I really like this! Very VERY good!

solid.

pretty good.

I bought this tea because I wanted to use it as a mixer for a few other teas. I was going to blend it with the Laoshan Black tea and a few of the pu’ers that I purchased. Before I did that I wanted to try it by itself. I did not make a big pot of it just did a nice sample size in my tasting cup.
The dry mixture was spicy smelling with a citrus undertone in the back. After brewing it, it reminded me of the times that I was sick as a kid. My aunt would chop up some ginger root and some orange peel and let it boil on the stove for a few hours. It would make the whole house smell amazing. She would add in some lemon juice and at touch of clover honey, and tell me to drink up as got ready to go out with her college friends. Being a kid with asthma this would make my chest and throat feel better in the long run . The fennel and saffron add a nice flavor to it as well. This reminds my of Samovar’s Orange Ginger Herbal Blend, with more kick.

The dry “bud” has a nice woodsy smell. I was eager to get home to brew it. The wet bud was a little musty but had a sweet cedar aroma. I did not know how long to brew it so I did it for 3 mins. It seemed to be enough to get the flavor from the buds. I don’t know what to say about the tea…I might have to come back to it.

After drinking this again I can see how this tea can grow on you. I have steeped it 6 times. 2mins,5mins,10mins,15mins,20mins, 1 hour. The buds really do take off on the flavor. I will have to try the new silver buds.

Well I was on the fence about buying this. I have not had earl grey in a long time without the word crème following it. So I did not know if I should get the Golden Earl or the Lavender Earl Green. So here it is the Golden won. The bag smelled amazing. Orange and honey with light Bergamot scent in the back.
I am writing this note after drinking it twice. The first time was not the best experience. After brewing it and tasting it something was a little off. Sadly I can not explain what it was. The dry and wet leaf smelled great, just when I drank it it did not come together.
I decided to try it again this morning. Much better for sure. The orange and golden buds was right there in front. For the first cup I did not add anything, which I usually don’t. The second steep I wanted to add a little honey.The bergamot was there in the back. Not overpowering the tea.
I used more tea the second time I drank it…I guess that was the problem the first time.

It’s been a while since I went for a tea blend, but the recent tasting notes on this one stirred my curiosity enough to give it a go. I asked David for a sample of this when I saw him recently, and he was happy to send me home with enough for two drinking sessions. I just brewed it up in the past hour, needing to shake off my grog from the long caffeinated work day and night of dancing that preceded my very reluctant rise from the bed this morning.

I put two and a half teaspoons of this blend in my Ruci pot and proceeded with my typical gongfu brewing routine for Chinese blacks: immediate wash, then 5-second first steep, followed by +5 seconds for each infusion following. My initial reaction, the moment the liquor passed my lips on the first steep, exactly echoed the one-sip-wow! that ssajami mentioned recently. There is a beautiful sparkling bite at the front of the tongue as soon as I take each sip. I implicate the formidable alliance of Laoshan Black, Big Red Robe and Xingyang Imperial in yielding this rich sparkle through their combined command of that quality. This is true synergy! The Yunnan Golden Buds further enrich and sweeten the deal, making for a very luxurious texture and flavor profile.

If my description of the above synergy is framed in the language of organized crime, it’s because drinking this blend has made me a bit shifty-eyed, as though it were too good to be legal. I have tasted each of the teas in this blend separately, and they are all great and powerful teas, but I wasn’t expecting (really… could not imagine) the indomitable strength that would come of their conspiring together. I imagine this blend is like an exacting and perfectly organized plot to execute a jewel heist of historic proportions… and all of its culprits managed to capture their loot and escape without a hitch.

This blend is super, and upon trying it I have new respect for David’s taste… which is something I thought I already had the highest respect possible for. What an excellent surprise this was! I will definitely be buying a supply of this blend, and exploring more of the Alchemy offerings.

I got this one as part of my Black Friday/birthday tea order and after reading all of the glowing reviews decided to save it for my birthday (instead of including it in the massive tea-drinking binge that usually follows a tea order).

Oh…..wow. I was not prepared for how incredibly awesome this tea would be! It might have just snagged the spot for my favorite tea ever, and I am not usually the type to have an absolute favorite (can’t leave any tea out, you know) Flowery, sweet, nutty, yummy…and I think I might have oversteeped it but it didn’t hurt it at all.

Backlog: I prepared some of this tea to enjoy while watching TV with my hubby. Still as lovely as it was the first time I enjoyed it.

Yay for jasmine! When I saw others posting their tasting notes about this tea, I knew I had to try it. I absolutely love jasmine, and I have been so very impressed with all that I’ve tasted from Verdant thus far, I knew that this would be an amazing tea experience.

And, indeed, it is.

The jasmine is a strong flavor, but, it does not taste perfume-y in any way. For those of you who have tried bad jasmine teas in the past, this is an example of a GOOD jasmine… not just good, but GREAT jasmine. The flowery flavor is fresh, sweet, and when brought together with the creamy notes from the white tea, tastes incredibly indulgent. The White Yunnan has some of the qualities one would expect from a black Yunnan, specifically, the peppery spice tones… but of course, with a delicate white tea, they are more delicate. The warmth of the spice flavor is a pleasant contrast to the sweet jasmine.

An absolutely wonderful jasmine. Definitely one of my favorites that I’ve tried thus far.

This was my sample from my 2nd order from verdant. I get a little surprised every time with a great sample…since I leave it up to them.The last sample was the Sun Dried Jing Shan Green tea, which I purchased more of with this order.
The scent of Jasmine was just right. When I opened the box it was the first thing that I smelled, which confused me because I did not think I ordered anything with Jasmine. It was at the bottom of the box…Yunnan White Jasmine. The smell was not artificial smelling at all. This is my second white jasmine tea. The first was the Steepster Select pearls…which I traded. I did not think it had a good balance of jasmine and white.
I decided to brew this in my new tasting set from Adagio. Since my gaiwan broke this was the next best thing for this tea. The jasmine was not over powering the white at all. A nice balance. The second steep came and went quickly. I was wondering where the apricot jam flavor was going to come through. It was not until my second to last sip that it hit. Very nice! The third steep the apricot jam flavor was even more prominent in the tea. I am now on my 4th steep and the apricot is still going strong with the jasmine.
While I am not typically a white tea girl….this was a nice indulgence.

Thanks for the sample. :)

Almost through my Verdant Alchemy blend adventure. I have been eyeing this on the site for a while now. Out of the 11 teas that I purchased last order I wanted to save this towards the last of my blends run. This is very very very good. Buttery and floral are the key words that jump out when you are drinking this. The orange highlights the buttery sweetness well. I am on my 4th steep and the orange is coming out a little more then before.

For an oolong girl this was a real treat.Great blend for sure!

There was just too much talk about Verdant here to not at least give them a try, especially their green tea and pu’er, so when they had an excellent deal recently, I took them up.

This was one of the samples I requested. I have very limited experience with pu’er… just two others; one ‘beginner-friendly’ shu from a tea store that wasn’t too bad, and a sample of Guan Zi Zai 2005 from Life in Teacup.

I don’t have any concerns about sheng; to me, aged tea is no more strange than other aged things, cheese, wine, etc. So approaching this tea was no concern. In fact, I imagine shu is to tea as cabbage is to kim chee, sauerkraut, etc. and I love certain things that have been fermented well, so I can imagine enjoying shu a lot, as well. On the other hand, I have heard a lot of horror stories about it, so I would probably approach it more carefully.

I also enjoy (to a certain extent) earthy and smokey flavors, like mate (which is almost always smoked) or houjicha, so pu’er hasn’t seemed a strange concept to me, rather very intriguing.

I followed Verdant’s instructions, and using my makeshift gaiwan, put the remainder of my sample (3-4g) in, rinsed once, and used 2-3oz water per infusion, going up to about 17.

The leaf looked like it had actually been loose pu’er rather than pressed into a cake (the leaves were not stuck together and looked like dried, unrolled, dong fang mei ren [oriental beauty]), and as their description states, it sounds like the method of stone pressing causes the leaf to be loosely packed into the cake.

Since I have so little experience with sheng, I don’t know how that influences my impression of this tea. The first steepings (esp the first) had an underlying citrus-like sweetness. It wasn’t sweet like the returning sweetness in the back of the throat, but left an almost sweet flavor somewhere in the middle.

The aroma was a smokey-woody-earthiness, similar to mate but much smoother. I could say it was almost like what you would imagine an earthy cave to smell like (“not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole”).
EDIT: I meant to add here – this was the best part about it for me and delicious!
Besides this smokey-woody flavor, which in one steeping reminded me of a nice savory/salty stew, it was a very smooth tea. I didn’t get much else from it, actually.

Late into the steepings, I experienced a very mouth-drying sensation that was almost unpleasant. I was hoping this would signal a shift in what the tea became/tasted like, but unfortunately it seemed to mean that the tea had only a couple pleasant (but not overly interesting) infusions left.

So, take my long review as you like, since while I know I am someone who could probably really enjoy pu’er, I don’t know a lot of what to expect (what makes one good or not). As far as whether I simply liked this tea- yes, I did, but it just wasn’t the same as Japanese greens.

I think I knew this before I started, but I don’t believe pu’er is something I will ever get into, at least not for this season of life. I don’t have hours to do long tea sessions and many infusions. The best I can get most days is one pot/4 infusions, but more often it is 3 infusions (for a Japanese tea, which is an easier brewing method than gaiwan, imo). I will certainly enjoy a few pots of pu’er here and there, but I simply don’t have the time to do it proper justice (via gaiwan).

Unless, someone who has a lot of experience with it can say that the western method works well? If I could do the western method and drink 3-4 infusions, instead of 15-20, that would be doable. Let me know if that really does good sheng/shu justice and what the parameters for each infusion could be (in general).

I was a little fuzzy headed this morning after a night of tossing and turning, so instead of having my morning green tea I thought I would start the day with a kick. Breakfast Tea sounded like what I needed, but my tin of Scottish Blend was empty. Hmm, good opportunity to try the Verdant Tea Imperial Breakfast for the first time.

The aroma of the dry leaves, fresh from the bag, are truly intoxicating. Mostly Laoshan Northern Black, with a touch of the big leaves of Yunnan and a bare hint of oolong. After 4 minutes of steeping, the color of the tea is not very dark, but the aroma is amazing and I can’t wait any longer.

The first taste is the wonderful fruity cocoa flavor of the Northern Black and an aftertaste of the golden Yunnan. Smooooth! The pu’erh and oolong are playing a game of tag on the back of my tongue bringing a full body and woodsy roundness. My mind is searching for some kind of jolt that usually comes with Breakfast Blends, but instead there is just the slow, steady unfolding of warm flavors. Very nice! It is like awakening from a deep slumber from the sounds of the forest or pleasant music instead of the jarring sound of an alarm clock.

I did my meditation, prepared for the day, and now am enjoying another cup of this beautiful tea. The second steeping brings forth new adventures from the blend of teas. I think this is so much more than just for breakfast… I can drink this all day long. :)

Once upon a time someone, I forget who, shared a sample with me of a charcoal roasted TGY, I forget from where. I don’t think that one was aged, but I do remember that I really liked it and that I was going to do some investigation about whether it was something I could buy for myself, some shops being, as we all know, out of my reach due to geography. But then I forgot about it.

When I went to look at Verdant Tea’s site, to see what else other than the Laoshan Northern Black that was leaving half of Steepster in fits of ecstacy, I came across this one and was reminded of aforementioned charcoal roasted TGY. So obviously I had to have some.

The idea of roasting oolongs that would otherwise be on the greener end of the spectrum really appeals to me. I do generally prefer the darker oolongs, so that’s probably the reason. Here’s a funny fact. The darker end of the spectrum and the greener end, I like those. Oolong that are more halfway between the two? I just don’t find them very appealing at all. Not plain, anyway. I just can’t figure out what it’s trying to be, because to me it’s neither here nor there. The infamous Raspberry Oolong is based on one of those in-betweens, but that’s okay because it’s flavoured. The perfect oolong of this sort might be out there, but I haven’t found it yet.

But leaving that tangent, let’s return to the tea at hand. The aroma is really nice here. It’s a sort of mixture between cocoa and coal. The first association I got when I poured water on the leaves was burnt toast. Maybe it’s my affinity to smoky teas that make me really enjoy this aroma in a tea. Not so much in toast, though. It doesn’t actually smell smoky, but it sort of smells like it could be, and I find that really nice.

The flavour is really woodsy and again there is a hint of burnt toast. The note of cocoa from the aroma is still there in the flavour, but it’s not very noticable.

Actually, the flavour kind of reminds me a little of pears. There is definitely some sort of fruity sensation going on somewhere in here. It’s all juicy and not quite but nearly sweet, and it results in an aftertaste that covers every mucus membrane of the mouth. I can actually feel it on my gums! It’s sort of slightly cool and a bit prickly, a little like mint does. Not quite as heavily as actual mint, of course. Just exactly enough to be noticable.

As the cup cools, I find the cocoa comes out more and there is a little astringency. And suddenly I notice a very strong note of hazelnut. It’s right there in the front waving a big flag and shouting “I AM HAZELNUT! HEAR ME ROAR!” I can’t believe I didn’t notice this before I was halfway through the cup! I could have sworn it wasn’t there in the beginning. What sort of switcheroo magic stuff is this?

Finally, let’s come back to that burnt toast aspect, because that’s interesting. As mentioned I have a certain affinity to smoky teas, and although this doesn’t have even as much as a hint of a smoke note that I can find, I would still place it, mentally, on the outskirts of that group. It’s that burnt toast that does it. It creates the idea of smoke, but then when you look closer there’s nothing there. It’s like an optical illusion for the tongue.

I’m enjoying this, and it totally lived up to my memory and expectations from that other one I mentioned.

The real mystery, though, is this. How can burnt toast in toast be so unpleasant, when in tea it’s so nice?

I’ve had Lavender Earl Greys and I’ve had Green Earl Greys, but I’ve never had a Green Lavender Earl Grey. Given my good experiences with Verdant’s Alchemy line so far, and my interest in various Earl Greys including those of the lavender persuasion, I had to ask for a sample of this one with my latest order. Thanks, David, I’m excited to try it!

The dry leaf smells pretty lavendery with some greenish teaish scents and is that some bergamot? The bergamot isn’t really the main player in the aroma of the dry leaf. I steeped this according to the directions for the base tea (Jingshan green) and the resulting cup smells very intriguing. Lavender, yes, but with a warm, almost cookie-ish aroma. Well that was a surprise. Again, I can’t really pick out the bergamot in the scent. The flavor is intriguing and unexpected. Lavender is the most forward flavor in this tea, but overall it is very light and delicate with a faint sweetness. It is somewhat bright, but more “crisp” than anything else. I’m afraid I don’t actually taste the bergamot nor the lemongrass. I am very much enjoying this cup of tea, but what it’s really making me want is a cup of this tea unflavored, and perhaps to see it in a straight Green Earl Grey blend sans lavender. From reading tasting notes of the base tea, I feel like the lavender, light as it is in this blend (seriously the least obtrusive I’ve ever had in a tea), is steamrolling over the other flavors a bit.

One more cup before passing a bit on to a friend.

Gentle on the sweet grass, a bit buttery, and nicely floral. The real flavor that WOWed me with this one is the comparison to Rock Candy…WHA???? Oh yes! it’s true! It’s sugary-sweet just like one of my childhood faves Rock Candy! Woot! It makes for a juicy wonder that is or sure! The after taste is a bit like lime which is both surprising yet oh-co-pleasing! This is wonderful! Truly WONDERFUL! LOVE this! It’s one of my faves from Verdant so far…but then again…just about everything I have tried of theirs has been LOL :)

This is a great blend and a great intro to pu’er if you don’t want to dive head first into the world of pu’er. I am not a huge pu’er fan, but I have been trying to get more into them. It seems that verdant’s pu’ers are the only ones that I like. I have already purchased more of the Diyi Cornfields Shu that I got from Steepster Select, and I wanted to look at the other pu’ers that they had to offer. I told myself that while the descriptions of them were enticing I thought I should look more into the Alchemy Blended pu’ers to start off with.

It was hard to choose between this one and the Chrysanthemum Pu’er, but the word “spiced” tipped me over to this one. Me being a chai lover I had to try this one first.
The dry leaf smells amazing. No mustiness that has stopped me before, but pure spice. I put two nuggets and 2 teaspoons of the spices. Did a quick rinse and brewed it for 5 mins. The wet leaf was so sweet and spicy smelling that I almost forgot that it was pu’er. The first sip was smooth and clean. Clean dirt with ginger and orange. I could not make out much of the elderberry, but the galangal was in the background.

Very nice Verdant:)

Well, as the rating indicates, I thought this tea was simply amazing. This tea reminds me a lot of a eucalyptus “tea” my mom use to make, but without the medicinal aftertaste. It had a soft “cloudy” sweetness, with eucalyptus and raisin notes in the aftertaste. There was also a pleasant tingling sensation that came through towards the end of the first cup and almost dominated the second.

Where do I even begin? Feng Huang Shan (Phoenix Mountain) Dancong oolongs are probably the big obsession in my tea life right now. I’ve been gripped by a fascination with these teas since I tried my first sample of Mi Lan Xiang (Honey Orchid Fragrance) several months ago. That first experience immediately plunged me deep into a research mission, needing to know as much as possible about this kind of tea, and desiring to try the finest representatives of it I can find. I’ve since acquired a yixing teapot to dedicate exclusively to Phoenix Mountain oolongs.

Feng Huang oolongs have been called the doppelgänger of teas, speaking to their almost bewildering capacity to naturally mimic the flavors and fragrances of completely different plants, foods and spices. There are something like 30+ distinguishable “fragrance” (Xiang) varieties of Feng Huang Dancong, each coming from a different small grove of old and rare tea trees. In the case of a few of these fragrance varieties, the seasonal harvest is confined to merely a handful of trees, and it is said that there is only a single tree in existence for the rarest of these varieties. Aside from these extremely rare examples, there are about a dozen more commonly known and accessible varieties, the most popular being Mi Lan Xiang.

Many of the Phoenix Mountain tea trees, at the highest elevations (1000+ meters), are centuries old; and I think this is a significant factor that contributes to the fascinating complexity of these teas. Like the old grove Yunnan tea trees that are harvested to produce fine sheng pu’er, I feel there is very deeply layered and complex terroir being expressed by these Phoenix Mountain tea leaves. The deeper I’ve gotten into tea drinking, the more I’ve become convinced that Camellia sinensis has a capacity to express terroir that is unmatched by any other plant. And it is staggering to imagine, in the case of old tea trees such as this, the consolidation of centuries of environmental effects, over the life of these trees, finding expression in the tea produced from them. Some of my peak experiences with tea have found this terroir expressed with a sensory experience that the entire landscape and environment of a given tea’s life is unfolding like a vision in my mind, at times becoming so vivid that I feel physically present in that place. One more thing adding to the fascination of Phoenix Mountain oolong is that the local communities of Chao Zhou and Shantou are reputed to be the birthplace of gongfu tea drinking. Given the nature and quality of tea that these communities had immediate access to, the possibility that gongfu cha first developed there seems reasonable enough to me.

So as for the tea in question, I’m writing my tasting note after having just had an hour-plus long session brewing this Huang Zhi Xiang over 20+ gongfu infusions in my Ruci pot. I’ve had about half a dozen sessions with this tea to date, mostly in my yixing pot, but I didn’t want to say anything about it until I could set aside some time to sit down and drink it with undivided attention in another vessel, as my yixing pot for this kind of oolong is still very young and gobbling up a lot of flavor. The glazed Ruci pot was a perfect alternative for this purpose.

The dry leaves smell like orange flavored candy. Immediately on touching hot water the leaves begin to release a woody aroma that I associate with green young tree branches that are pliable when you try to break them and somewhat wet when cut into. When the leaves are completely wet, there is also a vague aroma reminiscent of sandalwood bark and hints of seaweed.

In initial steepings, the front-end of the flavor has a woody base with dominating notes of orange zest, more specifically – zest of blood orange. There is a bright finish on the front-end of this flavor, which could at first be mistaken for bitterness by someone less familiar with the various qualities of texture that tea can have. It is not bitterness though. This finish is a textural quality similar in character to the fine effervescence of hard cider, which sparkles on the front central area of the tongue. I would also associate this flavor/texture composition to some degree with zhang, a quality more commonly found in sheng pu’er, which I would liken to the profile of fermented juniper that comes through in the pine-like quality of gin. Interestingly, the initial sparkle of this tea is wrapped in a silky softness that comes forward after a few seconds and enfolds the mouth.

My readings have indicated that an intense “finish” in the foretaste is prized by the Dancong drinkers of Chao Zhou, who prefer to drink these oolongs with a huge ratio of leaf to water, often filling a gaiwan up to the brim with leaf. This Chao Zhou style of brewing looks for an intense foretaste followed by a deeper appreciation of the complex and enduring aftertaste. For my part, I’m using enough leaf to fill my small 3oz. gaiwan 2/3 – 3/4 full, which is plenty for my tastes.

The overall mouthfeel of this tea is medium-bodied, being neither thick and syrupy nor thin and vaporous. It feels buoyant, as if its edges are round and won’t sink below the sides of the tongue without special movement to make that happen.

Aftertaste is huge, and unfolds over a very long time. This is apparently one of the sure signs of a quality Dancong. I’m convinced that if left to itself, and not covered by eating or drinking something else, this aftertaste could remain all day. The sparkle texture alone stays on the tongue for a surprisingly long time. Breathing stokes the aftertaste like a bellows, with the post-sip retro-nasal aroma release having potent effects. I feel there is a whole orange grove here! The woody bark, the ripe fruit, breeze and sunlight, even birdsong in the trees. Fantastic.

After ten or so short steepings, the tea seems to be waning, but don’t be fooled! It’s just changing and about to start giving out different qualities. In the later steepings, the sparkle texture expands to the side of the tongue , the body grows creamy, a melon-like flavor begins to develop, and then yields to notes of butternut squash.

This tea is invigorating, and will definitely wake you up and feel alert, but I feel it also has enough relaxing cha-qi to allay any sharp caffeinated feeling – like you might get with a CTC black Indian tea or machine-cut Japanese green tea.

All in all, I will say that I am deeply pleased with this amazing tea. For me this tea sets a benchmark for the complexity I want in a Dancong oolong. I love it!

Honey. Clover. (Maybe clover honey?) As it steeps, I’m getting something that reminds me of skiing in Steamboat Springs, CO. It’s mouthwatering…

1st steeping (4 min, boiling water): Honey. Slightly creamy. Now I’m getting a wave of cocoa—this IS like chocolate milk! Also, the clover is coming through. Still gives me the taste of skiing in Steamboat, and because that’s kind of confusing, I’ll explain: Every year around spring break, my family and another family that we’re all best friends with (the family we choose) go skiing in Steamboat, CO. Every year except for one we get completely dumped on with an out-of-the-blue late-season blizzard, and we get to ski in 3 foot deep powder to our hearts’ content. Pretty lucky. There’s this sunscreen/anti-windburn stick we always put on our faces when we’re out there, and the smell of it—whatever essential oils are in it—takes me back to bright shiny morning, riding up the gondola, wrapped up in base layers, coats, mittens, pants, gaiters, helmets, goggles, clipping into bindings and launching off into another adventure that gives meaning to life. It’s one of the sweetest memories I have.

Now does that make sense?

2nd steeping (4 min 45 sec, boiling water): Something I forgot to mention in the first steeping—the cocoa taste reminds me of the chocolate milk I would get at a diner I went to on some special mornings with my mom when I was little. I never got chocolate milk pre-made anywhere else (I claimed it tasted like cardboard), but I got it here and it was delicious.
Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled programming. Same mouthwatering aroma while it’s steeping…I’m probably going to use my coupon to get more of this…upon sipping, the cocoa taste is predominant, still with the delicious clover honey note, and wow, this is fantastic.

3rd steeping (~6 min, boiling water): The cocoa has receded a little and the clover honey’s coming back. Mmmm. This is a more subtle sweetness. I’m getting a bit of tingly cinnamon warmth on the back of my tongue, too.

4th steeping (~8 min, boiling water): Put this in my travel mug. Prior steepings have used up much of the flavor, but it retains the slightest hint of cocoa. It’s comforting nevertheless.

Overall: Sweet mercy, this is amazing. I love black tea, and this is one of the most comforting, tasty, unique ones I’ve ever tried. This has made it into my hall of fame—I’m going to always have some of this on hand.