Verdant Tea

I brewed this for some afternoon tea. Rich and complex with every sip. I can make out the Laoshan Black, and the Golden Buds perfectly. There is a hint of mustiness in the background from the Xingyang 2007 Imperial Pu’er. Its nicely balanced and a vacation from other normal “Breakfast Blends” one may drink.

The Alchemy Blend Adventure continues…:)

So on to my Verdant Alchemy Blend adventure. I picked this up because I have never had an herbal with rose or elderberry. I opened the package and saw the beautiful pink rose petals. The dry mixture had a fragrance of perfume. One of my coworkers said that it smelled like something Marie Antoinette would have had in her teacup.

I brewed 2 teaspoons for 5 mins. The pink from the petals transferred to the liquor and the wet petals were white. I could smell the cinnamon and licorice root right off the bat. Nice..very light. The elderberry was sweet and was matched well with the other ingredients. I’ve had this same tea but with hibiscus instead of the elderberry. While I love hibiscus this is a nice change from the norm. I’m glad I purchased this.

Having a cup of this tonight. After drinking this a lot lately I have realized that I like this chai when I want something light.
I have this chai,Samovar’s Chai, and Yogic’s Chai. To me both the Samovar and Yogic chai beg to have a little milk or almond milk to it. While this chai I think is best with nothing added. I have tried it with milk,almond milk, soy milk, and coconut milk. I love it plain…

Wow…very nice. I have been wanting to try this after I tasted the Laoshan black tea. I opened the package and the spices hit me. I could not smell the tea at all. I was a little worried that it would be just that…SPICE! I gave the packet to a coworker and they said that they could smell it from across the room…it was so strong.

I used about 2 teaspoon in my wabi sabi pot from Samovar. Brewed it for 5 mins and poured. Nice amber color.The chocolate aroma of the Laoshan black was there. It smelled amazing, the spices backed the chocolate flavor of the tea perfectly. I put 2 teaspoons of raw sugar and a drop of cream. It was balanced..really did not need a thing.

This time last year I was trying almost everyones chai. I bought Adagio, Samovar,Yogi,Tazo, Rishi.This to me is the best one. Its because of the Laoshan Black. That tea already has so much dept that it would have to make an amazing chai. I’m so happy I purchased 2 oz of this. I will have to pickup more and do it “old school” on the stove top.
I kind of regret putting the cream, it did not need it……

This lovely Pu’er was an incredible source of energy today. I was feeling tired and I brewed a pot. It gave me a sense of purpose. Contentment. It was nourishing. Truly a great way to start your day. To me, it’s a fortifying cup. A nice dark brown liquor with hints of corn and mint. This is a great morning tea….

After reading all of the tasting notes and seeing that there is a some who love and some who don’t care for it. I love it. I brewed in the yixing for maybe a minute and poured a touch out to smell and see the color. It was ready. The aroma is intoxicating and the flavor is a knockout. I too must admit was put off by some of the reviews. I am getting the corn obviously but with a much more complex profile. It is a lighter Shu that’s for sure. Totally unique. I will say it again, I love it….

Cold and wet Husband asked for something ‘black and robust and super life-giving’ after his shower, having just cycled home in the rain.

I can’t remember if I’ve given him this one before, so I thought now was a good time to do so.

Having the last of this excellent tea this morning while listening to Whitney Houston.

Yeah. It seems an appropriate combination.

:/

(funny thing is, I was never really a fan of hers. I have a handful of songs which I like, but that’s it. And I still have this urge to listen to her now. I had a BIG Michael Jackson phase at around age 14-15, but when he passed on, I didn’t get this same urge to listen to him.)

I actually received my Verdant Tea order a couple of days ago, but then I felt a bit under the weather and in a general bad mood for a couple of days. It’s not very conducive to trying new stuff, so I saved it. This morning, after a three hour nap yesterday and a full nights sleep, I’m feeling less worn out, so I gave it a go.

I couldn’t not buy this one. At the same time I bought it with many considerations first. You see, it has been so very hyped on Steepster lately. Everybody and their grandmother has tried it and they all think it’s the best thing north of the Alps. That sort of stuff tends to make me lose interest. Hype is the reason I’ve, for example, never actually watched any of the Star Wars films in full. It’s also (part of) the reason I’ve never read the Hunger Games series and don’t really intend to. (The other reason being that any book that comes with glowing recommendation on the front from Stephanie Meyers does not exactly win points with me. I have tried Twilight. Utter tripe.) I suppose my problem is that I expect I’ll just get disappointed.

So yeah, I ended up buying this one in spite of all of the above because I found the company’s description genuinely interesting, but I am still approaching this first cup with part expectation, part nervousness, part concern, part fear of disappointment, part sceptism, part curiousity and part excitement.

The aroma of the dry leaf and the aroma just when pouring the water on are very close to one another. It’s very sweet and cocoa-y. No, not cocoa. More like chocolate. A sweet milk chocolate. I’m reminded of that choco-milk powder I used to get at my gran’s house as a child. It came in a large yellow box with a rabbit on the front. I’m not sure if she gave me that because she wanted it to be a treat or if she had got it in her head that I couldn’t drink milk otherwise… If the latter, I wasn’t about to correct her, was I? (And that stuff, by the way, looks really strange when served in a coloured glass!) So, childhood association to my gran. This tea is already well on the way to awesome!

The aroma after it has been steeping is different though. Gone is the milk chocolate sugary powder stuff, and now we’ve got something that is much more like cocoa rather than chocolate. It’s a much deeper and more complex aroma. Along with the cocoa, there is also something very grain-y and another note which I can’t really work out how to describe. It’s a sort of inbetween thing of woodsy and leathery, kind of pipe tobacco-y but at the same time, so not like that at all. On top of all that, there is a rather prominent spicy note, but I can’t work out if I think it’s a note on its own, or if it’s just another aspect of that indescribable woodsy, leathery, tobacco-y, not-tobacco-y note from before. How very difficult.

So there’s a lot going on here aroma-wise and the flavour is no different. Actually, I find it very similar to the beloved Tan Yang Te Ji ♥ (which is STILL being held hostage by tax and customs, argh!). Already here I can say that YES, this tea does indeed very much live up to all the hype. Of course, with the Tan Yang association, I might be rather biased. :) It has that same cocoa-y flavour profile, but I find it to be more grain-y than the Tan Yang. It even has that same sort of fruity aspect to it. Not any particular fruit that I can think of, just some sort of generic fruityness.

Another tea I’m reminded of in this cup is Keemun, and that’s because of how strongly the grain-y aspect is coming through. Keemuns are, for me, very grain-y and have a sometimes floral but most times pseudo-smoky aspect to them. This tea makes me sort of try to imagine a Keemun which has been stripped of that top layer. What’s left then? Grainy-ness. Keemun is another very favourite tea of mine.

This particular tea I find to be a mixture of the very best bits of two of my favourite types. The Keemun with the grain and the Tan Yang with the cocoa and fruit-y business. It’s more Tan Yang than Keemun though, which suits me fine because Tan Yang is my absolute all time favourite. And at the same time, this also strikes me as being very much its own. It may taste like a mixture of the two above, but I cannot bring myself to believe that you could blend those two and get this result. Something similar perhaps, but not the same at all.

Generally, it has a lot of what I tend to think of as ‘Fujian-ness’, this tea, but it’s not Fujian grown at all, is it? I need to consult a map and find out where in China Shandong is. Still on the coast but much further north from Fujian, bordered to the north by the Hebei province which is where Beijing is. Funny, I would have thought that with such similarity in flavour profiles they would have been a lot closer to one another. There must be some similar growing conditions in those two areas. Shandong is also just to the north-east of Anhui which is where Keemuns come from. That explains that similarity. I need to explore this area some more, I think. What else grows there?

I see no reason to faff about with points here. This is a solid 100 if ever I saw one. I’ve fallen hard and will be coming back for more.

ETA: Second steep has gone all cinnamon-y! Forget about above comparisons, this is definitely new! I’ve never met a naturally occurring cinnamon note before. (I like it a lot better than if it had been actually cinnamon flavoured too. Not really a cinnamon flavoured fan, me. Uh, as in, not a fan of cinnamon flavoured things, not me being cinnamon flavoured…)

Upping my-already high-rating! After the second steep, this tea is coming dangerously close to disturbing my light oolong wheelhouse. The sweeter notes that were a bit hidden in the first steeping really came out in the second.

I’m not sure if this is the right word, but I felt this tea was very substantial compared to other greens I’ve had. This was surprising to me because the color after steeping was fairly pale. The overall flavor profile was sweet with a slight fresh steamed broccoli after taste. But, under that umbrella there a few different flavors that would pop up every few sips. If this tea is representative of other Laoshan greens, I look forward to trying more of them. I’m glad I got some of this before it was sold out :)

Sipdown, 220. The rest of this is going off in a swap to another steepster. I also have to say, whaaa? not logged since December 2011?? That is crazy. I must have drank some in the intervenign time and not logged it.

I always thought I preferred autumn picking Tieguanyins, but looking back at my past tasting note and drinking this now, I am not so sure. I just had the last of my 2011 Spring Picking last week, and even as an older tea, to me that had more buttery notes, more floral notes, and more sweetness. This is still very nice, but I definitely do not find it as amazing as the spring picking. I was going to restock on the Autumn Tieguanyin that just came back into stock at Verdant, but now I am thinking maybe I will wait for the 2013 spring picking.

I got this one in the mail last night and I couldn’t wait to try it. Like almost everyone else I loved the spring picking and was excited to try the autumn offering.

To start with, the differences are apparent from the scent of the dry leaf. Like many have pointed out, this tea smells richer and more buttery than its spring counterpart. The dry leaves of both have a floral aroma, but the difference is like that between fresh, bright, light, spring florals and darker, heavy, rich, thick florals. It’s a comparison I made recently for some flavored teas, but it works here (though on a slightly narrower scale). In the aroma of the brewed tea (brewed “western style” in a 12oz cup) these florals are still present and thick (primarily lilac, I would say), with a health dose of buttery creamy nutty notes.

Well I’m not shocked that this tea is awesome. The notes I described above are in the flavor, but also a distinctly green leafiness that I never really got from the spring picking. That’s really the main note in the sip, and all the florals and butteriness and nuttiness is just coming and going. I feel like this one is a little less sweet than the spring… it’s just a tease, a hint, a faint whisp of sweetness playing on the edges of what is really more of a savory quality. All in all a delicious, intriguing offering from Verdant.

This tasted like a typical high quality dark oolong. That’s not a bad thing since I’m starting to love oolongs, but I was expecting a bit more given the description.

I have to say that lately I’ve been thinking about the psychology of tea cups and this has led me to an interesting observation with this tea today.

Side by side I am comparing the taste in a glass mug vs. a japanese cast iron teacup. The tea I am drinking out of the tea cup (it’s black) tasted darker than the tea I’m drinking out of the glass mug. I am a kook.

Anyway it is back to the glass mug for now. This is a lovely light amber color now. I don’t believe I have ever had a golden leaf shu before and I am in for a real treat. This is another tea which is nothing like the traditonal pu-erhs I’ve had in the past. It is much lighter in color and has quite a delicate flavor. I feel I need to sit down and really appreciate it rather than just slopping some tea in a mug.

This reminds me ever so slightly of kombucha or cider which I attribute to the fermentation (and kombucha is made from tea, after all). But no sourness is present here, just a nice minerality combined with a rich beautifully aged tea. I am getting sandalwood and earth. I kind of wish I had not read Verdant’s notes on this tea before drinking it but I am reminded also of a swimming hole deep in the woods somewhere but with natural and clean water. Very surprising for a pu-erh. I will be eager and happy to try anything else that comes out of the Xingyang workshop!

It’s a sipdown… which means I can buy more pu-erhs, right? :)

This tastes a bit muddy to me but perhaps I am having an off day, I rated it very high previously – see notes. :))

It is shaping up to be a pu-erh kind of a day for me so perhaps I’ll get around to trying most of the things in my Verdant shu sampler pack very soon!

I steeped about 1 tsp of this in 8 oz boiling water in a glass mug

When I smelled this steeping, my first thoughts were: bourbon and cherries! So naturally I was excited to try it… ;)

Upon taking a sip, the word out of my mouth is “wow!” This is a pu-erh? It does not taste like any I have had before. It is exceptionally smooth and clean. I am getting cherrywood mixed with honey with only the tiniest hint of earth. It is a beautiful dark amber color which is almost red. This reminds me a bit of some dark oolongs I have tried.

Later steepings are getting lighter and more sweet with a hint of caramel. It is delicious.

Another fantastic offering from Verdant… this is going on my shopping list now!

First time having this tea after a summer of being off teaching in Massachusetts. (Living out of a suitcase and being needed for 16 hours a day is not terribly conducive to gongfu times…) I’m back home at St. Olaf and everything is so right. Including this tea…the lightly caramelized, burnt raisin taste, the centering aroma, the rhythm of making cup after cup, celebrating the fact that my 5 oz glass teapot (thanks Garret!) is out of hibernation.

Some things will always be there.

In just four short hours I’ll be DONE with my last paper and last bit of work for the whole semester! It’ll require some solid effort to finish this off, though, and something to reward me as I’m writing…and this is where the Laoshan Northern Black comes in.

I decided to steep this gongfu style, because I’m getting better at that now. After the ~5 sec rinse, I steeped it about 5 sec (with 2 teaspoons to 5 oz water).

Oh man. Oatmeal raisin toast. It’s been too long since I last had some of this! It’s so creamy and smooth. I almost feel like I put some creamer in here, but…I…didn’t. I am consistently amazed at the stunning smoothness of the black teas I’ve gotten from Verdant.

I think I’ll be able to finish this paper in no time. Bring it on.

UPDATE: I’m on the fourth steeping now, and I’m getting this fantastic sweet, light but full cocoa-y note that’s filling my mouth. Also, I have to mention that when I’ve been steeping this, it’s been hard to come out of my hanging-my-face-over-the-cup reverie because the steeping aroma smells so much like cocoa, particularly like this fantastic cocoa mousse my dad always makes to serve with angelfood cake. Mmmm.

ANOTHER UPDATE: I’ve been drinking this allllll day. I’m on the eleventh steeping now, and it’s still soft, sweet, a little dark and raisiny, and perfect.

THE UPDATES, WILL THEY EVER CEASE? I made it to fifteen infusions. Then I had to go to bed. These leaves have lasted longer than I have.

I went for this one first after my birthday package of tea came…from my tasting note card (which was kindly provided):
Dry: subtly spicy aroma—is that cinnamon? Blankety and warm.
1st steeping: Toasty in the front of the tongue, a little bright and sweet in a blankety, caramel way (yes, blankety is totally a word) along to the back of the palate. Silky, smooth mouthfeel, with absolutely no astringency or bitterness (woohoo!).

So I’m on my fifth infusion now, which I let go for 8 minutes…this tea is magnificent. Roasty, sweet, smooth, and dusky all at the same time. The note that I was trying to name for quite some time was raisin—there is definitely a cinnamon-raisin feel to this tea, and it’s fantastic. This is probably the most unusual black tea I’ve ever tried, and come to think of it, I think it might be the first or second unflavored black tea, too. This is paradise, and I keep detecting more delightful undertones in it. Can’t wait to explore it even more. Thanks, David! Can’t wait to try all the others I got, and to order some more (maybe a pu’erh?) with my nifty coupon code!

Two words: glue stick. Glue. Stick.

Interesting enough to try once but this one is not for me.

This is a very good shu. To me, this is where shu puerh begins to stand apart from aged sheng. Many lesser shu tends toward the murky and greasy in their attempt to emulate the earthiness of wet stored aged sheng. This one carries the typical characteristics of shu but elevates them to a higher level.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that this tea is not at all an attempt toward emulating aged sheng but is perfectly enjoyable by itself; dense, cooling, and hollow in that the flavors are not muddied or confused.

I personally like shu puerh so this tea is very enjoyable to me. In the past I have always preferred an aged sheng to any shu but this one definitely stands on its own merits. It’s different and “shu” enough to be, to me, a sort of paradigm. Good stuff.