Verdant Tea

Once upon a time Verdant sold this tea, and I bought a oolong sampler than included it. That was ages ago! I found the remainder of this sample kicking around the back of my tea drawer and decided to use it up. I decided to give this one the gongfu treatment and put what was left in my little ru kiln teapot. The dry leaf still smells green and floral and lovely.

I used the general oolong gongfu instructions that Verdant provides: quick rinse, ~5 second first steep. The wet leaf smells remarkably charred and roasty, which was totally unexpected. Guess I forgot this was a half-oxidized oolong base. The tea, however, smells floral in a thick, rich, dark way, and tastes ridiculously sweet. Seriously, did someone put sugar in my pot when I wasn’t looking? On this first steep I can’t quite get beyond that candy-ish, slightly floral flavor, like pure sugar. At times there are notes in the background of green-ness and a very slight hint of toastiness, but mostly an overwhelmingly sweet aftertaste that lingers in your mouth and the back of your throat, reactivating every time you breathe in. It’s quite extraordinary.

Unfortunately my subsequent steeps weren’t so awe-inspiring… the sweet aftertaste remained, though growing fainter, but the main part of the sip is just kind of vegetal and a little roasty and bit boring to be honest. But I have kind of consistantly been unable to make multiple tasty steeps when I do gongfu, no matter what I seem to do, so it’s probably more me than anything else.

Back to a nice flowery oolong. I like it when an oolong with a flower in the name is actually scented with those flowers (as opposed to being given that name because the natural characters might evoke that flower) because my expectation of those oolongs is often for a more floral tea than I end up getting. This tea is interesting because of all the myriad of aromas and flavors going on!

When I first smell the dry leaf it has that vegetal, slightly grassy, oolongy, slightly floral aroma that I might expect from any green oolong. What’s crazy is that if I blow into the pouch, the aroma that comes out is roasty toasty grains, though more like toasted rice than a dark oolong. That slowly fades back into the first aroma, and somewhere in the middle of that transition is what the tea actually ends up tasting like. It’s also what the steeped tea smells like: greenish florals (a kind of oolongy florals, not intense like smelling that particular flower) with a warm toasted grains backdrop. This is a green oolong that you can definitely tell is half-oxidized, and the combo of flavors is nicely balanced. The main body of the sip seems to really be the vegetal, not-too-floral green oolong with the toasted background notes. There is some natural sweetness to this oolong, and it swells up at the back of the sip along with more intense florals. Overall this is a very tasty tea, and really not overally floral for a tea that is scented with orchid flowers.

Once again started my day with this fascinating green tea. It brews so perfectly in my Koryo (Korean) celadon infuser cup, warming my hands and warming my soul. I went back to review my previous tasting notes on this one and it continues to amaze me that it fuses some of the best qualities of Dragonwell/Longjing with the Gyokuro and Laoshan green flavors and aromas. I had a second steep an hour after the first, putting me in a good mindset to make it through another day! :)

What a beautiful tea this Dragonwell Style Laoshan Green! The dry leaves look identical to the very high quality dragonwell (or longjing 龍井茶) teas that I have had the pleasure of drinking. Flat, pan fired and distinctly complete — not broken or crumbled. Truly worthy of pondering the long journey these leaves have made to make it into my cup.

The aroma is the first surprise. Not nutty like the longjing, but that distinct smell of the other Laoshan greens, combining the butter bean aroma with the slight scent of the ocean mists. When described as being somewhat like a Japanese gyokuro, I had my doubts, since gyokuro teas are not only shaded before harvest, but also come from different varieties of cultivars. I should have known better, since David has such a wonderfully developed palate and honesty which I have never seen hyped. You see, I love gyokuro, but my budget leaves it to being enjoyed on only the rarest of occasions!

So I brewed this at a lower temperature (140F/60C) and for just 90 seconds, and what a wonderful complex flavor from this perfectly translucent light green infusion. Sweetness, light grassy flavor and a touch of umami, a surprisingly complex green that is hard to categorize, yet truly enjoyable. It shares the characters of several well known tastes (gyokuro, longjing and Laoshan green) and comes up with a whole new flavor/aroma profile. Second infusion, was slightly higher temp, and only for 45 seconds, yielding a new profile that is even sweeter and lighter. More infusions coming, but I could not resist writing this tea experience up and sharing on Steepster…

Da Hong Pao from Imperial Teas in Lincoln England was my first experience of this tea. I love its darker nature and the toasty/roasted nature.

Sipdown (Verdant Edition), 224. This tea is obviously old, given that it is spring 2011 picking. I only had a small amount of it left and I’m not sure why I was holding out on drinking it for so long… hoarding beloved tea impulses, I guess. I only had enough of this one for a western-style mug.

Despite its age, this smells amazing. Sweet and floral and buttery. The flavors are also still amazing, although I know they have diminished a bit. But still, if I can get this much flavor out of it two years on, it is a pretty amazing tea, and it still makes me very happy. Can’t wait until the spring 2013 picking!

Going gong fu with this one this afternoon. Approximately following Verdant’s steeping directions, my little teapot is about 6oz, and I used a tablespoon of leaves which is about 5g. First steep (after a quick rinse) was about 10 seconds by the time all the liquid got poured out of the teapot. The liquor is very pale, barely changing the color of my light green ru teaware but it certainly smells good. Fresh and floral and buttery and very sweet. First steep is light, but very tasty. Damn, I love TGYs, and this is a beautiful one. So sweet, especially as it cools quickly in my tiny tea cup (probably one of my favorite things about gong fu brewing… I am always waiting for my tea to cool because I prefer it warm but not hot). Orchidy florals, but not perfumy in any way, and with wonderful honeysuckle/honey notes.

Second steeping, 15 seconds. The color has deepened considerably. This time the sweet buttery floral aromas are joined by a leafy greenness. This time I definitely pick up the saffron notes mentioned in the description. Still sweet, but more robust. The florals are a bit darker. Third steeping, 20 seconds, is very similar to the second. I really have to let this steep cool way down before I really enjoy it, because while hot it lacks the florals and sweetness and honey qualities. My subsequent (4th and 5th) steepings all added 10 seconds in time and were all very similar to these steepings, like the tea hit a note and just kept sticking there. Even a sixth steep which jumped to 90 seconds showed little variation. While the are all pretty tasty, they all seem a bit weak and none of them are as interesting and outstanding as that first, rapturous steep, which makes me think that maybe I need to use a tad more leaf to start, or keep my steeping times really short throughout the first steepings, or both.

This tea is just out of control. I haven’t had it for a while, but man is it tasty. I typically brew my oolongs at 195°F for 3 minutes, which is what I’ve done in the past for this one, but this time I noticed that the instructions on the back of the tea pouch said 205°F for oolongs, so that’s what I did. I used to be afraid of steeping my oolongs at boiling or near boiling because I thought they would get overcooked that way, but I’ve done it with a few teas under instruction from the company now, and have been rewarded. This one is super sweet once it cooled down, with those floral, buttery, creamy, almost caramelly notes. Yum.

Ah, finally time to try this one! Oh my goodness, the dried leaf smells amazingly sweet and floral; I am very excited. I’ve tried one plain Tieguanyin before (at the Harney Soho shop), and while I enjoyed pretty well I wasn’t blown away or moved to buy it. I have a distinct feeling this one will be different!

Brewed “western” style in my 12 oz Kati cup. The liquor is a pale yellowish green, and it smells awesome. Fresh and floral, warm and buttery, sweet and creamy. Yup, the raves about this tea are totally warranted: it is amazing. The main body of the sip is light and fresh and green and buttery, and then toward the end the florals (orchid, magnolia, lilac) really come out along with a very lightly sweet aftertaste that gets a bit stronger as the tea cools. It still never gets as sweet as some oolongs I’ve had, just a faint wisp of sweetness to tease your taste buds. All of the characters of a Tieguanyin are present in spades in this tea; truly an amazing example of it’s kind.

I’m so thoroughly enjoying my second round with this tea. It’s really uplifting, and I’m really getting the candy qualities in my first three infusions.

What a gorgeous tea! Intoxicating-smelling and delicious, this is definitely the nicest Tieguanyin I’ve got my hands on so far. This is my tea happy place, for sure. It’s fascinating to evolve with it through the infusions, and the experience makes me feel so privileged and content. This is floral, green, sweet, and creamy in ways that change slightly between infusions but that remain perfectly balanced. Delicate and yet satisfyingly robust!

I had this tea the other day at a co-worker’s tea gathering. I’ve had the big red robe several time before. Some of them were costly premium ones brought over by relatives from Singapore. Compared to what I’ve had, this tea not as heavily roasted as my other big red robe. The one is a bit sweeter but is missing the thick texture in premium batches. Overall this is a decent tea.

This summer, I have been enjoying the Laoshan Northern Green from Verdant Teas, and have taken a real shine to its sugar snap pea flavor and nice light aroma. When my supply was out, I perused both Steepster and the Verdant Tea’s website, where I found some great videos about the farm, and a great description of this Early Summer Laoshan Green. I was intrigued, placed an order, and quickly received my package, filled with teas I can’t wait to experience and enjoy.

I loaded up my medium size glass gaiwan with 4 grams of tea, and did a quick steep of 175F water for 30 seconds (the website says 3 seconds, which seemed too short to my eye). Wow, what an interesting aroma! Somewhat like boiled peanuts or butterbeans – and a hint of saltwater sea spray. And the taste was just about the same. Very solid, sweet and possessing that bit of umami flavor that I have not experienced outside of Japanese green teas. It was so very good, that I followed the initial steep with 4 more, and then started to get a bit of bitterness. I left the leaves in cold water overnight, which cold brewed me just a tad more.

Today I am sipping on this tea once again. I haven’t even started any of the other teas I ordered, other than taken a good healthful whiff of the Artisan Revival puerh tea that David so generously included with my order (read my Steepster review of that one, for another fantastic tea). The only problem with this tea experience (I say with great sarcasm), is that I can’t get the lyrics out of my head:
…
Some people are fat, some people are lean
But I want you to show me the person
Who doesn’t like butterbeans
Yay!

Well, you can have your yams
You can have your collard greens
But if you want to please little ol’ me
You better fix butterbeans
…
Anyone old enough to recognize this snippet from “Butterbean” by the B-52’s?

Oh, wow. The autumn harvest is incredible. I don’t remember the summer one terribly clearly aside from really enjoying it, but going from my notes on it I would say I’m finding this richer, and the toasty-grainy notes are more at the forefront here. It’s sweet but less so, still astoundingly smooth. I’m thinking honeyed, roasted barley with cocoa.

Complete love. I’m not often taken aback by a tea at the first sip like I was by this one!

I am so pleased with Verdant Tea. Great service, selection, packaging, and free shipping to Canada, plus I received this in five business days. Packages coming from the UK can manage that but I don’t know if any from the US have even come close. They tend to be more in the three-to-four week range!

Anyway, the description for this isn’t joking when it says “perfectly smooth and honey-like”. It’s probably the smoothest black tea I’ve ever experienced, and it’s incredibly sweet with enough body that I don’t find it offputting. The dry leaf smelled toasty, sweet, and green but more in a woodsy way than grassy. The flavour keeps all these elements but is mellower than I expected and has a nice cocoa-y element. I was thinking roasted marshmallow, so it’s funny to see TeaEqualsBliss noticed the same thing. There is so much to like here. Delicious.

I wanted to get this note in before I forgot everything but I’ve only had the chance for my first infusion in a gaiwan. I’m off for some more. I’ve been surprised at how nice blacks are this way, and this one is a shining example!

This is lovely. One of my favorite Pu-erh teas thus far, maybe THE favorite. It doesn’t taste like what I’ve come to recognize as Pu-erh, in fact, if someone had simply placed a cup before me, I don’t know that I’d immediately identify it as a Pu-erh. This is very nice, indeed.

The aroma is amazing. Normally, I brace myself for a strong earthy aroma, but, with this pu-erh, only hints of earthiness are there. Mere hints. In the dry leaf, I noticed a hint of mushroom more than the strong, musky, earthy (dirt) smell that I have come to identify as Pu-erh. That mild earthiness translates to the taste as well, with mere hints of an earthy taste. This is extraordinarily enjoyable. I taste hints of fruit in this cup – something I have never really associated with a Pu-erh before. A solid flavor of wood comes through, as well as beautiful spice notes that are lightly peppery. Not spicy or peppery in a “hot” kind of way, but more of a mild pepper note that never quite develops fully, but continues to develop as I sip… still never quite reaching PEPPER exactly, but only subtle-y nudging at it.

Wonderful Pu-erh. I’m currently on my fourth infusion. I find that the more you steep this one, the more complex it becomes. I would recommend this to any tea enthusiast, even those who have found Pu-erh not to their liking in the past. This one will change your mind!

This tea (#25) is exceptional. It doesn’t even have any hard-to-get ingredients or super-limited teas. But alas, I guess it wasn’t popular enough (or beloved enough by someone on staff) to keep its place in the permanent collection. At least I got some more when they reblended it last year.

Once again, I am posting my review of the reblend of this tea in the original listing because other people have been doing that as well, and splitting off a new one now would be difficult. But I have to distinctly say that this is the reblend because I still have some of the original blend in my cupboard!

So first off, holy crap fresh Gardens of Anxi is bowling me over. Just the smell of the dry leaf is astounding. SO much orange and jasmine and loveliness. It is potent, especially compared to my old stuff. I will say that the old blend has more leaf and less “stuff” than the new blend (since I can compare them directly). But the new one just smells amazing.

Because of all the “stuff” I ended up using 3 tsp for my mug instead of my usual 2, just to make sure I got enough TGY in the cup. This is lovely, and still deserving of my super high rating. 99 is as high as I go (I’ve never rated a tea 100), and this was always one of my loves. This totally has the lovely candy-like quality I remember about the original blend. Buttery jasmine caramels. MMmmmm. With a good dose of bright, citrusy orange. Such a beautiful blend with a beautiful spring TGY. Thanks again to Verdant for letting me buy some of this tea so I can have a fresh version in my stash!

A little bird told me that this tea was reblended for this month’s blends club… the month that I cancelled. Of course, I knew that would happen! One of my favorite blends ever, and I cancelled right before it was reblended in a very limited capacity. It is just about enough to make me rejoin the blends club, especially since I’ve been fairly successful in selling off the ones I don’t like lately. I mean, it’s only $17/month.

This is an elderly tea for sure. You can sit on many black blends for a long time, but that’s just not the case for oolongs and greens. I’ve been cold brewing through a large stock of a green Dammann blend that has lost most of its flavor, and it’s kind of sad. This one has hints of greatness around the edges still. Lovely florals, notes of butter and candy. The are just weak.

Much as I don’t want to just “get through” this blend, I’m wondering if I should cold brew. It’s certainly not getting any younger.

Woohoo, I have enough time for another cup of tea today! I feared I would be limited to one as it is the teaching day from hell today.

This is perhaps one of the saddest of my teas. I bought a big pile of it when it was going away forever, and I already know the flavor is fading fast. That’s what you get for using high-end seasonal teas and no added flavoring oils. I put extra leaf in my infuser today (and it’s busting out!) to see what would happen.

Well it smells good! Perhaps more buttery and less floral. I think jasmine-scented things fade perhaps the fastest of all. Drink your jasmines fast! Anyway, this is still surprisingly sweet and delicious, even though it’s perhaps missing some of the subtler flavors that it had when first blended. It’s orangier at these steep parameters, but still gives off a tieguanyin candy vibe with the sweetness. Still love it, even if it is old!

I have been thinking about this tea lately for some reason. Maybe it’s the influx of tieguanyins to my cupboard, maybe it’s just thinking about teas I’ve had for a long time. I actually have a significant amount of this tea left. I ordered four ounces of it when it was going out of stock forever, and those came in two pouches. The second pouch hasn’t ever been opened. I have a strong drive to hoard this tea, even though it’s a tieguanyin and I know it is just losing flavor sitting there.

And yeah, it has faded a bit. But this tea, slightly faded, is still miles beyond so many others (to me). It has lost a bit of its natural sweetness, but it’s still floral and buttery. It will probably take me forever to drink this tea, and it will likely be old and flavorless when I finish it, but I will always remember how delicious it was at the beginning when I drink it.

I realized today that I haven’t had an oolong in a while. It’s been almost all black tea, black tea, black tea since I got back in the country. But something triggered in my mind and all of the sudden I really craved a tieguanyin. Also I went through my tea stash recently to update my swaps list, and I saw this one lying neglected in the back of the cupboard. For shame, and one of my favorite teas! It will be a very sad day when I run out of this one.

I’ve been in the mood for more “substantial” teas… things like black teas, and teas that aren’t really fruity but rather have “richer” flavors. It’s a hard feeling to describe, but it’s typified by teas like the Bailin Gong Fu black from Teavivre and Organic Chococolate “O” from the tea spot, or perhaps nutty teas and such. I don’t want jasmine greens, I don’t want white teas, I don’t want high-altitude green oolongs, etc.

So what am I doing drinking a tieguanyin with jasmine blossoms? There’s just something about this tea that edges toward that “richer” flavor. It’s floral, yes, but also buttery and with almost caramely notes to it. Those notes are one of the reasons I love it so much since they bring more to the party than just a floral, sweet oolong. And it’s delivering on my cravings today perfectly.

I just couldn’t get this tea out of my head. Definitely one of my favorite oolong blends, if not actually my very favorite. So delish… if only I could figure out a good way to travel with oolongs!