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Placed a large Verdant 5g sample order this week. Here’s my first pick of the pack, the Spring 2018 Laoshan Gan Zao Ye. It was my first time with jujube leaf, so I followed Verdant’s guideline for gongfu as closely as possible. 5g, 150mL glass gaiwan, 175F, initial steep of 8s + 4s each steep. No rinse, as the leaves are very delicate and I didn’t want to extract any flavors. Messy gaiwan session – strainer is necessary.

Dry leaf looks like a Laoshan green but finer with lots of thin stems present. It smells upfront like potato sticks snacks and deeper like a dark-roasted barley used for brewing stouts.

First steep, the wet leaf smells like russet potato skins and roasted broccoli. It produces a mostly clear orange-yellow liquor that smells like potato sticks, brownies, edamame and maybe a light sweet cream. The taste is very sweet but light and fruity, not as thick of a sweetness as chewing on fresh sugarcane. It’s almost like a very watered down vanilla sweetened oat milk mixed with those potato sticks.

Second steep turned cloudy and a darker yellow-orange-brown. The wet leaf smells more steamed broccoli than roasted, but both plus baked potato skins. The liquor smells like potato sticks with nectar and light cocoa, light red fruit and vanillin. Tastes lightly sour going in the mouth but the potato sticks take over followed by that sweetness and fruitiness. There is a persistent aftertaste of potato sticks, a lingering sweetness and very light drying quality. Bottom of the glass smells like cocoa and sugarcane.

Third steep retains the qualities of the second with a clearer cup and the addition of edamame in taste. Feels a tad thicker in the mouth. Lingering sweetness is building.

Fourth steep clears more and lightens in color to a golden yellow. I used my fingers to wipe the clinging leaves off the lid of the gaiwan and my fingers are a little sticky. Taste is much the same with the potato sticks turning more into baked potato skins.

Subsequent steeps get lighter in liquor color, aroma, taste and texture, though the lingering sweetness continues to build. I feel very warm and perhaps more relaxed, who knows. I ate some of these very delicate leaves. They chew like overcooked greens, feel fuzzy and a little gritty and taste like edamame. My tongue feels tingly on the sides now.

Color me surprised, this herbal tea is pleasant and is one of the best I’ve ever tasted. I think the qualities of the brew make it suitable for a good nightcap, especially in the cold months but I don’t think I could handle the persistent sweetness every night. It could fit into my herbal rotation a few nights per week. Seems like it would do well in a teaball western style but I like the slight change in flavors when brewed in a gaiwan. I look forward to ordering a bigger bag of this.

Meet one of my alter-egos, Poochie Gamora.

She’s a widow, living alone in the dank pine-paneled trailer of her deceased husband (21 years her senior, he died of lung cancer last year God bless his soul). A cougar now, at least she likes to think she is, but she’s showing signs of age. I’d call her a catch but she does the catching. She wears a long, thick-pile leopard print robe that she bought at Neiman Marcus in Houston, 1968. Permanently embedded in the plush is the scent of Chanel No. 5. Underneath is a silk camisole and garter belt, and in the top of her hose on her right leg she carries a small flask of peaty Laphroaig (she’s finishing off her deceased husband’s stockpile) of which she takes the occasional swig. On the coffee table, she has an open pack of Benson and Hedges menthols sitting next to a full ashtray and a pot of coffee she brewed this morning. It’s weak, can’t taste the coffee, but it’s bitter as hell. A crystal bowl contains a few Werther’s hard candies and apricot and strawberry bonbons, of which she ate one of each earlier. Stacked around the dank trailer are boxes containing decades-worth of newspapers and books, musty and yellowing in their age. It’s the end of a cool autumn Texas night and she’s lounging open-robed on her velour couch, with the taste of chipped ham and cream cheese still in her mouth. She’s fading in… and fading out.

Goodbye, Repave.

Today I brewed the last of my 50g at 195-200F instead of 190F to see how it would respond. Picked up the sourness of watermelon rind like in its partner dragon balls and it got a little astringent in the third steep.

This stuff is powerful, like somebody tried to take me down by punching me in the solar plexus and instead I stood there and beat my chest to assert my dominance. Got 10 steeps in over 4 hours: 10s rinse/5/7/10/12/15/20/25/30/45/1m. Had to stop but it has more to go. Short steeps in the beginning to balance the extreme bitterness and kind of sour astringency that would otherwise smack me in the face at my usual third steep of 15 seconds.

Dry leaf separates with ease and is a wild and chaotic mix of brown, gold and beige velvety leaves and needles. It shines like the flame on the Statue of Liberty. Smells like it’s developing some patina, too. Has some of that grandma’s floral perfume smell. Taste starts off thick with apricot, tobacco, floral, lemon and whisps of smoke. Moves to bitter up front, golden delicious apple, grass, light honey, mineral and sandalwood with some nice tingling side-tongue action and meat and leather in the back of the mouth. The energy hits fast and hard in my chest and kept me up until 5am. Just as I started to develop a taste for this and get the brewing where I wanted it, I find it’s sold out. Probably for the better, as I found the energy and caffeine to be a little overwhelming. Glad I got to try it.

Warm and busy day called for a western brew of some white tea.

1T/8oz/190F/3 solid steeps timed only by the color of the brew. A fourth steep was light but still nice.

Dry leaf smells like the taste of lychee, hay, sugarcane, meyer lemon, honeydew and cantaloupe. A tad musty. I sniffed the first brew but none thereafter. I remember cantaloupe, oats and sweet cinnamon-vanilla-buttery glaze. All three brews had a typical silver needle taste and sweetness. Cantaloupe, honeydew, oats, lychee and that sweet cinnamon-vanilla-buttery glaze, maybe some peach or apricot, honeysuckle and hay? I don’t remember if eucalyptus made a presence, which I really like in this style of tea. A little scratchy in the throat on the first steep but after that it was thick and smooth. Good lookin’ liquor.

I much prefer this one over the Jing Gu White Pekoe Silver Needles due to a lack of bitterness and astringency. Easier to produce a consistent no-fuss western cup. Seems like it’s holding up better with age, too. I’ll probably make this one my go-to silver needle, as in 50g/yr. I don’t need much silver needle in my life.

Daylon R Thomas already adequately described this tea but I love this tea, too, so I wanna talk about it.

So here I am drinking it the night before my GRE exam. I’ll probably have it tomorrow morning, too.

Tonight, I’ve gone western. 1tsp/8oz/205F. First steep was 3 minutes, second was whoops I forgot. Third will be a deliberate whoopsy because you can’t overbrew this tea.

This tea is straightforward and ridiculously easy to chug once it cools off. No astringency or bitterness with a light mouthfeel. Aroma and taste is sweet vanilla and rock sugar with roasted pears and sweet apples. Because of its flavor profile, I enjoy it most during mornings on campus when the fog is rolling through or at night at home…when the fog is rolling through. I enjoy this tea any time of day, really.

My preferred method of brewing this, though, is in my clay gaiwan, with 5 grams of leaf to 100mL. It nullifies the barely there funk that’s present in western and it amplifies the sweetness. My glob. Smell the bottom of the cup, people. And it steeps forever but I don’t have time for that tonight.

I recently gifted a coffee-drinking friend with an encyclopedia of loose teas. He was most stoked about this one, What-Cha’s sticky rice oolong and Whispering Pines’ Ancient Spirit but he’s really excited about tea in general (I’m sending him another encyclopedia of loose tea next week). I think I have a convert. Good for newbies and experienced alike. Also regarding converts, my manfriend/lifepartner/whatever swore off coffee for this week. He texted me today saying ‘I need better tea at work.’ Finally he’s tired of the Trader Joe’s Irish Breakfast. So I packed some of this for him to try out grandpa-style.

Woot. I’m happy and calm. This is derk signing out. Nanu nanu.

Longjing isn’t my jam, but I do appreciate it from time to time.

I usually brew longjing 2 tsp/8oz/175F/grandpa with two top-offs but I cut down to 1 tsp for this tea specifically because of what it does to my mouth.

Most of the flattened leaves and needles are still vibrant 5 months after purchase. The silver bag has a smattering of fuzz. A few leaves here and there have a ball of light golden fuzz stuck to them which makes it look like some kind of leaf gall. Nope it’s fuzz. Cool.

The smell of many Chinese green teas is difficult for me to describe – I’d say this dragon well is kind of like cashew, oats and light cocoa. While brewing, the liquor has a strong fragrance of sweet roasted chestnut. A minute later, it tastes like a cross between green beans and sweet peas with some chestnut. After the tea glides across my tongue, the sweetness persists. I notice some astringency. Chew on the leaves that have a death-by-mastication wish. Good, no bitterness.

Second glass is noticeably lighter in flavor and aroma and some time into it, I notice that my mouth feels torn up like I ate a lemon. Twelve hours later, it’s still feeling rough. Is that the leaf’s revenge? Not very pleasant. Third glass was very light and not worth it.

Overall, it’s an ok tea. I always eat the leaves, so next time I’ll turn them away from my pearly gates to see if I still get a raw mouth. I’ve had longjings I like more and may even prefer lower grade.

May 2018 harvest.

What a weird tea. I’ve never had something so savory.

4g/195-200F/100mL clay gaiwan. Didn’t keep track of the number of steeps or write detailed notes but it was definitely long lasting.

Dry leaf smelled like roasted peanut butter and brown sugar.

Warmed gave aromas of roasted peanut minus its butter and chocolate.

The wet leaf started out on a really pleasant note of bamboo shoot, sugarcane, vanilla and orchid. Starting with the fourth steep, that moved into a pretty sour and strong-smelling bamboo shoot.

The aroma of the liquor never contained any of the bamboo shoot notes. Rather it remained fruity with orchid and marshmallow with some chocolate coming in and out.

The taste of the liquor started out awesome with undefined fruityness moving into sugarcane, peanut, bamboo shoot, mineral and grass with butter and marshmallow in the back of the mouth. Later steepings had the addition of toasted rice and orchid with the peanut disappearing and an aftertaste of kettlecorn. Following that, it just became sour bamboo shoot and cooked ripe plantain with sweetness. The liquor was never thin. I really enjoyed the consistency ranging from oily to silky.

Really odd tea. I don’t think it was bad, just something I’ve never experienced. I’ll refrain from a rating until I try it again.

Finishing up my bag of this.

Gone western. 1tsp, 8oz, 175F, 60/90/120s all combined into one big glass. Don’t oversteep! It can get really astringent.

Who doesn’t love snails?

I bought this tea right after it became available in the spring. I can’t recall what the dry leaf smelled like when it was really fresh but at the moment I can’t pick up on anything definable. It’s just soft. Plop these downy snails on the top of some hot water. Watch them unfurl. The brewing liquor smells much like bacon-wrapped sweet scallops. Very umami!

This tea is still nice, light and refreshing 6 months after harvest. Very affordable.

I received this as a freebie with my latest order. Thanks! The envelope says Spring Harvest with no year indicated and the website states Spring 2017. Who knows.

This tea struck a very positive and uplifting note with me but is a one-hit-wonder following the recommended brewing parameters of 1 tsp, 8oz, 212F, 3/5 minutes. I even did a third steep at what was going to be 8 minutes but turned into 11 due to forgetfulness.

The dry leaf is a sight to behold, full of twisty brown, black and gold needles that smell only of malt and sweet potatoes. The aroma of the first steep promised an exciting session with scents of orange, moss, orange blossom, molasses and milk. Indeed the first steep tasted wonderful, possessing notes of orange, walnut, mossy wet river rocks, milk, malt, light brown sugar and non-spicy ginger. The mouthfeel was smooth and milky, like 1% milk. There was a lively energy in the mouth. I was instantly warmed from the inside-out and happy.

Unfortunately, the second steep fell flat. The aroma of the liquor lost everything but the orange. There was an addition of orange zest and light ginger and the milk faded. The body became very light and watery and the mouthfeel slightly tannic with tastes of orange, apricot and wood. I wanted more than this so I went for a Hail Mary third steep. Sadly, even after 11 minutes, I was left with a nose of orange zest and orange and a taste of apricot. Very watery. There were no lingering tastes, but as I write this review, I notice a pleasant kind of watery, sour apple mouthfeel. I will say it made an excellent post-dinner drink that complemented my salmon, rice, broccoli and sweet corn.

This would be the perfect tea for those gray and frozen winter days when you need a ray of sunshine. I’ll move this one to the back of the drawer for now. Hopefully some light aging will work its magic and allow for some longevity and cocoa notes to develop but I feel like realistically it might not happen.

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Edit: I think I was too harsh on this tea. Ratings are tough without clearly defined criteria and I sometimes think about dropping that habit. That said, I’m not ready to drop the habit yet. I was disappointed to not pick up on any of the chocolate I’ve gotten in other dianhong teas. There’s something really nice about this tea that I can’t define. Some of the best things come in short bursts. Increased rating. Still going to let the tea sit for a while.