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This is my absolute favorite time of year, and every day when I’m plunking away at my desk I stop at some point, usually midday, to admire the color of the light that streams through the blinds. That magical hue, the same one I remember streaming in onto the carpet where I’d roll around and play as a little kid in my parents’ living room—a warm orange-tinted golden straw shade, accented by how particularly blue the sky is this season, the way it pairs so well with all the dark wood in the house (this was true back then as well). Anyway, I’m sitting here admiring it with a huge mug of Laoshan Black, listening to Low (I’m terrible about forgetting how perfect they can be at the apex of their records) and feeling very low-key and tranquil. Today’s not a bad life at all.

I thought I noticed the first time I dug into my restocked version that there was considerably less chocolate and a lot more salty potato and grain going on, but figured something was off with my tastebuds. But no. This batch is noticeably different from the sample that got me hooked. It’s not bad at all, but I did prefer the first version.

Amazing blend both hot and cold. Surprisingly smoky, and you can definitely taste and smell the longan which lends an exotic, mysterious, “vintage” sort of feel to the whole thing. Brewed an enormous 10-cup pot the other night for our Breaking Bad marathon (trying desperately to catch up before the end of the series lest we face spoilers) and was utterly enchanted. The leftover tea iced was wonderful today with a huge salade nicoise with all the trimmings and some creamy nutty gouda on baguette rounds. I love the way it has elements of all sorts of things I love—smoky afternoon-type blends, that delicate Chinese tea quality, mysterious heady un-tart fruit—together in a single refreshing but haunting brew. Will definitely be restocking.

Making a note of this quick before Steepster dies again (was down all morning for me), may edit later. Drank to wake me up for meeting with friends for lunch. Stayed up late watching Sherlock.

Busting my tail because last night in bed before drifting to sleep I was fantasizing about relaxing later today with a tray bearing a big ol’ pot of plain unfancy black tea, milk and raw sugar in my little spice caddies, and a spoon and hunkering down to watch more Venture Brothers (Puddy! The sound design!!) and PBS David Chang (when they showed how they make the ramen stock at Momofuku I almost died, little sighs of lust). Just learned Jesu’s coming out with a new album the week of our anniversary, and I still need to pick up the Scud Mtn. Boys one. Having things to look forward to is heaven.

5/5, would drink every morning if I could!

Ack, this is crazy delicious. It’s sweet and heavy both in aroma and taste, full of all those rich bases, so you get lots of sweet potato and chocolate and cinnamon and that toasty carbiness (malt I suppose, but to me it’s roastier too), but it indeed has nods to more traditional breakfast blends in that there’s a pleasant briskness and strength, a very “this is waking me up” aspect whose stiffness never reaches the unpleasant point so many breakfast blends do. I think the rich sweet quality of those tea bases has a lot to do with that, smoothing it out. I can’t get over how delicious this smells. If this was still in stock and I was a fancypants I wouldn’t hesitate to stock up and make it my first-thing breakfast tea. It functions beautifully that way, serving its purpose by perking you right up, but it’s also a fantastic, luxurious treat in a cup, as if you’re spoiling yourself every morning. I’d feel like I was pulling a treat yo’self every day, more than if I made waffles. :b I love it.

Also, if this is what pu erh is like, that intense awesome sweet but earthy aroma both dry and steeped, sign me up. I might need to try Mandala sooner than later.

This is so buttery! It’s like drinking melted butter, with the slightest saltiness too (not unpleasant!). It’s also got that dry woody aspect I love and tend to associate with darjeelings, yum. The jasmine is mostly in the aroma with some at the end of the sip. This is very light on the bergamot; if you’re expecting your standard Earl here (and there’s nothing wrong with that!) you’ll be disappointed or confused. It’s more like the Earl Grey profile is one aspect woven into an entirely unique tea fashioned of many components—nods to jasmine tea, the tieguanyin base giving it a seasonal, woodsy aspect, heady smells of saffron and frankincense that make me think of the Middle East and going into shops with Middle Eastern goods as well as church services for special holidays (I was raised very old school ritualistic Catholic). But I think if you’re already into Verdant probably you recognize the uniqueness and innovation of what they’re doing most of the time, so it won’t throw you for a loop unpleasantly if you go in with an open mind. Even as a lover of those straightforward Earls chock full o’ bergamot (one of my favoritest smells ever for sure) I really like and admire this. I’m impressed how smooth and buttery it manages to stay despite all the other elements including the woodiness and incense; everything is in beautiful balance and interplay here. It’s like watching a framed piece of art as puzzle where the components keep moving, some to the fore and some stepping back as relief, where the vague overall picture is always discernible but its pieces keep swimming around shifting your attention to different details. That might sound too busy or stressful to enjoy, but the smooth comforting aspects keep any potential clangor in check.

This is my mid-day break during a harried work day and it’s ideally suited for the purpose—satisfying, comforting, pretty, all those pleasant aspects, but also with elements mysterious and unusual (dare I say exotic) enough to snap me into a different kind of awareness.

Oh man, I LOVE this. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the divide (at least in my mind) between very modern day, premium Chinese and Taiwanese black teas full of sweetness and rich heavy starchy full-on food evocation (I call the majority of them “the chocolate and sweet potato teas”)—Laoshan Black, Bailin Gongfu, Wild Mountain Black; also the lighter but still very sweet, nuanced honeyed stuff like Golden Fleece, Mi Xian, and Honey Orchid—and my whole “old skool evocation” nostalgic comfort blacks and darjeelings full of dry woodiness and a different kind of floral perfume aspect. And I’ve been kind of like, I don’t want to have to choose just one closest to my heart, but when I’m honest with myself if I HAD to I sheepishly still feel it’d be the latter. Well, with this tea I don’t have to make that choice at all! It has the dry woody clean thing—cedarwood, apparently—going on most Steepsters seem to dislike but I love, an element that automatically puts me in “ah I know this, it’s been there for me for decades” mode, BUT the velvety, thick and plush, chocolate-y perfumed sweetness of those Chinese black teas as well. And they mesh well together! I love this so much. Man oh man. So glad Terri convinced me to go for it, and now I’m even more pumped to try all the sale blends from Verdant that boast this as their base. Like a meal of spicy woodsy dry forest. Whee.

So fruity! I love it. I’ve discovered while I still generally hate tart-fruity flavored black blends I don’t mind an abundance of fresh fruit smell and flavor when paired with a fresh-tasting green tea base. Den’s Tea Pineapple Sencha was a green tea gateway this spring, I loved ATR’s Nirvana (sencha with fig, berries, kiwi, and rose petals), and this makes me cheerful in a very similar way. It’s very juicy and bright, like eating a big bowl of fruit salad on a sunny morning. Hooray!

This one has that plasticky element many caramels have, where it’s authentic tasting—the plastic flavor isn’t because it’s artificial caramel, it’s because sometimes caramel does taste like plastic to me. So, sweet plastic. Not sure I dig this one and I’m pretty sure Tokyo is more my general style in terms of flavor profile. But this is a good case of a tea that’s well done and hits what it’s aiming for, it’s just not for me. I will say the caramel aroma and flavor is impressively strong/satisfying without being unpleasant or fake seeming (I won’t name names but there’ve been a couple tea companies I’ve tried where it’s like “yeah that’s the smell and flavor of the hyper specific thing you’re going for…along with the impression of a buttload of chemicals, and everything wake-the-dead-level turned up to 11 [or a million]”), and I always like when a company can manage that as it doesn’t seem an easy balance to strike.