592 Tasting Notes
Sipdown (89). This may just be the saddest sipdown I’ve ever had. I can’t even replenish this wonderful blend because it doesn’t exist anymore! And yes, I know that I can look up the recipe and try to make it myself at home, but I’m sure it will turn out inferior. Sigh. I guess I’m on the hunt for something new to console me.
Sad sipdown (90)! I was really dragging out finishing this tea off because it was better than I remembered it from a couple years ago. I had a lot of broken leaves because this was the bottom of the bag, and it actually kind of looked like poorly ground coffee beans or a CTC while I was steeping it. Due to all the little broken up pieces and overleafing a little, I steeped for much less time than usual. I think I stopped steeping a hair under a minute or so. It came out deliciously malty and slightly smoky in a wonderful kind of way. I’m definitely going to miss this tea. I really want to try out some other tea companies before reordering from Verdant again, but I may just break when I run out of LB Genmaicha, too.
So I finally broke open this tea. I ordered it back in February or so with the rest of my Verdant teas. I have to say, it was a little bit of a letdown compared to what I remember. The flavors were malty and slightly potato-y like I remember, but much weaker. It’s pretty much the same thing that happened to me with the batch of LB from the same order. Both were good, but not as strong as the ones I had before.
For the second and third steeps, I used a lot less water and then poured over ice to make iced tea. I also added a half pump of peach syrup from my office cafeteria. It actually turned out to be one of my favorite black teas to turn into a flavored iced tea. The peach and the base tea really went together well. So overall, even though I was a bit disappointed by the hot tea, I can see myself going through this pretty fast if I continue experimenting with iced teas.
At my hotel convention center meeting, I also grabbed a bag of this tea when I was done with the Organic Green Dragon. I have to say, I was surprised to find a cardboard taste in this tea. I wasn’t even drinking it out of a paper cup or anything. Perhaps the tea was getting old and starting to take in the “flavor” of the paper packaging? Anyway, it was otherwise a pretty boring, mild black tea. I honestly couldn’t pick out the fruity flavors that it claims to have because I was distracted by that cardboard flavor. It wasn’t terrible, but it was a bit of a disappointment after how pleasantly surprised I was by the organic green dragon. Bummer.
I had a meeting at a hotel convention center for work, and to my delight, they had Mighty Leaf teas instead of the usual Bigelow or Twinings. The first tea I tried out was this organic green dragon. I let my water cool for a few minutes before steeping because I have had so many painful bagged green tea experiences due to scalding hot water. Anyway, I’m so glad that I had the patience to wait because this tea did not turn out bitter at all! It was actually a bit sweet and nutty. It also wasn’t overly grassy, which is what usually puts me off many Chinese green teas. I even resteeped it once, but the resteep was definitely weaker flavor-wise and just a tad grassier (unless I was going crazy at the meeting, which is totally possible).
Overall, it was quite a nice cup of tea for a bagged green tea. I’d definitely have it again, and consider even buying it if I needed a bagged green tea for any reason.
Ever since I found out that this tea existed, I’ve been wanting to try it. Houjichas and genmaichas are two of my very favorite types of teas, and I am always turning to one or the other for comfort or as a palette cleanser or for any other excuse. Today is a warmer day, so I opted to steep this one extra strong and pour over ice to drink as an iced tea. As it was steeping, I really could smell the strong genmaicha toastiness. When the tea finally cooled, I was surprised to find that the dominant taste was houjicha in contrast to the smell while it was steeping. In fact, for the first couple sips, all I could really taste was the houjicha. After settling into it, though, I can definitely pick up the toasty genmaicha toward the end of the sip. These teas blend together so perfectly! Perhaps they don’t quite contribute completely unique flavors to the tea, but I’m okay with it. I love my roasty Japanese green teas :)
Finally reordered this tea! I went back to look at my old tasting notes and WOW I’ve already been here for two years? Time flies. I still feel like I have so much more to discover about tea, so that’s nice. Anyway, this reorder was long overdue. I don’t actually like straight up matcha all that much, but in combination with genmaicha (one of my favorite types of tea), I love love it.
I’ve been having a really hectic couple of weeks at work, so this tea has been perfect for my sleepy, confused self in the mornings. Unlike most other greens, this one doesn’t seem to be too picky about temperature. I noticed that I noted this in my tasting notes from over a year ago as well. I also wanted to add to my previous notes that it resteeps incredibly well. I think I had 3 steeps out of it before I added a tiny pinch more of tea to resteep another 2 times.
The unfortunate news is that 2 ounces did not turn out to be as much as I thought it would be. Maybe the matcha makes it heavy? Anyway, that is not so great news for me because apparently, I am really awful at reordering this tea even though I know I want more.
Apparently it was Iced Tea Day two days ago (June 10). I didn’t have any iced tea that day, but I blame it on the weather wildly fluctuating between regular hot, California summer day and weird muggy, gloomy colder days. Anyway, I have decided to kick my cold brewing back into gear regardless of what the weather outside is telling me to do. So of course I had to break out this lovely tea. I was actually shocked to see how low I am running on this tea. Fortunately, now that I am back in California, it isn’t quite as difficult to obtain more of it :)
I just wanted to note that it tastes a bit milder than I remember. That may be because this tea is starting to get old, so the flavor is probably getting weaker from that. Also, I think I underleafed a little bit when I threw it in the fridge last night because my usual handy dandy tablespoon was dirty, so I used a regular spoon to measure. Anyway, so glad to have this back in my life. I predict I will be posting a sad sipdown note of this sometime soon :(
Backlog from yesterday. I actually went back to my old tasting note to see what I thought of it last time because it has been quite a while since I last had this tea. Apparently, I cold brewed it. I had a similar idea yesterday for iced tea, but this time I steeped it strong and hot, then poured over ice. I could still get that peachy taste, but the white tea flavor was also pretty strong when I prepared it this way. I’m not usually much of a fan of white teas because of their floral, hay-like flavors, but it somehow worked in the iced tea to help make the tea refreshing. So maybe I just don’t like white teas as hot teas? There’s still so much to discover!
Success! After a couple attempts at steeping this tea at work resulting in a bitter mess, I finally decided this morning that I would not distract myself with anything else and just watch my tea steep to stop it at the right time. This is the gentle but malty tea that I remember loving before. There’s also a raisin-y taste, which I may have mentioned in previous tasting notes, not sure. It’s subtle enough not to be off-putting to me though (I generally am not fond of raisin flavors in my tea). Now that I have proven to myself that this tea can succeed at work, I predict that the rest of this will get sipped down quite quickly.
