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Autumn 2022 harvest.

This tea was so good I stretched the little 5g sample to 3 sessions in order to savor it for as long as I could. Really wish I’d ordered more than just a sample.

Steeped 2g in a 100ml gaiwan for 3 infusions. The dry leaves were very aromatic (cashew cream, flowers, and soybean). A warm, nutty aroma of toasted couscous emerges once the leaves are introduced to hot water.

1st infusion – Thick, mouthwatering flavor similar to the aroma. Notes of lima bean, pistachio, and fennel.

2nd infusion – Sweeter, richer flavor. Lingering aftertaste of fennel.

3rd infusion – Lighter with eucalyptus and soy. Still has good flavor and body.

This tea is a prime example of why you shouldn’t mess with a good thing. The base of this blend is Laoshan black which is naturally very chocolately. The cacao nibs slightly accent the chocolate but don’t really enhance the base tea.

The coconut and toasted rice lend a delicious aroma that’s reminiscent of chocolate coconut date balls but I can hardly discern either in the tea. For a tea that’s billed as black chocolate genmaicha, I wish the toasted rice was more prominent.

Don’t get me wrong, this is a very good dessert tea. It just doesn’t differ enough from Laoshan black tea to be compelling. I think I would have been more impressed if I hadn’t tried Laoshan black on its own first.

This was an unexpectedly delicious tea. I’m usually wary of dark roasted tea which often taste like ashtray to me so the idea of a roastier hojicha didn’t immediately grab me. However I’m glad I didn’t judge a book by its cover on this as it tasted nothing like what I imagined.

Dry leaves had an amazing aroma of mahogany, oak, and sweet tobacco. I steeped just 1g grandpa style in a teabag. Despite using such a small amount of leaf, the brewed tea was super delicious, very smooth and sweet. The taste is like the sweet scent of a cigar in liquid form but without any ashiness.

Thanks for the sample Cameron B!

Spring 2022.

This was a fantastic Shan Lin Xi teeming with succulent flowers and juicy tropical fruit. It starts off with an alphonso mango fruitiness before shifting to pina colada. After a couple more steeps, flowers and stonefruit emerge and the tea develops a thick, nectar-like mouthfeel. The flavor starts to drop off after the 5th yet still remaining smooth and having a pleasant light fruitiness with floral undertones and additional notes of citrus, bergamot, and pear.

This was a very enjoyable tea with many layers of complex flavors that evolved over steeps. Couldn’t rate this as a 100 however due to the intense but short lived flavor and lack of longevity.

Just discovered Verdant has spun off a sister company called Chroma devoted to blends. What’s exciting is many of the retired Verdant blends are now available again under the Chroma label. I picked this up along with their famous Chocolate Laoshan Genmaicha as this blend, which includes amongst other things rose, cardamom, strawberry, goji berry, peppermint, and coriander, sounded very intriguing.

The tea brews up a nice faint pink, thanks to the hibiscus in the blend, and later deepens to crimson-amber as it continues steeping. First sip tastes medicinal and woodsy. The white tea base and peppermint are the dominant flavors and the latter eventually overwhelms as is often the case when peppermint is involved. A punch of cilantro hits you in the finish. I didn’t taste the strawberry, rose, and other tea ingredients as the mint made everything taste like tea tree/eucalyptus.

Asamushi senchas are sometimes too light and flavorless for my taste. This one, however, showed that light steamed teas can be subtle and yet still full of flavor.

This tea is fresh, fragrant, and very clean tasting. There’s a gentle sweetness of fresh green vegetables along with just the right amount of grassiness and umami to balance things out. Notes of citrus, pear, and green peas.

All of the teas I’ve sampled from Tezumi so far have been excellent. Glad I gave them a try as my usual go-tos, O-Cha and Yuuki-Cha, have been underwhelming as of late.

Steeped this in my tea thermos on my way to work the other morning. 2g in a 10oz thermos, grandpa style using 205 F water.

This was a lovely experience all around. Flowery with a fudgey, medjool-date like sweetness that lingers on the palette. The roast is very light and accentuates the natural fruitiness of the tea.

As Daylon noted, this needs more leaf and higher temperature for best results. I had to brew it close to boiling to get any flavor out of it.

This was an interesting and unusual tea. The fluffy, pale gold and white leaves feel weightless and look different from any tisane I’ve ever had. They feel like packaging peanuts or styrofoam and smell not like quince or any kind of fruit, but rather milk chocolate. Hershey Kisses to be precise.

Anyway, I went ahead and steeped it pretty close to the instructions on the website. The tea brews up medium amber and the wet leaves smell like chamomile. I was expecting some of the chocolately aroma to make it into the brewed tea but there wasn’t even a hint of it. Instead, it has a mild, slightly earthy chamomile-like flavor with a vegetal backdrop. Notes of okra and raw yellow squash. In a blind taste test, I might mistake this for a green or oolong tea.

Not the biggest fan of this kind of tea but it might appeal to someone looking for a caffeine free alternative that resembles camellia sinensis. For me though, I will try blending it with another tisane as the flavor of the straight tea isn’t for me.

Spring 2022.

This remains one of my all time favorite black teas. The aroma is intoxicating, dripping with maple, caramel, tobacco, and malt. Haven’t quite figured out how to get all of the aromatics into my cup yet but it still yields a delicious brew. Smooth, rich maltiness with pronounced dark chocolate notes. Brewing at or near boiling brings out sweet potato while infusing on lower temperature (195 F) is sweeter and more chocolatey.

Spring 2022 crop.

Backlog.

This was an excellent quality AliShan. I find most AliShans kind of boring compared to their high mountain counterparts but this was exceptionally good.

Very flowery with heady notes of daffodils, orchid, and lily of the valley. Starts off medium bodied gaining fullness and a coating mouthfeel as the steeps progress. Flavor drops off after the 4th infusion while still retaining a nice sweetness and smoothness. When all of the infusions are combined, a korean melon like fruitiness emerges.

This tea works best gongfu steeped. Tried grandpa style and cold brewing but they simply didn’t work as well.