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Laoshan Black Tea
He family spring 2020
Laoshan, Shandong, China
崂山红茶

5g, 130 mL, brita filtered water, water off the boil

Dry leaves: chocolate, raisin

10s first steep: brewed leaves smell a little burnt. Taste: a sweet floral, very pleasant, but also deep, reminds me of coffee without the acidity.

20s second steep: similar brewed leaves. Taste: aftertaste reminds me of Chinese dried jujube dates. No other thoughts.

No more notes, except sweet potatoes at some point. Online reviewers overall seem obsessed with LB, so I had really high expectations going in, and that probably dimmed my experience a bit. I’ve been spoiled by my aunt’s mystery pack that she sent me a while back, and that had something basically exactly like this with different packaging, so I’ve already had it or an eerily similar one in the past. It’s not a bad tea per se, just perhaps not for me. Didn’t bother with more exact notes, because everything that can be said has already been said.

Got it as part of Beantown’s sampler pack, not a favorite. Looked kinda pretty though! Made a bit of a color gradient in a clear cup.

Ordered a sample from Beantown. Ordered because it was caffeine free, and not too bad, but I’m not sure what Rooibos is supposed to taste like in general. I was planning to find a non-caffeinated tea for before bed, but the cinnamon makes it a little too spicy for a bedtime drink.

Part of sampler pack from Beantown. Nothing special. Tastes no different from an Earl grey tea bag, so no point in paying premium for loose leaf necessarily. Even with chai spice mix added, had a sharp and somewhat unpleasantly bitter note (though maybe chai and EB tea don’t mix the best).

130mL, 4g, brita water

Leaves dry: smell of a strong buttery green, peas, and with hints of floral and citrus. Overall nice pale yellow infusions.

Decided to keep brewing temps at 166 or below. Based on my own experiences with green teas, under extracted greens are okay, over extracted greens are far less so, and it is far easier to mess up greens than oolongs. Aside from cold brew prep, green teas I feel are decidedly more high maintenance (or as high maintenance as teas get) than oolongs that I can toss in a thermos and forget about until drinking.

5s: leaves smell roasted green, but also malty? Not unpleasant, but interesting. As expected, first cup not very strong. Pleasant light green.

15s: I’ve figured out the smell. It’s like Chinese chestnuts after they’re steamed, slightly sweet and nutty, but add a pinch of buttery roasted green tea and you’ve nailed this tea’s aroma. Very pleasant aftertaste.

40s: similar smell, with the chestnut note becoming even stronger. a little sharper, slightly bitter and dry finish-so tannins? Not bad, even refreshingly crisp and sweet aftertaste, but generally I prefer mellow flavors, so this right here is why I will never opt to steep a green tea for over 1-2 minutes unless it’s for cold brew.

Didn’t have time to continue this session unfortunately, but this was a fun tea! I don’t really like greens because they’re more high-maintenance/fussy and it’s harder to brew a good cup, but this is one I’d brew again if I was in the mood.

Got this as a free sample with my White2Tea order. This is my first time drinking a white tea coin, so I don’t have anything to compare it to in particular. As others have noted, it was indeed packed tightly. 4 steeps in, the coin was still not coming apart properly, so I took a paring knife and pried it apart, which didn’t change the flavor much for me, so I guess it’s fine. Overall, a good mellow daily I would think, though it was not interesting enough for me to consider buying more. I used Brita filtered water, with temps right off the boil, and discarded the first steep. It never got bitter, but left a little bit of a dry mouthfeel afterwards each time. The infusions turned out a little darker than I expected, with times from 10s to several min towards the end.

Not sure if this affected my brew, but I dropped my gaiwan lid and it shattered, so I was left with no lid during my session.

Got this as part of the sample pack from Beantown. Tastes exactly the same as the Harney and Son’s Earl Grey tea bags in the little light sky blue sachets, nothing special here.

Got this as part of the sample pack from Beantown. My cup turned out pretty bitter so I couldn’t pick out any of the notes they described, but it was palatable with milk and sugar added.

Cai Cong Anxi Oolong
5g, brita water, 130 mL gaiwan
Spring 2020, Master Zhang collection

私房茶 (private tea? my Chinese is pretty shoddy)/怡龙YL12-J40 (these were both on the packaging and the 2nd part likely indicates a specific line, but in my experience, many small packets of Chinese teas are packed similarly enough that if you can’t remember the vendor, it’s hard to find the same tea ever again).

Leaves and tea both more floral smelling than I expected. Brews a very nice clear yellow. Vegetal, sweet notes. Had gongfu steepings with breakfast (irreverent, but I’ve been generally disappointed with the other Verdant 5 for 5 samples that I’ve tried so far so didn’t bother too hard with this one) so probably didn’t catch everything. What a way to usher in the new year lol.

I was in a rush for an appointment and left the rest in a thermos. I’m disappointed to note that the infusion ended up having a very bitter mouthfeel, but I added more water to dilute it and we were back in business. So lesson learned there.

My aunt sent me a pack of very lightly roasted Tie Guan Yin where I wasn’t sure if it was actually Tie Guan Yin, and this was somewhat similar to that, but much clearer infusions instead of the muddy yellow I got from that, and this was much sweeter overall. However, with the initial thermos infusion, this turned out much more bitter than that one did, so I’m not sure why that is. If anyone else tries this tea grandpa style brew, I’d be curious to hear your results vs. gongfu brewing!

So far this is the only one of the verdant 5 for 5s (haven’t tried the Laoshan black yet though since i’ve heard it’s the best out of the lot) that I’d actually consider purchasing in the future once I run out of my current stash. It’s pretty mellow and seems like it’d make for a steady daily.

4/5 stars

Not sure what happened with this one. I didn’t read the reviews of this beforehand, but treated it as a green tea from the get go so it doesn’t seem to be an issue with my brewing temps (as it seems from a glance that other reviewers used even higher temps) but out of the 4/5 5 for 5 samples I’ve tried from Verdant now, this was by far the worst. From reading the reviews, I’m not even sure I had the same tea as other reviewers (perhaps the quality changed drastically in the last few years or a bad batch?). Even the last infusion from the leaves that I tossed into a thermos for a grandpa brew came out starting like a green and ending with a terribly bitter note. Palatable, but never something I’d willingly repurchase.

Reserve Laoshan Green Oolong
He family collection spring 2020
5 g, brita water, 176F, 130mL

Leaves: smell very green sweet matcha buttery type of feeling. A small amount of small leaves are crushed but most survived and are in little coiled shapes.

1st 10s: a little cloudy yellow infusion. Same smell but add a bit of roasted smell to it. Tastes rather unremarkable, a little bit of burnt matcha with a hint of sweet.

2nd steeping 10s 165F: similar to before but tastes more bitter

3rd steeping 7s 156F: same as before

Stopping here and tossing leaves in a thermos for grandpa brewing. In sum: smells and tastes like a burnt matcha, even with relatively low brewing temps. Passing on this one. Nothing particularly oolong like in the generic sense. My infusions never cleared up and were always a cloudy light yellow.

1.5/5 stars