Autumn Laoshan Green

What a fantastic green tea!

Early steeps are reminiscent of pumpkin or squash, automatically transferring you to the middle of a pumpkin patch in a large field. This is a tea that requires you to slow down and think about each steep instead of rushing about or having a “to go” cup.

Later steeps (6+) are that of a buttery cream, leaving a beautiful taste in your mouth.

It’s amazing to me how over the course of several steeps a tea can unfold and reveal different layers each equally as good as the prior, just different!

I’m just trying this one now from my awesome Verdant sampler from months ago. I guess it’s because of the unsealable packaging.. Verdant’s suggestion is one teaspoon at 175 degrees for one minute. The leaves look so fresh looking! Actually I just looked at my leaves for the Laoshan oolong and I can’t tell much of a difference to this one.

Steep #1 // 70 seconds // water cooled way down
This actually tastes like the White Monkey I had the other day… creamed corn! What are the odds both teas would taste like that and I had no idea. This one seems slightly more astringent than the White Monkey though, even though the steep time was two minutes for that one. I do love the creamed corn flavor though.

Steep #2 // 1 min 30 sec // water cooled way down
This one actually tastes MUCH different.. not as much creamed corn. It actually tastes like an oolong BUT with a sweet candy strawberry flavor. I have no idea where that is coming from. But sure enough, the wet leaves actually have even more of a candy strawberry flavor. Very different and very good! Maybe next time I’ll go past two steeps.

I’ll drink this one when I want the flavors of creamed corn and candy strawberry. Both cups are so different!

Western style brewing today! This is such a wonderful tea. It has lots of bright, clear notes, along with snap pea, watermelon, leafy greens, lychee, and general sweetness. The lychee notes are really prominent today and are very intriguing. I really loved this sample and I’m glad I have ~2 cups left!

As many of you know, green tea is not a favourite of mine, but as my tea tastes change, I like to try high quality straight greens to see if my tastes have changed.

This tea is really good (in green tea terms!). The first steep is a little too vegetal for my tastes, but the next 2 steeps are much better. I am getting some nutty and buttery notes as well as sweet corn with a touch of cinnamon.

I used 1 tsp of leaf and resteeped for 1.25 and 1.5 minutes

We will see if this 1oz bag can convert me into a green tea lover.

This is a great everyday green tea (not that its a “common tea”, but is not one that you get tired of easily). That’s exactly what I’ve been doing the past few days – sipping on this one, as an alternate taste between drinking other teas. Very nice switch in taste from a greener oolong. It keeps a consistency, but seems to reset my palate and provides a new experience each time I go back to the other tea. This tea is more of the leisure type, it doesn’t seem to over steep easily and the flavor is excellent.

My method of brewing has been in a tall mason jar, starting with 45% room temperature water then the rest at 205°F – this seems to bring the overall temp to around 185°F. Once there is only 20% left of tea in the jar, it’s time to bring it back to a full glass. I’ve gotten many infusions doing it this way and has proven to be an excellent way to drink more fluids.

The taste is grand, with it’s buttery edamame aroma and taste. I do indeed like this one! It is not too overpowering and really gives a good charge of energy. Definitely nice!

I’ve had this tea for a while but never cracked it open. Lately it’s been hard to get in multiple tea days and my greens have suffered. Today, however, I made an effort to pull this one out to give it a taste. My goal is to do something to focus my mind and distract myself from the fact that an offer we put in on a house was just accepted. (My mind whirls with all the things we must do next!)

First off: THE SMELLS! OMG! THE SMELLS! The tea smells insane. SO MUCH GOING ON. It was so hard to stop sniffing the dry leaf. Every sniff is different and they are all delicious! It makes me think of fresh hay and marshmallow (yeah, I don’t know why – sweet and creamy… marshmallows). I made the husband sniff and he got some chocolate from it. Once he said that, I smelled it again and got cocoa. Like the little package of instant cooca with the tiny marshmallows? Yeah that. That’s what I get when I smell this now.

Post steeping, the leaf is different but still incredibly nom. Butter and warm bread and the freshest, sweetest snap peas ever – like, when they are candy-sweet. Delish.

The taste. Oh yeah. Buttery, smooth, fresh, grassy… it’s marvelous. It reminds me more of a Japanese green than a Chinese in overall taste, but there is a darker, heavy note at the end and an super-faint-it’s-almost-not-there mineral endnote that I associate with Chinese greens. As it cools, the sweetness reminds me of a raw sweet potato. Or maybe a yam? Faint bright hints that make me think of lemon, which strikes me as weird but hey, when I take a sip and my brain throws a lemon at me, I listen.

The second steep gives more changes – I smell fresh, pungent chlorophyl along with a note that I can’t quite place but reminds me of the sweet smell in cigars. The fruity smell of unlit tobacco, I suppose. The taste is more in line with what I think of as a Chinese green taste profile. The mineral note is stronger, but there is a strong undercurrent of fresh peaches and honey. Slurping brings out a note of seaweed that is a bit of a cross between wakame (the stuff in miso soup) and nori (the dried sheet used in sushi). There’s also a starchier feeling to the tea itself. Not astringency (yet?), just little prickles of starch. Very nice.

The third steep gives me pretty much an exact replica of the second steep.

I imagine this will go for at least one more steep if not a few more. Unfortunately, i cannot. The caffeine in this has hit me hard. I need to switch to water for a bit! But this is definitely a great tea – there’s a lot going on but manages to be harmonious instead of jumbled. I will like making my way through this one!

My brain is hurting that there’s 2 Autumn Laoshan green listings here on Steepster. Which is which? Not sure if they are doubled, or they are different years, eeehhh.

Lovely green tea! It tastes like it blooms inbetween infusions from oaty, to wheatgrass, asparagus, and finally to squash.

Full review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/05/20/autumn-harvest-laoshan-green-from-verdant-tea-tea-review/
My little green Laoshan Owl was unimpressed I took so long to try this tea.

Yesterday morning I was in the mood for a high quality green tea. Perusing my tea collection, I settled upon the Autumn Laoshan Green. This is a mildly vegetal green with a gentle sweetness and it is always good for several infusions. Sometimes I enjoy using one of my Chinese glass tumblers for greens or pu’ers and decided to do so yesterday. If you look at the Verdant description for this tea, you will discover that in their brewing guidelines they describe what they term the “Laoshan Style” using a tall glass or tumbler.

The tumbler I decided to use is 16oz and after the initial fill-up, I refilled twice during the day before I decided that I had consumed enough green tea for the day. However, the leaf was still going strong so I decided to fill the tumbler again and yet again to make cold tea for today. As I write, I am sipping my second glass of iced Laoshan Green. This has been an enjoyable Laoshan Green weekend and this is a good tea to have on hand!

Wow, this took me by surprise: it tastes like green beans!
At first I was not too keen on this but the more I drank it the more I started to like it.
It’s bold and savory and smells like raw fava bean pods.

Noticed Verdant tea has a new logo. For what it’s worth I like this version much better than the old one. I would dump the gradient though and keep it red like on your packaging because: 1) less is more 2. consistency 3. it evokes association with red seals on Chinese paintings.
Like the website changes as well. Thumbs up from me :)

Here I am sitting with my tea for my 100th tasting note and I realize that I forgot about it! Thank goodness it’s still reasonably warm. I think Laoshan green is my number one favorite green tea right now. This is the autumn harvest and I can definitely tell a difference between it and the brand new spring harvest that I had the other day, both in freshness and in seasonal flavor notes. Still love it, fresh or not. A tea worthy of my 100th note.

Brew Notes:
3tsp/20oz (made a cup for my man too)
1min steep @175F