This is another one of the teas from the Verdant Tea of the Month Reserve Club. I was sort of holding off on reviewing it, waiting to see if someone else wanted to take the lead on this one, so that I’m not being the first to review everything. But I can wait no longer!!
The dry tea has a slightly green smell. I give a quick rinse, & a short steep, emptying the Gaiwan into my cup. The wet leaves smell like almond essence & …banana pudding? I have my face in the Gaiwan, just breathing…in & out…& a miraculous sensation of sugar occurs in the back of my soft palate, I’m smelling sugar! I linger…I’m smelling a bowl of banana pudding with those yummy almond sugar cookies dipping in it.
The tea itself is a beautiful butterscotch color, with a sweet almond essence, along with a floral note & sparkling sensations on the back & undersides of my tongue. I’ve been enjoying it for a few hours now, just steeping & sipping. It’s very nice, but I have to confess that I’m not always the greatest at short steepings, & this one can take on some bitter & drying qualities if you let it go too long. I got sidetracked & that happened with one cup.
Se La Vie
(I’m sure I spelled that wrong, I don’t know French)
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I would love to try this tea and review it. Alas, I received four different teas, but this was not one of them in my package for the Tea of the Month Reserve Club. How many teas, and which ones, did you get in your package?
Huh? We didn’t all get the same teas? Here’s what I got:
*Experimental Pressing Yeu Guang Bai
*Tea Research Alliance Special Commission ’06 Stone-Pressed Sheng
*Xing Ren Xiang Phoenix Mountain Dancong
*Xue Pian Phoenix Mountain Dancong
What did you get?
Now I’m wondering what Paul, Aiko, Zeks, & whoever else joined got… I just assumed we’d all get the same teas.
Hi,
Great to see so many people starting to try the first reserve club teas, and some of those rewards samples. Everyone got the same sheng pu’er and Yue Guang Bai, but since this was the first reserve shipment, and I really wanted to pair these lighter more ethereal tastes with suitable Dancongs instead of something darker, we ended up splitting the dancongs into a few groupings. These dancongs were sent in very small quantities (4-5 z each), which I really wanted to share. I opted to split the reserve shipment into several dancong pairings to achieve this goal. The dancongs sent were Xing Ren Xiang, Da Ma Ye, Xue Pian, Red Leaf and White Leaf. Everyone got two of the above.
In the future, everything should be pretty consistant across shipments, as I will be able to source the teas specifically for each month based on the number of people enrolled. The upcoming month is going to be a knockout with teas from people like Master Han who wild-picks on a secret mountain plot in Yunnan, processing all his tea personally. We are the first company outside Xishuangbanna that he has worked with because he doesn’t even have roads in to his house.
I am thinking of starting a board or discussion post with the next shipment for people to talk about the teas, and connect as a reserve club community. We are even looking at instant message or video conferencing for a big e-tasting.
Looking forward to future shipments,
David
That would be awesome, David!!
I have so many teas from the resrve club, rewards samples, black Friday, and my birthday from last week! I’ve been too excited about the dancongs to try anything else other than that jasmine!
Thank you for clearing that up David! I’m sure a flurry of confusion and messages/emails would have ensued! From the reserve club, the two dancongs I received were the Da Ma Ye and the Red Leaf Dancongs. I think a discussion board would be a nice place to congregate. I really like the idea of a mass e-tasting! Master Hans tea sounds super squirrely secret and I can’t wait to see what it’s like!
I would love to try this tea and review it. Alas, I received four different teas, but this was not one of them in my package for the Tea of the Month Reserve Club. How many teas, and which ones, did you get in your package?
Huh? We didn’t all get the same teas? Here’s what I got:
*Experimental Pressing Yeu Guang Bai
*Tea Research Alliance Special Commission ’06 Stone-Pressed Sheng
*Xing Ren Xiang Phoenix Mountain Dancong
*Xue Pian Phoenix Mountain Dancong
What did you get?
Now I’m wondering what Paul, Aiko, Zeks, & whoever else joined got… I just assumed we’d all get the same teas.
Hi,
Great to see so many people starting to try the first reserve club teas, and some of those rewards samples. Everyone got the same sheng pu’er and Yue Guang Bai, but since this was the first reserve shipment, and I really wanted to pair these lighter more ethereal tastes with suitable Dancongs instead of something darker, we ended up splitting the dancongs into a few groupings. These dancongs were sent in very small quantities (4-5 z each), which I really wanted to share. I opted to split the reserve shipment into several dancong pairings to achieve this goal. The dancongs sent were Xing Ren Xiang, Da Ma Ye, Xue Pian, Red Leaf and White Leaf. Everyone got two of the above.
In the future, everything should be pretty consistant across shipments, as I will be able to source the teas specifically for each month based on the number of people enrolled. The upcoming month is going to be a knockout with teas from people like Master Han who wild-picks on a secret mountain plot in Yunnan, processing all his tea personally. We are the first company outside Xishuangbanna that he has worked with because he doesn’t even have roads in to his house.
I am thinking of starting a board or discussion post with the next shipment for people to talk about the teas, and connect as a reserve club community. We are even looking at instant message or video conferencing for a big e-tasting.
Looking forward to future shipments,
David
That would be awesome, David!!
I have so many teas from the resrve club, rewards samples, black Friday, and my birthday from last week! I’ve been too excited about the dancongs to try anything else other than that jasmine!
Thank you for clearing that up David! I’m sure a flurry of confusion and messages/emails would have ensued! From the reserve club, the two dancongs I received were the Da Ma Ye and the Red Leaf Dancongs. I think a discussion board would be a nice place to congregate. I really like the idea of a mass e-tasting! Master Hans tea sounds super squirrely secret and I can’t wait to see what it’s like!