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This was so neat – not at all what I was expecting. I was actually expecting more oolong flavor and was shocked and yet pleasantly surprised when I got darjeeling flavor (yes, I was really distracted this morning).
It was raining here all day while my fiance, my sister and I tackled some freakishly intimidating camera equipment.
And you know what? We nailed it. Follow focus with all of its gears? Got it. Monitor with crazy focus and exposure assist settings? We so have this. Crazy sweet camera with all its features? Nailed it.
I feel so much better about Friday when we are actually shooting.
Back to the tea – it was nice to have something to calm my nerves. I did supplement my exhaustion with coffee, but I tried to tamp the jitters down.
This so matched the day – kind of smokey, kind of rainy (yes, the tea was kind of rainy), really nicely mellow and bracing in that almost black tea kind of way. I bet this would be fabulous with milk in the morning (I know, oolong and milk= sacrilege.)

The loose leaves smell great. I brewed this up for 8 minutes (which is one of the longer hot steeps I’ve done).
This has an interesting light note to it. The mint is cooling and makes the liquor feel very thin. I taste the chocolate. Actually the two flavors go really well together, giving me an ice cream type experience of mint chocolate chip.
There is something in here that I’m not sure is working so much for me. I think it might just be the choice of base. I don’t care for honeybush as much as rooibos to begin with, so this might just be my own bias, but I feel like the honeybush dominates the other flavors. I don’t really know what I would suggest instead, and I am enjoying this, my brain just wants to process this as “interesting” rather than “delicious!”.

Super-short note: I liked this. It wasn’t mind blowing, and the orchid taste and scent really came out for me on this oolong.

This is my very first time trying Darjeeling tea. I’m so excited!
The dry leaves smell like cocoa powder. Mmm…
This has a funny mouth feel. It is almost powdery, yet thick and heavy.
It is hardly astringent at all and tastes interesting… it kind of has a generic “tea” flavor to me. I get a slight amount of what could be the “sparkling” feeling that I’ve heard associated with these.
I am not wowed, but this is a decent “tea tea” for lack of a better descriptor.
Of course, I just had a giant “break out the sunglasses and turn out the lights” migraine, so I’m not really fully functioning. Take my “not too impressed” with a grain of salt.

This smells so buttery – really like buttered popcorn.
First steep:
This has a nice balance of floral orchid notes to the butteriness. I got to this when it was cold so I might have missed out on some of the flavors.
Second steep:
I think I steeped this for closer to three minutes rather than two. It had a strong vegetal taste verging on bitter. Still not bad. Not my favorite oolong, but not bad either. I think I like this one better than Teavivre’s plain milk oolong.

Mmm. Unvelievable coconut scent, really creamy.
It has a sparkly kind of feel – first tea I’ve tried that really had that.
Running out the door so this is a short note, but this is a decent (if weirdly sparkly) black tea. I don’t taste the coconut I smell, which is fine I guess. I’m just going to add some milk.

The buds smell like brown sugar. Soooo good. They still smell like tea, just with a great earthy sweet spiciness permeating them.
I went with western style brewing – I rinsed them, then steeped for 4 minutes. The liquour is such a delicate light color.
The liquour smells a little woodsy. Like taking a tree, deep red with rain and drizzling honey over it and brown sugar and then sticking it over a fire, letting the sugar crystals pop and spark into a molasses syrup imbued with the scent of the wood.
I’m honestly not sure if I like the flavor. It is a strange mixture of sweet and woodsy. It certainly isn’t bad and it is fascinating but it’s not necessarily a flavor profile I’m feeling.
It does have a really nice aftertaste of nectar or sugar.
I think I prefer brewing Verdant teas gongfu style. Today I just seem to lack the mental energy.

I got this sample size from Amanda. I really want to brew this gongfu style but my life has been so nuts I just can’t. I have a little bit of time before I run some more errands, so I’m just brewing this up western style (1tsp/cup, 175 degrees, 1.5 minutes) or else I might keep saving all my Verdant Tea for “later”.
The liquour looks so light, I really wasn’t sure if I didn’t add enough leaves (I hate measuring dragonwell without a scale).
Okay, amazing notes now!
This actually smells like rain.
I am a fanatic about rain. I cannot work when it is too bright out, I would be perfectly happy if it was almost always raining. There are so many perfumes, candles, etc that are supposed to smell like rain but they don’t.
This smells like petrichor. And it’s reminding me of The Wasteland. My own headcanon version of The Wasteland where the rains actually come and the thunder isn’t just dry and sterile.
I get a little of the banana scent as well.
This tea is interesting – it has a rather delicate flavor. Initially it tastes very green, goes into a sweetness, segues into a slightly bitter flavor, and then resolves tasting like cream.
There is a slight mineral aftertaste, as though I had the smallest square of tin foil between my back teeth. And because I like strange or interesting flavors, I am calling this a good thing. Nowhere near some of the other Verdant Teas I have tried but head and shoulders above some other teas I have been drinking lately. I might try the last of the gongfu style later.

It is 12:45. I am dreaming such big dreams that I cannot sleep.
In the past three days I have booked an 1890s opera house, rented a marquee, rented almost $1000 in film equipment, solicited my friends help, and bought several hundred dollars of vintage costuming, all for our film’s fundraising video.
Can you see why I can’t sleep???
Relax
Okay, so seriously, if there is a time for tea it is now. I figured that since I like DavidsTeas’ Mothers Helper that now would be a good time to try this sample.
Flavorwise, I am tasting something along the lines of Mother’s Helper. I’m getting a berry thing, hibiscus-like notes, and some kind of almost umami finish.
Like other reviewers, I’m having a hard time picking out the flavors of this tea.

I think it’s as if a little woodland critter came up, wide eyed and bushy tailed and shoved a handful of sweet, citrusy, and bitter berries into my hands and had me brew it in a little mug hewn of chestnut wood.

I just got my free sample today – thank you Martin! I was really intrigued by the brewing instructions. It called for 160 degrees for ~4 minutes. Also, the liquor was very light when I brewed it up. The leaves also surprised me because they were so small and only .5tsp were called for per cup.
The tea itself smells fantastic however, allaying my trepidation. A little smokey, a little buttery, a little creamy, and a little… like it would feel astringent.
This has one of the thickest mouth feels of any of the tea I’ve had. The flavor is just as puzzling as the scent and instructions. I think I like it. It is a lot like walking through cedar woods in the rain. It is woody, a little astringent, reminds me of wine being aged in barrels, and it went perfectly with the rainy day.
I groomed a gorgeous Bedlington Terrier today, in my nice little studio with the rain storm out the windows. This was a nice way to relax, mirroring the weather.
I think I like it…