639 Tasting Notes

98

Zhu Rong. You used to be so right. Now you are so wrong. :(

I’m not sure what happened to the last harvest of Zhu Rong Yunnan Black Tea. It is not the same as the year before. It used to be primarily cedar notes with a spicy undertone. This last year’s harvest, however, is largely smoke and tobacco. Yuck! I think I can still get some cedar and spice underneath whatever smokiness is going on. But this smoke is STRONG!

It’s not at all what I wanted or what I find enjoyable. I’m quite sad because I bought a whole 4 oz. of it expecting the lovely Zhu Rong I had sampled the year before. I purchased this in October 2014. Is anyone interested in taking it off my hands? The tea itself is very high quality and flavorful, as all Verdant Teas are. I just don’t like it. The bag has 4 oz. in it minus about 4 tsp from the couple cups I brewed. I’d like to recoup as much of my investment as possible, so hopefully around $15 + shipping OBO. Any takers? Please take this tea off my hands because it will languish in my cupboard! Someone should enjoy it!

Flavors: Cedar, Smoke

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 2 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
scribbles

I was pretty disappointed with that harvest too. And I did the same thing; bought a large quantity :( lesson learned

looseTman

Has anyone reviewed the 2015 harvest?

CHAroma

It hasn’t been harvested this year yet.

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78

These leaves are fairly old. I’m not getting carrot or cupcake. It does taste like a yummy chai with a strong cinnamon note. Other than that, I don’t have a lot to say. It stands up to sweetener well and doesn’t require milk to be enjoyable. I usually hate Keemun but this is all right. Tasty even. Dare I say I’m enjoying it? :P Oddly enough, I don’t think I have any other chais right now. It’s usually a staple in my cupboard. So I’m holding on to this one for when I get chai cravings. I like it! I do!

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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75

Wow, so many other people have had this tea in a hospital. That’s my story too! I enjoyed this tea as I was recovering from the birth of my first and only child. I was told to stay away from caffeine because I was breastfeeding. It’s nothing spectacular but it hit the spot. It will always have a special place in my heart because it reminds me of the birth of my daughter. :)

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75

This tea kept me going in the hospital after I gave birth. I realize it’s decaffeinated but it was TEA! And that’s all I really cared about. I needed the flavor of tea and any kind would do. I was told to stay away from caffeine because I was breastfeeding. It’s nothing spectacular but it hit the spot. It will always have a special place in my heart because it reminds me of the birth of my daughter. :)

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95

Apparently, I haven’t had this tea in a couple years. This was a free sample with my recent order. I’m trying it out in my new gaiwan! The dry leaf aroma is strongly jasmine scented. The brewed tea is a heavenly dream. It smells and tastes amazing! I love watching the white leaves become green in the hot water. I started with a quick 10 second steep and slowly increased it to over two minutes. Every infusion is different and delicious!

I love Verdant’s notes on this one: creamy, jasmine, banana, melon, and pine. I really do get each of these flavors! Although I have to say that the banana is not how it sounds. It’s more like the texture of a ripe banana rather than the taste. This tea is floral and delicate with a lovely aftertaste of hay and pine. I don’t think I would have picked out the pine note on my own but I can definitely understand it now that I know what to look for. It’s in the aftertaste that lingers long after the sip.

Mmm, this is delightful. I am thoroughly enjoying this. It’s probably not something I’d want to drink every day but I loved my way through this sample. Why did I rate this so low three years ago? I’m raising the rating from 83 to 95! A gaiwan makes all the difference! :)

Flavors: Banana, Creamy, Hay, Jasmine, Melon, Pine

Preparation
165 °F / 73 °C 0 min, 15 sec 7 g 5 OZ / 147 ML

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94

I’ve been very very bad. I recently bought my first gaiwan from Verdant Tea! It’s a beautiful, bone china, Jingdezhen, hand-painted, mountain gaiwan with matching teacup. It’s so so beautiful! It arrived today and I could barely contain my excitement! I immediately washed it and tried it out with this tea. I love it so much, and I was so impressed by the quality, that I went back onto the Verdant site and bought three more teacups, a bamboo tea scoop, and 1 oz. of Golden Fleece. AAHHHH!!!! What have I done?! I cannot, should not be buying all this teaware! I’ve been a very very bad girl. Shhh, don’t tell my husband. It’ll be our little secret. ;)

ON TO THE TEA!

Ah, on to this tea indeed. This tea is incredible! I honestly can’t do it justice with a review. I feel like my tea tasting and describing abilities are lacking for such a high quality tea. So I shall defer to the notes that Verdant Tea uses to describe it: silk, watercress, green bean, violet, and cashew. Wow! Silk and watercress indeed! This tea is silky smooth and delightful!

The first few infusions are incredibly flavorful. This being my first gongfu experience, I didn’t throw away the first infusion. I steeped the leaves for 30 seconds, which was honestly probably too long – or at least it’s too long when you don’t toss the first steeping after 10 seconds. This first infusion was a tad bitter. The second infusion though was spot on! The bitterness had faded and left behind a punch of watercress flavor. I rushed over to my husband and gave him the cup because I know he loves green tea more than me. He was blown away too.

Subsequent infusions (I lost count how many) were still delicious but didn’t possess quite the same broad spectrum of flavor. The violet and cashew are definitely only apparent in the early infusions. The late infusions were gentler and had mainly green bean notes. Still good to me but my husband said he definitely liked the early infusions more. He actually asked me if it was a different tea! He’s not quite as experienced – read obsessed – a tea drinker as I am, so he didn’t know that I was brewing multiple infusions of the same tea.

Ah, this tea is a luxury. It just oozes sophistication and class. I don’t usually like dragonwell but I think I may have to change that opinion because this is truly something special. How did I ever dislike green tea?

Now if only that bamboo presentation scoop wasn’t so darn expensive, I would have bought that too. I also looked into getting one of the tea pitchers, but I was able to successfully restrain myself. Gah! Why does Verdant have to offer so many beautiful teaware pieces? I want it all!! And after this gaiwan experience, now I see why I need a pitcher. The Chinese tea preparation method is messy! I got water everywhere! Besides that though, gongfu method brewing was much easier than I thought it would be. I have a new found love!

I truly enjoyed this gongfu experience so much more than my regular Western method of brewing tea, which surprised me. It honestly is so much more fun! I felt bad throwing away the used tea leaves in the trash. It felt wrong. Goodbye, beautiful tea leaves! I enjoyed all your delicious flavor and now you have no flavor left!

This was a treat. I am so thankful to Verdant for offering this tea, and I am so thankful to God for bringing me to this point in my life where I can afford and enjoy such experiences.

ETA: https://instagram.com/p/4KKFZvF-sf/
https://instagram.com/p/4KLPe6l-vC/
https://instagram.com/p/4KLhMIl-gD/

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 0 min, 30 sec 4 g 5 OZ / 147 ML
Tealizzy

Love gongfu! It’s so much more fun! :)

CHAroma

It is! I added some photos of my beautiful new gaiwan. :)

ashmanra

I love the new teaware! So glad for you!

CHAroma

Thanks, ashmanra!

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77
drank Pour Maman by Nina's Paris
639 tasting notes

This is much more to my liking. It has a nice sweet, strawberry flavor. The vanilla in this one is much smoother and less bitter than what’s in Je t’Aime. It’s not my favorite blend but I’ve enjoyed this cup. I always love trying new teas! A belated thank you to JustJames for sending me a sample!

Flavors: Strawberry

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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67
drank Je t'Aime by Nina's Paris
639 tasting notes

Thank you to JustJames for sending me this sample! There’s something about the vanilla in this tea that’s off-putting. I can’t put my finger on why. It could be the age. I’ve had this sample sitting in my cupboard for a while. It somehow got shoved to the back and accidentally overlooked. I’m not really a fan of this one. There’s just something about it that doesn’t agree with me. It’s always fun to try new things though even if they don’t turn out to be new favorites.

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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59

I picked this up in my local organic market. I’ve had this packet in my cupboard a long time. Yet when I opened it, the powder was bright green. I mixed it up in my milk frother the way I always make matcha. Sadly, it didn’t whisk completely and there were little bits of compacted matcha in my cup. Not a lot of them, but still. There shouldn’t be any, especially from a ceremonial grade matcha. The classic grade matcha I buy from Red Leaf Tea never has clumps when I prepare it the same way.

The flavor is full-bodied and grassy. It’s very different from Red Leaf Tea’s matcha. This one tastes greener and grassier, like a cup of liquid fresh cut grass. It’s more akin to sencha than any other matcha I’ve tasted. Ooh yuck, big clump. Okay, I am not a fan of this one. There are quite a few clumps in here after all. Although the flavor is okay, the consistency is off. I think I’ll stick with Red Leaf Tea for my matcha fix.

Flavors: Freshly Cut Grass

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C
MrQuackers

Did you sift it before using it? It was in your cupboard for a long time.

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78

I thought I had tried this one but the package is unopened. Big thank you to Angel from Teavivre for sending me this free sample! I’ve tried their unflavored milk oolong before and adored it. So I have high hopes for this one.

The dry leaf aroma is mouthwateringly yummy. It smells fresh, green, and delicious. The brewed tea aroma is not as potent, but the leaves are also still mostly furled after a quick one minute infusion. The initial sip is nearly flavorless and then BAM! The flavor hits in the aftertaste! The after aftertaste is a tad yucky though. It’s thick and slightly bitter. Maybe subsequent cups will be better.

The second infusion was for two minutes. The bitterness is gone from the aftertaste now. However, this oolong is fairly one dimensional. It has that “milk” flavor but not a whole lot else. I’m not getting creaminess or floral notes. It does have a slight mineral note; it reminds me of copper. And that’s about it.

Third infusion for 3.5 minutes is pretty good. I think I had enjoyed the unflavored version of this tea more. Of course, part of that could be contributed to this tea’s age. Although I hadn’t opened the foil package yet, this tea has been sitting in my cupboard for over three years. I’m sure that hasn’t helped things. In any event, I’m exhausted. I think I drank about seven different types of tea today. I’m ready to end my tea journey for the evening and go to bed. Sooo tired.

Flavors: Mineral

Preparation
Boiling 1 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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Bio

Entering the sweet blissful world of tea aromas!

Having discovered this website at the end of July 2011, I’m so excited to share my tea adventures with all of you! I grew up with my grandmother serving Twining’s English Breakfast with cream and sugar.

But on a trip to Seattle in 2010, I stumbled into a Chinese teashop and tried my first oolong tea. I was forever changed! I embarked on a startling new love for green and white teas.

With a world of teas to discover, I was inspired to keep a tea journal to record my thoughts and new favorites. Let’s get brewing!

My ratings are completely subjective and 100% my opinion. All ratings are given in relation to each other (ie. teas are rated in the order of my enjoyment of them). Therefore, my ratings will constantly change as I try more teas.

I love swapping!!! If you see something in my cupboard you’d like to try, just send me a message. If you’d like to trade, anything on my shopping list will do or feel free to send something else entirely. I’m willing to try almost anything (although I’m not really a fan of honeybush, red rooibos, pu’erh, Lapsang Souchong, & banana-flavored teas).

Location

Maryland, USA

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