HFDWOOD

Digging into some tea of the month club offerings from a couple months ago. Spring clean up really digs into your time! Time to try some “Frozen Summit” tea. Dry leaf looks like mostly in-tacked full leaves rolled with small stem. Smell is of crasins and light floral toasted notes.
Did a quick wash then a 6 sec. steep. Wet leaf smells very vegital and strong muscatel/ ripe fruit. Body is heavy and velvety. Taste is bready with a good dose of raspberry.
2nd steep(6sec.): Liquor is more golden and a tartness with the raspberry is coming through. Not as bready as the previous steep.
3rd steep(6sec.): Leaves are almost fully open now. Bread is not back in full force with light fruitiness. Their is a mild sweetness towards the end but I’m starting to get a light briskness. That feeling of white pepper in the back of your throat.
4th steep(6sec.): Same as last.
5th steep(6sec.): Turn the leaves this time. Flavor revitalized a little but for the most part, the flavor has stayed pretty even keeled.

Seeing its supposed to be sleet and rain today, I figured a cup of nice smokey tea would be comforting. Bringing the campfire in the house….Is spring ever going to come?

Decided to brew this tea in more of a western style to see how the flavors changed. Kept the water temp the same, but brew for 3min. instead of the 5sec. infusions. The nose is basically the same a the dry leaf nose. Flavor is more vegital and sweet with good heavy mouthfeel. I pick up flavors of green bean, raisin, and star fruit.
The downfall is you don’t get to see the tea evolve over steepings in nose and flavor. Those light subtle flavors you get with less time are muted by other stronger flavors. I think I will make sure I’m home and have time to make this with multiple steepings vs. one longer to take on the go.

I could sit here an smell this tea all day! This is one on the stronger Lapsang Souchong’s I have smelt. Very strong smoke/resin/salt smell. It seems that most people either love or hate this style of tea. I guess I’m lucky enough to enjoy it. Being a fireman probably helps. It reminds me of this strong hickory smoked salt I use to rub on steaks. Maybe I’ll try adding this to a rub.
Anyway, on to the brew….Brewed for 5min. @ 212F
Still strong smoke in the nose, but the resiny smell has just about fully fallen to the back. Lightly brisk and fairly thin mouthfeel. Flavor is great though…smokey, woody, and tree bark. Very straight forward example of the style. The wet leaves are broken between 1/4" to 3/8" in size.

What a deal! $5.00 for a 3oz tin. I will defiantly be trying their Lapsang Souchong #1…It is a early picked Lapsang and is supposed to be sweeter.

Dry leaves are long, stringy and dark. Brewed for five min. as per directions. Wet leaves are unwrapped broken leaves with quite a bit of green showing now. Nose is lemony wood. Taste is lighter than most Darjeelings I’ve had. Moderately brisk, but doesn’t grip the sides of your tongue. Some minerality, but not very complex. Not really picking up any layering with flavors.

Not even going to bother writing what I taste, because I am so underwhelmed. Very subtle clove and cinnamon if any. Mostly, all that I taste is Honey bush. Very surprised, Harney usually has outstanding products.

Got my first tea of the month shipment from Verdant and figured I would try this one first. The dry leaf is delicately rolled and lightly oxidized….still a lot of green color their. I gave the leaves a quick rinse with 190 degree water and got started.
First infusion(5sec.): Very pale in color with light berry and possibly currant notes. Taste is sweet and mildly creamy with berry in the background….looking forward to the next infusion and having that berry come through more.
Second infusion(5sec.): Color slightly darker. The berry is still hanging in there and now there is a predominant toasted character. Flavor is stronger berry with sweetness giving way to light olive. Mouth-feel is creamier.
Third infusion(5sec.): Sweeter still berry but creamy mouth-feel is more subtle. A dryer spiciness is coming through in the finish.
Fourth infusion(5sec.): More floral in the nose. Berry is gone from nose mainly to toast. Sweetness falling back. Vegital coming into the picture still with pepper spice finish.
Fifth infusion(5sec.): Rotated leaves as per instructions. Mostly vegital with the spicy finish. Sweetness is pretty much gone.
I will probably do a couple more infusions to see where it goes but overall a very nice tea with complex subtle flavor. I will double the steeping time next to if it intensifies or just makes bitter.

Upon opening the tin, the blend of flower pedals contrasting against the black tea looks elegant. The dry leaf smell is strong chocolate. The wet leaf does not expand much when brewed. The liquor is still strong chocolate with a under-lying cream scent. Body is light to moderate with the first sip. The chocolate is not as strong as you would expect from the smell. There is a creaminess that coats your mouth which is very pleasant.
I could smell this tea dry all day, but I wish it was a little more complex brewed.

Bought this from David’s Tea Westport store. When I first opened my 1oz bag I immediately was brought back to childhood with the smell of apple chips. Not a professional description of scent, but the was the memory it triggered. With that was light spinach and toast.
I started my first infusion per the directions provided…1 1/4 tsp. for 4-7 min in 200F. I went with 4 because anything more seemed to be long to me for an oolong.
The spinach has fallen to the back and more of the toasted notes come forward after steeping. Nice moderate mouth-feel.the first taste that comes to mind is star fruit with a mild briskness in the finish.
Didn’t get that milky coating in my mouth that I have gotten from other milk oolong’s but the taste is very pleasant and worth trying. I would steep closer to 3 min. next time to push back that briskness.

Wow! Talk about a good quality tea. Every leaf after steeping is whole and not ripped. This tea was quite pricey, but the delicate hands and care that have gone into processing this tea is impressive.
This nose is lightly vegetal…light greens and snow peas.
The first sip immediately coats your mouth with this velvety smooth texture and has moderate mouth-feel.
The flavor is light spinach with subtle toasted notes. Honey keeps coming to mind with the light sweetness, mainly because of the creamy texture and mouth-feel.
One of my favorite oolongs to date. Out of the oxidation spectrum for oolongs, this would fall toward the lightly/less oxidized end giving way to more vegetable notes than toasted.
I did 4 infusions and the flavor kept coming. Maybe that will level out the high price.

I was pleasantly surprised with this tea. I usually steer away from Puerh because the few that I have had in the past tend to be strong and taste to much like dirt….for a lack of a better word. This was nice and smooth. Cocoa, earth, and some light smoke on the nose. No bitterness going down.