Verdant Tea

April backlog and sip down

I had made this as an iced tea to top off when we had a friend over. I usually will bring out strange teas for others, particularly one friend of mine, that will drink anything. I had sipped on this on and off during work but knew that this friend was to stop by later, so I had them throw in their tasting notes (they’re slowing getting into tea with my help and I like to test their palate and have them suggest tasting notes). I had generic notes, “Sunflowers & nutty,” but when they tasted the tea, they said, “It reminds me of Cheese Itz without the cheese.” That tasting note blew my mind because I knew what they meant. There was that salty and savory note like a cracker, yet it was a cracker trying to taste like cheese and slightly missing the goal to taste anything like cheese. Ha-Ha.

April backlog and sip down

I left this sample unopened for nearly two years since I’ve acquired tea from Verdant’s monthly club. Perhaps I grew too weary of the tea stash growing or green tea. However, I’m glad I finally got back around to sampling it!

Aroma: Nutty

Tasting Notes: Sweeter than expected, nutty, creamy, and umami.

Backlog/Sipdown: April 10, 2025

Aroma: Took a little while to get anything since the tea was so tightly compressed! A little floral and perfume-y.

Tasting Notes: Thick & soupy mouthfeel. Floral, sweet, brown sugar, dates, & figs.

Additional Notes: This tea lasted a long time, and I didn’t manage to get it fully opened! I checked 14 infusions (on and off brewing within 4 hours) and when I discarded the tea, it was still compressed in the middle.

TTB 2025. I’ve never had this type of oolong before, so I had no idea what to expect. It’s roasty, sweet, and has strong notes of mixed berries. I really enjoyed this one! Unfortunately, there was only 1 serving left, so I used it all up.

Overall:
-It’s not bad but it’s not great.
Appearance:
-Light Yellow with a hint of Green.
Flavor:
-Floral, Light, Dense, Woody, Mushroom, Vanilla
Summary:
-I’m sure some would appreciate its woody flavor. I will say the first half of the teacup was lighter and more on the floral/lightly herby/woody side with a tinge of vanilla. The 2nd half was more full bodied, and the last gulp or two had an intense and dense mushroom flavor to it.

p.s. the slider wasn’t working on mobile (temperature was 207 degrees F not boiling)
-CMTM4200

Sipdown & Backlog – March 7, 2025

Aroma: Cocoa, vanilla, coffee creamer, & malt

Tasting Notes: Pistachio, baked pie crust (no filling), vanilla, & sweet potato (in the aftertaste)

Rating: 71/100

Sipdown & Backlog – March 5, 2025

I made the final half of this tea as an iced tea. With the recent weather changes, from cold to warmer, I went through an iced tea craze, which is particularly nice to have on hand during in-office days.

Aroma: Cocoa, dark chocolate, floral, & malt.

Tasting Notes: Slight notes of dark chocolate, floral (rose?), & a maltiness in the forefront of the palate.

This tea has a pretty unique taste, but I like it. The initial brew is malty, with second and third brews increasingly vegetal. It’s pretty much kaput after that.

Given as a sample in a recent Verdant order and I can’t remember anything about it, but I remember liking it.

This is another tea I drank through recently without much thought. Not until the last mug brewed with 4g:300mL did this tea really stand out as a well-roasted Anxi oolong.

Strong, sweet and fleshy floral aroma. Heady. All kinds of exotic flowers, sweet and spicy. White lily, gardenia, ylang ylang, tuberose. Good dose of galangal, a hint of cinnamon. Toasted coconut and vanilla. The roast amplifies the sweet nose and does not stand apart. Mouthfeel is not notable and the taste is mostly carried by that heady scent. One with a preference for strong aromas would appreciate this tea the most. Pretty high energy, somewhat uncomforable for me like a lot of tieguanyin from Anxi.

Better western than gongfu, so it did make a nice work tea.

Didn’t care for this. Slightly bitter and really medicinal tasting, not the vibrant floral flavor I was expecting.

I have the 2023 version, but didn’t think it warranted a new listing.

I generally love greener oolongs, but this is leaning heavy on the seaweed, which isn’t my favorite. Will need to give it another try.

In late December 2024 this tea is singing to me of Mt. Ailao with first flavors reminiscent of forest floor, olive oil, minerals, and a complex flavor that reminds me of an earthy pekoe flavor profile. It is a complex tea, has a tingling sensation on the sides of my tongue, and to me, speaks of place. It seems in my view to be on the yang side of things for some reason. Intriguing and enjoyable.

This one is just…okay. Like nothing bad about it per say, but not much in the way of pleasant distinct flavors and fairly disappointing overall. I found it as a free sample from last year that was deep in my tea stash and I hadn’t tried it yet haha.

Harvest: Spring 2023
Varietal: Ben Shan
Location: Daping Village, Anxi, Fujian
Elevation: 1000 m

Sipdown 65 – 2024

Probably not something I need to purchase again. Slightly smoky. Tobacco, sesame, cinnamon.

Backlog and Sip Down

I had this as an evening tea a few weeks ago. I’ve been backlogged on tea logs for a few weeks due to the shift change and various other life events. I barely remember this one, so thankfully I made notes.

Notes: Unsweetened chocolate, cocoa dust, & sunflower seeds.

Sipdown

We have been drinking big pots of this tea hot, but today I took the last bit and on the final steep (number three this time) I gave it about 40 seconds and poured it over ice for lunch time.

It is extra roasty tasting now and that extra bit of flavor is probably good since I didn’t sweeten it all. It is a decent tea, but there isn’t anything here fight now that makes me put this on a wishlist. It is an older tea, though, and that may be affecting the flavor unless this is one of those oolongs that usually ages well,

This tea was a gift from Nicole – many thanks!

This tea is no longer listed on the Verdant website, and the more recent Full Roast Wulong Revival says that the maker used a new process, so it would not be accurate to just use the description from the new one.

Dry leaf aroma is chocolate and the thing I can’t remember the name of..I think MadHatter knows. It is the smell of the art class in acrylic painting that I took as a child. I think sometimes people describe it as latex that makes it sound like a bad thing.

I was expecting this to be much darker and toastier, maybe even smoky, with full roast in the name. It is rich tasting even after all these years, so maybe this is a wulong that ages well.

I made three steeps by their parameters, using 5 grams of leaf per 200 ml boiling water. First steep was 10 seconds, second was 12 seconds, third was 14 seconds or so. The steeps were combined into a single pot and enjoyed with and after breakfast.

This is not at all smoky and full roast is a good description. It is a little reminiscent of the Tung Ting we buy from Tin Roof Teas. We will probably finish this one this weekend as it is one of Ashman’s favorite profiles.

Sip Down

I started Tuesday morning with the Yunnan White Jasmine over a bowl of granola for breakfast. This was an odd combo of flavors, but the granola helped cut the bitterness of the tea. I may have used too hot water (205F) for the little bit of tea leftover. However, I hadn’t minded the bitterness whatsoever since the Jasmine was still providing some sweetness to the cup.

Sip Down

I decided last night that I needed a cup of tea to get through the final hours of the weekend shift (thank goodness this is 4-6 weekends per year), and this happened to be on the top of the sip down pile. I know I over leafed the session, but there was only 7g left. I was too lazy to try to figure out the tea ware to tea ratio for the session, so in went all 7g into 120ml gaiwan.

Notes: The tea had a nice roasted seaweed flavor throughout. It was strong for the first 4-5 infusions before it began losing strength. I hadn’t noted anything else, but the tea lasted 11 infusions before I decided to head to bed. I’ll also note that my (tea) dreams were weird.

Sipdown

Since I have botched the prep in the past, I was very careful the last two times I made this. Yesterday I had it at breakfast event though I said I would probably just use it for afternoons. It was so good, and even though the color of this one is pale and you think it has been a mistake to do only a ten second steep, it is so full of flavor.

With food, it was so silky and creamy that it was rather arresting. I stopped to appreciate the tea instead of just “washing down” breakfast. When the food is finished and you are just drinking the last of the tea, it comes off a little stronger and has a light briskness that is unnoticeable with food, but is precisely why it paired nicely.

A sad sipdown, and a someday re-purchase. Thank you, Nicole, for introducing me to this tea!

This tea was in my package from Nicole. I was pretty excited to see it because there are quite a few of Verdant’s black teas that have been stellar over the years. This is from Spring 2020.

The aroma of the dry leaf in the package is filled with high notes – a little bready top with some rose over the classic tea scent. Sharp fruit, light. I was thinking this might not be a good breakfast choice and might be a little too sharp for my liking. (Spoiler – I was wrong.)

Then the steeping instructions – 5 grams leaf to 200 ml water for 10 sec. in boiling water. Seriously?

So I prepared it this way yesterday making two steeps to combine and giving the second steep a little extra time. The liquor seemed a little light for pairing with breakfast…

Surprise! The mouthfeel is creamy, in texture much like a good shu puerh that has been given a short steep, although not that flavor at all. The flavor is nicely nuanced and layered. I get a whiff of sweet potato like in Golden Monkey, a hint of fruitiness, and a hint of floral…oolong? And yes, turns out this varietal is more commonly used for oolong tea.

I had it again this morning and nearly botched everything. I guess I just wasn’t thinking. I started cooking the onion and red bell pepper in the skillet before realizing that I had not even brought in a duck egg. I had to run outside to the spare fridge and get the egg. Then I realized I didn’t have my frozen waffle things prepared, nor had I chosen a tea. I grabbed this one because it was nearest.

In all the frantic catching up and trying to make it so that all the food would be ready and hot together, I lost track of the steeping. That’s right, the mere ten seconds. But not by much. Second steep was another matter – forgotten a bit longer. I decided I might as well go for a third steep. Noticed that the kettle was set to 190F instead of 212F. At this point, who cares? Combined all three steeps in a pot.

This could be an example of forgiving for us all. The tea was as good as or better than yesterday. Creamy mouthfeel, no bitterness. Lots of oolong vibes. And it is four years old!

I enjoyed this the most when my plate was cleared and I was just sipping and watching the mockingbirds feed their young. This is a refined tea and not a builder’s breakfast tea. I would never add milk or sugar to this. I think it would ruin it, but everyone is different.

I think I will use the rest of this for light snacks or tea time where there is more focus on the tea, because it deserves the attention.

Currently in the process of not buying any tea, whatsoever, until I sip down a good portion of my collection. The outside says 2020. Hopefully, it is not awful. We are doing a good twenty-second rinse to begin. Oh my ^^;… The rinse smells like dusty dust and straight-up dry dirt. Tastes like dry dirt too. Needs to be broken. I broke it apart with my fingers. Hot tea cake. A faint hint of usual oolong notes. Each steeping has revealed more notes. But I had to dump the first too. There’s only so much dirt I can handle. Apparently, I fulfilled that need as a child. I’ve lost count of my session. The dirt notes are now charcoal notes. The mineral notes of wet rocks and granite are also slowly making an appearance with each subsequent steeping.