Verdant Tea (Special)

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Recent Tasting Notes

86

this tea is growing on me. I am quite digging the smokey notes of this, though i do prefer it with a little maple syrup. It’s not in your face or imposing but it does have a smoothness to it that i like. I’ve got to get my butt in gear and get some running around done so this is doing the trick of waking me up!

Terri HarpLady

I really really liked this one, & I still have a little of it in my TOMCR box. I need to drink that!

Sil

i still have a bunch…i’m really behind in drinking all my reserve club teas

Terri HarpLady

I resemble that remark!
I’m trying to drink one a day, either from reserve or the classic, since I have both. I figure that way I can work my way through them, gradually. This one was actually one of my favorites.

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86

I seriously can’t believe that i haven’t logged (and probably also tried) this yet. This.is. delicious. But only if i add my typical maple syrup that i love adding to smokier teas. It’s a little too much smoke for me without it, but all i really want to do with this one is cook with it now. My other half and i have a number of recipes that we’ve made for smokey tea cooking and this would be perfect for a couple of them. Glad i opted to try and get through my reserve teas this weekend!

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Sipdown, 100!! Made my Black Friday goal! Cold steep of this one.

I think a cold brew is actually my favorite way to drink dancong. It is SO tasty! Fruity, refreshing, all around delicious. Next summer I might have to get some cheap dancong to keep around for cold brews… It would be so nice on a hot day.

Sil

Woot woot go You!

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I was wondering if I would be able to tell much difference between the two reserve dancongs from the last box, being that I am not usually keen on dancongs. However, I can definitely tell a difference here.

True to name, the Mi Xian was fruitier and more honeyed in flavor. This one is somewhat “crisper” feeling to me, and more floral. Learning that it’s name translates to orange blossom make sense… There is a somewhat bright citrusy note here. This one is more vegetal, and becomes more minerally and a touch stony in later steepings. I definitely enjoyed this one although when it comes to dancongs, I think I liked the Mi Xian more. Glad to have tried this!

Stephanie

Mmmmmm, Dancong

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Sipdown, 110. I brewed this one up right before I went out to lunch, so I had about half of it hot and am drinking the rest of it now. I knew it would still be delicious when it had completely cooled! I am digging the roasty, yet still green and slightly floral flavors.

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 3 min, 0 sec
Sil

ooooh… 10 to go. I’ve got 6 heh (technically 8 since Justjames sent me 2 teas i haven’t logged yet)

Dinosara

Yeah, I have 6 teas with one serving left and 6 teas with two servings left. I am so going to make it, haha.

Sil

i plan on making it by sat evening… so that i have a week to try and get down even further. not that it’ll happen but MAYBE i can manage to get down enough so that incoming teas from black friday will only bring me back to 150… (since it takes 10 days generally for things to get to canada from the us)

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I cold steeped this. Really. But it was totally worth it. I love a slightly roasty green oolong in cold steep and this was no exception. Delish! I find them particularly refreshing. YUM.

Fjellrev

Oh, I’ve never tried cold steeping a tie guan yin. I shall!

Terri HarpLady

Hmmmm…I think I still have some of this, I might have to give it a try…

Bonnie

I cold steep my spent leaves usually in the summertime. I cold steep puerh too. Both are refreshing…deeply hydrading.

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My tea consumption is going to be kind of limited for the next three weeks as I try to get down to my Black Friday goal. Fortunately, there is a lot of great tea in that limited list of about 36 teas. This is one of them. Usual caveats apply: traditional TGYs aren’t my favorite, and I greatly prefer the super-green gande versions.

That said, I have been appreciating these traditional TGYs more and more. This one was quite tasty. Roasty but not too roasty, lightly sweet, slightly fruity. It got more and more vegetal as the steeps progressed, so I didn’t take it out a ton of steeps. But I did enjoy this one this afternoon.

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Sipdown, 106. Cold brew… yes, I did it again (cold brewing a reserve tea, that is).

I knew I should have only given this an overnight-length steep (~8hrs) instead of the 24hr steeps that I give black teas. But it didn’t look very dark, so I left it. It was a tad bitter at first, but I diluted it with some more cold water and now it is pretty delicious. First off, it smells like apples. Really! It came out very fruity and honeyed. A bit of roasting added some depth. Very nice, and I would do it again!

Preparation
Iced

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I steeped this one western style today, and this turns out to be a tea I really do prefer gongfu style. Even when I combine short steeps together (which was awesome), it is a lot better than the western steep, perhaps because it’s harder to control the western steep, or it just got too muddled. Still tasty, but not as amazing for sure.

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec

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An afternoon gongfu session with this one. I haven’t loved a lot of dancongs I’ve had in the past, but I’ve been getting more into darker oolongs lately so I am excited to try this one.

The first few steeps were light and sweet, fruity and lightly floral. Definitely a delicate, refined flavor on this one. There is a light roastiness, like flavor of baked fruit. Later steeps lost the sweetness and became more orchid-like, though it is still subtle. Overall this was very pleasant and I enjoyed my session a lot, although I still think I don’t know enough about these to really appreciate the subtleties here.

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85

Backlog – I sipped this down on Monday, a very refreshing and earthy tea. I would totally buy this one again, it was a very tasty tea and it really grew on me! See previous notes :) oh and rating 85.

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85

So since my experience with Northern Wilds was not the greatest earlier tonight, I am having a cup or two of this one now! I enjoy the dry smell of this one, the mint and juniper are at the forefront giving it almost a eucalyptus like scent, and a dark foresty smell is also present.

I steeped about 2.5 tsps for 1 min with boiling water. The first time I had this I was a bit unsure about the scent steeped, as the anise is definitely present along with mint and the woody pu’erh, but now it seems more natural.

The flavor fully embodies the idea of a forest grove. Cool mint, with spices, and a mildy sweet aftertaste. The juniper berries are in there as well. The pu’erh is mild but provides a nice base for the herbs. This is fresh, woodsy, and pure. I’m not sure if this is my favorite blend of the three October blends or Campfire Blend, they are pretty close though!

Preparation
Boiling 1 min, 0 sec

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Sipping this one, I understand why spearmint was used in the blend… but it’s nasty. I cannot get past my intense dislike of spearmint to appreciate anything else. Peppermint would be exactly the wrong flavour here, though.

My recommendation, is that it needs more actual tea.

(And no spearmint.)

:)

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 2 min, 0 sec
TeaLady441

Aww. Maybe you can swap it, seeing as it’s limited and rare.

OMGsrsly

There is an intended recipient already. I just wanted to try it first!

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68

sipdown on this one. 1 out of 3 for the first month of verdant’s blend club is ok i guess. Not a fan of this, though i do like it more than the norther wild one. I tried this one cold to see how that fares and sadly it a whole lot of star anise, which i don’t mind in moderation but it’s overpowering even the mint in the cold brew heh.

Preparation
Iced 8 min or more

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68

Cup of this tonight with a little added puerh to make it more tea like. An improvement for sure but still nothing I love. Cold brewing the last of this to see how that works out :)

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68

Now this, is more what i hoped for from Verdant’s new blends, though it’s still not quite there. It’s like someone didn’t want to fully commit or something. While there is mint in this blend, it’s more in the background of the blend. I don’t get much in the way of peppercorn the way that i’d like to but i am finding that the star anise does soften out the mint. While i’m not the world’s biggest fan of star anise, it’s used sparingly in this blend, and doesn’t seem out of place.

I feel like maybe next time i’ll add a bit of puerh to this to make it a little darker :)

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Last night I restrung one of my Harps, staying up until 3am to get the job done. This afternoon I knew I wanted some Sheng, & this was the only selection from the Sept Reserve TOMC I hadn’t tried. So I’ve been enjoying this all afternoon. I don’t really have much to say about it, other than it’s pleasant, lightly sweet, & I can taste the similarities between this & Master Han’s Wild picked Yunnan. While I was sipping it I was practicing Benjamin Britten’s “Ceremony of Carols” for a performance the first week of Dec. I was retuning my Harp over & over again, because new strings take forever to settle down. I was returning phone calls, & booked a gig for May. I was talking to a potential new student. I was doing other things too. Next time I’ll try to be still, so that I have more to share.

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Blend Club Box sip down!

This tea was probably my favorite out of October’s bunch. All of them had some anise-like flavors that didn’t really agree with me (I HATE licorice)

Hoping this months blends are more to my liking :)

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Trying my first tea from the Verdant blend club I am sharing with BrewTEAlly Sweet!

Looks like a couple other people have written tasting notes on this one but no one wants to give it a rating! heh.

The spearmint and tulsi are the prominent notes here, with the warmer spices and puerh itself taking a back seat. Not a bad blend, but I think personally, this morning I was hoping for something with a stronger darker base note. I’m still on my first steep, so maybe the 2nd will have a little more oompf to it. I will give it credit for being very forest-like!

Like Bonnie said, I imagine this would be excellent chilled :)

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Another tea that’s not for me. I actually liked the first few sips of each steep, but as it cooled, the smoke flavor emerged more and more.

Sil

Mmmm I like this one.

TastyBrew

I can send you the rest of mine next go round. I can’t imagine ever reaching for it.

Sil

If you don’t then I would for sure make it a happy home. The sample dinosara sent has me contemplating purchasing more :)

Terri HarpLady

I’ve been on the fence regarding that purchase for a couple of weeks now…

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I tried this one the day it came in — it was a minty pu-erh kinda day. And while objectively I can tell this is a good blend, and I enjoyed the pu-erh and the mint, and I love the look of the big black peppercorns… it has anise, and I just don’t do anise. (Ick. >.<) I gave the rest of the package to my boyfriend, who enjoys anise, and also swears he can barely taste it in this blend. Oh well. To each their own…

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