Verdant Tea

Backlog from yesterday – I had this for our roleplaying session because it’s quick and easy to steep so I won’t disrupt anyone, and it’s one I can savour. It was great.

I had a little bit left over that I sipped on this morning and it was still quite tasty at room temperature.

My samples came in! I ended up resteeping this 5 times today! That’s a record. I wasn’t sure how much to use but I took a perfect teaspoon and a 12 oz tumbler. I steeped it for 30 seconds, 40, 50, one minute, and two minutes.

It was really good. I think honey was the strongest note, but I noticed each steeping favored different flavors. I’ll have to pick some up!

After sleeping it for 30s, I’m not sure I’d want to try it at 3 minutes+; that might just be crazy strong

I was afraid to make this for the longest time because I knew it was fancy, and I was wigged out by the 3-5 second steep recommendation for my gaiwan and had to look it up because that sounds too short. But as others have pointed out, it’s too good to let waste away in my cupboard! (and thanks CrowKettle for surprising me with the sample!)

First steep: very light and fancy. Floral and refreshing.

Second steep: Still lightly floral, but with a hint of cocoa!

Third steep: it’s turning a nice orange now I’m getting lots of cocoa and malty notes. I can see why people enjoy this tea so much.

After, I steeped it three more times, and then used the last of my sample to brew it Western Style and resteeped that. I don’t know that I have ever dedicated one day to one tea like that before but it was wonderful. On to the shopping list with this one!

Sipdown, 221. I can’t believe this one doesn’t have more tasting notes! I suppose it is pretty new but there are very few thoughts on this one posted here. I decided to go ahead and use my sample in my gongfu pot.

My first dong ding oolong was a somewhat untraditional one that was completely unroasted, which I really enjoyed. After that I had a few others that had the more traditional roasty notes in them. I almost didn’t order a sample of this one because of that, but it didn’t specifically mention any roasty notes, so I picked it up anyway. The dry leaf on this one smells light and green at first, but upon being warmed a bit a savory note comes out. I initially saved my rinse and tasted it, but this one was pretty light on flavor so I ended up skipping it. The post-steeping, under-the-lid sniff did yield lot of roasted scents.

The leaves did a fair amount of unfurling in the first, 5-second steep. The liquor smells vegetal and a tad savory-roasty. It reminds me of a savory noodle bowl almost. The flavor is pretty similar. There is almost a miso-like quality to this tea, including the greens that float in the miso soup. The promised “pound cake” notes never materialized, but then again I never really expected them to. To me, it is primarily vegetal, savory, and definitely miso-y. This tea is pleasant, but really just not my thing. I’m glad I got a sample though, because I would have been forever curious otherwise!

Sipdown of this tea as well because I’m splitting the sample i receive from verdant to let my other friend try this tea. She’s a huge fan of white and greens teas so I’d like to try and get a few higher end teas to her to see if she really enjoys them.

White teas are generally not my thing. Not because i hate them, but because i don’t like them lol My taste buds tend to feel largely unable to get much out of whites. Generally when i drink white teas, the weight of them is so imperceptible, that most of the time i feel like i’m drinking hot water with a splash of “something very nearly undetectable.”

This tea? It’s better than most. Initially it was much like drinking something the way that Hay smells. That fresh barnyard smell after you’ve cleaned all the stalls out. I have to say, after several steeps though, I’m just feeling like i’ve had too much water to drink. Again, not a bad tea, but nothing that knocks my socks off.

It did give me a chance for more practice with my gaiwan, so that’s wonderful. :)

This tea is incredible! It’s fresh, sweet, floral, and creamy. I brewed it gong fu style for three people – one of whom had never seen loose leaf tea before, let alone a gaiwan. (She converted to loose leaf tea after drinking this – yay!)

The tea brews up golden and smells a lot like honeysuckle. Drinking it brought back memories of tasting the sweet nectar of honeysuckle for all of us. I look forward to future gong fu sessions with this vibrant tea.

less sharp and less “green” tasting than the reserve version. both teas look very similar dry and wet, but this has a smoother, softer brew. more to come another time.

Sipdown as i’m having another run through of this tea today! The last remaining bit will be given to a friend of mine that is starting to get into tea.

Mmmm having a cup of this tonight while I watch friends play video games. I can’t play them for crap but I do love the story lines :)

I can’t recall if this was a sample from kittenna or a purchase but I am enjoying tasting this green. Greens aren’t my tea of choice but I can appreciate a nice green when I have it.

This is a tasty tea. I think i’m just too tired to write a tasting note that talks about the tea haha

i’ve been drinking this a bunch since omgsrsly was kind enough to restock me. I’m down to the last of it, as i’ve been having this frequently over the past few days since it has ginger in it. this is still nothing like the first version – now it’s got more of a sweetness to it that i don’t like as much. I miss the spiciness of the first version. Still though….was nice to visit with an old friend. :)

i love this tea. Ginger and a depth to it from the puerh. So glad missb was willing to part with her stash and that omgsrsly was able to bring it to me. this is one of the few blends from verdant i’m really going to miss.

Another from anlina and one that i’ve had before but it hasn’t been in my cupboard for a while now, as verdant hasn’t restocked it in a bit or i totally missed it. I still love this one, though it’s evolved over the years and nothing can compare to that first time i had it from Terri. The puerh has changed and i think the balance is a little off. All that being said, it’s still one of my favs from verdant and i love revisiting it any chance i get! thanks anlina! I’ll be resteeping this one a bit this afternoon!

sipdown#3 for me today. I took this one out with me while we went to the hardware store for ideas on the new place and to finalise paint colours together. My other half will likely end up doing most of the heavy lifting with this move but i’m trying to help as much as i can when i have a few spare moments. I’ll likely wait a bit before i restock this one and see if it reverts back to it’s spicy glory that it was. not that this version was bad..just not as good :)

another one of those teas from verdant that i loved just a little better the first time i had it. I’m actually hoping on that note, that they revert back to the other version on laoshan village chai. i’m not nearly as much a fan of the winter formulation either. I had this today and it was just the right blend of spicy to keep me going in the early morning. I’ll be sad when this is gone, but may wait for the next batch before restocking!

this was my morning’s “flavoured” tea..though admittedly i DID add a bit of zhu rong to this particular cup, as i find the licorice root at the end of the bag is just too cloyingly sweet if i don’t add a little more something to the blend. This one is nearly done and while satisfying, it wasn’t nearly as amazing as the very first time i had this thanks to my tea sister terri.

(also, be prepared for this sort of thing sprinkled in all my notes for a while..I AM MOVING! SO…. anyone who has swapped with me in the past, i will have a new address soonish so don’t send me anything lol We’ll forward mail but i don’t want to risk anything getting returned!)

the only other tea i brought with me tonight…and for some reason, it’s slightly sweet…almost like licorice root sweet..and it’s making me not happy….and grumpier than i already am. BAH!

Final Count: 141 (at least let’s just call this tasting note the cut off time…the night/day it’s all blending in to one blur…)

i had this. so there.

…and that’s how my day went. 16 hrs and i get to crawl in to bed once i add my new teas to my cupboard!

this was one of my morning teas. I’m trying to rotate some of my older teas as i have a big job ahead of me if i want to get to my “6 month mark” by the end of June haha I still really like this one, including it’s re-steepability, though the original version i had was just slightly tastier :)

My cup of this today from this morning was really quite pleasant. I steeped it a little longer to try and bring out more of the spiciness to it and it seemed to work. It’s still not as good as the first batch i had, but i’m still loving it!

So i’m lazy..and have zero knowledge of anything going on out there in the land of herbal stuff…but every time i drink the new blend, I want more spice and ginger in it. I want it to be more like the first time i had this…

On a random Verdant tangent…not happy with the new rewards, even if i was hoping for different ones someday…but since i’ve had a 10$ coupon i can’t redeem for the glass steeper, and I don’t much need a sample. So my points will just sit there and accumulate.

le sigh. This is not the blend it used to be. Everytime i have it, it makes me a little more sad. This version is a dull version of the previous incarnation. There is way less punch to this one and the spicy is way milder. That doesn’t make for a bad tea, but this version is not something i need to keep on hand. I suppose i could probably find ginger somewhere to add to it to give it a little more punch, but i am not so magically herb inclined as some heh

lol just when i start making progress, more tea arrives hahaha Got my awesome christmas card swap from kallieboo today with a number of teas in it. Steepster really is a great place! Of course i’m back up to 193 teas LOL oh well, there’s always another day just around the corner for drinking tea :)
This sichuan caravan isn’t as spicy as the last incarnation but it’s still damn delicious. I’ve had a couple steeps now and it’s the one tea that’s helped make me a little warmer this afternoon :)

backlog from this weekend. I had a bajillion steeps of this! it’s slightly different from the last batch but still damn good! I really do like this one!