Verdant Tea

Tiguanyinathon Pt. III

Early steeps: The first steep is very creamy has a nice balance of sweet and savory qualities with notes of cinnamon, collard, and Brazil nut.

Middle steeps: Savory, salty flavors are dominant here. There is a strong but pleasant parsley flavor and a very slight floral note.

Later steeps: Around the sixth steep, this tea starts to shine. It has a nice, creamy texture with a more prominent floral flavor that reminds me of thick leaved, bulb growing flowers. The saltiness is still there, but it is smooth and sweet with a soothing almond milk flavor.

I’ve been too busy to log all my tea, but this was a sipdown. A fantastic tea too! As soon as I get my coupon from Verdant I’m placing an order for 1oz! :O

I’m getting apple butter from this one. Wow. I didn’t have that before, but I brewed this western style. Gawd, this is so good.

Time to properly evaluate this tea! I don’t know how much 4g of tea is, but I covered the bottom of my little gonfu pot with leaves, and tried to steep it for 3 seconds as directed, but it might have been a bit longer – pouring into the gongfu pot and out into my bubble cup at the SAME TIME takes coordination!

Here’s what I have so far – ~3 seconds is delicious. How can you make tea in such a short time? It defies all reason really. It’s lightly yellow, and tastes vegetal (likes spinach?) and very creamy/buttery. Amazing!

2nd steep – More grassy than spinachy. Still buttery.

I guess today wasn’t the day to try this as I ended up having company over, and a crazy baby to deal with so I didn’t get to take many notes while I was drinking.

Here’s what I’ve got:

1st Steep (30s): Very light and grassy with spinachy/grassy notes. I love the shape over these long pretty leaves, and they look great in my mini-gongfu pot.

2nd Steep (30s): More buttery/spinach notes this time around. Very good

I steeped it two more times after that but don’t remember the details except that I enjoyed it. I’ll have to order this sometime!

…sipdown…. :P

I had a tiny sample of this, so I figured I might as well start with this tea. It’s going to be an all Phoenix day (some of my favorites). I’m celebrating because tomorrow starts the first day of my vacation. I’m heading home to NY (and taking tea with me!). This is the first real vacation I’ve had in at least a year. I believe it was over two years ago that I took a short road trip with my very best friend, Allie, and her boyfriend Andy to Sequoia National Park and Los Angeles.

I’m finding myself extremely sensitive to bitter tannins this morning. Last night I brewed some New Vithanakande FPOPFEXSP Black Tea from the Republic of Tea, and it came out so, so overly tannic and bitter. They are still having a buy one refill bag get another one free on their “Rare Tea” collections. I picked up a bunch because they have a lot of good everyday Darjeeling teas.

Anyhow, this tea, the Phoenix Mi Lan Xiang also seemed a bit on the bitter/tannic side in the first brewing, and then again in the second. Either my palate is off, or my tastes are becoming more delicate. Oh well. On to the next tea…

I decided to dedicate my new Xu De Jia teapot to Phoenix oolongs, and this was the first tea I brewed in it. This tea has notes of grapefruit, lychee, and the astringency reminds me of biting into a seed in a raspberry sauce. There is a definite spiciness too. The floral notes aren’t as strong as I prefer, and the finish isn’t lingering. Still one of my favorites.

Purchased this tea from Macha Tea House in Madison. It tastes (and smells) exactly like a brownie; malt and chocolate (brownies are pretty good). I will be going back for more. After the first steep, the in your face flavor was gone.

Tiguanyinathon Pt. II

I actually wrote this earlier today, but the weather outside was too gorgeous to pass up! A cold front came through the other day and it really feels great. I Spent a few hours skating and few just sitting on a bench reading a book. :)

Early steeps: The early steepings have a tropical notes of pineapple and coconut, and a floral wisteria flavor that is very light for a Tiguanyin. Blindfolded I would have a hard time guessing if this is a tiguanyin, a Taiwanese oolong, or some combination of the two. It has a velvety smoothness that I’ve only ever tasted in sliver needle.

Later steeps: The changes in this oolong were less defined than some. A clean grassiness, and hints of honey and paprika appeared. The silver needle mouthfeel was replaced by a more milk-like creaminess. While I LOVED the early steeps on this tea, the later ones were good, but not particularly special.

The tightly rolled nuggets smell grassy and sweet. Slightly buttery, a little like a green tea.

Brewed according to Verdant’s western brewing method. Rinsed with 208 degree water and then steeped for 25 seconds.

The wet leaves smell very grassy and clove like. The light yellow liquor scent on the other hand is absolutely amazing. I have never smelled a tea so complex. Granted, I’m still new to loose teas, especially oolongs, but this is blowing my mind. I can smell butter, grassy scents, citrus and then a super sweet floral scent hit me. Really caught me off guard. I haven’t even taken a sip yet because I can’t stop smelling it.

Alright, here we go…

Wow. The feel of this tea in my mouth is very wet. It’s so smooth. This is going to be so hard to describe. As soon as I take a sip its like a light buttery grassy taste. A few seconds later it starts to change before I swallow. It starts to get sweet and flowery tasting. I can’t really describe it. The after taste though… It tastes so much like citrus. It’s convincing me that I have just ate some type of citrus fruit.

2nd steep (20 sec):

The scent of the 2nd steep is even more floral smelling than the first. I could smell this tea all day. The mouth feel is so good with this tea. It’s tasting sweeter this time around. Maybe a more buttery flavor at the initial sip, but this cup is tasting so close to the first (and I have no problem with that ;P). The after taste is still very similar, but now, beside the citrus I’m tasting a green bean flavor. That’s probably just my untrained palate though. Haha.

3rd steep (20 sec):

I’m going to call the floral scent of this tea honeysuckle. That’s what it smells like to me. So sweet smelling. The third cup has a bite to it. Still delicious though. I’m kind of getting a vanilla flavor. Very nice.

This has been one of the most complex and memorable teas I’ve ever drank. I’ll definitely be ordering more soon. I urge anyone and everyone to try this. I’m very new to tea and this has showed me something I’ve never experienced before.

Cheers.

Holy moly! Now THIS is the chai I’ve been dreaming of — the nose of the dry leaves is divinely spicy and complex and follows through in the aroma of the steep. I was not disappointed at first sip … looking forward to trying this with honey and milk, to further develop this tea’s potential.

Tieguanyinathon Pt.I
Sort of in the spirit of the “Saturday Sipdown” I’m going to be tasting the Verdant spring, summer, and autumn Ti Guan Yins sent to me by Autumn Hearth and maybe even some other TGY’s I have sitting around. :)

Early steeps: The early steeps are sweet and smooth with a nice, milky texture. The flavor is slightly floral and reminiscent of honeysuckle, and I also get notes of pumpkin and hazelnut. The leaves opened up really fast! By the 3rd steep they were almost completely unfolded.

Middle steeps: In the middle steeps, the floral sweetness was largely repaced by savory chestnut flavors, and something that reminded me slightly of turmeric (though that might have just been my cooking) :)

Later steeps: Around the sixth steep, the floral notes return to balance out the savory. These later steepings are well balanced, and have the flavors of the earlier steeps, but I also begin to notice new flavors like parsley and vanilla, a slight cooling effect like mint, and a cake-like fluffiness.

SIPDOWN!

I figured I really need to start drinking some of my verdant samples since i know i’ll be placing another order in the near future (well month or so). I still enjoy this one, though I’m having a go at drinking this dragonwell style today. It’s uh…. a little interesting and a little challenging not to eat the tea lol But i’m sure i’ll get it figured out before i need to stop drinking this. haha.

Oh Happy snow day!

this was a sample from my last verdant order and i figured i’d try this out since next weekend there are a few people coming over to have tea who i KNOW are much more appreciative of green tea than i am. I figure if i don’t like this, i can pass it to a happier home.

I love the idea of green teas….but most of the time they’re too light and vegetal for me. This tea smells “green” before adding water to it. However, when adding the water to the leaves (I brewed this western style) there’s almost a sweetness to the aroma.

The first sips of this aren’t vegetal at all. Instead they are more on the sweet side, like drops of honey that have been diluted. There’s no astringency and this is quite tasty. It’s nothing that i NEED to have or want to always have around, but i think i could enjoy a cup (or two) of this from time to time. I’ll have to see how the re-steeps change things.

Edit: Resteeps, the tea starts to lose the honey, sweet notes and becomes more floral.

I do love this tea brewed hot, but being a resident of one of the more warm and humid regions of the US, I really need to recommend cold-brewing this tea. What I’ve done is to take pinch or two of leaves and put them in a mason jar with spring water and leave them covered (foil, saran wrap, something non-permeable) in the fridge overnight. Heating the water before adding is unnecessary. You end up with the best cold green tea you’ve ever had the next morning, and you can keep the leaves and do the same thing the next day with similar results. Add a pinch or two more and dilute if you want to entertain more guests. Fifteen years ago I’d probably cut your grass for free if this stuff was available for refreshment – it’s really that good.

Almost every (quality) black tea I’ve tried has a sort of chewy richness to it that can in many cases be a little too much for me: Sometimes when I get to the 5th or 6th steeping my stomach feels like I just ate one too many bites of a super-rich dessert.
This tea is different—I don’t get any of that stop-you’ve-had-too-much feeling. There’s that refreshing, almost cooling feeling you get with some oolongs with the depth of flavor you expect from a good black tea.
This tea was the solution to a problem I didn’t know I had. It’s different and interesting enough for me to recommend to anyone.

A part of Reserve Club subscription. Didn’t find it that interesting. Sure, it’s dancong with a taste of good stewed fruit drink, not overly sweet, very fruity but… why do I need it when I can just drink stewed fruit instead ?:)

Resteeps a whoole lot though :)

I found it to be so refreshing! Made me feel like my momma wa here nursing me back to health
So minty and fresh. All the herbs blended are so wonderful!
I would drink this any day!
So refreshing!

I’ve been trying to peruse my way through the black Friday and Cyber Monday sales to make up my mind for what I want to get. I think this year I want to experiment with Pu Erh. In general I want more tea that is gong-fu friendly – I think I’ll need it as it is both economical and stress relieving. Thinking about all the tea purchases I want to make of course had me wanting some right now, and this happened to be peeking out of my bottom cupboard.

The smell of this dry was intoxicating tonight. Chocolate and buttery avocado. I put 4.8 g. of leaf in my gaiwan and had to sit there and smell it for a few minutes before putting the water on to boil. I don’t remember the smell of it being that heady before.

1st steep – apparently I have discarded the initial rinse of this in the past but…the way that it smelled made it hard for me to justify that. So I had it steep for 10 ish seconds in boiling water and then allowed it to cool to taste it.

Sooo glad I did. Buttery cocoa with that signature apricot flavor is what I get. It doesn’t have the prolonged fruity after taste that some dan congs do, but what it DOES have is more than making up for it.

Steep 2 – 35 seconds. Definitely more fruity. Noticeable apricot that lingers on the swallow, and a slight astringence/roasted quality as well. The buttery texture is still here, too, but I miss the cocoa and avocado notes.

Steep 3 – 1 minute 15 seconds. Weaker apricot notes. Weaker tea in general. I seem to remember this loses its flavor fast and that is showing up here, sadly. Sort of a diluted honey flavor? Agave, then? I always think of Agave as a thinner version of honey. Also there is more of a grain note this time.

Steep 4 – Okay, I made a huge jump in time – 4 minute steep. I figured it was nearing its end anyway so I wanted to use all the strength for this last brew. Weak, watery honey notes and that’s it. I think I must be the opposite of a supertaster, because I feel like I can never get a huge amount of infusions out of any tea, and this affirms that belief.

It was fantastic in the first steep especially though – and I have to remember that I should just open up the bag and smell the dry leaf whenever I truly want to smell heaven.

A great tea to kick off Thanksgiving week!

Boiling water, discarded first rinse. 4.8 g. leaf into 4 oz. gaiwan. This will be my first time having this gong fu style – and I went to the Verdant site to check instructions and found that it’s been archived.

1st steep – 10 seconds-ish because I was slow getting myself situated to pour out from gaiwan to cup. This steep has the buttery texture and nutty flavor of an avocado with the lingering sweetness of apricots that is a signature dan cong flavor for me. It is reallllly smooth.

2nd steep – about the same steep time (I’m slow this morning). At first I almost got a sour note, but then I realized it was the floral undertone. I’m not a huge drinker of the flower teas for this reason, but if you look hard enough the apricot is hiding beneath the flowers. I hope this resolves itself in further steeps.

3rd steep – yes, better. Now more of a cocoa powder flavor is prominent, the fruitiness has disappeared but the buttery avocado texture remains.

Well – I planned poorly. I’m out of water after all the rinses and small steeps. I’ll keep the leaves and have some more tea later since I know this has quite a bit of life left in it. It was great for a leisurely weekend breakfast!

So. I love black tea, and I love dan congs. Far and away they make me the happiest of any other teas out there. And when I saw this – a combination of dan cong AND a black tea – on Verdants website, well…. let’s just say that it didn’t take much to make me decide to add this to my cart when I finally placed an order.

I went with their western style brewing recommendations mostly because I don’t have a gaiwan but I do want to try it that way in the future as well. So – I guesstimated about 4 g. of tea and started with a 35 second infusion.

It smells strangely like a roasted green once steeped – like genmaicha or hojicha, maybe. But the texture is buttery smooth. I see avocado because of the texture alone, but combined with the ‘green’ smell I really think it becomes the prominent note. Once cooled honeyed flavors emerge as well. But I’m definitely not getting the salty/peachy dan cong elements I love so much. Maybe in a steep or two I will?

Steep two: 45 seconds – 1 minute. Even more avocado! This is absolutely amazing. Its the texture mostly. As it cools a maltier, cocoa note peeks through. Chocolate avocados. Who knew that would be so perfect?? Now that it’s cooled off completely the peachy aftertaste that is indicative of my beloved dan cong oolong is shining through, only it’s more of a grilled peach, which I’m assuming comes from the fact that the tea base is a black rather than oolong. I would say there are no words….but this small novel seems to show otherwise.

Steep three: One minute. Hmmm… hot I don’t get anything, strangely. Like – hot water, nothing. I’ll wait until this guy cools a bit….and once it’s cooled I only get the fainted notes of…genmaicha?! I’m going to let this steep a bit more to see if I can eke out any more flavor, but I love how mercurial this tea is. Green and black and oolong and fruity and honey and roasty all together and separate at the same time. An extra minute or two of steeping time brings the genmaicha-esque flavor out more but also adds a smidge of astringence. Not bad, just…I can tell it’s reaching it’s peak, you know?

I think I’ll just finish this infusion and call it good, but it was quite the adventure while it lasted! What a fun tea that was well worth the splurge!

Excited to try. I opened the bag and smelled the small dark curled leaves and instantly thought of chocolate. The dry leaves smell so good!

I’m going to brew this western style. Three minutes in boiling water. Here goes nothing!

The liquor is a light golden brown and smells sweet like chocolate but also reminds me of barley. This tastes like it smells to me. Creamy, smooth, sweet, chocolaty. Its amazing. The wet leaves smell so strongly of dark chocolate and something I can’t quite put my finger on.. Hm.

Second steep: Sweeter and smoother than the first. Honey! I’m drinking these cups so fast because it’s so delicious.

This tea is just so smooth and delicious. I could drink it all day. I will definitely be buying more.