Verdant Tea October Subscription Box (spoiler alert!)

For those who want to know, below are the details from their email regarding October’s box:

Welcome to the second month of our new CSA-style Tea of the Month Subscription Club!

We are super excited for the opportunity to ship your tea direct from the farm. This month, we are truly privileged to introduce a new partner, the Liu Family in Longjuan, Anxi. The Liu Family’s high elevation plot in Longjuan is protected by from sun by the mountain mist and fed by sweet spring water. The Liu Family carefully cultivates Tieguanyin varietal tea, meticulously cutting back their bushes every ten to fifteen years to ensure the sweetest and most tender leaves. There is no better time than the autumn harvests to share Tieguanyin in all its glory. We are super excited to share tea from a completely new farm with you before anyone else, and the Liu Family is excited for you to try some of their most interesting offerings.

What’s in the box? (Spoiler Alert!)

This month, the Liu Family has picked four different teas for you to taste and enjoy! We were able to pack 25 grams of each tea, for a total of 100g, more tea than we have ever sent out in Tea of the Month Club. Each of these four offers a unique perspective to understand the incredible Tieguanyin varietal from the point of view of a different family and different region than Master Zhang in Daping.

Tieguanyin Big Red Robe: This is a brand new kind of tea. The Liu family is just beginning to experiment with Big Red Robe style processing using large leaves from their more mature bushes. Mrs. Liu joked that making Big Red Robe is simple compared to green Tieguanyin, as it is more forgiving, and faster to finish. The resulting tea is an incredibly interesting taste experience, combining the bright fruity overtones of Tieguanyin with the roast and lingering aftertaste of Big Red Robe. Teas like this are an inspiration, a reminder that tea is not static, not stuck to tradition, but a growing and thriving industry. We are overjoyed that you get to be some of the first in the world to try this tea.

Tieguanyin Black Tea: Also known as Tieguanyin Xiao Zhong or Hong Guan Yin, this is a truly engaging taste experience. The sweet smooth malt and chocolate that we love in Laoshan Black is balanced with the juicy florals of Tieguanyin. We never would have guessed that Tieguanyin variatel would yield such incredible black tea, so we are thankful to the Liu family for taking a risk and trying something new and different.

Three Year Aged Tieguanyin: The Liu Family’s Tieguanyin is much more fruit-forward than Master Zhang’s and this comes through in their aged Tieguanyin, a great example of a long and careful roasting process to bring out all the deep, darker notes a tea has to offer. The Liu Family has a rigorous aging program for their teas, and keeps cataloged archives from many years, so we hope to bring in aged Tieguanyin everywhere from one year to thirty years in the future.

Traditional Tieguanyin: The Liu Family’s Traditional Tieguanyin is a major departure from the flavor we are used to from Master Zhang. The Liu family likes to call this tea “Ban Shu, Ban Sheng” or half raw, half ripe/cooked. They finish their traditional Tieguanyin with more heat than Master Zhang, which suits the juicier flavor of their tea and yields a very potent and confident brew with a long aftertaste.

On behalf of the Liu Family, we hope you enjoy the four teas that our partners have picked out for you. Your support gives innovative farmers like the Liu Family a chance to share what they are most excited about. From all of us, you have our most sincere thanks!