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Cold brewed it this time. Still tastes wonderfully fruity and light but there is definitely a tartness that I was expecting, and didn’t get, when I brewed this hot. I added a half of a tablespoon brown sugar (not packed) to about 1 1/2 liters, which is usually enough for me. I feel that it being more tart cold brewed I may need to add a little more sugar, but I’m afraid I’ll make it taste more like juice than cold tea. Either way, it’s a decent tea and makes a decent iced tea, don’t know if I’ll buy more though.

This is my first time drinking a plain Bancha, all others I’ve had are flavored, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I open the bag and smell a sweet vegetal tea with a floral hint. I apologize for being vague, but I can’t say exactly what the vegetal or floral notes were. The leaves were a darker green and flat and there were stems mixed in the bag as well. Wet the leaves smelled of cooked spinach with some of the floral notes and a sweetness.

The taste is surprising to me, this is probably because I’ve never had Bancha before. But I’m tasting sencha notes, the sweet, savory, smooth notes of sencha, just not as prominent. There’s a lightly roasted note, a hint of woodiness, and that floral notes that I can’t pinpoint what it is.

As the tea cools the roasted, woody notes become stronger and the sweet, savory notes mellow out more. The aftertaste contains more of the floral notes with some sweetness and a slight astringency. Overall I’m enjoying this tea, not something I would drink everyday, I still prefer sencha over this, but not bad at all. Perhaps I’ll develop more of a taste for this as I drink more.

Backlogging from yesterday since the site was buggered, good to see it’s back up and running well.

It looks like any other Silver Needle tea, long fuzzy buds. These ones turn green the instant you pour hot water on them. Dry you get the slightly sweet hay smell, wet the buds have an additional cucumber note to them.

Taste is sweet hay with cucumber and juicy melon. The juicy melon is more of a texture than a taste and lasts into the aftertaste with a hint of mint feeling. I brewed it up gaiwan style first and the hay notes were very prominent. Then I brewed up more traditional style and I get a much better taste and blend of the notes. I find it so fascinating the difference in taste of the same tea depending on how it’s brewed.

Dark brown long leaves make this hard for measuring but I’m becoming quite apt at eyeballing the measurements. Dry it smells like maple syrup, honey, sandalwood, and orchid. Wet the tea smells of roasted/grilled stone fruit, like peaches, and a spiced chai latte. The infusion is rather light and smells of roasted fruit, honey, and orchid.

Taste, the first sip I get is a sweet roasted fruit with maple syrup or brown sugar drizzled on top, yum. It seems very juicy with a roasted quality and a warm sweetness that I can only describe as real maple syrup.

In the aftertaste I get the floral creamy orchid and a hint of spices like a chai latte. It seems there is a hint of melon but I’m not sure. It’s that juicy quality again but it’s different from the stone fruit I was getting in the main sip. There is also a nice silky texture on the tongue lasting and being more prominent in the aftertaste.

The leaves become more green than brown as I continue steeping and the wet leaves take on a more prominent roasted scent. I still am not detecting any sort of grapefruit notes. Around the third cup the spiciness becomes stronger and the sweetness starts to take a backseat along with the roasted notes. There is still some juiciness to the tea and definitely orchid notes. The orchid notes are now predominantly in the beginning of the sip though. Maple syrup notes are in the middle of the sip and there is a sort of tingling sensation on the tip of the tongue lasting into the aftertaste.

I received this as a sample with my order and I am not rating this one since this tea is not something I would normally drink, not quite to my taste. I can tell this is a wonderful tea, very smooth and complex and even for me not caring for darker teas like this, I would certainly not turn it down if someone offered me a cup.

After having such a wonderful experiment with Verdants Eight Treasures Yabao I decided to redo this one gaiwan style. Now when I first tried this I got a decent amount of saltiness to it and a bit of a metallic aftertaste. Redoing this gaiwan style has made this tea so much better, and for that I am upping the rating.

First I barely detected any saltiness to it and no weird metallic aftertaste..woo! Instead what I got was a nice plum-like fruit notes in the first few steepings, fading as the steepings continued. There was also no astringency at all this time.

About the second infusion I started to get more vegetal notes, reminding me of Dragonwell without the butteriness like so many others. Towards the fourth steeping though, when the fruity notes were barely detectable, a light creaminess did appear, more in the texture than in the taste and it wasn’t buttery.

I think with having such luck in brewing teas gaiwan style and tasting the difference from western style that for now on I shall brew gaiwan syle when I get the chance. It brings out a much better quality in the tea; I am more able to taste the different nuances in a very good way.

Cold brewed this time. I had to, after brewing both traditional and western styles I had to give cold brewing a try. It even says in the description that it’s great iced. So, here we are. Last log of this one for a while since I have very little left of the 1 oz already. I really want to buy more but I’m trying to reign in my spending habits for a little until I get money flowing back in sometime in July. Unfortunately I don’t think I’m going to last another week before I buy more tea, specifically this one! Perhaps 4 oz next time.

So, to the actual review. After such a change in taste brewing it western style yesterday I was very curious as to what todays cold brew would bring. Let me just say it is once again wonderful. The floral notes are there and not overpowering at all, I’m mostly getting rose. The pine notes are more pronounced than the cedar notes but both are taking a bit of a backseat, not that it’s a bad thing. It has a nice creamy texture and I can taste and feel the sparkling qualities again as well. I can taste the grapefruit notes, there is definitely a little bit of tartness, it’s well paired with the sweetness of the tea.

After drinking half of the mug I added a little bit of brown sugar (my go-to sweetener for iced tea) and it tempered the tartness and brought out the sweet notes even more. I can taste the individual notes of rose and jasmine. Hints of the pine and cedar. I can still taste the grapefruit, but it is more pleasant, less tart. The sparkling qualities I can feel on the tip of my tongue at the beginning of the sip and feel it going the whole way to the back of my tongue.

In the aftertaste I get the some grapefruit with some pine and a little bit of cedar. The creaminess, more a texture than a taste, coating my tongue with a little of the sparkling quality hanging onto the sides of my tongue.

Definitely better than yesterdays brewing. I really love this tea, and I don’t see myself waiting too much longer to order more of it!

After having this gaiwanish style yesterday I brewed it up western style today thanks to a comment from Bonnie. Which means I should also cold brew this up later as well. Anyway, western style 2 tsp per 8 oz, 205F at 2 minutes steeping time. This tea tastes relatively the same yet not quite. It’s still wonderfully delicious but it lacks the minute nuances that I had tasted from yesterday.

The floral notes seem stronger in the first few steepings than yesterday. The floral notes yesterday I could taste both the rose and the jasmine, today I can taste the rose but not jasmine. The sparkling qualities are barely discernible in the sip and I didn’t feel it on my tongue, just the taste. The creaminess isn’t quite as nice and smooth, it was there but kind of bland and the nice texture was missing as well. The cedar and pine notes aren’t nearly as strong as they were yesterday either, they were definitely in the background compared to sharing the spotlight yesterday.

I couldn’t really pinpoint any flavors or textures. The aftertaste was practically absent. The texture and feelings on the tongue and mouthfeel were MIA. It’s like the flavors are still there but muddled together and blanched.

While this is ok brewed western style, it just seems like an ordinary floral tea. It is definitely lackluster compared to yesterdays tasting when I steeped it gaiwanish style, so gaiwanish style I shall keep brewing this.

Good golly Miss Molly, this is delicious! That was my first thought upon the initial sip, and it hasn’t changed much.

The appearance of this tea is very pleasing to the eye. There are the big silvery, fuzzy buds mixed with dried goji berries, green tea leaves, marigold petals, rose petals, citrus peels, and dried elder berries.

The dry smell of this tea is wonderful. It’s fresh and crisp yet creamy, with cedar and pine notes and floral notes. It’s like a forest on the edge of a wonderful flower garden. Wet the leaves smell mostly of cedar, pine and floral; while the infusion smells of cedar, rose and jasmine.

Taste is wonderful. Cedar and pine notes with rose and jasmine floral notes. It’s creamy yet is light. It’s sweet and sparkling. There is a sparkling feeling on the tip of the tongue at the beginning of the sip and moves to the back of the tongue and touches the throat at the end of the sip and lingers for the aftertaste. I get the goji berry and citrus notes mostly in the aftertaste.

In further steepings the tea takes on mostly cedar and pine notes with the sparkling quality and still retains some creaminess. It loses the floral notes by the third steep, being predominant in the first steep. It gains some spiciness in further steepings mostly in the aftertaste.

I steeped this gaiwanish-style. I don’t have a gaiwan, which is why I say gaiwanish. I used a 5 oz cup with a infuser basket with 205F water. The first steep was only about 5 seconds and now I’m up to about a minute.

I can’t recall what steeping I’m currently on, somewhere around 8 I believe, and I don’t intend on stopping. This is one tea that I will definitely be reordering. It is absolutely wonderful and I suggest everyone to try it if it is geared toward their tastes, but don’t ask me for any, I am not sharing this treasure!!

Fascinating tea. Again Verdant continues to amaze me with their complex and different teas. Upon opening the bag I didn’t really smell anything at all, I smelled a little bit of cardboard but I was trying so hard to smell something that I could have been smelling the cardboard for recycling behind me. The buds are fat and short and fuzzy, they kind of remind me of a Beech trees buds in the way the scales overlap but shorter.

The wet leaves smell was like walking through a wet mixed forest in fall after the leaves have fallen. It was a very wet woody scent. The infusion was more or less clear and had that same woodsy scent with stronger pine notes and a slight floral note.

Taste was clear and bright at first sip followed by pine and cedar notes with the wet woods. There was a spiciness I picked up, like black pepper and a sweet minty like aftertaste. In later steepings the pine/cedar notes take dominance with some sweetness, the floral notes fade, the minty aftertaste kind of hangs around but you have to look for it and the black pepper note disappeared around the third steeping. I’m interested in seeing how this ages.

I steeped this so far about 5-6 times and am about to make another cup. Steeping method is a 5 oz cup with an infuser basket with short steep times with 205F water. The first infusion was about 10 seconds and now I’m steeping about 20 seconds for the 6 or 7 steep.

I enjoy a good flavored green tea now and again and I’m noticing that I like the ones with coconut in them. When I went to order some tea for my mom for mothers day I saw this and knew I had to get this for myself…and am I glad I did. I enjoy Harney’s Bangkok green tea but this one is a bit different, in a good way.

The tea is in sachets and I can see that there are nice, mostly unbroken leaves with an occasional stem. There are also some tiny pink flowers and petals that I cannot identify and a few coconut pieces. Dry this tea smells predominantly of coconut and sweet from strawberry and some vegetal notes from the green tea base.

My initial reaction to tasting this was coconut. What I would guess is fresh coconut, at any rate it is not roasted coconut. After getting over the initial reaction I could taste the green tea. I’ve never had Bancha by itself before so I cannot compare this or say that it’s definitely what I taste in there. But I’m getting a nice grassy note with an almost woodsy note. At the tail end I get the sweetness from the strawberry.

The strawberry and vanilla show up more in the second and third steepings. I don’t really get any of the popped rice, unless that’s the woodsy note instead, but I didn’t taste anything that jumped up and said “Hey I’m popped rice, nice to meet you!” At any rate I still find this a delicious blend from Harney and Sons and I like that half the sales go to a good cause.