Solidaritea

I love this tea. Velvety texture, with prominent chocolate and honey flavors. This tea gives Golden Fleece a run for its money. It’s a shame that Verdant is out of stock.

This tea had a very unique flavor in the dry leaves. I couldn’t quite pin it down. Maybe a light apple aroma. I just tried the first steep brewing gongfu style (3 seconds on the first steep) and I was surprised by a pleasant vanilla flavor with a light caramel sweetness. It also tasted pleasantly grassy.

It has a medium to light body. Very unique for a green tea and certainly worth trying.

I brewed my sample gong fu style. As the description states Peacock Village Shu has a much lighter body than most Shu’s and very little of the earthiness that I associate with them. I’m tasting sweetness and a vague nuttiness in my first few steeps. I’m not tasting the barley, oregano, and other flavors referred to in the description.

I prefer Sheng pu’er so this one isn’t my favorite. Still, it’s a step up from other Shu pu’ers that I’ve tried.

I prepared this gongfu style. First infusion is super-smooth. It reminds me of a pi lo chun, along with the taste of a good sencha.

The wet leaves smell a bit like coffee and charcoal. The liquor is very smooth and slightly creamy. There is also a charred nut taste in the first steeping along with coffee-like notes.

This reminds me of a dark charcoal roasted Tung Ting that I purchased last year, but the aftertaste of the TGY lasts longer.

I bought this tea in the Twinings London shop. It looked really fresh and the thin green leaf sheets looked interesting. The aroma was great, smelling of fresh grass and flowers. I think the brewing instructions on the bag were all wrong. I don’t think I added enough tea to the pot. On subsequent tries the tea was still pleasant, but very mild in flavor. It tasted vaguely of a Pi Lo Chun or Silver Needle. It was interesting to try, but this tea doesn’t really pack much of a punch. However, it would be great for mid afternoon relaxation or meditation.

I bought a sample of this tea because I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. This tea is awesome! The closest comparison I can make is eating a warm, buttery, chocolate croissant. It has a truly unique flavor for a black tea. I put it through 8 gongfu infusions and it still produces a flavorful cup. I’m definitely buying more of this.

I had originally thought of this as a step up from Rishi’s China Breakfast. It looks like it has more golden tips so I was expecting a slightly sweeter tea with the the same vanilla and cocoa flavors that I enjoy in China breakfast. But I was disappointed. As another reviewer described it, this tea is flat and boring. I think I might actually prefer China Breakfast.

I was interested in the idea of a Japanese black, but there didn’t seem to be anything special about this tea. Like another reviewer said it’s similar to a China black. It’s decent, but I don’t think I’ll be reordering.

A decent Genmaicha. Nothing particularly special about it, just everything you’d expect this tea to be.

I need to give this tea more credit. It was excellent cold-brewed as an iced tea. It a perfect go-to tea in the morning.

I really like Yunnan teas, so I was almost certain that I would love this one. But I was skeptical due to the hyperbolic description. I’ve tried a number of Yunnan teas, including all-bud teas so I wondered how this one would be different. When I opened my bag of Golden Fleece the dry leaves looked and smelled very similar to Rishi’s Organic Ancient Golden Buds. When I put my nose into the bag, I could smell the difference. Golden Fleece had a more potent aroma, and unlike Golden Buds it had strong caramel and cocoa notes coming off the dry leaves. My guess is that it is fresher than Rishi’s Golden Buds. But dry leaf aroma doesn’t always equal taste, so I brewed Golden Fleece Western-style exactly the same way I brew Golden Buds. The aroma of the wet leaves was very similar between the two teas, and my initial tastes were similar as well. I started thinking, “There’s nothing special about this. It’s just Golden Buds!” However, when I took more sips of Golden Fleece, the differences started to become apparent. This tea runs neck and neck with Golden Buds, but comes out slightly ahead. The differences are subtle. Golden Fleece has a more complex flavor and a longer-lasting aftertaste. The spiciness of Golden Fleece also leaves a slight tingling on the tongue.

These teas are so close that I picture two farmers (one Rishi supplier, one Verdant supplier) who live across a dirt road from one another each arguing that they have superior golden tea.

I’ve come to appreciate this tea a lot more since the first brew (maybe the leaves at the bottom of the bag were better?). The slight pepperyness has grown on me. It doesn’t look like Rishi sells it anymore, but if they did I’d snap it up in a minute.

I got a sample of this tea with my order. Really outstanding woody taste. It is much lighter than other pu-ers that I’ve tried before with a much more refined taste. Quality stuff.

Rich malty brew with a slight lemony backtaste. This is a really outstanding CTC.

Really good super-sweet tea that is very hard to brew bitter. Like one of the other reviewers I actually prefer Rishi’s Golden Needle, but this tea is very similar although it has some sweet potato and peppery notes that the Golden Needle does not.

Like other reviewers I was not blown away by this tea. It is very light and has a nice sweetness, similar to a silver needle. It is a bit more complex in that it has more “bite” in the finish than a white tea. Still I want something with more flavor.

Too sweet to drink with just water. I mix it in with my oatmeal. Gives me a nice morning buzz.

I really like Assam so the concept of a white Assam tea was really interesting to me. It had a nice aroma coming out the bag. It smelled characteristically of Assam, but also reminded me of silver needle. But when I tasted some, the flavors were just too weak, even a bit perfume-ey. Maybe I should have brewed it for longer?

I like the slight maltiness of the Assam and how they Keemun adds a bit of a “winey” note. A well-done blend. Brisk enough to wake me up but not too brisk. I take it without milk or sugar.

Very light and mild Assam tea. Still has some of the maltiness of Assam without much astringency. I prefer Yunnan golden buds though.

A nice smoky oolong with a bit of fruitiness. Highly oxidized, it’s almost like a light black tea.

Awesome toasty flavor. I can’t stop drinking this stuff. I think I’m going to get 6 or so full infusions from these leaves.

This is one of the most unique teas I’ve ever tasted. I never knew a black tea could smell like this. It has a very strong aroma that reminds me of black cherries and cinnamon. Like the description notes I also detected a wintergreen aroma. It has a very light taste with no astringency. The aroma doesn’t quite carry over into the taste, but this may be because I under-brewed it. I was afraid it was going to get bitter, but I’m guessing you can infuse this tea for quite a long time before tasting bitterness or feeling astringency.