Laoshan Black

I’m trying this again. I opened the bag and it smelled a lot better this time around than the first time. Yes, it a lot better this time around so maybe it just needed to breathe a bit :D or my senses just needed to recover (maybe they were overwhelmed) whatever the case this is quite good :D

This tea is great for editing a term paper and listening to Mozart’s Requiem mass (if only I had a better recording…). Anyway, I don’t have time for a full review of the tea, but I can say that the first infusion is a bit sweeter than last time, which results in a fruity flavor is making itself known. The flavor profile claims it’s currant, but I’ve never had currant before, so I don’t have anything to compare to. Regardless, this is delightful to drink, especially when frantically working on a paper.

The second cup was marked by an increase in the sweetness, the development of a floral flavor (Hibiscus? I’m not sure, because, once again, I haven’t had all that much exposure to this flower), and the completion of my paper! I’ve started to read a book You are not a Gadget: A Manifesto, which I need to read by Wednesday for my final in Posthumanist philosophy. I also had a delightful little discussion on classical music recommendations (see the comments, and if you like classical music, check these albums out.).

Anyway, music and philosophical ramblings aside, The tea continues to develop along the same lines as last time, providing a delightful experience. I’m actually kind of sad that my living situation doesn’t really allow for a gongfu tea set, as I would really like to experience this tea’s development in smaller increments. When brewed the western way, the flavor profile changes greatly between your steeps, and I’m sure that smaller steps would provide a more rewarding experience. For example, the first infusion was a delightful mix of dark chocolate, with undertones of fruit, yet the second infusion was much less chocolatey due to the strengthening of the fruit and the emergence of flowery flavors. The flowery taste came out of nowhere, but if I had been brewing gongfu style, it is likely that this flavor would have emerged more gradually.

The third infusion hasn’t really gotten malty, but the cinnamon is definitely present. It isn’t very strong yet, but it strong enough to be distinct. This steep is really complex, which means that I’m in the latter half of this session (which is kinda sad, but that’s how western-style breweing works. I really need to put some effort into getting a gonfu set…), and I can certainly expect the tea to gain complexity over the next two infusions. If I end up getting more than five, I’ll be surprised.

This is the forth and final infusion, mostly because if I wait longer, I’m going to have too much caffeine in my system to go to sleep at 1. Anyway, the cinnamon has developed nicely, but the chocolate is now gone. It is also interesting to note that the fruit flavors have changed. Again, the flavor profile claims it’s the appearance of raisin flavors, but I haven’t had raisins by themselves in years, and I certainly don’t remember what they taste like. Hmm, actually, that might make a good snack right about now…

Anyway, it’s still delicious, and I’m glad that I’m ending my day with this tea.

Wow, the website actually failed when I tried to post this the first time. Anyway, the tea is more floral than usual, which is probably due to my short steep time. I also noticed an interesting transition, where the tea starts out feeling creamy, but it transitions to the same mineral smoothness of a Wuyi Oolong as the taste begins to fade away. Unhfortunately, I need to run off to class, but I promise that I’ll come back to this and write a few more details.

EDIT: Right, the missing details of the first infusion: I was pleasnatly surprised by the floral flavors dominating the chocolate, which is something that is rather unusual. It’s always fund to notice something new about an old tea, especially one as interesting as this.

Second infusion, 10 seconds, 205 degree water. There is a rather interesting development withthe mouthfeel. The creamy flavor/feeling has been greatly reduced, and I can certainly taste the chocolate a lot more. Teh chocolate also lingers for a whole minute with the mineralish aftertaste. The floral flavor is still present, it’s just a lot less prominent.

I drank this earlier to start off my weekend, but then stuff came up (as tends to happen in college), and I didn’t have time to sit down and write about my experience. If you want that, take a look at my other tasting note.

This is my last day before I go back to the university, so I decided to drink something specail. My dwindling stock of Laoshan Black has been neglected for weeks, and was just dying to get tasted again. I decided to use small steep times , since thev’e been working out really well recently, and only steeped this tea for 15 seconds. The chocolate flavor is more exquisite than usual, with a surprising ammount of sweetness helping to make it more appealing. I also agree with David that this tea has a creamy texture, which was never really that apparent in early steepins when I used “true” western-style brewing. There’s also a bit of malt in the flavor profile which was usually much more muted. Overall, this was amuch better than expected, and I can;t wait to see how it develops.

Second infusion, 200 degree water for 10 seconds. IF the first infusion was dark chocolate, then this was milk chocolate. The taste was a bit snoother and milder, and the malty flavor was a bit more prominent. There is also this very interesting aftertaste/moutfeel, which I’m having a hard time putting into words, but it tastes a bit metalic/mineral-ish, like brass. Very strange…but in a good way.

third infusion, same preparatino as the second. Interestingly enough., the taste has changed enough that I wouldn’t call it chocolate anymore. It’s a bit like bread, but a lot sweeter than bread. The barley dominates the flavor now, yest the aftertaste quickly fades to the strage feeling I commented on previously.

Oh, wow. The autumn harvest is incredible. I don’t remember the summer one terribly clearly aside from really enjoying it, but going from my notes on it I would say I’m finding this richer, and the toasty-grainy notes are more at the forefront here. It’s sweet but less so, still astoundingly smooth. I’m thinking honeyed, roasted barley with cocoa.

Complete love. I’m not often taken aback by a tea at the first sip like I was by this one!

Needed something strong this morning. After even a 3-day weekend, I had trouble getting back to work this morning. Turned into a productive day though. I feel bad not resteeping this one, so I steeped the leaves twice. I still think the second steep is the best. :)

Enjoyed two delicious cups of this first thing in the morning yesterday while steepster was down. Then I didn’t have any tea all day (except for some Thai iced tea) because we went to picnic day at UCD, and a movie. Fun day, beautiful weather, so I can’t complain. ;)

As for laoshan black, it’s always good on its own, but I think I like the chai and genmaicha blends better!

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

Finished up the last of it yesterday and re-steeped it for my morning cuppa. I’m about 500 points away from a ten dollar gift card to Verdant tea so I’ll be grabbing 2oz for sure!

… in June. I’d better wait until I get my first paycheque!

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.

No sour notes in this tea today. I used tap water instead of brita filtered water. I don’t really like it, though. The flavour has almost a burnt quality which I’m really not enjoying. I think i need to set it aside for a couple weeks and revisit it.

Again, i did a western style brew. I just re-used the tea leaves from yesterday and did a 5 minute steep.

Ps. I have the autumn 2012 harvest.

I made this for my brother to try, since he came over for dinner. It was ok for him. Tolerable for me. Better with the amazing gluten free cupcakes (that he threatened to eat!) he brought. Still not a tea I’d buy again, although I would like to try a spring or summer harvest. I managed to drink my 3-4 oz cup, but I don’t think I’ll resteep the leaves! It’s just not worth it for me.

Sometimes I enjoy being a contrarian when the vox populi is overwhelmingly laudatory about something. But in this case, I just can’t. I don’t know what it is about this tea, maybe it’s the perfect balance between spice and sweetness, or the brininess encapsulated in each mouthful, but my thirst for this tea is never slaked. I’m drawn to it like Ishmael to the sea.

Raising the rating…better than I remember it now that I’ve forgotten about the hype…still not a tea I’d drink every day but at least pretty enjoyable! :)

Got to share this with friends today who don’t really drink loose tea. They looked like they were going to fall over. It was fun to introduce them to something new. Never disappointed with this tea.

My very own 4oz of Laoshan Black arrived today. No more rationing my swap samples. haha. I did a nice long steep for my first cup, just to see how it would turn out. Tastes like dark chocolate and brownies. Still several steeps to follow. Thanks Verdant for shipping my order so quickly.

I am spoiling myself today with awesome teas :D and holy hannah, is this ever AMAZING tonight. I probably shouldn’t be having caffeine this late, but meh, I’ll be up studying anyways. This is like so good today. I did it Western for 3 minutes, and I have this caramel soaked brownie in my cup. This is the most caramelly I have ever gotten Laoshan Black to taste. No idea what I did differently lol, but it is awesome! I actually feel like I’m eating dessert. Rich and excellent. Maybe another steep or two tonight as well. See previous notes!

So after reading about the new genmaicha made with this, I just couldn’t resist..I needed to have a cup. I got 1 oz of this in my last order, I am planning on using some of it to mix with my Chai Spice (which I still haven’t tried) but I definitely will drink about half of it just plain. Mmmm pure chocolatey goodness, breadiness, cake. Totally tasting like a brownie today, yess. I did a 10 second steep and probably won’t get in many more this evening (going out with friends) so it may have to wait until tomorrow for the resteeps. I love the short steep time with this though! So much flavor! See previous notes on this tea :)

I still don’t drink black teas too much yet for fear of the caffeine messing with my stomach, but I’ve been craving some dark malty goodness lately and this morning I had to have a cup of this. This is a sipdown – I have soo many more verdant black teas to try in my possession so I won’t be reordering this immediately, but it is definitely a possibility in the future :D

I decided to try this western style this morning because I’m not fully awake enough to fiddle with short steeps lol. I used the remaining half of my sample with boiling water for 3 mins. Mmm for some reason, the steeped smell is taking me back to my childhood, to my grandparents when the alfalfa plant would be going in the morning, it’s not unpleasant just a vague memory popping up. Must be the toasty maltiness of it, Mmmmm. And the slightly charcoal note, a bit of a burning smell, but not a bad burning. Haha, a bit difficult to explain.

This tea. Ugh it makes me wonder again why I don’t drink more black teas! It’s SO GOOD. Dark Chocolate, with a hint of maybe hay? Ah, just looked at the description, definitely the barley. And malt, and toast, and yummmmm. Perfect balance of sweetness.

Overall, I slightly prefer the shorter steeping method, a little bit more variety and pop, but that could also be because it was my first time having this lovely tea. I will have as many steeps as I can get out of the leaves and very much consider getting an oz of this at some point. I did just order some Laoshan village chai, and im pretty excited to see how this tea plays in it.

ETA: Second cup at 3 mins is soo yummy too, a bit softer, more chocolate, not quite as much malt, still delicious. Mmmm happy I get to drink this for most of the day :D

Ah I haven’t logged tea in a while it seems! I was at my parents this weekend and was moving there so it’s been tough to get a chance to be on here! I still did drink tea, but no new ones so I might not even backlog them haha, they were good as always though! Anyways, I am having a lovely cup of this tonight, man oh man, 3 mins is the sweet spot for me with this one! And literally sweet too, this is just dripping with honey chocolate flavor. Hmmm almost caramel, but more honey this time. This tea just keeps getting better and better! See previous notes!

In just four short hours I’ll be DONE with my last paper and last bit of work for the whole semester! It’ll require some solid effort to finish this off, though, and something to reward me as I’m writing…and this is where the Laoshan Northern Black comes in.

I decided to steep this gongfu style, because I’m getting better at that now. After the ~5 sec rinse, I steeped it about 5 sec (with 2 teaspoons to 5 oz water).

Oh man. Oatmeal raisin toast. It’s been too long since I last had some of this! It’s so creamy and smooth. I almost feel like I put some creamer in here, but…I…didn’t. I am consistently amazed at the stunning smoothness of the black teas I’ve gotten from Verdant.

I think I’ll be able to finish this paper in no time. Bring it on.

UPDATE: I’m on the fourth steeping now, and I’m getting this fantastic sweet, light but full cocoa-y note that’s filling my mouth. Also, I have to mention that when I’ve been steeping this, it’s been hard to come out of my hanging-my-face-over-the-cup reverie because the steeping aroma smells so much like cocoa, particularly like this fantastic cocoa mousse my dad always makes to serve with angelfood cake. Mmmm.

ANOTHER UPDATE: I’ve been drinking this allllll day. I’m on the eleventh steeping now, and it’s still soft, sweet, a little dark and raisiny, and perfect.

THE UPDATES, WILL THEY EVER CEASE? I made it to fifteen infusions. Then I had to go to bed. These leaves have lasted longer than I have.

First time having this tea after a summer of being off teaching in Massachusetts. (Living out of a suitcase and being needed for 16 hours a day is not terribly conducive to gongfu times…) I’m back home at St. Olaf and everything is so right. Including this tea…the lightly caramelized, burnt raisin taste, the centering aroma, the rhythm of making cup after cup, celebrating the fact that my 5 oz glass teapot (thanks Garret!) is out of hibernation.

Some things will always be there.

SIPDOWN! gasp

Alright…i have a bunch of backlogs to do but first i needed to pay attention to this tea. You see kittylovestea really wanted to try this, so i opened my bag up and realised i had enough to send her a small tasting (usually it would be more) and have a single last cup for myself.

Since the whole point of doing a mini swap with mercuryhime had been to try MY LB with the new LB i knew it was time to check this out.

1. New harvest? Smells funny. I understand now why some folks have recently been off put by the smell. It’s very earthy to me and honestly when it got wet it was sort of wet mud. My other half said it smelled like bread. My old delicious wonderful harvest? It smells like cocoa…delicious cocoa.

2. Western brew since quite frankly that’s my favourite way to brew LB. I must have sat and stared at my two cups, smelling the wet leaves, smelling the cups, looking at the liquor…just waiting…

3. First sips…oh man, it’s been a while since i’ve tasted you my old friend. The new harvest? It’s still chocolately and malty but there’s a bitterness in the back that makes it a little less smooth than my spring harvest. The old harvest is a little sweeter too, though it’s a dark malty chocolate so it’s not “sweet” exactly.

Final Verdict? While the taste of the two isn’t that far off – at least not enough that a black tea lover like myself would strongly object – the SMELL from the wet leaf is really quite off putting. It’s enough to make me hesitant about drinking it until the liquid is actually in my mouth. Will i repurchase this harvest? Maybe. But i’ll likely try and spend some time drinking down other teas in my cupboard first, and grabbing some of this IF the harvest gets low. IE. I don’t want to NOT be able to drink it, but that aroma is killing me.

Thanks again to Mercuryhime for letting me do a comparison. I understand now why people have been confused with the high ratings for this one. Makes me glad i’ve had 6oz of the old harvest to enjoy while it was here lol

Edit: Just have to put out there that this is one of the few teas i’ve ever re-ordered, and certainly the first tea i ever ordered 4oz of. After drinking through my 2 oz lol. So the tea is totally worth exploring when the different harvests come in.

So this is a bit of a story. I’m having my usual cup of this at the office, relaxing and trying not to be seriously angry over the crap that’s going on. Long story short – morning meeting that would have let me have an afternoon back is now “MAYBE” going to be reshcedule to “sometime” this afternoon and they’ll let me know “sometime” whether it will be or not. So basically i’m sitting at the office, with not much to do waiting for a meeting which may or may not happen…which may or may not make my entire time spent sitting here a waste of time. So i’m annoyed.

So i tried to change my thinking while sipping on this tea and I realised that whatever ends up happening, i have some great moments from my trip here. So i should stop being annoyed and be greatful for the time that i DID get out and the stories shared. Above all else, i have one friend here in China now. I can’t explain it, but there is one woman here with whom we seem to have made a connection. Her english isn’t the best but we managed to laugh and have a great time. And yesterday? Yesterday this happened..

My friend is also here on business – she lives in another area of china, that is a 2 hour flight away. Yesterday she called me out of the room and began to tell me a story. A story about how she was so sorry. How she couldn’t do more. (yes i was confused). She looked at me expectantly and began to tell me that in china, you cannot courier tea. And so she was sorry. She knows that i love tea and she drinks Pu-erh everyday at home. And she was so very sorry. She went on to tell me that she called her friend in Guanzao and had her send a single cake of pu-erh. She could only have 1 sent as a “document” and apologised another 12 times for this. When i realised what she was telling me i nearly cried. She had gone out of her way, to have her friend back home courier a single puerh cake as a “document” so that she could share “her” tea with me. Inside the small bag that she handed me was both the puerh cake and a beautiful pick. There will be pictures eventually but i was floored. How wonderful a gift to have shared with me. That moment alone was well worth the late nights and hours of work that i’ve put in while here.

And so i’m smiling. Drinking my loashan black and thinking about my tea from Ocean. I’ve promised to send her a note when i get back and can try it, to let her know what i think. How wonderful it is to have tea to bring people together.

operation drink up the last of my LB so i can order more is in full effect! lol not that i want to get rid of it but i needed a break from my other blacks so today was “much loved LB day” with random new tea in a bag i shouldn’t be opening now but i’m going to pretend it was already open day.

HA! see previous tasting notes. Love this, and glad to be sharing it with new steepster pals in the new future :) YAY for swaps!

Getting close to the end of my bag, though it’s not THAT close to a sipdown. Also, it’ll be a re-order so really no point to calling this a sipdown ever hahaha. Mostly i’m just excited! Tea time with the girls tomorrow (with board games) AND a work friend is staying over tonight to join our tea time. Not to mention that I managed to find 3 pixar blu-rays over lunch at the used store so YAY for finally having a complete collection (though i still need to upgrade a few dvd’s to blu-ray) heh

ooooh yeah baby! Time to have this one again since it’s been a while. I needed a nice wonderful black cup of goodness this morning so this is what i reached for. Sadly other steepsings of it will need to wait until i get some. Work just isn’t condusive for doing that. Anyway, there is a reason i picked up 4? ounces of this on my last order. it’s is wonderful! i love the malty chocolatey goodness that is this tea and the subtlties that come out as later steeps happen. mmmmmmmm!

Had this in the morning at the office while we listened to the wind storm past the windows. I’m not sure if there’s a sanstorm brewing over here, but this is the loudest i’ve ever heard wind blow in an office building. It’s pretty crazy actually, as the windows are shaking, making creaking noises etc..

If nice to have this tea to sip while the craziness happens in the back ground.

oh man i needed this to help me wake up. I’ve already had 3 cups of this and i’m working on my 4th at the office. I think it’s fantastic that the hotel gives me “to go” cups in the room that i can use to bring my tea from the hotel to the office. especially since there are no kitchen facilities here. Pretty much no one brings a lunch – you have to eat out.

Hello old friend. It’s been a while, you see i’ve been busy. But now, i’m trying to figure out which of my friends are coming on a trip with me and i needed to remind myself what it’s like to wrap my tastebuds up in you. (deep breath) it has been too long. thank you for this moment this morning. I needed the calm before the storm.

first cup of tea back in the land of the living. There are SO many other teas i should be drinking (Nina’s tea samples for example) but i really wanted to start my morning off with an old favourite. i figured that i might as well go with the tea that i drank for the past two weeks.

I’ve started to get organized but there is still a mountain of things to pack up sitting on my dinning room table. Not to mention all the teas that I need to start adding to my cupboard. But i’m back, and the house is stupid clean and life is good. :)

This tea is a great start to my day. Now to be productive!

Here’s hoping this is restocked soon since i know of a few people itching to get their hands on some more. I thankfully still have a bit left to tie me over until it’s back up on the site. Though i did bring a bunch with me on this trip so that i could work through part of my bag. Not because i want to get rid of it, but because i’m trying to get better at drinking my tea down once it’s opened instead of letting it sit there for a few weeks? months? between tastings

OH MY SWEET HEAVEN! How i’ve missed you! I needed a pick me up today so I fell back on this one since i KNOW how much i love it. I’m looking forward to more of this tonight when i get home for resteeps. I just love the malty chocolatey taste from this one. It remains one of my favourite blacks.

There is something perfectly wonderful about brewing a mug of tea in the morning and taking the few seconds to really savour the smell coming off the dried leaves and the brewed tea. I have really come to adore this tea. It might be one of my favourite now, and what blows my mind some days is how much this feels like a flavoured tea sometimes. This morning, the sun was pretty far up in the sky – an indication that we’ll be turning our clocks back again…but the air was cool and full of smiles. Yeah..the are was full of smiles. I’m pretty sure that fall is my favourite season and i love the change as we blur from summer to fall. This tea complements that shift.

Decided I wanted more of this tonight after this morning’s session. Soooo malty and delicious and now I kinda wanna make daisychubb’s pumpkin soup recipe with this….maybe something to try tomorrow :)

Few cups of this while i try to get some work done before bed. Had a great night out with the team tonight but i needed something to soothe the craziness going on in my brain. Home stretch over the next day or so and there’s still alot of work to be done. I forsee a good number of late nights still to come.

I’m glad i made the decision to bring a large quantity of this tea as my go to tea. May not have helped with my sipdowns but i needed at least one comfort from home.

perfect afternoon tea to relax with after our AMAAAAAZING team lunch for the holidays. Most of the team is gone next week so we had a super amazing lunch at a french bistro restaurant. Can you say steak? frites? garlic mayo? oysters? red wine? and more! delicious! In any case, after getting back from that i had some much needed tea to relax with and tie up some loose ends.

Cheers to the weekend!

Picked this one up in the morning hung to get a head start on waking up. My other half is home today, which is a rare thing since he works in retail. We’ve got friends coming over tonight for dinner and board games so we had to get up early to take care of laundry, pick up groceries, go to the post office, take our coin to the coin counting machine at BMO ( total plug here by the way for anyone in Canada…..BMo branches have coin counting machines that only take a percentage off IF it’s over 250$) and it takes about 30 secs for it to count a large amount of counts…AND you don’t need to bank with BMO to je them…) anyway so yeah…I needed a strong tea to get me going. It’ll be a long night tonight and I’ll need all the help I can get heh

Laoshan black is just the right start to things….rich malty chocolate taste. Th perfect complement to a wonderful morning with my other half over breakfast sammiches :)

Still trying to decide which two teas to bring with me. I know it’s silly but at the same time, how to narrow it down to just TWO! Black for the morning and a herbal for the evening. Had this one today to remind myself to relax and enjoy. I’ve been steeping it all morning so i’m a little hoped up at the moment. Starting to enter “OH MY GOD I AM LEAVING!” territory lol

mmmmm playing some wow with my better half while sipping on multiple steeps of this one. great evening all around!

More of this tonight…which thankfully caffeine doesn’t really affect me cause I’m drop dead tired. I could pretty mucho to sleep right now. Got my haircut tonight..let me tell you how good THATfeels after 8 months of damage to my hair. Soooo nice!

Time to have a relaxing evening with some tea and Warcraft heh. Tomorrow is going to be a long night of testing!

I really need to make sure this becomes a staple in my cupboard. I was half asleep when i made this in the morning so i didn’t use enough tea but that’s my own fault. However, there is still a wild amount of flavour in this tea. I adore the malty chocolate taste.

Backlog from this morning as well…

Today was recap day and meet with the “bosses” to update them on our progress this week so it was a long one. I’m pretty happy i had my teas to jump start me this morning. I opted to bring this one over to the office in a travel mug since i have just enough time between breakfast and running back up to the room to brush my teeth, to make tea. I’m happy that i brought a bunch of this one with me, though i’m guessing the tin i put it in isn’t as air tight as i thought it was since it’s gradually becoming less and less flavourful in terms of the aroma of the dry tea. Not a huge deal since it still tastes wonderful, but something to note.

Also had a cup of this earlier today. I’m finding that taking this to sip on at work in the morning has been helpful.

Home stretch baby! 2 more days until Airport Day!

Catching up on this mornings teas. Treated myself to this delight since I’m still sick and knew itd be a long day! I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of this tea.

Today is going to be a loooooong day. So I opted to start out with a nice session of laoshan black to kick things off. Again, this tea makes me seriously happy. I love the way it changes as i re-steep it. I hopefully have some friends coming over in a few weeks and i’m looking forward to introducing them to this tea because they’re always complaining that black teas are bitter and lackluster. :)

I’m hoping this will knock their socks off!

mmmm had this at work today and shared it with a coworker so yay for that! Apparently it had a little more caffeine than he was expecting. Still over all positive experience for him :)

And of course I am still in love with the smooth malty chocolately goodness that is this :)

Mmmmmm après workout tea. Only downside? This is the last of my order from verdant so I’ll be needing to place another order with them sooner, rather than later so that I can restock this one. On that note, I’ll probably wait as I have some samples coming and then I can order any of those that I want more of as well. On the upside? I still have the chai left which is not quite the same but still spectacular in its own way.

I love the different notes in this tea…just brings a smile to my face every time I drink it.

Wheee! It’s a good morning when you can find the time to down a bunch of tea to take a few moments to relax while organising your tea cupboard…. Yes come later this morning, my tea cupboard will be organised and my steepster cupboard will be completely up to date. Presents will be wrapped, house will be clean and i’ll have time to run over to buy myself rubber boots, pick up groceries and any last minute items before my parents get here this afternoon/evening!

This tea? i, sharing with my parents as well. Given that i have 4oz, I’m thinking i can spare a bit :)

I’m so sad since I’m almost out of this tea. I placed a recent order with Verdant but forgot to include another order of this tea. I’ll have to wait until I get back from vacation. I am just blown away by the many facets that one non flavoured tea can have.

Oh man had this this morning on my way to work…I’m really glad that I thought to bring tea with me, as much as everyone gave me grief for it. It’s been a crazy day and even after starting my day with other tea, I needed this one to jump start my day.

This morning I treated myself to a small pot of the Autumn 2011 Laoshan Northern Black, and it truly is such a beautiful tea. It is even smoother than the first batch I tried, with a bit less of the cocoa aroma, and more of a fruitiness that resembles a really good Darjeeling, or possibly dried dates. I love that I can always count on Verdant Tea to give me an adventure in my tea pot… Many thanks!