Laoshan Village Chai

Loose
Appearance: Curled long leaf, whole spices noticeable
Aroma when Dry: sweet, fragrant spice
After water is first poured:. Buttery, sweet, hint of spice
At end of steep: light green
Tea liquor:
Staple? No
Time of day preferred: afternoon, evening
Taste:
first notes: buttery, sweet, light spice, velvety, slight powder.
Without milk:
After adding milk: notes blend, tea gets milder, sweeter
As it cools? Notes open up, to almost a icing desert sweetness
Additives used (milk, honey, sugar etc)? Yes, a few oz milk, added at the end of steeping and first tasting.
Lingers? Yes, plain the sweetness stays, gets sweeter by the sip. almost floral notes.

This afternoon I spent several hours cleaning my studio. Tomorrow I’m hosting what I call a “Bridal Tea”. Once a month I invite brides who have visited my booth at the Bridal fair to come for tea for an hour or so, during which time I talk with them about music for their weddings, answer questions, play my harp for them, & usually they go ahead & book me. I have 2 brides coming tomorrow, & when I asked what kind of tea they like, they both said they don’t really like tea. I’ll make some tea anyway (something I like, LOL), & set it out with some grapes, some macaroons, some rock sugar, & cute little cups & saucers.

So, I don’t really like cleaning. I have a special arrangement with myself: I work for 45 minutes, then I get a 15 minute break. During my first 15 minute break, I brewed my sample of Laoshan Village Chai. It was pure Heaven. Not the spiciest chai I’ve ever had, but SO very blissful & yummy. I drank the first half plain, then I added stevia & almond milk, and it was gingerbread! I re-steeped the leaves 3 more times, during my breaks, & although each cup was a little weaker, the flavors were still there. A warm, yummy brew!

Sigh, sometimes you just take a cup, have one whiff and lose sense of reality. Which is what happened to me this time. Almost sad to be back in real world. The smell of this chai is so rich it’s criminal. Not as aggressive as their spa blend or so mulled wine~ish as yunnan golden chai. This one is deep and whole. I was actually reluctant to take a sip and sat there savouring the scent until I accidently shook the cup and tasted some :) At first it seemed that taste is very different than the smell(as I expected something extremely sweet with such a scent) but then the aftertaste kicked in and it became obvious that both aspects of this tea actually match. Not exacly sweet, but very full and satisfying flavor that I just can’t compare to anything.

I will have to brew this a bit more to decide if I place this blend into my usual rotation but it has all the chances.

I got an ounce of this when I placed my first Verdant order. I finally got around to trying it yesterday, and I had it with about 3 parts water to 1 part soymilk. It cooled off super quickly because of the soymilk, but I put it in my lovely travel mug and it still stayed fairly warm. I sipped it during breakfast with a dear friend from the summer yesterday—she had just gotten back into town, I was just about to leave. It was great to catch up. The chai tasted very nice, but I think I had drowned it out some with the soymilk, and I would have liked it to be hotter.

I had saved the leaves from my fantastic, amazing day spent with Autumn Laoshan Black the other day; I had gotten 15 delicious infusions from them and I finally had to go to bed! I figured it was a shame to compost them just because of that when they had so much more to give.

How does this connect? I put the not-yet-spent pure leaves together with the chai-spiced ones from yesterday and brewed it all gongfu style. I now can taste all the smooth, spicy intricacy of this delicious chai, coupled with the beautiful base of the Laoshan leaves (which are perfect for this kind of thing, by the way). It’s so complete on its own that I don’t think I’ll drink this with milk…

I’m backlogging this one from yesterday.

I’d been avoiding trying this sample for a while now because it’s a “chai”. I spent a few weeks in January experimenting with my own chai masala blends and getting headaches, as far as I remember, every time I drank one. I never get headaches, and it’s still puzzling to me what was going on.

First, I’ll say that this did not give me a headache. Even though for the second steep I poured the boiling water into my gaiwan and promptly walked away and forgot about it.

This is a really good chai, and I hope they bring this one back! While their chai spice is good, I think they also should carry a chai for people like me who are often too lazy/intimidated to make a decision about which tea to blend said spice with…

So, I am coming down with a nasty cold, and I wanted something yummy with ginger in it, and I picked this. It’s a nice, mellow chai, not super-sweet but not pungent (really pungent chais make me sad).
Anyway, I was drinking a mug of this, and I was talking to my little brother about our impending family trip to Montreal, and my plans to take advantage of the presence of david’s tea to buy lots of tea. So he asked me what I was drinking, and I told him, and since he likes convenience store chai lattes he tried it. He thought it smelled and tasted like gingerbread men, which is pretty accurate (I prepped with milk and sugar). Anyway, he really liked it and kept talking about how clear it made his sinuses feel. He’s weird, but I do love him, and now I’ve made it my mission to find tea he will like, so we can be tea buddies (his words, not mine).

Oh my, this is good. I opened this up this early afternoon and sipped it while watching Felix Baumgartner jump from the stratosphere. That was very cool.

The tea doesn’t have the spicyness I normally associate with chai, but it’s a very good, very enjoyable tea. It’s a very gentle chai I suppose.

Frothed a small amount of stevia and half and half, then added the chai after steeping it in my ingenuiTea.

I am defnitely getting some maltiness – it’s more chocolatey than the chocolate chai as I did it yesterday in the gaiwan.

This morning I have been craving something spicy. So I decided to try this tea. Dry it smells like ginger, peppercorn and other spices. mmm wet it smells like ginger snaps!! Oh my god yum! This tastes so good! Ginger, cinnamon, and is that vanilla in there?? Yes it is! Wow I love this. The aftertaste is smooth and I can taste chocolate that is Laoshan black tea. There is of course a nice warming effect in the back of my throat from the ginger and peppercorn. Its actually making my nose run haha. There is the perfect blend of spices, not too much fennel but just enough, and just enough clove that its not overpowering but gives you the taste of yummy gingersnaps. I am definitely going to have to buy much more of this :)

I am in love with this blend and, I think, with Verdant Tea. I have tried many a chai and none have had so much flavor and balance. It’s either there is barely enough spice or too much and the cardamom tries to kill me. Maybe I am hard to please but none have got it completely right yet but this one came so so very close.

I did three steeps even though it was pretty late and I know that sleep is probably a very unlikely event as a result. I did not drink this tea with milk but I did add a pinch of sugar.

First steep-The perfect mix of spice and beautiful black tea. The initial flavor was all cardamom and spice. The spice wasn’t overwhelming but very pleasant with a natural sweetness. I don’t know why but cardamom is one of those spices that my palate can pick up right away even if there is just a little bit in the blend. This tea is proof that you don’t need to add a bajillion cardamom pods to make a good chai. The finish was all black tea flavor. I was actually pretty thrilled I could taste it because it sometimes gets lost in chai.

Second steep-The cardamom is actually started to die down a little leaving the black tea and other spices to shine. I still got the cardamom but not a lot. I also started to taste more of the burdock root, ginger and clove. The Laoshan Black tea was front and center and if it’s this good here, I will be writing a glowing review in a couple of days. It’s so chocolaty and malty. It’s probably the best black tea base I have ever tried.

Third Steep-All clove and ginger. Very good because those are my favorite spices. They work well with the black tea base. This was my last steep because tea after 1 am is never a good idea.

This is my first try of Verdant Tea’s blends and I am very excited to try the other ones I bought. I wish I had bought more than a sample of this one because it could become a staple.