Autumn Laoshan Green

Most folks who’ll be reviewing this tea will probably do so from the perspective of evaluating Lao Shan tea as a whole. I love Lao Shan greens, and I’ve had so many different kinds, qualities, and seasons, so this one is more focused on what makes this Autumn picking unique from the others, appreciated for its own strengths.

The dry smell from the bag is undeniably of cocoa.. of cocao nibs in particular. That’s somethig I find to be consistant across all Lao Shan teas in recent memory. I wonder why I never noticed that in Qingdao? Probably because I was living there, so I never took the time to stick my face in the bags and smell and appreciate. Also- no chocolate in Qingdao[ :*-( ], so maybe I lost my context. Why chocolate? Probably has something to do with that distinctive beany Lao Shan taste.

Consulting my notes, I see that the steeped leaves have a “delicious smell.” Hmm, usually I write more, but what can you say to that? Must have kept me from writing anything else.

The taste is crisp, lively, and subtle. It is certainly sweet, and there is something in the flavor that is making it positively addictive. Maybe it is some light savory and salt acting as a gentle support- sweet cream butter. There is Lao Shan bean, but it is a quiet force playing nicely in the background, walking on light tip toe so as not to disturb the calm coziness of the scene. Reminds me in a way of a quiet parent who picks you up to takes you to bed after you’ve fallen asleep on the living room floor. You remember them, you know it happened (counted on it, in fact), but there was no disruption to your dreaming.
Something in the taste also reminds me of Japanese green teas that have been dusted with matcha. I have a feeling that this would appeal more to the sensibilities of a lover of Japanese greens, even though grassy astringency is not actually rearing it’s head… grassiness is there more as a scent infusing the whole brew with a smooth, full mouth-feeling. It is a perfect, airy feeling of grass that is also solidly earthbound, mixed together with cozy cream.

More than anything with this picking, I am swept off to a place.

It’s a misty seashore, early in the morning. The air is cool and wet and smells of autumn, but there is also an intense warmth and coziness. You are standing in your robe with slippers on, in your fuzziest robe and blanket, watching the scene from warm within your woody cabin. A solitary retreat on the North Shore (except in this fantasy, the heat is on perfectly!). A feeling of subtle quiet, thoughtfulness… I’ve drawn a little heart here in the corner of my notes.
Or it is evening on that same sea/lake-shore after a long, full day. There is a crackling fire, and there are waves in the background. The ocean and water is so strong in this one, but it is that feeling of place.. of waves against rock.. not of brine.

Looking back on the description of this tea’s taste, I’m surprsed I can love it so well. Usually, I want my Lao Shan teas to taste like Lao Shan! The bean, the butter, the soil. This one is so much more subtle.. so much more of the autumn.. but the result is so lovely. The place that this tea takes me to is so strong. It feels like one of those original places of my own self.

- -(Tasting notes over: mini-proclamation begins)— —
Hurray for all of these autumn pickings! Who knew that tea could be so giving? Those who kowtow blindly at the Altar of Spring to the exclusion of all other tastes need to stop obsessing over questions of SUPERIOR GRADE this and TRADITIONAL SOURCES PROCLAIM that. Just quiet down for a moment and use your own tongue to appreciate all that tea is trying to offer you. Discover your own preferences, but not before you open yourself to new possibilities and taste with your own self.

Listen to the tea, and appreciate. It’ll never let you down.

I have only skimmed the tasting notes on this one as I am not feeling well. This is my comfort tea for today. I did notice in my skimming of the notes that many people seem to turn to this tea in times of illness or emotional upset. This seems to be the go to tea for that sort of thing.
It sure is interesting for a green tea. Its one everyone should try.
I just want to slink back onto the sofa and indulge in this one.
Roasty, toasty, vegetal yet chocolaty – a bizarre mix that just works for me!
Sorry for such a lame tasting note, need to get rid of this incessant headache and clear the sinuses.
Next time I will use less leaf and or lower the water temp – seems to be a little finicky but I love it none the less.

Time to compare the three green teas I have from Verdant, so I can work towards identifying favourites.

I brewed each of the teas more or less according to the parameters on Verdant’s website for western brewing, although I used more than 1tsp of leaf. For this one, I think I used a generous two 1/2 tsps, so probably 1.5 tsps with 250ml water.

First infusion:
The smell of the dry leaf is very… dry leafy. What can I say? It smells like rolling around in autumn leaves. Not an uncommon smell. I’m getting a bit of a hint of seaweed, which is interesting…. no, actually a strong seaweed smell. Makes me crave sushi, even though I was at an all-you-can-eat on Friday evening.

The aroma emanating from the steeped cup is gentle and kind of brothy/seaweedy.

Oh, yum. The sip first tastes sweet, followed by delicate, sweet seaweed flavours. The aftertaste is so sweet, and creamy. I’m getting… caramel? Holy. Yes, definitely caramel. Delicious, delicious caramel. There is definitely astringency present, and though I don’t always like it, it just goes with the whole flavour profile here. I feel like perhaps if I had used just a single teaspoon of dry tea, it may not have appeared. No bitterness though. Oops, I just about finished the cup – I meant to save some for directly comparing to the other two teas!

Second infusion (2.5min/175F):
The aroma is sweet and vegetal. Oh… I think I messed this one up. Too much astringency for me :( This will teach me to play around with Verdant’s parameters. I can definitely still taste the caramel aftertaste though. This would have been an excellent cup had I paid attention to the instructions.

To me, this is definitely more like a green tea to me than the others, but that caramel aftertaste really sets it apart from other greens I’ve tried. If I’m looking for flavour with a lingering candy-like sweetness, this one would be my choice.

ETA: I cannot get over this aftertaste! Definitely want to try again to make sure I can get it a second time, but wow.

Ah, hot buttery greens!
This is the 2nd tea from November’s Tea of the Month Club that I received from Verdant. The letter David included suggested having the Banzhang Farmers’ coop sheng first, which I did. Then as a contrast, having this green tea next. There are also suggestions for mixing them together, and he also sent some of his mixture of puffed Minnesota wild rice & puffed OG jasmine rice, which can be combined with either or both teas.

Right now I’m just having the green tea, and it is tasty. The flavor is rich, butter, and green bean-like, a true contrast to the darker toasty flavor of the Sheng. The mouth-feel is creamy, like steel cut oats cooked in the crockpot all night.

True confession: Initially when I got this month’s selections, I was a little disappointed, as I already have both teas in my (ever expanding) collection. But I DO like the pairing, and really, it’s just more tea for me to drink and enjoy. I’ll try his combo ideas and probably share the results later. Enjoy the day!

Received a sample of this with my recent order. I’m glad I saved it until this week.

The past three weeks have been completely overwhelming. The dog going missing, work getting wrapped around the axle, complications for Liz with school and my first disc golf tournament this past weekend on a course I’m really not strong enough to throw at par.

So this week is a bit of a calm after several storms. And this is the right tea for that calm.

One thing I love about drinking really fine tea, is that it helps you realize all the things you couldn’t put your finger on about other teas you’ve had. We sampled a lot of green teas from TeaVivre recently, and also the ones Liz brought back from Japan, and I was always looking for some magic balance of strong, green flavors, pan roast flavors and soft sweetness that none of them was really up to providing. It can be a very frustrating chase, especially when you aren’t 100% sure what it would taste like if it were what you wanted.

This tea has it all. Barely. I’m into my fourth or fifth steep and the liqueur is still very light and very delicate. But it isn’t weak. There is that soft sweetness, but it is backed up with genuine greenness and the touch of the pan.

As much fun as it is to keep trying lots of teas, I do find myself often thinking “now that I found this, that fills this role, and I don’t need anything else, I’ll just keep this stocked.”

But we all know I won’t do that. :-)

It’s wonderful weather out there today, nice, cool, somewhere in the 50’s…no sarcasm, I really enjoy the cooler weather. So I decided a nice autumn green tea was in store for today. The leaves are dark green, slightly curled and smelled like a lighter version of gunpowder to me. Wet the leaves smelled very creamy, milky and vegetal…kind of like a cream of soup or green beans that have been simmering in milk and butter.

I brewed this gaiwan style 175F starting at 5 seconds. The first and second infusion were incredibly creamy, milk and butter, with hints of green beans and hazelnut. A decent mouthfeel and a nice sweet creamy aftertaste. In the third and fourth steep I had a little bitterness and more green bean flavor. The creaminess wasn’t as strong but was definitely present. I probably could’ve shortened this note and just wrote creamy and been done with it!

I’m surprised how much different this one tastes compared to the Spring harvest. It doesn’t seem like it’s much different, but this one is much more rich and creamy. I have to admit that I much prefer this which surprises me because typically I like floral notes over anything else. This one was just so wonderful though.

This came as a sample in my last order from Verdant. I was very surprised to find that this does smell a lot like cocoa – intriguing! I steeped it for around 3 minutes at 175 F or so. I may have used a bit too much leaf however.

I am finding this slightly less sweet and more vegetal than the spring Laoshan green. It has a full and rich flavor, definitely green beans are the predominant note here. I felt it got a bit pungent so I may need to revise my steeping parameters. I like it though…

Second steep here at 2 minutes was a lot better, I guess you don’t need much with this tea!

I finished off the last of my stash of this tea last night. Just coming off a rather bad stomach flu, so I decided to celebrate the end of my insanely boring bland diet of the past few days by making this.

I brewed it Jingshan style, which is by far my fave way of making greens. 7g of tea (in a brewing basket) to 12oz of water in a tall glass. Brewed five times, starting at 20 secs and increasing as I saw fit. I split the tea with my sister, who was at my place last evening, and saved a glass for sticking into the fridge.

Dry leaf smells deeply vegetal and crisp. Impossibly dark green and curled little leaves. Wet, the vegetal note expands into a buttery goodness that is just mouthwatering. My sister actually ate some of the wet leaves. “Tastes like the tea,” she offered. Well, not entirely specific, but it made us giggle.

And the flavour, oh the flavour. This is definitely a tea to brew correctly – oversteeped the taste is a little bit overwhelming on the vegetal notes, and the sweetness doesn’t come out to play.

But I was firing on all barrels last night. Vegetal, yes, but buttery and even nutty. I was reminded of biting into a salted (and perfectly buttered) corn on the cob. The tea itself isn’t salty, mind, just an image in my head. You’ve got the savoury vegetal notes at the forefront, buttery and delicious, fading into sweetness as the sip ends. I’m not sure I ever picked up on the cocoa, but that hardly detracts from the beauty of this tea. It’s more that I’m still training my tastebuds to find things. ;)

Not sure how I EVER confused the Laoshan Black with this, by the way – the liquor is a perfect clear and light jade. Everything about this tea is so green and beautiful!

One of those teas I need to keep in my stash at all times, I think. Though I may wait for the spring harvest to arrive before I reorder, and the anticipation is already killing me!

~

PS – I have to thank Krystaleyn for the word “savoury” for greens! Definitely apt.

Thank you to Invader Zim for this wonderful sample (and and many others;)

This is the first Laoshan green I have ever had!! It was very good with light whisperings of seaweed/grass notes and a frothy mouth feel that were never intrusive and quite pleasant even though I don’t light vegetal tastes!! It seems to be a recurring theme that “Verdant” has the best teas in the business,..I have not had a tea from them yet that I do not like or hasn’t become the standard in which I view/brew all teas!! Amazing company..Amazing tea!!!! ;-)

This is the first green tea that I have ever tried that didn’t come from a vending machine. I hope I haven’t ruined myself for every other green! This is amazingly complex and bursting with flavor, it really opened my mind to what loose leaf tea is about. This is my first review (and first green) so I will save a rating score until I have a bit more experience and have something to compare it too.

The second infusion, western style, was like a bowl of perfectly seasoned boiled greens from my childhood in southern GA! I know that may not be everyone’s thing and sorry to David for the description as my ignorant palate isn’t picking up on all of the flavors that I’m sure are there! This is definitely one that I won’t mind honing my taste buds with! Well done Verdant!

EDIT After trying several others and gaining even just a small amount of perspective, it doesn’t seem fair to Verdant not to rate this one as it really is worth your consideration!

Water: 8oz at 175 degrees

Leaves: Tiny deep green strands

Steep: 1m & 3s,6s,9s,12s,15s,18s

Aroma: Grassy

Color: Greenish yellow changes w/more infusions

Taste: This is my first Verdant Tea I did their 5 teas for 5$ special. I tend to favor green teas more so i choose this one to start with.Right away what stood out was the aroma very nice something you wouldn’t mind smelling again.I brewed this tea using a couple of different methods both Western and Gongfu.I noticed that with the Gongfu method you get many more infusions.With both methods I noticed a hint of bitterness when drinking.

From now on, when someone is going to ask me when I discovered tea, I’m not going to tell them about the first time I had a cup of Silver Needle or a smooth Oolong or even when I walked into Teavana and started asking questions and walked out feeling like I had reinvented myself and started walking down a new path in life. No, it won’t be any of those.

I’ll tell them that I discovered what tea truly is on the day I opened my pouch of my 2012 Autumn Laoshan Green and inhaled the aroma. That was the moment I realized what tea can be, what I had been missing out on, when everything I thought I knew about what tea was shifted. That was the day everything changed.

If that sounds intense, that’s because it is. I’ve never had an experience like I did when I saw the handwritten note from David, thanking me for my order, making a personal connection that I didn’t expect. Not when I smelled the dry leaves, when I caught a whiff of the leaves steeping, when I saw the most delicate, beautiful liquor the color of the first stages of oxidized apple flesh, like a fading memory you don’t want to forget. I’ve never seen a color like that.

The leaves smell like dark chocolate and earth. There’s a bright sugary smell mixed with pumpkin and cedar. Its sweet but heavy but delicate. It smells like a contradiction that makes sense.

The wet leaves emit farm fields. Not dry dirt and twigs, like I smelled in my first Pu-erh, but real soil, actual dark earth, musty and deep and gorgeous. Its like I could smell the farm where this was growing. I’ve never been transported somewhere I’ve never been through my sense of smell. My memories have been triggered by shampoo or perfume that makes my heart hurt for the ones I’ve loved and lost but (and this is going to sound crazy but I don’t care) I had this image of somewhere that probably doesn’t exist of a tea farm, of hands picking the leaves off the plant. There was a connection, a transcendant experience that I thought was just a figure of speech (“the smell whisked me away to…”) that I’ve never had. It was like I was on drugs for a moment.

The sip. Its buttery smooth, butterscotch, cool melon, honey, pear, faint vanilla, warm cedar, calm spinach and fresh leaf. Its milky and smooth and light and my god I don’t deserve this. I can’t believe I have this. This is what tea is.

I needed this. I’ve been tearing myself up over her and why she won’t catch on and see that I’m worth it. I keep telling myself that “all I need are books and tea…and someone to share them with me” and I want to believe that its her.

Anyway, this tea couldn’t have come at a more perfect time. I found new bands (“Green or Blue” and “City and Colour”) that are helping me through this, the leaves are melting their colors down the trees, and I finally got my diploma in the mail, making my second Masters officially irrelevant ;)

This is the tea that allowed me to redefine what tea is to myself. Thank you David and everyone at Verdant. You’ve got a customer for life.

Right brewing temperature is very important here. So far, I getting more and more fond of this tea. But I am also learning how to get best out of it. Will write more later.

Yum! Just like a bowl of oatmeal I just had this morning,sprinkle in some nuts, maybe a touch of smokiness, and some veggies. What’s not to love? What’s so great about this that it has some resemblance to gunpowder and maybe Dragonwell because of the vegetal character that gave it depth. A really smooth tea, with very little astringency till later infusions,a creamy and masterful art of fine leaves. A quintessential tea to be enjoyed in multiple succession with a gaiwan and love for the all things simple.

This is a marvelous green tea with a rich nutty broth with a slightly sweet vegetal taste. There is a bit of tingle on the tongue but no astringency and only the slightest edge of bitter but so slight that it elevates rather than decreases the quality of the tea. I am beginning to believe that there is nothing that Verdant Tea sells that I don’t like.

I just love this tea. That it’s been on clearance, and I was able to squirrel away 4 oz. for a very reasonable price, makes it all the better.

I originally was introduced to it through Verdant’s Green Tea Sampler, also a good value. At the time it was 3 teas: this Laoshan Green, Dragonwell Style Laoshan & a Sun Dried Jingshan Green. The latter and Dragonwell didn’t work for me so much, but this one really grew on me.

I think Verdant Teas require one to slow down and pause if you want to truly appreciate what they have to offer. Drinking as much tea as I do, it’s easy to fall into the routine of just brew and drink. But like mindfullness meditation, when I’ve steeped a tea as exquisite as this, I have to pause and breathe into the moment.

My preferred method for brewing this tea is in my glass tea infuser. The infuser is a 12 oz. pitcher with inner glass cup. One brews the tea in the inner cup and then you slowly lift it out. Pulling the inner cup upward creates a vacuum and the brewed tea drains into the surrounding pitcher through small slits at the bottom. The yield is about 8 oz. of tea per steep.

I follow the Verdant instructions and brew this tea with about 175 °F water. Sometimes the temp may be a little lower, as low as 165-170. Either way the results are satisfying. I introduce about a teaspoon and a half of tea on top of the water, and using glass allows one to really observe the tea as it drops, unfolds and lightly dances.

I can’t tell you exactly what the brewing time has been. I’ve mostly based my timing on color and the action of the leaves. The first steep is probably about two minutes or less I’d guess. Most of the leaves settle immediately, while about a quarter remain stubborn on the top. The lower leaves start unraveling, expanding and stretching out, while the color reaches a lovely yellowish green glow (but not too deep). After a few of the stubborn upper leaves begin to descend, I decant the resulting infusion.

And what a lovely result it is. To borrow from Verdant’s description, there was indeed a similar mouthfeel one might get from a smooth matcha, as well as kind of grassiness, but less like wheat grass and more like rich butter lettuce. I get this whole “green bean flavor” people talk about with Laoshan greens, and I particularly appreciate it here. As far as there being any chocolate notes, I’m afraid they are lost on me.

The way I brew it, there is a wonderful back of the mouth tingling and mild memory of astringency. If there’s any bitterness, it goes by a different name here. Finally my palate is left with a subtle lingering sweetness, almost saccharine, if saccharine was a good thing.

The subsequent steepings (upwards of 3 or 4) continue to expound on what’s been introduced. I tend to steep shorter on my second steeping, as I find the wet leaves, after sitting between cups, are fairly ripe to steep. The vegetal qualities begin to wain and each infusion tends to get dryer for me. With that the mouthfeel grows more intense, going from softer and rounder in it’s feel to more vibrant and alive. The tingling on my palate expands from the back of my tongue and spreads around the periphery, leaving me wanting more.

The caffeine punch is so far from a punch, and much closer to a warm hug than anything. I’m gathering the theanine content of this tea, if tested, would be fairly high. I’m left alert, and aware, but calm and relaxed. For an “Autumn” tea, this is somewhat contrary to my understanding of theanine being higher in spring teas, but I’ll leave that to the scientists.

The 3rd steep usually means reheating my water, which then requires me to bring it back down to temp by pouring it back and forth from the pitcher to my drinking glass. My steeping time returns to about 2 minutes, but I depend more on smell now. As the tea is fully expanded, the color is hard to identify at this point. When decanted it retains it’s glow.

The experience of the 3rd and 4th steepings verge on a totally unique new tea, and that’s one of the characteristics I love about this Laoshan Green; such a complex profile. These latter steepings retain the subtle sweet aftertaste with every sip, but just grab hold of your taste buds and pull on them. A grassy nose remains, but it’s more about the dry notes which feel as though they are wringing my taste buds out. Here, a kind of bitterness might enter the equation, but I don’t mind. Combined with the mouthfeel and physical play on my tongue, it all comes together.

24 oz. yield, over multiple infusions, from about a teaspoon and a half of tea, is pretty good in my book. I’d dare say 32 oz. but maybe that’s pushing it. I’m happy to push it.

back to a green tea after drinking blacks….
The dry leaves are like a forest green, curly, toasty
I love this. When brewed…The smell of raw sunflower seeds, green beans and butter….then the final brew tastes like butter, sunflower seeds (raw) and maybe fava beans? Smooth
It’s a beautiful light emerald green color

What a good green tea this is! It is vegetal, grassy and has a lovely texture. I didn’t pick up the chocolate notes that others did, but maybe I’ll catch them next time around. Regardless, this is one of my new favorites (^.^)

After reading some of the other reviews on this one I had to try it. On opening the bag I got a really intense spinach aroma. The leaves are beautiful, all tightly and finely rolled. ON steeping, the aroma switched and was toasty with some spinach undertones. The liquor is pale yellow with a very very faint umami smell to it. The taste is..extraordinary. Very faint notes of spinach and green bean, a little umami, and a caramel finish. Very, very smooth, almost…seductive. I like this one.

This has the most amazing aroma. I only wish it tasted a bit more like it smells. It really is quite good, but I guess I’m used to sencha. One thing I found distinctly remarkable is that I was getting that tangy-sweet flavor in later steepings, simluar to that experienced in later steepings of sheng. It was definately intriguing. The smell, alone, is by far one of the best aromas I’ve ever encountered. I tried it western-style length, in gaiwan, and it was definately too strong. Therefore, I might’ve liked it better had I not over-done it.