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Whoaaaaa. This tea is weird. The dry leaf is so full of stuff that it’s kind of a wet mix. The leaf smells of honey, corn, and chocolate.

I was a little skeptical of the polenta flavor, since there are just corn pieces in there. But it kind of does smell like honey polenta when it brews up. The chocolate smell lingers as well, but I’m not getting much tea.

There’s sugar in this blend (the real kind), so it’s sweet, but honey is the dominant flavor. Corney polenta is also pretty dominant here. It’s a pleasant, interesting experience!

This one smelled more green than sheng when it was dry, so I had high hopes for it. There is a bit of that green funk, but it’s accompanied by the formaldehyde and flowery soap that usually comes with sheng. My coworker, who actually enjoys it, describes it as Dial soap and flowers.

He’s benefiting immensely from my sheng experiments this morning.

Bitter, creamy, and green tasting. I liked the first steep a lot before that shenginess kicked in. Thank you tea friend for the sample, but I’m not yet converted!

This is a weird tea, and I don’t know what to think of it. Going by the description on the site, there is no way I would have bought this. It was a sample from a friend.

The first steep was a nice roast flavor on top of a green oolong flavor, which is interesting because there is nothing green about this tea. After the leaves have opened up a bit, that bright, lime flavor starts to come through. You probably know by now my disdain for citrus.

I’m kind of both ways on this tea. It’s…odd.

This tea tastes like spring. There are happy, bright flowers. There’s honey and citrus. Maybe there are some orange blossoms.

Floral is the main descriptor though.

Good tea, but not my thing. I’m just not a fan of citrus.

This is a WEIRD tea. Got it as a sample from a tea friend, who picked it up from the show in Philadelphia.

Flavor wise, this tea isn’t much. There is some astringency and a lot of malt. There’s a bit of dark brown bread flavor, but it’s very subtle.

What gets me is the texture of this tea. It’s THICK. It feels like heavy cream in the mouth and lingers afterward like fat from real whipped cream.

For a bagged tea, this is pretty decent. I’d drink this again.

Identical to Yunnan Sourcing Black Gold BLC. Earthy, some malt, some sweetness.

I don’t really feel like writing, but I need to put these notes down before I forget.

I’m always a little skeptical of Verdant’s descriptions because they are sometimes so out there. However, when comparing my notes to what they have described, there is usually one or two things that they have in common.

My notes for this tea included roast, grapefruit, wild funky flavor, and dark chocolate. Does that sound gross? It does to me, and that’s pretty much how the tea tasted. I think I need to stay away from fruity oolongs. I haven’t seemed to like them.

When I read Verdant’s descriptor “yuzu,” it hit me. I have never had a straight yuzu (the fruit) before, but I have had a yuzu honey tea. It tasted grapefruity and wild funky to me, so there you go. I was surprised to find chocolate as a descriptor because I thought I was crazy when I tasted it.

Anyway, not the tea for me.

I’m finding that I can tolerate these older shengs, but this is the first one that I actually enjoy.

I would have to agree with Liquid Proust on this tea in that it is quite smoky and smooth. There is a bit of astringency on the back of the palate, but just a tiny bit. There’s just a hint of woodsiness, like cedar?

Leaves my palate all tingly after I swallow!!

This is my favorite of the Duck Shits that I got from my tea friend.

It has a milky, creamy mouthfeel. It’s thick and almost oily in the mouth, but I’m also getting hints of astringency on the back of the palate after I’ve swallowed.

Flavor wise, it has a bit of that green funk, of which I am a fan. Vegetal a bit? It’s mostly sweet and floral flavored. Very nice experience.