This tea will age nicely.
I went to Verdant Tea’s website, and followed the steeping directions carefully.
This tea was very easily separated from its former cake shape. The leaves didn’t even break or snap when separated at all.
Leaf Quality
Excellent. The dry leaves were sort of fluffy. Fuzzy leaves with pale-green underneath. They smelled very sweet, and almost grassy. They were very light, and I needed to add what appeared to be more leaves than usual, to make the proper brew.
Brewed Tea
I brewed this tea twice. The first time, was as the website specified it. The second time, I experimented to see if it would taste different. It did. With the directions from the website, the tea leaves yielded an extremely light- yellow, and crystal clear drink. The smell was wonderful. It was sweet, with elements of honeydew, and a sweet vegetal aroma. The taste was light, and harder to grasp than the smell.
My Method: I took 5 grams of the leaves, and put them in a clear teapot. I brought water to about 80 degrees Celsius, and poured them over the leaves. I know that white teas can handle steepings of 3 to 4 minutes, so I decided to stop steeping at 3.
With this method, I got a very floral, and sweet cup. I hadn’t noticed the floral notes using the website’s directions. The liquid was also a more yellow-green color, but still very clear and light. There was a nice sweet-earthy taste at the end of the cup as well. I really like that the character changes well (a sign of great aging potential).
I think I’ll buy the whole cake to let it age.
