Verdant Tea

“Yayyyyyy!!” Shouted at the top of my lungs, “Zhu Right is BACK!”

And just in time! I’m such a grumpus today! I slept very deeply last night, the kind of deep sleep you have when you’re sick, & although I am not sick, I’m cranky & probably should take a nap.

Note to self: Drink a strong infusion of Elderberry this afternoon, just in case you’re fighting off a virus you don’t know about.

Anyway, my day is saved! I opened the front door to find 2 Boxes with my name on them! Not one, TWO!!. In the first box, this awesome tea. I immediately had to have a cup, 1 TB in mug, steep 3 minutes. It’s a wonderfully deep & strong cup of dark fancy designer 97% chocolate from somewhere exotic, with a little expresso, some sweet spices, and Re-Steep @ 5 min. I’m SO grateful that I get to drink this today!

Box #2: “YAY!!!” Every bit as exciting as the Zhu Right, it’s my trade from Sil, the most awesome tea friend Ever! I just posted a pic of the yummies she sent on my FB. Sarah, you Rock!
https://www.facebook.com/terri.langerak

I’m doing it!
I’m drinking my last serving of Zhu ‘Right’!
I was hoarding it for so long, it was so hard to just let go, knowing that eventually David will get more. Acceptance is the key…

“Zhu rong Blues”

I woke up this morning
stretched out in my bed
Said I woke up this morning
had a tea in my head…
How can they call you zhu rong
When you’re so right for me? (“I love you, baby”)

That first cup
it’s like german chocolate cake (“hold the sugar, honey”)
I steeped it 3 more times…
Make no mistake (“uh huh!”)
sweet potato, expresso, & spice…
You’re so Zhu right for me! (“your so fine, babe”)

(awesome blues riff on the electric harp)
And now your gone
and I’m crying the blues (“don’t leave me, please”)
I’ll be lurkin’ on the Verdant website
‘til David brings us good news ("I know you’ll be back, sugar")
Please sir, I want MOAR
Won’t you get some more Zhu Right for me? (“I ain’t too proud to beg”)

I said how can you call it Zhu Rong
When it’s so right for me???

This tea is so awesome!
It’s just what I need today, when I’m feeling a little grumpy, & thanks to BoxerMama Little Terri is throwing a fit over wanting pancakes for breakfast ;p
I reminded her that pancakes are only for days when we don’t have anything to do, because even paleo pancakes will be slathered with Maple syrup (grade B, & real. Is there really any other kind?), rendering us all worthless for the day.
I promised pancakes for Saturday! She also gets to pick out next tea…
So we’re having eggs & bacon on a bed of sauteed veggies, & this glorious tea, which competes pretty highly in my mind with Laoshan Black. I drank the first 2 steepings while cooking, & am having #3 & 4 while we eat.
I have just enough left of this for one more session.
That will be a sad sipdown day.
I really hope David brings this one back!
“Please, sir, I want some more.”

First Tea of the Day!
My friend V hired me to play at her daughter’s wedding. She came by to give me the final payment, so I took her out to breakfast. I knew the selection at the restaurant wouldn’t be all that great, so I had some tea at home before she arrived.

I think what I love most about this tea is the sweet potato & spice qualities, and then again, we all seem to love chocolate too!

I’ve been working on polishing off some of the teas in my cupboard, mainly the ones that I don’t really have that much left of, and also samples that have been sent. So I was sorting through things, & look what I found! Yay!! I’ve been hoarding this one, & still have enough to enjoy it a few more times. So this is my breakfast tea of the day!
I went with the western brew: 2 t in 8oz @ 1.5 minutes. Now I’m on my 2nd cup, steeped at 2 minutes. The 2nd cup is even better than the first.

Rich, Dark, Chocolatey, spicy. This tea delivers it all. Now I remember why I was hoarding it :)

I really enjoy this rich dark Yunnan, with it’s chocolate and spice profile. This is the first time I’ve actually steeped it gongfu style, & I really am gaining an appreciation for doing it this way! It’s fussy, in a way, and I combined a couple of steepings at a time in a cup so that I could go relax and enjoy before having to reheat the kettle, but I’m liking using more tea with shorter steepings. It’s really very very good! Each cup holds slightly different nuances of flavor. Now back to my NaNoWriMo Fairy Tale.

First cup of the day and it’s gone!

I wanted something rich and deep to accompany my breakfast of left over brussells sprouts & carmelized onions, with an egg on top. Quick and easy!

Now on to other things…

I’m sending good wishes for all those effected by the storm.

I started the day slowly: hot bubble bath, yoga, a walk in my garden, & a breakfast of fresh picked Chard, leftover winter squash, & 2 basted eggs. I wanted to dark tea to accompany the meal, & Zhu Rong satisfies! I brewed the first cup (1 T to 8oz water) for 2 minutes, & immediately re-steeped in a different cup for 3 minutes. Both cups are rich & flavorful (although I think next time I might to 3 min & 4). Hints of dark chocolate & spice, a little woodsy too.

I’d like to sit around drinking tea, but I’m headed out to the St. Louis Salt Room, to breath some salt & try to open up my lungs. Then I’ll run a variety of errands, before returning home to my desk work.

Wouldn’t it be great if someone would invent a kettle that can be plugged into your car, like a phone charger??

Tea number 2 from the Verdant Tea of the Month Club:

This is a tea that I’m not new to, & it is one that I have already been enjoying since I placed my first Verdant order (which was really just about 6 weeks ago, can you believe that? I’m not going to confess to how many orders I’ve placed since then…LOL).

I love the deep chocolate boldness, & this is another strongly grounding tea, I feel like it is made of the roots of trees, deep in the earth. There is a hint of a burdock root flavor, a spiciness of clove, and my beloved sweet potato. Definitely a noticeable contrast from the Tian Di Ren ’06 Sheng, this is a much bolder cup, with a thickness to it.

Now I’m enjoying multiple steepings of this wonderful deep tea with it’s amazing chocolatey aroma & fullness. I’m having a hard time getting motivated today, & quite honestly, I’d like to go back to bed. But I have things to do, mostly desk work, & I have a public performance tomorrow to promote (to hear my originals, visit www.harpsinger.net).

I’d also like to apologize for continuing to blog on the same teas over & over again. I have a ton of samples here to review, but I feel that my taste buds are working, but still not 100%, so I don’t want to write about a new tea & not give it justice!

I made myself a breakfast of scrambled eggs with a side of leftover Ratatouille, which probably sounds strange, but is really quite good.
I haven’t taken a single bite.

While I was cooking, I opened the sample I got from Verdant of this tea & breathed in German Chocolate Cake! I ignored all instructions (rebel without a clue), & brewed 2 t @ 3 min. Oh my God…so dark…so deep…I smelled sandalwood, but briefly, then molasses, & through all of that, chocolate, a deep dark chocolate bar from somewhere exotic.

I have issues with impulse control, so I drank part of the first cup by dipping out one bamboo spoonful after another, blowing until it was cool enough to sip…chocolate expresso with a hint of pepper…once the cup was cool enough, I savored every sip, swirling it around in my mouth like a wine sampling guy…reluctant to swallow because it just feels & tastes so good!

I’m in love with this tea! I need to send an email to David Duckler, requesting that he add some of this to my order, due to be shipped out soon. I got a sample of this with my last order, & I want more!

“Please, sir, I want some more.”

For the first person to guess the source of that quote, I’ll send a free copy of my xmas CD, “MidWinter’s Canon”, which is a 60 minute medley of Holiday music, lullabies, Canon in D, & some other things, all blended with a mix of classical, new age, & sort of jazzy flavors. More info @ www.harpsinger.net/Terri_Langerak/Midwinters_Canon.html *

Oh, & MsWhatsit, you’re not allowed to enter this contest, since you’re my sister & you already have a copy! Although I know that you know the answer :D

Sipdown!

Very after-rain-woods earthy, with a bit of sweetness. There’s barely enough left in my pouch for a proper steeping, sadly. While great, nothing particularly stands out about this. Still a comforting evening accompaniment.

Backlog from this afternoon/evening.
I’m still not very experienced with pu’er, but I really enjoy this shu. It’s earthy and musty, but very pleasant and comforting, like the smell of the earth in the woods after the rain. There’s a bit of sweetness to it, too. And it lasts for a number of short (< 1 minute) steeps.

Holy ambrosia! I now understand how Jason felt after prying the legendary golden fleece from the clutches of King Aeetes. This tea just makes you feel powerful, like you’re caressing some coveted treasure of the gods, attempting to hide it from their jealous eyes. Remind me again why I waited this long to order some of this tea?

While not the most complex tea flavor-wise, it is a magnificent textural tea. Please don’t get me wrong, this tea’s flavor is supremely balanced, and oh-so delicious—a tea with top-notch character. But really where this tea shines is in the mouthfeel. I will reiterate what most others have already claimed: it is silky smooooth. However, it’s not static from what I’ve tasted in my sessions with this tea. I wrote twice as many notes on textural fluctuations than flavors throughout steeps. I’ll outline my notes:

Steep 1-2: airily light, silky, melts away as swallowed
Steep 3: becomes heavier and thicker, like velvet
Steep 4: becomes lighter, but more creamy and soft
Steep 5-6: light and silky again
Steep 7: same as last steep, but with a sparkling texture that tingles the back of the throat
Steep 8: back to creamy
Steep 9: back to silky

As for the flavor details, this dian hong tastes like candy. Especially during the first steeps where the liquor is smooth and melty, I can’t get those Werther’s Original caramel hard candies out of my mind when I’m sipping. These combined with raw cane sugar, a hint of cloves, and malt make up an amazingly well-balanced body in the first few steeps. Going on into the third and fourth steep, the heaviness of the liquor compliments darker cocoa and mocha flavors as spices gently increase and a honeyed sweetness meets them midway. These notes are very well complimented by strong, wafting aromas of chocolate and toffee from the wet leaves and liquor, respectively. Continuing on, caramel flavors increase, accompanied by a new tapioca-like taste, while the intense sugary tastes subside for a steep or two.

At this point, an aftertaste has been well-established, as hints of licorice and toffee play in the back of the throat. Onto the seventh steep! The liquor’s aroma becomes quite strong now, whereas it had been lighter and less pronounced in the beginning. Playing on the sparkling texture, the flavor develops a syrupy sweetness that meshes with increasing malt and tapioca flavors. Steep eight is really where this tea came out for me. It was nicely thick and creamy, developing some complexities of an earthy or mossy quality and some faint astringency, which added nice depth to the taste established by the previous steep. From this point on, this tea mostly reverted back to the flavor profile of the beginning, creating a nice and even bell curve of flavors, if you will.

Other miscellaneous notes:
- The evolution of flavor after a sip is really quite fantastic. It starts off full of flavor, but it keeps gradually expanding, becoming full-bodied before slowly fading away into an aftertaste. I think this has one of the most lingering flavors of any tea I’ve had recently.

- The leaves are really quite amazing. Beautiful colors and sheen when dry, with an interesting springiness to them and a soft texture. When wet, the quality is even more apparent. These are probably the most consistent appearing leaves I’ve seen; every single one is exactly what it should be, nothing extraneous. Oh! And they smell heavenly. Honey, vanilla, a light dusting of spice, dried fruits, and caramel. There was something else that I couldn’t put my finger on, but after just reading the other reviews, I must agree there is an uncanny sweet potato aroma to them.

- After most steeps, a delicate layer of tea oils is visible.

Sorry for the length! Thanks for sticking through the whole thing!

I shared some of this tea with my dad, who likes tea but usually drinks Lipton. He took a sip, and said, “Wow. I could drink this all day.” He also said it reminded him of Guiness beer. He was very impressed by its resteepability. Very happy in my tea sharing success!!

Finishing up the last of my 7 gram sample. The flavor that comes out of this tea seems impossible. It tastes like I have added a good spoonful of honey and dusted it with cocoa. And then eaten toast! But I have done none of those things. Must…get…more…….
Followed Verdants instructions of 1 tablespoon of leaf per cup.

Not sure what I can say about this tea that hasn’t been said. As of this tasting note, there are 130 other tasting notes on this tea! Very impressive!
I think I prefer dark chocolate in tea form than actual chocolate. When it comes to chocolate I’m a milk chocolate person, but the dark chocolate taste in this tea is pretty wonderful. No wonder this tea is used as a base in Verdants alchemy blends.
The chocolate combines with a sweet potato-ish and bready aftertaste to make an exceptional tea. This is only the first steep and I’m sure I’m going to want (need?) more of this tea once my sample is gone!
Note: this is the summer 2012 harvest.

I’m more and more drinking Shu Pu’er. This one is particularly sweet, rich and musty with notes of cinnamon. I also like that the tea looks like some pieces of ancient tree bark.

A tasting note, wrapped in a story, wrapped in an event.
This may be my most difficult review to date. It will be off the cuff, unbridled and from my heart. If this is not to the liking of everyone, there are other reviews and no need to read mine. I’m not preaching my religion either, but it is who I am and I’m not ashamed.

How do I write a review when there has been another tragic death on a day when we are still mourning the losses of 9-11?
In my own lifetime the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Vietnam and Desert Storm, bombings and kidnappings of U.S. Citizens. I’ve learned that you can’t ever let the bad things that happen in life win by turning you into a hateful, bitter person.
Life goes on. There’s always good in the World even though good news doesn’t get much time in the Press.

This Tea and My Story

The Oolong tea leaves were so large (and almost black) that I held them in my hand, juggling an amount that was almost 1.5TB. That was just enough for the Finum tea basket and mug method of brewing.

The steepings are so short, 3-5 seconds and increasing 1 second each steep, making sure to control the timing.

I brought my electric kettle filled with spring water to the boil, rinsed the leaves once and began the first steep.
The aroma of the wet leaves were like roasted short ribs with caramelization on them and everything! (Now of course I wanted some ribs…they smelled so good!)

I put my nose down close to the liquor and inhaled.
The scent was like incense in an old Church when the wood has been permeated with candle soot and resinous incense.

Then I took a sip of tea, curious about how this incense scent would taste.
The flavor was sweet deep mango and floral incense (but not bitter), vibrating in my mouth with intensity. I was having a difficult time pinning down the floral notes because the complexity and power of the tea was distracting me. There was great robust flavor and smooth softness at the same time, then a cool camphor-like vapor, arriving after some time of contemplation.
The scent and flavor made me think of the All Night Vigil during Holy Week (Easter). I signed up to read a portion of the Psalms usually at 1 or 2AM.
I entered the Church which was completely dark other than 1 Vigil light on the Altar and 1 light on the Readers Stand. The whole Church was filled (even petals on the floor) with the scent of roses, gardenias, carnations, laurel and flowers from services held every day during Holy Week. And of course INCENSE! (All incense is natural such as the one this tea reminds me of, ancient Ethiopian Frankincense…which is in little light pinkish pellets.)

As I would stand reading the Psalms until the next person arrived, all was quiet and intensely fragrant. My mouth was reading out loud, but my heart was praying. It was tranquil and beautiful.

When I was drinking this tea through several additional steepings, and began to taste a little of the cinnamon flavor (not sweet cinnamon or bitter but the dry kind), fuzzy textured fruit and floral honey, I could not stop remembering standing in the church smelling the incense and flowers.

The Vigil wasn’t mournful. It was hopeful.
With every tragic event that has happened and will continue to happen in the world, the choice we each have is to be angry, seek revenge, be depressed or, be wise and love each other in the face of it all.

I pray that we are wise enough to love each other.

http://flic.kr/p/dadfAs (Here you can see some of the flowers and on the floor)
http://flic.kr/p/cqY2rG (the outside of the Church)
http://youtu.be/iCgIswP7jPY Music also

First of all, this does smell amazingly, strangely, like chocolate. Good, dark chocolate. There is also something very fruity and floral in the aroma, a very assertive floral that reads to me like marigold.

I’ve always been a fan of Yunnan black teas, because they’re sweet, and this one definitely has that quality. You can also taste the chocolate, which amuses me greatly. The first time I brewed it, though, because I got way too much of that marigold flavor, that coats the back of your mouth in that bitter/sour flavor you get when someone gets the bright idea to make a floral flavored cocktail. However, I think that was a problem with me, not the tea. I used much less leaf, and water that was less hot this time, and that element was greatly diminished, just enough to be intriguing.

(I’m sorry I don’t leave better notes on how I prepare tea. But my kettle only produces one temperature of water (ridiculously hot) and I usually time my steeping by leaving the leaves in until the tea is ‘cool enough to drink’ which is usually four or five minutes? I think? I’m sure some of the purists out there are appalled, mea culpa.)

First gongfu session of the day, this savory Jin Jun Mei the Charlotte Zero sent to me awhile back is doing the trick. It starts out like whole wheat honey toast, later taking on a peppery quality & a linen mouth. This is a tea Verdant use to offer, which I hoarded for awhile, & then finally reluctantly drank the last of it. It was a real treat when Charlotte sent me the rest of hers, & I have enough to drink it one more time.

Gratefully, I’ve discovered that Yunnan Sourcing carries a couple of different Jin Jun Mei’s, & they are excellent, so I am saved! :)

I want to again thank Charlotte Zero for sending the rest of her stash of this tea to me.
I went with gongfu steepings at 15/30/45/60 sec, & then 2/3/4/5 min.
This is such a wonderfully savory tea, so malty & delicious, & I’ve reviewed it so many times. I really needed a treat like this, & am starting to feel revived, which is good, because in a little while I have to leave the house again. My student at UMSL has her senior recital tonight, & I’m bringing my harp for her because it really is an amazing sounding instrument.

Thank you Charlotte Zero!

I love Jin Jun Mei teas, & this one was a staple in my cupboard for awhile, but then Verdant no longer carried it, & eventually I ran out. I have several other Jin Jun Mei’s as well, mostly from Yunnan Sourcing, & it might be nice to compare them at some point, but just for today, I’m enjoying this rare treat, sent to me generously from Charlotte Zero.

The prewarmed leaf aroma is toast with honey, & it lingers in the sinuses nicely. The tea itself is a honey wheat toast, with butter & honey. I love that kind of taste profile in a tea. The later steepings are less sweet, & take on a more savory peppery quality, as well as a linen texture.

“sipdown”, little terri said with tears in her eyes.
We have loved this tea, with its Malty peppery savory sweetness.

;_; Even Ms Theresa is sad. She said that if she had known it wasn’t coming back she would have let us order even MOAR of it (although we did order alot). This was a tea worthy of being hoarded, & hoard it we did. So rich, so mouth-filling, so satisfying. I can’t believe it’s not coming back…sob…

On a lighter note, I love the new layout on the Verdant website? I don’t want to send anyone into a fit of tea ordering, but if you haven’t seen it, you should check it out. Under each tea type, they have folders now: What’s In Stock, what’s Out of Stock (meaning they will be getting more), and what’s Archived (meaning it’s not coming back).

Sadly, this awesome tea is in that final category. I will savor every last drop…sigh…