Verdant Tea

Finally I am getting around to trying this today…

I brewed it Western style for around 3 minutes in an infuser mug with around 180 F water.

I’m eating this with a mango today and I don’t know if this is influencing my perceptions of the tea or not but it does seem a bit fruity to me. I am getting a lot of buttery richness and it is a very smooth brew. Slightly floral in the finish. I think perhaps I need to try it again when I am not eating it with a big bowl of fruit but my initial perceptions are pretty good.

Wow, this is such a unique tea, like no other black I’ve had before.
The dry leaf smells heavily of chocolate and raisins; so delightful that it took me many minutes to get my nose out of the pouch and proceed with the brewing. The brewed tea has an aroma that I can’t put a name on, but if I close my eyes, I see corn fields and sun. It is very calming.
The flavor is malty, getting sweeter with each subsequent infusion – I’m on my 6th now, and it is still amazing.

I must say that there is a complexity in this tea that has effected me in a way that few teas have done. It’s not a simple tea and one that I feel deserves, even requires, a more in-depth observation. I usually don’t drink the same tea each day, however I have been drinking this one for three days now, and no end yet planned. I am greatly enjoying my sessions with this tea.

I have also noticed that most people have done very long infusions (a few minutes), whereas I have been having this gongfu in my pretty little gaiwan, lots of leaf and very short infusions. I’m wondering if I’m missing out on something by not doing a very long infusion, however I am so enjoying this tea my way that I don’t wish to waste the little leaf I have.

Well done Laoshan ! (and Verdant Teas too, for bringing us this tea).

So this was my sample from Verdant. I was a little surprised by it since I ordered a black, 2 oolongs, and one purer. It was a pleasant surprised though. I opened the bag and it did not have the grassiness that I’m used to from a green which was another plus. I waited till I drank my other purchases before I drank this one. I read the story by David on how he came in contact with the tea and it made me want to drink it tonight.
I drank it the “preferred” way the Jingshan way. I watched the beautiful leaves unfold and began to sip. It was a little strange looking into the glass cup and trying to avoid the leaves while drinking the tea. It started off light and floral then it transformed to more of a vegetal oolong. Loved it! I was afraid of overstepping it since I did not want it to be bitter. It was far from it….nice!
The Jingshan way is the way to go with this tea.

if you have ever wanted to sprint through a field of honeysuckle at sunset, this is that tea.

it’s the first Verdant Tea i’ve tried — it certainly won’t be my last. the family of farmers responsible for this tea must be enchanted. each cup of this Autumn Tieguanyin has yielded a flavor that is incredibly deep yet light as a feather. it’s youthful, but also wise. this tea conjures a willingness for expansive, open thought – bright and clear as a bell.

definitely floral in flavor, but never verging on perfume. it’s a journey at dusk.

This is my second tasting of this magnificent tea. I used the Gaiwan again with generous leaf. My steep was approximately 2 minutes. The result is a glorious golden nectar. This flavor is lingering in my mouth. This tea is awesome. So much better this time. And, as we know, it going to get better with the following steepings. I gave the second maybe a little over a minute. This tea is like having dessert. Without hesitation I recommend it. I have to up the score. I cannot believe the taste that’s In my mouth. Sublime…

I brewed this in the Gaiwan. When I first smelled the brew I thought I was not going to like it. I let it get stronger. The taste is a floral sweetness. A profile I have yet to encounter. I know I stated in my profile that I do not drink scented teas but I had to try this for some reason. The aftertaste is beyond sweet. A nice change of pace for me. I enjoyed it….

Finished the last of my Jingshan this morning. It is a comforting friend when a cool breeze is blowing. Must prepare a new order from Verdant Tea soon. :)

I have been saving this tea for a sunny day where I could sit quietly and enjoy this beautiful tea. I am glad I waited, and this morning brewed up a small pot to start my day. What a joy it was to sip and savor the complex, yet very subtle flavors. If you enjoy delicate white teas, or gentle greens, then this is one you have to try. I actually used a kyusu (Japanese tea pot) that holds about 6 ounces with about 1.5 teaspoons of dried tea leaves.

1st infusion: 2.5 minutes, at about 180F gives a very pale yellow green brew that smells and tastes of sunshine, sweet grass and maybe a touch of shiso ( a knid of Japanese basil/mint).
2nd infusion: 2 minutes, at about 180F yields a slightly more green brew with even more of the same flavors, just a bit more intense.
3rd infusion: 3 minutes, at about 195F brings out more vegetal tones, with maybe a bit of fresh hay smell in the aroma.

Yet another wonderful tea from Verdant Teas. A Yunnan green worth note! :)

Just received my order from Verdant. I did a quick rinse and started with a 3 min steep in my wabi sabi pot. I will admit that I am a little apprehensive when it comes to pu’ers. I get a little sick to my stomach when I smell the fishy musky aroma. I took off the top of the pot and got a hint of the musky smell that I have smelled from other pu’ers…..then a nice sweet cedar. A sigh of relief came quickly and I poured it into a clear mug to look at the liquor. One my my favorite things to do with any tea is to smell the wet leaf. Hmmm, nice and woody. The taste followed suit with the smell. I have to spend more time with this tea. I like it I just don’t know if I love it…but that may change.

So far I have done two steeps…

Wow!

This was perhaps the one tea that I was most excited for from the new shipment. I wasn’t sure if anything could beat the Spring Tieguanyin offering from Verdant Tea. If anything could though, it would be this one, as it has the same source and farmers. It has so much of the nice, floral and bright qualities of the Spring, yet it possesses a heartier body while not missing out on any sweetness. The sweetness gives way to a buttery mouthfeel and a sweet-peach, mouthwatering flavor.

Overall, this particular Tieguanyin as well as it’s brother from the spring, are quite simply put…the best of it’s style that I’ve ever experienced. I would not suggest trying this, rather, I would suggest stocking up on it! We all know with tea this fine that it is limited in quantity, so my honest suggestion is to enjoy it while you can.

Well done to Verdant on this one!

I am brewing this in the Gaiwan again. The first cup is flawless. So light and wonderful. We now know that Oolongs get better after the first steeping. The second cup has opened up and I am in heaven. This tea is near perfection. The aroma and flavor will stay with me. It’s that powerful yet so delicate. This is about as good as it gets. I cannot write that it tastes like butter or spinach or orchids or whatever. It contains subtle hints of all of these. When I first joined Steepster I bought the Spring version just because people were raving about it. And they had every reason to. I’m raving about this. We sat down to a dinner of Dumplings with salad of Lotus Root tossed with long green hot peppers. The tea was a perfect addition. The real plus is the way this tea calms you and stimulates conversation. Deep conversation. I totally overstepped the third cup and I am definitely getting the lime taste that others have noted. Even oversteeped it is incredible.

I am brewing this in the Gaiwan. A tsp of tea. My first impression was of seaweed. Very green and vegetal. I am also getting the butter aroma and flavors as I proceed. So far it is very complex. A deeper brew than her spring sister. It is mouth watering. I always like to comment on how a tea makes me feel. This is a feel good tea. A calm body and mind. I am only on cup 3. I have to brew this western style as well soon. With each sip through the thick leaves this tea is putting me at peace. Pure poetry. Zen-like….

NOTE: I have the Autumn Laoshan Black.

I think I’ve steeped this one a bit too long. The taste was somewhat bitter, though not unpleasant. It tastes bark-ish and smells familiar, yet I cannot quite pin down exactly what familiar thing it smells like.

Will rate after a few more infusions.

Infusion 2: much more pleasant. It tastes more like an Oolong this time (to me), and is very malty. The aftertaste is, as others have said, honey-like. This is a very smooth tea.

Just a quick note about water.

We moved into our new place this weekend, but we haven’t been able to install our water filter. The threading on the faucet just doesn’t want to grab any of the little plastic adapters that came with the filter, so it looks like we’ll have to get something else.

So- we made this tea on Saturday morning with water from the tap. Generally, the water is fine (no funky tastes or anything weird like huge calcium deposits, etc). However, we noticed that the tea seemed a lot juicier than normal? After many sips and a few other teas, it’s clear that the water has more metal of some sort in it. It’s a subtle difference, but immeadiatly noticeable. With this water, it’s as if this is a different picking or a different grade or a different season. Definitely LaoShan, but not quite the same as my last note described.

So! Water really is important. With a little bit of a filter, the house water is going to be sweet and full and an awesome base for teas. Right now, the light metal/juicy flavor will keep me from breaking out the awesome celebratory new-place teas until we get a filter or one of those pitchers.

I was going to wait to do this review until this weekend, but when I saw all of the others coming in this morning, I thought- why not? I’ve got my notes; I’ll throw my hat in the ring.

I talk about my notes alot, so I thought with this one it would be worth sharing a scan of them.
http://imgur.com/qwnPc
You’ll notice my extremely terrible handwriting. Usually, it’s not that bad! (see the sample at the top of the image) But when you’re sitting up late with friends in a marathon drinking session, and your pen is of a certain style… handwriting goes out the window. Aren’t you glad I don’t just post these scribbles? This’ll be a little bit easier to understand (hopefully).

I am really loving this 2nd batch of the Autumn harvest. Notice my first note towards the middle (and I quote):
“Humina humina humina!”

It tastes like the Autumn LS we’ve come to know and love… but taken up another notch or four. How do they do that? However it happens, it’s been thoroughly enjoyed. I’ve done this gong-fy style in my gaiwan (big and tiny), my yixing pots, the big western pot, even combining gong-fu steeps into big mugs. Basically everything but cold-steep (and it’s been too chilly to try that out). I don’t know what my favorite way to do this is. Probably gong-fu, because it’s more fun for me to see flavors changing over time. Tea in a pot is a drink, but drinks are just that… to fill a need or quench my thirst. I can enjoy things so much more if I set out to do that.

So what does this new batch taste like? My first impression was of something called Nyou Beng.. it was an herbal tea my friends made for me in China, and I miss it dearly. It’s a kind of burdock root, but though I’ve tried to make it from Burdock here in the states, it’s just not the same. Basically, Nyou Beng tastes kind of like liquid graham crackers, plus a lot of other delicious things. Warm and caramelly, and perfect for drinking under a blanket or in front of a fire. The taste of this LS Black really reminds me of Nyou Beng.. if NB were a really fine and refined tea. Lip smacking good..

In the tasting where I took notes, we actually had the black tea after trying selects from a delicious Wuyi care package. The similarities between this and the Rou Gui called to me.. cinnamon goodness, but it was more of a smooth smooth sweet base note of cinnamon, rather than the pop and spicy bite of it. Other Steepsters here today have made comparisons to Da Hong Pao, which I can see. The black tea is almost like an oolong sometimes.

As steepings progress, there’s a nice chewy, bark-y quality at the bottom of the flavors that I don’t recall before. It adds a complexity I can’t quite put my finger on.. Usually, woodiness in teas feel very high energy and rambunctious, but this one seems to add to the fine quality. It’s like the little woody child has grown up into a fine young person with composure and knowledge tempered from experience.
As my notes remind me, I get a giant marshmallow-y feeling from this tea. Puts me in mind of s’mores and the North Shore of Lake Superior. Specifically, it really calls to mind those awesome seven layer bars!!
Another dessert this reminds me of? Whipped chocolate mousse with dark chocolate shaved on top. Yum.

My notes from here get less about the taste and more about things the tea reminds me of. For example, later steepings called to mind apples covered in chocolate syrup with whipped cream.. or maybe an almod croissant.. or maybe both, on top of each other, at the same time! Gosh that sounds good- weekend project, maybe? Fat chance- we’re moving into our new place this weekend!

In later late steepings, the taste called to mind a childhood experiment of mine. One time, when a friend was sleeping over, we wanted to make some cool food experiment. We took a hand-full of M&M’s and soaked them in water (stirring until the water was a delicate shade of purple). Then, to be super fancy, we froze the mixture overnight in a tupperware. In the morning, we had the “invention” for breakfast.. we crushed up the block of ice into shavings and ate it out of bowls like sorbet.
Some sort of sweetness in here reminds me not of the chocolates themselves, but of that taste of their candy shells. The taste of the shells that steeped out into the water and turned it such a light and pretty color.

Conclusion? Part of this tea reminds me of frozen, cold-steeped M&M tea! I love that; it’s been many years since I remembered that experiment.. now I want to do it again.

Steeped this gong-fu style in a gaiwan, as usual.

The smell of this dry tea from David’s big bags is great- like sticking my nose into a bag of dark dark chocolate chips mixed with dried cranberries or pit fruits. The wet smell continues on the same them: a dark chocolate bar with currants or raspberries or tart hibiscus. In fact, the smell and the first tastes really reminds me of this delicious bar of chocolate from Rogue Chocolatier (try them! try them! try them!) called the Hispaniola: http://www.roguechocolatier.com/products-page/

Apart from the chocolate, this new picking just strikes me as particularly autumny. It seems leafy (fallen leaves), with lots of toasted grains. Notes of buckwheat and, of course, honey. Some may disagree with me, but I think this one is even more malty than the last spring picking (but maybe I was just really in the mood for that taste, and so I found it in abundance).
There is also the taste of brown sugar that, in a way, reminds me of aged Gouda. You know how aged gouda has these really awesome crystalline structures of salt that burst open as your eating a piece? This has that same feeling, but with brown sugar crystal-nuggets instead of salt.

As we steeped this out, I was reminded a bit of the jingling/ringing mouth-texture of Verdant’s big red robe, but this is accompanied by the brothy, honey full feeling. Later flavors remind me of honey nut cheerios, but with more honey. I like Geoffrey’s notes of creme brulee in this one; I taste that, too.. but a creme brulee that’s more complex than most, with cinnamon sweetness and carrots and raisins and cream. Final flavors are those of perfectly toasted marshmallows!

If I’m going to drink a black tea, it’s going to be Dien Hong, or it’s going to be this one. This tea gives me absolutely everything I want out of black tea. Yes, I’ll keep trying Indian blacks and I’m not going to turn down any opportunities to try other Chinese blacks. But here’s the thing: I really cannot stand bitterness at all. There have been times I couldn’t make it through house salads because the greens they used were just too bitter for me! So I have a feeling that when I drink Indian blacks, I’m going to say to myself.. HmmmmMm.. this would be really good if it just weren’t so bitter…Now where’s my LaoShan black? And recently when I’ve had Chinese black teas, their flavors seem to fall very clearly into the Dien Hong camp or the LSBlack camp, without offering something very distinctive all their own that helps me understand what makes that tea unique. When I find another Chinese black that really grabs me and shows me why someone can dedicate themselves to that tea, then you will be sure to see a happy review from me. Until then, I’m going to enjoy hunkering down for the winter with this Autumn Lao Shan black.

It’s so good. I am so very happy to have the opportunity to try this tea. Imagine: last year, no one outside of China had ever tried this village’s black tea. How lucky I am to find it in my cup now!

I used a generous amount of leaf in my Gaiwan. One thing I try to do when tasting is to always close my eyes. I believe somehow this helps me to better evaluate the flavor. With the amount that I used, which is probably twice the amount I used before, the liquor is strong and very warming. I steeped this twice and I am loving it. I will taste this again later because even closing my eyes cannot rid my mouth of the flavor of the “everything” bagel that I had. One thing that I can be certain of is the energy that this tea posesses. In all honesty I cannot handle another cup….

2 reviews this morning made me desire this. Brewed basket style with generous leaf: This tea after 3 minutes of steeping is all sweet honey with spicy cinnamon cream. Hints of soft cocoa. I will be enjoying this rest of the day. I have to increase the score….

It’s raining here and I need something to lift my spirits. Sometimes you just look at the dried leaves of a tea and you know it will be special. It’s a very comforting tea. It’s exactly what I need at the moment. Sweet, mellow, warm indulgence.

Oh, wow- this jasmine!!

I am really excited for other people to try this; prepare for your socks to get knocked off.

Now, I’m normally not one for jasmines- period. I find them often bitter with an unpleasant metallic base, or the jasmine scent is positively choking in its powdery perfume. Sure, you can find one that tastes nice like candy and floral sweetness, but I’ve never really been convinced of why the flavor is necessary. Why would someone think of scenting tea with jasmine? Well.. now I know.

First, the dry leaves of this tea are just beautiful. Gorgeous yunnan white buds with some flowers.. the whole thing reminds me of lovely Victorian lace. The smell of the dry leaves almost bowls me over with how mouthwatering it is. I smell jellies, oranges, strawberries, peaches.. thick candies and creams.
Once I steep it up.. woah, Nelly! This is going to be fantastic!! (my technical note here was: “YUM!!”) It’s thick and warm and floral like being in a flower conservatory in the middle of our Minnesota winter, with a suprising undercurrent of pine.

The taste begs multiple steepings. I think we did at least ten or so in the gaiwan? Usually, I’m never moved to steep jasmine more than three times. You drink it, and say to yourself: “Yep, that’s jasmine, alright,” and then you’re done. This one- you just want to bask in it.

The taste is lovely and thick in texture with a bit of warm spice.. very much in keeping with the budset base. There are notes of pine along with fruit like peaches, candied lime, or that pink watermelon flavor you find in jollyranchers. There is no perfume choking the throat or drying the nose as I drink. The texture through later steepings reminds me of gelato (vanilla.. or very very light, delicate strawberry+cream), with an intriguing aftertaste of blueberries. The taste of plumerias on Hawaii…

The fantastic thing about this jasmine is how calm and perfectly together everything melds. I drink it, and it really reminds me of Verdant’s Alchemy blends. The jasmine is there to accent and show off how delicious the white tea base is! The jasmine scenting fills in and picks up exactly where the white tea leaves off, and you’re left (shifty-eyed) wondering.. is this really just the most fantastic white tea ever?!? Brilliant! Just what scenting should be.

An ambrosial white tea, decadent but at the same time thoroughly cleansing. It’s a tea I want to have as soon as I wake up, to start the day off right. A spa in my mouth.

Now I understand why you’d want to scent tea with jasmine, and why I want to drink it. Thank you!!!