Verdant Tea

I have two big tea orders coming my way, so time to sip down my sample pile and make room! This was my breakfast tea of choice today. The leaf is pretty: small, dark, tightly-curled leaves. It brews up to a clear reddish-brown with a warm, malty scent. I often add milk to straight black tea, but this one is lovely all by itself: smooth and flavorful with notes of malt, plum, and dark cocoa. No bitterness or astringency even after a 4-minute steep. Delicious!

Pulled sample of this out the other day with a smile because it’s quite old at this point. When ahead and washed it off a bit and began my sessions. The thickness of this tea doesn’t exist so for the darker liquor that it brews out, it’s disappointing that it just slides down without having a texture to leaves its taste in the drinkers mouth. Well, that was five steeps of thought so I brewed it longer… pulled out some dry and bitter tones, but still no texture so thankfully the bitterness didn’t linger. Maybe I wasn’t a fan of this, maybe this wasn’t a fan of me, maybe the sample was faulty… either way, I stopped under 10 steeps which means it wasn’t that enjoyable for a sheng.

I’m a strange person, not to say strange is bad or anything… just, what I do sometimes cannot be made sense of.
Yesterday I took this 2004 sheng and sprinkled some roasted mate ontop of it. The heck was thinking? Well, it was early morning so maybe I wasn’t.
I ended up steeping this through that way about eight times until it got funky. That was an odd experience.

Anyways: Today I brewed the remaining 8g(which is a lot for me) and steeped it 11 times to come to a conclusion that I don’t like the dark soup’ness to this tea that comes out in the fourth steep and continues to stay there. The stronger taste to this sheng ends up being a dry experience for me and that isn’t something I like about drinking tea of any kind which is why I’m picky about pu’erh and yancha. Since this already has some age on it, I don’t think it will really get any better :/

I’ll start out by saying I’m not fond of oolongs, but I had a sample of this and figured I’d try it. As far as oolongs go, this one is really good! It lacks that cardboard flatness that I find in many oolongs. It also has more depth than most, which is another reason I don’t like them; too many high notes and not enough base notes to round out the taste. I do get little hints of apricot. It gets the tiniest bit grassy in the aftertaste. My mouth is left feeling dry, but not in the gross way that rooibos does. As nice as this is, I think I’ll leave it for my husband who is often searching out (and failing to find) oolongs in my stash.

I’ve had a weird run with this tea. I got it because I’d read the reviews and the general consensus seemed to be chocolatey/cocoa/rich/honey, which are all very yummy words. To me, it just tastes very… tea-y. I can’t even really elaborate aside from “Yup it tastes like black tea”, like it would make a nice iced tea. So. Yeah. Next to all these glowing reviews, I feel like the D student who just doesn’t “get” Shakespeare.

I’m revisiting this tea now after having set it aside for several months. I wasn’t feeling it then – perhaps because I didn’t love the Zhu Rong Yunnan Black base – and was curious what I would think of it now. I have struggled with the few Dian Hongs I’ve tried, which I found surprising since the typical descriptions of them – “cinnamon sweet with orange,” to use Verdant’s words as an example – sound so delightful. I will try more. Verdant’s is the only Zhu Rong I’ve tasted, in more than one tea (though all were blends, as I recall), and it didn’t appeal to me in other forms either.

I really want to like this tea, but I’m still not feeling it. My brain is making sense of it as a more sophisticated chai – a complex spiced tea with unexpected flavors to observe and discover – and wanting to appreciate it for being interesting even if not particularly enjoyable.

Overall, the flavor was muted, despite what I would consider a hefty amount of leaf/spice. I drastically increased the steep time (Verdant recommended 30 sec) to coax more flavor. Perhaps the bottom of the bag contained a disproportionate amount of heavier spice and zest bits, which I imagine would infuse more slowly than leaves.

Through each steep, a cinnamon-like spiciness remained the most prominent aroma. The first flavor to surface was a light smokiness, I assume from the Zhu Rong leaves. A citrus note in my first steep (208°, 30 sec) offered a bright orange flavor and in my second and third steeps (212° 1:30 and 208° 2:30) became moderately bitter, like some of the pith fell in along with the orange zest. In the fourth steep (also 208° 2:30) the bitterness mellowed, making way for a smoother cup, though still not an infusion that I found interesting or enjoyable.

Still, I would not consider this a “bad” tea, simply one that didn’t align with my palate in this moment. Perhaps on a different day I would thoroughly enjoy it – which wouldn’t be the first time my experiences with the same tea radically varied. Every experience is unique, there is no replicating, no consistency no matter how scientifically controlled the parameters are. Change is the only constant. This I find to be a magnificent lesson offered in every bit of our experience, and for me, quite succinctly through tea.

I’ve been forcing myself to hold off on this tea. Two months is all I can take, I need another cup. I’ve had a lingering head cold for almost two weeks now and I need it gone.

This is the kind of tea that makes you sad to be American; sad that access to something like this is so indirect, so uncertain, that you may never have anything like it again. I have the means to drink tea of this quality every day, and the gluttonous part of me wants that to become the truth.

But no, I’ll savor, and sip, and stare longingly at the canister for months at a time. Because that’s what this tea deserves.

I’m starting to worry I’m the only one still drinking Verdant tea I’ve had to add so many of their teas to the database.

Oh God the difference a decade makes. Anything older than 2006 is always so fundamentally different from anything younger.

The leaf is like nothing I’ve seen. It is big, soft, largely intact.

The dry leaf has almost no aroma at all except a deep, base note earthiness.

The wet leaf is ancient forest soil after a steady autumn rain. But there’s no “storage humidity” here, amazingly enough.

The cup is sweet, dusty, thick, lingering and soft.

This.
This is tea.

This is a fascinating tea.

It makes me think of a bai mu dan or peony white tea. It has that kind of fruity, floral aspect to it that you get from fuzzy buds.

Sipdown 12 of 2016. Verdant Sample. Finished 1/2016

I am a tad bit afraid of smokey teas, but this one is really nice. It is just a slight hint of smoke, with a coaco, sweet base tea underneath. I am enjoying this cup this morning. It is a good warm you up, cup.

Is Yiwu known for producing sour shengs or something? This is my second of the day. I hated the one from Misty Peaks. I think this one is a bit easier to drink, but still a bit harsh for me.

Steeps 3 and 4: Now I detect subtle notes of sour apples. I definitely prefer this to the Misty Peaks tea, but I’m beginning to think maybe I just don’t like Yiwu sheng. This one is not as harsh as the one from this morning, but I wouldn’t say I’m enjoying it much either. Is it less harsh because it has a little bit of age on it?

Steeps 5 and 6: So it’s mellowing out a bit now. What is the significance of stone-pressed? Is that supposed to make it special? This is similar to the other sheng Verdant in the sampler last year, but I preferred that one.

This is rather malty, with a hint of vegetal. Is that a word? Steepster doesn’t think so. :P A little bit of smoke or toasties. Smells fantastic. I steeped it for forever, so it’s really heavy, but not in a terrible way. That’s kind of my go-to-tea-tasting-experience when I’m stove up from the freezer. :)

A nice shu with medicinal, ginseng, and date notes. Very sweet and mellow

I’ve heard both good and bad things about Verdant Tea on this forum so I decided to try it myself. Got there sample and I’m not the most impressed with the flimsy packaging. You get what you pay for though so no complaints since I only spent five bucks on this. The Laoshan roasted oolong is alrt. It’s floral and toasted. I tasted almond, chestnut, and honey. I steeped it for 2 min for starter with 8 oz of water. And then I add 15 seconds to each subsequent infusion. Got 3 cups out of the leaves before it was stale.

Next up in the Verdant puerh sampler. Two quick five second rinses (still missing the puerh pick), and the big loosely packed leaves came apart easily. The dry leaves smell like pine trees. Tea soup is somewhere between amber and brown. This is only my second time trying a sheng.

1st 2 steeps: 5 seconds each with boiling water, combined in one bigger mug. I taste pine and smoke. The smoke is okay — it’s not too overwhelming, or ash-tray like. The pine lingers. It does taste clean. I like it far better than that mushroom-y 2014 Master Han sheng sample they sent me last year. I’ll see how this changes with more steeps.

Steeps 3 and 4 combined again, about 7 seconds each: The pine is now a lot stronger, and the smoke has subsided a bit. I also taste a little citrus — maybe a little lemon. Sharp, but not in a bad way. I do not miss the absence of dirt and earthiness. Am I more of a sheng person? I don’t know. I wouldn’t have thought so since I don’t care for green tea most of the time.

The lemon sticks around strongly in the roof of my mouth, like it would if I’d just sucked on a slice of lemon. Gets much woodier as it cools.

Others mentioned smoked meat notes. I haven’t noticed this yet, and I object strongly to tea that tastes like meat, so… We’ll see.

Steeps 5 and 6, 10 seconds and then 12 seconds, combined: As the leaves unfurl, they smell more smokey, but less smoke flavor seems to come through in the steeps. It’s really not at all sweet, but I’ve enjoyed it anyway because of the citrus-y notes. I’ve no idea how other tasters picked up apple notes, but maybe it has to do with the sourness that comes across to me more as citrus. So far, I have liked this tea. Would I recommend it? I mean, yes, I suppose so if you’re just looking for something to drink that’s nice and you have an unlimited budget? Me? I’ll look for something with some similar notes from somewhere else — and something with a touch more sweetness.

Steeps 7 and 8 combined, 15 and 17 seconds: Let this sit for a while. Ate lunch, absorbed the iron from my food and then came back to it. The cooled wet leaves actually do smell like apples, but the main smell seems to be smoke as soon as they’re heated back up. I can detect a little bit of apple flavor this time around. The lingering apple notes have now replaced citrus; that’s pretty cool.

Steeps 9 and 10, 25 and 30 seconds: Well, this one is definitely winding down. I may try one more steep with a bit more time and see if it yields anything. Not a great deal to report here, except my only Western-sized 8 oz. gaiwan just broke, so more teaware to replace! It chipped, really, because the sides were too hot and I dropped it on the table, so it might be okay for a little bit longer. Anyway… This one definitely changes through steepings more than any I’ve tried yet — it’s probably one of the most complex teas I’ve ever had.

On the whole, my Verdant puerh experience has gone from bad to a fair bit better. I didn’t like the one I expected to enjoy most, and this one is better than any of the others. I kind of wish they didn’t dominate my first ever samples of this type of tea, but actually this was a pretty decent sampler on the whole. Each tea has been very, very different, and I think I’m getting a better idea of what puerh can offer.

About 10 g. left. Enough for either 2 sessions or doubling up the leaf for one session — might do the latter because I’m curious what this is like with more oomph.

All right, I’m powering through this Verdant puerh sampler even if I’m not that excited about it.

Unlike the Verdant shu I reviewed earlier today (which I did not like but much of Steepster loved), this one has more mixed reviews. I got this in the form of the flat 5 g disc, not the tuo. It’s tightly compressed, so I put it through about 5 5-7 second rinses to break up the leaves. (The pick remains at large.)

I noticed the fishy smell immediately after wetting the leaves, but once I finished rinsing and actually drank one of the steeps: I do think I sort of might possibly pick up hints of corn (But also I just ate a Greek salad with lots of red onion and drank an IPA, so I’m not sure I can be completely trusted.). I don’t taste fish or seaweed or sea water, so that’s a plus.

I think I like this a little better the the other Verdant shu I tried this morning. I don’t love it. I would not go out of my way to buy more of it, but by the time I started drinking it, I think I had steeped out the most offensive of the flavors. The brew I’m drinking is light amber. It’s a little corny, a little sweet, a little earthy. Yeah, it’s a bit bland, but it’s not terrible. I’ll add more if I notice anything once I get the beer and onion off my palate. So far, I don’t hate it. It doesn’t turn me against shu or anything. It’s just boring.

Started out using boiling water with this tea, but with super short steeps (5 seconds, 7 seconds, etc.).

And finally, I’m not getting hay from a shu. Yay for the absence of hay.

Added later: Everyone mentions this being a sticky rice shu, but nope… I may have a different year from what everyone else reviewed, but I definitely pick up more corn than rice.

This one left a lot of dryness in the mouth.

Around steep 5: This will go a lot longer, but I want to go to bed soon and I’m over it. In later steeps, the fishy smell goes away and is replaced by a toasted rice smell. It’s okay, but I’d prefer more toasted rice and less corn husk. And if complexity is determined by aftertaste, well, yes, this one lingers a lot more than the one I drank this morning. Also seems low in caffeine — didn’t really give me a caffeine buzz.

Note to self: In the future, no more than one shu in one day.

MIDNIGHT: All right, I went the distance, I drank at least 10 steeps. I lost count, but somewhere between 10 and 12. It would go longer, but it’s bedtime. All in all, I think I’d like to explore more of this toasted rice sort of shu. I like it. It’s pleasant. The flavor got more interesting — and less bland — after the first 5 steeps. I’ll be looking for something similar to this, but with a bit more flavor and a lower price point. Also, steeping method worked well on this one. I’ll have to reduce steep times when I start shus in the future.

Also, I am wide awake so maybe I did get a slight caffeine buzz.

If you have any rice-y shu recs, please let me know.

A while back, I ordered a puerh sample pack from Verdant. I used about 4-5 g. leaf for about 6 oz. water. (My kitchen scale is still missing.). Still can’t find my puerh pick, so I broke the leaves up with a longer rinse. It’s sort of mediocre, somewhere in between the Guevara shu and the much better Ethical Agriculture one I tried yesterday. Nothing offensive about it — it’s just bland and boring, with no noticeable lingering notes so far. I’ll say more if anything comes up in later steeps. Smells sweet like dried tobacco leaf, but I don’t really notice much sweetness in the flavor.

Added: Woodier than I’d like. Not a fan of heavily oaked wine, and this bothers me in the same way.

Now on the 6th or 7th steep, and it really doesn’t change much as I go. The Ethical Ag tea lost some of its earthy mineral flavor as I took it through additional steeps, but this one doesn’t. I do not like it.

So far, my palate is pretty simple. I like unflavored teas that are naturally sweet. A little bitterness doesn’t bother me, as long as there’s some sweetness. This doesn’t fit the bill.

I purchased some Laoshan teas in November from Verdant. They are all great but I’ve had far too much going on in my life to leave reviews lately. I had this one this morning and it’s not my first time having this tea since I got it. I think I’ve had it 3 times now.

It has the deep green freshness I find in the Japanese teas. There’s a green pea flavour to it. I wish I could come up with more but I’ve been under considerable stress the last month so I can’t remember things too much. All I can say is this tea is fantastic.

Aaaalllll gone! Well there’s a teaspoon left but i’m going to mix it with the tsp of laoshan black i have to see how that turns out. another one to pick up when i let myself place an order :)

noms. that is all.