Autumn Laoshan Green

Sipdown #33!
It’s official, all of my students for the day (from 10am to 8pm) rescheduled their lessons. I guess we actually got about 6 inches of snow, so it’s no surprise. Meanwhile, I feel like I haven’t done anything of any real value today, although I did talk to a new student on the phone & set up her first lesson for this friday. I did a ‘Facetime’ lesson with one of my students so we wouldn’t have to schedule a makeup (which actually works out pretty good!), I returned phone calls & emails, shuffled papers around on my desk, and I drank a lot of tea! I have $75 in Amazon gift cards from my recent birthday, & I’ve been researching which variable temp electric kettle I want, cuz I really need one! I’m open for suggestions.

My newest batch of Root Kimchi is the best tasting, crispiest batch yet. If you’d like to see it, drop by my FB https://www.facebook.com/terri.langerak

This is from Autumn of 2012, by the way. It still tastes pretty good, but now it’s gone!

I’m really enjoying this cup but it is not what I intended to drink today. I walked out the door this morning without my chosen tea AND without my apple for 2nd breakfast! Luckily I had some of this in my desk. Always have emergency tea stashes at the office, folks!

My 100th tasting note on Steepster! Thanks to everyone for making this community what it is: a friendly and fantastic hangout for tea fanatics. I visit this place at least a couple times a day (usually more) because it’s just a great place to be!

This was a sample I got with my last Verdant order, and I tried it gongfuish style in my tasting cup, with subsequent short steeps. Like the Laoshan black, the little curly dry leaves gradually unfold into full tea leaves. On my first sip I was immediately hit with asparagus! Thankfully I love asparagus. Next there were green beans. On the second steep the beans were still there but also a bit of toast flavor. Third steeps and after it got really creamy and buttery, almost like the bi luo chun I had a few months back but the sesame oil flavor was not quite as strong. Unfortunately I didn’t try the summer harvest while it was available, but this is a really delicious and well-made green. What can I say? The He family just makes fantastic tea.

Warning: this ended up really long!
I’ve been swirling something around inside my brain for awhile now on the nature of snobbery as it relates to tea and literature, and I think I will finally share it. Without going into too many details, awhile back someone came on the Steepster forums and said something about a much loved tea company that was not nice (or true), and it was pretty snobby too. It got me thinking.
At the time I was working on a paper comparing Shakespeare’s “Titus Andronicus” to Thomas Kyd’s “The Spanish Tragedy”. I had a couple of thoughts on how I think of snobbery, and I think Shakespeare serves as a good example for both of them. First, that sometimes people make things highbrow or “fancy” when the original creator did not intend for it to be highbrow or fancy. Second, that being able to appreciate what is “fancy” does not necessarily take away from one’s enjoyment of things that are not. (Can you tell I just put on my academic writing hat?)
To tackle the first issue, let’s think about Shakespeare and “Titus Anddronicus”. Our society absolutely views Shakespeare as highbrow entertainment. In part, this is an issue of language; the English language has evolved quite a bit since the Renaissance. However I think Shakespeare is largely thought of as highbrow because academia has made him so. How many times have we heard Shakespeare referred to as the greatest author that ever lived? And yet, Shakespeare was far from highbrow in his own time. In later years his troupe performed for royalty on occasions, but if you were a Londoner in Shakespeare’s day you could see one of his plays for a penny. You could also see a bear-baiting for a penny, in fact those took place right down the street. Shakespeare wrote from popular demand; playwrights had to keep up with popular opinion if they did not want to lose a sale to bear-baiting. “Titus Andronicus” is a prime example of this; it’s full of revenge, spectacle, and dead bodies. Revenge tragedies were very popular when he wrote it. People wanted to see revenge and dead bodies, so Shakespeare gave it to them. It’s only now that we make it highbrow entertainment. Likewise, I do not imagine that all tea makers think of making tea as a “highbrow” beverage, but how often do people make it so?
Secondly, I understand that as we enjoy better tea, our tastes change. As I have learned more about literature, I’ve gained a better appreciation of certain authors and books. Five years ago I would not have written a six page paper based off of four lines in a Shakespeare play. However, this knowledge has not made me only happy to read Shakespeare or classic authors. In fact, many of the books I read for enjoyment are new and popular books. I may not feel they are as complex as Shakespeare, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like them. However, there are limits to this; there are some massively popular books out there that without naming titles, I just think are bad. Likewise, there are many teas I might have enjoyed years ago that I now think are bad. What I hope is that I continue to find a balance. I want to be able to appreciate very fine teas as well as the ones that are decent, or middle of the road. I hope that I also always appreciate fine literature, as well as the books that are just decent. I think sometimes we can like things that are not “highbrow”, and things that are fancy don’t have to be fancy.

And if you’re still with me after all that, I award you five gold star stickers.

I guess today wasn’t the day to try this as I ended up having company over, and a crazy baby to deal with so I didn’t get to take many notes while I was drinking.

Here’s what I’ve got:

1st Steep (30s): Very light and grassy with spinachy/grassy notes. I love the shape over these long pretty leaves, and they look great in my mini-gongfu pot.

2nd Steep (30s): More buttery/spinach notes this time around. Very good

I steeped it two more times after that but don’t remember the details except that I enjoyed it. I’ll have to order this sometime!

…sipdown…. :P

5/5

Finishing up the dregs of a bunch of teas I drank months ago, like spring/early summer. It was a hectic time and anything that involved more thought to review I just didn’t. Didn’t even log, ack. I know this has got to have lost much of its punch, but on the other hand back when I first tried this I wasn’t madly in love with greens the way I am now that it’s 100F every day and has been for months. :( And wow. Even likely weakened in power this is incredible. I know the extent of my Verdant fangirlness has got to be annoying and easy to roll one’s eyes at, but g’ah. My two favorite greens are undoubtedly this and their Laoshan Bilochun. I love the way this has so much to it, where some of it’s all the stuff you love in a green and expect, but then there’s a lot more too. Some words that come to mind because my brain is tired and can’t string sentences right now: ice cream (yes!!), green bean, cream (so so creamy), oats/grain, REALLY buttery, raw sweet potato (there’s a subtle sweet starchy vegetable thing for sure), some spinach, unbelievable aroma. More comfort food-y sweet and satisfying than most greens but still with that fresh green vegetable element. Love.

I have the 2012 harvest.

And honestly, if I were served this tea in a restaurant I wouldn’t drink it. It just does not work for me.

It’s very beany, and even though I steeped in 165C water, it was bitter.

Does any of the Eastern Contingent or Island Contingent like this one?

Wowww I’ve had this sample for a while lol..it is one still in the foil sample packets from Verdant rather than their new brown ones! High time to drink some of this down, and it’s now autumn, so might as well! I was going to do this in my gaiwan, since I mostly made my Laoshan green back when I didn’t have one and it’d be nice to try it with this one, but my old method seemed appealing today. I just use a brew basket with about half the sample pack, 175 degree water and my little bubble cups (~4 oz) and steep for about 9-10 seconds and add 2 seconds to each subsequent steeping. So this is the method I am using today.

The dry smell is so green beany and good. I miss my Laoshan green! I do have an oz from this spring’s harvest, but for some reason I don’t drink it that often, probably because I feel I should finish this one off first :P Anyways, this tea was also a bit dusty, maybe from sitting in the packet for so long. So yeah, did the steeping parameters as above, and the first two cups are bright green, with the Laoshan bean scent but something else, something like raw pumpkin and sesame to me. A strong, slightly astringent scent, but not unpleasantly so. 9 seconds was maybe a bit long for the first steeping, but the flavor is actually very good!

This tastes exactly like pumpkin to me. Whatt! It actually does lol. I am amazed. This tea is very smooth, not biting whatsoever. There is a slight creaminess to the aftertaste, but really, I mostly get pumpkin flavor haha. The beaniness is also there, but more present in the second cup, which I just stole a sip of from the boyfriend. I am excited to see how the flavors unfurl through a few more steepings!

I am always impressed with Laoshan green, and this is no exception. I am amazed at how much the flavor can change between harvests! Another lovely offering from Verdant that I’m a little bit late in trying, but better late than never! :)

ETA – even as this tea cools, the flavor is changing a bit. Much more butter is present!

SIPDOWN, and a Gongfu brewing session!

According to Verdant Tea’s website, you should steep this tea for 3 seconds and then increase the steeping time after the third infusion by 3 seconds or to taste. Three seconds seemed like an awfully short amount of time. So, I opted to start out at 10 seconds. The resultant liquor is an unsettling yellow color. I won’t tell you what it reminds me of…

But the flavor is incredible! So very different from what I remember from the Western steeping. It tastes like snap peas and butter. It’s very flavorful and very delicious! Second infusion also for 10 seconds was similar but a little bit greener. There’s more of a grassy note apparent now.

(Start unrelated rant). Why do people fight you on stuff when you’re the expert in it? I know what’s best. You don’t. You came to me for my assistance, not the other way around. If you think you know best, then do it yourself and leave me out of it! I had to waste an hour of my time for people to come to the same conclusion that I told them in the first 5 minutes. And then they try to give me an extremely unrealistic deadline. I can’t work on 4 different projects at once and get them all done in 30 days. Are you serious? They can’t all be at the same priority level! Some things are just more important than others! And if this is really that important, then hire more people to work on it! I shouldn’t be the only one! Sorry, I just had to get that off my chest. And now I have to wait for the water to boil again. Ugh. (End rant).

I don’t know what I did wrong, but the third infusion for 10 seconds was bitter. Blech. Ironically, the fourth infusion for 13 seconds had no bitterness at all. The cup returned to its beautiful creamy, buttery, vegetal self. I wonder what happened? Maybe taking a break in the brewing session allowed the wetness in the leaves to sit and create bitterness. That’s the only explanation I can think of that makes sense because the fourth infusion picks right up where the second one left off. Weird.

Fifth infusion for 16 seconds was less flavorful. The liquor color remained strong though, and the aftertaste was a nice buttery grassiness. Sixth and final infusion for 19 seconds was pretty much the same as the fifth. I think this tea is done. The first two infusions were definitely the best. I had hoped that the interlude wouldn’t color my opinion of this tea, but I think it has. Phooey. So much for relaxing with a nice cup of tea this afternoon. :/

I’m having a case of the tea blahs lately, and it looks like some others have been too. Could it be the change in weather? It’s likely, but I decided the solution was that I need some new teas to get excited about, so I ordered a whole bunch. Like budget out the window, recklessly adding things to my cart like a maniac. Oops.

I decided to go with a tried and true tea today so I’m sipping on a creamy, beany cup of this. It’s good, but I’m not feeling it the way I usually do. I know it’s not the tea’s fault, so I should probably save the last bit of this for a time when I can really appreciate it. In the meantime maybe I should clear some space for the truckload I’ve got on the way.

Finished up my sample packet of this! Green teas are very hit and miss for me and this one is definitely a good one. Fragrant, vegetal and even a bit creamy.