Verdant Tea

I decided on this one to fulfill the final October sipdown prompt – a vegetal tea. Just in time!
But in choosing it, I remembered my matcha and got a hankering for that, too, so I will probably have both, but this one is a sipdown!

Because I had an awkward amount of leaf, I slightly overleafed and found it initially a little more astringent than I wanted. A tiny bit more water fixed that, and then pairing it with my lunch made it really good. A bit of briskness makes some teas stand out enough to be noticed with food, whereas a milder tea might quail at combination and almost disappear, not much more than a cup of hot water,.

Today my cool weather crop plants are finally big enough to harvest enough greens for a vegetarian Chinese dumpling soup and it was perfect with the tea. The dumplings have toasted brown rice (among other things) in them which tastes really nutty and that seemed to amplify the nutty aspect of the tea. Or was the tea amplifying the nuttiness of the dumplings?

Post-prandial cup number two is just as strong as cup one, if not stronger. Green beans, not cooked Southern style in a pot of water with side meat but made in a skillet with sesame seeds and Asian sauces and allowed to get dark, crisp areas combined with a lemony tartness and a nutty follow up.

The description says this tea has a sweet sticky rice aroma, and this really does taste and smell like rice! I’ve been on a rice pudding kick lately, so this I’m really enjoying this. Started with a 10-second rinse followed by a 1-minute steep.

I found this in the TTB, and the bag says it’s an herbal, so I was a little intrigued. To be honest, the flavor is a little bland for me. It’s sort of like very weak black tea, but with a bit more of a plantlike flavor. I mixed most of my cup of this with another tea I was drinking that I had accidentally oversweetened, so this was handy, but not great. I prefer really hearty black teas though.

A 5 year old sample that I finally broke out last week. The slew of bad reviews had discouraged me from this tea and it ended up being banished to the back of my cupboard.

I was initially going to use it in oolong milk tea thinking it was a heavy roast. Turns out that wasn’t the case. In fact, it smelled lightly floral and had notes of pine and juniper berries. The taste was pleasantly woodsy with a hint of spice. Good but basic dark oolong flavor. I don’t know if the tea aged at all sitting in my cupboard for all these years, but it certainly didn’t go stale. An unremarkable yet serviceable tea.

Another TTB tea. I drank this warm, and it was pretty pleasant. It was a mix of fruitiness and earthiness. It’s a pretty simple tea, but I enjoyed my cup of it, as well as the resteep. It almost reminded me of roasted onions, but in a good way. It was pleasantly savory.

Sipdown

Making up for the fact that I have already ordered a replacement for the Carrot Cake Cupcake rooibos we emptied tonight, I am pushing a few sipdowns through.

This is not at all like drinking a decaf black tea which was what I was hoping for, but it was very much like having an interesting decaf white tea that we could drink with evening Asian food. I would consider reordering someday.

I have missed late gong fu sessions since caffeine started keeping me up at night, so I bought two of the crassicolumna teas from Verdant to see if they would substitute.

This will fulfill my August prompt for a tea I have never tried before!

This steeped up so pale – I was not expecting that. I thought it would get darker with subsequent steeps but it didn’t.

Ashman and I both enjoyed it, even though I didn’t find it very complex. The most memorable thing about it to me was that it had a very creamy mouthfeel, especially at the end of the sip and building throughout the session.

I think next time around I will use more leaf and see if any complexity becomes apparent. Otherwise, it was an enjoyable and relaxing session and I am not sorry I bought it.

Really enjoyed this one from the TTB. I’m very entertained by how the dry leaf looks like small brown pea pods, so it’s off to a strong start before brewing even begins. Going by the instructions, the first steep comes out a little weak, but subsequent steeps are deliciously malty and sweet potato-y. It gave me throwback vibes to a yabao snickerdoodle I had from Verdant years ago, though looking at the steepster page now it doesn’t look like I ever made a note and the notes others have left don’t quite line up with that sense memory. So maybe it’s more of a general impression than a specific flavor profile? I’ll have to dig around and see if I have any left to do a comparison.

Rou Gui Spring 2021
Oh, for heavens sakes. Why have I not yet reviewed this tea? I’ve definitely been drinking it and it is definitely amazing. Right from the moment you open the package you know you are in for a treat. Heck, even just reading the name of the tea excites me. It is a succulent scent. It will remind you of ripe fruits, muscatel, minerals, and a dry earthy sensation that reminds you of driftwood in the desert. The flavor will have you twisting in a soiree of nuances. Wet rocks, granite, slight floral notes, and meandering hints of fall leaves. The wet aroma is a circus. Buttered popcorn with slightly smoky notes.

Another from the TTB, and my impressions of this one are kind of all over the place. Broadly speaking, I found it sweet and enjoyable. But it was also confusing, because through all three steeps I made it reminded me more than anything else of a cocoa tea, and then I couldn’t not taste the chocolate notes – even though that isn’t remotely what this is “supposed” to taste like. Super weird!

NOTE: It is currently 2022 and this tea is from 2016. I’ve had Mrs. Li’s Dragonwell before and I know it is good but because this has been sitting for a while in my Aunt’s cupboard… Still a few trichomes on the package and the leaf is still nice and flat with barely any broken leaves but the aroma is flat. Seems like a clean cupboard. The color is sad. A light brown/olive green pale… kinda. There are some really weird sweet notes in the initial steep. Slight caramel, burnt sugar. The taste is… weir. It is not a dragonwell. At. All. Slight varnish. Slight…. burnt something. Maybe woodsy. Almost tastes like it went through another baking process. But the baking process didn’t really do it justice.

A relatively okay JJM! I got the 2021 harvest of this tea from my recent Verdant order, and this tea had a nice and deep aroma, and also packed a semi-potent cha-qi. It lacked in flavour depth and texture, as well as finish and aftertaste. I think I may have forgotten to clean my kettle though, as the liquor felt like I was drinking hard water, even though I remember using my filtered water. Not including the water situation into the review of this tea, I think the tea is a edging the okayish decent and mediocre range.

A crisp and delicate green! I got the Spring 2022 version from my recent Verdant tea order, and for this price range, this tea will knock most other Longjings out of the park. Strong aroma, vibrant liquor, with an exceptional longevity, this tea is pretty decent. It also surprisingly had a nice chaqi and decent texture too! The downsides of this tea however is that its flavour is just missing something, a little body, or complexity. I wished it offered more in the taste as well as the finish, which is why I am not giving the tea an 80+. Still, a tea I can recommend for such a good price!

Tea two of four from my aunt’s cupboard. The leaves are more akin to a pu erh. Slightly dusty appearance. Not green at all, a mix of browns. Twisted and longleaf. Smells like a cupboard. The initial aroma after pouring in the water is a mix of honey, smoke, …burnt hair from a hairdryer. The leaf looks less brown and more of a putrid green as it steeps… It tastes.. wtf … Coffee? Or dark black chocolate. Bits of compost and wet tree bark. This is all sorts of crazy up-in-my-face vegetal jumbo.

My aunt doesn’t drink tea much. She’ll drink tisanes but she thinks caffeine may be affecting her sleep so she is cutting it out. However, I don’t think she realized that the tea people have been giving her, including myself, has a drink by date. And thus I have learned my lesson in making sure to instruct people when to drink stuff from now on. I opened the package and was met with greyish green tea. It should be a pine green. Despite the appearance, I decided to steep a cup. Surprisingly it still has life. You can still taste the vegetal hints along with the bits of grassiness. It’s quite a bit perkier than I figured it would be but you can still tell it’s not what it should be when fresher. The wet aroma is also a surprise. Vegetal and corn notes with roasted veggies. What a suprise.

An okay tea. I got the 2022 harvest of this tea with my Verdant order, and while it wasn’t bad, it wasn’t anything special either. It had a weak taste and a thin texture, but it was redeemed with a nice finish and really strong and complex aroma.

Not the most exciting tea. I got this tea from my Verdant order. It is mediocre at best. One-dimensional flavour profile with a weak finish and aftertaste, but generally a nice texture and aroma.

Got this as a free sample from my Verdant order. Tasted like a dilute Wuyi Yancha, missing a body, texture, finish, everything. Very few teas make me feel like puking but this one almost did. I’m lucky I only have 5g of this tea.

Waffles require a strong tea. A Dragonwell wasn’t going to cut it, I didn’t want to miss the subtle nuances. And being out of my Sri Lankan and India teas I figured I better look for something else. This was hiding by a package of Hawai’ian herbal I still need to open… Ah, black tea. So I opened it and the aroma hit me. Holy fruity Moses. Mango, pear, slight guava, apple banana (I’ve only had them in Hawai’i but they’re delicious). This will be interesting I thought. But what? Caffeine free the website says. OH! A cousin. So produced like a black tea but actually not a black tea. Fascinating. The first steep was intensely fruity. Worked well with my waffle with the best syrup ever from Faxon Farms. I plug them all the time because I haven’t found any syrup better than theirs. Second steep the fruity subsided and was replaced with woody tones. Light woods and sweet tones. Bits of sugar. For those who are looking for a Chinese black tea alternative, this would be a good fit, however, I do not think it would work for those who like it brisk.

Mastress Alita’s Monthly Sipdown Challenge
October 2022 → A vegetal tea

Not at all bitter as it was the last time I had it. Did a 10 second rinse followed by a 30 second steep with 175° water. Strong mineral flavor.

Another from vallhallow!

Spending the afternoon glued to my bedroom window while I wait for this stray cat to wander into my trap. I don’t know if I’ll catch this one since I haven’t seen it in almost a month, but the spay/neuter clinic is slammed these days so it took me that long to get an appointment. Fingers crossed the smelly fish does its job.

While I’m waiting, tea sounded like a wonderful idea for an idle afternoon. James made me a cup so I wouldn’t have to leave my post. I asked him to pick from some of vallhallow’s samples on top of the tea cabinet and he chose this one. It smells really good before steeping, almost fruity? After, it’s definitely reminiscent of a green tea in both color and flavor. It’s just a touch bitter but not terribly so, and it has a remarkable buttery flavor. It also feels sort of thick on the tongue. Very unique. Ultimately, I’m not a big fan of that green tea flavor so I wouldn’t purchase this one. I do think I’ll enjoy the sample I have though.

Sipdown 52

Spring 2021 Harvest

This was quite tasty! Very malty and chocolatey. An easy drinking black tea, and one I would consider purchasing.

This is so interesting! It actually smells nutty. This is probably my favorite of the Verdant herbals that vallhallow sent for me to try. I could see myself buying more of this, for sure.

Spring 2020 harvest.

Been a while since I’ve dabbled in yancha. The oily texture and heavy roast usually turns me off but this one has a unique flavor that’s just delightful.

The lovely aroma of roasted peaches and chocolate surprised me. The aromatics resemble a dan cong more than a typical wuyi oolong. I brewed it grandpa style as I usually do with this kind of tea. It has a familiar but gentler taste of wet rocks with floral accents and a fruity finish. Notes of brown sugar and hazelnut. Glides across the tongue smoothly without any ashiness.

A quite refined and elegant yancha with a lot of aromatic complexity and lingering fruitiness.