Verdant Tea

Made a small Verdant order, and recalled enjoying this in the past. Made some this morning and it tastes like strawberries. Really strongly and distinctly of fresh strawberries. Absolutely delightful.

Sipdown 106-2021
I’m continuously shocked by how syrupy sweet and thick the mouthfeel of this tea is. It really tastes and feels like dried fruits steeped in honey. This last cup smells particularly raisiny as well.

Still working on sipping through this 25g packet. It looks like I have 2 cups to go after this one. Every cup I’ve had of this tea has tasted slightly different. This one if very sweet, syrupy honey with a bit more woodiness that previous cups.

Still surprised by how sugary sweet this is. Really rich and comforting.

I was running low on straight black teas, so decided to grab a few from Verdant.
This is much different than most black teas that I’m used to, and seems more like a mid-oxidized oolong.
If someone had served this to me, I would swear there is honey added to it. The honey note is incredibly sweet, and tastes like an orange blossom or other floral/more mild honey. The floral notes are also quite distinct. Really enjoy this one!

Sipdown 19-2021
I really didn’t care for this. The charcoal smell is unbelievably strong. The charcoal flavor is more muted than the smell, but there is no nuance or complexity to the flavor.

Samurai TTB #47

This was so yummy! Light and delicate with juicy citrus notes and a buttery-smooth finish. I think I’ll be hanging on to this one!

Samurai TTB #46

Verdant consistently impresses me with the quality of their tea, so I was eager to try this one when I saw it in the box. The dry leaf is not too broken up (especially considering how far this box has traveled over the past couple of months!), still bright green (despite the age of the tea) and quite fuzzy with a number of buds mixed in amongst the leaves. The aroma is sweet and fresh, like freshly-cut grass. However, the flavor of the brewed tea was an unpleasant surprise, slightly sour and musty like old hay. Although I followed my normal parameters for white tea (the bag only gave instructions for gongfu and I’m steeping Western-style) I’m wondering if this particular tea needed an even lower temperature or shorter steep time to be at its best.

Sipdown #5

I have been having a love affair with Verdant’s black teas lately and this one is another sad sipdown but December’s Verdant Tea Club was all black teas which made me quite happy.

This tea tastes like straight up honey . As the tea cools there are other hints of bread, cocoa, and floral but the major spotlight flavor is honey. Soooo good.

mellow, light yellow-light green color

Cai Cong Anxi Oolong
5g, brita water, 130 mL gaiwan
Spring 2020, Master Zhang collection

私房茶 (private tea? my Chinese is pretty shoddy)/怡龙YL12-J40 (these were both on the packaging and the 2nd part likely indicates a specific line, but in my experience, many small packets of Chinese teas are packed similarly enough that if you can’t remember the vendor, it’s hard to find the same tea ever again).

Leaves and tea both more floral smelling than I expected. Brews a very nice clear yellow. Vegetal, sweet notes. Had gongfu steepings with breakfast (irreverent, but I’ve been generally disappointed with the other Verdant 5 for 5 samples that I’ve tried so far so didn’t bother too hard with this one) so probably didn’t catch everything. What a way to usher in the new year lol.

I was in a rush for an appointment and left the rest in a thermos. I’m disappointed to note that the infusion ended up having a very bitter mouthfeel, but I added more water to dilute it and we were back in business. So lesson learned there.

My aunt sent me a pack of very lightly roasted Tie Guan Yin where I wasn’t sure if it was actually Tie Guan Yin, and this was somewhat similar to that, but much clearer infusions instead of the muddy yellow I got from that, and this was much sweeter overall. However, with the initial thermos infusion, this turned out much more bitter than that one did, so I’m not sure why that is. If anyone else tries this tea grandpa style brew, I’d be curious to hear your results vs. gongfu brewing!

So far this is the only one of the verdant 5 for 5s (haven’t tried the Laoshan black yet though since i’ve heard it’s the best out of the lot) that I’d actually consider purchasing in the future once I run out of my current stash. It’s pretty mellow and seems like it’d make for a steady daily.

4/5 stars

Not sure what happened with this one. I didn’t read the reviews of this beforehand, but treated it as a green tea from the get go so it doesn’t seem to be an issue with my brewing temps (as it seems from a glance that other reviewers used even higher temps) but out of the 4/5 5 for 5 samples I’ve tried from Verdant now, this was by far the worst. From reading the reviews, I’m not even sure I had the same tea as other reviewers (perhaps the quality changed drastically in the last few years or a bad batch?). Even the last infusion from the leaves that I tossed into a thermos for a grandpa brew came out starting like a green and ending with a terribly bitter note. Palatable, but never something I’d willingly repurchase.

Reserve Laoshan Green Oolong
He family collection spring 2020
5 g, brita water, 176F, 130mL

Leaves: smell very green sweet matcha buttery type of feeling. A small amount of small leaves are crushed but most survived and are in little coiled shapes.

1st 10s: a little cloudy yellow infusion. Same smell but add a bit of roasted smell to it. Tastes rather unremarkable, a little bit of burnt matcha with a hint of sweet.

2nd steeping 10s 165F: similar to before but tastes more bitter

3rd steeping 7s 156F: same as before

Stopping here and tossing leaves in a thermos for grandpa brewing. In sum: smells and tastes like a burnt matcha, even with relatively low brewing temps. Passing on this one. Nothing particularly oolong like in the generic sense. My infusions never cleared up and were always a cloudy light yellow.

1.5/5 stars

Sipdown! Such a small sad cupboard now. BAH. Need to pick up the teas i have with VariaTEA which will inevitably overbalance my cupboard with flavoured teas, compelling me to order from a straight tea company that will take forever to get here, and by the time it does i’ll have too many straight teas. LOL. Rest of this is over to her to try since i need to at least give her the occasional tea she hasn’t tried lol

still undecided about this one. better with a longer steeps but still middle of the road for me i think.

Samurai TTB #18

I think this might be my first time drinking a tea that is older than I am! I don’t know much about aged oolong, so I don’t really have a standard to judge this by. But to my untrained palate, it was delicious! It has that smooth, buttery mouthfeel that I associate with oolong, but a more rich, robust flavor that is similar to a black tea. Thank you to whoever added this one to the box…such a cool tea to get to try!

Advent Calendar Day 21

The dry leaf of this tea is so beautiful! Long, twisty dark leaves interspersed with whole dried tea blossoms. Though I believe this is technically a puerh, the flavor reminded me more of an oolong. Very smooth, with floral and honey notes and just a touch of astringency that kept me coming back for more. This was a very special tea experience and brightened up my last Monday in the office before Christmas! Thanks again to Amanda for these fun daily surprises all month.

Sipdown! rest is over to VariaTEA who will probably have the same amount of luck as me..but you never know! lol