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Since today was a nice, warm, sunny day everyone happened to be out mowing their lawns today. I love the smell of just cut grass, especially when it’s still damp from morning dew. It brings me back to being a kid waking up with the sun rising into my room, birds singing in the trees, the smells of spring and summer wafting in to rouse me from my sleep. I knew I had to get some of this tea today because it smells like freshly cut grass still wet from dew. So, I went to the dinning area that sold this tea and grabbed a sachet, relaxed and was instantly transported.

Holy rice cakes Batman!

Not the best genmaicha I’ve ever had, not the worst either. But if you ever have a craving for rice cakes this should help cure that! :)

I went over to the local hole in the wall coffee place. I love that place. I enjoy the smell of coffee but I have never enjoyed the taste. But this place has those large canvas sacks of coffee beans overflowing throughout the little shop. They sell local organic stuff like honey, jelly, chocolate, etc. They also have some teas in there from Simpson and Vail. Most of what they carry are flavored and unflavored black teas, they do have some herbals and a few greens. I was running low on peppermint and I always check to see what else they have. This was a new tea they had and it smells delightful, I also picked up a genmaicha while I was at it because I haven’t had any from the them nor have I had any in a while (at least over a year now).

Anyways, I don’t know what acai smells or tastes like, nor do I know what yumberry smells or tastes like…I don’t even know what a yumberry is…google…interesting. but I picked this up because it’s a green tea even if it is flavored and it smells divine! The tea is very pretty looking too, there’s all sorts of stuff floating in there from dried pomegranate seeds to what is probably yumberry pieces and acai pieces along with the green tea. It’s not tart like I thought it would be, it’s actually sweet and fruity but not overtly done like a lot of flavored teas that just kick you in the face. It would probably be nice iced too. a nice mellow flavored green.

Thank you Azzrian for this sample! I got a nice big whiff of floral and vegetal scents soon as I opened the bag! When I brewed this one up it smelled like over cooked spinach and was a little darker than I had expected. It tasted like a very interesting mix of green and roasted oolongs. I got the floral and vegetal spinach notes that I would from a green oolong and then I also got a nice charcoal-like flavor. The best I can describe this is basically grill spinach on a charcoal grill next to a flower garden. It was nice and reminded me of summer. Thank you again Azzrian for this sample!

I will start by saying that I am partial to Jasmine teas, but not white jasmines. I feel that the jasmine is cloying, too perfumy, and always overpowers the white tea base. After hearing so many good things about this company and their tea and reading the great reviews of this tea, I had to give it a try. I am such a sucker for jasmines.

Upon opening the package I smell the jasmine, but it’s nice and light and I can still smell the silver needles through the jasmine, that’s a first. Once I brew it the wet leaves smell strongly of jasmine but the infusion and the taste does not reflect that, it reflects the softer jasmine I had smelled when I first opened the package. This tea tastes amazing, the jasmine is soft and creamy in quality, I get the hay notes of the silver needle. The tea has a sweetness to it and I do get a hint of the pine at the ending. When I swish the tea in my mouth I get just the barest hint of the pepper note.

On the third steep (Western style) I get some of that fizziness feeling on the tip of my tongue that Bonnie mentioned in her review and more of the spiciness is coming through. Absolutely no sign of any bitterness or astringency.

This is the BEST jasmine white tea I’ve ever had. It is not something I would drink everyday but drink when I want to indulge in something so light and complex and wonderful. There is a reason this tea is highly rated.

Backlogged from yesterday.

Thank you Azzrian for a sample of this wonderfully flavored tea!

To start off I love mint teas, but this one is not nearly as strong, the vanilla helps mellow it out quite nicely. I really enjoy this tea, but I figured I would since I like Sencha, vanilla and mint and it’s all blended so perfectly together so as no one flavor overpowers the others! I steeped this until I’m sure there was no flavor left and I was more or less just imagining that I was tasting it!

Again thank you so much Azzrian!

I finally caved and got some tea from Verdant after seeing all the great reviews of the tea and of the company. The package arrived today and I immediately grabbed for this tea, this is the one I’ve been wanting to try for a while now. So, I opened the pack and the tea looks lovely, light green and white twisted, curled leaves with a subtle fresh vegetal scent with floral notes. The wet tea leaves smells like asparagus and the liquor is very light with hints of chestnut. It tastes very good, I get so much out of this one from the asparagus notes, floral notes, corn notes, and sweetness. It reminds me of back home, walking through the farm fields in spring time where mostly corn and soy is grown with lots of forest edges with birds singing and everything is starting to grow back and bloom after a nice rain and the sun is coming back out. Excellent tea, I’m very glad I tried this one.

Went to class and stopped by one of the dinning areas that sells Harney and Sons sachets and picked up this. After having a terrible tasting Chinese green this morning and a mild gyokuro later in the morning I decided I wanted this as I wanted the smooth but bolder taste of Japanese green tea. This really hits the spot and fulfills the craving I was having for Japanese green tea. Makes me mostly forget about this morning with not so great teas.

Jaime noted earlier in the reviews that it’s like fresh cut grass that’s still wet with dew and that is what I’m smelling of the dry leaves. The wet leaves smell like buttered greens. The brew is a nice bright clear green color and smells very buttery. The taste is wonderful. Buttery, grassy and sweet with notes of seaweed. It has a rich flavor, this is exactly what I wanted.

Not too long ago I found this tea to be too vegetal and a bit bitter for my tastes. Now I brewed it at a lower temp for shorter time and I now wish to added this to my cupboard, it’s so much better than that gyokuro I had this morning. Next time I order from Harney this is going on the list.

After that last tea that let a really bad taste in my mouth I went through my Chinese greens to find something else to drink, but everything smelled Darjeeling-esk, even my favorites, thanks to that last one. So I pull out this one I found at my local Asian grocery store. I think this is the only Japanese green tea I have, other than a matcha.

The dry leaves are dark green yet somehow vibrant. They appear to be flat and broken and smell like sweet grass and seaweed, yum. I brew it for 45 seconds at a lower temp and I can see the dark green yet vibrant leaves floating around, mostly they sink, and they are pretty broken. The wet leaves smell very grassy. The infusion smells like sweet grass and the liquor is a nice bright green, not quite like matcha though. Even though the leaves are broken the brew is not bitter at all, it’s actually quite smooth and rich while staying light. The sweet grass and the seaweed play well together. As it cools I can start to get an astringent aftertaste, but it’s not bad or unbearable by any means.

I wrote down my notes of this tea and then went back through to see what others said in their reviews. I’m wondering if I’m even drinking the same tea here. This is one of those teas I got as a sample and the package certainly says Kai Hua Cresendo from Adagio. The leaves are a brownish green, and like long needles. To me it smells very light, predominantly of straw with a hint of pepper. The wet leaves smell like malty straw, like it’s from the Darjeeling area, but when I go to the Adagio site it says it’s from China. So, I think maybe it’s just the smell. After all tea doesn’t always taste like it smells. So, I take a sip and my first thought is I didn’t add enough leaves, it tastes very watered down. Then I taste the malty straw and have a slight pepper aftertaste. This definitely tastes like it was grown in the Darjeeling area, it has to be, but the website says no that it’s grown in Zhejiang, China. It certainly doesn’t taste like it to me.