Spring Reserve Laoshan Green (2017)

Backlogged review. Another stellar Laoshan green from Verdant. This one sat in my fridge for 4 months before opening yet still tasted amazingly fresh and packed quite a punch. I love how potent these Laoshan teas are.

Dry leaf has a sumptuous aroma of soybeans and creamed spinach. The brewed tea is rich and vegetal. It’s got the signature soymilk flavor that’s characteristic of Laoshan green teas with slight floral hints and anise. Toasted grains appear in the second steeping along with some brothiness. Later steeps have notes of green bean and a little saffron.

A delicious tea for sure, but to my palate didn’t taste very different from their regular grade green tea.

I have always enjoyed this tea because it is full-bodied and smooth and it isn’t demure like so many green teas. I like in-your-face green vegetable flavors from my greens. The other special thing about this tea is the hint of caramel sweetness in the finish—almost like a Yunnan black.

This is my first review on Steepster, and I am new to the world of high end loose tea and puerh teas. Like many of you, I began my journey by ordering many samples from various companies, several shipping direct from China. The first sample to arrive was from Verdant Tea.

I think Verdant Tea’s description matches closely to my experience. The tea is extremely vegetal and savory and has a resemblance to a green vegetable stock. Unlike some green teas that have a hay or grass scent, this was definitely more green bean in smell and taste. It also possessed savory notes of grains. VT also lists light citrus, but I did not detect that, but others certainly may. The liquor produced was a pale yellow-green. There was no astringency in the mouth feel.

I brewed this gongfu style with a very small 70 ml glass, so that I could get two mornings out of the small sample provided. I did a short 5 second rinse with 175 degree water, then began infusions at 8 seconds and increasing 4-5 seconds per infusion. I tried slightly cooler water for slightly longer, but found the liquor to go bitter with the longer infusion.

While my experience is limited, I can say I prefer green teas with more of the grass/hay/meadow notes. This is just my personal preference. I think the tea lived up to the description on VT’s website.

I’m hoping I can attach some photos, because while the tea produced a nice tasting and aromatic liquor, I was somewhat surprised by what I found in the cup after several infusions. It looked like 50%+ of the tea was pure stems. They were very small and tender, but it was almost as if the new growth leaves and buds has been picked for another tea, and then the stems were snipped with a small amount of leaf remaining. While the leaves were still moist, I laid them out on a paper towel and blotted them, then transferred them to a piece of paper. Is this normal for Laoshan Green? (picture coming I hope)

I look forward to sharing more tea tasting notes and getting to know everyone in the community.