2019 Spring Laoshan Green

Delicious. Got a sample package of this with my order, and am just indulging in it now. Rich, green beany goodness, just what I was looking for.

I added this tea to the Steepster database but I don’t know how to set it to “available”. It is currently on the Verdant website at a small discount, along with other similar teas from the He family, as of 8/14/19. https://verdanttea.com/teas/spring-laoshan-green/

Another tea from a recent Verdant order. I remember having a sample of this a couple of years ago that I really enjoyed, so I took a chance and got 25 g. (At $4.27/25g it’s not much of a chance—that’s cheaper than the espresso drink I normally get at Starbucks!) I feel really special drinking teas that were harvested two months ago on the other side of the planet. Verdant is pretty much the only tea vendor I would trust to sell me something like this at this low price.

When you open the envelope (Verdant has lovely re-designed light green resealable envelopes since my previous order, decorated with stylized tea leaves and a few red hearts) you can see that this tea is light-colored and tippy, rolled into the skinny curls that I think of as chun-mee-like, but otherwise I don’t think this tea is particularly like that one. You can also see a little bit of fuzz on the inside of the envelope, which is common with white and some green teas, but in this case didn’t signal any particular aspect of smell or taste.

Scent in the leaf: YUM. Rich and round and dusky for green tea, but also with a vegetal-ness and minerality that promise nice flavor and a clean finish in the brewed tea. There is sweetness in the scent but not the brewed tea (could be a factor of how long I brewed it). In the cup, this is a yellowish-greenish-light-brown brew. This was a mug brew with a disposable paper filter.

The scent of the brewed tea is mostly vegetal (almost gyokuro-like) but the flavor is very well-rounded, with more of the minerality and vegetal flavor but also a sort of velvety dryness that lingers on the tongue. I think it was probably 30 seconds from bitterness, but I like the dryness where the bitterness would have turned me off. Got to remember not to push too far when it comes to brew time on delicate greens! Anyway, overall this is a VERY clean and drinkable tea with soybean, lettuce, and grass notes but no bitterness and very little sweetness. The overall drinkability, price, tastiness, and quality bring my rating of this tea into the stratosphere. YMMV, but try it before they run out: you may find your new favorite green tea!

I had a hot flash in the middle of drinking this cup of tea. Caffeine is a known hot flash trigger for me, but other than that I can’t honestly say this tea is any different from any other source of caffeine where side effects are concerned. I feel alert after the whole mug but not jittery; perhaps my jaw is a little tighter, which is common for me with caffeine ingestion. If I had to judge, I’d say this tea is a medium source of caffeine as teas go.

I would really like to try this iced next, but worry that the flavor would be adversely affected by a refrigerator brew, and anyway my little tea brewing pitcher is currently brewing up some David’s Tea Santa’s Secret, which I ADORE as an iced tea with nothing added (and which brews up best in the fridge). It has more caffeine than this does—but it’s so good I ignore that fact, and just don’t drink it when I am nervous about a social event!