28 Tasting Notes

drank Laoshan Black by Verdant Tea
28 tasting notes

I just wanted to say that I tried Verdant’s western brewing suggestions from their website today, and I thought that 3 minutes was far too long to steep this tea, especially starting out. It came out pretty bitter and one dimensional.

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30

So I’m starting to realize something. I don’t really like the chocolate Della Terra uses in their teas. This is very upsetting, because my instinct is to read the tea description, go “Oooo! Chocolate! Yum!” and add it to my cart. I ordered a bunch of sample packs when DT was running a sale that included samplers, and almost half the teas I ordered have chocolate in them. Their chocolate kind of reminds me of the chocolate from the Special K chocolatey delight cereal. My mother always claimed that she loved it, and it was just like regular chocolate and filled all of her chocolate cravings, but I always strongly disagreed. But on to the tea review!

This tea steeped up to a nice dark brown with a sort of greasy sheen on top, I would assume from the melted chocolate. It smells strongly of almond extract- you know, that fake, almost cherry-like, marzipan smell? At this point, I got a little leary, but I soldiered onwards! I took a sip and… It was amazing! An almost complete absence of flavor! There was a little almond sweetness, the faintest hint of coconut, a tiny bit of (kind of gross) chocolate. But the tea was incredibly weak. I drank about half of my cup before I gave up and went to the kitchen to try and make it a little better. I mixed in a little bit of coconut milk: “Hmmm. That’s better, but now it’s too coconutty.” I poked around in the cabinets for a while and dug up some Harry and David’s hot chocolate from last Christmas. I shook a little in… a little more… Delicious! I made coconut hot chocolate from my disappointing cup of tea. I may finish off my .5 oz sample some time, but very reluctantly.

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74

This is a fun tea! I get a lot of orange, a moderate amount of cream, a little caramel, and basically no oolong flavor. I have these cookies, knock off pirouettes that I got from the Chinese grocery store that’s just down the block. They’re chocolate with a cream center and they go reaaaaally well with this tea. Tasty afternoon snack!

Okay, so the tea. This tea is very sweet and candied. I steeped it three times, though by the third time, the only flavor that was left was basically bitter orange peel. I would probably only steep it a maximum of two times next time. The first steeping (2 min) was very sweet and orangey and had a lot of cream flavor. There was the tiniest hint of caramel at the end of my sip, but the caramel flavor was basically nonexistent. The artificial flavorings and add-ins completely covered up any oolong flavor, but I was okay with that. I wasn’t really craving oolong this afternoon. When I got down to about an ounce or two, I added a little sweetener and cream. That completely covered up the flavors and made the whole experience pretty one dimensional, but I used too much cream. I’ll probably try again with milk or less cream next time. The second steeping (3 min) had a less strong cream flavor and the orange was a little more bitter, but that kind of improved the experience for me. That extra little bite had me eagerly gulping at my cup, and I completely forgot to try some milk in my dregs. The third steeping (5 min) was basically just bitter orange peel water and could be totally skipped.

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90

This is one of our cabinet staples. It was the first tieguanyin I ever tasted, and so far, remains my favorite tieguanyin. It’s slightly sweet and very lightly floral. When infused for long enough, the sweetness drops away and the tea becomes more robust and slightly nutty. For me, it causes an ever so slight drying sensation in my mouth, which, oddly, just adds to the experience. We used to make this “dorm room” style, tossing the leaves into a cup, adding hot water, and drinking as soon as it was cool enough to handle. We would then top off our cups with more water for hours, until we got every bit of flavor out of our tea (we had to get the most of our $12 for 2 oz box of tea! What an investment!). Today, I started out brewing the tea according to the instructions on the box, western style with an infuser basket, though I did decrease the amount from 1 tbs for 8 oz of water to only .5 tbs. While that was nice and all, I switched over to “dorm room” style after a few steepings, because there is just something so comforting about recreating my silly late night tea experiences with my friends. Also, I can personally guarantee that this tea pairs well with cheap, greasy Chinese takeout.

As a side note, I am amazed by the quality of this tea, considering it comes from a large, nationwide distributor, and sold in grocery stores. I mean, Whole Foods, but grocery stores! Some of the leaves are nearly as long as the palm of my hand! I think this is a great introductory tea for getting people more into loose leaf. It’s entirely inoffensive, easy to obtain, incredibly forgiving in terms of steeping time and water temperature, and delicious!

Krystal

I love their Silver Needle! The Tropical Coconut is good too

PlutoCow

Added bonus! Rishi is sold on Amazon. I get tons of Amazon dollars from Bing and doing psychology studies at our university, so it’s basically free tea for me! I might have to add the silver needle to my next order, I haven’t tried Rishi’s yet.

Krystal

Wow free tea lucky you! I like Rishi their teas are pretty good

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drank Laoshan Black by Verdant Tea
28 tasting notes

Mmmmm. What a lovely black tea. Last winter, I purchased the 5 teas for $5 sampler, and I loved the Laoshan Black so much, I had to buy a massive 4 oz package of it when I reordered a few weeks ago. Whenever I have a blend that I feel has a bit of a weak tea base, like a lot of the Della Terra black tea blends, I will add a pinch of Laoshan Black to bring it back in line. Today, I am drinking it straight. I also have a stuffy nose, which may affect how I taste things, so you have been forewarned. This is a vastly different experience from the sample I had last winter. It’s not nearly as rich or malty. Instead, I get many more floral notes, at least on the first and second steeping. It’s very light and sweet, actually. The third steep, which is cooling while I write this, is more in line with what I remember from last winter. The floral notes have faded a bit, with a bit of a deeper, maltier undertone. It’s still not as chocolatey as before. While it’s different, I still quite like this.

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81

Mmmmm. Apple pie. Della Terra really got this blend dead on. Sometimes spices in tea can get muddled and bland, even though they smell good, but the classic apple pie blend doesn’t have any of these issues. I requested this as my free 2 oz when they were running a sale a couple weeks ago (free 2 oz with $35 purchase? And 10% off $30 or more? How could I say no?), and I’m really glad I did. I put some brown sugar into the tea, and it really complements all of the flavors. It’s like liquid candy, liquid fall dessert.

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40

I’m not gonna lie, I’m not in love with this tea. Dry, it smells fabulous! Very pepperminty, which was just what I was feeling today. The first time I steeped it, I probably steeped it too long. The gunpowder tea was incredibly strong and bitter, and there was hardly any peppermint coming through. I also didn’t sweeten it, which was probably a mistake, but I’m trying to not consume very much artificial sweetener or sugar. I did sweeten the cup I just had, and I didn’t steep it for too long this time, but I’m still not digging this tea. The sugar helped bring out the peppermint a bit more, but it wasn’t really fabulous. The other reviewers mentioned smokiness. I didn’t really taste “smokey”, just unnecessary bitterness. Granted, when I think smokey, I think lapsong souchong levels of smoke (which is fabulous), so perhaps I’m biased or looking for the wrong flavor. I’ll probably drink the rest of my sample package, and maybe I’ll update this if I’ve just been preparing the tea wrong and it absolutely blows me away, but right now, I’m glad that I don’t have too much of this.

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91

I love jasmine. I have always loved jasmine; as an elementary schooler, I insisted on eating jasmine rice and drinking jasmine tea whenever my mother would let me. She thought it was kind of strange, but went along with it. This tea is, without a doubt, the best jasmine tea I have ever tasted. It’s light, it’s sweet without being cloying, everything about it tastes fresh and natural and makes my taste buds start a happy dance. I’ve noticed that with a lot of jasmine teas, there is a sense of artificial flavor, like they just sprayed a perfume over the leaves instead of scenting the tea naturally with jasmine flowers. I don’t get any sense of chemicals or artificial flavor or anything from this lovely, lovely tea. Just fresh, clear, deliciousness. My boyfriend opened up my new shipment tonight, and he kept on smelling the bag for the next 10 minutes, he was so enamored with the scent. He got the first steep, though I’ve taken all subsequent ones. I believe I’m on the third or fourth steep, and the jasmine flavor has receded a bit, but the tea is still holding out. It tastes a little like beans to me, actually, but I’m also kind of hungry and may just be imagining things. What a lovely tea to review for my first ever tasting note.

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After logging all of our tea, I’m vaguely horrified by how much we have. Especially because I know that we’re getting another huge sampler in a few days… Oh well, more inspiration to drink a lot more tea!

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