15257 Tasting Notes
I’m going to play with this one today and see how i like it as i try out the various steepings. This first one is excellent! The main note i’m getting here is chocolate and it’s wonderful! I’m going to enjoy having this one throughout the day. mmmmmm
Edit: Next steeping of this are truly delicious and I love how the tea is changing. Less chocolaty but still present. More of the sweetness coming forth…
mmmm afternoon dessert tea to have before my meeting. It’s nice to just take a moment to relax and watch the snow fall. Sooo much snow, it makes me giddy! This blend still makes me happy with it’s delicious caramel taste. Likely a reorder as i’m nearly at the end of my small tin.
Alright…so i picked this tea out today to take a work break and practice using a gaiwan with. I figured it would be forgiving and would really just let me practice a little with handling the gaiwan. I have a bunch of reserve teas from verdant as well as some other teas that I really want to try brewing gongfu instead of my usual western brew. I wasn’t originally as much as fan of this, the first go round as others…but i think the blend is growing on me. On a side note, I am for sure going to do up a cold brew of this as well just to check it out!
First few steeps were mostly mint and chamomille..the chocolate didn’t hit until later. Bumping the rating up on this one a little because as the tea is run through it’s steepings, it changes and becomes a nice little gem that I quite enjoy. Need to add that uh…this gongfu thing is going to take a bit of practice but i’ll get there haha
Did you watch the video on Verdant (not the one with David). It helped me with my gaiwan skills. Having a pitcher and strainer made a big difference too. My gaiwan is fat and easy in the hand. The first one I bought and still use has a spout (I was burning myself at first).
yeah! I’ve been watching. Just need practice and time to keep on, keeping on!
Oh man, how did the gaiwan bit go? I always end up with burnt fingers heh
err gongfu
wasn’t too bad…little tricky heh
nice! one day I’ll be a pro at that. (in my dreams!!)
SIPDOWN!
I figured I really need to start drinking some of my verdant samples since i know i’ll be placing another order in the near future (well month or so). I still enjoy this one, though I’m having a go at drinking this dragonwell style today. It’s uh…. a little interesting and a little challenging not to eat the tea lol But i’m sure i’ll get it figured out before i need to stop drinking this. haha.
Oh Happy snow day!
I put mine out so I would remember it this morning. I grab black tea most of the time.
me too bonnie, me too. I did pick up a bunch of pu-erh samples from verdant the other day as well that i need to go through…but i need to practice with my gaiwan first lol so that’s today/this weekend. Mostly so i can also try and get a sense of what i like in case i find anything interesting in china while i’m there
Going to China?!? How did I miss this piece of information?!
Lucky you! Tea animals and small cups would be easy to pack and bring back because of size. Ask David Duckler! Shoot him a note.( that would make a good verdant website article).
Bonnie – haha Unless my trip is cancelled i’m leaving on friday and i’ll be gone for 2 weeks. It’s on business so i won’t have a lot of time while i’m there, but I should have at least a bit of time to get over to the tea market. :) oh and maybe that whole wall thing they have going j/k
Also Bonnie…Not even sure how i’d get a hold of David even if i’m sure he’d be willing to give me some pointers heh.
CHINESE NEW YEAR?! Won’t everything be almost closed down?
Naw Chinese New year is next week. I’ll be there the week after for two weeks (into march..). There will still be festivities happening but my colleagues are all off the week before i get there.
I thought you were leaving tomorrow when you said Friday. And I thought the celebration was the week preceding and two weeks after in duration. Oops! (Glad I was wrong about the day with this storm!)
yeah there will be celebrations but things are supposed to mostly be closed only the week i’m not there :)
mmmmmm this tea might be a bit old but I can see why this would have been pretty popular. I’m holding off rating this because i think it’s been around a bit. However, this seems like it would be super tasty. Thank you kittenna for the sample!
Preparation
I thought i’d start by having this cold brewed. I have to say that this is seriously mango-y for starters. However, there’s a bit of a bitterness here as well, that’s more like mango rind than sweet delicious mango. This is one that needs to have sweetner added to it to really have a mango-licious tea. I’m curious to see how a hot blend works. Temp rating for now until i get a chance to try it hot.
Preparation
Wheeee! so close to a sipdown on this one that i had to have this again today :) it’s been snowing a bunch here which means everyone is in full paralysis and freaking out. For me? It just means an excuse to work from home today and a chance to drink more tea than I usually get to :)
This one still confuses my brain, with the lemon factor but i’m learning to love it. :)
I have to say…. in Saskatchewan, nobody would even blink at this amount of snow. Seriously. The only thing that causes a snow day there (other than, like, 2 feet of snow) is snow PLUS wind (so very poor visibility) PLUS -20 or below. It’s -8 here and other than slogging through some snow… looks awesome outside!
oh i know…. ian’s been waiting for a bus for 40 mins. It’s crazy. Day like this in alberta you put on your big boy pants and get to work…though usually a bit late. heh
Oh for sure. Lateness is totally acceptable. Things just don’t get cancelled!
Indigobloom picked this one out for our joint purchase and I’m glad she did. Although this is a pretty sour blend, once you add a bit of sweetner, the cherry and banana flavours come out and this is a decent tea. I’ll have to try this hot at some point to see how this goes when hot but i can certainly see drinking this in summer for sure.
Preparation
Let me tell you how excited I am…down to 193 teas in my cupboard! Now, that fully ignores the umpteen packages on their way but I choose to ignore that since i may not see them before i leave lol. What’s exciting is that I still have a few new teas in my cupboard that I haven’ yet gotten around to trying. THIS is one of those teas! I received this one some time ago as part of my Amoda tea box which i HIGHLY recommend, ESP for those of you in Canada. Mostly, because we don’t have too many options in Canada for this sort of thing that isn’t stupidly expensive. With Amoda it’s like 15/month, includes shipping and they do up a nice box and for the 3 months i had it, wasn’t really disappointed with any of the teas and got to branch out a bunch from what my usual comfort level is. The only reason i paused that box was because I decided to treat myself to the Verdant reserve club box during the winter months since I prefer the darker blends. Come spring i’ll likely be switching back to Amoda haha.
Soooo i digress….back to this tea! Chamomille isn’t really something i love or want. I don’t mind having a few non caffinated teas in my cupboard but largely chamomille irritates me with all it’s flower bits that make a mess in my strainer. :)
This tea is like you usual boring chamomile blend but with a hint of something else. I’m not getting orange exactly, though that could just be that i missed getting some into this cup. The flowers and bits are large and hard to get a good sense of a teaspoon. What i do get is the mint, hiding out behind the chamomille taste and it reminds me slightly of lil leapin’ lordy lou from Keen Tea Thyme’s 12 days swap with us. But clearly not as intense of a mint :) Anyway…as far as chamomille’s go, i prefer Butiki’s Citrus Dream but this isn’t a bad little tea.
Thanks Amoda!
Preparation
Amoda is only $15/month??
Dude. I am seriously considering the 4-month plan right now…
Yeah it s a fantastic deal IMO. You saw the packages when you were here….three of those a month and they’re big enough to get multiple cups to try as well Share…I also really like getting things from different companies in the us and Canada. :)
They also have great customer service….
I’m really considering it, but I’m also trying to cut back on my tea spending. If I can go a few weeks just drinking what I already have, maybe I could justify it.
Unfortunately for me, tea spending is not so much the issue as tea stash size is. But that’s not a ton of tea each month, and it’s awesome that they send you enough for multiple cups, but not so much that you’re stuck with a ton if you hate it. And I’m thinking, $14/month, let’s subtract, say, $2 for shipping, so it’s pretty much $4/packet. Well, I’m willing to pay $2/14g packet from Della Terra; which is equivalent to $3/20g packet. So the cost is hardly much off that. I’ll be surprised if I don’t cave within the day.
Haha i like your logic Kittenna :) I was kinda thinking about it like, it’s cheaper than going to the movies once haha.
What? What am I hearing here? I had no idea about Amoda, it sounds exciting… I’m going to check it out now :)
Kamyria – oh do! They will for sure be getting my business again once i finish up winter with verdant’s reserve club. Really economical and so far i have enjoyed 2 or more teas a great deal each month. And since i’m a relative newbie in terms of teas from companies, it’s a great way to try out different companies!
Oh, I see you’re part of the elite Sil… Verdant Reserve Club is currently full… What does that cost per month if you don’t mind me asking? They don’t have the price listed at the moment. And as to Amoda… I checked it out… Please someone hide my purse from me! I even cancelled a useless subscription I had going to make place for this… lol
Price wise it’s not too bad… I subtract $5 for shipping, because that’s the cheapest shipping I’ve seen so far, and so I’m looking at $10/month for 60g of tea. Not too bad and I get to check out teas from different companies. I like, I like.. :)
Kam – the reserve club is 45/month. Hence the reason i had to cancel my amoda subscription temporarily. This is only the second month i’ve had it, and because i prefer blacks and “winter” teas, I’ll likely only have it until the spring since i’m not overly a fan of spring teas. Amoda has got their crap together ESP for canadians as i find even shipping within canada it’s usually not free until you spend 50. :(
I’ve been seriously thinking about this. Like Kittenna, it’s more of a stash size thing for me. And that there are SO many other companies I’d like to try.
i recommend it :)
I just ordered it, hahahahahaha.
Love this one!
i may not end up drinking too much else today lol. 1 or two more verdant teas that i want tot ry to get through today too heh
I get too high on caffeine after all the resteeping.lol