Verdant Tea (Special)

Sipdown, 140. Gongfu of the afternoon. It really takes a while to get around to trying and sipping down all my Verdant reserve club teas when I only really have weekend afternoons for gongfu sessions, and then there are plenty of weekend days when I am too busy.

This may be an example of the rule that if you eat/drink something enough times you will develop a taste for it. I was never all that into wuyi oolongs, but I am beginning to appreciate them more and more. The roasted grains flavor is growing on me. I see now that I really enjoyed my first session with this tea as well. It’s just a really well balanced wuyi oolong, I guess. Glad to have had this one!

I really haven’t felt like brewing anything gongfu lately, partly because I just don’t feel like I have the time. But I still wanted one of my “finer” teas, and I decided I would just brew it western style. Whatever makes you happy, right?

This smelled quite tasty today. I usually am not big on roasty wuyi oolongs, but for some reason the bready, toasty aroma was really appealing to me this afternoon. I probably could have used more leaf as my brew was a tad weak, but it was still tasty. I enjoyed my pot of it, fuss-free, while working this afternoon.

Today has been busy busy with spring cleaning. I need to start making dinner but I am taking a break for a bit with this oolong. As always, I want to say that I’ve never been the biggest fan of Wuyi oolongs, but some of them I do rather enjoy.

This one seems to be one of those examples. The first steep was honeyed, with lightly toasted grain notes. Honestly I drank it up pretty quickly because it was so tasty. Today I am really digging the bready, roasty notes, moreso than usual. The second steep is also sweet and more toasty. Slightly minerally and rocky, as well, like a stream high in the mountains. This one seems particularly well balanced, and no one flavor really overtakes the rest. The minerals come out more and more in later steeps. I have to say that I have not detected any orchid-like florals in this, but I’m not sure that they would fit quite right to me. Anyway I am really enjoying this relaxing session of tea this afternoon.

Sipdown, 126. Gongfu this afternoon.

With my first steeps, I was reminded that, no matter how much I try, I just don’t dig puerh in any form. It’s not that it tastes bad to me, I just don’t love the flavor. The first steeps of this were also a bit oversteeped (kind of bitter) given the amount of leaf in the pot, and perhaps the amount of broken leaf from the bottom of the pouch (even though they were 4-6 second steeps). But then there was a totally awesome floral, osmanthus-like aftertaste lingering in my mouth. Hmm.

My third steep I did a super quick, pour in pour out, couple second steep, which was mellower but still had a bite I didn’t love. But once again there was this awesome floral aftertaste that came out a few minutes after I finished drinking the steep. It really reminded me of something but I can’t place it, and it’s kind of driving me nuts. Although I don’t really care for the bulk of the sip itself, the lingering florals are so lovely that I am definitely enjoying this tea a lot more this time. Interesting!

I don’t usually drink actual tea this late in the evening but I really wanted to. I decided to go shu puerh because the fermentation actually results in less caffeine in the resulting tea. I haven’t spent a lot of time drinking puerhs of any kind, and I have gotten most of my exposure through the reserve club. That’s the point, of course! I haven’t come across a puerh that I love, but I often do enjoy them and I am glad to get a chance to try them all.

I am having a similar experience with this tea. It’s earthy, it’s piney. Funny, I didn’t expect this puerh to be so similar in feeling to some of the shengs I’ve had recently. The first steep of this tea is at once light in flavor but with a slight bite. In the second steep the bite has increased, moving almost to bitterness. I’m also getting a lot of conifer notes… juniper berries, cedar wood, pine needles. Also a bit of rocky minerals as well. After a few steepings I’m definitely starting to get some tingly mouth going on here. I have to say this is probably my least favorite of the puerhs I’ved tried through the reserve club so far. Maybe it’s the “camphor” notes. But I’m still glad I got to try it.

Welcome to Day 7 of little terri’s Sipdown Extravaganza!
This Jin Jun Mei is from the April Reserve TOMC box. I actually steeped it western style this time 3/4/5/6 & it’s been a delicious morning tea! Again, I’m not so sure that it’s any more amazing than some of the other JJMs in my collection, but it is definitely tasty!

On another note, the London Tearoom, which is in St. Louis, re-opens today in a new, & much more convenient (for me) location!! I had planned to go there, but I’m hosting the St. Louis Harp Society Annual Tea in my home on Sunday afternoon, & a few evenings ago it occurred to me just how badly my house is in need of cleaning, plus I have students starting at 2 (I already had morning students also), so I’m not going anywhere today! Tons of things to do, and it all starts NOW!

I need to start drinking the teas from the Verdant Reserve box!! So today, I’ll go with this one, from April. I love Fujian teas, without a doubt! I also love Jin Jun Mei especially, with several in my collection now. Is it any surprise that I also love sweet potatoes? I eat (at least) one almost every day. I grow large quantities of them in my garden, I have some growing in a planter in my sunroom, & I also buy a lot of them when I run out of the homegrown ones. Everyone in my house loves them: baked, diced & fried in coconut oil, spiralized & dropped into soup as ‘noodles’ (especially nice in coconut milk curry…sigh…). There is nothing more wonderful than a leftover baked sweet potato, sauteed/caramelized in coconut oil with cinnamon, ginger, etc. It’s the best dessert I know. Add a drizzle of coconut milk keifer…sigh…

I love sweet potatoes, so I love Jin Jun Mei, with it’s earthy sweet potato aroma & flavor, a little peppery-ness in the later brews, & in this case, a little bitter undertaste, but I don’t mind that at all. I’ve been steeping this since I got out of the tub, first while making my lunch, & now for dessert. The later steepings are like boston brown bread, rich with a molasses taste!

I can’t really say if it’s any more amazing than the other Jin Jun Mei(s) in my cupboard, but it seems to resteep forever, & it is delicious.

I’ve been gazing at the Reserve TOMC box for a few days now. For some reason I seem to always get the box before everyone else, & so I was waiting a few days, to give someone else a chance to be the first to post about these teas. Last night before sleeping, I decided to do a comparison today of this Jin Jun Mei (JJ) to the Wild Picked version (WP) that I also have from Verdant. Every month I struggle with my cynical self (that would be Ms. Theresa) over whether these reserve teas are really so special & worth the price.

I have enough of the WP for about one more session, stored in a tin, but I also have a foil sample packet from awhile back. I decided to use the sample because I felt it would have the freshest taste. I followed the parameters given for each tea, which are not exactly the same, but close enough. These are the only teas I’ve had so far today, & in my tea journal, I took extensive notes all morning long, comparing each individual aspect of the teas, side by side, but rather than bore you with all those details, I’m gonna attempt to narrow it down.
Appearance: JJ = compact dense strands of black & Mahogany, WP =
Fluffier strands of Gold, beige, grey, & black. The look is similar, but by weight, the JJ looks like less tea due to it’s density.
Dry Aroma: ohhh, malt & honey! They both smell awesome, but admittedly, the JJ has a little something more, as if new smelling cells are waking up in my sinuses.
Warmed Aroma: Both smell like fresh bread with butter, but JJ has a sweeter smell, of a fruity honey.
Wet leaf aroma: Similar, with a ‘thick’ quality, WP has a peppery aroma.
Rinse: of course, I sampled the rinse water! Who could resist? To me they were both like unsweetened chocolate water, with the WP a little less pronounced.
Formula: JJ 4G + 4oz Gaiwan (rinse) X 5 sec, adding 2 to each steep.
WP 4G + 4oz Gaiwan (rinse) X 3 sec for 3 steeps, adding 3 to each steep

Throughout all steepings both teas were a beautiful orange brown, with the WP being a slightly browner & cloudier color, with more sediment in the bottom of the cup. Both teas had a lovely malt, butter, & honey flavor, & thick linen feel, with the biggest difference being that the WP gradually became more peppery with a slight bitterness, & JJ also had a fuller flavor all along, even though the color remained lighter, & it also had a sweet potato essence to it.

I love them both! I can see that JJ is a little more refined, but they are both delicious!

REVEW 600…time sips by when I’m drinking tea!

If you’ve lost your way and can’t remember where your journey began, drink very good tea and your memory will return.

Tea Tasting 1
I took the first half of my packet of Mr. He’s 1st Picking Laoshan Black to share with my tea shop friends on a quiet Friday afternoon, just a big snowstorm descended on Old Town.
The flurries were heavy outside while I sat at the tea-bar gloating. I had picked the best time and had the Happy Lucky’s all to myself with Joe, Andy, Eric and Preston to sip tea with me behind the bar.

Eric was Gaiwan Master that evening…pouring for all of us.

We were a loud chorus of tea slurpers, spraying the liquid up and around the inside of our mouths to insure a contact to every tastebud.

Andy (who is the main tea blender and manager of the shop) was the first to comment on how much the tea reminded him of sweet, malty Brewery grains (reminder that this is a Brewery town and within walking distance of the teahouse are many breweries such as New Belgium, Odell, Equinox, Fort Collins, FunkWerks, Pateros, Coopersmiths).

These young men became very animated, curious about the flavor of the tea and the malty, grainy quality that smelled like their other favorite beverage besides tea and a dessert pastry.

I was not paying close attention to what Preston was doing with the Gaiwan, so I missed his comment that he was going to steep the tea leaves longer.

He steeped them a full 2.5 minutes! Espresso strength!!

Wow! I had no idea until I took a sip and… my eyebrows stood on end!

The flavor was fantastic! Everyone liked it!

A condensed, huge, BITE of tea packed with fruit, grain, sweet malt and caramel that lingered on and on as though I had popped a truffle in my mouth and let it melt!

Eric commented that in all his years of drinking tea, going from Black Tea to Green, then Puerh, it’s ‘Hand Crafted Black Tea’ that’s bringing him back to his first love.

I went home, intending to write a review, and got a bad cold!
I’ve been absent for the past week or so…sick, sick sick! I don’t write reviews when I can’t taste tea.

Now that I’m well, I’ve had a chance to think about Mr. He’s Tea.
One thing that I love about regular Laoshan Black is drinking it Western Style and not Gongfu (not using a Gaiwan). So, I asked myself, what if this 1st picking was better Western Style also?

Tea Tasting 2
Using the rest of my packet of tea, I prepared a small pot for Western Style Brewing.

(Laoshan Black Leaves are long and wiry,the 1st picking are almost like rolled oolong, curled up tight and smell peppery-savory)

As much as I enjoyed the previous Gaiwan preparation with my friends, I have to say that the teapot brew tasted better.
Laoshan Black is more chocolate and grainy tasting than Mr. He’s 1st Picking, which was also smoother with caramel. This tea tasted similar to Golden Fleece.

In my 600 reviews here on Steepster I’ve learned from all the people here (including the many tea vendors who so lovingly teach about their tea’s).

I could probably give up tea easier than I could give up the people I’ve met here on Steepser, and that’s the truth!

Thank you!

My friend Lisa is visiting & she picked out one of my Gaiwans & said, “What can we brew in this?”. That particular Gaiwan is one I like to use for the greener oolongs in my collection, so I handed her the box & said pick something. This is the one she selected, & we spent the next 30 – 45 minutes laughing, sipping, & enjoying this tea together.

Admittedly, I’m not as big of a fan of the greener oolongs. It’s not that I don’t like them, there is nothing about them that I dislike. That just don’t excite me as much as other teas do. But I do have a quite a few of them, this one being a remnant from the Verdant Reserve TOMC, which I really enjoyed being a member of.

This tea is delicate, with a light bread like taste, some buttery-ness, & lilac florals. There is just enough of this for one more session, & I’ve started a new Sipdown Extravaganza box, for some future sip down event, so into the box it goes!

TOMC Reserve for March.

This is yet another beautiful looking oolong, in little balls of variegated light & dark Jade. The aroma is mellow floral & has a kind of sweet breadiness to it, but not a maltiness, more like a quick sweet bread of some kind. After a couple of steepings the aroma of the wet leaf reminds me of lilacs & greenery.

I’ve been steeping & sipping during my break between practice sessions, & it is quite nice. The floral & green tastes are lighter than some of the other oolongs I’ve tried. After several cups (who’s counting anymore), I’m thinking of creamed corn. I haven’t had that for a long time! There is a little bit of a bitter aftertaste, reminding me of dandelion greens, which I eat in the spring.

In the final steepings, there was a sweet aftertaste.

Lapsang and I are not friends. I barely tolerate roastiness in my teas, much less full on smoke. So I wasn’t thrilled to see this one in the reserve club package but I decided that I would try it anyway to be a good sport. Plus it’s supposed to be “subtle”.

Immediately I smelled the smokiness of the dry leaf, and the minute the hot water hit the dry leaf the smell of burned, ashy wood filled the room. I basically ended up doing two rinses because the first steep was still way to ashy to me.

I have to say, beyond the smoke, there is some tasty flavors in this tea. There is a lovely honeyed maltiness that I wasn’t expecting. After a few steeps the smoke has actually become subtler, and I can enjoy the tea more. I can see how this is an exceptional Lapsang, even if I can’t quite fully appreciate it. Still, I will never understand the love of smoke in teas. More power to you guys who like them, but that is one flavor profile that I will never get into,

So does anyone want the second half of my pouch (7g left)? I’d love to send it to someone who would appreciate it more than I.

Sipdown, 175. My second gongfu session of the day.

I decided to have this one because it was definitely only one more serving’s worth. I was actually a bit unsure of whether I really was in the mood for a sheng, but once I took the first steep I was pretty happy with my choice. This kind of reminds me of the smell of a creek in a woods; damp rock and earth, combined with the scent of the trees. I am starting to enjoy these types of teas more and more; who knows, maybe one day I will grow to really really love them. This was a very satisfying afternoon tea session.

Well I was going to finish off one of the green oolongs gongfu today but I appear to have forgotten them at the office. So I figured, well, maybe I will sit down with one of those shengs.

I chose this one first because it is not aged long and I wanted to try a relatively “fresh” sheng before I move on to the aged one. I am unsure of whether I have had a sheng; I’ve certainly had shu puerh before, but the smell of the dry leaf is familiar to me, so maybe I have. The dry leaf smells very vegetal but also kind of mossy and then also warm like yeasty bread.

When the hot water hits the leaves I am struck by an intense leafy aroma, a little like cooked spinach. The liquid from the rinse smells familiar to me, but not as a tea; more like fresh, damp earth. The actual early steeps (3 seconds) have more vegetal notes in the aroma. They also have a distinct scent of puerh that is hard for me to couch in any other terms. It is a bit treeish, that is both leafy and woody. A little bit of cedar, a little bit of oak. The flavor is slightly minerally and woody, with a bit of cooked greens to it as well. A few steeps in I got an intriguing floral aftertaste of osmanthus that was subtle but present. Hmmm, unexpected!

I never got almondy notes that have been noted before, but I did really enjoy the later steeps. This was a pretty good experience and I look forward to trying my other shengs.

Sipdown, 200. I added the teas from my recent swap that were in the database but if they weren’t there I didn’t add them… cheating, I know, but I don’t have the info for them anyway.

I am brewing this one western style today to finish up my sample. I thought it might have some of those fruity notes that I smelled before, but the flavor is mostly roasted grains, edging on bitterness, and perhaps a hint of chocolate. It’s a pretty decently tasty cup of tea, but it continues to be not my style. Dark oolongs, not for me!

I was going to get into some of my reserve club puerhs today, but then I read the tasting notes for this one and I decided to have it instead. It’s a roasted wuyi oolong, so not my favorite type, but I am of course looking forward to trying it out.

The steeping instructions call for a crazy amount of leaf per ounce for gongfu… almost double what I usually use. But I followed them, using almost the whole package for my 6oz pot (10g). It did fill the pot 2/3 full, which is what the instructions say that Master Bi does with this tea. The warmed leaf smelled like a toasty oolong, but also intensely fruity, and I definitely could smell raspberry distinctly. It smelled very promising!

This, of course, yields a very strong tea. The rinse was crazy dark, and the first 3 steeps (only 3-4 seconds each) were just too strong for me, with a note that edges on bitter to my palate. I did get berry notes on the aftertaste and maybe a hint of bitter chocolate, but overall the bitterness was overwhelming my palate in the main part of the sip.

Quite a few steeps in (I lost track how many) it started smoothing out and losing that unpleasant (to me) edge. The sip was bright and minerally, not so roasty (I think I washed a lot of that out). There’s actually kind of a sweetness here that is very nice. It’s still quite fruity as well, and with a lot of body.

In the end this was a pleasant tea and I enjoyed my tasting, even though it is decidedly Not My Style. But I didn’t expect it to be, and this club is all about tea adventure to me.

My final sipdown of the day, I have written a very extensive review of this Sheng before. This one is from the March Reserve TOMC 2013. It tends more towards the savory, with a citrus edge. I’m several steeps in, how many I can’t say, but it has a nice reviving effect, which is what I tend to need in the afternoon.
278

I’m still fairly early in the steepings of this, but it’s putting me the perfect taichi frame of mind. I’m ready to go move some energy, if you know what I mean.
I’ve written a much better review than this one previously, & I stand by it. This is a lovely textured sheng, light & savory, with hints of lime, unglazed clay, & a creamy vanilla feel that is coming up now. I’ll have to return to this one later, as I brave the pollen count to drive to class.

So I know I’m not the only person here that is a member of the Verdant Reserve TOMC. My March box arrived on saturday (according to the online tracking it was delivered friday at 3:30, but that wasn’t true). I’ve had a busy couple of days, & only today did I finally have time to just relax & breath, & sample something from the box. I picked this sheng first because I’ve been dragging all day, & I realized I really needed some Sheng.

It’s a loose Sheng, & real appealing visually, with shades ranging from a dark olive drab to charcoal. The aroma was of lime (the fruit), with a vanilla quality, but not in the actual smell, more in the way it made my nose feel. The wet aroma was of bright winter sunshine.
I followed the instructions: 5G + 4oz (rinse) X 4 sec
I like to pour 1 cup to savor, then combine the next 3 in a little glass pitcher. I sit & enjoy & when the pitcher is empty, I do it again.

The first steeping was the texture of unglazed porcelain.
Citrus up the the center of my tongue, hinting of lime.
A very ‘clean’ sensation.
2-4 a highly mineralized clay, which would seem drying, but somehow a sweet juiciness also was there, transforming the lime to tangerine.
My tongue started tingling.
5 Very bright taste of sunlight
6 – 8 Polished stone, or glazed porcelain. There’s something about this tea that reminds me of the texture of unsalted rice cakes, with an aftertaste of almond, & now I’m thinking of those awesome Nut Thin almond crackers. Yeah!
9 – 12 Now a vegetal taste starts coming up. I’m also thinking of lime again, but this time it is the lime used for making corn tortillas.
I’ll probably steep a few more rounds later, but I’m starving now, so time to fix something to eat!

I feel better now than I’ve felt all day!