Verdant Tea

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Recent Tasting Notes

97

I cannot fathom how many times I have steeped the same leaves from my last tasting note. This tea has gone on for what seems like an eternity. As I am nearing what I feel to be the end of a 2 day love affair I have to say the flavor I am getting now is vanilla. Fine vanilla with cream. Possible? I guess anything is….

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97

I am loving this gorgeous Sheng again today. My sample bag says it’s a 2001. David ? This tea seems to be alive. When you sip it breathes this complex and bold vaporous glow of tea delight. I am getting a menthol sensation. I am so glad I discovered Steepster. This little world we have has led me to without a doubt the finest teas I have ever had in my life. David do you need a Northeast Representative?

TeaBrat

I have no doubt you could do the job!

David Duckler

Hi Charles- Wang Yanxin tells me it is a 2001 pu’er, which makes sense from looking at the color, and the deeper flavor profile. However, there is no paperwork that comes with this tea, and the farmers are more interested in flavor than in keeping track of picking dates. I said ‘03 on the site because I definitely don’t want to tell anyone that the tea is older than it is, so I am playing it on the safe side until I can get an exact month and year. The 1000g balls of tea don’t even have a wrapper, they just come in cloth bags.

As an aside, I have always considered using the Farmer’s coop at job interviews when looking for talent- It is certainly the most challenging tea I carry, and I know I can respect anyone who has the aptitude to truly enjoy this treasure. It will always be one of my favorite teas out there.

I don’t have a Northeast Representative yet… The East coast is still an untamed land for me. I went to school in New York, and haven’t had a chance to get back there yet (except layovers at JFK in the way to China).

Charles Thomas Draper

Lets tame it….

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97

I have to admit I’m somewhat new to the world of Pu-erhs. My first taste of Pu-ehr was the Kim Fung Brand. I knew when I bought it that it was going to be very different. I am now trying to expand my tea horizons by delving into the 2 samplers that Verdant offers. It will be trial and error I’m sure. How much tea and how long to brew it?? I have been watching numerous videos on YouTube to learn. For this tea I washed it once in the Yixing. The first steeping was a lite orange liquor with a lite aroma. I broke the leaf up which I did not do with my tasting of the Artisan Revival. Verdant states that the samples are good for 2 or 3 tastings. Maybe I should increase the leaf in my brewings. The second steeping was a darker liquor and the aroma was more intense. When I was pouring the water on the leaves for the 3rd I could tell I was in for a treat. I was getting the Redwood and the numbing which Geoffrey spoke of. When I brew again I will definitely not be as stingy with the tea. Each sampler will yield 2 brewing sessions for me to better evaluate these precious teas. Until then, I can only say I am still too Green to render a rating. One thing I can say is when I do brew again I know I will be in for a treat….

Geoffrey

The Farmer’s Cooperative tea is very interesting! For my part, I found that less is more with this one. If you can break off a piece that is about the size of a teaspoon, it will quickly come apart by itself with a couple rinses. I always rinse this one twice before drinking it. I think at larger leaf quantities this one can get unruly for some people. In that sense it is a “loaded” tea. Once you hit your own sweet spot with brewing it though, prepare yourself for a fascinating 15+ steeping journey! Many repeated steepings have a synergistic effect with this one; it grows on you the more you drink it, with the previous infusion priming your senses to experience the next one. I have to return to this one myself now! You note is making me remember how good it is…

Charles Thomas Draper

Thank you Geoffrey your advice is appreciated….

Kashyap

love Banzhang pu erhs….lovely and complex

Charles Thomas Draper

Ok. I had to mention this. I brewed 4 maybe 5 pots and then decided to go out. I left the wet leaves in the Yixing. I came home and decided to boil some water and make iced tea out of the rest. I used boiling water and I let it steep for maybe 15 to 20 minutes. The result was a fruity, peachlike nectar. I am steeping another so I can fill the Mason Jar. I think I have a winner….

Geoffrey

Fruity, peachlike nectar… Amazing. I’ve not encountered that face of it yet. Further testimony to this tea’s complexity.

I gotta say, Charles, some of your intrepid adventures in tea brewing just captivate me. I recall the old tagline from Star Trek, “To boldly go where no man has gone before!”

Jim Marks

In my opinion, and please know that I am a minority of one on this point as far as I am aware, this business of “washing” pu-erh accomplishes nothing but ruining the first steep. As far as I can tell, it is a tradition borne out of priorities related to hospitality, not good cups of tea. You’re ensuring your guest doesn’t get dust or fannings in their cup (and probably in an era before quality control systems and procedures also making sure they didn’t get a twig, bat droppings, or whatever else accidentally ended up in or on the brick while it aged in the cave).

But with a tea where your first steeping is usually less than 2 minutes, sometimes as little as 1 minute, the 10-15 seconds you spend rinsing — that can be upwards of 20% of your total first steep time and you’re letting all that liqueur go down the drain.

Try a short first steep without rinsing sometime and see if you don’t prefer the results. Purists yell at me every time I bring this up, but what harm can it do to “just try it”?

I used to steep pu-erhs for 20-30 minutes even on the first steep, and then just treat the result like a concentrate, adding hot water to it in measures out into a cup to make many cups of tea. So it doesn’t surprise me that your long steep produced a great cup, especially late in the number of steepings.

Charles Thomas Draper

Jim I like your way of thinking. @ Geoffrey, I was going to use that Star Trek line….

Kashyap

Jim,
I’m not certain but I believe that the first ‘wash’ is also to make sure that ‘storage impurities’ are washed away, packaging dust, fannings, concrete dust/uncured ceramic powder, ect…things that are not actually tea that might have accumulated on the tea during storage, transport, handling, and sale. It also illiminates lingering pollen, so depending on the type/style this can also blanch or wash away floral elements and ‘pollen’ texture/throat coat (but then using water that is over 200 can do that a bit as well). While I don’t generally wash teas in that way, I do believe it has a purpose that helped to inform cultural considerations towards ‘guest respect and service’, but I would tend to think that such considerations originated with the individual perception that the tea might be ‘unclean’ with transport dust and storage and it was a ‘safety-cleanliness’ issue 1st and a guest consideration second.

Jim Marks

Yes, this is what everyone always says. And, as I said, I think that was probably a much more real concern decades or centuries ago than it is today. This is why I have a point of view, and near as I can tell, hardly anyone agrees. There’s basically one line of support for the rinsing process, and I’m highly skeptical about that line. Most people aren’t, for whatever reason. It isn’t a big deal, one way or another.

What I don’t understand, though, is that any tea is just as likely to have some form of “non-tea” presence and yet rinsing is only done with pu-erhs. In fact, one could argue that other teas are more likely to have such concerns because pu-erh spends much of its life wrapped up, whereas other teas do not.

Additionally, there’s very little reason to believe that simply rinsing and dumping off the water will actually clear those impurities from the leaves. Particulate matter is even more “sticky” when wet than it is when dry. If you have concrete or ceramic dust in your tuocha when it is dry, running water over it isn’t going to wash that away from the leaves, it is going to hydrate it into concrete or clay, which is going to cling to the leaves.

I think what’s really being rinsed away are fannings and tea dust which are unsightly in the cup — something you wouldn’t want a guest to have to see.

It’s just an opinion, though. :-)

Geoffrey

@ Jim – I usually do many very short steepings when drinking Chinese teas in particular. My first infusion is 3 to 5 seconds, and I increase the time by that measure with each additional infusion. It takes a while for me to get up to 1-minute+ infusions. I prefer this method for gaining a comprehensive sense of a tea’s flavor profile. In the context of the way I drink, the 3-second rinse I do doesn’t have as much impact as the scenario you mention. I’ve tasted the rinse from a lot of my teas, and in many cases it’s not all that interesting to me.

But why rinse, when I could do a 6-9 second initial infusion instead? I suppose I enjoy the ritual of it. They way I drink, I don’t really think it’s wasting anything. I’ve been told that aside from the hospitality considerations you mention, pouring off the rinse was traditionally a sacrificial offering to ancestors, which I guess is hospitality of another kind. I like being somewhat of a traditionalist in most things, to the degree that I can be, but I understand where you’re coming from and don’t think your approach is any less valid. To each his own enjoyment. It’s too bad that people yell at you over this stuff. I think those kind of folks need to just stop and smell the tea. Happy drinking!

Jim Marks

I don’t begrudge anyone who is being traditional for the sake of being traditional. I’m just skeptical of people who are participating in a tradition who insist it has practical purpose when physics and chemistry would suggest that to be extremely unlikely.

Steeps that short are definitely not on my radar. I haven’t met anyone else who engaged such practices. That being said, the length of the steep isn’t the issue, it is the physical act of the rinse that’s in question.

Anyway, I’ll stop rambling.

Charles Thomas Draper

LOL. I enjoy your " Rambling "

Charles Thomas Draper

@ Geoffrey, interesting notes as well on tradition….

Charles Thomas Draper

@ Kashup, I am truly enjoying the various viewpoints

Geoffrey

I know what you mean, Jim. I mentioned the “sacrifice” aspect of pouring off the rinse because I sometimes wonder if this was perhaps the original purpose of it, and if – by extension – all the practical explanations people now make for it are ways of rationalizing a purely symbolic act with a metaphysical significance that people no longer have any frame of reference to understand. Studying a lot of history, myth and comparative religion, this kind of stuff fascinates me. Other instances of the modern rationalizing of old, essentially non-rational, practices have occurred.

Regarding the short steeps, I learned it directly from David at Verdant Tea about a year ago, and he in turn learned it from his tea friends and mentors in China during the years he lived there. Apparently it’s pretty widespread practice there. Doing tea this way blew my mind. Completely changed the game for me.

Jim Marks

Yes, that’s exactly what I’m referring to. “Reverse engineering”, in a sense, a modern(ist) rational justification for a pre-rational act. I’m all for participation in myth, tradition and religion — I can’t very well be a member of the Orthodox church and not be in favor of those things — but to do that you have to abandon the rational(ist) context to participate.

The super-short steeping, is that just with pu-erh teas or is that with all Chinese teas? I’ve interacted with some fairly hardcore tea wizards and never heard anyone talk about such things — but none of them were pu-erh people.

How does that idea jive with the use of the gaiwan?

Geoffrey

On the mentioned steeping method, it’s the standard method I use for almost all Chinese teas, regardless of type. I always a gaiwan or yixing pot for this. For the more delicate whites and greens, I typically get about six really good infusions this way. For oolongs, depending on the kind and quality, the method is good for 10 to 20+ infusions. Blacks typically go through their profile in about 10 infusions. And with pu-erh I’ll normally do a 15-20+ infusion session, given their complex flavor profiles. The upper limits I’m mentioning are not when the tea completely loses flavor, but rather when the profile has gone through its full arc and the flavor is starting to wane. Although there are some pu-erhs that will stand up to being steeped almost indefinitely, such as the Ya Bao late-winter budset pu-erh.

Keep in mind though, this is certainly not the only way that people brew tea in China. It’s probably most common to the tea culture in southern China, and among tea market people especially – the folk who live and breathe tea all day, every day. Some tea brewing methods are different, like with David’s green tea from Jingshan the locals customarily brew it by trowing a small bunch of leaves in a glass tumbler filled with boiling water, and just wait for the floating leaves to fall to the bottom and sip directly from there with the leaves still in cup. Given the proliferation of language dialects in China, I imagine there may be a comparable proliferation of tea preparation methods. Gongfu Cha itself has different schools of thought about the detailed practices, but the general methodology has a many centuries old history of development and refinement. With regards to pu-erh in particular, this short steep Gongfu approach is in my opinion the most suitable way to fully appreciate it, but the proof is in the pudding, so I’d recommend trying it sometime and forming your own conclusions. Cheers!

P.S. Interesting perspective on participation in myth, etc. My thinking on it is pretty similar. Thanks for sharing, Jim.

Jim Marks

I guess my question wasn’t well articulated. My understanding of the “typical” (although clearly we are to some extent in this conversation problematizing the very notion that any one practice is typical) use of a gaiwan is that leaves are placed into the gaiwan, and then water, and then after “some” amount of time, one begins to drink directly from the gaiwan without in any sense straining the liqueur away from the leaves. In other words, sip #10 from the gaiwan is going to be a tea that has steeped longer than sip #1 was.

So, what I’m wondering is if you’re using a gaiwan but “steeping for just a few seconds”, do you mean that after a few seconds you are straining off into some second vessel, or do you mean that after a few seconds you begin sipping the tea, but that of course the tea is in some sense continuing to steep as you finish the cup?

Charles Thomas Draper

I will return soon….

Geoffrey

Ah, I see. The method I use is to use the lid of the gaiwan to hold the leaves in and pour the liquor into another vessel. In my case, I pour the tea from my gaiwan into a small (8oz.) glass serving pitcher, and then serve my guests if I have any, or fill one of my small (3oz.) Gongfu cups 3-4 times when I’m drinking alone. For me, one cup of tea is really just a few sips. Some Gongfu tea cups only allow for one full sip! When drinking with five or six people, sometimes one or two sips is all you get of a given infusion. I think it works to make you appreciate what you have in front of you with full attention, and not take the tea for granted.

I’ve heard that some people drink directly out of the gaiwan, but I don’t do that. When using a yixing teapot, some people don’t use an extra pitcher, and will just fill all the cups directly by clumping them close together and pouring a little of the tea out to each cup in a circular motion so to avoid one cup being weaker and another being stronger, but I think the pitcher is still easier to use for managing consistency. Does that make sense?

Jim Marks

Serving multiple people isn’t confusing at all, the technique is basically the same (in terms of raw mechanics) in both China and Japan (and I have a strong understanding of chado — both matchado and senchado) and “makes sense” in both the pre-rationalist hospitality sense and in the post-rationalist sense of chemistry and physics.

But I’ve only ever seen people drink directly from a gaiwan, so that’s where the disconnect was.

And yes, the longer I have drank tea, and the more tea I drink, the smaller both the pots and the cups get. ;-) Those uber-long pu-erh steeps were done in large pots as a way of making tea in the corporate office environment without having to go through the ritual every 15 minutes and ending up in front of a manager who was curious about my productivity, but now that I work from home I have a lot more flexibility to do things more correctly.

We need a chat room or a BBS forum…

Jim Marks

AHA. Now I see an additional gap in our communication.

Rinsing in the gongfu style has a very specific meaning. Most Western folk I have talked to who insist on the practical value of “rinsing” are not doing it in the gongfu manner, but are pouring hot water into the pot with the leaves, and then pouring it out as one would pour out the actual liqueur, rather than via the over-flowing method. I am willing to concede that this overflow method might have practical value ;-)

Geoffrey

Haha! That office anecdote is funny. I work from home too, and sometimes my productivity suffers a bit from preoccupation with the tea ritual. :P

It’s interesting that you’ve only seen people drink out of the gaiwan. I guess it’s pretty common, but I find the gaiwan always gets too hot for me to comfortably drink from directly. The depression in the handle of most gaiwan lids is well designed for holding in such a way as to keep the leaves in while you pour the liquor out. David did a couple youtube videos on gaiwan use that pretty much cover all the same stuff I learned from him directly. He actually addresses some of the questions that came up here as well. You can check them out here if you want:

(How to Use a Gaiwan, Part 1)
http://www.youtube.com/user/VerdantTeaChannel#p/a/u/1/F58dWrhTkRo

(How to Use a Gaiwan, Part 2)
http://www.youtube.com/user/VerdantTeaChannel#p/a/u/0/qkhdJoZUUh0

Charles Thomas Draper

I am enjoying this….

Jim Marks

If you hold it via the saucer and the lid, you aren’t touching the part that’s in direct contact with the hot water, which helps.

Then again, I fairly calloused finger tips that seem to handle heat much better than most (white collar, Western) people.

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83

I kind of feel bad that I brewed up my small sample without checking Steepster first to see what the best brewing method would be. Instead I just used my small teapot/strainer and punted: 185 degrees, four minutes. What I got is still delightful: a sort of mineral cleanness, light sweetness, like I imagine sucking on a cloud would be. At the end of a mouthful I get a small amount of bitterness—nothing I can’t deal with, and probably only because of the long steep time. (I’m sorry…I’m SORRY…) This is earthier than the whites and greens I’m used to—yes, even discounting that the cup smells like clay. The earthiness sort of grabs onto my taste buds and won’t let go. Very tasty!

I can’t see the color of the tea because I’m using one of the small egg-shaped inside-glazed clay teacups I got in Turkey (the pottery shop served us apple tea in them, and I fell in love on the spot), but reddish-brown is the general impression I get.

When I am done drinking the hot (now warm) tea I’ll put the rest of the teapot’s contents in the fridge and see how it tastes cold in the morning. Probably it’ll be only okay, but I hate to waste the rest of the pot due to my own carelessness.

You know what this means, right? Right? I’m going to have to order some of this stuff and do it RIGHT next time. (I believe this is exactly what samples are supposed to do. Good marketing strategy, David!)

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 4 min, 0 sec

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100

Coldbrew Sipdown (318/300)

Yay!! We’re down to 300 teas. But I’m sad to see it go. It takes me back to my childhood in Michigan where my mom had a grapevine and in the summer we’d have tons of grapes and grape juice and wonderfulness. I love this tea, but it was time for it to leave us…goodbye, beloved tea!!!

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100

Coldbrew and this is amazing. It’s light and refreshing and tastes like fresh concord grapes. Not overwhelmingly so, but that’s the flavor I’m walking away with and it’s so good. Concord grapes warm from the sun, grassy summer in every sip. I want to do a sipdown of this because it would be easy, but I also want to hoard it forever.

But it’s 2 years old, so sipdown it is.

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100

So there are two absolutes in my tea-drinking habits:
1. I will only like a green tea if it is heavily flavored, and even then, it’s iffy.
2. I take my teas with sugar.

And yet, here I am with a straight green with absolutely nothing added to it, and I’m loving it. Loving it! I’ve been absolutely aching to try this tea since I first started chatting with the owner of Verdant Tea, David, about tea folklore and he shared the story of this tea with me.

I even broke out the YiXing teapot we got as a wedding gift and then never used. This is lovely. Incredibly, wonderfully lovely. It tastes green and crisp and delicious. And yes, we both taste snap peas!

David Duckler

Excellent! I am super happy that this tea can give you a rewarding flavor well outside what your “absolutes.” Laoshan tea just stunned me the first time I tried it. There is nothing quite like it. I am lucky to have the trust of the farmers who allow these tiny crops to be exported.

The new autumn harvest will be in next week. I can’t wait to try it!

Plunkybug

Wow! I too, add sugar or other sweetener to all my tea. Very interesting.

TeaBrat

I had some earlier today and it is quite good.

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94
drank Laoshan Black by Verdant Tea
2816 tasting notes

Sadly this is a sipdown… I seem to be finishing a lot of teas lately but don’t worry, I still have plenty more! I would like to replace this someday when I am working and can afford to stock up on a few favorites from Verdant. I love the roasted chocolate notes of the Laoshan black. It is truly divine!

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 30 sec 2 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML
Sami Kelsh

Every time I see this tea mentioned it just sounds like such a big bowl of YES.

TeaBrat

You need to try it some day!

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94
drank Laoshan Black by Verdant Tea
2816 tasting notes

Tea of the morning here; this is an old favorite of mine and practically everyone else on Steepster. :)

Although I wouldn’t really classify the Laoshan Black as a “breakfast” tea per se, I am finding the cocoa and roasted barley of the tea to be extremely comforting today. As a general rule I don’t take NSAID’s due to a prior stomach issue but I started in on a low dose of ibuprofren yesterday to see if I can get rid of this tendonitis and get back to more physical therapy!

TeaLady441

Mmmmm… I nearly brought some of this to work today and now I wish I had.

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94
drank Laoshan Black by Verdant Tea
2816 tasting notes

Tea of the morning here – My sweetie has a headache and we thought some caffeine might help. I set this out last night because I really wanted to drink it today. Such a lovely chocolatey/malt goodness here…

Sixie

I just killed mine this weekend… Laoshan Black really is my go-to black tea. 4 more oz. on the way!

TeaBrat

I always seem to have it around myself…

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94
drank Laoshan Black by Verdant Tea
2816 tasting notes

Sipdown!
Oh my.. this tea has been written about extensively on Steepster and for good reason. Chocolatey, malty goodness. As I was steeping this in the gaiwan I thought I smelled someone baking in my building but it must be the tea. I am sure I need more of this. This tea has been a staple in my cupboard ever since I discovered it.

Preparation
Boiling 1 min, 0 sec

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94
drank Laoshan Black by Verdant Tea
2816 tasting notes

Tea of the morning here!
I can definitely see why this tea is rated so highly on Steepster, it’s delicious. I can smell the distinctive barley/chocolate smell wafting up from the cup and am really enjoying it…

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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94
drank Laoshan Black by Verdant Tea
2816 tasting notes

I’ve been out of this for a while but decided to get more with my latest order from Verdant. I forgot how good this is! yum yum

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec

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94
drank Laoshan Black by Verdant Tea
2816 tasting notes

This is a sipdown for me! Although I have enjoyed it – I am not considering ordering anymore right now due to the cost. Maybe I’ll check out the spring 2012 version when it arrives…

Scott B

What do you mean by a sipdown tea?
I was wondering if this was the same tea as Laoshan Black? Northern Black is not on their web site and just Laoshan Black is not in the steepster database.

TeaBrat

Sipdown means I have finished off my current supply – I got that term from TeaEqualsBliss!

And yes I believe they are the same tea.

Scott B

Ok, cool! I thought it might be a specific way to drink tea that I wasn’t aware of :)
I just ordered some Laoshan Black from Verdant-they have a late autumn plucking that they are selling now.

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94
drank Laoshan Black by Verdant Tea
2816 tasting notes

The morning cuppa. Not too much I can say about this tea that hasn’t already been said on Steepster. Lots of molasses-y type notes this morning, it reminds me of the red tea I had from Shang last week.

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec

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94
drank Laoshan Black by Verdant Tea
2816 tasting notes

This is a great black tea to lift your spirits and start the day right – see my previous tasting notes. :)

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94
drank Laoshan Black by Verdant Tea
2816 tasting notes

I liked the spring laoshan black a bit better but this is still very delicious -Malty, fruity and chocolate notes. Very complex and chewy

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94
drank Laoshan Black by Verdant Tea
2816 tasting notes

I am actually upping my rating on this today. I was having a wussy cup of tea and thought to myself, where is that Laoshan black stuff? I must have some now!

Good morning world!

Well if this tea does not wake you up and make an impression upon you, you are probably dead.

Very chocolate-y, malty and dark. Pretty delicious! I am loving this with some soymilk this morning. Definitely a great morning cup of tea if you want something a bit stronger. Thankfully I do not detect any bitterness here which is a great thing for moi. If you miss the taste of coffee you will most likely adore this.

Preparation
2 min, 15 sec
Charles Thomas Draper

It’s a shame you cannot buy more….

David Duckler

@Charles- You will definitely be able to buy more if you are willing to wait one more week. The new harvest of the Laoshan Black is supposed to be excellent, and is on its way. The progress can be tracked on the new live tracking page: http://verdanttea.com/november-shipment-live-tracking/

I will post an update note on the teas that are out when they get back in. (This, Tieguanyin, Cornfields, etc)

I like the tasting note- I am glad that it was strong enough to stand as a morning cup with soy milk. I will have to try that some time.
Thank you!

TeaBrat

@David – Hurray! I’m sure we will all be keen to try the new shipment of tea. :)

Geoffrey

Nice to see that it got you, Amy. This one gets me every time I try it. I brewed it up this morning again, and remembered just how much I love the stuff. Even when I’m away for a while, indulging my affections in a fine golden needle black, this Laoshan tea is always there in my mind – confidently and quietly saying, “You’ll be back…”

TeaBrat

@Geoffrey I will be getting some more when it comes in… oh yes…

David Duckler

Nice- I just went through 10 samples of golden needle today for fun and found myself thinking the same thing- where is that Laoshan Black? I am excited to see how the family perfects this with their second batch this autumn, though I am not sure how they will improve on the first.
Happy tasting,
David

David Duckler

Hello tea friends,
I will be sending an official notice in the next day or two, but I wanted to let you know that the Laoshan Black is in stock again. We now have the new autumn harvest. The tasting notes will be updated soon, but I can say that it is pretty phenomenal so far.

TeaBrat

Hurrah!!!

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74

I reached for this one this morning because I’ve seen a couple of great reviews of it recently. To be perfectly honest dark oolongs aren’t really my favorite kind of oolong; I tend to prefer the sweet, fresh taste of green oolongs over the roasted flavors. I still enjoy them ok, but they just don’t blow me away… but maybe this one will. :)

The dry leaf smells sweet and leafy; not green, but no distinct roasted aroma either. Of course, after brewing that definitely changed. The scent of the steeped tea is roasty, toasty grains like the other Da Hong Paos I’ve had. The first thing that strikes you about the sip is less the flavor than the texture, which is bright, crisp, almost metallic, or perhaps the mineral sparkle of high-end mineral water. The main flavors of the sip are what I would consider toasted, almost burnt grains. As the cup cools, a whisper of fruit plays in the aftertaste, which I definitely enjoy. Overall after my first steep I’m left with an odd, dry sensation in my mouth. The second steep is definitely less overwhelmingly roasty, even brighter and more minerally. I’m left with the feeling that this is no doubt a fantastic tea, but I really just can’t appreciate it properly. Big Red Robe Oolongs just aren’t for me! If this tea couldn’t convince me otherwise, I’m pretty sure nothing can.

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 3 min, 0 sec
TeaBrat

The green oolongs are a little easier to drink and appreciate. :)

Mercuryhime

I think we have the same preferences for oolong. Yay green oolongs!

Uniquity

I know it’s a silly question, but I have no experience in Oolongs – would a ‘green’ oolong be more like a green tea in flavour? I have only ever tried one unflavoured oolong (A Tie Guan Yin) and I really didn’t have a good experience with it. I do have a very generous sample of this one at home that I should clearly be trying out, though!

Dinosara

Green oolongs can sometimes have that “green” or vegetal flavor from green teas, but I rarely find them to be grassy. Honestly I haven’t tried a lot of different kinds of unflavored green teas! Tie Guan Yins are pretty typical green oolongs, but I’ve found the flavor to vary quite a bit among the ones I’ve tried.

Charles Thomas Draper

Verdants Handpicked was the BEST

Dinosara

Charles, your past tense verb had me go check Verdant’s site, where I discovered to my sorrow that the handpicked spring Tieguanyin is indeed sold out! It wasn’t as little as two weeks ago, when I first tried my sample and thought about ordering some before it disappeared. Curse my procrastination! (And yes, that one was the best tieguanyin I’ve tried!)

Charles Thomas Draper

Past tense is correct.

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80
drank Yunnan Golden Buds by Verdant Tea
2816 tasting notes

Sipdown #2 of the day. This morning I was looking at my cupboards and thinking to myself “Why do I have so much tea”? I blame Steepster… lol

Sami Kelsh

You have so much tea because tea is magic and love.

Cheri

I feel the same way. But it’s a good thing, right???

TeaBrat

It’s a good thing!

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80
drank Yunnan Golden Buds by Verdant Tea
2816 tasting notes

Tea of the morning here. Didn’t sleep too well last night but I am hoping today will be a good day! I have to admit I felt a sense of relief upon looking at my tea collection this morning because at least running out of tea isn’t something I will need to worry about for a while. :)

This isn’t really my favorite tea from Verdant or my favorite Yunnan, but I am appreciating its gentle nature today. I added some soymilk to mine and am getting some notes of sweet potato and spices.

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML

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80
drank Yunnan Golden Buds by Verdant Tea
2816 tasting notes

My physical therapist is challenging me. This morning I came in complaining of less pain so of course he had to add a bunch of challenging new exercises to my PT regime, which was already tough to begin with. At least I am making progress but I will probably be in pain for the rest of the day, I can already feel it coming on!

I haven’t had this tea for a while. It brews up to be a reddish-brown color and is very sweet and mild. This isn’t really a black tea, definitely more of a red tea. With various sips I am really picking up on the cinnamon/spicy flavor but in my mind there is something fruity about this as well as an underlying woodiness. This is a good one to try if you like you teas without additions because it definitely doesn’t need any.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 2 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
Lala

Have u considered trying acupuncture for your pain? Does your physio/clinic provide that treatment?

TeaBrat

I’ve been to acupuncture a few times aleady but it sems like massage is doing more good right now because the muscles are so tight in my arm!

Charles Thomas Draper

Buy an electrical stim machine. Feel better

TeaBrat

Thanks Charles :)

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80
drank Yunnan Golden Buds by Verdant Tea
2816 tasting notes

I am finishing off the last of this today. I raised the rating a bit from where I had it before. It needs to steep for at least 4 minutes. I am getting more of the cinnamon flavor now. I m still fairly new to drinking Yunnan teas like this. I suspect it might grow on me a bit more over time.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec

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80
drank Yunnan Golden Buds by Verdant Tea
2816 tasting notes

I am having this as my morning brew today – it is a bit lighter than the black teas I am used to drinking. It seems medium bodied- sort of like a Ceylon but with different flavors. It seems very full with rich honey or buttery tones. I am picking up a bit on the spiciness as an aftertaste. Sadly I will not have time to infuse this more than once this morning, my verdict is an elegant and mild tea which seems suitable for anytime drinking. I hope to add more notes to this as time permits.

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