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I needed a strong tea this morning. I walked up to the water cooler/heater to get hot water only to realize I’d already filled my cup with hot water.

I’m sitting here waiting for my peach raspberry pie to finish baking and drinking this tea in anticiation of the sweet yumminess awaiting me. I also had homemade chicken pot pie for lunch It’s a pie kind of day!

I dumped the rest of my sample packet in the steeper for this cup. It is extra malty and earthy. I want to describe this as roasted chocolate mushrooms with citrus, but I really doubt that sounds appealing to anyone and I wouldn’t want to deter anyone from this yummy tea.

I’ve had enough straight green teas for the weekend! This is a strong, slightly bitter breafast type blend. Although it just says blend of black tea, ceylon seems to be the primary flavor. I got more Assam out of the second steep. I did not steep for the recommended 5 minutes. 2.5 was plenty strong! It was a little bitter, but adding sugar and half and half smoothed that out. Although it’s not the best belend I’ve had, it’s exactly the dark kind of blend I needed right now.

So I decided to have the Verdant Dragonwell again back to back with the Jing Dragon well. After reading the description of how draganwell has subtle liquorice notes, I now smell it in both the dryleaves, but especially in the Verdant’s. However, I don’t get that in the taste of either one. I prepared both the same way- 176F for 3 minutes for comparison.

While both are bright and grassy, the Verdant tea seems saltier and warmer on first taste. The undertones of both are very different. The Verdant is more vegetal, as I’ve decribed before like grapevines. The Jing is more fruit-like and tangy- it has the depth, but not the sweetness of a plum. The aftertaste of the Verdant is more citric, while the aftertaste of the Jing has more of a stonefruit apricot taste. I’d also like to note that the butteriness seems to last longer throughout the the taste in the Verdant, while the Jing seems to have more focus on the darker notes.

My preference is for the Verdant because I like buttery greens better, but the Jing is very high quality and enjoyable in its own way.

Thanks, Nicole-Martin for this 2013 pick dragon well. I decided to pick anther dragonwell this morning to a weekend of it.

I followed the directions for a 3 minute steep at 176F. I was worried about the long steep time, but it turned out surprisingly not sea-weedy. This is fresh, grassy, and buttery. There is a depth to this dragonwell that is different from the grape notes I got out of yesterday’s Verdant. The package says this one has ‘subtle liquorice root complexity’, but that doesn’t quite describe the depth I’m getting either. I’m having trouble attaching a description to that note, but the closest I get is plum?The aftertaste however is a juicy burst of apricot and is very bright as aftertasts go. I’m tempted to pull out the Verdant again and do a side-by-side comparison.

Thanks, Nicole_Martin for this tea!

Since I enjoyed peach hoppitea so much, I decided to drink this one and compare since it has appricots and hopps. These two teas are a similar idea, but worlds away in taste. The green tea in this base is very light and flowery. I steeped at 170 instead of 180 so maybe this played a role in it, but the apricot and hopps flavors were very light. After trying a two minute steep, I decided to add the leaves in for a longer time, but this just resulted in a stronger green tea flavor and a unpleasant drymouth. Oddly enough the base in this reminds me a lot of the green base in many Palais de The blends. It is not a taste I enjoy. The Butiki blends is darker, richer, and is more flavorful. I much prefer that non-green tea blend. I will however give this tea one more shot at the recommended steep time. I REALLY am starting to see how a variable temp tea kettle would be handy.

This tea seems to get better everytime I have it. I made it double strong and steeped it about 5 minutes. I also added some brown sugar. I think I like this better than other peach teas I’ve had simply because it’s more substantial. There is more depth to flavor and there is a thicker mouthfeel. The hopps just makes it seem bready, warm, and comforting.

Dragonwell is a tea I’ve only begun to appreciate lately, mostly because I’ve learned that you don’t need to steep it for very long. If steeped too strongly, it always develops that seaweed type taste I am not fond of, but if steeped for just a short time it develops into a buttery, grassy, tasty treat. So after going through this learning process, I’m very excited to try this particular dragonwell from Verdant. I set aside a little time after my run this morning to really spend some time with it.

Even with a 10 second steep I’m getting a little bit of seaweed in this, but it’s not overwhelming or too bright. In fact the flavor is darker than I expected- like the taste of fall grape vines (yes I actually chew on grape vines from the backyard sometimes). It is just slightly bitter, but again not unpleasantly so. There is definitely a buttery aspect to this which smooths out the dark veggies. It almost has a nutty quality to this flavor, somewhat like mashed chestnuts. The fruity, bright aftertaste reminds me of green grapes, like when you chew one, seeds and all. I never thought a green tea could remind me a vineyard, but this one does- It brings into my mind the image of a vineyard near the ocean. The taste of green grapes combined with the salty tang of sea air. Weird, but pleasant. I think I’ll have another cup! :-)

My co-workers were talking about signs all morning, so Taurus seemed the way to go for my afternoon teatime.

I do like this blend! I’m very glad the rooibos is not muddy. It really does have a nice creaminess to it and the strawberries are very fresh tasting.