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OK, I love this tea! It is soooo different. On the nose I get bourbon, really good bourbon Like Pappy Van Winkle 25 year! Burnt caramel, fresh baked sweet wheat bread, woody flavors ( I have not tasted Redwood so…) , dried orange peel, roasted barley. Palate is almost identical to the nose. Beautiful balance with the flavors weaving in and out over time. If you can get this, try some!

Delicate and light, wonderful nose with nutmeg, fig, honey, slightly roasted notes. Palate honey, light lychee and floral notes with licorice candy lingering on the back of the palate, cedar, and a very light note of grass. Another really nicely balanced tea.

I find this tea to be fascinating. I brought some home for our annual family New Year’s eve dinner, and the first impression is … wait for it….PETTING ZOO!! HA, yes it does smell a bit like a goat, not terribly funky though, more barnyard hay with some goat mixed in. Also, lots of wildflower honey, mineral. Palate is very similar to the nose, with a long sweet finish. The tea changes wonderfully through several steepings. It can see where it would not be for everyone, but I found it really interesting and well balanced.
And, yes, we now call it the petting zoo tea….

This one is just too much of a fruit salad for me. On the nose, orange, pineapple, orchid, pina colada and a rather odd note that resembles a hint of Durian ( I found this to be off putting since durian smeels and to me tastes like rotten onions ). Palate Lots of fruit, with some floral notes. I will not take points away for flavors ( unless they just seem terrible ) since everyone’s tastes are different, but this tea seems unbalanced….

I absolutely love this tea. On the nose I get osmanthus, violets, creme brule, cassis, aloeswood, and a lightly vegetal note…what is it.
Palate, sugar cane, burnt caramel, and the vegetal is… red bell pepper! Never tasted that in a tea before! Also, grape Jolly Rancher candy, leather, clove, and a long vapory sparkling finish…

This one is tough for me, I have tried short and long steep at varying temps and I seems pretty consistent.
Nose, I get osmanthus and rose with some vegetal notes like celery, light and delicate.
Palate, sweet orange, same floral notes fading to celery with some peach/lychee notes on the finish, it seems backward ( most taste is at the back of the palate ), unfortunately I find the mouth feel thin and watery, some light minerality, while it is nice, I find some of the other Dancong from Verdant more interesting.
I got it! This one seems to need more heat and time to really open up. The mouth feel was more full and the tea less delicate also a roasted barley flavor and aroma came up. Very nice and well balanced.

I love this tea! The leaves are large and have a mineral floral profile when dry, but add water and the magic happens. This one is very forgiving also, I have brewed gong-fu, western style and even long steepings ( 5 mins or more ) without bitterness or astringency and have found it interesting each time. The nose has a typical underlying oolong profile, floral ( plumeria, jasmine, some vegetal notes ). The palate is remarkable, same florals ( in spades ), with aloeswood, minerality, allspice, ripe peach, licorice, roasted parsnips, molasses, sweet, it just goes on and on. While the mouth feel is sparkling, spare and dry, it has a sweetness that lingers on the tip of the tongue and at the back of the throat. The finish goes on for hours ( really, not exaggerating here — I even could taste it after lunch! ). This might be an excellent candidate for good aging.

This one is a bit of a disappointment for me. Dry leaves are earthy some what loosely rolled. Nose is delicate very earthy, much like pu-erh that I have had, humic and fungal with some sweet floral notes. Palate I get top soil humus, mushroom, hay, slightly floral. Very light, no matter how long I steeped or how much heat ( even boiling ), I could not get this one to open up. I also do not care for pu-erh ( maybe I just haven’t had good pu-erh yet ), so this one will not come back…