Sichuan Caravan

I am home from the hospital, the surgery went well.
I have a temp cast on my hand, pain dope in my system (in NA we call this a *FreeLapse, & I fully intend to enjoy it, although its not really that great of a buzz…just a mellow vibe…)
I ate some food, & wanted tea.
This one totally hit the spot tonight.
Now I’m going to bed, gonna lay my hands on my chest & turn on the Reiki, & will gratefully accept any long distance healing vibes anybody would like to send my way.
Thanks Friends!

le sigh. This is not the blend it used to be. Everytime i have it, it makes me a little more sad. This version is a dull version of the previous incarnation. There is way less punch to this one and the spicy is way milder. That doesn’t make for a bad tea, but this version is not something i need to keep on hand. I suppose i could probably find ginger somewhere to add to it to give it a little more punch, but i am not so magically herb inclined as some heh

So I was looking through my tea cupboard and wanted some pu’erh, but I don’t want to open a new sample tonight, so I was pondering which one to have. And this one just popped out! I’ve been hoarding my last 2 cups of this ever since it went out of stock, but hey, I might as well drink it! Hoarding it doesn’t do much good, there will be more amazing teas that come out! This is lightly spicy and the sweet aftertaste of the licorice is really nice tonight. The pu’erh tastes delicious here, light yet satisfying. As it’s cooling the spiciness from the ginger is coming out. I steeped this first cup for 1 minute with a 25 second rinse. I’m looking forward to a few more cups tonight, there was a nice big chunk of pu’erh in this cup too, I actually broke it in half and saved the rest for the last cup. Ahh I hope Verdant does more pu’erh blends, this is awesome! See previous notes :)

ETA – forgot to mention, this is another tea that goes good with LOTR. Rich and earthy, with some spice and mystery, perfect for the Two Towers. :D

I’ve been playing around with my new yixing that I got a few weeks ago and I’m drinking this western style. I have two yixing teapots, one little 3.7 oz from Zen Tea and a 10 oz one from Teavana that I got a while ago but mostly because I liked it, not for its actual purpose. so, that one is dedicated to Jasmine silver needles and the smaller one for dancongs. The Teavana one is surprisingly absorbent.

Anyways, this tea. I can taste the puerh just fine, the nice pastry notes. I just realized I don’t think I’ve posted a note for the puerh by itself even though I’ve been drinking it…later. This tea now. I like this puerh by itself, so that’s a plus. I hate licorice, but I can’t taste it in this tea, a blessing in its self. I’m not a big fan of ginger, I like it, but in small amounts; i find it easily overdone, same with peppercorn. They are not overdone in this blend. The peppercorn is light, the ginger is warming, the elderberry adding a taste of sweetness. There is a slight numbing sensation on the tip of the tongue that tingles slightly in the aftertaste, from what I’m not sure, I just know it’s there.

I find that I really Verdants puerh blends more than the puerhs by themselves. I have enjoyed all the puerh blends that I have tried, too. I have to admit, this is my least favorite puerh blend that I have tried from them. Even at that, I still really enjoy this tea.

Playing with my yixing teapots, my typically mug I use for western style brewing, and my new teacups from Verdant.
http://i1050.photobucket.com/albums/s410/feralanima/newcups001.jpg

Hey! I’ve reviewed this baby before. Where did it go! Odd. Well darn, I didn’t really pay attention to this cuppa, I just remember enjoying my three steeps immensely!
It was a little spicy, too much for my liking so I did add some milk. That made it into a wonderful brew that I could not get enough of!
Funny, I don’t recall it being so harsh. I must have got a different blend of spices in my spoon this time. Ah well, it was super delish!
(Big thanks to Sil for sharing!)

Hm. My first order from Verdant, and what do I choose to drink? This one, of course. The pu-erh! :)

It’s less.. than what I was expecting however. Did I brew it wrong? I mean, it’s nice and quite fragrant. The base is lovely, I can definitely taste licorice and faint ginger. Still, there’s less kapow here than what I was hoping for. I used 1.5 tsp for 12 ounces. Do I need to overleaf?

After the min-disaster with Laoshan Genmaicha I decided to go for something I knew I’d like. I’m on a mission to go through my Verdant samples, which I have been hoarding for some reason. I guess I was just worried about messing them up, or waiting for the right time to enjoy them. But I realized that’s a bit silly—no reason to squirrel away tea!

Ginger is hands-down my favorite herb, so of course any Verdant blend with it becomes a must-try. This is a rich, earthy brew backed up by the sweetness of elderberry and the heat of ginger and peppercorn. It’s not really a spicy blend in the sense that it’s not hot-spicy, but more mouth-tingly spicy. The description says they were going for mouth-numbing qualities and they are definitely here! My whole mouth feels tingly after a few sips in a pleasant way.

The ginger is definitely the strongest element, followed by the smooth pu-erh. There are some whiffs of cream and pastry here, a surprising contrast to the bright, spicy ginger. I think this blend would be a favorite if not for the licorice. There’s an unpleasant sweetness that is lingering in the back of my throat, and to me it just clashes with the ginger. Licorice is okay in small quantities, but I think there were a lot of chunks of it in my sample. Still a very delightful experience! Also, after about roughly a million steeps (okay, more like 8) the nuggets still have not unfurled all the way! Tenacious little fellows.

Loving this!
I do not like licorice but you don’t get licorice in this as you would eating licorice.
There is a leathery aspect, nicely balanced spices, lovely elderberry!
I am going to be doing a full review for SororiTea Sisters this evening.
Perfection thank you Verdant for always offering such complex and delightful blends!

Well, this turned out to be a pyjama day. I love pyjama days! I read, I played, I ate delicious things and I’ve been sipping on this yummy tea through it all.

To me this is a very well balanced blend. It has a spicy and sweet aroma and a smooth taste with a bit of sweetness and just right amount of ginger. Yum!

Happy New Year!

I thought I would have this tonight after being without caffeine for two days but it wasn’t meant to be. First the sample bag split open on both ends, and half the tea fell on the dirty floor. Then I unintentionally dumped the rest down the drain when I attempted a rinse. Definitely up their with my top embarrassing sleep deprived moments. I guess the first caffeine beverage of the new year will have to wait another day!

Luckily, I had some a week back via glass gongfu session, although I only got up to 3 steeps. I liked the spice but I wanted to play around with the puerh parameters, as it wasn’t too my taste (too much sweet earth dirt).