Autumn Laoshan Green

Tea type
Green Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Rice, Vegetal, Walnut, Sweet, Green Beans, Butter, Malt, Nutty, Oats, Coriander Seed, Milk, Soybean, Asparagus, Hay, Spices, Vanilla, Grass, Peas, Autumn Leaf Pile, Butternut Squash, Spinach, Cookie, Sugar, Astringent, Bitter, Grain, Creamy, Toasted Rice, Nuts, Peach
Sold in
Loose Leaf
Caffeine
Medium
Certification
Fair Trade
Edit tea info Last updated by Cameron B.
Average preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 1 min, 30 sec 4 g 11 oz / 330 ml

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93 Tasting Notes View all

  • “Sipdown #33! It’s official, all of my students for the day (from 10am to 8pm) rescheduled their lessons. I guess we actually got about 6 inches of snow, so it’s no surprise. Meanwhile, I feel like...” Read full tasting note
  • “I’m really enjoying this cup but it is not what I intended to drink today. I walked out the door this morning without my chosen tea AND without my apple for 2nd breakfast! Luckily I had some of...” Read full tasting note
    100
  • “My 100th tasting note on Steepster! Thanks to everyone for making this community what it is: a friendly and fantastic hangout for tea fanatics. I visit this place at least a couple times a day...” Read full tasting note
    92
  • “I guess today wasn’t the day to try this as I ended up having company over, and a crazy baby to deal with so I didn’t get to take many notes while I was drinking. Here’s what I’ve got: 1st Steep...” Read full tasting note
    92

From Verdant Tea

Iconically Creamy

Shade-grown, hand-picked, cold-climate tea from the He Family picked in the cool autumn weather with notes of cashew, pastry, and arugula.

This harvest is picked in the cool autumn air after resting the plant through summer. The result is crisp, fresh flavor with more savory green bean and cream that Laoshan for which Laoshan is famous. The He family’s signature green tea is fed by mountain spring water, picked by hand, and cultivated sustainably using traditional chemical-free farming techniques including growing rows of soybean between rows of tea to restore nitrates to the soil. The extreme northern climate means cold winters and short growing seasons, but the He Family perseveres, protecting their tea in greenhouses over the winter. The result is a deeply sweet and delicate green tea unlike any other in the world.

Crafted by the He Family
Pioneers and community leaders, the He Family is dedicated to making a name for their stunningly smooth, malty, rich teas cultivated in China’s coldest, northernmost growing region.

Grown using old-school organic farming techniques on the rocky foothills of Laoshan, protected by ocean mist and fed by sweet spring water.

About Verdant Tea View company

Company description not available.

93 Tasting Notes

3294 tasting notes

Sipdown #33!
It’s official, all of my students for the day (from 10am to 8pm) rescheduled their lessons. I guess we actually got about 6 inches of snow, so it’s no surprise. Meanwhile, I feel like I haven’t done anything of any real value today, although I did talk to a new student on the phone & set up her first lesson for this friday. I did a ‘Facetime’ lesson with one of my students so we wouldn’t have to schedule a makeup (which actually works out pretty good!), I returned phone calls & emails, shuffled papers around on my desk, and I drank a lot of tea! I have $75 in Amazon gift cards from my recent birthday, & I’ve been researching which variable temp electric kettle I want, cuz I really need one! I’m open for suggestions.

My newest batch of Root Kimchi is the best tasting, crispiest batch yet. If you’d like to see it, drop by my FB https://www.facebook.com/terri.langerak

This is from Autumn of 2012, by the way. It still tastes pretty good, but now it’s gone!

AnnaEA

I love the kimchi updates!

Terri HarpLady

I tried to cut each of the different veggies into their own shapes, just for fun. The burdock is in little matchsticks, the red radishes are whole with greens attached, the turnip is in triangles, the daikon in cubes, lol. I used to be really good at making carrot flowers, but now they are clumsy looking. No matter, it’s tasty! I’ll share small jars with a few people, & it will make them smile :)

Terri HarpLady

ooh….thanks for the link, Stephanie! I like that one!

boychik

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B001DYERBK
I have this one and I’m very happy
I love your kimchi. Recipe pls

Fjellrev

Wow, that snow can really throw a person through a loop, eh? That’s really generous of you to do Facetime sessions. :)

Terri HarpLady

To be fair, some of my students do have a 45 – 60 minute drive to come for their lessons, so I don’t blame them for staying home! Stephanie, you & I will have matching teapots! I just ordered it! :)

Terri HarpLady

Boychik, I promise the recipe tomorrow, which is really later today, LOL. I need to go to bed!

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100
1113 tasting notes

I’m really enjoying this cup but it is not what I intended to drink today. I walked out the door this morning without my chosen tea AND without my apple for 2nd breakfast! Luckily I had some of this in my desk. Always have emergency tea stashes at the office, folks!

Courtney

Phew for work tea stashes.

TeaLady441

As long as that stash doesn’t lose control! :O
(I have about 25 teas at work to choose from, but most of them are sample sizes! I don’t want it to be too obvious!)

caile

hehe, 25 different teas doesn’t seem obvious at all.. :-P

TheTeaFairy

Yummy tea :-)

Stephanie

Now I want to count my teas in my work stash, but I’m scared! LOL

TeaLady441

Hahaah. They fit in a little tin? And another tin on top of that tin? Next to my bag of filters and my measuring spoon, and my special tea mug and my bubble cup. Yikes.

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92
148 tasting notes

My 100th tasting note on Steepster! Thanks to everyone for making this community what it is: a friendly and fantastic hangout for tea fanatics. I visit this place at least a couple times a day (usually more) because it’s just a great place to be!

This was a sample I got with my last Verdant order, and I tried it gongfuish style in my tasting cup, with subsequent short steeps. Like the Laoshan black, the little curly dry leaves gradually unfold into full tea leaves. On my first sip I was immediately hit with asparagus! Thankfully I love asparagus. Next there were green beans. On the second steep the beans were still there but also a bit of toast flavor. Third steeps and after it got really creamy and buttery, almost like the bi luo chun I had a few months back but the sesame oil flavor was not quite as strong. Unfortunately I didn’t try the summer harvest while it was available, but this is a really delicious and well-made green. What can I say? The He family just makes fantastic tea.

Warning: this ended up really long!
I’ve been swirling something around inside my brain for awhile now on the nature of snobbery as it relates to tea and literature, and I think I will finally share it. Without going into too many details, awhile back someone came on the Steepster forums and said something about a much loved tea company that was not nice (or true), and it was pretty snobby too. It got me thinking.
At the time I was working on a paper comparing Shakespeare’s “Titus Andronicus” to Thomas Kyd’s “The Spanish Tragedy”. I had a couple of thoughts on how I think of snobbery, and I think Shakespeare serves as a good example for both of them. First, that sometimes people make things highbrow or “fancy” when the original creator did not intend for it to be highbrow or fancy. Second, that being able to appreciate what is “fancy” does not necessarily take away from one’s enjoyment of things that are not. (Can you tell I just put on my academic writing hat?)
To tackle the first issue, let’s think about Shakespeare and “Titus Anddronicus”. Our society absolutely views Shakespeare as highbrow entertainment. In part, this is an issue of language; the English language has evolved quite a bit since the Renaissance. However I think Shakespeare is largely thought of as highbrow because academia has made him so. How many times have we heard Shakespeare referred to as the greatest author that ever lived? And yet, Shakespeare was far from highbrow in his own time. In later years his troupe performed for royalty on occasions, but if you were a Londoner in Shakespeare’s day you could see one of his plays for a penny. You could also see a bear-baiting for a penny, in fact those took place right down the street. Shakespeare wrote from popular demand; playwrights had to keep up with popular opinion if they did not want to lose a sale to bear-baiting. “Titus Andronicus” is a prime example of this; it’s full of revenge, spectacle, and dead bodies. Revenge tragedies were very popular when he wrote it. People wanted to see revenge and dead bodies, so Shakespeare gave it to them. It’s only now that we make it highbrow entertainment. Likewise, I do not imagine that all tea makers think of making tea as a “highbrow” beverage, but how often do people make it so?
Secondly, I understand that as we enjoy better tea, our tastes change. As I have learned more about literature, I’ve gained a better appreciation of certain authors and books. Five years ago I would not have written a six page paper based off of four lines in a Shakespeare play. However, this knowledge has not made me only happy to read Shakespeare or classic authors. In fact, many of the books I read for enjoyment are new and popular books. I may not feel they are as complex as Shakespeare, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like them. However, there are limits to this; there are some massively popular books out there that without naming titles, I just think are bad. Likewise, there are many teas I might have enjoyed years ago that I now think are bad. What I hope is that I continue to find a balance. I want to be able to appreciate very fine teas as well as the ones that are decent, or middle of the road. I hope that I also always appreciate fine literature, as well as the books that are just decent. I think sometimes we can like things that are not “highbrow”, and things that are fancy don’t have to be fancy.

And if you’re still with me after all that, I award you five gold star stickers.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 0 min, 15 sec
Claire

Thanks Bonnie! :)

Bonnie

HOORAY FOR YOU 100!!! As the winemaker at Mondavi told me, he sometimes drank Gallo Reserve which was inexpensive but tasted good even though his wines were more expensive and highly desired. To be a tea ‘snob’ is to have a lack of humility. When you lose humility, you prove that you have failed to learn from tea. You have made a good point.

Rachel Sincere

Congrats on #100!

Ninavampi

Congrats no 100!!!

Daisy Chubb

Claire! Amazing, first of all – congrats for 100!
Second of all, I would like to redeem my 5 stars ;)

That was wonderfully written – I’m a theatre student so I followed the whole way (while kicking myself as to why I had never thought of it that way before ;) ) Thank you for opening my eyes to a way of thought that I’ve been struggling with ever since the little forum kerfuffle.

Thank you for putting my feelings into words :)

Donna A

Very interesting thoughts. I got my bachelor’s in nursing, but took Shakespeare as an elective and when I found out I would be having to write even just a page or two on a few lines in Shakespeare, I was very anxious to say the least! Anyway, I think you make some great points regarding both tea and books.

Invader Zim

Congrats on 100 Claire! Now where’s my 5 stars?! You write well enough that even I, a wildlife science major, was able to follow and understand. I agree with Bonnie in that the nature of snobbery/highbrow is the lack of humility.

softrevolution

Loved reading this! What an interesting comparison; I found myself nodding along with you as I read – there are so many things in food, literature, and culture in general that have humble beginnings but somehow stumble into the realm of highbrow, which I find pretty amusing. Lobster and foie gras come to mind as dishes that started out as poor man’s food but evolved into delicacies. Really makes you wonder!

Claire

Thanks everyone and 5 gold star stickers to all my readers (and I hope you all have some good tea too)! :)

Bonnie

I wish we could all have afternoon Tea, go to the Theatre for Shakespeare then have a dinner of Lobster and Foie Gras with some good Wine.

Claire

That sounds fantastic, Bonnie. I’m down for all of that!

Angrboda

I agree with your thoughts about the snobbery. When I first started really learning about tea, I turned completely super-snob for a while? Tea bags? No thank you. Cream in tea? Gosh, no! Always milk if anything. That sort of thing. All. The. Way. Now, however, I have learned even more and I’ve come to realise that life is just too short for that sort of thing, and if I occasionally drink the odd teabag when there’s nothing else interesting available, then so be it. I can always go home and make something else afterwards. I can’t be bothered to be a snob. It’s way too energy consuming, really.

bravedave

Totally agree with your thoughts Claire. Well said.

Nik

Congrats on 100, Claire! Loved reading your thoughts on tea, literature and snobbery. I agree with Angrboda: life’s just too short. For me, drinking tea is less about education and health than it is about yum. Every cup of tea is made in search of the almighty yum. Your yum may not be the same as my yum, and that’s okay. If my yum is achieved with the help of milk ‘n’ sugar, condensed milk, honey, maple syrup, ‘nog, whatever, that’s okay too. And if other tea drinkers don’t agree with me and cringe at my list of potential additives, well, that’s okay too. =)

Mark B

Well said.

Claire

Thanks again everyone for the kind words. Recently my friend Lauren wrote a post on being inclusive vs. exclusive and it summed up a lot of my feelings on the subject: http://www.falconesse.com/2012/11/14/theres-room-for-everyone-in-the-nerd-house/

Claire

I forgot to add there is a lot of swearing in that post, so if swearing offends you fyi!

Donna A

I think Lauren has the right idea. Why not be inclusive (as long as no harm is being done?)

Invader Zim

I agree, there’s no need to make fun of someone because of their interests or lack of knowledge of something. Introduce them to it if you are interested in it instead of excluding them!

El Monstro

A lot of my professors didn’t care for Shakespeare that much. If I remember correctly, a lot of his stuff is basically updated Greek plays? There are all kinds of crazy conspiracy theories involving him too. I liked Macbeth and his psycho wife quite a bit.

Claire

Many of his plots were adapted or taken from Greek works, and Shakespeare was particularly influenced by Ovid’s Metamorphoses. While today we see this kind of writing as largely negative, this was the standard for the 16th and early 17th century. If you read a lot of Renaissance literature, you’ll see that authors commonly borrowed from one another or mimicked another person’s work. For some interesting examples of borrowing, read Kyd’s Spanish Tragedy and then Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, or Shakespeare’s Hamlet and then The Revenger’s Tragedy (author unknown). Other fun facts: Shakespeare was not the only writer of his time to write plays called “King Lear” or “Hamlet.” His telling of King Lear has some shocking changes compared to other playwright’s versions. Unfortunately Kyd’s version of Hamlet got lost.

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92
1598 tasting notes

I guess today wasn’t the day to try this as I ended up having company over, and a crazy baby to deal with so I didn’t get to take many notes while I was drinking.

Here’s what I’ve got:

1st Steep (30s): Very light and grassy with spinachy/grassy notes. I love the shape over these long pretty leaves, and they look great in my mini-gongfu pot.

2nd Steep (30s): More buttery/spinach notes this time around. Very good

I steeped it two more times after that but don’t remember the details except that I enjoyed it. I’ll have to order this sometime!

…sipdown…. :P

Ozli

Did you get a Vix-visitor?

TeaLady441

Noooooo. I’m not good at organizing social things. I keep hoping she’ll just be here, but I should probably give her a day or somethign. :P

It was one of J’s brother who visited – I showed him GuildWars2 – hope to get him into it.

TeaLady441

Noooooo. I’m not good at organizing social things. I keep hoping she’ll just be here, but I should probably give her a day or somethign. :P

It was one of J’s brother who visited – I showed him GuildWars2 – hope to get him into it.

Ozli

Ahhh! Well that’s good too. :P

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612 tasting notes

5/5

Finishing up the dregs of a bunch of teas I drank months ago, like spring/early summer. It was a hectic time and anything that involved more thought to review I just didn’t. Didn’t even log, ack. I know this has got to have lost much of its punch, but on the other hand back when I first tried this I wasn’t madly in love with greens the way I am now that it’s 100F every day and has been for months. :( And wow. Even likely weakened in power this is incredible. I know the extent of my Verdant fangirlness has got to be annoying and easy to roll one’s eyes at, but g’ah. My two favorite greens are undoubtedly this and their Laoshan Bilochun. I love the way this has so much to it, where some of it’s all the stuff you love in a green and expect, but then there’s a lot more too. Some words that come to mind because my brain is tired and can’t string sentences right now: ice cream (yes!!), green bean, cream (so so creamy), oats/grain, REALLY buttery, raw sweet potato (there’s a subtle sweet starchy vegetable thing for sure), some spinach, unbelievable aroma. More comfort food-y sweet and satisfying than most greens but still with that fresh green vegetable element. Love.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 1 min, 0 sec
Stephanie

:) :) :)

Sil

No annoyances here. I’m a butiki fan girl so you’re in good company haha. Verdant has some real winners for sure :)

Terri HarpLady

Yeah, I love Verdant! I’ll buy pretty much anything they come up with! I also Love Butiki. And Mandala.

ifjuly

I need to try Mandala, that is if I ever get through my durn stash of teas I’ve already got, ee. I hear nothing but great things!

Terri HarpLady

I’ll never get through my stash, july! I have enough tea hear to supply a tea house for years probably, & yet I keep buying new things. I need to go back to the hiatus group, to crawl back in shame & recommit to recovery, but I’m in an avoidance pattern…

ifjuly

yeah i hear that. i think my MO lately has been to go loooong periods of time not buying tea, then going a spree, rinse, repeat. and i get the feeling i’m thankfully drifting out of the newbie “MUST TRY EVERYTHING FROM EVERYONE ZOMG EXCITEMENT” and settling in with shops i like now. hopefully. :b

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37
2291 tasting notes

I have the 2012 harvest.

And honestly, if I were served this tea in a restaurant I wouldn’t drink it. It just does not work for me.

It’s very beany, and even though I steeped in 165C water, it was bitter.

Does any of the Eastern Contingent or Island Contingent like this one?

Preparation
165 °F / 73 °C 2 min, 0 sec
OMGsrsly

Whoa! 37? That’s where the :/ face is though, and that’s the face I made drinking this.

Dexter

Hmmmm I’ve had this since I did the 5 for $5 way back in the spring. I just keep avoiding it. I don’t normally do very well with straight greens, and this just makes me think that I will keep avoiding it. :))

Plunkybug

I’d be willing to try, so maybe send to the island?

Plunkybug

Maybe split half us and half them?

OMGsrsly

Sure thing, Heather!

Dexter, I don’t care for green teas so much either. I do like matcha, and Butiki’s flavoured dragonwells are nice, though.

TeaKlutz

I’m glad I’m not the only one who’s not big on the Laoshan Green. Mine wasn’t get bitter per se, but the beany flavor is just… eh. No.

OMGsrsly

Not being a huge fan of green teas, the beany or soy milk tasting ones are a hard sell.

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85
1186 tasting notes

Wowww I’ve had this sample for a while lol..it is one still in the foil sample packets from Verdant rather than their new brown ones! High time to drink some of this down, and it’s now autumn, so might as well! I was going to do this in my gaiwan, since I mostly made my Laoshan green back when I didn’t have one and it’d be nice to try it with this one, but my old method seemed appealing today. I just use a brew basket with about half the sample pack, 175 degree water and my little bubble cups (~4 oz) and steep for about 9-10 seconds and add 2 seconds to each subsequent steeping. So this is the method I am using today.

The dry smell is so green beany and good. I miss my Laoshan green! I do have an oz from this spring’s harvest, but for some reason I don’t drink it that often, probably because I feel I should finish this one off first :P Anyways, this tea was also a bit dusty, maybe from sitting in the packet for so long. So yeah, did the steeping parameters as above, and the first two cups are bright green, with the Laoshan bean scent but something else, something like raw pumpkin and sesame to me. A strong, slightly astringent scent, but not unpleasantly so. 9 seconds was maybe a bit long for the first steeping, but the flavor is actually very good!

This tastes exactly like pumpkin to me. Whatt! It actually does lol. I am amazed. This tea is very smooth, not biting whatsoever. There is a slight creaminess to the aftertaste, but really, I mostly get pumpkin flavor haha. The beaniness is also there, but more present in the second cup, which I just stole a sip of from the boyfriend. I am excited to see how the flavors unfurl through a few more steepings!

I am always impressed with Laoshan green, and this is no exception. I am amazed at how much the flavor can change between harvests! Another lovely offering from Verdant that I’m a little bit late in trying, but better late than never! :)

ETA – even as this tea cools, the flavor is changing a bit. Much more butter is present!

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C
Fjellrev

Pumpkin! Wasn’t expecting that.

mrs.stenhouse12

Me either! I saw it in the notes on Verdant’s site and it is so much like that it’s weird! Almost a raw pumpkin flavor, not sweet, just that flavor of pie without the sugariness. It might pass in the later steepings, already the second was less of it and more like Laoshan Green, but made for an interesting flavor anyways!

Fjellrev

Oh that must be really strange combined with the bean notes. Too bad it’s not the opposite and the pumpkin note gets stronger with every steep!

mrs.stenhouse12

Yeah it’s changing now, more spinach notes, maybe some sesame, although I haven’t had much of it to know exactly what it tastes like, but it definitely has a different flavor than the first steepings! Something stronger in there, fresh and tasty :)

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85
639 tasting notes

SIPDOWN, and a Gongfu brewing session!

According to Verdant Tea’s website, you should steep this tea for 3 seconds and then increase the steeping time after the third infusion by 3 seconds or to taste. Three seconds seemed like an awfully short amount of time. So, I opted to start out at 10 seconds. The resultant liquor is an unsettling yellow color. I won’t tell you what it reminds me of…

But the flavor is incredible! So very different from what I remember from the Western steeping. It tastes like snap peas and butter. It’s very flavorful and very delicious! Second infusion also for 10 seconds was similar but a little bit greener. There’s more of a grassy note apparent now.

(Start unrelated rant). Why do people fight you on stuff when you’re the expert in it? I know what’s best. You don’t. You came to me for my assistance, not the other way around. If you think you know best, then do it yourself and leave me out of it! I had to waste an hour of my time for people to come to the same conclusion that I told them in the first 5 minutes. And then they try to give me an extremely unrealistic deadline. I can’t work on 4 different projects at once and get them all done in 30 days. Are you serious? They can’t all be at the same priority level! Some things are just more important than others! And if this is really that important, then hire more people to work on it! I shouldn’t be the only one! Sorry, I just had to get that off my chest. And now I have to wait for the water to boil again. Ugh. (End rant).

I don’t know what I did wrong, but the third infusion for 10 seconds was bitter. Blech. Ironically, the fourth infusion for 13 seconds had no bitterness at all. The cup returned to its beautiful creamy, buttery, vegetal self. I wonder what happened? Maybe taking a break in the brewing session allowed the wetness in the leaves to sit and create bitterness. That’s the only explanation I can think of that makes sense because the fourth infusion picks right up where the second one left off. Weird.

Fifth infusion for 16 seconds was less flavorful. The liquor color remained strong though, and the aftertaste was a nice buttery grassiness. Sixth and final infusion for 19 seconds was pretty much the same as the fifth. I think this tea is done. The first two infusions were definitely the best. I had hoped that the interlude wouldn’t color my opinion of this tea, but I think it has. Phooey. So much for relaxing with a nice cup of tea this afternoon. :/

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C

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96
90 tasting notes

I’m having a case of the tea blahs lately, and it looks like some others have been too. Could it be the change in weather? It’s likely, but I decided the solution was that I need some new teas to get excited about, so I ordered a whole bunch. Like budget out the window, recklessly adding things to my cart like a maniac. Oops.

I decided to go with a tried and true tea today so I’m sipping on a creamy, beany cup of this. It’s good, but I’m not feeling it the way I usually do. I know it’s not the tea’s fault, so I should probably save the last bit of this for a time when I can really appreciate it. In the meantime maybe I should clear some space for the truckload I’ve got on the way.

Stephanie

Yeah, tea blahs is a good way to describe it!

Tealizzy

Yay for new tea! I had the same reaction to the tea blahs. ;)

Alysha

I’m glad im not the only one!

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85
464 tasting notes

Finished up my sample packet of this! Green teas are very hit and miss for me and this one is definitely a good one. Fragrant, vegetal and even a bit creamy.

Stephanie

I loved that one! So so much :)

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