As summer really sets in in Minnesota, I do as my tea friends do and drink hot green tea to cool down. This is usually my first choice. I add the leaves to a glass tumbler, and pour in under-boiling water. When the leaves sink, the tea is ready to drink. This one has never gone bitter for me. The first time He Qinqing, the farmer that provides this tea, served it to me in a glass and I watched it sit for 5 minutes, I was worried about it oversteeping. What are you supposed to do? Tell the tea farmer how to steep tea?

Of course, she was right. I find this to be the best way to drink Laoshan teas, followed by pouring back and forth between glass pitchers, which is pretty cool as well since the leaves start dancing around.

This is a green tea for people who don’t get excited about green tea. It steeps uprich and creamy, with way more body than you might expect, but never edges towards dry or astringent. If anybody else has tried different steeping methods, I love to hear how people brew it up. My suggestion for July: Cold-Steep in the refrigerator with leaves and cold water for 8-10 hours for a full bodied iced tea.

Garret

This tea eased me into meditation this morning, an offering for the timeless state of mind we know as Buddha. Perfect!

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Garret

This tea eased me into meditation this morning, an offering for the timeless state of mind we know as Buddha. Perfect!

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I fell in love with tea while doing work on classical Chinese language in China. I loved it so much that I went back for a year to research tea instead! Over a year and several summers in China I have had the chance to train in gongfu tea ceremony, and test the limits of my palate in tasting competitions. I was privileged to spend large chunks of time with farmers on their tea gardens, and was exposed to some of the smallest and most honest operations out there. It only made sense to go into business and deepen my relationship with tea and the farmers who make it with such care and humility. Now I own a small, but unique tea business importing the best teas that my farmer friends in China have to offer. Some of these teas are from regions that have never exported before. All of them have a story.

I will review teas on Steepster, because I think this is an awesome site, and a great community, but I won’t give them a numerical rating, as I don’t want to skew the system. I am having a great time here, and look forward to meeting more tea folk.

Location

Minneapolis, MN

Website

http://www.verdanttea.com

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