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Another teabox find! I need to make a few selections and send it on soon :)

The tea itself here is pretty underwhelming – kind of a mild green strawberry – but it led me to look up the Moringa plant, which is pretty fabulous. So this will probably lead to some new smoothie mixes at least?

This brought back memories – I haven’t had Adagio teas in a long time, but they were one of the companies that got me into loose leaf teas ~10 years ago. This one holds up pretty well! Some of it is “natural flavors”, which don’t hold up as well on re-steeping, but there’s a good portion of real spices too. Strong, spicy, flavorful!

Kicking off some reviews of teas I got to try from the Travelling Tea Box! It doesn’t want to let me review the Adagio ones for some reason (that tea page insists I’m not logged in?) so we’ll start here.

Not coffee, but remarkably coffee-like; a bit more bitter and acidic than my usual evening non-coffee, DandyBlend, which is not a bad thing! Happy to have discovered this one

I’ve been pretty thrilled with this month’s club box from Verdant. A Dian Hong (Yunnan Golden Buds), a pu’er pressed with honeysuckle, and this sheng-style Moonlight White. I’m usually not a big fan of either sheng pu-er or white teas, so I was surprised to enjoy this so much. The brewed tea has a rich aroma and color, some of the grassy and earthy flavors I associate with pu-er, but none of the dustiness. The texture is juicy, not drying. Drinking it gives me an oddly satiated feeling, as if I’ve had a snack rather than just a drink.

When I choose to drink this, it lasts me all afternoon with strong re-steepings

Wu Dong Shan Huang Zhi Shiang
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This is much more astringent than the others I’ve tried. I also tried brewing it stronger on some steeps, but even so – more bitterness, higher caffeine. I can’t recall the description given here, but one of the 6 teas in the August box was described as reminiscent of a sheng pu-erh, and I’m betting this is it. It has the intense, dry, grassy, heady impression I get from those. Not my favorite, but certainly interesting

I created this aggregate tea page to track reviews of Verdant’s Tea of the Month Club, rather than cluttering Steepster’s database with limited availability teas with very similar names :)

Da Wu Ye Dancong
I think I love Dancongs. The first one I remember trying had a flavor strongly reminiscent of pineapple; both I’ve tried so far from this box have silky mouthfeel, floral notes, honey sweetness, and some of that same sharp fruitines. I’m still playing with the preparation, mostly trying to figure it out by color + tiny tastes of the brewing tea. Apparently the “classic” style to brew this is very very strong and fast, so there is a punch of bitter flavor contrasted by lots of lingering aromatics, but that’s a bit much for me

Mmm, this turned out strong and FRUITY this morning. I don’t know which fruit exactly, but it’s the same kind of acidic fruitiness you get from dark chocolate and coffee. Blackberries or plums?

So a new shop opened near me recently, that carries fancy olive oil and balsamic vinegars, bulk spices, cocktail mixers, and a nice big wall of loose leaf tea form Divinitea! They brought in Linda Smith, the proprietor, to do a tasting a couple of weeks ago. This was one of the teas she was sampling, and I was completely won over.

I’m not a huge fan of coconut in general, but that’s mostly because it’s usually cloying and I hate the texture of the dried, grated stuff. But this… it’s not that it’s subtle, the coconut flavor is very strong. But it’s well-blended, with notes of vanilla, and a strong black tea base to give it some depth and backbone. Smooth enough to drink straight (if not oversteeped) but delicious with a splash of whole milk. I did four short steeps and mixed them together.