Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Pu-erh
Where to Buy: Verdant Tea
Tea Description:
Xingyang Workshop produces some of the cleanest and most sparkling shu pu’er we have tried. The 2008 shu nuggets are just calling to be made into a juicy and cooling blend. The spearmint and peppermint provide a crisp edge and refreshing flavor that brings out the sparkling texture of the tea. The cinnamon and fennel extend the sweetness and bring it out into the long aftertaste.
Learn more about this blend here.
Taster’s Review:
At this point, I’ve tried quite a few different teas from Verdant Tea. They’ve become one of my favorite sources for high-quality, pure teas because, put simply, they have some of the very best pure (unflavored, unblended) teas that I’ve tried.
But I’ve not tried very many of their blends, so I was excited with this opportunity to try one of the blends that has received rave reviews on Steepster.
The picture above suggests to me that this tea is a stunner iced, so I’ve been allowing this first infusion to cool to “cold” temperature before tasting. It doesn’t take long at all since I’ve poured this into a very small teacup… and now that it has cooled, I must say that this is really very good!
The initial flavors are minty, with a back note of fennel. The cinnamon together with the fennel create a sort of spicy licorice-y taste … it’s a sweet and exotic kind of flavor that is very enjoyable, especially as it melds with the crisp, cool minty flavors of spearmint and peppermint.
At first, it was difficult to discern the Puerh, but, as I focus, I could taste it in the background. And as I near the end of my teacup (time for another infusion!) the earthy flavors of the Puerh are emerging. I expect that the next infusion will be earthier than this first infusion.
Yes! This infusion brewed to a darker color, looking much more like a cup of Pu-erh (and tasting more like it too!) It is this infusion where I find these flavors starting to swirl together in a very harmonious fashion. It no longer is an “initially minty, with back notes of fennel and cinnamon and pu-erh in the background” kind of cup. This is minty, yes, and fennel-y, and cinnamon-y too. But these flavors are much more in step with one another. It’s become a remarkably smooth tea with notes of mint and fennel and cinnamon. It’s like it’s become very unified – one tea with many flavors, the whole has become better than the individual parts with this unification.
That is to say that while these flavors are distinctive, they seem to be playing as a part of the whole cup here. Truly an Alchemy blend – where all these flavors that might otherwise be ordinary have come together to create a truly extraordinary taste.
This tea keeps getting more delicious with each infusion, too. Just when I think it can’t get better, I infuse it again, and it does get better! Smoother, richer, more harmonious. It was with the third and fourth infusion that I began to notice a background note of cocoa! The aftertaste is cool and crisp and minty, and together with the tones of cocoa, it’s almost like an exotic chocolate mint.
I love how my palate is begging me for more of this tea … it’s that good!
Laoshan Apothecary Green Tea from Verdant Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green / Tulsi blend
Where to Buy: Verdant Tea
Tea Description:
The goal of the blend is to bring out the complexity of texture that Laoshan green exhibits while allowing the flavors of spring and of Laoshan itself to come through. We used cardamom and coriander as complex texture building blocks that draw out the aftertaste and make the mouth water. These additions are fortified with Holy Basil and peppermint to keep the crisp flavor and sweetness.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I was really excited to try this tea – I had been hearing so many good things about it on Steepster! Plus, I really love cardamom and coriander, and I love that this blend focuses on these two spices as well as their Laoshan Green Tea from this past spring’s harvest. This tea seemed to have all the makings for a real winner of a blend.
The aroma is amazing. With my first deep inhale, I picked up the unmistakeable notes of coriander. My brain also was telling me “cardamom” although I thought I was just trying to think of coriander and cardamom popped out … then I smelled again and YES… that’s cardamom alright! Then I started to notice subtle hints of peppery mint … is that tulsi? Yes, indeed. And once the olfactory nerves moved past the tulsi I was also able to discern the peppermint. All these wonderful fragrances together with a very subtle leafy green note, smelling very much like the air in spring-time when all the new green growth is sprouting up all around me. Very fresh and lively!
I wondered if the spices would overwhelm the Laoshan Green Tea, though, because they smell so strong in the dry leaf … but David at Verdant Tea mixed this blend skillfully and with great attention to achieving balance. This tastes and feels very nicely rounded on the palate, offering hints of pepper, citrus, mint and vegetative green notes, but without one flavor overpowering another.
The first few sips, I tasted the green tea – front and center! And that’s just the way it should be. This is a green tea blend … not a spice blend with green tea. It is sweet and creamy, with hints of creaminess – maybe somewhere between fresh cream and butter – and notes of whole grain. It is a great base to use with the spices that were chosen for this blend.
The coriander is probably the most immediately recognized spice, but the cardamom comes in just after that. They provide warmth in the form of a peppery tone – this is more of a savory pepper than a spicy-hot one though – and I think that it has enough of a subtly about it that even those who tend to shy away from “spicy” blends could enjoy this … this is not a chai!
About mid-cup, I start to notice the crisp, minty tones of the tulsi and peppermint. These are very subtle, and I like how they were added to the blend – not with a heavy hand, but with a plan to utilize these herbs as accentuating components rather than the main event. Instead of tasting strongly of mint – it tastes crisp, zesty, cool… very fresh and exhilarating, without overpowering the cup.
This is very refreshing iced, too. It’s almost a completely different tea! The mint is much more prominent in the cooled version, but the peppery tones of the spices are also there, offering accents to the mint. I’d describe it as a new twist – or perhaps a twisted new version – of a Moroccan Mint. And it’s a very nice twist indeed!
Zhu Rong Yunnan Black Tea from Verdant Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Verdant Tea
Tea Description:
The aroma of this intensely rich Yunnan black is immediately reminiscent of one of our favorite chocolate’s of all time: the Rogue Chocolatier Hispaniola bar, made with a tangy and nuanced cacao from the Dominican Republic. Imagine a fine dark chocolate melted down and infused with hibiscus. That is the aroma of this tea. It is so rich and fruity it even reminds us of a fine, light roasted coffee.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I find myself in agreement with the above description, this does, indeed smell of dark chocolate with just a hint of hibiscus. Maybe even a hint of freshly roasted coffee. It’s one of those delicious, eye-opening kind of scents – the kind of fragrance that you want to experience first thing in the morning to help wake you up.
The first notes that I really notice with this tea is very much like the aroma – sans the hibiscus (thankfully!) I taste a rich, deep note that reminds me of dark chocolate that’s been infused with espresso (which is about the only way I experience coffee, these days). YUM!
As I continue to sip, the chocolate remains, however, other flavors start to emerge. I notice hints of pepper as well as a sweet pototo/yam-like kind of flavor that brings the texture of this tea into focus. The overall cup is warm and flavorful, reminding me of the splendor of autumn and the flavors that I associate with that time of year.
The first pot of tea was so delicious, I thought I’d try infusing the leaves a second time to see what flavors it had in store for me. I usually have wonderful luck with multiple infusions from Verdant’s teas!
And the second infusion did not let me down. With this cup, I notice some fruitier notes beginning to emerge. I noticed the peppery notes of a Yunnan in the first cup, but now these peppery notes seem to be changing. The taste I notice now not so much of a black pepper which is what I typically experience with a Yunnan. This is more like a hot pepper – only not so hot that I feel like my mouth is burning. I notice the fruity tones of the pepper.
Imagine the flavors you might experience from a hot pepper if the inner membranes and seeds were carefully removed. The pepper is still hot, only not as hot as it would be with those seeds and membranes. And with some of that heat removed, the palate is able to explore the fruitier nature of the pepper. It is those fruity qualities that I taste with only a fraction of the heat… maybe even a fraction of a fraction. It’s not spicy – it’s mildly warm – but with a beautiful pepper-y fruit note.
This peppery quality melds beautifully with the smoky notes I notice in the distance, as well as the aforementioned chocolate-y notes which have remained (although they are somewhat softer than they were in the first infusion). It becomes a deliciously savory and sweet experience.
Truly a lovely tea – which is something I’ve come to expect from Verdant. If you’ve not yet sampled their teas, I highly recommend them. You won’t be disappointed.
Tea Trail 2004: Willow Grove Workshop Pu-erh from Verdant Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Pu-erh
Where to Buy: Verdant Tea
Tea Description:
A uniquely clean shu pu’er with both warming and cooling qualities, a sophisticated musky profile, and a sparkling texture like fresh mint and basil leaf. . . .
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
The dry leaf of this Pu-erh doesn’t have a strong aroma, I would describe this as slightly musky/earthy, but not quite as earthy as I might usually experience with a Pu-erh. The brewed tea has a woodsy kind of scent to it, reminding me of the damp wooded areas just after a rain here in the Pacific Northwest – mossy, damp, earthy … woody and even a little musty.
The flavor is also earthy, but it is lighter than I expected to to be. There is a tingly sensation to this, like the zesty feeling that the palate experiences with something minty. It doesn’t really taste minty as much as it feels minty. It feels crisp and invigorating.
This crisp, lightness lasts for a couple of infusions, and by about the third and fourth infusion, I notice that the body of the tea begins to develop. The sweet undertones to this tea start out similarly, beginning with subtle sweet notes that develop as I continue to sip.
The tasting notes on Verdant Tea’s website suggests hints of apple and cinnamon, and I taste those too, they are especially noticeable in later infusions. I find these flavors to be the most intriguing about this tea – because in the first and second infusions, there were mere hints of a cinnamon-like note, but it was very vague … almost like it wasn’t real. Imagine for a moment, if you would, someone burning cinnamon scented incense in a room hours ago. The faint suggestion of cinnamon remains in the room hours later, but it is so faint, so barely-there, that you wonder if you’re just imagining it or really experiencing it. That is how the cinnamon-y apple notes work with this tea in the first couple of infusions. They are like mere insinuations of a cinnamon/apple flavor, but with the later infusions, these notes become more focused – more real.
This is a really fascinating Pu-erh!
Golden Fleece from Verdant Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Verdant Tea
Tea Description:
This is the finest, most nuanced and intriguing Dian Hong we have ever encountered. Wang Yanxin, our sourcing agent who has devoted her life to Yunnan, has been searching for a Dian Hong like this for years. Every time she sends us pu’er, she includes 30-40 Dian Hong teas, and Jin Jun Mei teas. This time, she only sent us one, and wrote on the bag “this is the one. Best Dian Hong. Taste slowly.” She was so very right.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I can see why they chose to call this tea “Golden Fleece.” The leaves are indeed golden, every single one of them, and they are covered in fluffy, fuzzy down. They feel a bit like a high-quality silver needle tea; they are soft and fluffy like that. The dry leaf is very aromatic with a rich, sweet, earthy scent, with notes of cocoa in the distance. It is a bit rustic, with its earthy fragrance, and there are even notes of leather in there.
I don’t usually follow the tea company’s brewing parameters when I brew tea, usually, with a black tea, I use my Breville One-Touch and steep it the way I’d normally steep a black tea – setting the temperature at boiling, adding three teaspoons of leaf to the steeping basket, add 500 ml of freshly filtered, cool water to the pot, and set the steep time to 2 1/2 minutes.
There are a few exceptions, but usually, that is how I brew a black tea. It works for me. However, with this Golden Fleece from Verdant Tea, I actually decided to follow the purveyor’s suggested parameters, but with a slight twist. I still used my Breville, and I added 4 teaspoons of tea to the basket (figuring that 500 ml makes two 8-ounce cups), and set the temperature to boiling, and the time to 1 minute. I added 30 seconds to each subsequent infusion, and I managed four amazing infusions from one measurement of leaves!
Even after 1 minute, the first infusion brews to a dark, coppery color. And as I said before, the flavor is amazing, and I’m astonished that this much flavor was achieved after infusing for just 1 minute! The first cup was sweet with notes of caramel and chocolate and vanilla. Smooth as if I were sipping on liquid velvet. It is rich, not so much what I’d call bold but instead, more of a freshly baked bread meets chocolate kind of rich.
The second infusion is a little lighter on the velvet-y kind of smoothness, which while it was quite delightful, seemed to keep some of the other flavors of this tea hidden. Now some newly discovered flavors are able to emerge. This cup has a little more earthiness to it, with notes of wood and leather. It is still rich with bread-y notes and notes of cocoa and caramel. The caramel seems to be offering a raw cane sugar kind of note, complete with hints of molasses.
I am noticing more of a gentle, warm spice note here: hints of cinnamon, a slight peppery note in the background, and even freshly ground clove. It isn’t spicy. These flavors do not dominate, instead, think of it as a light seasoning … as if the tea were lightly sprinkled with these spices.
The third infusion brings the earthy notes of this tea into focus. I taste the mushroom-like notes that are suggested in the tasting notes on Verdant Tea’s website. This infusion is warm, bright, and robust. While much of the fluff of the first cup is gone now, I now have a more focused, crisper tea before me. Still sweet with notes of raw sugar, this is more sugar and less caramel. The cocoa notes are more distant here, and are becoming a bit more like a raw chocolate kind of flavor. 
The fourth and final infusion resembles more of what I expect from a “typical” black tea. By that, I mean, we have now pulled back soft fluff of the earlier infusions to expose the heart of the tea. It is earthy and mellow, and while I don’t drink a whole lot of anything except for tea so I’m not speaking from experience here, this is what I would think that a well-aged spirit might be like. What kind of spirit, I don’t know. You know those movies where someone says something like “I have a ten-year scotch that I saved for this very momentous occasion” – that’s what I’m thinking this must be like. Getting here, to this point with this tea, is something extraordinary.
I realize this may be one of my longest reviews, but, this tea has so many facets to it that it would be difficult to edit it down to a shorter, more concise review. If I were to shorten my review, here is what I might say:
The first infusion of this tea is like a warm, fluffy blanket. Experience the soft, silky fleece of the blanket, and wrap yourself in its comfort. The second infusion explores that warmth a little further, something beyond the blanket of velvet-y softness, allowing you to experience the gentle nuances of the comfort itself with the gentle spice tones. With the third infusion, you are now comfortable and warm, so let us explore the earth and see what we uncover as we pull back the warm, fleecy blanket. The fourth infusion, this last infusion, is much more like what I’ve come to expect from a black tea: earthy and rich; not so fluffy anymore. There is so many flavors to uncover here: starting with a fluffy, luxurious taste, and ending with a earthy, rustic flavor, this tea delivers on so many levels.
This isn’t the kind of tea that you’d reach for in the morning when you’re looking for that invigorating boost. Really, I don’t think you’d want this tea for that anyway. Instead, this is the kind of tea that you want to spend the day savoring. You want to save this for one of those days when you have the time to sit back and really enjoy your cup of tea. This tea is really too good and too special for anything less than that, and certainly doesn’t deserve to be gulped down before running out the door.
I don’t know how much of this tea Verdant Tea has left, but what I do know is that they have mentioned that their quantities are extremely limited with this tea. So, if you’ve not yet added this Dian Hong tea to your tea cupboard, I strongly recommend that you do so now, before the supply runs out. This is NOT a tea you want to miss!