2264 Tasting Notes
All. Mine. I’m not sharing this one with ANYONE. The spices aren’t the blend I generally associate with chai. Like the Phoenix one, the spices lean a bit more towards cardamom.
I don’t really know what else. It’s good, it’s mine, and now I have to try mixing the rest of my laoshan black with the masala chai in my cupboard.
(0.5 tbsp for a 16oz mug, water just off the boil, 4 minutes, added honey and creamer.)
2013-03-21 Yes! A tea from verdant that i really like! I used to drink all these weird medicinal herbal teas, and this tastes like a much, much better version of all of them. I guess the minty flavour that is not mint is the tulsi… i should see about picking up some plain tulsi tea!
I added a pinch (about 8 leaves) of the autumn laoshan green to this, just because. I honestly can’t tell that it’s in there, but i don’t know if that’s good or bad. I used 1 tsp tea in about 8 oz water and steeped 2 mins. Just sniffing it made me want to add honey, but it’s surprisingly sweet on its own. I quickly gave in and added honey, but only about 1/4 tsp. There are definitely more steeps in the leaves, so I’m going to chuck what’s leftover into my timolino tomorrow (mine just has a screen, not a basket), and see how tastebud-shrivelingly powerful it gets after a full morning of steeping.
Anyways, i really like this one. Definitely a unique herbal done right, imo.
Edit: Steep two is just ginger. Boo! Oh well. I didn’t have super high hopes for a second steep on an herbal anyways. :)
Preparation
I loveee this tea so much!
My cup is cold now and I’m still sipping on it! I love it. So excited to drink more tomorrow. (I’m alternating tea and water right now as I’m a little dehydrated. Tea for flavour, water for hydration.)
Hooray! :D Glad to hear you really like this one!
I love this one too! It’s totally unique but so satisfying when I’m sick, especially with a scoop of raw honey!
It was SO good with honey.
Nice! Glad you like it :-)
Hmm. I like this one more than Laoshan black, but that’s not saying much at all. Both the teas have this smoky burnt taste that I don’t like. This tea is more mild in terms of that flavour, and the rest of the flavour profile is also different, but… no. I will actually be able to finish this cup, and have a few more steeps, but I think I’m only going to keep one package. The rest can be swapped or given away.
I’m glad I did this Verdant order, but I wish I had purchased sample sizes of /everything/ instead of just a few 1 oz packages.
I brewed half a package in a normal sized mug, boiling water, 2 minutes. Second steep will be 2:30, third 3:00, etc. The other half package I’ll try next week in my tiny gong fu pot.
Edit: ok, nope. Moving on to a matcha latte. I’ll try another steep of this later, with added milk and sugar. Definitely not a plain tea for me.
gong fu style should use a full package. I prefer this one western style at 1 minute steep. I think I know the taste oyu’re talking about. It’s almost nutty.
For a medium gong fu pot or cup, yes, but mine is only 2oz! Teeny tiny. :) I’ll have to try a shorter steep as well. Thanks!
Gotcha!
That’s too bad that Verdant proved to be a disappointment for you. :( Looks like the whole order was a bust. But at least you know now, and at least you didn’t buy massive amounts.
I haven’t tried the laoshan chai, the autumn laoshan green, or the ginger sage, and with a 4 minute steep the phoenix chai is a nice light cardamom-y chai, just not what i was expecting. :) Not terrible, but not my favourites! I am keeping my fingers crossed for the ginger sage and laoshan chai. I think it could make an excellent in-your-face chai base. Actually, i’ll try the ginger sage one now…
Oh good! So there are some you haven’t tried from them yet. :) Good, here’s hoping you have better luck with the remainders. :D
I like this one! With lots of caveats, but i do!!
I swear I wrote something!
Something about a honey-sugar smell in the just steeped tea. I think that as I get used to plain black teas, and learn about flavour notes, I’m starting to learn why I like specific teas.
This one is a winner for sure. Excellent in a cup with just some cream, with sugar, good plain (coming from someone who usually adds milk and sugar to their plain teas, that’s saying something!), amazing even in a travel mug.
Have you tried Butiki’s Premium Taiwanese Assam by any chance? It has a cocoa like flavor like Laoshan Black, but it’s FAR more mild and doesn’t have that burnt-ness that you don’t like in Verdant’s. Plus it’s on sale right now, so it’s fairly low risk. :)
Not yet! I haven’t ordered from them yet as their shipping minimum is quite high. I am compiling a list of teas to get, though! Part of the problem is that the couple friends I have who like tea won’t order online, so I have no one to split the $75 of tea with!
Ah I see, fair enough. :) I used to always go for free shipping too, but lately I’ve just been ponying it up. xD; Which probably isn’t all that smart ’cause what looks cheaper at the moment does cost more in the long run.
But anyway, just wanted to correct my statement about the Assam a little, turns out you can overleaf it. I’ve had several cups with no burn taste, but in this cup I put in too many leaves and now it’s quite burnt tasting. The leaves are ENORMOUS and hard to scoop, so it is very easy to overleaf it, so just thought I’d let you know just in case.
But regardless, if you do make a Butiki order eventually, I really hope you love as much as I do. I absolutely love Stacy’s customer service and her teas. Butiki has become my favorite tea vendor. :)
I tend to be a brat, and if grams aren’t listed I email and ask about how many grams per cup. :) For unflavoured black teas, i generally find it’s easier, until i know about how many tsp. then i write extra notes on my package!
Oh wow, that’s really smart! I’d never think to measure in grams, haha. I even have a food scale that’d make that easy to do.
I have a white puerh that ends up being about two tbsp per cup (5g). It’s ridiculous! Thankfully it can be resteeped a few times. Generally it’s 2-3 grams per 8 oz, so for a full travel mug i do 4-5, depending on the tea. Generally. Every person’s taste is different, as i’ve learned this week!
So it’s the end of the day, after an exam and 4 additional hours of math, and I’m making some well-deserved midnight Parmesan noodles, and ‘suddenly’ I want tea. After going through my cupboard in preparation for sampling out stuff for the Victoria Meet-Up (yay!), I wasn’t in the mood to faff around with anything, so I reached for a bag.
This one won out over Numi’s Dry Desert Lime, mostly because I don’t need any sweetener with it. Just hot water and my mug.
Yum. Sweet-sour lemony lemonness. Doesn’t really “go” with my noodles, but I don’t care.
Now I’m thinking I should have tried that Verdant sage blend. Oh well. This is good.
Preparation
Oh, I want noodles now… But I should just go to bed…
I should have been in bed ages ago. :) There’s been so much studying, I think I’m too tired to sleep.
I should go to sleep too… I’m three time zones later than both of you D:
At this point it’s basically morning for you! Yikes! Hope you sleep well.
I did the same thing. I meant to be in bed at 10PM last night, but somehow it was 1:30AM before I did. I have no idea how that happened. Dx
I don’t like staying up late either, so it’s not like old habits kicked in.
I’m totally a night owl, but I’ve had to leave the house before 8 almost every day this semester. I am not really looking forward to working in the real world. 8-4:30 is a terrible shift for me!
Haha, I’m quite a night owl. I went to bed around 4am. Trying to change my habits, but being kind of sick and having trouble sleeping kind of messed things up for me. Sigh.
Made this in a mug this morning using, uhh, 3 or 4 day old leaves. Yep. This second steep is surprisingly flavorful. Orange, creme, sugar, oolong, it’s all there. Next time I won’t mistreat the leaves so horribly and hopefully then I’ll be able to get a third steep as well!
Hahaha, wtg, I totally leave my leaves that long sometimes. I haven’t fallen ill yet, knock on wood! The re-steeps are usually better though when leaves aren’t left quite as long, I agree.
Oh, thank goodness I’m not the only one. :) I figure if they’re in a basket on a plate and they dry, they’re probably fine.
Ahaha, I have a plate of all my like, 9 baskets. It sits in my cupboard on top of the rest of my plates! The only teas that do not like sitting out are fresh/vegetal greens. They develop a metallic taste quickly.
Good to know!
Whee, I’m the first to log this tea!
Sadly, this isn’t going to be a comprehensive review. Mostly just a note that I really liked it. It smells appley and lemony and spicy. Kind of like spiced stewed apples with some fresh lemon zest. It is quite a light black tea, but that lightness works really well with these flavours. I used 2 very loose tsp in a 10oz mug, boiling water, and let it steep 3 minutes.
Drinkable plain, for sure, but a pinch of sugar really brings out the light spiced apple scent.
No sour notes in this tea today. I used tap water instead of brita filtered water. I don’t really like it, though. The flavour has almost a burnt quality which I’m really not enjoying. I think i need to set it aside for a couple weeks and revisit it.
Again, i did a western style brew. I just re-used the tea leaves from yesterday and did a 5 minute steep.
Ps. I have the autumn 2012 harvest.
It’s a shame you’re not a big fan. But I guess that’s what makes the world diverse, hey? :) I’m actually kind of surprised that I liked it so much, since I can’t stand teas with added chocolate, so it stands to reason that I wouldn’t like naturally chocolate either, but I did!
But yes, perhaps a different harvest would make the difference. I heard that this one REALLY varies.
I like it better with sugar, for sure. It’s so weird though, having heard so much about it, to not like it. :)
Thanks to Chizacura I was sucked into trying this tea next. Now, i’m eating egg salad on lettuce (gf bread is a hassle, srsly), so my smell and taste might be biased.
Dry, this tea smells quite earthy and dark. I was hesitant. Steeped, this tea smells like chocolate dirt pie, essentially. You know when you make a pie with super loamy dark earth and lots of water, then chase your younger brother around with it trying to smoosh it in his face? Yeah. Add dark chocolate to that. It’s weird to have a tea smell like this.
It tastes surprisingly not like dirt! I see where everyone gets the thick chocolate and raisin tastes. This tea also has a bit of a weird sour note to me. Something must be wrong with either my tastebuds, or my dishes, because I’ve never tasted this in a tea before. With a 3 minute steep, this is bordering on astringent. Idk. I need to try more leaves next time (I’ll admit, i totally shorted my cup. 1 tbsp per 8 oz?!), and try it without mucking up my tastebuds with food.
Interestingly, as it cools this smells kind of like a super amped up version of the Strong Irish Breakfast from Steep that i had this morning with milk and honey…
Ok, i gave in and added 1/8 tsp sugar to the last 2/3rds of my mug. Yeah, that’s better. Still the sour (seriously, what is up with this? I can’t figure it out!), but the rest of the flavours are way better. Definitely need to try with more leaves.
That’s funny, your description of the smell is EXACTLY what I thought about Read My Lips from DavidsTea. xD
I’m not sure where you’re getting the sour from though, because I shorted my cup too (I did one 1tbsp in 16oz. lol Yet it still tasted strong and hearty. 1tbsp in 8oz seems like such a waste)
Maybe try it again when you have the egg salad taste out of your mouth?
I had it from the chocolate phoenix chai as well. I was actually so not into tea this morning, that I got a latte. Idk. Maybe today is just not a tea day.
Oh, it definitely is strong and hearty though. It’s beaten my irish breakfast blend in a fight for strength, that’s for sure. I’ll try it again sometime this week. :)
Yeah, perhaps today just wasn’t the day for it. I’ll have that too, where I think “I thought I remembered this tasted better” then I’ll have it a different day and I’m just WOWed.
Random, but let me know if Anxi Fo Shou works well for western style? :) The website recommends gongu to the point that I don’t think it even offered instructions for western. xD I’d be more than happy to drink gongfu at someone else’s house, but I’m just too lazy to do it at home; I just make big hefty cups. xD
The handout that came with it says half a packet for western. I’m guessing it’s for 3 min, but i was going to see what other people on here said about it. Just… not today. I don’t think i could handle any more weird sour teas today! I sort of do gongfu.
yes, probably best to give your tastebuds a rest for the day. xD And thanks. :)
One thing about the Laoshan (this is probably because of the leaf shortage though) is that it doesn’t re-steep as well as people seem to say. Everyone says the second cup is very cinnamony whereas for me it tasted the same as the first except VASTLY weaker. The third I just dumped. Not pleasant having the tongue coating sensation but no taste. :/ The first cup I had was still incredibly amazing though. Maybe I’ll try in a 12oz cup next, maybe that’ll be the difference.
Apparently i didn’t finish. I sort of gongfu using a soy sauce container from Daiso. Pour water in, pour tea into mug, etc, until the mug is full. :) The container is very tiny so i don’t have to use much tea.
I took a break from doing math homework and clutching my aching belly to go to the post office. Yay!!! My order arrived!
This is the tea that won out for first try. I’ve done a 1 minute brew with 2 tsp tea and 200ml water that’s just off the boil. First impression? It’s weird. There’s a lot of spice here (Cardamom! Whoa!), a lot of complex tea flavours that I can’t pick out, and a weird sour note.
Steep 1 with sugar: added 1/4 tsp sugar, and its better. The sour note is more juicy, although this is definitely a cardamom steeping!
Steep 1 with sugar and milk: even more to my taste.
Steep 2, 3 minutes: This really is a very light tea. I don’t know why i was expecting something significantly darker. Anyways, i could drink this steep plain, but i prefer this tea with a little sugar and milk. 1/8 tsp sugar, 1/2 tbsp soy creamer, 200ml tea. Pretty darn tasty.
I’ll have to try this again with a 3 minute steep right off the bat. I’m not sure I would order this one again, though. I guess it depends on what I think of future cups!
This one may grow on you, once you get accustomed to it. It’s definitely quite light though! I usually go with a similar tea:water ratio as you, but a 4-min steep to start off, otherwise it’s too weak. And it does taste great with milk and sugar (although just a bit).
Good to know! I was reading and someone had less sour with tap water than brita filtered, so I’ll try tap water tomorrow too. Our water here is pretty good, just chlorinated.
Lucky – the tap water here is ridiculously hard. So much so that I have trouble drinking it straight unless it’s ice cold and I gulp it down. So it’s Brita or nothing for me (I’m not buying bottled!)
It’s (much) better today, but yes, a very very light tea with lots of spices. Not really what i was looking for, and now i’m scared to try the laoshan village chai.
Laoshan Village Chai is definitely more your classic chai :)
LOL! I love this one too!!
I’m really surprised, because I can’t stand the laoshan black plain. The spices just… work. Now I want to try Earl of Anxi.