Verdant Tea (Special)

The other day I thought about this tea again and it dawned on me that it might make a great cold brew. Root beer is usually drunk cold, afterall.

It came out pretty well. The sarsaparilla flavor was nice, although the cold brewing brought out a bit more vegetal-ness from the oolong than I would have preferred. I may drink the rest of this up via cold brew this summer; it might also make a decent tea soda.

So, this tea. I was a little apprehensive about this tea because although I love tieguanyin and I love sarsparilla, the smell of the dry leaf was a bit off-putting. So much fennel, why?? Also I was unsure about hot root beer (essentially).

But brewed up, it’s much nicer. Not so much fennel. It reminds me a touch of Master Zhang’s Genmaicha in the scent, but it’s not so toasty in the flavor. At first it mainly tastes like tieguanyin, but as it cools, the distinctive note of sarsparilla makes itself known. I don’t mind it hot, actually. It’s not a blend I would want to buy more of, but I also won’t have trouble drinking it up. Just wish the fennel was absent.

BTW, I got an email recently saying that my flavor suggestions (from ages ago) have been added to the database, and I’ve noticed a ton more flavors lately!

This tea is the perfect example of why I didn’t continue the blends club. White Peony Bouquet sounds like something I would like, and initially the ingredients seemed to confirm that: white tea, roses, marigold… check… then we get to peppermint? why?? plus lemongrass?? (citrus and mint are two things that should never go together in my mind) and then top the whole thing off with star anise… blech! The dry tea smells like licorice and mint. Note that I plucked the star anise out of my brew basket before steeping.

After steeping it does not smell pleasant. It’s familiar but I can’t place it. Over cooked spinach? Like really cooked into the ground so it gets that super vegetal sour smell? That’s what this smells like. I think it’s the mint and lemongrass working together. I can almost pick them apart in the aroma, but they are also blending in an odd way. It’s hard for me to take a sip.

Yeah, this tea is super not for me. White tea can be hit or miss for me as it is, and the mint and lemongrass do NOT bring out the flavors I like in this. Also it still tastes faintly like licorice. For those concerned about rose: don’t worry, it’s undetectable (rose seems to be a flavor that can get overwhelmed by others easily). I will say, for those who enjoy licorice, mint, and lemongrass, this would probably be good. But this tea for me can be summed up by this gif: http://www.reactiongifs.com/nope-nope-nope-octopus/

I know that was a super ringing endorsement, but if anyone wants this it’s going into my stash sales post.

Sipdown of this one! I was portioning this out this morning and realized that there wasn’t a ton left after taking out my two scoops, so I dumped the rest in and steeped it for half the time. Worked great! This is definitely a weird blend, but it’s a tasty blend. Spiced, malty, a bit piney… it works. And it doesn’t taste too much like trees for me. :)

Here’s another of my blends club teas that I am trying to drink up. I really did not expect to like this one… too many “weird things” in the blend. Not to mention that one of the base teas is a Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong, which is listed as “smoked” and I hate smoke in tea! But it turned out really tasty! Consider my horizons expanded.

No smoke flavor in this one, just a tasty blend of spices and malty black tea, with hints of cream and a bit of piney-ness (but not too much!). It honestly reminds me more of fall than spring, but it’s almost fall anyway. A nice blend!

I drank this one yesterday while grading exams, but forgot to log it. Initially I was apprehensive about this blend because it has a lot of odd herbs and barks and stuff in it, but I wanted to give it a try. The dry leaf smelled pretty decent, like chocolatey black tea and yabao, which is to say slightly spiced and slightly resiny.

I actually really enjoyed this tea. It was sweet, chocolatey, and mildly spiced, with some added interest from the yabao. I will have to drink another cup when I’m paying attention more to really figure out what’s going on, but right now I’m digging it. And I’m glad that I didn’t remember that Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong was a smoked black tea. I tried a subtle roast version back in the reserve club days, and it was too smoky for me (which is to say, it was smoky at all), and yet I got no smoke at all from this blend. Hope I don’t taste it now that I know it’s supposed to be there.

This one got me doubting my withdrawl from the blends club, but I have a feeling that the next one (sitting next to me now, waiting to be drunk) will cure me of that.

Oops lol here I am at a sipdown and I haven’t logged this tea yet! Well, it was tasty enough to be sipped down in 4 months out of all my teas lol, so there’s that! Its a very soothing tea, I drank it a lot when I had that terrible cold as it feels amazing on the throat. It’s a herby, cinnamon, licorice blend, with the mint being cooling but not sharp, more of a cozy mint. The licorice smooths everything and really makes for a lovely mouthfeel. I like that the flavors blend so well! I remember when I first had this tea, I wasn’t overly impressed, but it grew on me and has ended on a good note. I might (probably) will reorder this at some point, especially because my mom really likes this tea, she had one or two cups while visiting me :) a nicely done herbal, nice for evenings!

Here’s another sipdown from Sil. Quite honestly, I was avoiding this one, but it’s actually pretty good if you sweeten it!
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Another Blends sipdown from Sil
Another tea I don’t really have much to say about. It wasn’t bad, but there wasn’t really anything about it that piqued my interest. I’d rather just drink a plain old Puer.
At least I’ve been knocking out a bunch of sipdowns today!
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Another Blends Club tea from Sil.
I don’t hate this one, & I feel like I should love it, because it has so many of my favorite herbs in it:
Burdock – I actually eat burdock root in stir fried & stews, & it’s regularly featured in my homemade root kimchi concoction.
Elderberry – How I love my Elderberry tea, my favorite anti-viral, so much so that I planted 4 bushes this spring, although none of them are showing any signs of life so far… I think I may have to contact the plant place, because I think they sent me dead bushes.
Lemon Verbena – the aroma of lemon verbena used to be a popular perfume. It’s the best aroma therapy I know, which is why I have it growing in my herb garden.
Lemongrass – I usually grow it too, although I haven’t planted any yet this year.
Rooibos – meh
Tulsi – double meh

Anyway, I’m not really in love with it, but this is an ok blend. I can’t really think of anything else to say, except I can taste all of those herbs in there. None of them really stand out, so I guess I can say they are pretty well blended, right?
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My first sipdown of the day, sent to me from my tea sister Sil.
This is, without a doubt, my favorite from the verdant Blends, but only because I have a long love of licorice root. I’m not really so much of a fan of Fennel or Mint in my teas, but my guts are achy this morning from poor choices over the weekend, & both of those herbs are helpful for this sort of thing, so there you go.
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Another Verdant club sample :)

The blend smells exactly like Christmas pudding, it’s remarkable! It has an orange, raisin, malt essence that is the spit of Christmas Pudding, I have never sniffed anything that is a perfect match before. It should perhaps be known that I thoroughly enjoy the smell of Christmas pudding but am not a fan of eating it, so I opt out each year. That will make this an interesting tea to taste. But when you think about it a Christmas pudding is usually coated in whiskey and set alight so perhaps that is where the whisky part of this comes from? Bourbon and whisky being very similar and both favourites of mine.

Steeping 5g of this into my 200ml gongfu (which is just under 8oz) with freshly boiled water.

The tea colour is golden brown (much a like bourbon/whisky) and has a sweet yet roasted scent, reminds me of rooibos.

Flavour is of medium strength with a touch of smoke and malt which dominate a sweet rooibos base. After taste is sweet like vanilla or almond, more than just the rooibos, and it lingers on the tongue. Also has a light leather taste after a few sips. As it cools it picks up a sour tone and becomes honeyed.

Does it taste like bourbon? Honestly no, though I would say it has a some resemblance. It’s an enjoyable blend and I am very happy to have tried this one. I would buy this one. I find it tastes better as it cools, becomes more bourbon like when it’s luke warm. :)

Umm.

Normally I enjoy the smell of chamomile, and I absolutely adore frankincense. This, however, does not inspire those reactions. This. Smells. Nasty.

Steeping 1.5 tsp in 14 oz water for 3 min. Let’s see how this goes…

Steeped, thank GOODNESS, this smells like a high quality honey’d chamomile. It tastes like chamomile too, but there’s more lurking back there. I think it needs to cool a bit.

Hmm. Yeah. Spicy chamomile. Flavourful spicy, not hot spicy. Really interesting. Definitely like it a lot better than I thought I would, although I likely wouldn’t go out of my way to get more.

Another one from Sil.
Not really much to say about this one, except it’s minty fresh, lol.

Another verdant Blends Club tea from Sil.
This is ok, but not something I’d ever want to stock in my cupboard. The Sarsaparilla is kind of interesting in a root beer sort of way, but I don’t really care much for Tulsi.

Sil shared this, & the rest of the Verdant Blends club teas with me (& about 100 adagio fandom blends, but we’re not talking about those right now). I divided all of the Verdant Blends in half, & shared them with Dag.

So here’s the first one. I haven’t had a snickerdoodle cookie in about 20 years, so I can’t really say if it comes close. Plain it is just soso, add a little maple & it isn’t bad.
I steeped it for 3 or 4 minutes. I’m not really sure how long, as I forgot to set the timer.
Sipdown

It’s been a busy weekend of gardening, yard work and cleaning haha and finally we got our first couple thunderstorms today! And rain :D finally don’t have to water the flowerbeds, garden and lawn today lol. Anyways, May showers called for some rainy day tea..this one (April showers, but close enough lol).

I read the ingredients list and was a bit apprehensive about how many ingredients were listed. Also, I keep thinking I’m going to have a terrible allergic reaction to the birch and dandelion in the teas, as both of these make me sneeze horribly in the spring AKA right now haha all the pollen :( but as they use the root of the dandelion and birch bark, I seem to be ok so far with teas including these ingredients lol. I will also be trying chicory later with the other blend club tea this month, Cask Strength. Anyways, rambly aside over, onto the tea!

Dry, this smelled, well…intense. A bit overpowering. My nose didn’t know what was up lol. Cinnamon and cacao and wood..definitely wood. I also looked at the leaves and thought hmm! Roasted oolong or black tea?? Decided to steep and see if I could figure it out.

I steeped for 2 minutes with boiling water, as it also has Yabao in it which usually needs boiling water. The steeped smell is woody like crazy. I was unsure if it was all Yabao or something else…so I quickly searched Zheng Zhan Xiao Zhong on Verdant and found out it’s a smoked black tea!! Ahhh a type of Lapsang??? I have had bad experiences with the one Lapsang I tried (DavidsTea, highly do not recommend lol) so I approached this with a lot of caution. And I also was pleased my nose could pick out the pine notes from the scent :)

So as for the flavor..my first expression was actually kind of baffled. What is this…then my brain was like “damp campfire in the woods after a rain” and I spoke it aloud to my boyfriend and he’s like “Be sure to put that in your review!” So there it is. This definitely evokes a rainy feeling..and to be honest, it’s not an overpowering smoke, it’s more like that hint of smoke on the cool breeze after a rain and the ashes of the fire are close to being out but still slightly smoldering. Not at all unpleasant! It also has a certain sweetness in there too, later in the sip and in the aftertaste..maybe the vanilla? Most definitely that. It keeps it interesting!

Overall, a very earthy, interesting blend. I didn’t think I’d enjoy it all all from the dry scent, and was still unsure after steeping. But it’s not too bad actually. Probably not a favorite, but I do like the camping memories it brings about. And very true to the name, it’s a rainy day blend! Happy to have had the chance to try this tea, another exciting one from the blend of the month!

I liked this one pretty good, tho I don’t consider it a Tea it is a pretty good “coffee” type drink.
This one to me tastes like a chicory, dandelion herbal coffee substitute, I can’t taste very much of the orange peel or anything else really other than maybe the burdock.
My review of this is prolly biased because I’m very fond of chicory dandelion coffee substitutes, I like the slightly bitter herbal coffeelike goodness and thats what this one is to me.
It can brew up really dark and nice if you let it, If you have some from your verdant TOTM club brew it strong and treat it like a coffee, If you have an espresso maker machine you can totally make this tea in there and it is the best.
I’ll be brewing this in my Espresso maker from time to time in the mornings until I run out of it, Luckily I was able to get some more so hopefully I wont run out any time soon :)

Sipdown of this one yesterday. I enjoyed this one pretty well but in the end the Dragonwell was a little too savory-buttery for me. Sometimes it was almost broth-like. It probably would have been decent cold brewed but the amount of fluffy flowers in this would have made judging leaf amounts very difficult.

I guess I still don’t know what exactly is in this tea, since I haven’t dug out the info sheet since the first time I had it. I don’t even know if I still have those info sheets or where they went in the move, so I may never really know, haha.

This is pretty tasty overall, and not really floral despite the “bouquet” designation. The dragonwell (probably dragonwell-style laoshan green, right?) is so buttery that the tea almost borders on savory. It gets a bit sweeter and lemonier as it cools, and it would probably make a tasty iced tea.

I don’t remember what was in this blend and I added it this morning at work, so I don’t have the info sheet with me. Dragonwell, obviously, and it looks like jasmine blossoms, sunflower/safflower petals, and lemongrass? We’ll see!

Ok, yeah, this is a nicely lemony dragonwell. Hints of jasmine, but not too floral. Buttery, fresh, and pleasant. Will be interested to know if there is anything else in here that I’m not tasting, but otherwise it is a nice spring tea.

So I did end up canceling my blends club (even though I have enjoyed these teas) because I was looking them all again, and one tea of three a month is just not worth it to me. Clearly my taste buds are just a little bit different from the folks at Verdant (they love fennel and mint!), which is funny because I have enjoyed so many of their blends that have been offered for sale on the site. Guess I will stick to those for now on.

My Verdant club teas arrived today :) This was my the first tea I tried from the club I’m in both blends and pure clubs), purely chosen as it’s not April any more but we are having May showers here in Leicester. It smells like hot cinnamon and aniseed, spicy but sweet and earthy. Very nice, in a way it does smell like rain.

Flavour wise I was met with delicious thick cinnamon and light brown sugar with a sour cocoa after taste that mists and lingers. Also a hint of wood.

It tastes similar to a spiced Oolong I’ve had from Tealux. Really liking this blend.

Sipdown on this one, and boy was this cup full of flower dust. But still magically tasty. I think that possibly Yunnan White Jasmine can do no wrong. I would not be mad about more blends with that base in the future. Which reminds me, I still gotta try the Tropical Jasmine from last month, which I already got more of from Cameron B. :)