Verdant Tea (Special)

Not my style at all…unsure if it is the tulsi?
What I know is this month had three tulsi blends…
I loved one and strongly disliked the other two :-(

I have to admit, I wasn’t thrilled to see that the January blends club theme was tulsi. I haven’t had a lot of tulsi (and never just tulsi), but what I have had I haven’t been fond of. But I will try it nonetheless!

When I smelled the dry leaf I was a little put off, and I think it must have been the tulsi because there isn’t anything else in this blend that should be objectionable. Fortunately after steeping it evens out a bit and smells better. Herby, cocoa-y, almost minty even though there isn’t any mint in this. It honestly reminds me a bit of the scent profile of the Peppermint Bark herbal. The taste has a lot more oolong in it, and I’m definitely tasting the toasty, minerally flavor of the Wuyi oolong. A bit of cocoa, and a bit of herbal, root beerish flavor. Considering this blend contains a few things I’m not really a fan of (wuyi oolong, tulsi), I don’t mind it too much, but I wouldn’t say that I really like it that much either. Ah well, can’t love them all!

I needed this spicy tonic this morning.
Going through some depression related to my health.
This cuppa is rich, earthy, spicy & definitely full bodied.
It is recommended for eve sipping, but this my morning cup.
It is getting me going and helping to draw out some sunshine
out of this cup and ignore the blustery, snowy day outside.
I cannot identify all the individual additions to this mix, but I love the spicyness.
This is wonderfully rich ♡☆♡
If you have never tried a puerh, but always wanted to ~
This is highly recommended ~ complex & rich & FABULOUS

I’ve been missing blends now that they have their own monthly club and the “classic” tends to be all pure teas, so I decided to join the “Blend” club for a month or two. I was a little taken aback by this month’s theme – Tulsi is not one of favorites, though I don’t dislike it either. But, I really like this one. Especially on later steeps it tastes like marshmallows! Something about the sarsaparilla in combination with a well-suited oolong? I don’t know, but it’s awesome. I usually get a little annoyed with the way flavors taper off on later steeps but this is one where the balance just gets better. I’m on steep 4 or 5, with 2tsp(roughly 5g)/8oz water

Well, I’m at a sipdown for this tea and I never logged it! Haha, I drank it down in about a month, so it was a very good tea! I first had it at the lake over the holidays, so I didn’t log it due to poor nets up there, but I should have logged some other cups too haha. In a nutshell, this is minty and sweet, the fennel adds to the flavor nicely and the cacao is present but not overwhelming, as with the cinnamon. The cup seems like it could be a bit more chocolatey since it’s a peppermint bark tea, but it’s refreshing and not too sweet so you can drink it all the time. Oh, and I also steep this one for about 4 minutes, much longer than specified, and it’s really good. If this became permanent/seasonal, I would probably look into restocking. I love the herbals that come with the blend club! I’ve enjoyed all three that I’ve received, can’t wait for this months! :)

I kinda like this one. It would be (much) better without the coriander, but the toasted rice kind of overpowers it while hot. I LOVE the toasted rice Verdant uses. So strong and toasty. :D

The Oolong is super duper floral. The floral is coming through the toasted rice, soap, and cinnamon. And sadly as it cools, the coriander is getting soapier. This would be SO good without the excess amount of coriander. Just a little would be fine, but in my bag it looks like at least 1/3 of it is coriander seeds.

Another tea I’m glad I’ve tried, but will probably be relegated to the swap pile. Between the coriander and the mint, I wasn’t super happy with the Blends Club. There are some Verdant blends that I like that I will probably purchase again soon (Sweet Cinnamon Pu’er!), and one I LOVE but just haven’t had the time to sit down and do justice (Earl of Anxi).

another sipdown for today (178) as i’ve been drinking this with focus this morning, running through a number of steepings to decide where i land on in terms of this one. Final verdict? While this is a lovely oolong, it’s still an oolong for me. So the rest of this will be going to a couple people whom i think would love to try this one.

It’s official. I’ve found my perfect chai. It’s the perfect flavor. The Yu Lu Yan Cha base is already fairly spicy and chocolately on its own, so it was a natural choice for a chai. :)

The flavor balance is just perfect. It’s spicy in the ways I really love, more of a cinnamon sweeter spice, but still with a good kick from the ginger, peppercorn and other ingredients. And with just as much potency as the spicy flavor, it’s also sweet like graham crackers, or granola, or like that golden graham cereal.

I need to stock up on this. Like, a lot.

No, just no. Even the first steep tastes meh and all consequent are simply empty.

Drinking this at work today – I don’t drink enough oolongs, need to work on that.
I hadn’t really explored aged oolongs until Sil was generous enough to include some in the last package she sent me. Thank you.
I really like this – it’s more on the black side than the oolong side, but still has some of the typical oolong taste to it. It’s just nice and balanced – not too sharp, not too metalic, a little spice at the end – really nice cup of tea. :))

This is great. I hot steeped it and am enjoying it warm. I love the mix of spices here. On some sips I can strongly taste the wonderful green oolong with its slightly tangy edge. On other sips the savory sensation of toasted rice and coriander is dominant. The cinnamon is barely present, but I seem to be less sensitive to cinnamon than others. I could easily drink large quantities of this, but I only have a small amount so I’ll enjoy it one cup at a time.

Okay, I normally love this stuff. Something’s wrong. It tastes soapy. Argh! It’s a sipdown too, which makes me even more sad.

I’m at a loss as to whether or not this is the Peppermint Bark or Yu Lu Wu Chai from Verdant. I left one of them out yesterday to re-steep, and this is that cup. Still yummy, still can’t tell which is which.

Backlogged from last night as I was unable to even load Steepster at one point, much less log a tea.

I found this eerily similar to the Yu Lu Chai (am I remembering that name correctly?) that I had right at NYE. So similar that I’d think it was the same tea if the actual bits and pieces looked different. I tasted little spearmint or mint of any kind unfortunately, however it was (and still is, cooled the next day) absolutely delicious.

EDIT: Gr. Seems I cannot log, comment, or even like tealogs again/now.

Gawd, I love this tea. Not as much as previous incarnations, but still better than 90% of the tea I’ve had.

Soooooo good. Thank you so much Dexter3657 for this surprise gift.

Thank you Dexter3547 for a surprise addition of this to my cupboard. It is, in my opinion, the best chai ever…. and it definitely made my night. Thank you, mucho gracias, merci beaucoup!

Fourth steep: The chai flavors are back, however there’s something granular in the mix now that I’m really finding icky. It’s tickling the back of my throat and saying, “Dump this, even though it’s delicious”. I think I like the chai flavor this time around the best – cardamom, cinnamon, honey, still the base tea peaking through – it’s just this darn granularity that’s ruining it for me. Perhaps the tea bag? This has been three days of keeping it off to the side to re-steep over and over.

1.5 tsp in 12oz.