Verdant Tea (Special)

I was EXTREMELY lucky to have been gifted a bit of this tea. Thank you BrewTEAlly Sweet! You’re the best!

I was allowed to go home from work early today due to the winter storm, so I’ve been relaxing with a gongfu session this afternoon http://twitpic.com/dnt1nh

WOW. So smooth…so much honey flavor! Almost a floral honeysuckle but not quite. Also very rich and lightly malty. SO very very good! I’m so happy I got to try it :) :) :)

My final tea of the day was this one, from the Verdant Reserve TOMC from last December! I joined the Reserve club a year ago, & still have some of most of the offerings. I decided I’d drink each of the December ones this month, so this is a sipdown. I sat around sipping it in the late afternoon, while I was studying some music I’m working on (& rewriting the parts to simplify them a bit. I don’t have much time to learn this, & nobody in the choir or the audience will no the difference…shhhh).

So, the wet leaf had a salty & savory aroma. The early steepings were creamy & even had a cream-like taste. Very lovely & mild. Otherwise, it tasted like a Sheng! LOL.

blech. bah. I think i’m going to need to try this one again and then give the rest up for adoption if i don’t figure it out.

Tea #39 from HHTTB2

This tea fits the imagery of a forest grove in the fall impeccably. Minty and cooling, earthy and mulchy, with very slight fruit and spice notes. The star anise was a nice addition, offering a bit of Asian flair.

It seemed that the pu’er couldn’t really stand up against the sheer amount of other stuff going on in here, though. Every once in a while I thought I found it. Earthy and rich. And then just as soon it was gone. I felt like I was playing hide and seek with the actual tea component here.

This tea was not very good at all once it hit room temperature.

I’m pretty sure this was sent to me in the Turkey Santa swap by CelebriTEA – thank you so much for this!

My new gongfu is on it’s way, and so I felt bad about having this today without it. Still, I really wanted to try it, so Western style it was.

This steeps up a pale yellow-ish green color, and smells very toasty-roasty rice-y, just like how it tastes. Some depth from (what I assume is) the cocoa, and a few other flavors I can’t quite place, but seem to round out this tea nicely. Initially I thought I’d dislike the tea because of the rice kernels, and then I started to like it, crave it even.

My four cups of this were enjoyed fully, yet quickly, and it helped me meet a deadline – so thank you for that! :)

Sipdown! This tea has really grown on me. It’s also been nice to have an herbal tea around. May need to reorder this one!

I liked this way more than I thought I would! A very pleasant surprise. It wasn’t sour or tart. It was very smooth. It wasn’t too ‘berry’ which is a very good thing. I prefer berry flavor to be mild in tea. I really like how they mixed this blend- I drank this yesterday so I’m having trouble recalling the details of why I thought it was so good, so hopefully next time I drink this I can write a more descriptive note.

Hmm, this isn’t as bad as I was afraid it would be. I’ve got a strong aversion to fennel or anything with an anise like flavor! Licorice bleaarrghhh!

;)

i have a bunch of catching up to do regarding tea but since this is what i had today and is a sipdown, i figure it was worth mentioning tonight…the rest can come later! I had an excellent weekend away, we drove through 5 states, saw some friends, enjoyed spending time together in the car and came home lol. I’m sad this one is gone because i really like it cold brewed, steeped in half apple juice but no more orders until i get my cupboard under control…and with 3 packages to pick up from mail jail tomorrow….i’m going to need some time! haha

Final Count: 149

i had another cold brew of this today…. half apple juice, half water. And still i love it. the sad part? Maybe one more brew of this and then i’m all out. And not allowed to buy tea yet…so i’ll have to move on to some other herbals, but it should give me an excuse to drink some that MissB sent us. soooo upside? but man..i’m going to miss this one.

yes, that’s right..another cold brew of this steeped in half apple juice and half water. perfect with dinner.

i’m sick. ugh. I finally succumbed to whatever’s been going around and today my head is going to explode, i have a cough and my sinuses are messed up. So i’m taking it easy today. I started the day with a cold brew of this one – as always steeped half in apple juice overnight. Delicious and just the thing for this morning.

mmm cold brewed steeped in half water, half apple juice and i’m good. it’s the only way to drink this as far as i’m concerned and the best way to drink it! NOMS!

Final Count: 144 (with like 50+ inbound)

I also had this tea last night, brewed hot…and it made me realise how much i love this tea when it’s cold brewed, steeped in part apple juice. LOL I vastly prefer it that way for that sweet, sour tang. Just trying to help keep my system primed and ready to keep fighting all the sick that is going on at work these days.

thank goodness i chose the teas that i did today since i have had no time to drink much of anything tonight since i was at work today from 7:30am until 9pm. Home meant a short drink, catching up on tea logging, some budget stuff and then tucking myself in to bed since the next 4 days are going to be long ones!

Final Count: 158

nom nom nom nom evening cup of this is really nice. the last of it is also in the fridge to be able to finish this off tomorrow heh. that being said, i may restock this again anyway since this +apple juice = good times

i have a confession to make – i can’t stand this tea brewed normally in water. there’s way too much fennel in it to make me happy. HOWEVER….this steeped in half apple juice/half water; cold brewed is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO good! it’s like an apple cider sort of delicious berry tea. Thankfully i remembered to pick up some apple juice so i will have this finished up in no time! woot woot! (steeped that way, my rating would be in the 90’s…so i compromised since i don’t like it normally brewed)

Final Count: 171

i feel like i should be trying for two more sipdowns tonight but i just can’t bring myself to do it…instead i’m looking at this as working on a long term goal haha. I have no apple juice in the house so this isn’t the optimal way for me to be drinking this but it’s still tasty and still just what i wanted tonight. I’m feeling VERY disorganised today…i keep thinking it’s friday and starting to plan for “saturday” and then realising that no…i still have to get through friday. On the plus side, i booked my massage for this weekend so it’s going to be awesome. Not as much tea drinking as id hoped for, but massage + board games with friends in the afternoon = awesome

cold brew of this one with a bit of lunch today. I accidentally steeped this for a bit too long (re: 2 days?) so the fennel is a little much. I cut it with a little gingeral though so that it making for a delicious cup. I still think my favourite of this is steeped in part apple juice/water just overnight :)

I tried steeping this one in apple juice over night. I love it! i think i’d actually be good to steep this in water over night and then add a little apple juice to it just for fun. Overall, still enjoying this one.

sipdown! I may need to pick this one up again. I never did get around to trying to steep it in anything but water. I just have quite loved this blend as an overall nice tea to have in the evening before bed.

so i might have accidentally steeped this for like 10 mins…and then drank it like there was no tomorrow. Apparently this is a blend that suits me nicely even without any additions. I do want to use the last of this to try steeping in apple juice or something, so maybe tomorrow i can pick some up!

i made a couple cups of this with dinner – first steep with nothing and then added honey for all my subsequent steeps. I think i’ll try this with apple juice or something like that just to see how it fares with that or a nice black base. I’m trying to branch out a little in terms of blending my teas together so this should be a good one to try that with. over all though, this is a fairly tasty blend, as far as herbals go :)