Tea drunk alert. I was not expecting or waiting for that, I noticed as I was drinking I started to furiously make a list copying down all of Steepster’s suggested flavors in the drop-down menu, the tea gave me a real buzz, and suddenly I found myself laughing for no apparent reason, giddy, and I think it should be called “tea high” instead of “drunk.” This happened into the third steep, so with 5 grams I had consumed 225 ml in less than 10 minutes, and after that third steep I had to wait almost a half an hour before doing round four.
The aroma of the leaves after two rinses was wonderful: yes, pastry dough or biscuit, an earthiness and accents of vanilla, cocoa, maybe sweet almond, some kind of spice. Taste: my first impression was wow lovely creamy texture with a sweetness and also a burnt edge—in a dark roast kind of way, not unpleasant, like swirling ocean contained by a rocky cliff. As I continued to steep, the creaminess and biscuit aroma persisted as a main trait, the dark roast edge eventually rounded off into the eighth cup, maybe some caramel appeared early on, and graham cracker?? in second steep. Overall, very savory, lovely creamy, 5 grams went past 10 steeps, and got me tea drunk. This is my first tea from Verdant, I bought two samples, and Verdant sent me a free sample as well, thank you!
Update: A second session, that burnt dark roast edge again very present, and because this is loose tea, I can’t steep this fast enough. The first few steeps are flashes—as soon as I pour the water on I am scrambling to pour it off because it steeps so quickly. I think next session I will try steeping with a lower water temp, maybe 200 degrees and see if that takes of that very dark roast almost burnt edge. No tea drunkeness this time, but a nice warming buzz with no jitters.
By the way, Verdant’s Qianjiazhai shu “nuggets” (in another review of mine) does not have that harsh edge even at the start, and I suspect that is due to the nuggets having less surface area and taking several steeps to really open up. Love that tea.
Flavors: Cocoa, Creamy, Graham Cracker, Pastries, Roasted Barley, Vanilla
