94

i am a great admirer of verdant teas… my reviews reflect that clearly. it isn’t just the quality of their teas, or their credit given to the He family of tea farmers and traditions, it’s also admiration for their customer service and their understanding of their clientele. this tea, however, expanded my horizon in a manner i wasn’t anticipating.

i joined steepster when i began to take loose leaf tea seriously. i had had a strange series of unfortunate tea events at david’s teas… i’d been back and forth several days in a row with problems ranging from allergies to just not liking what had been recommended to me! my patience was running thin and i was tired of spending my meager budget on gas. i decided to research my teas online before i bought. there through steepster i found verdant teas, butiki, teavana, andrews and dunham… and yes david’s teas (i just improved my margin of error). my eyes were opened and i found myself in love with leaves and flowers across the globe!

i had no idea that the simple act of opening the sample package of this tea would be the start the next stage of my education. the tea was brown as opposed to black, curled, with some leaves as long 2 centimeters. alright, so maybe not a hugely intellectual description, but not too bad either. my real problems arose when i tried to describe the taste.

it was… it reminded me of…. words hadn’t just failed me, they had made mass exodus out of my beleaguered brain. that is a rare occurrence for me! once upon a time i was an english major, i have been an english tutor and editor, always a writer and poet (don’t even get me started on art school). i was very much out of my comfort zone as a digital wordless and stammering goof. time to study.

the taste that was so familiar was a refined echo of a pecco orange black tea…. however, that particular genre can be quite harsh and acrid, whereas this tea was not. why not? because verdant uses (i think my terminology is accurate here) flowery grades… as opposed to many bagged tea blends that use fannings of minute size referred to as dust which are the lowest quality, and quite brutal to drink. i am beyond unqualified to estimate the grade of whole leaf used in this blend, LOL.

back to words i know: i taste earth and ceylon, i taste autumn and not spring, minute traces of citrus. i wonder what crops were planted nearby that vicariously influenced the tea bushes and their progeny. there is also an understated acidity that could have evolved into a harshness but did not and instead added freshness.

i have always been curious, but i can honestly say that A tea has never on its own pressed me into multiple feverish searches through wikipedia.

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 6 min, 0 sec
Bonnie

Verdant has videos and podcasts, lots of info on their website that over time has proved very useful in my tea education.

JustJames

REALLY?!! this i did not know! thank you for the info!

scribbles

Your beautiful poetic words depict images of what a tea tastes like. A tea is not restricted to what it actually tastes like; but also a feeling and imagery that words cannot always express, which is how you often describe a tea. This is not a bad way to convey how you feel about a tea and how it tastes to you.

scribbles

Sorry ’bout double post..thought was editing original post. My bad.

JustJames

LOL… i can fix it! ZZZZZZZZZAP! see?

Fuzzy_Peachkin

I too find it very hard sometimes to come up with the words to describe, especially as I just started trying more quality teas. It’s as if we have to develop a whole new vocabulary!

canadianadia

Hmmm…sounds good. I think I’m going to have to check out the Verdant website

TeaLady441

Fuzzy – I agree. Sometimes it’s hard to fully describe the experience of a tea. And for me at least, sometimes I"d rather just enjoy it than try and quantify it. :)

Justjames – I’m happy you made your way over to Steepster. It makes me sad to think of others like you who might have just given up and missed out on the best teas.

JustJames

this has become a special place for me. i don’t do facebook and i don’t do clubs…. but i always have steepster open and i’m frequently drinking a cup of tea.

Bonnie

Most of the time with spent leaves, good ones, I put them in a bottle of filtered or Spring Water and in the frig it goes to cold brew. Amazing how much flavor is left in the leaves. (If you cold brew oolongs with hard water the flavor can change and become bitter).

Bonnie

Reading my comments I sound like an idiot because I didn’t tell you I liked your review. Stretching beyond the common drinking of the tea to ‘listening’ is what the journey is all about! Not everyone is ready or willing to go there.

JustJames

i look at this exploration as a journey into health (i hardly drank anything in a day before tea) and something that is worthy of my attention. i was at art school for more than a decade among other things and the artistry and technique… the sheer volume of knowledge put into each creation is incredible. when i like something/one and it/they have earned my respect then they have also earned the effort of my data mining. =0)

TheTeaFairy

lovely review.

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Bonnie

Verdant has videos and podcasts, lots of info on their website that over time has proved very useful in my tea education.

JustJames

REALLY?!! this i did not know! thank you for the info!

scribbles

Your beautiful poetic words depict images of what a tea tastes like. A tea is not restricted to what it actually tastes like; but also a feeling and imagery that words cannot always express, which is how you often describe a tea. This is not a bad way to convey how you feel about a tea and how it tastes to you.

scribbles

Sorry ’bout double post..thought was editing original post. My bad.

JustJames

LOL… i can fix it! ZZZZZZZZZAP! see?

Fuzzy_Peachkin

I too find it very hard sometimes to come up with the words to describe, especially as I just started trying more quality teas. It’s as if we have to develop a whole new vocabulary!

canadianadia

Hmmm…sounds good. I think I’m going to have to check out the Verdant website

TeaLady441

Fuzzy – I agree. Sometimes it’s hard to fully describe the experience of a tea. And for me at least, sometimes I"d rather just enjoy it than try and quantify it. :)

Justjames – I’m happy you made your way over to Steepster. It makes me sad to think of others like you who might have just given up and missed out on the best teas.

JustJames

this has become a special place for me. i don’t do facebook and i don’t do clubs…. but i always have steepster open and i’m frequently drinking a cup of tea.

Bonnie

Most of the time with spent leaves, good ones, I put them in a bottle of filtered or Spring Water and in the frig it goes to cold brew. Amazing how much flavor is left in the leaves. (If you cold brew oolongs with hard water the flavor can change and become bitter).

Bonnie

Reading my comments I sound like an idiot because I didn’t tell you I liked your review. Stretching beyond the common drinking of the tea to ‘listening’ is what the journey is all about! Not everyone is ready or willing to go there.

JustJames

i look at this exploration as a journey into health (i hardly drank anything in a day before tea) and something that is worthy of my attention. i was at art school for more than a decade among other things and the artistry and technique… the sheer volume of knowledge put into each creation is incredible. when i like something/one and it/they have earned my respect then they have also earned the effort of my data mining. =0)

TheTeaFairy

lovely review.

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