Tea and Zen

This is part of my Sample Demolition: Verdant Tea series.


By far, this was one of my favorite teas that Verdant Tea has to offer and the bag I bought in January was hands down the best jasmine I've ever had. I've had a lot of jasmine and I have several close favorites but unf! This one was just so fantastic I'm hoping this order will be the same. I am now on the hunt for a replacement. Either What-Cha, Yunnan Sourcing, or Upton Tea Imports will become my replacement. I haven't had the jasmine silver needles from any of them but I know all three companies have very good tea.

Anyway, I decided to brew this tea three different ways: gong fu, western, and grandpa style. I have 25g so I may as well make it every way, nay?

Western parameters #1: 5g/237ml, 95C water, first brewing 30 seconds, +15-30 seconds per each steeping.

The website had different instructions than the bag! I thought they seemed funny. Western parameters #2: 5g/237ml, 95C water, first brewing 25 seconds, +10 seconds per each steeping.

Gong Fu parameters: 5g/120ml, 95C water, first brewing 5 seconds, +3 seconds per each steeping.

Grandpa parameters: 5g/350ml, 95C water, topped up at 2/3rd point.

You open the bag and the tea is so fragrant you can taste it. But this time it wasn't even half as fragrant as my previous order. Jasmine, strawberries, and cream danced across my tongue. What you smell in the aroma is more or less what you experience in the liquor except much stronger.

Western Brewings #1

In the first and second cup there is a very gentle semi-sweet flavor of lilacs mingled with jasmine. In the after taste your pallet is blessed with strawberries, vanilla, and cream with a hint of melon. The liquor is very smooth with a hint of astringency. It has a long, smooth finish and the flavors linger at the back of my pallet on both the bottom and top of my mouth.

The tea wasn't nearly as good as I remembered it being so... I decided to go to the product page. The instructions were different. That is not a good thing to do. I had remembered brewing my original package differently and my memory was not wrong. I decided to do two more this way.

They didn't taste like much.

Western Brewings #2

I was hoping that this would go better than that mishap before. You would think that they'd have the instructions that are on their website on the package? Then again, most of their tea comes with no instructions even though their shipping says all their teas sell with instructions.

I don't care too much. Ain't a big deal but I feel like complaining about it anyway. I know how to brew just about everything but this is a problem for people who are new (even though they can just go to the product page like I did, but what is work?).

The first cup this time was more or less the same as the first cup of brewing #1. I am a very sad camper right now. When I first ordered this tea it was absolutely amazing. This batch is a lot different. It's less fragrant (dry and brewed leaf) and in being less fragrant, it doesn't taste as good since smell is a super important aspect of scented teas.

I am most disappointed that the second and third were more or less the same as the previous brewing as well. The only big difference is that a slight green bean flavor was stronger in these cups. I suppose at least this tea isn't too sensitive to brewing variation? But quality consistency man... I really wish this was as good as the first bag I had ordered...

The after taste had lasted for hours! The taste itself was fruity, floral, savory, and complex. The mouthfeel was smooth and full with a long finish.

This time there was little or none of that.

Gong Fu Brewings

Honestly for this I was more or less expecting the same results as the aforementioned. Fragrance is so important for scented teas and this one isn't quite there.


The first and second brewing were incredibly gentle. It was almost like water, but with the recommended parameters this didn't really surprise me. The after taste was a gentle raspberry with jasmine. The liquor was very smooth with a hint of astringency.

The third was a little more floral and the after taste was a semi-strong strawberry flavor. Otherwise it was more or less the same. I was hoping this was a sign that the tea would open up some more unlike the western style disappointments.

It kind of did. The green bean notes began to show up here. The after taste was almost non-existent in the fourth brew.

The fifth brew had no taste and a very faint after taste and a fair amount of astringency but it wasn't abrasive. I tried for a sixth anyway.

Nothing. Nada. Zilch. The after taste increased at least, that was nice! It was a strong strawberry with hints of melon. It also had this weird dirty hint in the background that shows up when a tea is on it's last legs.

I really, really want to believe in this tea, so I did a seventh. It was the sixth but weaker, except for that dirty-ish after taste. That was stronger.

I cannot tell you how sad I am. Here's hoping for grandpa style.

Grandpa Style

At this point I didn't have much faith in the tea. My disappointment is through the roof, let me tell you. The first order was so good! Why did this have to happen?

It was cool seeing all the little fuzzies floating around in the water beneath the floating leaves during my initial fill up. My first sip is what I expected out of this tea: sweet like strawberries and a hint of cherries (didn't taste that in the past) mixed with cream, marzipan, and jasmine. Thank the tea gods! The actual liquor didn't taste like a whole lot but I don't care too much about that, the aftertaste tends to matter more to me (within reason).

I wish it had stayed that way. Very quickly that dirty aftertaste I mentioned earlier wormed it's way into the tea. This wasn't even 15 minutes in! This is fresh, plump, and full buds that are being disappointing. I can get a broken leaf green Jasmine from Tiger Lily Tea (I forget it's name) that never goes bitter and it's not even made of buds. Ugh!

I decided to let it be and keep drinking. The aforementioned unpleasurable taste began to disappear but it was still present. The flowery nature of the tea began to show up again but it was weak and average.

By the half hour mark a weakened version of the dirty taste was lingering and almost no jasmine.

Rating

Part of me wonders if I am suffering from "Diminishing Marginal Utility" which means that for each additional unit of the good you are eating or using, the less pleasure you get out of it. Yay for economics!

Or maybe this batch really wasn't even half of what the other batch was in terms of quality. Mixed quality isn't a good sign. I'm thinking this is the case opposed to diminishing marginal utility.

Leaf samples. Flowers at the far right?

As I am sure you can tell, good reader, I didn't enjoy this 20g I used in total for this review as I did the original 25g. It wasn't nearly as floral when coming out of the bag which was depressing. It was still strong but about half of that from the first time I had this jasmine.

That, or my body is still wow-ing over the Australia Arakai Spring Green tea I had a few days prior. That was amazing!

Overall, as an average of my two orders of this tea, I give it a 7.5. This bag was more or less a six. The first bag I had was a solid nine. As I had received my first bag around January and this one I bought in April (prior to learning about VT's most recent shenanigans) and did not open, perhaps that has something to do with it. Who knows. 

If you're interested you can purchase this tea here.

This is part of my Sample Demolition: Verdant Tea series.

This is the last of my samples from Verdant Tea. The remaining teas are all in 25g quantities and haunting my nightmares... that is a lot of one tea to get through considering all the other teas I have hanging around now. Despite that, I have a game plan for how I'm going to get through them. You guys will see that soon enough.


I used 5g/120ml, 100C water, washed once, first brewing 5 seconds + 3-5 seconds per each additional brewing.

Brewings

This tea has the scent of chocolate, the classical WuYi minerality, cream, and a very subtle hint of honey and brûlée. It's a nice smell but all of it isn't very strong. I was very, very underwhelmed by their Special Grade Shui Jin Gui so I am really hoping that will not be the case here, it wasn't a cheap tea ($25.50/25g). This tea is also very expensive at $28.25/25g. That comes out to be a little over $1/g. 

Once I heated the gaiwan and lightly shook the leaves three times, the chocolate, cream, and brûlée were heavily embedded in the aroma. 

The aroma in the first cup was heavily of chocolate, brûlée, and jasmine. The liquor was smooth but somewhat flat. You could clearly taste the minerality in the liquor. In the aftertaste there was jasmine and honeysuckle. 

There wasn't much aroma to the second cup. Bad sign! The liquor was mostly the same except now you could taste cedar and honey. Jasmine was the main flavor in the aftertaste just as before. The liquor was very flat now as well. Pretty disappointing. 

Some aroma had come back for the third. There was jasmine, a hint of hay and earth. The liquor was a little rounder than the previous cups, but still fairly flat. There was an earthy flavor mingled in with the usual WuYi minerality. As it's something I couldn't quite put my fingers on perhaps it is the "wet granite" flavor that Verdant has on the profile. Seems like such an odd flavor but whatever. Peat and cedar with a tiny hint of jasmine lingered in the aftertaste. 

I sipped on a little water after the third to see if it would bring anything out as it usually does with a WuYi.
It didn't.

The fourth smelt almost exactly the same as the third. The liquor also tasted more or less the same except there was more cedar present. If it didn't change much in the next cup I was going to stop at the fifth. No point in trying to make a stagnant tea change when it clearly won't. This tea wasn't even remotely old! 

You'll be shocked: it didn't change at all. Well, it did, but it became weak and almost flavorless. I'm very sad that this met my expectations since they were very low. When I ordered this sample and the Special Grade Shui Jin Gui I was expecting something very special considering the price and flavor profile. It's really everything but.

Rating

This tea get a four. For something so expensive you would think that the liquor would be more complex. I've had much cheaper WuYi's that are much better. C'mon Verdant, this is two of your most expensive teas that are really not anything fantastic. That's a shame! 



In general I have come to notice that a WuYi oolong is either very average (or less than average) or it blows your mind away with how fantastic and complex it is. There doesn't seem to really be a middle ground.

If you are interested you can purchase this tea here. 

Even though I still have more Verdant Tea stuffs to go through, I decided to break into this tea. It's been calling my name since it is a 5g sample and a Japanese varietal processed like a Taiwanese oolong. Sounds amazing, right?

It is. It was very deserving of the award "Best Overall Green Tea."

Dry leaf

Since green teas have the shortest shelf life, I decided that I'm going to go through my greens, whites, and my one yellow tea before breaking into my blacks, oolongs, and puerh.

I think that this tea is so cool. I didn't even know that there was anyone in Australia that grew tea! I'm really hoping that I like this tea as the price is nice and it's grown in a very interesting part of the world as far as tea goes. That, and the fact it is Japanese varietal's that are processed similar to that of something from Taiwan! 

This tea has a very interesting smell.

From the website:

Although Arakai exclusively use Japanese cultivars, they have drawn inspiration from Taiwanese processing techniques and their tea as a result exhibits unique characteristics with notes reminiscent of both Japanese and Taiwanese teas.

Even though I haven't tasted the tea yet, this is a very good description. I can't say that the smell reminds me more of a Taiwanese high mountain oolong honestly or a Japanese green. It is a very even mixture. It smells delicately green like a light roasted high mountain Taiwanese oolong, yet at the same time has that sweet, floral scent to it like a Japanese green. It just isn't as strong.

It is very rare where I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing when making a tea and well, this was one of those times. The one complaint I have about What-Cha is that the instructions are in tsp/cup.

I hate that. Just give me the gram weight, please! This tea is so fluffy that my teaspoons won't even give me a gram. 

So I went with the good old standard starting point when brewing western style: 1g/100ml. I used a 237ml (8oz) pitcher, so I rounded it up and used 2.5g. I used 80C water and brewed the tea for 45 seconds to start and added on 30 seconds for each additional brewing.

Brewings

The liquor of the first cup smelt just like a brewing Japanese green. The leaves didn't open much yet. The liquor was a clear, bright yellow color. It had a very smooth, full, and buttery mouth feel with a slight astringency. It was lightly green and tasted like green beans with a lingering after taste of collard greens and sencha. Once the liquor wasn't in your mouth for a minute or so there was a very light sweetness that lingered, reminiscent of what you'd expect from a sencha. It sat in my stomach the same way a sencha does as well. My stomach has never appreciated Japanese greens, or anything rich, as much as my mouth does, so it was kind of heavy. This tea is so rich that by the end my stomach was most unhappy with me.

The leaves opened up a lot more for the second brewing. They're very pretty if you ask me.

The tea evolved a lot too! I was expecting it to still taste more like a sencha, but no! It was almost exactly like a high mountain Taiwanese oolong. The liquor had a hint of cinnamon mingled in with the green beans. The cinnamon hits the tip of your tongue and your lips. After that it isn't as noticeable anymore as it lightly floats on your pallet. I dare say there are hints of cardamon as well. The aftertaste was the same as before except it was much more vegetale and a little less sweet. Definitely one of the most interesting cups I've had. It was a tad more astringent than before but the liquor remained buttery and smooth with a long, somewhat sour finish like a TieGuanYin.

I am pretty sure I started to get a little tea drunk after this cup. When I get tea drunk I become very relaxed and don't feel like doing anything. That's how I began to feel.

The aroma was lightly reminiscent of cinnamon. The liquor reminded me more of a sencha than a Taiwanese oolong here. It more or less tasted like a mid-grade sencha with a hint of cinnamon. There wasn't much after taste.  Quite a bit of the leaf fuzzies had gathered on my strainer. Seeing them is always a nice sign of quality.

I decided to call it quits on the fourth cup. The liquor smelt of sugarcane and spinach. It was very much like the third cup except it was less vegetale and was a little sweeter like the sugarcane I smelt in the aroma. I am sure that this tea could've gone on for at least another two brews. Based off the fact I managed to get just shy of a liter or tea out of 2.5g of leaf is pretty damn impressive if you ask me! I had to stop because the richness of this tea was beginning to really bother my stomach. I even stopped after the second cup to eat something. It didn't help all that much.

Another thing I really liked about this tea was how beautiful it is when it steeps. The leaves are so plump and green with red mingled in. I could stare at these leaves brewing for practically forever! I feel very comfortable saying this is one of the prettiest greens I've ever seen. That alone gives this tea brownie points on top of all of its positives.

Brewing leaves, so pretty!

Rating

Overall I really liked this tea. It caught me by surprise in the second cup considering the first was fairly familiar to my pallet. If you've ever wondered what a Japanese varietal processed like a high mountain Taiwanese oolong tastes like, this is your tea!

I give this tea a 9.5. It was very interesting to try. I'd buy this tea again in a heart beat. Everything about it is just fantastic. 

Leaf samples

The liquor was consistently smooth and buttery-- by far one of the most buttery teas I've ever had, it was insane. As I said not once, but twice, this tea is extremely rich. This goes hand in hand with the butteriness. I got a little tea drunk off of this tea and it was nice. In terms of richness I put this up there with a high end gyokuro, sencha, or high mountain Taiwanese oolong. As it is a Japanese varietal processed like a Taiwanese tea this shouldn't surprise you. I can't get over how rich this tea is.

The liquor was equally flavorful and it's evolution over the four steepings was pleasing. The second cup is still blowing my mind because damn what an interesting flavor! I was not expecting that. I've never had a green tea like this before and I am a very avid green tea drinker.

If this tea had a stronger after taste I'd have given it a 10. Even without it, this tea is absolutely amazing.

Seriously, this was an awesome tea. I'm glad I had the pleasure of trying it.Australia Arakai is a brand new favorite of mine. I can't wait to try the black tea from them later, and hopefully try their summer green tea this year.

If you are interested you can purchase this tea What-Cha or from Arakai themselves As of today only 5g samples are available at What-Cha. Arakai has 25-100g available as well as 10g samples.

I can't tell you how excited I have been to try this tea. I've had it sitting around for a while, but as it's been in a sealed package I doubt there has been any significant aging. The description of this the tea on Mr. Akira Hojo's website excited me oh so very much.

Dry leaves

Extraordinarily strong after taste you say? Sign me right up!

I can keep brewing forever? Awesome!

Oxidization makes it even fruitier? Perfect!

This tea just seems like a dream. I see a new favorite of mine once I take a sip of this tea. Unf!

The scent of the tea surprised me. It reminded me of the scent of beef jerky. As some of you know, I'm vegan so I haven't eaten that stuff in five years. Needless to say that was surprising. Behind that jerky smell was something very sweet and floral. It reminded me the most of jasmine.

There was a little over 5.5g in the bag. I used that in one of my 120ml gaiwans. In this sample I got a lot of broken leaves opposed to just the buds, which makes me kind of sad. I used 85C water and the first brewing was 10 seconds, added on five for each additional brewing.

Brewings

Initially you are met with the jerky-like taste. In the liquor it vaguely reminded me of Lapsang. There was a slight hint of green beans. In the after taste there was hints of  melon and raspberry. The liquor was incredibly buttery and smooth. There was a hint of astringency.

In the second cup most of that jerky and smokiness had disappeared. A gentle green bean flavor was on my tongue along with spinach or collard greens. In the after taste there was raspberries and melon.

The liquor for the third brewing was a lot darker. The overall taste still had the green bean flavor except it was a lot stronger. There was a tiny hint of raspberries in the after taste. Despite the fact that the after taste has been extremely weak, I liked it.

The liquor for the fourth brew didn't have much flavor and was more astringent. The after taste remained the same. The same for the fifth so I stopped drinking.

I was pretty sad that the tea turned out this way, but once I saw all of the broken leaves I had a feeling that the tea wouldn't shine as much as it could. It happens, I suppose.

Wet leaves/Brewing leaves

Rating

I don't feel as if I can really give a fair rating on this tea. There was a lot of broken pieces in this sample. A lot of big, plump, beautiful buds as well but way too many broken pieces. The whole bottom of my gaiwan was littered with them. That undoubtedly had to do with the slight bitterness and astringency that started to form.

Leaf samples

As the tea was this way, it is very average. I'd give it a six. It has a whole lot of potential, the after taste (that was there) was pleasant but it wasn't at all strong.

I do want to give this tea another try in the future and when I do I'll make another post about it.

If you would like to purchase this tea, please email Mr. Akira Hojo at info2@hojotea.com

Here is the pdf with prices for all his teas. 

I was at the store the other day and laid my eyes on a few different teas. I had seen them before and never bought them. They were vastly over priced. Today, they were on sale 3/$10. So I thought, why not? I bought this, Earl Grey De La Creme, and Lavender Chamomile.

Dry leaves

Since these cost me $3.33 each, I did not expect much out of them. The leaf quality I could see through the clear viewing pocket was a clear indication of that on it's own. Not to mention all the twigs. Even without separating them you can tell that there is a lot. The leaves are very coarse and appear to be an inexpensive Chinese Sencha. There is a lot of lemongrass, a little lemon peel, and about the same amount of orange peel. From the loose sample above, I found all the following twigs.

Twigs

That is a lot of twigs. Pictured above there is around 7g.

When you are purchasing tea I think it is important for you to look out for something. This will be your first clear indicator if a tea company is legit and knows what they're doing. Can you take a guess?

Health claims. If the company claims that their tea will help you lose weight, give you a mental or energy boost, or relax your body or mind, among many others, don't spend a lot of money on them. That's one reason I left these on the shelf for a very long time and didn't pick them up till today. Normally it is $7 per package.

For the Lean Green Machine, Tiesta tea says the following:

Our Slenderizer Blends contain green and oolong teas that suppress your appetite and boost your metabolism, helping you maintain a healthy weight.

Company's claim just about everything for green tea. I've seen some claim it can ever cure cancer. This company isn't going that far, but still. If you see heath claims, don't expect anything too great. Look elsewhere for properly sourced, legit, high quality tea.

Hot Western Brewing

Packaging

I used the brewing directions pictured above except I used more leaf. For 8oz I used 2tsp of tea. I brewed the leaves for three minutes at 80C (175F).

Well, I don't have a whole lot to say about the tea. It doesn't taste anything like green tea. It tastes like lemongrass. Unless you're looking for it, the taste of the lemon peel and orange peel is barely there. It lingers around the edges of your tongue but that is it. I gave some to my family, and as average drinkers, they could not taste the lemon or orange peel when drinking the tea. Not a hint of the Chinese sencha.

The liquor is mildly astringent. Don't bother making a second brew because it doesn't taste like much.

The aroma is that of lemongrass. That is it. This is both true for the dry leaf, liquor, and brewing leaves.

When I was making this a second time, one of my family members shut off my timer. It had been sitting in the water for at least 10 minutes. It didn't go bitter, so that was nice at least. 

Brewing leaves

Wet leaves

The leaves once brewed were fully open. This was one sign to me that it was not going to make for a good second brew.

That was exactly the case.

Liquor

The liquor had lots of little specs of tea floating around in it. As the leaf was very coarse and broken I wasn't too surprised. The strainer is very fine and almost next to nothing gets through it, so the fact that these small leaf particles did is impressive, and not in a good way.

Iced Western Brewing

You know what is annoying?

When you make ice cubes with plans of making iced tea in the near future. Everyone else uses the ice, and instead of taking the two seconds it takes to refill the tray, they leave empty trays on the counter.

There was no ice. This happens all the damn time and it's annoying. Don't do that kids, take the time to refill the damn ice trays.

I used 4tsp of tea for 8oz as the package says to use double of what you use for the hot, when brewing iced tea. I used 80C (175F) water, brewed for three minutes, then poured over ice.

First try

This sucked. It was a bitter gross mess with a hint of lemongrass. I drank the whole thing anyway and damn was that painful.

So I tried again. It wasn't bad hot, so there is no reason it should've been that disgusting iced other than the fact I used a lot of leaf.

I used 3tsp as the bag suggests and then the above parameters. If it was still a bitter disgusting mess I was going to be extremely sad.

It was a tad bitter, and still pretty gross, didn't taste like much. I could barely taste the lemongrass and there was still no sign of the orange or lemon peel. It was astringent, and the mouth feel was kinda prickly and flat.

Rating

I give this tea a solid four, my sisters boyfriend gives this tea an eight, he loves it. I wasn't expecting much out of this tea when I bought it. It tastes exactly how the package says it will so can't complain about that.

For $3.33 however, it isn't bad. It's not something I would buy again, but I don't regret buying it for the price. I definitely recommend this hot opposed to iced. You can just get rid of the tea faster ice. Just ick... one of the worst iced teas I've ever had. Iced I give this a two. 

I managed to get through the 53.9g in about four days. The bag says that you can make 15-25 cups. I ended up being able to make 13 total (mix of iced and hot brewings). I also used more leaf than the bag suggests, so 15-25 seems about right.

If you are interested, you can purchase this tea here. As stated at the beginning of the article I bought it at a local supermarket. You may be able to purchase it there as well.

Believe it or not, most days I only drink one tea, occasionally two. I may plan on drinking more than one, but that almost never works out. Two is workable, but three? Nah.

My typical gong fu set up

Aside that, I have a bit of an issue with caffeine. I'm somewhat sensitive to it so I have to watch myself. It doesn't keep me up at night or give me jitters, but it makes my heart most unhappy. You never make your heat unhappy, that's asking for a very bad time.

I also try to take my time to enjoy my tea. If I'm having a very fine Japanese green I'll sometimes start with two five minute cold brews and then have three or four 60C brewings. Other times I'll be able to get three to five 60C brewings without the cold start. If I brew in a fashion very similar to gong fu I may only get one or two. Since Japanese greens don't give you even close to as many brewings as many Chinese teas, I'll use more leaf than I would if I was having any Chinese tea (and other countries as well, typically). But, I'll probably only have that one tea. Over the course of the day, assuming I'm sitting down to really appreciate the tea, it'll take me several hours even if I am drinking the cups in rapid succession.

The same applies to other teas, especially when brewing them grandpa style. I do not rush when brewing grandpa style. If the water gets too cool for my liking I can get my tumbler down to 2/3rds full and add some fresh hot water. A tea that can withstand at least 10 brewings gong fu style will take me at least an hour if I'm not taking notes to make a review on here. When taking notes the hour will turn into two or three since I'm trying to figure out what I'm tasting, what I like and dislike, and probably brewing the tea in more than one method if I have a fair amount of leaf.

Total, regardless of the type of tea I am making or how long it takes me to sip on it, I drink at least a liter of tea every day. I think it is fair to assume my average is 1.5L.

In the past I would have three or four different teas in one day. I don't know how I did it, but one thing is for sure-- I didn't appreciate the tea at that time as I do now. I didn't spend so much time trying to figure out the nuances that the particular tea I am sipping on has. It honestly wasn't until I started to only drink one tea a day that I was really able to figure out what I was tasting, verbalize it, and talk about it (though there were other factors involved as well. That's but one piece of the puzzle).

My one exception to this is if I wake up late and don't have time to make tea in the morning. I'll brew up some Earl Grey, Irish Breakfast, or genmaicha in my tumbler and run. Once I am done with school and work I will sit down and enjoy a tea. I suppose this is another exception, but my family likes to have tea time in the evening, so if they request tea time I'll have a second tea with them then.

That didn't happen as much as it needed to last year. This year I have decided that I need to set aside at least an hour every day so that I can enjoy some tea. It's not so much the tea that I find calming, but rather the preparation. Sharing it with people is a pleasing bonus. That always makes tea taste better.

All of this being said, lately I've been trying to drink more than one tea a day. I still have 115g of tea from Verdant Tea to go through. It's five different teas, four of which are 25g and the remaining being 15g.

That is a lot of tea, especially considering the fact I made that huge What Cha order. This large amount of tea from VT has me backed logged. After opening the 25g packages I'd rather not let them sit around to get old. That'd be a waste.

After trying Ito En's Oi Ocha: Unsweetened Green Tea for the first time in years I didn't like it very much. It was very bland and bitter (I still want to get my hands on their dark Oi Ocha though). I'm too spoiled with high grade Japanese greens.

Unsweetened Can, a sweetened version is available

I was at the store and I laid my eyes on this. I had it once in the past and thought it was "meh." If that's all you care to know, that's how the Matcha Love is. It's their unsweetened green tea mixed with matcha. I feel it is very safe to assume that the matcha is food grade, not ceremonial grade.

I liked this better than their Oi Ocha. The taste you're met with at first is a much smoother and less astringent liquor than that of their Oi Ocha. So, basically, your bare bones Japanese Green tea flavor.

In the after taste there is matcha. Not a very good matcha. It's a slightly heavier stereotypical bare bones Japanese Green tea taste. There is no sweetness in this tea. It's not bitter either but I mean does that matter when it doesn't really taste like anything?

After the liquor hasn't been in your mouth for a while, there is a slight sweet aftertaste. It's not quite enough to redeem the tea.

Liquor

For $1.50 it isn't bad though. I wouldn't buy it again now that I've done a review of it. If you're unfamiliar with Japanese greens and don't like bitter things, try this out before you try out their Oi Ocha. However, if you too think that this is bland, don't judge all Japanese teas off of this or Ito En's Oi Ocha. They're everyday teas and a high end Japanese green will blow your mind away with how floral and sweet it is.

This is part of my Sample Demolition: Verdant Tea series.

Dry leaves

I have so much of this tea. I have 50g of unopened leaf and another 15g of open leaf after this, freshly opened when a friend came over for tea time. 65g is a lot of one tea for me. My package originally got lost and/or stuck in customs for over three months, so I sent VT an email, they couldn't figure out what happened, and sent me a new, complete parcel of my order. A month after my new parcel showed up, my original one did in a very beat up, unhappy looking box.

So now I have a ton of this tea. I had 100g but was able to go through the first 25g pretty quickly. The rest? Not so much. If you'd like 25g of it shoot me an email. I'd be more than happy to swap it for something!

I have serious doubts about the age of this tea. For one, it's hard to find an aged oolong over 20 years. Up to 20 isn't super easy, but they exist. Right now What-cha offers the China Fujian Anxi 1996 Se Zhong Oolong Tea which is one example of a 20 year old aged oolong. I'll be reviewing that later. Hojo Tea also offers a Vintage 30 Years Oolong and it is much pricier than this tea. It is $23.68 (at the current exchange rate) for 30g while this tea is $12 for 25g. Hojo's is almost double the price for 5g more. I would like to review this tea sometime in the future, I currently don't have it.

The other thing that makes me doubt the age of this tea is how much they're selling. I've seen this tea go out of stock and come back in stock many times. With how old this tea is supposed to be, when it's gone, it's gone. There also, theoretically speaking (and almost always) isn't much of it.

Brewing leaves

Verdant Tea has had an issue with the ages of various things, like the age of the trees their puerh was coming from. If you'd like to learn more, check out my Sample Demolition: Verdant Tea post. I love Master Zhang, he is by far my favorite farmer from Verdant Tea, but due to the past shenanigans of Verdant Tea, I don't know if they are exaggerating/lying or if they were duped by Master Zhang.

Who knows.

I used 5g/120ml, 100C water, washed thrice, 10 second steeping time +3-5 seconds for each additional brewing.

Gong Fu Brewings

The aroma reminded me of malt, peat, chocolate, bran, and honey.

The aroma from the first cup reminded me of all the above, plus vanilla. I think I should have washed a fourth time because there wasn't much flavor aside peat and cedar, and even that was incredibly light. In the aftertaste there was a hint of vanilla and lilikoi blossoms. The liquor was full, medium weight, and smooth with a hint of astringency.

Liquor

The aroma was the same. The liquor of the second cup was a beautiful amber color. The liquor tasted like honey and toasted bran with hints of wood. The aftertaste was like lilikoi blossoms mingled with vanilla and kumquat.

The aroma was mostly of wood and lilikoi blossoms mingled together. The liquor tasted of wood with a hint of vanilla. There was a slight aftertaste of vanilla and melon.

Since this is darkly roasted like a wu yi, I decided to sip on some water. A very sweet berry flavor flowered across my pallet. I couldn't decide if it was more like blueberry or blackberries.

Wet leaves

The liquor in the fifth cup reminded me of vanilla and wood as well. There wasn't much of a difference.

The remaining cups tasted exactly like the 4th on. I went up to 11 cups. It didn't lose it's flavor, it continued to taste like vanilla (the taste of wood slowly disappearing), but didn't evolve either.

Grandpa Style

I think I like this tea better when drunk grandpa style.  It has sweet hints of vanilla and honey mingled with cedar. There isn't a whole lot of aftertaste. It is mildly astringent and has a full mouth feel with medium body. The down side? Similar to the gong fu style brewing, after your first, and certainly after your second top up, the flavor begins to disappear. After the third it was extremely weak. Thinking perhaps I hadn't stirred the leaves enough I poured even more vigorously on the fourth and well... I had brown water with a hint of cedar and honey. It didn't even last an hour despite my attempt to make it love that long. The aroma was just like the gong fu style brewing, except a little weaker.

Brewing leaves, 1 min/6min

Leaves in cup once done

Rating

This tea is a five, through and through. You don't get get much out of this tea. The leaves are very unwilling to open up. I mentioned this in a previous post, but in case you didn't read that, I recommend reading Hojo's very nice article Tips on Tea Quality Inspection that goes into some detail about this. I think it is a good, educational read. If you're familiar with tea it'll reinforce knowledge you probably have, and if you're new to tea it'll offer some knowledge.

It is normal for it to take many brewings to properly open up an aged tea, they rarely fully open. But after 10 gong fu brewings and an hour grandpa style? No. The fact these leaves are so unwilling to open in both the grandpa and gong fu brewing is a bad sign. At least the reserve TGY was much more willing to open when brewed grandpa style.

Gong Fu leaf samples

Grandpa Style leaf samples

The tea doesn't develop much. It changes in the second and third brew, but then it flat lines and slowly fades out. The body is average, the flavor, while nice and initially complex, dies quickly. The depth is inconsistent the various times I brewed this tea gong fu style with the same leaf to water ratio. There is next to no after taste, and what there is, is pretty dry.

As the five implies, the tea is very average. Not bad, not great, average.

If you're interested you can purchase this tea here.

Ito En has the best bottled green teas hands down. Before I was a serious tea drinker I would purchase this all the time. My supermarket used to sell all the bottled flavors that Ito En has available, but now they only sell this one.

Bottle and liquor

It makes me sad as I really like their darker bottled sencha. I think it is better than this one, though this one is good as well. I'm considering buying some of the darker Oi Ocha from their website since the price isn't bad and it'll be convenient since I'm going back to my University soon.

I have unfortunately never had the chance to try any of their matcha or loose sencha, but I've heard that it is pretty reasonable. In the event I do buy some of their darker Oi Ocha perhaps I'll buy some of their loose leaf.

I don't know if they used to, but now they have haiku on the bottles: 

Midnight basketball
The clang of the netless rim
Under crescent moon  
-Neil Whitman

I think the fact that they're now including haiku's by drinkers is pretty cool.

Bottle

Since it's been a very long time since I've had this tea I wasn't 100% sure what to expect. It smelt kind of bitter. Think of a generic bancha that you've brewed up and it smelt kind of like that. I was hoping it wouldn't taste like one and whelp... it did.

There wasn't much to it. It was rather bitter. I left it in my mouth for a few moments on a few occasions to try and see if I could pick up on something.

The bitterness intensified the longer it sat in my mouth.

It wasn't overly astringent. There wasn't much aftertaste beyond the lingering bitterness and a tiny hint of the characteristic sweetness that a good Japanese green will have. 

Considering it is a bottled green tea, and dirt cheap at that, one can't ask too much out of it. For what it is I liked it.

Now if only I can find their dark unsweeteend green tea without having to buy it off the internet.

This is part of my Sample Demolition: Verdant Tea series. 

Puerh is a fairly unexplored world to me. I've had it on a few occasions and thought it was rather pleasant.
Because of the fact I have not had the pleasure of tasting a large variety of puerh, take this particular review with a grain of salt.

About 10g of dry leaf

Upon opening the bag I was met with a very sweet, yet pleasantly earthy aroma. The sweetness was strong enough that I could taste it on my tongue. Since I did not buy a whole cake I was expecting them to have already make the cake into loose leaf, but it was not, so I had to break up one of the chunks that were inside. It wasn't a big deal, but it was a surprise. I was very excited to try the cake.

Here I used 5g/120ml and 95C water. I rinsed twice before enjoying my first cup. I added 10 seconds to each additional brewing.

Cups 1-4

Leaves during the 4th brewing. I now see why it is sometimes called "green" puerh.

It was very, very pleasant. The mouthfeel was very smooth with a light, but not abrasive astringency. You're first met with a spicy taste, like that of new wood. In the aftertaste your tongue is washed over with a very sweet, jasmine-like taste mingled with elderberries, and at the back of my throat, raspberries. The finish is very long and it goes down your throat very smoothly.

For the third and fourth cup the sweetness in the aftertaste began to die down slightly, and the woodiness had a more prominent flavor. The liquor was more astringent, but not unbearably so.

Leaves after the 4th brewing

Cups 5-7

In the fifth cup the woodiness died down considerably. You could still taste it, but it wasn't nearly as potent. The raspberry flavors began to linger across the sides of my tongue and inch forward from the back of my throat. The elderberry was less apparent, and the jasmine-like flavor was just as strong as the first cup.
In the sixth, now that the woodiness was gone, a different flavor began to show up in the aftertaste. It reminded me of dark, old wood. Not quite rotting, but it wasn't a very pleasant taste. It was stronger than the previous, lovely floral and sweet tones. My friend described it as tasting like a 9 volt battery.

Liquor

In the seventh almost all flavor was gone. I could still taste the jasmine, but that is all that remained.

Several hours after I had finished this tea, the raspberry sweetness still clung to the back of my tongue. It wasn't until I shared a TieGuanYin with a friend of mine that the sweetness left, and was replaced by the TGY (which was outstanding, I must say).

Various wet leaves after brewing for show of quality

Rating

Overall I thought this was a reasonable tea, I liked it even though it wasn't anything particularly special. I give it a 5, my friend gave it a 2. If it weren't for the unpleasant aftertaste that begins to show up in the 6th cup, I'd have given it a 6 and they would've given it a 3. It didn't blow my mind away so it wasn't anything ground breaking to go tell your friends how fantastic it was, but it wasn't bad. It was a little above average, but not deserving enough of a six. If I were to continue to buy tea from Verdant Tea, which I will not be (for details refer to the Sample Demolition: Verdant Tea link above) it's something I'd buy again.

If you are interested, you can purchase this tea here.

This is part of my Sample Demolition: Verdant Tea series.

Dry leaves

I've had a lot of TieGuanYin. Far more than any other Anxi Oolong I've had the pleasure of sipping on. I've had "meh" and I've had some fantastic TGY. This one is hands down one of the best TGY I've ever had. From Verdant Tea I've had every TGY that Master Zhang has to offer except his 15 year aged TGY. This is my favorite of all of his offerings.

For this session I used 5g/120ml with 95C water and added 3-5 seconds per each additional brewing. 

Gong Fu Brewings 1-5

The aroma is extremely floral. From that alone I could taste orchid and honeysuckle with a hint of raspberry and melon. 

The first sip of the first brewing had a light, sweet taste like snap peas or sweet grass. Melon, raspberries, lilac, honeysuckle, orchid, jasmine, and cream being the tastes lingered all over my tongue in the after taste. The liquor was buttery smooth and had a very long finish.

Liquor

In the aroma of the second cup I could pick up on marzipan and cream mingled in with the floral notes. The flavor of the liquor was now explosive. Strawberries, sweet grass, and jasmine glided over my tongue. In the aftertaste, the jasmine was the strongest by far, lingering on the back of my pallet.

I found that raspberries had the strongest aroma for the third cup. There wasn't a whole lot of flavor aside from the sweetgrass, but the liquor was even lighter and had become more buttery than the first cup. Jasmine remained the main flavor in the aftertaste, but it mingled with raspberry.

Wet leaves

Raspberries and jasmine remained the main aroma. In this cup the floral sweetness of the tea began to disappear and become a little rough. The sweetgrass was the dominant profile, and I could barely detect some raspberry and boysenberry mixture at the back of my throat.. In the after taste fruity notes began to strengthen as the floral notes weakened. The boysenberry was barely present, the raspberry as strong as the past few cups.

In the fifth cup the liquor began to become astringent but it wasn't unpleasant. I could taste jasmine and melon at the back of my tongue mingled in with the sweetgrass. In the aftertaste it was a mixture of jasmine and raspberries once again. There was cream as well. I almost didn't notice it.

Gong Fu Brewing 6-10

In the 6th I primarily smelt sweetgrass with a tiny hint of raspberry. The astringency from the 5th brewing was gone. The mouthfeel was very silky now, still very full but no longer buttery. I mostly tasted sweetgrass and watercress (without the raddish-y part of watercress) in the liquor and aftertaste. At the sides of the back of my tongue and two spots on the center of my pallet I could taste melon and blueberry. I hadn't tasted blueberry yet so that came as a surprise. Raspberry and cream was still present, but it was very hard to detect.

Steeping leaves

The aroma was more or less the same as the 6th cup in the 7th. At the tip of my tongue I could taste cream, all across my pallet I could still taste sweetgrass, and at the back of my throat I could taste melon and raspberry. A hint of jasmine lingered in the aftertaste at the back of my throat.

I wasn't getting much aroma in the 8th cup which was a good sign to me that this tea was now on it's last legs. In the liquor I could taste water mingled with the sweetgrass which was the main flavor. The aftertaste was a gentle mix of jasmine, cream, and raspberries.

Since I was already this far, I decided to do two more brewings. They were more or less weaker versions of the 8th. In some of the earlier cups there was something sweet and savory I wasn't able to quite put a finger on because it was so subtle. Since most of the fruity and floral flavors had left, I was able to figure out it was caramelized banana. It was very nice.

Grandpa Style 

I don't have a whole lot to say about this tea grandpa style. It never went bitter, it was lightly floral and a little vegetale. It was definitely better when brewed Gong Fu style. I had it over a period of four hours. I used 3g/350ml, used 95C water for most of the time.

Best tumbler ever

Leaves in cup once done

Rating

This tea is fab. The aftertaste lingers forever. I had this tea with a friend before making this review and we ended on the 5th cup. The aftertaste that lingered was much stronger than the one that lingered when I went up to ten. So, I recommend stopping at the 5th or 6th brewing if you crave a wonderful, long lasting after taste like I do.

When I was with my friend we went out to eat. I had a buffalo "chicken" panini. The chicken being seitan, which is wheat gluten with a very meaty texture. After we were done it wasn't long till I could taste this tea again. A good TGY is supposed to have a sweet, floral and/or fruity aftertaste that lingers for a long time. This one certainly delivers.

Please take a moment to look at the leaf samples below. As you can see, many of them are not fully unrolled and are chipped/broken in many cases. I opened/flattened out a few of them on the left side. Most of the wet leaves never opened up fully even after all these brewings. While the liquor is absolutely delicious, this says something about the leaves: they're not very high quality. The price reflects that. Hojo of Hojo Tea has a very nice article Tips of Tea Quality Inspection that goes into some detail about this. I think it's a good, educational read. If you're familiar with tea it'll reinforce knowledge you probably have, and if you're new to tea it'll offer some new knowledge.

Gong Fu leaf samples

Grandpa leaf samples

Overall I give this tea a 9. If you do decide to try this tea, I suggest trying it next to their Traditional TGY or their Autumn TGY. You'll be able to taste and see the difference in quality. I have a review on their Autumn TGY if you are interested.

If you are interested in trying this tea, you can purchase it here.