Verdant Tea's November Tea Club - Wuyi Oolongs

Going to try something a bit different here. I received my first box from Verdant's tea club recently, and rather than review each tea separately, I'll post a slightly abridged review for each tea here. At least then this blog will have some sense of organization. I mean, I like to think it does anyway.

This month's theme are all Wuyi oolongs from Li Xiangxi's farm in Tongmu, Wuyishan in the northern slice of Fujian. They are all new to Verdant's site and were just posted a day or two before I received my box. All were brewed gongfu style with 5-6g of leaf in roughly 120ml of water.

Bai Ji Guan
Brewing parameters - 185F, 5s first, +3s after

This is the greenest of the five oolongs, and one of the most unique Wuyi oolongs I've had thus far. All Wuyi oolongs are fairly heavily oxidized, but this one falls on the low end of that spectrum. The leaves are a mottled bright green, yellow and deep burgundy and smell strongly of florality and minerality.

A quick 5 second steep in 120ml of water, and these leaves produce a light pale green soup that emits a wonderful floral/mineral/vegetal aroma, most reminiscent of cherry blossom and honey with the classic Wuyi minerality. Cherry blossom and lotus come through prominently in the taste, followed by sesame seeds, mineral, and just a tinge of honey.

Bai Rui Xiang
Brewing parameters - 208F, 5s first, +3s after

Wuyi oolong #2 is a much darker variety than the Bai Ji Guan. The Bai Rui Xiang leaves range from dark green to flat black, and smell of vanilla, incense spices and minerality.

As soon as the water hits the leaves, a wonderful tangy aroma arises. It's still distinctly Wuyi, but it delivers an citrusy, spicy lily, and almost jasmine aroma. If the tea liquor is anything like the aroma, I'm sold.

And the tea does not disappoint. The broth is wonderfully complex and brings notes of vanilla, mineral, cream, and lily florality, all with a slightly roasty overtone. It mellows out gradually with each steep, and the vanilla and cream elements take over the forefront of the sip.

Huang Mei Gui
Brewing parameters - 208F, 5s first, +3s after

The darkest oolong so far. The aroma of the dry leaves is significantly less pungent than the previous two, but release a mellow infusion of rose, minerality, and roastiness. The leaves are a dark flat brown and mostly uniform in color.

The leaves create a light amber brew that is highly floral, but still much heavier than the last two. Rose, nectarine, barley, mineral, and roastiness all combine into one to make a mellow, yet flavorful brew. I was able to detect a hint of raw cacao coming out in the later infusions as well. While this is still a great tea that I thoroughly enjoyed, I think it's probably the least unique of the group. It's fairly similar to what you'd expect from a mellow Qi Lan.

Mei Zhan
Brewing parameters - 208F, 5s first, +3s after

I've been looking forward to this one for a while now. Not really sure why, it just piqued my interest for some reason. The dry leaves are almost as dark as the Huang Mei Gui, but are slightly larger and less uniform in size. They also have a similar aroma, but more pungent, mixing sweet orchid, mineral and roastiness.

Wow, this one is aromatic. The smell of thick, sweet orchid and rose blends with roasted almonds to fill the room. The taste is just as wonderful, with the roasted almonds taking the lead, followed by a smooth creaminess and just a touch of florality and grain at the finish. The soup was surprisingly less floral than the aroma, and the minerality isn't as strong as the previous teas.

Fo Shou
Brewing parameters - 208F, 5s first, +3s after

The fifth and final tea from this box, and also somewhat of an outlier from the other four. The thick and chunky leaves don't have much special in the way of aroma, but they are easily twice the size of any of these other teas.

The taste contains a woody element that I hesitate to call cherry, but it's something in that neighborhood. Rosewood maybe? I'm not familiar with that taste, but it reminds me of rose, but without the cloying florality. It is accompanied by vanilla, cinnamon and only a bit of roastiness, while the minerality is the weakest in this tea. I can also detect a slight fruity aftertaste as well.

These are all excellent teas, and if you missed out on the club this month, you can still pick up each of these from Verdant's website (click the name of each tea above for a direct link). I think my favorite of the bunch was the Bai Ji Guan, simply because of the green uniqueness of it.

Verdant Tea's Golden Fleece Black Tea

Verdant's Description
Golden Fleece gets it's name to honor the soft, rich texture experience of tasting this incredible small-harvest tea. Golden Fleece is hand-picked from wild growth Yunnan Da Bai (Camellia taliensis) tea bushes over forty years old. The biodiversity of the growing region and deeper roots means a more complex flavor and aroma. Only the large tender buds are harvested. The down from the buds infuses into every cup, yielding a uniquely thick mouthfeel.

My thoughts
My second order from Verdant just got in yesterday. The wait between when you order tea and when it gets to your door is always the worst, especially when there are a couple teas that you know you'll enjoy in that box. This was one of those teas for me. I love Chinese black teas, especially the golden needle/golden bud varieties. This tea is sourced by Wang Yanxin and sold through Verdant. Their website says that this tea was grown in Lincang region in Yunnan, but the bag itself claims it is from Qingdao in Shandong province, so I'm not exactly sure where this tea actually comes from.

Dry leaves - The fuzzy leaves range from a bright sunny yellow to a dark rich gold, with a few dark tips thrown in for variety. The aroma has a very light floral/wheat/potato scent with just a touch of malt. Completely different than what I was expecting. Any thoughts I still had that this would be a typical golden needle black tea just went flying right out the window.

Brewing parameters - 200F,5s first, +3s after.

Tasting notes - Smooth, brown sugar, rose, saffron, graham cracker, sweet potato, banana, malt, honey

Yeah, this is most certainly not your normal golden needle. The first sip is quite unlike anything I've ever had before, with an incredibly silky, sweet florality of rose and brown sugar are right at the forefront. I was so enthralled by the amazing start that I nearly missed the rest of the sip. Mild sweet potato, sweet graham cracker, creamy banana, spicy saffron...this tea is really something special. It's not just a unique black tea, I've truly never had anything quite like this one before.

Steeps 2 and 3 are even sweeter than the first. The flavor profile has shifted somewhat, favoring the graham cracker and sweet potato elements now. I can detect hints of vanilla and malt towards the end of the sip now as well, and it finishes with a nice lingering honey sweetness.

Steeps 4 and 5 are beginning to look more like a black tea now. Flavors have shifted again to favor the sweet potato, malt and honey. I'm still not getting any cocoa at all, which I kind of expected from the start with this being from China. There is still just a twinge of that rose aroma right at the start of the sip, but it quickly disappears in the silky, mellow bliss that follows. I actually went to a total of 9 steeps with this tea, but after #5 it didn't really change much.

This is a tea you almost need to experience in a vacuum to really enjoy to its fullest. It is certainly one of the most subtle and nuanced black teas I've ever tried, and I'll likely need to do a few more brewing sessions to really get the full effect of what these leaves have to offer.

Being that this is a very small harvest wild-grown tea, I imagine that supplies are quite limited. Do yourself a favor, go to Verdant's site, and buy some of this tea right now before it's gone.

You can buy this extraordinary tea from Verdant here: http://verdanttea.com/teas/golden-fleece/

Verdant Tea's Laoshan Black

Verdant's Description
This brand new kind of tea is fed by sweet mountain spring water and roasted in the sun for three days before finishing to bring out rich chocolate notes. Mr. He perfected this tea as a proud reflection of the bold Shandong spirit and the perseverance of Laoshan Village. Laoshan black is a labor of love to prove to the world how incredible teas from Northern China can be.

My thoughts
This was one tea I was always hearing about. Verdant's Laoshan Black was almost universally recommended as a stellar black tea. So naturally I had to give it a try. Before I get into the review here, go check out Verdant's new website. Is it not one of the most amazingly designed sites you've ever seen? Seriously, it's awesome. I love how transparent Verdant is with their sourcing. They really want you to know who made your tea and where it came from.

Dry leaves - The aroma coming off the leaves is pure chocolate. Not carob, not raw cacao, but straight-up, rich dark chocolate. The leaves are quite small and twisted into little curls, and are mostly uniform in color.

Brewing parameters - 212F, 30s first, +15s after. This is what Verdant recommended, and while it seems like a very short time for a black tea, it works perfectly.

Tasting notes - Chocolate, cacao, malt, almond, cherry

The aroma profile of the dry leaves carries over nicely into the broth. The taste is primarily rich roasty chocolate with hints of raw cacao, malt, almond, and in the later steeps, black cherry. And it is incredibly smooth. Definitely one of the smoothest teas I've had the pleasure of trying. I expected it to be fairly similar to black teas from Yunnan, but it isn't really at all. Yunnan teas have an inclination to be fairly balanced in between cocoa and malty, sometimes with other flavors thrown in to the mix. This tea is just powerfully chocolatey. I'm not noticing a whole lot of an aftertaste; cocoa lingers in the mouth for a few seconds, but it quickly fades away. I suppose that's really this tea's only downside (if you can even call it that). This tea just keeps on giving too, and will likely last until you're tired of drinking it.

I feel like I haven't written as much as I normally do, which is weird because I absolutely adore this tea. If you're not a fan of chocolatey teas, you'll probably want to give this one a miss. For the rest of us, this one could easily become a top tier brew.

You can buy it at Verdant here: http://verdanttea.com/teas/laoshan-black/