Tea Review: Verdant Tea's 2014 Wild Picked Sheng Pu'er

Gotta love a company that offers 5 samples to new subscribers for only $5.
That's Verdant Tea for you. A great American tea company, Verdant offer's different teas and different picks of the same tea. (When my review skills have increased a bit I will review their wonderful 1st pick LungJing.

One of the samples I got in my five pack that I will talk about today is their 2014 Sheng Pu'er picked by Master Han.

The dry leaves were long and thin. There were a few twigs in there but it was generally pretty leafy with some decent sized ones in there. The leaves had the classic dark green pu erh color, but I noticed some redness in there too. They gave off a dark green smell to them but I picked up a peppery ting and a bit of a malt roundness.

First brew

The leaves wet leaves began to give a hint of the complexities to come.

There was clearly two tones of the leave, a lighter green and a darker redish brown.

The first brew (not including the rinse) was light with a grassy sweet flavor. It didnt really press anywhere on the mouth but instead was kind of aromatic

Brew number two:

This brew let you know that you were drinking a Pu'er. The greenness turned into a soft maltyness and that sweet taste matured in to an stringency that while spread across the tongue, found a home at the edges of your mouth. The body was also much more prevalent in this brew than the last.

Brew three:

The leaves are open and its time to party. The smooth malt is most noticed here while the green still lingers on the side. The astringency had gone straight for the sides of your mouth, they aren't playing around anymore. There is a citrus note that lingers after you swallow, which is kinda nice as you sit back and enjoy the peace.


I did a few more brew, but nothing new really came out. At the end I destroyed the tea and got a fully mouth of astringency but also a more prevalent citrus note underneath.

All and all I enjoyed this tea. You defiantly get that pu'er flavor but a little more casually than an aged pu'er. Good for a relaxing day where you crave a pu'er but you're not trying to be overwhelmed by body and flavor.

For 12.50 for 1 oz its a good buy for people who are looking to keep their pu'er needs filled while their wallet fat.
http://verdanttea.com/teas/master-hans-2014-loose-leaf-sheng-puer/

Be honest with your tea self

"I only drink the finest teas" She said with her nose turned so high up I could count the burgers. "Ok" I replied as a proceeded to show her our high quality Oolongs and Chinese greens. "No" she said after taking a whiff of each one. "Just give me my usual Hot Cinnamon Spice".

I see this sort of thing all the time. People act as though they are the truest tea conessiour out there and yet only drink flavored tea. Don't get me wrong I find no personal beef with flavored tea. As much as I wish every only drank high quality traditional teas, I know that's not everybody's cup of tea. My peeves are petted when someone is not honest with what type of tea drinker they are.

There are many different kinds of tea out there. From teas with sprinkles to tea grown in poop. There are so many types of tea it is almost too simple to simply say I'm a tea drinker. It's like saying I'm a music listener. What type of music do you listen to? The tea world has grown to a point where to really have a conversation about tea with someone you need to know what type of tea they drink, and more importantly what type of tea do you drink. This is where it is time to get honest.

I consider myself a midlevel tea drinker. I stick solely to traditional teas and I have a decent amount of information about the process of making tea. So while I can tell you about the effect of shade on a growing tea plant, or interesting facts on western tea culture got started, I know that I am by no means a tea expert. I was on the Manderin Tearoom's website the other day, and I was looking at the teas they sold. Just by the price and the way he talked about tea I knew this was some high  quality stuff. And as much as I wanted to spend $15 dollars on five grams of tea, I had to ask myself if I really knew enough about tea to truly enjoy it. The simple answer is no. In all my vast knowledge of tea facts, the other day I had trouble distinguishing a yellow tea from a green, and white from an oolong. (not my best day).

The point I am trying to make is that we need to be honest with ourselves and what sort of tea drinker we are. Sun Tzu has a quote that more or less goes "Being able to see the sun in not considered great site, being able to hear thunder claps is not considered acute hearing, the ability to catch a hare does not make you a great hunter" (I cant find my book so the wording is not 100%). If you drink Teavana that's fine, do you. If you drink flavored teas because you don't really taste anything in the finer teas that ok. But if you drink Teavana, please understand the fact you're drinking Teavana. Understand that the reason you cant taste the light berry notes, is because there are actual berries in your tea.

Part of the beauty of tea is that its a giant fucking rabbit hole. You may be drinking David's Tea today, but next year you may be staying in on a Saturday night so you can save money to spend on more expensive teas. (He wrote pretending he wasn't talking about himself again). But if not like I said that's cool too. Just drink your tea with honesty, cause that's the only way you really should.

My trip to China: an introductary

When I'm asked why I choose to go to China the only honest answer I can give is "I dont know". Cause the truth is I'm not sure. I first got the idea about a month ago, while sitting on some steps in soho. I was sitting on the steps watching the clouds, a personal hobby of mine, when the thought kinda just came to me. "I should go to China". There was no train of thought, no connection to a previous idea, it just kinda came out of the blue. I had never been to China, I don't know chinese and I couldn't think of anyone who would want to go with me. At the time I merely laughed at the thought, and put it in the back of my mind to save for a rainy day. 

Paulo Coelho once wrote "And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.". A few weeks after my epiphany on the steps of American Apparel, the universe gave me a gift in the form of a crazy landlord.

Above the store I work in is the landlord of the building. An interesting character to say the least, he always comes down complaining about the noise we are making. There is nothing really as mind boggling as a man who constantly complains about the amount of noise a tea house is making. And as much as we would like to tell him to shove off and stop blowing weed smoke in the vents, he is out landlord so all we can do is smile apologize and evidently soundproof the ceiling. 

Now soundproofing a ceiling is no small talk. You have to take down the whole ceiling, install the sound proof material, then put the ceiling back up. This was going to be a two week long project. Two weeks that the store was going to be closed. A two week break that we were going to get paid for. This is exactly what I needed. Less than five days after we were told the dates we were going to be closed I booked my tickets. 

After about of day of excitement it hit me, what the fuck do I know about China?

I want this to be a tea themed trip. Of course I will see some temples and such, but my main reason for going to China will be for tea. I want to see what the tea culture is like in China. Obviously China being such a diverse and large country there is not going to be one way they drink it, but growing up in a culture where you tea always takes milk and sugar, a culture who appreciates the raw tea will be a nice change. 

In the week or two since then my dad has managed to contact a business associate in Shanghai who is willing to show me around and is luckily also a tea drinker, so I will be able to see great tea houses and markets. I am looking at going to Hangzhou and maybe Wuyi Mountain. The details are fuzzy but they get a little clearer everyday. I have 38 days to figure out my trip and no matter what I choose I'm sure this is going to be fun. 

Nepal Tea Trader Review #1: Khumbu Black Tea

Hello loves

I have chosen this rainy night to write my first review. It only seems fitting.

I will be reviewing a Khumbu Black Tea by Nepal Tea Traders.

First let me say these people are lovely. I found NTT when looking for a Nepal source for a company I am starting. I spoke with Ellen and she was fantastic. She told me all about the teas and how part of the profits go to helping Nepal children. So with out further a due, lets begin.

To start off the leaves themselves are very interesting. Each leaf is twisted and seems to twist and turn, sometimes tying its self into a knot. It is mostly black with a little gold worked into each leaf. There is a smooth finished wood smell. A mixture of light and dark gives me the idea of a piece of cut wood freshly varnished. The leaves themselves are sturdy. A good density that makes it impossible to break one with out a soft crack.

I did about a 3 minute brew at boiling water in a gaiwan.

The wet leaves look good. They maintain a solid dark color with out and splotches or blisters, evidence of an uneven oxidizing process. Once wet you can unroll some of the leaves to reveal a medium sized, mostly unbroken leaf. The smell has matured to a malty mushroom smell, with a slight sweetness in there. It has yield a light brown liquid. Looking at it you understand how black tea was originally called red tea.

Let's take a sip.

Oh how lovely. The tea lavishes you with a medium body that tingles on the front of the mouth and rests in the back. When you first take a sip the front of your toungue is greeted by a medium body with a light sweetness, like honey in wood. As it moves toward the back of your mouth the body gets more heavy and the sweetness transcends into a more malty flavor. Less strong then an Indian tea, but strong enough to let you know this is a black. Toward the bottom of the cup, where I find the best flavor to be, an almost fruit like flavor surfaces briefly before heading down to your tummy.

Overall this seems to be a great example of Nepal teas. The high altitude growth gives the whole tea a lightness to it, while still letting you know its a black. This would make for a great late afternoon or early evening black tea or a tea for a time where you want a light body with out sacrificing the black tea feel we all love so much. This tea can take a little sugar or a little milk, but due to its natural lightness I not much is needed nor suggested.

Read more about this tea and the wonderful charity it benefits at
http://www.nepaliteatraders.com/

To some extent you cant deny Tea.

Steep 0:
Lucy's eyes started around the small tea shop that bordered alphabet city. "Where is the music. This place needs music"
"What is a tea pet? What is it for?"
"What tea is good for health? I want to be healthy"
"This is kinda boring"

A Hou Kui was ordered and the first brew poured.

Steep 1:
"I dont like toasted teas" She said pausing after her first cup. "They taste like urine to me. Im sorry is that rude?" I laughed and said no not at all, trying to ignore the fact my tea now kinda reminded me of urine.
"You know what this reminds me of?" She said pausing to think, searching through her memory bank. I prayed she wouldn't say urine.
"It reminds me of home" She proceeded to tell me a story of her time in Korea whens she went to a tea farm and tried teas whose nuttyness reminded her of pee.

Steep 2:
"It's so weird that this made me think of home. I haven't thought about home in a long time" She was silent for a moment thinking about her past, as if looking at an old photo she had kept on the dusty mantle in her mind.

Steep 3:
"It's like I never get time to think about that sort of stuff anymore. Everything is rush, rush, rush."
"It's important to slow down. Nobody does that any more."

Steep 4:
"This place is so nice and quite. I want to take my girlfriends here. We go to starbucks but its always so rushed, and there is music playing and it's very impersonal."
"Oh my god look at the tea it's such a beautiful neon green."
"Aren't you glad there isn't any music playing" I said
"Yea I love it here."