Verdant Tea, Imperial Breakfast Blend

Verdant Tea Description:
A fine breakfast tea should gently wake you up, acting as a transition and ritual to welcome the day.  Too many breakfast blends achieve this through caffeine alone, brewing up so intense that they are hard to palate.  We realized the best breakfast tea is going to give you more than caffeine.  Its flavor is going to be warm and sunny, the texture gentle but satisfying, the aftertaste refreshing.  The sensation of drinking the tea should make you want to start the day.

We achieve this by starting with Laoshan Black and Zhu Rong Yunnan Black.  This combination creates a satisfying body with a warm and bright flavor.  A touch of Wuyi Mountain Big Red Robe Oolong accents the warm fruity qualities, while Master Han’s 2002 Shu pu’er strengthens the base and a bit of Bai Mu Dan White tea provides a uniquely refreshing aftertaste.

This brews up beautifully hot or cold, and can be just the comforting cup in the morning or throughout the day.

My Review:
This is so interesting looking in the bag. Big white buds, golden twists, dark gnarly leaves. This is topped by the scent of the dry leaf upon opening. Oh my lands. This is dark honey coated burnt caramel goodness. It has been a long time since dry leaf has drawn me in so quickly. Just wow!

I used 2 tsp of leaf. It seemed like a lot but then look at the fluffy nature of the leaf. I let it soak for a moment in the bottom of my freshly rinsed press. Then I added boiling water and steeped for one brief minute.

The liquor is orange and clear. The wet leaf aroma is much like the dry with the added touch of seeming fresher and more alive. The scent of the cup reveals the caramel and a touch of the dark Wuyi. The Yunnan is the driving flavor here with the oolong filling in the bottom end. I really don't taste the puerh or white - or at least I can't single them out. As the cup cools I also catch light notes like cinnamon.

As is usually the case with me, the more the cup cooled the more I enjoyed it. Really hot, I thought (and usually do) the flavors were subdued and locked together. As it cools they separate and blossom. By the time this reached room temperature I decided it was an exceptional blend.

Visit the Verdant Tea website.