Sample tea from Verdant

Tisanes prepared from plants not belonging to the Camellia genus
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Vanenbw
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Fri Jan 24, 2020 7:24 am

I purchased 5 sample teas for $5 from Verdant. It's an offer for first-time customers. The first tea that I tried is a Yabao tea, which I believe is an herbal tea. The flavor is reminiscent of chamomile. Most of the time I drink only sencha, but I have been wanting to try some Chinese or Tawainese teas. I brewed it in my new 150ml gaiwan from Red Blossom.
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I tried something that you probably could not do with green tea; I saved the leaves in a Pyrex dish, and had another couple of infusions before I left home this morning. In all, so far, I probably had 10 infusions. I'm not sure you can do that with green tea. I still love my green tea, and I missed my nightly ritual, so I followed up my yabao session with genmaicha, also brewed in the gaiwan.

Although I prefer the savory, vegetal notes of Japanese green tea, I enjoyed the spicy, fruity flavor of the yabao tea. I'm looking forward to trying thr other sample teas.
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Victoria
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Sat Jan 25, 2020 1:39 pm

Interesting, I have not yet tried Yabao tea. Reading more it seems the very young buds grow on branches, that become off-shoot branches. The buds could be from camellia sinensis and or other native plants as well. That it can be used with boiling water and steeped all day long is intriguing to try. Five samples for 5$ is a deal.
Vanenbw
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Sat Jan 25, 2020 11:18 pm

No, not bad at all. I also received a few samples with my Hojo order (my kobiwako houhin arrived today). The samples are of Chinese teas, so I will probably brew them in the gaiwan since my kyusu pots and houhin are dedicated to Japanese greens.
Ethan Kurland
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Sun Jan 26, 2020 10:29 am

Victoria wrote:
Sat Jan 25, 2020 1:39 pm
Five samples for 5$ is a deal.
Sure, it is okay if you enjoy drinking one of them. Great if you enjoy drinking more than one. Fantastic if you find a tea that you will order later. I don't know you beyond this forum but am willing to take a chance: Bet you five dollars you don't order one of those five teas. Okay :?:
rdl
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Sun Jan 26, 2020 11:56 am

Ethan,
Interesting wager. I'm curious the outcome.
Economists and philosophers deal with this every day. As well as legitimate scammers. I usually don't take a gamble but then again I do. It's part of seeing who is more clever.
Vanenbw
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Sun Jan 26, 2020 4:40 pm

It is an interesting wager, but I cannot say what I will do. The yabao tea I was not crazy about. It didn't taste much different than chamomile, which is a tea I never truly enjoyed, but drank once in awhile either to relax me or settle my stomach. I also tried a sample this afternoon from Red Blossom of light roast tieguanyin (anxi oolong) tea. I rather enjoy the light roasted, nutty flavor. I might consider purchasing 50gms of this tea in the future, although the shipping costs at Red Blossom is rather high in my opinion. That alone might be the single deterrent for me to buy elsewhere.
Ethan Kurland
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Sun Jan 26, 2020 5:24 pm

Wager was for Victoria. I am too poor to lose to all teaforum members :D

I should have PMed it.

Anyway, I tried to remember all of my history with Verdant Tea. I had forgotten that I did place an order after the $5 samples. It was for Laoshan Black tea. Back then I was new to ordering online. Somewhere I had tasted Laoshan Black & liked it. Because of Verdant sample offer, I had learned of it & its selling of that tea. Alas, Verdant won the gamble, so to speak: They had made no profit on the sampler but did on the following transaction.
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Victoria
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Sun Jan 26, 2020 5:49 pm

@Ethan Kurland :) I don’t think I’ll be ordering from Verdant Tea but regarding sample size orders - I did order 3x several 8g packs of yancha from Old Ways Tea and will be re-ordering (if he still has) a few of those soon. I realize Wuyi yancha is more expensive, so there’s that in terms of size.
Vanenbw
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Sun Jan 26, 2020 9:42 pm

Ethan Kurland wrote:
Sun Jan 26, 2020 5:24 pm
Wager was for Victoria. I am too poor to lose to all teaforum members :D
I kind of realized it after I posted my comment. Anyway, it was an interesting point you brought up. I'm new to Chinese teas, so I really appreciate the samples I received from a few companies I've purchased from. Since I don't even know where to begin, the samples are a great place to start. If I liked a sample tea enough, and the price wasn't exorbitant, I would buy one of the teas I sampled. I would be more apt to do that than to purchase a new tea I know nothing about (unless it was an inexpensive tea, or highly rated).
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