Tea time: 2021 Golden Fleece from Verdant Teas

 No place to be this Saturday so I slept in, then decided to look at my recently acquired collection of Little Green Pouches from Verdant Tea and pick out a tea to enjoy. This morning, it's the 2021 Golden Fleece sourced by Wang Yanxin.

  

This is another tea that smells delicious when you unseal the package and inhale. It was like opening a package of dried apricots. Or maybe mango: sweet and fruity was the main impression, anyway. 

Verdant's website furnishes all sorts of details about each tea. This one comes from 40 year old wild growth Yunnan Da Bei tea bushes grown at an elevation of 2000m (6561 feet: Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada is 7057 feet) in the Lincan region of Yunnan Province. This batch was picked in the spring of this year. 

First steep: 200F (they recommend 205F, but my kettle settings offer 200F and boiling, so I opted for a slightly cooler temperature), 8-10 seconds, add 3 seconds for each additional steep.  

The aroma keeps the fruit and overlays it with a gently floral note. It's sweet and soft on the tongue. There's a lot going on but it's all subtle and soft and stays that way even as it cools in the cup. "Here, (whiff of jasmine). "Here, (cool silk on your forearm). "Here," (is that apricot)? 

I don't know. I am not an expert and taste is VERY subjective. The tea seller may list things in a flavor profile and I'll be sitting here and going, "Banana? What banana? I don't get banana at all!" 

This is not an in-your-face wake up cuppa. I feel like I should be in a garden pavilion, swathed in silk, composing poetry to the sound of bird song. (Even as a motorcycle starts up next door and sets off the crows.)

The second steep is just as soft and relaxing as the first. About to go for a third. 

Lovely stuff!