Verdant Tea

Longyuanhao Workshop only pressed a few thousand of these 100g Tuochas, a special collaboration with the Menghai Tea Research Institute back in 2006 in the heyday of the pu’er boom market. Wang Yanxin was able to secure a few dozen Tuochas back in 2008 thanks to her relationship with Longyuanhao Workshop, and is pleased to release them from her cellar after nearly 20 years of climate-controlled aging. This tea has beautiful notes of nutmeg, cardamom, cooling camphor, citron and passionfruit, with a sweet ginger molasses cookie aftertaste.

Yuan Zhang Workshop is a small producer befriended by Wang Yanxin on her lifelong search to find under-represented labels doing more interesting work than the big brands. This pressing is called Shen Xin, which loosely translates to “profound spirit,” an inspiration for this elegant and well balanced flavor profile. Notes of cardamom, brown sugar, dried apple, and rye with a juicy aftertaste.

De Hou Workshop is a small producer befriended by Wang Yanxin on her lifelong search to find under-represented labels doing more interesting work than the big brands. This cake shows that a talented small workshop can achieve that perfect ideal flavor profile that made bigger brands like Mengku so famous, even without access to a huge cache of leaf material from across Yunnan. Through careful harvesting, and slow clean fermentation, De Hou has put together a cake picked in 2016 and pressed in 2018, brewing up beautifully with iconic notes of molasses, chocolate,cherry, cinnamon, and vanilla with a smooth silky texture.

Gong Ting or “Palace” designation is a nod to the old tea tribute system and describes the tiny golden bud pressings once offered to the imperial palace as a form of tax payment. This grade of shu pu’er is famously silky, sweet and smooth. Jing Ze Workshop’s 2016 harvest gong ting cake is no exception. This is a stunning and iconic pressing with notes of ginger cookies, spice cake, pear, and vanilla with a clean sparkling texture.

Yuan Wang Workshop is a small producer befriended by Wang Yanxin on her lifelong search to find under-represented labels doing more interesting work than the big brands. This single-origin cake highlights the unique, cooling, tingling texture and aftertaste of Bulangshan. Yuan Wang Workshop started with early spring buds from old trees cared for using organic practices. The six plus years of age have allowed this cake to really come into itself with notes of banana cream pie, saffron, tulsi, and white pepper.

Wang Yanxin almost never features pu’er from one of the big workshops like this Mengku pressing, but finding decade plus aged true Bingdao sheng pu’er is rare since Bingdao only recently became so wildly famous, and the 2009-2014 era was a “depression” in the pu’er industry where less new cakes were being pressed. She was able to get her hands on this reserve offering in a low market and hold onto it for a decade to offer now. The wild arbor leaf material and high bud ratio gives this tea a wonderfully rocky mineral-laden texture and Bingdao’s iconic cooling aftertaste.

Yuan Wang Workshop is a small producer befriended by Wang Yanxin on her lifelong search to find under-represented labels doing more interesting work than the big brands. This single-origin cake highlights the unique, cooling, tingling texture and aftertaste of Bulangshan. Yuan Wang Workshop started with early spring buds from old trees cared for using organic practices. The six plus years of age have allowed this cake to really come into itself with notes of banana cream pie, saffron, tulsi, and white pepper.

Rui Gong Workshop is a small producer befriended by Wang Yanxin on her lifelong search to find under-represented labels doing more interesting work than the big brands. They don’t shy away from truly unique blends, pushing a flavor and aroma profile outside of the predictable and classic. This cake uses Banzhang’s famous leaf material, playing on the numbing nutty quality that the region is known for with honeyed undertones and juicy melon, giving it a powerful dynamic quality.

Rui Gong Workshop is a small producer befriended by Wang Yanxin on her lifelong search to find under-represented labels doing more interesting work than the big brands. They don’t shy away from truly unique blends, pushing a flavor and aroma profile outside of the predictable and classic. This cake uses Banzhang’s famous leaf material, playing on the numbing nutty quality that the region is known for with honeyed undertones and juicy melon, giving it a powerful dynamic quality.

Xingyang’s dragon pearl pressings are perfect for individual brew sessions. This blend is unique from their mini-brick format, showing off a juicier flavor profile with notes of apricot, jasmine, toasted coconut, ginger and cedar with a honeyed and tingling aftertaste.

Xingyang is famous for their rich, luxurious buddy shu pu’er. These single brew session pearls show off the workshop’s stunningly clean and meticulously slow fermentation craft with notes of malted milk, toasted marshmallow, vanilla, cinnamon, and sandalwood with a velvety texture. 

Xingyang has been experimenting with blending flowers and fruits with their teas for about ten years. These dragon pearls are an unbelievable expression of craft, finely balanced, and stunning to watch unfold. Each chrysanthemum blossom was blended in fully intact so that its petals open up to reveal black tea, giving the pearls many steepings that start out floral and become deeper and richer with each infusion. Notes of custard cream, cinnamon, chrysanthemum, bergamot and passionfruit with a crisp and elegant texture.

Six kinds of tea & Six passionate growers- these are the iconic classics that represent what we and our partner growers stand for: true sustainability, transparency, and the taste and aroma that come from the impeccable terroir and craft of the best growers in China.

This tasting kit combines teas from six of our partners, spanning growing regions across China and representing six different styles of tea including one green oolong tea, one Wuyi black tea, one Anxi oolong tea, one Wudongshan Dancong oolong tea, one white tea, and one Yunnan sheng pu'er tea. Each tea is sourced directly from the people who grow and finish the teas themselves, for a representative and unblended taste of each family and craftperson's terroir and unique point of view.

Thank you for supporting Verdant Tea's project to connect tea lovers with the real people behind the teas we all love!

This bundle includes three 25g bags of oolong tea for 75g total (15 sessions). This special tea sampler highlights Master Zhang’s work to bring back an ancient oolong finishing technique - the Revival Style. This technique comes from years of research, travel and cultural exchange with other oolong communities, and extensive interviews tapping into the oral tradition to uncover the way that oolong was finished long before the modern rolled style that Tieguanyin is famous for. In this kit, you’ll get to explore light roast, dark roast, aged, and varietal comparisons to see how the Revival Style brings oolong to life with deeper aromatics and more powerful texture and aftertaste, all while connecting with a rich tradition of craft that nearly died out over the last few hundred years. The Revival Style takes more than twice as long to make as classic Tieguanyin thanks to the extended yaoqing process of turning and fluffing the leaves and the fact that so much has to be done entirely by hand, but the results are stunning - a half-twisted half-rolled style that Master Zhang describes as a Dragonfly shape.

When it's cold outside, we all need our cozy go-tos. This kit is about holding both hands around a beautiful mug and taking in the steam from some of our favorite teas. Whether you are looking for a gift for someone just getting into tea, or searching for the perfect companion to a good book or movie night, this set delivers. Beautifully glazed and fired in a traditional Longquen celadon kiln, the covered mug is meant to keep your tea warm between sips, and to feel good in the hands. The classic blue-green is a gorgeous contrast to brewed tea. We paired this mug with three of the absolute most classic and famous teas we are lucky enough to bring in: fresh, rolled Tieguanyin oolong with all its creamy saffron orchid notes, true Shi Feng Dragonwell (the iconic Chinese green tea!), and Jin Jun Mei - a stunning black tea made entirely of downy buds.

This Tea Sampler includes eight 25g bags of fine black tea for 200g total (40 brewing sessions). Black tea is going through a renaissance in China. Farmers like Li Xiangxi in Wuyishan are pushing the boundaries of craft, and pulling out all the stops with rare, sometimes wild-picked harvests from coveted microclimates. This tea sampler is all about trying the very rarest, most stunning examples of black tea craft in the world- the pride and joy of each of our partner-farmers. From wild tree teas that only grow in high elevation groves in Wuyishan and Yunnan, to luxurious buddy golden black teas that brew up smooth as silk this sampler reveals the stunning complexity of modern black tea craft at its finest.