Another Atlas Tea Club box! If you didn’t see my previous post on the Thailand and Nepal boxes, Atlas Tea Club features a new tea region a month. The box I have today is Laos, and I have been looking forward to it.
There is a joke about Laos teas. You’ve likely already had teas from Laos, they were just sold as your favorite Chinese region teas. I’ve had some great teas officially from Laos, so this club box will be fun!
Little Sprout Green from Atlas Tea Club Laos
The leaves have a seaweed butter scent.
For my ratios, I used 1gram of leaf per 20ml, steeped with 180F/ 82c water.
Little Sprout Green’s flavor is heavily savory, tasting of cucumber, dandelion, charred bell peppers, with a sticky thick okra taste and texture. The aftertaste is pleasantly melon. Each infusion a soft tangy stone fruit tries to come out, but still is dominated by the vegetal savoriness. As I resteeped 3 times, this tea got astringent, bitter herbs, and somewhat floral.
The texture of Little Sprout Green I quite like, trying to win over this tea drinker who doesn’t do green tea. Little Sprout Green is a fine tea and quite different than the usual green tea suspects (sencha, gunpowder, bilochun, et) Finds like this are what make Atlas Tea Club cool – trying new regional teas!
Lao Shu Da Ye White from Atlas Tea Club Laos
The leaves here smell grassy and floral. Simply gorgeous silver leaves.
After steeping, the tea smells like zesty syrup tree sap.
Lao Shu Da Ye White is bright, crisp, and sweet, with the flavor of agave syrup, cucumbers, and birch wood. The texture is thick cotton batting and pleasantly coating to drink. As it steeps, the sugary flavor darkens a bit to brown sugar.
As this tea steeps, it has a tulip floral and more cucumber notes. Lao Shu Da Ye White got a touch bitter in the end, but still syrupy sweet despite steeping a long time at boiling. The last infusion was soft and sweet!
Shan Cha Black
An excellent dried fruity scent comes off the golden buds.
After a rinse, I get a wildflower honey, floral, baked good scent.
Shan Cha Black has an impressive vanilla flavor and creaminess. Not often do I find teas with natural vanilla flavor. The tea shifts between floral citrus honey and dried figs, all with that creamy characteristic. Shan Cha Black tea resteeps and tastes pretty consistent, never getting bitter or dry, staying thick, creamy, and smooth.
Atlas Tea Club’s Laos month is a STRONG month with heavy hitting top teas. Lao Shu Da Ye White is the nicest quality and favorite tea I’ve had from Atlas Tea Club so far. The green and black tea were also great!
(teas provided for review)
