I was really confused when I got a package from Verdant Tea - Tea of the Month Club because the tracking number on my gift still showed "In Transit" (we'd been struggling with some post office issues for a while), so I didn't think this was supposed to be my AD gift, and yet I hadn't ordered any tea for myself recently. I even went though my emails to look for order confirmations since Verdant is a company that I regularly buy from and I'd been considering their tea of the month club for a while, maybe I'd subscribed and forgot about it?

So I sent a little message to my santa (who has been awesome at keeping in touch with me through the whole process), and it was confirmed. The delicious box of tea was indeed his work. Not only that, this was box two of a SIX MONTH subscription. Box one is still stuck in limbo somewhere in the depths of a cold, dusty Candadian post office, awaiting the day of it's liberation. I'm sure we will free it soon enough. But for the next FOUR fricking months I get a box of 3 new mystery teas from my favorite tea company! It is literally the gift that keeps on giving!

I cannot thank him enough for how generous and spot on this gift was - it's THE most perfect gift for a tea addict like me. Verdant has shown the most consistently high quality of all the tea retailers I've bought from so far and the teas in this month's box are no different.

I brewed one of them this evening as soon as I opened the box (Master Han's 2012 Sheng) and it was amazing. It was far less harsh than I'd expect of such a young sheng pu-erh but certainly not lacking in flavor. There is a long lasting aftertaste (huigan) that sits pleasantly in the back of my throat. My tea tasting vocab needs some serious work, I'm not sure how to describe the flavor, and I'm a newbie when it comes to pu-erhs.

One more huge THANK YOU to my amazing santa Sfugius. You've made my day, my month, and my next 4 months after this! All in all this has been a hugely successful first reddit exchange :)

UPDATE Verdant has confirmed that they are shipping a replacement of my first box :)