Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Whispering Pines Tea
Tea Description:
Purely delicious, this exciting berry-white blend will have you hooked! One of the best iced teas at Whispering Pines.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I have not had a lot of experience with elderberries, in fact, I think I’ve only had them as a component in tea blends!
This is really tasty. The delicately sweet taste of the white tea is showcased nicely with the tart taste of the elderberry and rosehips. It doesn’t taste too sweet, nor does it taste overly – or artificially – flavored. It has a pleasant berry background note with hints of green grass and hay in the foreground. I taste a hint of flower to the cup, and a slight honey-esque tone as well, which was kind of surprising to me, because I don’t usually taste a honey note with white tea … but there it is!
The brewing suggestions for this tea (on the Whispering Pines website) suggest a steep time of three minutes, using 160°F water. While I got the temperature right, I didn’t steep this for just three minutes, I chose to double it and steep it for six, which is my normal “go to” time for most white teas.
And I’ve got to say, I really enjoy it using these brewing parameters, it is tangy from the berries and rosehips, but a nice sweetness from the white tea comes through too. I didn’t find it to be too tart for my liking, but, it does have a strong tart flavor, so if you are one who tends to be sensitive to tartness, you might want to add a little sweetener to this, a little coconut sugar will help to tame the sour pucker from this tea.
I think that a lower brew time would help reduce the dry astringency that I experience with this tea, but I don’t find the astringency to be unpleasant. Instead, I find that it adds a certain crispness to the cup. Overall, this is a very refreshing tea, one that I think would make a stunning iced tea (although, it’s much too cold for iced tea right now!)
I found this to be a very agreeable first experience with a tea from Whispering Pines Tea!
