Someone told me once that white tea just tasted like a cup of hot water to them. I probably would have agreed early on in my tea journey. When your tastebuds are accustomed to strong root beer and sweet, fizzy, highly flavored soda it takes a while to train your palate to find subtle flavors, at least it did for me. Perhaps the real foodies “get it” right from the start.
I haven’t had unflavored white tea in a while and decided that today would be a good day to take a cup of Bai MuDan outside and enjoy its simplicity while sitting in the sunshine, a rare treat in late winter. Though very windy, it is warm and the sun is welcome after many days of rain.
The packet called for two grams of leaf for twelve ounces of water, which I thought seemed to far too little at first. I used my new Upton Digital Tea Scale since large leaf white tea can be tricky to judge. Teavivre recommends five to eight minutes, and I steeped for about five because I was ready for my break!
First, this is a beautiful golden cup of tea. The color is rich and deep and it actually LOOKS full bodied in the cup. The flavor did not let me down. No one could mistake this for a “cup of hot water!” The flavor lingers for quite a while, too.
I see a lot of white tea described accurately as tasting like sunshine on hay, mainly Shou Mei, but this Bai MuDan tastes like golden stalks with a hint of spring in the air, with the scent of distant flowers laid over, and maybe even a little soft, sweet vegetable like snow pea or sugar snap peas.
I think this is going to be my go-to quiet time cup for a while.
Want to Know More About This Tea?
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Teavivre
Description
Teavivre’s White Peony Bai MuDan tea is farmed and produced on Mt. Taimu, using material from Dabaihao tea trees. While this is a slightly oxidized white tea, it is produced with the same minimal processing as Silver Needle white tea, with the main difference between the two being that silver needle uses only buds, while bai mudan includes opened leaves as well.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Snickerdoodle/The NecessiTeas -Ashmanra
I had a large sample pack of this, enough for a small pot of tea and not just a cup. Since it is caffeine free I thought it would be perfect for some after dinner snacking and would satisfy the sweet part of my sweet + salty cravings! The base is honeybush, thank goodness, and not rooibos. I don’t usually sweeten my teas and this already contains both white and brown sugar, but I am going for dessert here so I don’t mind.
The instructions call for a seven minute steep. I thought that was perhaps to give the cinnamon chips time to melt. It is worth waiting for! If you could melt a Snickerdoodle cookie (one of our favorite kinds) and pour it in a cup, this is exactly what it would smell like and taste like. The aroma was so incredibly sweet that I thought it was going to be TOO sweet for me, but it wasn’t. I am glad it was paired with popcorn and not a sweet dessert, though, because that would have been too much sugar for me! This was so rich, full bodied, and full of cinnamon goodness! The cinnamon is sweet and not hot. The brown sugar gives it real mouth-roundness, as Graham Kerr used to say.
I should have added a touch of milk, in retrospect, to get that dunked cookie vibe! This would also have made an astoundingly good latte. I may have to get my hands on some more to try that!
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Leaf Type: Honeybush
Where to Buy: The NecessiTeas
Description
Snickerdoodles are the perfect holiday cookie. Packed with that classic cinnamon and sugar flavor, this tea will quickly become a family favorite!
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Derpy Hooves/Friday Afternoon Tea -Ashmanra
I have a stack of Friday Afternoon Tea blends to try thanks to the generosity of the Sisters! I tried Rue The Day first and really enjoyed the anise in that one. Today I thought I would try this blend with bergamot for breakfast.
First of all, this is a blend of black tea and white. It is said to be “inspired by Pegasus” but I have always pictured Pegasus as all white! And Derpy Hooves appears to be a My Little Pony character, but I know nothing about that fandom so perhaps the mix of these tea types comes from there.
When two teas with really different parameters of steeping are brought together in one blend, it is difficult to know what to do, so I followed the company suggestion…which was a really surprising one to me. I would have made this at 185F in deference to the white tea but they recommend 175F and I behaved and did so.
But the problem I had with this tea is not due to the mix of black and white teas or the difficulty of getting the best notes from each type in the blend. The problem for me is the bergamot. I like the smell of bergamot, and I like blends with bergamot as long as the base is not a super lemony Ceylon.
But this bergamot smells strange. The flavor is somewhat better than the aroma, especially while I was eating, but honestly I couldn’t handle the aroma without food to cover up that smell. And although it says it contains cream flavor, I didn’t pick up cream at all.
I am glad of the opportunity to try it, and some bergamot lovers out there might dig it, but this one is not for me!
Want to Know More About This Tea?
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Friday Afternoon Tea
Description
Enjoy this creamy black and white tea with delicate pops of floral citrus to keep you steady on those flightier days!
Ingredients: Black tea, white tea, marigold petal, bergamot oil, natural vegan cream flavoring
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Organic Assam Black Tea/OLLTco -Ashmanra
I received a generous sample of this tea in my box from the Sisters. Many thanks!
I am not usually a big drinker of Assam tea. I liked it when I first started drinking “fine” tea but back then I added milk and sugar.
As I began to take my tea plain, Assam and a few other teas (like really pepper-y Yunnan) were not only a little strong for me but seemed to cause tummy trouble. Some of the high quality ones don’t bother me as long as I steep carefully with a lower temp and shorter time. But I really gravitated toward Chinese black teas, especially Fujian and Qimen.
I have never even heard of this tea company, so naturally I looked them up before writing this. Their “about” info says that they carry carefully curated organic teas that are better for you and better for the environment. I clicked on shop and…there are only two teas for sale! This one and a jasmine green from China.
This one is super affordable. At the time of writing this, it is around $3 an ounce.
I made it to go with breakfast and…well, I’ll be danged. This is really good.
Bracing myself for a puckered mouth, dreading the potential burning stomach later, instead I got a pot of really enjoyable, moderately bracing, good black tea. I even resteeped it, and extra Assam isn’t something I often go after. In fact, I am already a little excited about having it again tomorrow!
There is absolutely no need of milk and sugar but it can take it if that’s how you roll.
This is rich and malty, has good body, lightly brisk without sourness, and really nice with breakfast. Now I am intrigued by that Jasmine Green they sell…
Want to Know More About This Tea?
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: OLLTco
Description
Organic loose leaf black tea from Assam, India
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Petit Macaron/Whittard’s of Chelsea -Ashmanra
When I first tried this tea, I didn‘t know the difference between a macaron and a macaroon. Macaroons are far more common here! I have now been introduced to macarons, which I much prefer, but that’s just me! The two are very different.
This tea does have lots and lots of coconut pieces and the coconut flavor is as noticeable as the pastry like scent, the caramel, and hazelnut flavor, with hazelnut being the lightest element here. There isn’t a lot of oil floating on top like some coconut flavored teas have, nor is coconut overpowering to me.
The main thing is noticed was that as much as I loved the flavorings in this one, they did not obliterate the taste of the tea base. Quite often, flavorings will utterly mask the tea base, and tea lovers can feel a little let down. We want TEA. Here we have equal strength in the cup of tea, coconut, caramel, hazelnut, confection…how did they accomplish this?
I think the key is that over a third of the leaves in this blend are Sencha, a green tea from Japan that boosts the actual tea presence to keep it from being masked. It’s has a bit of edge that some black teas don’t have, and you end up tasting both the black and green, with the black tea lending a luscious, rich base for all the other ingredients.
I often pair sweets with unflavored black tea, usually from China, but this is a flavored tea that goes well with most sweets or serves as a decadent and chic afternoon treat on its own.
Want to Know More About This Tea?
Leaf Type: Black/Green
Where to Buy: Whittard’s of Chelsea
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!