Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White Bai Mu Dan
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tea Description:
So, I’m a little extra excited about our new freeze-dried grapes. I can’t help it, they are just too much fun to blend with. I’m hoping our customers will forgive me and enjoy this deliciousness.
Here’s a blend of our naturally sweet bai mu dan white tea with freeze-dried grapes and natural flavors.
Our Tea of the Week for the week of May 7, 2012
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
My husband hates anything grape. He says unless it IS a grape it ends up just tasting fake. Not anymore! This Concord Grape tea from 52Teas is as close to eating the real thing as you can get! This is not an in your face kiddie soda pop or lollipop flavored tea. This is a pure and natural, delicious, gimme more of that tea!
There is a sweetness to it that is so fresh, so natural, yet with a light white tea base provides somewhat of a heavier mouthfeel somehow.
There is a slightly numbing sensation in the mouth but only slight.
Now keep in mind this tea is very light in flavor, its not going to rock your socks off with a kool-aid like grape flavor or aroma but if you like grape and you love tea (you do don’t you!) then this is a really nice, not too often found flavor combination you must try!
Bai Mu Dan Vintaged White Tea (Harvest 2004) from Wan Ling Tea House
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White (Aged)
Where to Buy: Wan Ling Tea House
Tea Description:
Bai Mu Dan or Pai Mu Tan is a classic white tea from FuDing in FuJian province. This 2004 Bai Mu Dan aged white tea has been pressed into 357g tea cakes in 2010. The aim to preserve the leaf during storage and prevent damage during transportation.
This white tea, is absolutely stunning. Combining delicate, smooth body with a full, complex body. The taste is complemented a clear, bright liquor and enchanting aromas.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Wow! Just … wow!
This is a truly stellar tea, quite unlike any Bai Mu Dan I’ve ever tasted!
It brews up to a beautiful, clear, pale yellow color, almost the color of melted, clarified butter. The flavor is sweet and delicate, with notes that are similar to a fresh Bai Mu Dan, but, I’m noticing some flavors that I don’t usually expect with a Bai Mu Dan as well. A strong fruit note is present. Much more intense than I would have thought was possible to achieve from a white tea.
I don’t know that I agree that this is a full-flavored tea, though, but it IS flavorful. It has a soft texture, very little astringency, no bitterness, and a slightly floral, sweet aftertaste. The aging process has not only managed to strengthen the flavors of this Bai Mu Dan, but, it also seems it has enhanced its complexity. As I continue to sip, I notice some earthiness starting to emerge, and I like the way this earthiness melds with the natural sweetness of the white tea.
Subsequent infusions yield sweeter flavors – fruitier flavors! I note more of an apricot-like tone now, like dried apricots, with their flavors and sweetness intensified by the drying process.
This is a tea that is highly recommended to those that love white tea, they will adore this one! I would also recommend it to someone who thinks they don’t care for white tea as they find it to be too light in flavor for their liking – this one will change their mind about that! This is truly a remarkable tea!
Toffee Dream from Zen Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Zen Tea
Tea Description:
Gives mild white sweet accent with toffee. Must try teas for white tea lovers.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Yum! Toffee!
This is really a lovely blend. I don’t think I’ve had a white tea flavored with toffee before, and these two elements go together surprisingly well.
The white tea is gentle and sweet, with a mild, fresh taste that is reminiscent of the taste that is in the air after the hay and alfalfa fields have been cut. (Yes, I lived on a ranch in my youth) The tea tastes light and airy, with a note of vegetation and a hint of hay. The warm notes of the hay together with the sweet notes of the toffee is a very interesting flavor. It’s almost smoky, but it’s a very mellow smoked note. Perhaps toasty is a better way to describe this flavor, with subtle wisps of smoke, like the flavor you might get if you were to roast nuts over an open campfire.
Which leads me to the nutty flavor that I taste. It is a deep, delicious nutty tone, which makes me think of the center of a toffee candy bar, you know how there are bits of nuts in that toffee? Yes, that’s what I taste: delicious, cruncy roast nuts! It goes perfectly with the sweet, caramelized toffee flavor.
This is a very cozy tasting tea, something you’d want to curl up and sip on a cold autumn afternoon (like today!) I like that it offers a pleasing sweetness – no additions needed – and I like the mellow attitude of this tea. A sweet, gentle indulgence!
Citrus Spice White Iced Tea from Nature’s Tea Leaf
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Nature’s Tea Leaf
Tea Description:
Citrus Spice White Iced Tea is an exclusive iced tea blend that combines choice White Peony tea with real pieces of spicy ginger, zesty lemon and fragrant rosemary herbs. Our specially blended iced tea allows the brightness and tanginess of the lemon to soften the distinctive piquant bite of the ginger while allowing the aromatic essence of natural rosemary to shine through. This perfect balance of sweet, spicy, citrus and savory is a taste sensation you will want to experience again and again by the glass or by the pitcher.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I hot-brewed this and allowed the tea to cool to room temperature before chilling it, but I admit to taking a quick sip or two of it while it was still hot to see how I liked it served hot. And while I did enjoy this as a hot tea, I agree with Nature’s Tea Leaf: this tea excels as an Iced Tea!
And yet, this is quite unlike any iced tea I’ve ever tasted … and I mean that in a very good way. That is not meant to slight any tea that I might have tasted in the past, only to say that this is so refreshingly DIFFERENT.
The white tea offers a soft, creamy undertone to the bright, sunny citrus tones and the SAVORY spices. Yes, that’s right, I said savory. This is not a chai … which is immediately what I think when I see “spice tea” … and that is what makes it so different. The ginger tastes zesty and peppery, but it lacks a certain heat that you might ordinarily experience with ginger because it doesn’t have other exotic spices like cinnamon, cloves or cardamom to enhance the spicy-heat of the ginger. Instead, the ginger tastes a bit more mellow – peppery, yes, but without the heat.
The rosemary is what allows these flavors to translate into a more savory kind of taste. The rosemary enhances the citrus-y tones while bringing in a delicate pine-like taste (and aroma!) to the cup. So the tea does indeed have an exotic kind of taste to it, but, not a spicy-hot-chai kind of exotic. Instead, it is more of a balanced taste with its bright citrus notes, sweet white tea, warmly spiced ginger and savory rosemary.
This is not only wonderful because it is so different, but it also gets BONUS POINTS for being incredibly soothing. With winter time right around the corner and with it comes the cold-and-flu season, this is the kind of tea that you want to have on hand when you’re feeling a touch under the weather.
Very refreshing … deliciously different. I like this very much! OH… and it tastes great cold-brewed too!
Tangerine Spice from Kally Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Kally Tea
Tea Description:
We’ve taken our high quality Bai Mu Dan white tea and blended it with cinnamon, orange and spice. We’ve come up with a flavor that will surprise you as well as invigorate your senses. Kally Tea is proud to present you with this highly gratifying taste sensation.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is delightful!
I’ve had a good number of cinnamon orange spice type teas, but, most of them are a black tea based blend, not white tea. So I was very intrigued by this Tangerine Spice, which appears to have the same idea of those other cinnamon orange spice teas, but, using a white tea base rather than a black tea.
I don’t know if Kally Tea actually used tangerine flavoring rather than orange – the name of the tea suggests one thing while the description suggests another. Then again, there are those who consider these two fruits to be so similar that they lump them together. Personally, I prefer the tangerine over the orange, because it’s sweeter and is a bit more delicate and less tart than the typical orange.
The white tea is a lovely base to use for these flavors, and I’m glad to say that the spices have been toned down appropriately to be in step with the lighter, softer flavor of the Bai Mu Dan. The white tea gives an almost creamy taste to the cup, which melds really nicely with the flavor of the citrus. The citrus is not sharp or too tart here, it has a sweet, juicy flavor, and a slight tangy note that lingers into the aftertaste.
The combination of flavors in this blend really works beautifully. It has a delicate quality to it, as one would expect given that it’s a white tea blend, but, its all balanced out really nicely to provide a very pleasing and refreshing flavor. It reminds me very much of the earliest days of autumn (which … interestingly enough, is right now!) just as the leaves begin to change color and the air begins to take on a cooler, crisper tone, this gently spiced, citrus tea offers just the right flavor … and it’s delicious hot or iced!