Organic Bai Mudan White Tea from Samovar Tea Lounge

baimudan

Tea Information:

Leaf Type:  White

Where to Buy:  Samovar Tea Lounge

Tea Description:

Hand-picked, sun dried for three days, baked, then cured. Woody hints of roasted hazelnuts, and sweet corn. Lingering notes of hot cocoa. A golden infusion to soothe monkey mind. Explore the darkest of the white teas.

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

I really enjoy white tea in the summer evenings.  White tea seems to have a natural cooling effect, and even when I drink it hot, it seems to make me feel a little more comfortable on these hot summer nights.  And this Organic Bai Mudan White Tea from Samovar Tea Lounge is really lovely.

It’s very interesting to me that I’ve tried many different Bai Mu Dan teas from many different tea companies, but, even as many as I’ve tasted, I still notice different flavors.  The tea may be the same “type” of white tea, but, the flavors that the tea leaves produce from one company to another are different.  This particular Bai Mudan has a lovely chocolate-y finish that I don’t think I’ve tasted in other Bai Mu Dan teas.

There is a richness to this tea – even though it is a delicate white tea – a pleasing earthiness that has a slight toasty taste to it.  It is as though I can taste the sun in this tea … I can taste a sun roasted flavor like warm hay that has been lightly baked in the summer sun.

The description above suggests woody notes, hazelnuts, and corn … and while I don’t taste a “sweet corn” taste exactly, I do taste a sweet, nutty flavor and I can see how someone might suggest a “sweet corn” flavor from that.  It’s sweet, but not in a fruity or a floral tone … more like a sweet nutty tone with notes of vegetation.

A very enjoyable cuppa.

Organic Tian Mu Mao Feng Green Tea from Teavivre

Tea Information:

Leaf Type:  Green

Where to Buy:  Teavivre

Tea Description:

Organic Tian Mu Mao Feng Green Tea is one of the ten famous Chinese teas. This Organic Tian Mu Mao Feng Green Tea origins in organic tea base of Tianmu Mountain in Lin’an, Hangzhou. The organic tea base of Tianmu Mountain, has passed the organic certification of European, USA and Japan, is a significant base of planting organic dragon well and green tea.

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

These leaves are beautiful.  So long and slender and wiry.  The color is so deeply green on these leaves that they almost appear black.  A deep, forest-y green like the color of the evergreen forests here in the Pacific Northwest.  Gorgeous!

The brewed tea is very light in color and has a very pleasing flavor.  Mao Feng is one of my favorite green teas … quite simply because it tends to be very simple!  It tastes like what I expect green tea to taste like. That isn’t to say that there isn’t a complexity to this cup – it certainly has many layers of enjoyable flavors – what I mean to say is that it doesn’t try to be anything that it is not.  It is green tea, and that is what it tastes like.

It has a forward vegetative taste that tastes of sweet, broth-y vegetables – sort of like a comforting bowl of vegetable soup but without the chunks of vegetables!  It isn’t really “grassy” … it is more like vegetables, but occasionally, I do get a distinctive tone that is more grassy to me than veggie.

When served hot, it becomes a very cozy, relaxing cup of tea.  When served iced, it becomes a very refreshing, exhilarating drink.  It is sweet and enjoyable served straight, but it also takes the addition of a thin slice of lemon quite nicely.  A sprig of mint would also be agreeable.

This is one of those teas that I’d choose for an everyday green tea.  A really enjoyable Mao Feng.