Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Teavivre
Tea Description:
We at TeaVivre have carefully selected our organic Silver Needle White Tea to make sure it is absolute premium quality. When brewed, it has a pale golden color and subtle flowery fragrance. The taste of TeaVivre’s Silver Needle is delicate, without any bitterness or strong flavour.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is a lovely Silver Needle. The leaves are tender and vary in color ranging from a yellowish green to a pale green, with hints of tan and silver, and they are covered with soft silvery fuzz. The aroma of the dry leaf is a combination of hay, flowers and air. After brewing, the infusion maintains that fragrance, although it is a bit softer than that of the dry leaf.
The flavor is so wonderful! It is delicate and sweet, with hints of flower, grass, and fruit. It has a lovely complexity to it, but because the flavors are so soft, I find myself mesmerized by the tea … focusing on the beautiful layers of flavor … getting lost in the beauty of it.
There is some astringency to this tea, but absolutely no bitterness. The aftertaste is sweet and floral.
This tea is wonderfully calming and inspires a sense of relaxation and deep contemplation. It is an absolute joy to sip! This is why I love tea!
Silver Jasmine Green Tea (Mo Li Yin Hao) from Teavivre
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Teavivre
Tea Description:
Hugely popular in China, Silver Jasmine Green tea is produced by adding jasmine flower petals to the tea buds during processing, so infusing this premium green tea with a subtle fragrance and taste of jasmine. After drying the flower petals are removed, leaving the tea with its unique taste and fragrance. TeaVivre’s Silver Jasmine is made from premium Fuding Da Bai and Da Hao tea trees grown in Mt Taimu, Fujian.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
If you’ve been reading my reviews for very long, you’re probably well aware that I am quite fond of jasmine tea. It is one of my top three “tea flavors” (the other two are bergamot and chocolate … yeah, I know that chocolate isn’t really a traditional tea flavor, but, what can I say? I’m a chocoholic!) And this is a very fine jasmine tea.
I’ve enjoyed this twice now and have found it to be a remarkable representation of jasmine tea … or shall I say, what jasmine tea should be. It doesn’t taste perfume-y or artificial. The flavors are very well balanced. The jasmine is sweet, delicately floral and not sharp or off-putting at all. The green tea tastes fresh and offers hints of a nutty undertone.
The second time I tried the tea, I added a bit more leaf, because the brewing parameters on the website suggests 1 – 2 teaspoons of tea for 8 ounces of water. The result is – obviously! – a stronger brew, but, the flavors remain remarkably balanced. All of the flavors I mentioned above from the first cup are present in this second cup, they’re just intensified from the addition of tea leaf. It did not cause the tea to become bitter or off-putting, and I found that I enjoyed both servings of the tea. For a relaxing cup later in the evening, I’d recommend just 1 teaspoon per cup, and for a more invigorating cup earlier in the day, use up to 2 teaspoons per cup.
A very nice jasmine, no matter how you choose to serve it.
No. 96 – Jasmine Silver Tip from Steven Smith Teamaker
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Steven Smith Teamaker
Product Description:
Delicate, tender green tea leaves from China’s Fujian Province are harvested each May and steam-fired to maintain their flavor – then placed amid just- picked jasmine buds, which open slowly to share their fragrance. Many call it the perfect marriage.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I live in the Pacific Northwest, and there are many things to love about living here. I love the change of seasons (coming from Southern California, where it would seem that there is one season), I love all the trees and I even love the grey skies. And recently, while driving home with my husband after lunch in Portland, I realized something else that I love about living up here… the TEA.
Over the past few years (the last decade?) the consumption of tea has increased, but let’s face it, as a nation overall, the United States seems to be a coffee nation. Even I used to drink coffee until I came to the realization that it was the cause of my daily feelings of nausea around 11 am. Once I stopped drinking coffee, those ill effects also ceased. Since then, I’ve embraced tea and I love it. Even more than I ever liked coffee.
Anyway, the Pacific Northwest seems to be home of the coffee explosion (aka Starbucks), but we are also home to some pretty fantastic tea too. In fact, Portland is home to none other than Steven Smith, who is (at least, in my opinion) a ROCK STAR of tea!
And it definitely ROCKS that I can travel just 15 minutes or so and be in the presence of greatness at Steven Smith’s teashop. And even if you don’t live close by, most of Steven Smith’s delicious teas can be procured online.
As a jasmine fan, this was a tea I was most eager to try, and it certainly did not disappoint me. It lived up to the quality that I’ve come to expect from Steven Smith. The flavor is light and fresh – evoking thoughts of springtime (not that I’m eager for the change in season, but, the thoughts of the season are beautiful).
The green tea is sweet and light. There are vegetative tones to it which add a crispness to the flavor, but even with these slight vegetative tastes, I wouldn’t call this a grassy tasting tea. Just lightly vegetal, which is matched perfectly with the flavor of the jasmine, which is a soft, flowery taste without tasting overdone, perfume-ish or artificial. These two flavors are well balanced, and play off each other well.
Thank you, Steven Smith, for helping to bring the joy of tea to the Pacific Northwest.
Ceylon Silver Tips from Empire Tea Services
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Empire Tea Services
Product Description:
Carefully hand picked tender buds from Glentilt Estate in Sri-Lanka (Ceylon).
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is one of the nicest white teas I’ve encountered. From start to finish, it is such a joy! The leaves are just like the picture above: long needles, and that same silvery-white color! They are covered in fuzz. They have a light scent that is slightly grassy, reminding me of a freshly cut grass smell in spring.
The color of the liquor is very pale – in fact, had I not measured the tea myself, I would have thought maybe someone to put tea in the teapot. In fact, everything about this tea is light: the color, the scent, and the flavor.
But, don’t mistake that for being flavorless, because it isn’t. Delicate, yes … but, it is also so delicious. It tastes fresh with hints of flower in the distance. It has a creamy taste and texture to it. It is crisp and soothing. It is delicious sipped hot, and it even tastes great as it cools.
What I like best about this tea is that it has a very relaxing quality to it, I sipped it later in the evening and found that it let me just enjoy my evening, but I also find my thoughts traveling back to the thoughts of this tea. It has that memorable kind of quality to it.
If you love white tea, you really should try this one. You’ll be glad you did.
Jasmine Silver Needle from thepuriTea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: thepuriTea
Product Description:
If you’re new to white teas, start with our Jasmine Silver Needle. Like our Silver Needle white tea, it is plucked from the buds of the tea plant in springtime and then naturally scented with fresh jasmine flowers in summertime. This labor-intensive process results in a robust, sweet, smooth jasmine flavor that’s completely unlike the bitter, artificially flavored jasmine teas out there. Drink Jasmine Silver Needle for its silky mouthfeel, full jasmine flavor and banana-like undertones. For an added treat, try it with Cuban beans and rice, Chinese chicken soup or Thai mango sticky rice.
Taster’s Review:
Perfection! That is what I said to myself after I took my first sip of this tea: Perfection!
My love for jasmine scented teas is well documented through my various tea writings, it is one of my top three tea “flavors” (the other two being chocolate and bergamot). And, there was a time when I thought that jasmine pearls offered the very best jasmine flavor available. I have since discovered, however, that I prefer the flavor of jasmine scented Silver Needle: the jasmine ends up tasting softer … almost velvety. And this Jasmine Silver Needle from thepuriTea is absolutely ethereal!
The Silver Needle is a delicate flavor. It is very lightly grassy, but more sweet than grassy or vegetative. It has a crisp, almost airy kind of quality to it. When met with the sweet, delicate flavor of jasmine, it is truly a match made in tea heaven.
The jasmine does not taste sharp or bitter or artificial. It tastes natural and sweet and delicate … just like the flower itself. The sip is silky soft, smooth, and sweet. The finish is smooth and sweet with very little astringency. I really had to focus to see if I could notice any astringency at all, and there is only a very slight astringency which I would say is unnoticeable unless you’re really trying to notice it. The aftertaste is lightly floral, and if I inhale just after a sip, a sweet crispness of air and flower floats over the palate.
An AMAZING jasmine experience awaits with this tea!