Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where To Buy: Fong Mong Tea
Tea Description:
Plucked from Taiwan’s wild camellia hybrids at the elevation of 1800m, these young silver buds promise an amazing experience for all white tea enthusiasts.
What makes Taiwan White Tea so different are when it is harvested and how it is processed. The leaves and buds are plucked when they are still young and immature. Then they are taken to dry and the oxidation process is stopped. Because of the minimal processing of white tea, it retains a high amount of antioxidants which makes it with high CP value.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I’ve tried (and enjoyed!) quite a few different Oolong teas from Fong Mong Tea, so I was excited when I learned that they are now offering a Taiwan White Tea. If this white tea lives up to the standards that I experienced with the other teas from Fong Mong, I knew I was in for a delightful experience with their new White tea.
And this tea is quite lovely! The leaves look a lot like a White Peony and the aroma of both the dry leaf and brewed tea remind me of a White Peony.
So it came as no big surprise that the flavor is very much like a Bai Mu Dan or White Peony tea. It has that sweet, delicate flavor that I love. Notes of sweet melon and a dewy note that evokes thoughts of a sunny spring morning and the dew-kissed spring leaves that glisten in the sun. A hint of an airy, hay-like note and a touch of earthiness.
It’s a very refreshing and crisp cup, the kind of tea that I like to drink as I’m relaxing, because it’s not overly invigorating. Instead, it soothes and inspires a sense of calm as I sip it.
A really, really nice white tea from Fong Mong Tea! I’m so happy to see that they’re expanding their collection of teas!
Lovers Leap Estate Indigo Black Tea with Essence of Peony from Eden Grove
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Amazon Trading
Ingredients:
Camellia Sinensis with Red Pigments (Red Tea) with natural Peony Flavor.
Learn more about Amazon Trading here.
Taster’s Review:
I am usually a little put off by the prospect of trying a bagged and/or sacheted tea, because let’s face it, loose leaf is better. It just is. However, I do try to go into the experience of trying a new to me sacheted tea with an open mind. And so far, the teas that I’ve tried from Eden Grove have been impressive – and all have been sacheted teas! Eden Grove is definitely making a believer out of me.
This Lovers Leap Estate Indigo Black Tea with Essence of Peony from Eden Grove is quite nice. The Ceylon is flavorful and smooth. It has a very pleasing, even taste to it. It’s sweet and has some malty tones to it, and I taste no bitterness whatsoever. It’s good.
I taste hints of flower to this as well, and I presume that it is the peony essence that I’m tasting. I can’t recall ever tasting peony in the past, so I don’t have a memory of what peony tastes like to be able to compare what I’m tasting now. It is a sweet, gently floral taste. It isn’t sharp, and it doesn’t have a perfume-y taste to it. It’s an enjoyable flower essence.
Overall, a really nice cup of tea. It’s a mellow tasting black tea, not one I’d want to start the day off with, but, one that I’d love to drink in the afternoon when I want a little bit of a pick-me-up to keep me going. It’s good.
Whole Leaf Green Tea with Essence of Sunflower from Eden Grove
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Amazon Trading
Ingredients:
Camellia Sinensis with Red Pigments (Red Tea) with natural Sunflower flavor.
Learn more about Amazon Trading here.
Taster’s Review:
The ingredients of this Whole Leaf Green Tea with Essence of Sunflower form Eden Grove confuses me. The “red pigments” part confuses me. Red Tea to me means either Rooibos or black/oxidized tea leaves, depending upon where the tea is coming from. And this with this tea, the dry leaf looks like green tea leaves. I don’t see any rooibos and the leaves don’t appear oxidized. When I brewed the tea, it brewed up to look like a green tea – it’s a light, bright yellow-ish green color. And it tastes like a green tea.
Actually, it tastes like a green tea and sunflower petals. I can taste the distinct, bitter notes of the sunflower and they add a certain “perkiness” to this cup. The green tea is sweet and has a light, refreshing, slightly buttery tone to them. The sunflower adds a nice contrast to the green tea.
And I like that this is different from the usual tea selection. I encounter a lot of flavored teas on this, my tea journey, and I encounter many scented teas. But usually those teas aren’t flavored or scented with Sunflower. Usually those that craft the tea select a different flower when they scent a tea: rose and jasmine are two that come to mind immediately. But I don’t think I’ve found a tea until now that has been flavored/scented with Sunflower. And I like it!
So while I don’t understand the ingredient list of this tea … what I do understand is that I am enjoying what I’m drinking. It has an invigorating sort of flavor that doesn’t weigh the palate down. It’s a very nice, relaxing cup to sip.
Organic Dehydrated Camellia from Teavivre
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal (although this is technically Camellia Sinensis too!)
Where to Buy: Teavivre
Tea Description:
Gentle taste, soft and smooth, with the aftertaste of dry persimmon.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I have only had the flower of Camellia Sinensis a couple of times, but every time it comes time to review it, I am unsure of how to categorize it. It is a flower, so it can loosely fall under the category of “Herbal” … but, it is also Camellia Sinensis, and usually the category “Herbal” is meant to include those items that do not come from the Camellia Sinensis plant. However, I decided to categorize this Organic Dehydrated Camellia from Teavivre under the category of Herbal, mostly because that is where you can find it on the Teavivre website, and I figured that would cause less confusion to someone who might be looking for the product.
The dry flowers smell floral and pollen-y. The aroma has a slight honey-esque tone to it. Once brewed, the tea has a little less of a floral tone and a little more of a pollen fragrance.
The flavor is quite delicate, reminiscent of a white tea in its delicateness. It also has a slight … taste that is similar to white tea, reminding me somewhat of a high quality Silver Needle type white tea. This has that clean, crisp, airy quality that I enjoy in a Silver Needle.
But the infused flowers do not have the vegetal notes of a Silver Needle, or the “hay-like” quality I’ve come to expect from a Silver Needle. Instead, this has a very pleasant, pollen-y kind of taste that I find very enjoyable. Sweet, honey-esque, and floral. The description above suggests an aftertaste that is similar to persimmon, and since I’m not real familiar with the flavor of persimmon, I can’t tell you that this is what I’m tasting. But I will say that I taste a remarkably sweet, fruit-like quality that is almost “juicy” in the aftertaste, and I am liking that a lot.
It is a very light, refreshing drink that is soothing and relaxing to sip, and since it is lower in caffeine than a typical cup of Camellia Sinensis, this is something that you can drink later in the day without worry that you’ll be up all night (unless you’re particularly sensitive to caffeine, I guess. I’m not a doctor so don’t consider that to be medical advice!)
Another really lovely tea from Teavivre!