Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White & Green Teas & Rooibos
Where to Buy: Georgia Tea Company
Tea Description:
Our signature blend, designed to boost the immune system and helps fight cancer. Boosts interferon production to help the body fight off infection while going through chemotherapy. Contains high concentrations of Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). Made with only the best white, green and rooibos teas.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This Lavender Cander Fighting Tea has a lot going on: it’s a white tea, a green tea, a rooibos and an herbal. So to brew it, I decided on a fairly low temperature (I went with 175°F) and steeped it for 3 minutes. I’m happy with the results!
This is tasty! It has a really lovely flavor! The lavender is strong enough to be a lingering presence throughout the sip, but it isn’t overpowering. Lavender is one of those flowers that when overdone, it imparts a soapy or perfume-y flavor to the tea. That didn’t happen here. The lavender is sweet and quite wonderful here, and I love the way it melds with the blueberry flavor. This is not a flavor combination I would have thought much about before trying this tea, but the fruit and the flower are quite compatible.
The tea has been nicely crafted, because I can taste each of the components and the way it has been blended, it would seem that the best of each ingredient is captured. It tastes quite nice. I get a sweet, nutty flavor from the rooibos without that sometimes funky, sour-wood kind of flavor. I taste a light freshness and lightly brothy texture from the green and white teas. I’m getting a lovely note of lavender and the blueberry is sweet and juicy. The currant adds just a hint of tartness to bring some balance to the cup.
The way the green and white tea come through with the floral notes of lavender and whispers of rose evokes thoughts of walking through a garden – the taste of the air as a gentle breeze carries the essences of the flowers and surrounds the garden with it’s soft perfume. It’s quite enjoyable.
This tea has been crafted to be help prevent cancer. Now, I’m not a doctor nor do I pretend to be or claim to have all the answers when it comes to tea’s health benefits and how it helps to fight cancer/prevent cancer. I don’t really even know if it does. I’ve heard that it does. I don’t drink tea because it’s a healthy drink, I drink it because I enjoy it. But, if these ingredients also offer me some health benefits, then why not drink something that is both tasty and healthy?
A ‘Vampire Lemonade’ Custom Blend Tea from Adagio Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White Tea & Herbals
Where to Buy: Adagio Teas
Tea Description:
Blood orange tisane outshines white tangerine (20 percent) and lemon grass (20 percent) in this delicious, refreshing blend. Try it iced for a homage to summer, or drink it hot to reminisce on winter days.
A Carolynne Keenan Custom Blend.
Learn more about this custom blend here.
Find more Carolynne Keenan blends here.
Taster’s Review:
I steeped this tea at 190°F for 5 minutes and even with that short a steep time, the liquid looks super dark ruby red (like hibiscus) and the texture is thicker than I hoped for. Too much hibiscus in this!
So I decided to let it cool for a while and see how it would fair as an iced drink because as a hot tea, I found the hibiscus to be too overpowering for me to enjoy it. As the tea cools, I can pick up on some of the blood orange, tangerine and lemon-y notes from the lemongrass. The hibiscus enhances the tartness of these fruit flavors which is nice. I’m not usually a big fan of tart-y beverages but when it’s “lemonade” a bit of tart is OK.
I don’t taste a lot of white tea. This tastes more like a citrus-y punch than it does a tea. Which is OK I suppose but I’m more of a tea drinker than a citrus punch drinker.
Overall, this isn’t my favorite tea from Carolynne Keenan’s collection of custom tea blends with Adagio Teas. I think that if there was a little less hibiscus and more of the fruity flavors, this would be better. I would also prefer it if it tasted more like tea than like hibiscus. Then again, you know how I feel about hibiscus. Not a bad drink, just not my favorite.
Just Perfect Peony White Tea from Just.Organic.Tea.
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Just.Organic.Tea
Tea Description:
Find your “Zen Moment” with this perfect cup of premium organic white tea.
Taster’s Review:
It seems like it’s been a while since I’ve had a pure, unadulterated White Peony tea. It’s such a lovely tea to enjoy in the evening, because it tastes lighter and it doesn’t leave me feeling overstimulated the way a black tea does. I know that there has been a lot of debate over the caffeine content in the different types of tea, but what I know from the years of experience I’ve had drinking the tea is this: most black teas are much more invigorating than most white teas.
I find that this is true with just about any other tea. You can replace “black tea” with Oolong or Green tea and these two tea types are more invigorating for me than most whites. And you can keep the black tea in it’s place in the original statement and interchange “white teas” with just about any other tea type and the statement would still be ringing true for me.
And that’s why I generally enjoy my black teas earlier in the day when I don’t mind the stimulation, and then I drink less stimulating teas later in the day. White teas I generally keep for evening because they are gentle and calming.
And this White Peony from Just.Organic.Tea. is quite lovely. It’s smooth, sweet and refreshing. I’m picking up on flavors that I don’t always pick up on with Bai Mu Dan teas like this. I’m picking up on the familiar flavors like a light vegetal tone and a pleasing fruit note (a delicate melon note) and the crisp, airy note that reminds me of the air after a cooling rain. How the air is still moist and sweet from the rain.
But I’m also tasting lettuce. I don’t always pick up on a lettuce note, but this Organic White Peony definitely has a crisp lettuce note that is really rather refreshing. As I sip it, it evokes thoughts of summertime and eating a fresh, crisp salad on a hot summer day. I’m thinking of how refreshing that salad is on a day like that and this tea is very much like that. But without the tomatoes, croutons and salad dressing. Just the refreshing, crisp, replenishing sort of taste.
You get what I’m saying, right?
A really excellent pure white tea from Just.Organic.Tea. At the moment, I don’t see this tea on their website. I don’t know if this one has been permanently removed from their collection or if it’s temporarily sold out. If you’re interested in getting some of this tea to try for yourself, try contacting the company to find out what the status is of this tea. I’ve found this company to be very prompt with their responses and very friendly too! The kind of company I like to deal with!
Shou Mei White Tea from Simple Loose Leaf
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Learn more about Simple Loose Leaf here.
Tea Description:
White tea, considered by many tea experts to be the finest tea on earth, comes primarily from the Fujian Province in China. It is very lightly processed with sunlight and low temperatures. A standard grade Chinese Tea, Shou Mei White with its downy silver tipped leaves has a sweet, floral aroma and a mild, smooth, lightly sweet, pale yellow liquor.
Ingredients: Shou Mei White Tea
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about Simple Loose Leaf’s Selection Club subscription program here.
Receive 25% savings on the Selection Club from Simple Loose Leaf. Just type in SISTERSELECTION25 in the coupon field and save 25%! This discount is applicable only to the monthly Selection Club subscription and not the retail selection of teas.
Taster’s Review:
I’ve been drinking quite a few flavored Shou Mei white teas lately, but it’s been a little while since I’ve had a pure Shou Mei. So I was happy to be able to reacquaint myself with an unadulterated Shou Mei!
I’m very pleased with the quality of these leaves. The leaves are soft and are covered in fluffy fuzz, and the leaves vary in color from pale green, silver, and light brown. This is not the “typical” Shou Mei that sometimes looks and feels like dried, brown leaves. This appears to be a higher quality tea leaf to me.
And the difference is not only evident in the appearance of the leaves but the flavor of the tea. I steeped these leaves at 170°F for 3 minutes. The liquid is a pale amber color and has a delicate, hay-like aroma.
The flavor is sweet, fresh and light. It has a crispness to it, evoking thoughts of a cool spring morning. It makes me think of the dewdrops on fresh new leaves in spring. There is also a distinct “hay-like” flavor, like the air after a cutting of hay. I spent my adolescent years in an area that grew a lot of hay and alfalfa and you could always tell when the local farms cut their hay as the hay cut imparted a distinct essence to the air that was not only experienced by the nose but also the taste buds. That’s what I’m tasting (and smelling!) with this tea now.
It’s quite a pleasant cup of Shou Mei! And this tea offers multiple infusions. I’m currently on my third infusion, and the flavor just will not quit! (A good thing, because I’m really enjoying it and I’m not ready to stop drinking it!) A great choice for this month’s box from Simple Loose Leaf!
Darjeeling 1st Flush 2014 Jogmaya White Tea from What-Cha Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White (Darjeeling)
Where to Buy: What-Cha Tea
Tea Description:
A brilliant white tea composed of whole leaves with a silky texture, combined with a gentle grass taste and wonderfully light finish with hints of spice.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I have enjoyed many different types of white teas in my years as a tea reviewer. And while I do enjoy the many different types of white teas that I’ve tasted, I think I’m finally comfortable saying that my favorite white teas are Darjeeling white teas.
And this Darjeeling Jogmaya White Tea from What-Cha Tea is absolutely stunning! It’s so good! The dry leaves have a distinct grassy aroma with a soft floral note. I can smell a light, fruity sweetness in the background.
To brew this tea, I decided to reach for my Kati Brewing System. I measured 1 1/2 bamboo scoops into the basket of the Kati tumbler (I usually use a little more leaf when it comes to white teas because the leaves are considerably “bulkier”. I heat freshly filtered water to 170°F and poured the water into the tumbler and let the leaves steep for 3 minutes. 
Sweet and delicious! As with other white teas, the overall cup is delicate, but I generally find that Darjeeling white teas are a little less subtle in the flavor department than most other teas and that is the case with this Jogmaya White tea. Perhaps that’s why I enjoy them so much!
Or it could be the amazing spice notes of a Darjeeling white. This tea has a warm, zesty spice note. Think white pepper. Maybe not exactly white pepper, but think of the first time you tasted white pepper and how you noticed the gentler pepper note. It still tasted of pepper but it was definitely more subdued. That’s what I taste now, a soft, subtle spice note that is a little warm and zesty. Perhaps not as abundantly “spiced” as I might experience in say a Yunnan black tea, but there is absolutely some zippy spices that are capturing my taste buds’ attention.
This has a nice body to it, it’s silky and smooth. Notes of sweet grass and whispers of flower. I can taste notes of fruit as well. Melon and a crisp apple note. As I continue to sip, I start to pick up on a slight grape-y flavor.
This is a very refreshing white Darjeeling. The sip starts with grassy notes and almost immediately after I experience those notes, I start to pick up on the aforementioned gentle spice notes. As the sip progresses toward mid-sip, I taste the medley of fruit notes: melon, apple, and a touch of grape. As I reach the end of the sip, I taste a slight floral note that melds with the fruit. The sip ends with a slight dryness and the aftertaste is clean and slightly sweet.
A really enjoyable cup. What-Cha Tea delivers … again!