Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Teasenz
Tea Description:
PURE, CLEAN and REFRESHING : enjoyed exclusively by the imperial family in China for centuries, the Silky Silver Needle is a top grade white tea that has a soft, smooth and silky-sweet taste experience – an ethereal cup with lingering fragrance and a refreshing aftertaste.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This Silky Silver Needle Tea from Teasenz will be my first experience with a tea from this company, and I’m excited about it! I love trying teas from new-to-me tea companies … especially when the teas are of such remarkable quality as what I’m finding from Teasenz!
The color of the dry leaf is beautiful – light green with silvery tips, each needle-like leaf is covered in fluffy fuzz. The leaves are soft to the touch … not dry or brittle. The brewed leaves are also quite lovely … I don’t see the “fuzz” anymore, but, the color is this gorgeous, spring-green color, evoking thoughts of the earliest days of spring when all the new leaves and buds of grass start to come alive. The fragrance of both the dry leaf and the brewed tea is subtle and hay-like, with an enhanced “vegetative” note in the brewed liquid.
The flavor is sweet and clean. There is a vibrant crispness to the flavor. There are notes of vegetation … and I’m noticing less of that “hay-like” quality that I often notice in white teas … this has more of a distinct fresh vegetable note … like somewhere between hay and freshly steamed, mild vegetables.
The texture is silky, thin and delicate, as is the taste. This is not what I’d call a ‘brothy’ kind of tea, because it doesn’t have that soup-like quality to the consistency of the liquid. It is thinner than that. It has a light quality to it … from the fragrance to the flavor to the mouthfeel … but I find this to be very refreshing and invigorating in its own way. I don’t feel weighed down in any way when I sip this.
I feel the cup calm me as I drink it … while at the same time, I feel a sense of rejuvenation … like it’s gently recharging me from the inside out. I really enjoyed this cup of tea … my first sampling of the teas from Teasenz … and I really am happy with this!
Strawberry Mint Julep White Tea from 52Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tea Description:
This week’s tea is a sweet blend of hay-like shou mei, freeze-dried strawberries and fresh cut peppermint and spearmint along with organic strawberry, mint and bourbon flavors. It reminds me oddly of my grandmother’s house, where she kept a small garden of mint and strawberries on the side of the house.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about Zoomdweebie’s fundraising campaign to reopen the Tea Bar here.
Taster’s Review:
Mmm! This Strawberry Mint Julep White Tea from 52Teas is really tasty! The delicate flavor of the Shou Mei works really well with the sweet-tart taste of the berries and the crisp, refreshing flavor of the mint notes.
The white tea is sweet and has a vegetative hay-like taste to it. There is also a light, crisp taste to the tea that works really nicely with the fresh minty notes of the spearmint and peppermint.
The mint is probably the most pronounced flavor of this cup, but, I like that it’s not dominating to the point of overpowering the other flavors. The strawberry notes come through, as does the subtle tones of the white tea and just a hint of bourbon also reveals itself in each sip.
And while I’m not generally a big fan of alcohol, I do like that this tastes a bit like a cocktail. I actually like that I can taste the booze (without feeling the effects of it!) because the bourbon flavor works well here. Perhaps that’s because it’s not an aggressive taste … it is sort of off in the background, allowing me to enjoy the other flavors while not letting me forget that it’s there.
This is nice served hot (let it cool off for just a couple of minutes after pouring the tea) but as I type this, I’m also in the process of brewing up a half gallon pitcher of it so that I can have this iced tomorrow afternoon. I find that this tea gets better as it cools. I’m liking it better and better with each sip!
I know that I’ve been talking a lot about the 52Teas fundraising effort to reopen the doors of the Zoomdweebies tea bar … but, let me say it again … if you can, please help out this small business! We can always use more places to enjoy tea!
Mamma Mia White Tea Blend from Shanti Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Shanti Tea
Tea Description:
The phrase ‘Mamma Mia’ has popped up quite a bit in popular culture: once as a 2008 American-British musical/romantic comedy film, again as a stage musical written by British playwright Catherine Johnson, and also as a song from ABBA. But in Italian, Mamma mia literally means “my mother”, and is an exclamation used in situations of surprise or anguish. In our case, we’ve adopted this phrase to mean “Wow, what an awesome tea!”.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
When I brewed Mamma Mia from Shanti Tea, I expected it to be a very floral tea. The photo is very true to what I saw when I opened the package: white tea combined with lots of petals and lavender buds.
The dry leaf smells amazing … and the brewed tea is even more fragrant! Notes of sweet lavender and aromatic rose. It’s beautiful. And the taste … like the appearance and fragrance … is quite floral.
But there’s more to it too. There is a hint of a wine-like flavor to this tea, like a sweet white wine or perhaps one of those fruity pink wines, because this has a distinct fruity tone to it. I taste notes of currant and raspberry.
And the white tea is not overpowered by the flavors in this cup, either. There is a sweet, hay-like note to this … notes of vegetation … it’s a very fresh, crisp and clean taste. The finish is clean, and there is a faint aftertaste that is sweet and even a little tart. I like that even though this is a very floral tea, I’m not getting a heavy floral aftertaste. The flowery taste lasts during the sip, but, I don’t feel this perfume-y note on the tongue after the sip is gone.
I find myself in total agreement with their last sentence of the above description: “Wow, what an awesome tea!” Indeed! I seem to fall more in love with this company with every new tea I try from them!
Secret Garden Tea Blend from Kaleisia Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black, Green & White Teas
Where to Buy: Kaleisia Tea
Tea Description:
The most popular blend of all times. This blend consist of white peony white tea, sencha green tea, darjeeling black tea, gunpowder green tea, dragonwell green tea, jasmine pearl green tea, mango, pineaple, papaya, orange peels, strawberry, red currants, sour cherry bits, and apricot bits. A very well rounded fruity tea that is sure to please anyone.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This Secret Garden Tea Blend from Kaleisia Tea has a little bit of EVERYTHING in it! White tea, green tea, black tea … fruit bits … and a whole lot of flavor!
Since this blend seems to be primarily green tea, I went with a lower brew temperature (185°F) and steeped the tea for 2 1/2 minutes in my Breville One- Touch. And the results are tasty!
Fruit flavor hits the palate first, although … it is more like a “medley” of fruit flavors rather than one specific fruit note. Kind of like a bite of ambrosia salad where you taste several fruit notes all at once and it’s difficult to pin-point exactly which fruit you’re tasting. It’s a very refreshing fruit taste though!
As far as tea flavor goes, green tea is what I taste most. That sweet, sort of leafy/grassy note that is very fresh and crisp. It’s a nice contrast with the sweet and sour fruit notes that tantalize the palate at the start of the sip. There is a sweet, creaminess to the tea notes as well, is that the white tea or the buttery notes from the Sencha? I can’t be sure, but, I like the way it comes together with the fruit notes. I don’t taste a whole lot of white tea here, nor do I notice much from the Darjeeling black tea, although I can’t say that this blend would taste the same without those tea leaves being a part of this blend.
As I continue to sip, I realize that I’m tasting mostly a “tropical” sort of taste: notes of pineapple, mango, and papaya, with a strawberry background note. I taste the sweetness of the apricot too. The sour tones of the currant and the cherry come through near the finish, but these are not very strong flavors. The fruit notes, overall, are more “melded” together as a unified flavor … like some kind of “ultra-fruit” but, if I aerate the sip by slurping, I can pick out individual fruit notes.
I like that this blend is more sweet than it is sour, because I’m not a huge fan of the sour taste as I’ve said many times. While this does seem to be a rather “busy” blend … I find it enjoyable. I like it better iced than hot, so, I’ll be brewing more of this later for my iced tea pitcher and enjoy it all day long tomorrow!
Organic Bai Mudan White Tea from Samovar Tea Lounge
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.