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176˚F in my 5oz gaiwan. I don’t often crave jasmine-scented teas, but if I did I would definitely drink this one.

1st infusion: (40s)
The dry fragrance of the jasmine blends seamlessly with the Silver Needle’s haylike fragrance. Much more complex than any jasmine green tea I’ve had (though I want to try Teavivre’s Dragon Pearls too).

3rd infusion: (80s)
Flavour mellowing out, but still lovely.

4th infusion: (120s)
Woops the 4th infusion was supposed to brew for only 100s but even at 120, it’s not bitter or astringent. Beautiful and flavourful.

Update: Realised I hadn’t de-scaled my kettle after about a month of use, wondering if this might have contributed to the mineral / metallic taste. Will try again in the future with good water.

1st & 2nd infusions:
Maybe a bit too roasty for me. In the 2nd infusion I smelled notes of cream and burnt sugar, but no hint of sweetness in its austere taste at all. This tastes to me like that Ito En bottled chilled Golden Oolong.

4th infusion:
I’m getting a bit nauseous / headachey. My partner pointed out that this tea tastes a bit soapy. It’s probably not entirely the tea’s fault, but this is just not a good experience for me today. I might try the 2016 harvest at some point to give it another shot.

Brewed at 203˚F.

As with all my DAVIDsTEA teas, I rinsed this for about 10 seconds before actually steeping since I don’t like all the artificial flavouring. The leaves smell exactly like white chocolate to me and there are barely any white tea leaves in it––mostly mulberries and coconut pieces.

After steeping for about 5:00, this was surprisingly good. Definitely my favourite of the 4 DAVIDsTEAs I bought in my first and last purchase from them.

Note: Next time, try brewing at 190˚F.

Leaves in the bag come with lots of broken little bits, like you would expect to see in a white peony but not in a high-grade oolong. I’m using 5g in a 5oz gaiwan. They suggest 5g in a teapot Western-style, at boiling for 2 – 3 min.

1st infusion: (212˚F, 40s)
Bitter, perhaps I steeped too long? Tastes minerally like a Wuyi rock oolong and has the same deep copper colour. Not what I expected from an “Oriental Beauty” tea. Those are produced in Taiwan, whereas this one is from China so I suppose it’s not going to be the best Dong Fang Mei Ren experience.

2nd infusion: (212˚F, 45s)
Still has that roasty minerally flavour, but lighter and I can taste a bit of underlying fruity flavour bordering on sweetness.

3rd infusion: (212˚F, 55s)
Flat, dull, astringent

UPDATE: Their website says to use less-than-boiling water so I’m going to try a second batch. 5g, 205˚F.

1st infusion: (205˚F, 30s)
Leaves smell burnt. Liquor does not taste burnt, but minerally, roasty and a bit astringent and flat. Still can’t get over the amount of broken bits of leaf that flow into the cup.

2nd infusion: (206˚F, 45s)
I’m running out of ways to say roasty, bitter chocolate, mineral and dull.

Verdict:
It’s not the worst, especially for fans of Wuyi rock oolongs, but it’s not Eastern / Oriental Beauty, certainly not Premium anything, and at $14 for 50g on Ebay, this tea was a total ripoff. Can get much better teas elsewhere like Teavivre and my local tea shops for the same price or cheaper. Guess the fact that Ebay doesn’t have customer reviews should have been a red flag for me.

3/14/16: Ok, I have tried this Western-style according to the instructions on the package 5g / 175˚F 12 oz / 2:30.

I have tried brewing this in a gaiwan at 2g / 176˚F / 30s / 45s and it came out like water with a cloudy suspension in it.

This tea is incredibly difficult to brew. I think out of the 5 times I have attempted to brew it, I only tasted tea one glorious time (I think ~ 2.5g / 176˚F?) but didn’t have time to do a second steeping.

At least a third of the packet has been wasted in mediocre steepings. I may try a few more times to reproduce that one good steeping, but would never buy this again.

Rating: 52

Update 3/31/16: Brewed it at 185˚C and at last some flavour has come out––a very delicate, savoury vegetable broth in the 1st infusion. I thought this tea was supposed to be on the sweeter, fruitier side so I’m a bit confused. Mellows out to a nice subtle everyday green tea flavour in 2nd and 3rd infusions. It’s decent but there are still too many bits of broken leaf to call this a high-quality tea.

Rating: 66

I loved this, it had the buttery and bright flavour of Jin Xuan with an additional savoury note like vegetable broth, but unfortunately the flavour only lasts through one or two steepings so I’m not going to rate it that highly.

Brewed this Western-style––first 13oz boiling water for 5 mins, then 13oz water for 6:30 for a much lighter infusion. The tea tasted beautiful and not astringent at all. Rating this higher for Western-style than gongfu style because it seems to give out all its flavour in the first two steepings.

I’m still sad that the tea doesn’t handle gongfu brewing well.

Comparing this directly after 5 steepings of Teavivre’s 2015 Organic White Peony. The Premium White Peony 2015’s leaves are unmistakably greener and fresher-looking, than the OWP, but that gives it a fresher, greener, rawer scent which not everyone will prefer.

1st infusion: (25s)
Milder than the Organic White Peony’s 1st, but I might have brewed this for 3 seconds shorter than the OWP. Still very floral and fragrant.

2nd infusion: (45s)
Richer amber liquor, deeper mineral and floral taste. Delicate and substantial at the same time. A wonderful infusion.

3rd infusion: (70s)
The leaves are just now letting out their full plummy fruitiness. Liquor is still going strong, still full-flavoured and slightly sweet. This is probably where the Premium beats the Organic White Peony. Another excellent infusion.

4th infusion: (90s)
Keep em coming. I’m pouring them promptly a few seconds early and there’s no astringency at all, it’s beautiful.

5th infusion: (150s)
Ok, it’s done. Not much to see here. Maybe I should’ve brewed this at 194˚F instead.

Note: This is best brewed in a thin-walled gaiwan, e.g. glass. My thick porcelain gaiwan seems to not only burn the White Peony at 185˚F, but also dulls the beautiful crisp aroma even if I lower the temperature.

Dry leaf smelled fresh and vegetal, not buttery though it tastes so.

1st infusion: (15s)
Hot leaves suddenly exploded with a buttery scent, in addition to vegetal, floral, and savoury vegetable broth notes. Tastes like a fresh clear spring with its own natural sweetness and slight buttercream flavour. Perhaps not as buttery as the Jin Xuan oolong, but still fantastic in its own right.

2nd infusion: (25s)
Silky buttery scent and texture. Excellent.

3rd infusion: (35s)
I was struck by the almost highlighter-yellow colour of this infusion. The buttery scent remains, but flavour is less prominent. Drinking so many of these in quick succession, the astringency is building up on my tongue but I can’t tell which infusion contributed more.

4th infusion:
Amazingly, this still smells buttery. A mellow infusion with less astringency.

5th infusion:
Colour has paled a lot. Very slight vegetal scent.

Update: It’s been 4 hours since I drank this, but I keep fancying that I smell the White Peony fragrance all around my office. That’s probably a testament to how deliciously sticky the scent of this tea is. (Unfortunately, I was also in a terrible mood––one of those days where you drop everything you try to hold, and your joints and limbs just feel completely out of whack. It could very well have been the challah with lemon curd I ate for breakfast, but I’ll have to monitor how I feel after drinking the second sachet of this Organic Bai Mudan as well heh.)

Gosh, Teavivre has amazing Bai Mu Dans. The moment the hot water hits the leaves, a heady aroma just gushes to the nose.

1st infusion: (25s)
Blanched leaves have a really strong fruity scent like dark stonefruit, plum, blackberries with an elegant floral perfume. The liquor smells more floral with a hint of fruit. What an excellent cup of tea.

2nd infusion: (45s)
Darker and more flavourful liquor than the first. I pretty much gulped it down so quickly I couldn’t review it.

3rd infusion (70s)
The leaves just smell steamed now, no fragrance left. Liquor remains floral but no more fruity sweetness. Still yummy though. Pairs decently with my challah and lemon curd.

4th infusion: (90s)
It’s mellowed out a lot, tastes comforting and ever-so-slightly astringent with a beautiful pale golden hue but I don’t think the 5th infusion would taste good, and I have to go to work so stopping here.