I thought it would be fun to steep a white tea gong fu-style, so I opted to try this tea out. Thanks for the sample, Angel!! I’ve had a white tea gong fu-style at Samovar, but they used too much leaf, in my opinion, and the steeps came out bitter. For this session, I used probably 2/3 to 3/4 of the sample packet with the recommended 194-degree water. I did a super quick rinse just to wet the leaves, and then steeped it 15/30/45/60/90/180sec. The first steep was similar in taste to other white peony teas I’ve tried before…sweet hay notes. This one, however, was smoother than others I’ve had. Sometimes the hay note kind of causes a drying feeling in my mouth, but I didn’t really have that with this tea. In the second steep, the hay note moved to the background and a pleasant peach taste came through! There was also a bit of a vegetal note, similar to what I find in green oolongs. In the later steeps, that vegetal note came through as sweet zucchini! Nice and light and great for hot weather (which we can’t seem to get rid of around here!)
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Bio
Another profile facelift! My tastes have changed a lot from when I first discovered loose leaf tea.
I can trace my tea journey back to October 2012, when I discovered DavidsTea. Before that, I had the occasional cup and enjoyed high tea at An Afternoon to Remember, which has since closed.
I went through a period of wanting to try all the teas, and was really into flavored teas, especially dessert blacks, but my tastes have substantially changed over time.
I still enjoy the occasional flavored black or rooibos, but I’m more into unflavored black teas right now and recently, puerh. Chinese black teas are amazing…with their notes of chocolate or sweet potato, who needs a flavored tea? I had a much steeper learning curve when it came to puerh. I used to dump out cups of puerh for tasting like leather. Now, I am really enjoying them. I think it took finding good quality puerh and steeping them gong fu style to really enjoy them.
I also, on occasion, enjoy a good oolong, white, or green tea.
Favorite tea companies right now include: Mandala, Teavivre, Butiki, Golden Moon, Lupicia, and DavidsTea (for teaware mostly).
Just a note: I don’t rate my teas numerically because my iPad doesn’t like the scroll bar. Maybe someday that will change…hint hint, steepster! ;)
P.S. My profile picture is of one of my 2 cats, Holly, who is a little princess but very photogenic, and she loves boxes, including those that bring me tea! :)
Location
San Francisco Bay Area
