I’ve been experimenting with this tea over the past week because I felt sure I was missing something. Like I’ve said before, I don’t “get” white tea and I keep trying to get it.
I decided to try this with hotter water and see what that did. There seems to be a division of opinion between whether to use low water temperature or hot water temperature with white tea. My first shot was low, so I tried boiling at 3 minutes yesterday. The flavor from that endeavor was marginally better than the 0 flavor I got from the original steep.
Today, I tried boiling at 7 minutes. In other words, I treated this as an herbal. This is the most successful steep yet. Today’s steep has a mildly nutty flavor a little like water chestnut or macadamia.
But the most successful of all has been the cold brew. On the strength of the cold brew alone, I’m upping the rating from 20 to mid-range. The cold brew is actually flavorful — definitely nutty but also arboreal, and a sweet aftertaste.
I wish I could figure out how to make the hot tea taste like the cold brew. I’ll continue to experiment. I have a ton of this, so a lot of room to play.
Meanwhile, No. 2’s assessment of the cold brew is “it tastes like leaves, like every other tea you ask me to try.”
Comments
Have you tried aging your white tea? I’ve found that it can often be bland when fresh, but becomes more flavorful after it’s rested for a while.
Have you tried aging your white tea? I’ve found that it can often be bland when fresh, but becomes more flavorful after it’s rested for a while.
This tea isn’t new; I’ve had it for a while and just opened it the other day. So I’m not sure whether that means it is aged or not. I’ll keep that in mind, though. I have some white teas I opened a while back and haven’t finished. Maybe they’ll taste better now.