Wow, no love for this tea on Steepster. Not terribly surprising, it’s very hit or miss, luckily today it produced a nice cup. 3 tsps in a glass infuser mug with 175F water for a little over a minute uncovered. Brewed up a beautiful pink and yes a tad cloudy. No bitterness to speak of, no soapy peach, berries are a bit tart which is fine, mint is mild but present. Overall a very lightly flavored white and since Teavana doesn’t seem to believe that white tea leaves themselves should be anything other than light, I can see why others think this is bland, I just don’t mind at the moment as I know what to expect and wasn’t really looking for fruity. This might be more interesting with a bai mu dan or shou mei base. May try this cold brewed as I believe I bought it with the summer in mind when it was 75% off. Would never buy this at full price though. Just the handful of Verdant blends I have been drinking lately have spoiled me, I don’t know if I want to venture trying David’s or 52Teas blends, though that reminds me I need to place an order some honeybush for my mother-in-law.
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I completely agree that a Shou Mei would round this tea out much better, but I wonder if the teaologists at Teavana even know the grades of white tea. Every time I look into one of the bins of blended white teas, the leaves always look the same— little grey, twisted leaves. I wonder what grade they are anyway?
Heh, complicated question. I imagine some people at corporate are aware of the grades of most teas and decide to only promote the top of each grade as straight teas: Silver Needle, Gyokuro, Huang Shan Mao Feng, Monkey Picked Oolong, Golden Monkey, Keemun Premium Grade Hao Ya, Darjeeling SFTGFOP or whatever it is and don’t provide more affordable alternatives (except some greens) like other companies. Why offer White Peony when you want to pitch Silver Yin Zhen Pearls as being the highest in anti-oxidants, most hydrating, detoxifying etc?
But then they use lesser quality leaf in the blends, yet they still claim is the top of its crop which is the reason for the price of the whites. Drum Mountain White Cloud is listed for several of them, this one is supposedly a White Mao Feng and is actually a bit more impressive leaf than some of the others.
These may actually fall outside the traditional four step grading if they are a different varietal. I’ve heard these other teas are not true whites but are still called such as they use a similar processing. Most of the examples that I am thinking are a little to obvious like White Darjeeling, Assam, Ceylon and Kenyan (which are all quite lovely) but they are also in China.
Now another complication is Teavana used to have their blends made for them, at least some if not all by SpecialTeas, which they bought out over a year ago and now does not exist supposedly. I’ve heard people who have been to “the home office” talking about the master blender, who knows where she is from and who influences what she can use. But the average employee and probably most managers have never heard of the different grades of white tea, which is just sad really.
Anywho, I highly recommend you try some of the teas in Verdant’s Alchemy line, they are very thoughtfully made and the bases shine through. Of the ones currently available I’d say get the Eight Treassures Yabao and order some straight Yabao while you’re at it, like I said in my notes it tastes like Shou Mei on crack and if the Laoshan Apothecary Green is anything like Taping Temple Green (more mint less spice), it will be amazing!
I just got to reading this post. Thanks for all the info! It really helped me to understand what was going on in the Teavana world. On a side note have you ever tried gong-mei, the lowest grade of white tea? I’ve heard from many people that it is hardly worth seeking after…
I completely agree that a Shou Mei would round this tea out much better, but I wonder if the teaologists at Teavana even know the grades of white tea. Every time I look into one of the bins of blended white teas, the leaves always look the same— little grey, twisted leaves. I wonder what grade they are anyway?
Heh, complicated question. I imagine some people at corporate are aware of the grades of most teas and decide to only promote the top of each grade as straight teas: Silver Needle, Gyokuro, Huang Shan Mao Feng, Monkey Picked Oolong, Golden Monkey, Keemun Premium Grade Hao Ya, Darjeeling SFTGFOP or whatever it is and don’t provide more affordable alternatives (except some greens) like other companies. Why offer White Peony when you want to pitch Silver Yin Zhen Pearls as being the highest in anti-oxidants, most hydrating, detoxifying etc?
But then they use lesser quality leaf in the blends, yet they still claim is the top of its crop which is the reason for the price of the whites. Drum Mountain White Cloud is listed for several of them, this one is supposedly a White Mao Feng and is actually a bit more impressive leaf than some of the others.
These may actually fall outside the traditional four step grading if they are a different varietal. I’ve heard these other teas are not true whites but are still called such as they use a similar processing. Most of the examples that I am thinking are a little to obvious like White Darjeeling, Assam, Ceylon and Kenyan (which are all quite lovely) but they are also in China.
Now another complication is Teavana used to have their blends made for them, at least some if not all by SpecialTeas, which they bought out over a year ago and now does not exist supposedly. I’ve heard people who have been to “the home office” talking about the master blender, who knows where she is from and who influences what she can use. But the average employee and probably most managers have never heard of the different grades of white tea, which is just sad really.
Anywho, I highly recommend you try some of the teas in Verdant’s Alchemy line, they are very thoughtfully made and the bases shine through. Of the ones currently available I’d say get the Eight Treassures Yabao and order some straight Yabao while you’re at it, like I said in my notes it tastes like Shou Mei on crack and if the Laoshan Apothecary Green is anything like Taping Temple Green (more mint less spice), it will be amazing!
I just got to reading this post. Thanks for all the info! It really helped me to understand what was going on in the Teavana world. On a side note have you ever tried gong-mei, the lowest grade of white tea? I’ve heard from many people that it is hardly worth seeking after…