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Trying to finish this tin as it is getting on a bit. Good tea, but now I have found other white teas I like even more. I thought this might be a sip down, but when I opened the tin it was still about half full! OY!

Supper time tea with Chinese buffet leftovers. Yum. Hubby didn’t mind it – he drank two cups so it must have been okay! I can tell this is starting to show its age, which is why I was drinking it. It lacked some of the creamy goodness of the first time I had it.

I am trying to purge my shelves of the oldest stuff. I have been very undisciplined and purchased more tea than we can drink, and since I mostly by what I really like, I keep thinking I will make this and that and use it up, but there is more than I can use! First world problems…

I think I have made this tea gong fu style each time I have had it. Today a made a big pot of it to go with salad for lunch for hubby and myself. (Baby mixed salad greens, mozzarella, chopped walnuts, tomatoes, onions, and on top a sprinkle of fresh ground salt/garlic mix and a sprinkle of Italian seasoning and Parmesan.)

The leaves are large and lightweight, so I used about five teaspoons for my 22 ounce pot. Hubby is primarily a Ceylon tea with loads of milk and sugar drinker, but has been exploring green and oolong tea with me lately, possibly for the health benefits or possibly just to be sweet! I warned him that I am not adept at this one yet, so I wasn’t sure how it would taste. I steeped it for four minutes in 175 F water.

I was surprised to see him finish his first cup and reach for the pot, fully refilling his cup. He said, “This is not unpleasant. I wouldn’t necessarily drink it recreationally, but it isn’t unpleasant.”. And he polished off another cup. LOL!

So all in all, I think it was a successful tea pairing and a nice lunchtime together. I would like to try more of this from another source. Upton has it, and the yellow tea at Tin Roof Teas looked exactly like it, and it is very unusual looking, so I may give that one a try as well. This is still the most flavorful plain white tea I have tried thus far.

To celebrate the New Year, at midnight I heated some water and brought out my Yixing set and my Gong Fu set. My son (!!!) joined me for Bissinger’s chocolates and tea! Hubby was already asleep.

My son doesn’t like tea, but he had tried this one and said he found it drinkable, so we began with this one.

It is a lovely white tea with a flavor profile that leans more towards oolongs to me, and has a nice mineral finish. I think I will be ordering a pound from Upton in the future.

I am drinking this again, partly because I just couldn’t stop thinking about it and partly because I am enjoying using my new tea set so much! This is the strongest white tea I have ever tasted, much more like a wulong and with some of the mineral qualities I find in puer sometimes. Here is the tea set:
http://purepuer.com/puer_tea/do/product/taiwan%20ceramic/Oval%20Bone%20White%20Tea%20Set

I just resteeped the leaves from two a.m. to go with my lunch of Asian ginger green beans and ramen noodle soup with veggies. This is so very good. It still has good presence and I am going to resteep again. I must, MUST keep this tea on hand.

By the by, the little dingo we are fostering has been a treasure and has been very sweet to friends, neighbors, children…but apparently our ceiling fan is evil and must be run off. Lunch was accentuated by her running in the den, barking ferociously, spinning and fleeing the room, and running back again…live to fight another day, I guess.

My neighbor surprised with a tin of this for Christmas. Wow! I have never seen tea quite like this! There are lots of stems, as is common in tea from Taiwan, but the leaves look like they could have been raked from your yard just minutes ago! Dry fall leaves, not soft newly fallen ones.

The steeped tea has a stronger aroma than the dry leaves. One feels like saying, “This can’t possibly be white tea!”. Since I have never had it before, I looked at several companies offerings of it. They all looked like this one, and it was noted that it is the strongest, most flavorful white tea. There is nothing subtle about this cup. It is delicious and arresting. There is a strong, lovely mineral quality, all smoothness and no astringency. This white tea shares many characteristics with some of the really fabulous oolongs.

What a delightful surprise! I will definitely be keeping this type of tea on hand.