Is everyone ready for a potentially controversial tea review? I finished a sample pouch of this tea back around the end of the first week in September, but I purposefully put off posting a review until now. I know that this tea did not get the most consistent reviews here on Steepster, but man, did I love it! This was one of the best and most interesting white teas I have tried.
I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea buds in 4 ounces of 185 F water for 7 seconds. This infusion was followed by 22 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 9 minutes, 12 minutes, 16 minutes, 20 minutes, 25 minutes, 30 minutes, and 40 minutes.
Prior to the rinse, the dry tea buds emitted aromas of malt, black pepper, pine, cedar, tobacco, and honey. After the rinse, I noted new aromas of roasted nuts, cream, and marshmallow that were underscored by a subtle sugarcane scent. The first infusion brought out more of a sugarcane scent along with some indistinct hints of stone fruit. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of malt, pine, cedar, tobacco, cream, and roasted almond that were chased by hints of marshmallow, sugarcane, and black pepper. Surprising impressions of caramel, honey, and eucalyptus lingered in the mouth after the swallow. Subsequent infusions brought out aromas of eucalyptus, caramel, ginger, hay, oats, apricot, and plum. Notes of ginger, oats, minerals, vanilla, apricot, plum, butter, wheat toast, and hay appeared in the mouth along with somewhat stronger impressions of honey and caramel. The final few infusions emphasized surprisingly resilient, well-defined impressions of minerals, marshmallow, malt, cedar, roasted almond, black pepper, and tobacco that were chased by fleeting notes of ginger, hay, honey, caramel, and eucalyptus.
Like I said earlier, this was an interesting white tea. It had a ton to offer, and I think that patient and open-minded tea drinkers would likely get a kick out of it. Hopefully, Beautiful Taiwan Tea Company will bring this one back soon.
Flavors: Almond, Apricot, Black Pepper, Butter, Caramel, Cedar, Cream, Eucalyptus, Ginger, Hay, Honey, Malt, Marshmallow, Mineral, Oats, Pine, Plum, Sugarcane, Toast, Tobacco, Vanilla, Wheat
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I’m going to have to retry that one eventually. The malt turned me off of that one for a little bit, so I might think otherwise now.
I didn’t expect much of this tea to be honest. You only ever really hear about the black teas that come out of Sri Lanka, and to be honest, I’m not huge them, so whenever I see a different sort of Ceylonese tea, it’s just like whatever. I automatically expect to like it as much as a standard Ceylonese black tea. This white tea truly impressed me, though.
I’m going to have to retry that one eventually. The malt turned me off of that one for a little bit, so I might think otherwise now.
I didn’t expect much of this tea to be honest. You only ever really hear about the black teas that come out of Sri Lanka, and to be honest, I’m not huge them, so whenever I see a different sort of Ceylonese tea, it’s just like whatever. I automatically expect to like it as much as a standard Ceylonese black tea. This white tea truly impressed me, though.