Black Currant Bai Mu Dan

I’ve never had currant before, but between this having a white tea as a base, and all the positive feedback I decided to try this out. The tea smells great, i’m sure it’s the currant smell.

The tea is very light with a hint of the currant. I like how the bai mu dan is the dominant flavor, even though the smell of the currant is so strong. I was worried that it might be a little bitter, since a lot of the teas ive had with berries in them have gotten bitter or sour really fast. But the flavor balance is really so good, i’m already halfway done with my cup! I’m loving it.

I don’t have a lot of experience with white teas. The preparation is just a little too fussy and the final product a bit too delicate. I followed the brewing recommendations carefully to give this tea a fair shot. I’m glad I did because I think it turned out perfectly. I really like this tea!

I’ve eaten black currants both raw and in all sorts of recipes. They presented rather strangely, but pleasantly, in this tea. Instead of a tart blueberry/cranberry, this tea has notes of grape and (wait for it) sake. Yes, I definitely taste and smell sake!

This is a really light and mild tea that you could drink all day. Its natural sweetness gets more prominent as the cup cools and you do begin to pick up a subtle aftertaste of the currant.

This is a delicious, subtle blend that works well with the white tea. I love black currant, and while white tea is usually off my list because of the caffeine, it’s minimal enough here that I’m sucking it up to finally try this blend. I must say, I’m tempted to steep this a bit longer next time in order to get the black currant taste to pop more (if that would even be the result)- I do feel like it’s a bit too pale for me to get super excited about in this steeping. It smells quite strong, but the taste is mild mild mild. I have faith though! I shall try this blend again, because that black currant, it tempts me….

This is pleasant enough as my before-bed cup. I don’t find it as puzzling as the other teas from my 52 Teas order. I loved the appearance of the leaves, and they brewed a very, very pale cup of tea. It was tasty but maybe a little too candy-sweet for me.

I LOVE black currant in teas. It’s my favorite in black. So this being paired with white tea intrigued me. I got it with the V-Day sampler.

At first, I didn’t know what to think. I had to kind of just sit back, and enjoy the tea. I would of loved more black currant! But with every review I write with black currant flavored teas, that’s my complaint, so nothing new. It is very delicately flavored. Stood up for 4 rebrews.

This reminds me of another tea called Brazilian Delight, which I prefer to this one. It just has more fruit, and the black currant was more pronounced. It’s sold by Todd and Holland, but I googled the ingredients and saw other places selling the exact tea.

I like this tea, but I would of enjoyed more fruit. Though more black currant would probably hide the actual tea flavor, which it nice and light. Very nice iced.

I have been looking at this tea in my cupboard and thinking I should give it a try. This is a very enjoyable tea that was great as a breakfast tea, however, I think it would be just as good for afternoon tea break. Thnak you Lori for sending me this sample.
I probably only have one more cup of this one and I will be very sad when it is gone.

This one, unfortunately, was a bust for me. I guess I just don’t like blackcurrant teas – the smell of blackcurrant just reminds me too much of cough syrup and lozenges for me to enjoy it on its own merits. I took the entire half-ounce package, brewed it with hot water, diluted the brew with cold water…. and then just couldn’t drink it. I let it sit in my fridge for too long that it eventually went bad, so I just poured the remainder down the drain. Sorry, 52Teas!

Full review at: http://booksandtea.ca/2016/09/end-of-summer-iced-tea-extravaganza/

Thank you for the sample Evol Ving Ness! I think I am putting this entry in the right tea.

I really enjoyed this white tea cold brewed. So many white teas are berry, so the currant was really a refreshing change. I would order this if it became available again.

This is probably one of the oldest 52 Teas I still have in my cupboard. It’s even got one of the squarish-labels, from before Frank changed printer and they become rectangular. I’m not sure why it’s sat neglected for so long – it’s been summer, after all, with all its perfect white-tea weather. It might be almost over now (it’s so COLD here at the moment), but better late than never with the white tea, I suppose. I used 1 tsp of leaf for my cup, and gave it 2.5 minutes in water cooled to around 175 degrees.

The dry leaf is mostly black-brown, and a mixture of twigs, broken leaves, and some downy silver buds. Fairly typical of white peony, except the leaves are shredded smaller than I’m used to. I guess that might be why it brewed up relatively quickly, and to a pretty dark yellow-gold. Still, it smells divine so I’m definitely encouraged!

To taste, this is gooooood. So good. The blackcurrant flavour is strong and clear, and reminds me of nothing more or less than hot ribena (although less sugary and chemical). Ribena as it ought to be, perhaps. The blackcurrants are very natural tasting – a little tart, initially sweet but with a sour tang towards the end of the sip. The white tea base is perfect, adding a little sweetness of its own, and a mildly floral accent. The flavour lingers beautifully, making this (to me, at least) pretty much perfection in a cup.

I have a couple of other 52 Teas white blends with me at work today, so I’m eager to try those now! I’m a lot more impressed with this one than I expected to be!

Sipdown no. 161 for the year 2014.

I tried this hot at least once, but alas, I appear not to have written a note about it. It was a while ago, but my recollection is that it was pleasantly fruity, with the fruit dominant over the tea flavor. The fruit is, I suppose, currant, though I think of currants as tasting raisin-y and this tastes more grape-y or perhaps a grape-cherry mix of some kind.

But I remembered reading somewhere that this was good iced (I think it was Angrboda whose note I’m remembering) so I decided to give this a try as a cold brew. Unfortunately, given the size of my preferred cold brew receptacle, that pretty much did away with all of what was left in the packet, and there wasn’t even quite enough to make me confident that this would brew well cold (because the leaves are so much bigger, I was planning to put in a couple more spoonfuls than usual).

Fortunately, it was enough, and it worked really nicely. I steeped this for probably longer than I should have, about 12 hours, but no bitterness. A really nice fruit flavor, and a little bit of a leafy white tea flavor in the background, which, thankfully, doesn’t have that dead plant thing going that white teas sometimes have.

I’m really sorry I don’t have any more of this. I’m rating it high because it’s one of the tastier cold brew experiences I’ve had. Very refreshing, very mellow, really hits the spot. And it wasn’t too shabby hot, either.

Now for the sad story. I have a mystery envelope in my Steepster mailbox. I think someone sent me a message then realized they sent to the wrong person and deleted it before I opened it in my mailbox. (I did see an email telling me the post had come but I was tied up and couldn’t get to it for a few days.) Somehow this had the effect of making a permanent red envelope with a one on it in my mailbox. I wrote to the Steepster overlords who suggested clearing my cache. I have just started using Google Chrome (I am still nervous about it, as in my book Google is the new Microsoft and I’m not too excited about their having information about what I do online but so many sites are now optimized for Chrome I finally gave up) so I went to clear my cache and when I did, Chrome suggested I browse incognito. Stupidly, I said yes, then couldn’t figure out how to get rid of that mode. I searched online and everything I read said you can’t get rid of it without editing the registry. Well, I was a crack at DOS, but I have never gotten along with Windows, so I wasn’t about to attempt that. I found a utility on CNET that claimed to remove incognito so I downloaded it. Guess what. Got rid of incognito but loaded me up with malware! Thirty minutes later I’m much better (thank you Malwarebytes, you’re my hero) but after all that I STILL HAVE THE RED ENVELOPE!

Sigh.