Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

Posts Tagged ‘Silver Needle White Tea’

It doesn’t happen very often these days, but I would say about once every couple o’ months, something catches my eye in an “ooo shiny!” fashion. Okay, okay, I do that a lot…but not AS often with tea. I have a list saved as a Gmail draft that I call my “Tea WANT!” list. On it are several orthodox (and some plain out-there) teas that I hope to try someday. At present, I’ve notched off half of it. Some of the more difficult things were more easily obtained than I thought.

What’s this got to do with Shang Tea? Well, I ran across their operation via a tea social network called Steepster. (Think Facebook for cuppers.) Someone was waxing poetic about this black tea blend they recently tried. What caught my “shiny!” gland was the mention of tangerine blossoms. In case it isn’t readily apparent, I’m a tangerine fiend – been addicted to ‘em ever since I was a wee tot. I never knew those damn fruit trees had blossoms to them. Had I known, I would’ve built a fort out of ‘em.

Shang Tea is an operation out of Kansas City, MO. Other than being another brick-n-mortar tea shop in a mall, they have another thing to their credit. They own their own high-altitude tea garden in Fujian province, China. Their specialty happens to be Silver Needle white tea, but they also play around with the same cultivar to make red (or black) tea. This fermented option was blended with tangerine blossoms.

I bought a sampler pack that included this, along with several other white teas and blends. Needless to say, I first tore open the Tangerine Blossom black. Almost like an addict, even. It smelled beyond superb. Along with the slightly smoky/earthy black tea base was a scent similar to jasmine flowers and citrus rind – sweet yet floral. The tea leaves themselves were thin and twisty; the blossoms looked like – well – blossoms. Very…uh…blossomy.

The brewing instructions they recommended were a tad confusing, especially the measurements for the tea leaves. I skipped theirs and went with my own prep – 1 heaping teaspoon of leaves in 8oz of 205F water for three minutes. A bit light, sure, but it seemed the wisest approach.

The liquor brewed to a color that I would call “oolong amber”. The liquid aroma echoed the semi-fermented tea comparison with a fruity/lightly-astringent nose. As for taste, this completely floored me. It began with a regular Dian Hong-ish forefront that was immediately followed up with a strong citrus lean in the middle. That tapered off into a honey-floral aftertaste that simply lingered. I could find no fault with this blend. At all. It was perfect. I’m only upset that I’m all out of it now.

You can purchase the Tangerine Blossom Red Tea directly from the Shang Tea website.

I discovered upon opening the package that the leaves of this tea were considerably larger and more ‘whole’ than the leaves of the First Flush from Goomtee Estate that I also sampled from this same company. These leaves were an interesting and attractive-looking mix of dark green and silver, almost as though they were the buds of a silver needle white tea rather than a black tea. But then supposedly Darjeeling teas get fermented less than most blacks, so it makes sense, I guess.

The smell was sweet and hay-like with some floral notes, though brewed it took on a toastier aroma. It had a more typical Darjeeling flavour than the Goomtee first flush did – resplendent with muscatel flavours, though with considerably less of the drying astringency you’d taste in a later-picked Darjeeling. It was sweeter too, which becomes more noticeable as the tea cooled, and it had a nice, full flavour that lingered in the mouth and kept me from forgetting about it. As it cooled it also took on some fruity characteristics, with an interesting nutty undertone.

Of the two First Flush Darjeelings I’ve tasted now I think this one is my favorite of the two, although in my opinion both are excellent, complex, and interesting teas.

I gave this a Steepster rating of 87/100.

You can find Lochan Teas directly from the Lochan Tea website.

To start my first review here, I thought it would be fun to share how I go about tasting teas (and I hope others will share too!). I do all my tea tastings (as opposed to tea drinking) first thing in the morning. Yes, even before I brush my teeth! I was inspired by Chocolate Expert, Chloé Doutre-Roussel in her chocolate tastings (another one of my passions) as she believes our taste buds and sense of smell are most acute on an empty stomach and with a clean palate.

If I am tasting a non-flavoured tea (more often than not), I will also taste the new tea with the same type of tea I have on hand which I believe is an excellent example of that kind of tea. It helps awaken my taste buds and jogs my taste bud memories. When tasting a new tea, I prefer not to look at any taste/scent/appearance descriptions given by the supplier nor do I like to look at any other reviews. I want to experience the tea without any preconceived notions of what others observed.

But for the purposes of this tea review, I wanted to make my tasting even more unbiased so I actually used three unmarked samples of the same type of tea [one an excellent example of the same type, one a good/perfectly acceptable (to me) example of the same type and a sample of the tea I was to review] and shuffled them up while tasting. I don’t have a retail tea business so I don’t do any formal type of cuppings to choose teas to sell; this is just a method I thought might work for me.

Now we all know there is some pretty spectacular tea out there, just as there is, unfortunately, some bad tea. But that leaves so much in between to choose from. I believe tasting tea is a very personal experience. Once we’ve looked for and found good characteristics of a particular tea, it all comes down to flavour and what we prefer and love. Two people may not have the same take on a particular tea and that’s okay! Isn’t that what makes loving, drinking, sharing and discussing tea so unique and wonderful?!

Today I’m reviewing Canton Tea Co.’s Silver Needle Yin Zhen White Tea (as per label on sample) , commonly known as Bai Hao Yin Zhen in Mandarin, which literally translates to White Hair Silver Needle. I actually tasted this tea twice (randomly shuffled with the other two as noted above) on two separate days. Because this tea consists of tight buds, I used a higher temperature compared to what I would use for a Bai Mu Dan, which has more open leaves that infuse quicker. I used a temperature between 77°C and 79°C (or 170°F and 175°F). I usually steep for 1 to 1½ minutes (you will probably notice as time goes by that I am more of a “shorter” steeper than a “longer” steeper).

Here are some of my tasting notes on Canton Tea Co.’s Silver Needle Yin Zhen White Tea. Both times that I tasted yielded similar thoughts.

Because I would have liked to have seen slightly more complexity in the taste of this Silver Needle and a little more depth & longer-lasting flavour, to me this is not an extraordinary tea. I know Bai Hao Yin Zhen is capable of having more taste & intensity. However, I would recommend this tea as acceptable because of its fine-looking downy buds, subtle sweetness and its good price point, meaning you don’t have to expend too much money to add this easily drinkable Silver Needle to your tea stash.

You can purchase the Silver Needle White Tea | Fuding Bai Hao Yin Zhen directly from the Canton Tea Co. website.

The smell that came wafting out of the canister when I opened it up reminded me of nothing so much as fresh-cut, sweet hay on a warm, sunny day. It’s a smell I’m used to associating with summer because many of the ranchers around here grow and cut hay crops during that time to feed their livestock over the winter.

The flavour of the tea is also reminisent of sweet hay, but without tasting too grassy or bitter. It’s not too vegetal either – a problem which I noticed with some other silver needle teas that I’ve tried. It is slightly drying to the mouth, but only a bit – nothing too unpleasent. It makes for a light, fragrant, and flavourful drink, and perhaps it’s just the hay association, but it seems like a tea that’s very much suited for sipping in the summertime.

The resteep is considerably paler in colour and lighter in flavour. It has an almost delicately flowery quality to it now. Still very drinkable and it could probably go for more steeps, but it’s late and I don’t want to be more caffeinated than I already am!

You can purchase the Organic Silver Needle White Tea directly from the Leaf Spa Tea website.