It looks like this tea hasn’t been reviewed in five years, so I hope this is the right listing. This is one of my all-time favourite bai hao. I bought it in 2015 and I liked it so much that I took advantage of a sale to buy two more bags this year. This is the end of the 2015 package, and I think the flavour is starting to mellow.
I put about 5 grams of the beautiful multi-coloured leaves in an 85 ml porcelain teapot, which I tend not to use because the pour is so slow. However, this just seems to make bai hao even better. The aroma of the leaves in the teapot is almost nonexistent, though some hints of sandalwood and spice come through. I used 195F water and steeps of 30, 20, 30, 45, 60, 90, and 180 seconds, followed by steeps of 3, 6, and 9 minutes.
The first steep comes in with citrus, wood, honey, and pear, with some sandalwood in the background. There’s no bitterness and a lingering aftertaste. Hints of grape and other fruit show up in the second steep, though they’re somewhat faint. I then upped the temperature to 200F to try and get more fruity flavours, but other than possibly making it a bit sweeter, it didn’t make a difference.
That sandalwood/spice note is the best part of this tea. It kind of tingles on the tongue in some steeps. It also makes the tea seem quite complex, even though I can pin down relatively few flavours. The fourth, fifth, and sixth infusions were the best and most well integrated, suggesting that this bai hao might benefit from longer steeps.
It’s difficult to judge bai hao objectively because I haven’t had too many and I love the flavour profile, which probably skews my ratings too far upwards. Nonetheless, this is excellent and I’m glad I have a stash of it.
Flavors: Grapes, Honey, Lemon, Pear, Spices, Stewed Fruits, Wood
