Continuing with the breaking open of white teas that I’ve had for a while but never before opened or tasted, given that I’ve at least tasted most of my unflavored black teas to the point where it’s hard to dig out the last few untasted ones.
I skipped right to the steeping method I used with the Silver Needles from Tea Trekker — boiling at 7 minutes. I noticed that everyone else who has written notes on this tea has steeped at a lower temperature and mostly for less time. I have a lot of this so I’ll be able to try different methods.
The dry leaves smell earthy and a bit odd, and plastic-y which I suspect has nothing to do with the tea and everything to do with the container it was in.
After steeping, there’s still some earthiness but none of the weird drowned plant smell that I sometimes get from plain white peony. Instead there’s a kind of a sweet, honeydew note. The color is light gold and clear. As a side note, steeping at low temps often results in colorless or near colorless white tea for me, and I feel comforted by the fact that higher temperatures bring out some color in the liquor. It’s probably just psychological, but it makes me feel like the tea is going to have more flavor.
The flavor is a bit plantier than the aroma and there’s a quality to the flavor that reminds me of trees. More leaves than wood, but there wasn’t a leaves flavor option.
I’ll experiment with it more, but I have the usual white tea problem with this one. I’m not sure I am tasting it as it was intended to be made. In the past, I’ve not considered plain white peony particularly tasty or interesting though I’ve had some nice blends with it as a base. That’s true here, too. I preferred the silver needle, once I was able to get any sort of flavor out of it.
Flavors: Honeydew, Wet Earth, Wood
I admire your unwavering determination to wring something good out of white teas, one way or another. You are my role model.
Awww, thanks. Well, there’s definitely flavor with this one when steeped hot for a long time, and also cold.