Steeped as an herbal, boiling for 6 minutes, I get more color (very pale yellow), more aroma, and more flavor.
Whether it’s what I’m supposed to taste or not, I think I’ve settled on an understanding of what silver needles tastes like to me. With shorter cooler steeps, it’s barely flavored sweet water. With longer, hotter steeps, it’s sweet hay with a touch of chestnut.
That’s what I’m getting here. It’s very mild, and while I prefer stronger flavors, I could see keeping the best of what I come across in the cupboard for a change of pace. However, I don’t need a thousand different silver needles. Or even five. Maybe one or two at the most. Probably one. I feel the same way about white peony.
When you add in flavored teas, I can justify a few more as I really enjoy jasmine silver needle and some of the melon flavored white teas.
I don’t think this is the silver needle that will make that list. Right now, unfortunately, that seems like it’s the Andao — and the company no longer exists. Perhaps there’s a clue in the “Yunnan” part of the Andao’s name though. When I’m sufficiently through my stash that I can justify ordering again, I am going to look for another Yunnan silver needle and see how that one works for me.
Anyway, bumping the rating on this one because at a hotter temp, it’s got some flavor that is gentler than the Rishi, and that puts it into the good category as these things go. There’s an odd marine note that I don’t love, or I’d rate it higher for smoothness.
