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This is the kind of white tea I think of when various companies or tea drinkers say that white tea is light in flavor. That hasn’t been the case for me with most types of white teas I’ve had, so I never fully understood that notion. I wouldn’t commit to saying this tea is light in flavor, though. What it is is gentle and refreshing. Wait, so how do these silver needles differ from others?

In comparison to other silver needles these aren’t exactly complex. The main taste is of sweet nectar and mineral water, but where these buds differ from others is in the general flavor profile. Others can be fruity, spicy, musty. These, though, have the distinct taste of the Taiwanese high mountain oolong composed of the Qing Xin cultivar (typing that makes me feel like such a snob haha!) — sweet vegetal and heady floral (sweet pea and gardenia) characteristics along with the rather strong fir-like cooling refreshment I’ve found in Shanlinxi oolong and later some lemony-citric tang.

I was trying to think of how this tea differs from the one or two Taiwanese green teas I’ve had. I can’t say for certain but it seems less pungently vegetal, more floral, sweeter, fuller bodied. How does it differ from the green high mountain oolong? It’s not fruity at all except for a once-found note of overripe honeydew which is actually more savory than fruity. It’s as thick as an oolong but gentler, like a sweet, soft soup. Less heady floral, more vegetal, mellower, less potential for astringency. What do I know. I like it, a lot.

While I adore this tea, I can see it not appealing to other people, namely for the vegetal character and the lack of fruitiness. Maybe even its lack of caffeine combined with its quiet cha qi, but that means I can drink it at night without consequence or I can drink it in the morning as a refreshing and soothing preamble to the day.

I see I’ve gone on about this tea too long. If Wang Family Teas produces this again, I will certainly be buying more. Taiwanese white teas are not often found (the only ones I have experience with are of those leafy Ruby 18 cultivar teas). They tend to be delicious though and underappreciated due to their lack of availability since the majority of tea leaves are processed as oolong. When have you ever seen a Taiwanese silver needle?

Thanks, Liquid Proust, for making a tea like this possible!

Oh, one more thing. I had been brewing these as mini-bowl tea with a pinch of leaves in a 100mL teacup and water of unknown temperature (not boiling). My last session I dialed in the temp to 85C. That produced results consistent with all the other times. I suggest brewing these buds either as bowl tea (grandpa basically) or western 1+g:100mL. Brewing them gongfu with shorter steeping times didn’t bring out as much flavor, sweetness or silkiness. Daylon says they were good with longer gongfu steeping times, though!