The dry tea has gentle yet distinctive floral fragrance, which, in traditional Chinese tea jargon, is specified as orchid fragrance (however I personally have no experience of fragrance from an orchid plant). In the first a few infusions, tea water is light yellow with some green hint. The aroma lingers around the upper palate up into nasal cavity. The aroma is a mixture of early spring flower and grass. Later infusions of this tea yield more intensive yellow color with golden hint. The flavor shifts from upper palate to closer to throat, generate a warm feeling.
This tea caught my attention in a few ways. First, this is a traditional, famous varietal that is rarely seen in market nowadays. It took me some time to find a good product of Bai Ya Qi Lan. Secondly, this tea is made from the same tea cultivar for Wuyi Qi Lan. However, by tasting, it’s almost impossible (100% impossible for me) to tell the two Qi Lan are from one same tea cultivar. In tea world, there are many tea cultivars that display distinctively different characters when grown in different area and processed with different methods. Again this tea demonstrates such diversity.
Comparison with other tea: People who favor green style Tie Guan Yin, Chinese green tea and Taiwan high mountain oolong may like this very well. People who favor Wuyi Qi Lan, it will be interesting to try this tea and compare, but don’t expect this tea to resemble Wuyi Qi Lan in any way :P
5g tea in 4oz. water. 30sec. steep time is for first 3 infusions.
