I bought this one couple days ago from tea shop in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. I really hesitated to buy it, since I’m not fond of white teas, although I do enjoy some now and then.
So, let’s see… Recommend parameters on package goes as following: 75-85 Celsius, 5-7 teaspoons of dry leaf per liter, brew 2-3 minutes.
I’m going for lower temperature-longer infusion (2 gr, 5.5 fl Oz, 75C, 3 min.).
Dry leaf smells kinda funny to me, almost like flour when it rises and gets to your nostrils. I guess it’s more of natural tea aroma than of greens and blacks. I don’t dislike it though, just find it a bit funny and somewhat alien in this occasion.
One more detail caught my eye – it seems that due to leaf shape some leaves can’t sink but float on water surface. This gives me that ‘lifting one eyebrow and grin’ moment, meaning that I could steep it at least one more time. I’m using glass teapot, BTW.
Three minutes later, and I’m straining it into cup. At first glance, tea soup seems to have a light green note, but as it settles down bright yellow hue takes over. Aroma is somewhat sweet, but I can’t notice anything else.
First sip… wow. Soup is crisp, herbal and sweet. It’s rather unique in appearance to me. At tip of mouth is crisp, on the middle it gets more herbal and sweet lacking crisp notes, and when swallowing crispness emerges to surface again. Aftertaste is just tiny tiny bit astringent, and I can sense that funny dry leaf aroma evaporating from the throat.
After few sips it gets more herbal and some fruity notes move about.
I’m re-steeping it with 85C – 2 mins.
Liquor came out more golden in appearance and had bolder herbal note to it. It also dries up mouth a bit, just a bit. That quirky flour aroma is gone but I got short for crisp note in the end.
In the end this tea is excellent, except that fuzzy aroma. Otherwise, I could rate it almost 90. I’ll experiment with it though, maybe I’ll find sweet spot for my palate.
