Eleventh tea for March Mad(Hatter)ness! This is for the white tea round, going against T2’s White Rose. Both of these 2018 teas are ones I’ve reviewed before (original review for this tea can be found here: https://steepster.com/mastressalita/posts/375224 ), but considering how long ago they were, I’m going to do a proper revisit. Especially considering that I’ve noticed, over the years, I’ve come to enjoy straight white teas a lot but seem to like flavored white teas a lot less than previously; I suspect it is because the leaf used in them is such lower quality, and the flavorings never really seem to compensate for that.
Dry leaf aroma is very hay-forward, with some peach/apricot notes. I used 2g steeped for 3 minutes in 350ml 185F water. The brewed tea smells mostly the same; like dry hay and autumn leaves, with a bit of peach, and a subtle florality. In flavor, the autumn leaf note is actually quite subtle despite its prevalence on my nose, with the brew tasting most strongly of dry hay, sweet grass, and wildflowers, with more subtle notes of melon and cucumber popping toward the end of the sip. There is a noticeable peach flavor, but it presents more light and delicate, especially compared to the kind of juicy peach flavoring present in Peach Cobbler. I actually think, with such a “gentle” sweet peach note, as well as the natural florality and vegetal qualities, that calling this “Peach Blossom” is rather appropriate. I am getting more of a sense of a sweet and delicate peach flower than juicy ripe fruit.
I’m enjoying this more than I remember; somewhere in my memory, I remember every peach-flavored white tea I ever tried tasting strongly of wet autumn leaves and little else (I definitely remember getting that from TeaSource’s Machu Peach-u back in the day!) Maybe I’ve just become more tolerant of those notes over the years, and have an easier time picking out some of the other flavors… or maybe the leaf is settling a bit with age. I wouldn’t rate it as highly as I did back then (going back now, I seemed to have rated things across the board higher than I would now!) but I’m still more impressed with this than I thought I’d be going in. It’s a nice afternoon tea, and I recall it was a good cold brew, too. I am lowering the rating to be more reflective of where I am as a tea drinker now, though.
Flavors: Autumn Leaf Pile, Cucumber, Floral, Flowers, Hot Hay, Melon, Peach, Sweet, Sweet, Warm Grass, Vegetal
