62 Tasting Notes
A clean and crisp taste, this is the best white tea that I have ever tasted. What’s even better is that it can be steeped 5+ times easily. Today I steeped 6 times, starting at 30 seconds and eventually working my way up to 6 minutes. The complexity of the taste changed, but I never felt like I wasn’t getting a good cup.
Anyway, this is the first and possibly the only tea that I will give a perfect rating.
Preparation
I was never a fan of scented teas until I tried this white tea from Shang. Pao Blossom is probably the best floral scent and taste that I have experienced. Shang makes this using his silver needle king grade leaves and the pao blossom is allowed to infuse into the leaves about 3-4 times over the course of the tea making process.
Preparation
I’m curious, what are pao blossoms?
pao blossoms are a relative of grapefruit and are produced only one place in the world. I’ll email Shang and see if I can get more information for you, but you really can’t find any information about it on the internet.
I know, I tried Googling them and didn’t get much. The closest I got was ‘Kung Pao Chicken’, lol!
Buddha’s Tea by Tea Trekker is a fantastic tea. It has beautiful long needle-like tea leaves that dance as you brew the leaves. The taste has a very refreshing, sweet taste, similar to what you might find in a dragonwell but with a slightly less nutty taste.
Preparation
Did you just get that tea today teafreak? I am thinking about putting in an order on teatrekker very soon. Just cant go overboard with it or I will definitely be broke haha. Do you prefer green tea the most?
No I purchased a sample of it a couple months ago, but just haven’t logged it yet. I prefer green and white teas on a day to day basis, but nothing beats a great oolong.
Not quite as good as the Golden Needle King that Shang offers, this is still a good black tea. Since Shang makes all his teas from white tea leaves they are all much more subtle and smooth rather than strong and robust. This one is no different, and although you can taste the smokiness that comes from oxidation, you can also taste the underlying white tea that was used to produce this.
Preparation
This tea isn’t bad, but it isn’t really good either. It’s got a very sweet taste without any grassy aftertaste, and it has a slight charcoal taste to it as well. While I wouldn’t describe this tea as bland, I also wouldn’t describe it as distinctive either.
Preparation
This is my first real venture into Gyokuro. I’ve tried it before, but when I last purchased gyokuro I was still in the naive mindset that all green teas are brewed the same way (3 min, 180 degrees), and so I’m pretty sure that I butchered gyokuro the last time I had it. That being said, I now have learned that most gyokuro are steeped at extremely low temperatures (this one I steep at 104 degrees!) which brings out a completely different taste than you get at 180 degrees and I also brew it in a little kyusu now.
In this case you get a very sweet taste with slight vegetal hints, but not nearly as much as you would get at higher temperatures. The flavor is so different to me that I really don’t know how to describe it right now, but when I have a chance to try more Gyokuro, I’ll make sure that I report back
