Stone Fruit White Tea

The dry leaf aroma is fruity heaven! Wow! It’s hard to discern a particular fruit, but to me it smells like peaches and cherries. Mmm!

I brewed it up and when the water hit the leaves, there was another whoosh of sweet, fruity aroma. But once infused, the aroma was muuuuch quieter. What happened? Did I not use enough leaf? I’ve always found Bai Mu Dan leaves difficult to measure correctly.

The taste will be the tie-breaker. Hmm, I probably could have used more leaf. LOL! Oh well. What I’m getting from this cup is still delicious! Just not as assertive as I’d like. The white base pairs perfectly with these fruits. The flavor profile is very different from the Forest Berry Silver Needle from a while back. The fruit here is perfectly representative of the fruits themselves. It doesn’t taste like I’m drinking a flavored tea. Instead it tastes like I’m drinking a white tea mixed with 100% real fruit juice!

This is absolutely delicious! Peach, cherry, and plum are the fruit that stand out the most for me. But that’s mostly because I’m not sure what a nectarine or apricot really tastes like. The fruits blend very well together and create a symphony in my mouth. There’s no bitterness or astringency to speak of.

This has instantly become a new favorite! I’m so glad I decided to give it a shot. Now if only I could sit around all day and enjoy this tea, but I’m off to work! In the travel mug it goes!

Backlog:

This one is YUMMY iced. I think I prefer it iced versus hot (although it’s good hot too, however, I didn’t really like it when it was fresh from the teapot, piping hot. The flavors need a few minutes cool time to develop.)

Once the flavors do develop, though, this is a very juicy, fruity, sweet tea. The white tea brings a nice earthiness to the cup. I like the different fruits in here. I taste the peach, nectarine and apricot strongest, and the cherry gives a nice tartness to the tea. The plum comes through too.

Nice.

I am excited to be the first to review this new tea. I hope I can do it justice. First of all, the tea smells really fruity and has some large pieces of fruit in it. After one whiff, my daughter proclaimed: “I want to try that one Mom” and she doesn’t want to try new things very often. When she tried it, she said it was yummy and asked if I would make an iced pitcher of it just for her. To me, it tastes like a juicy mouthful of plums and peaches that is well supported by the white tea base.

This is a perfect tea for this time of year. The moment I opened this tea I was instantly hit with a strong refreshing peach scent. Once brewed I found that the peach flavor continued to be the dominate flavor however at the back of the palate a sweet plum note came through as well. I tried my first cup hot which was absolutely scrumptious but given the blend and recent nice weather I HAD to try this over ice. In doing so I found that the overall flavor profile changed so that some of the more subtle notes in the background came through and were not as overshadowed by the peach when enjoyed hot. All in all, this is a delightful refreshing tea.

Heaping 1/2 tablespoon for ~8 oz water.

Dry leaf smells strongly of plums & fuzzy peaches (yes, the smell was fuzzy), maybe a little bit bubblegum-y. While steeping, white tea & cherry fragrances come forth. This is one of those teas that seems more aromatic than flavored to me, so I added a little glug of agave, which gave it a gentle sort of honeyed fruity taste. Withholding rating until I figure out the best way to steep this one.

1ST CUP:
Served: Hot
Amount: 1.5 tsp
Brewed In: 10 oz
Cup Size: 10.5 oz mug
Sweetener: stevia in the raw
Temp: 175
Steep Time: 3 min
Method: Finum paper tea filter

Notes:
Decided to steep this longer & lower to try to get more of the flavor from the pieces of dried fruit. Not sure if it worked since I can’t pick up any distinctive flavor – just a jumble of fruit.

I’ll have to try again with the normal 185 temp & shorter time & see if I get a better taste because right now it just seems bland to me without any one flavor noticeable over the other.

Of course this could all be because I’ve been fighting a head cold for 10 days now, but I’ll try again once I’m through with this bug.

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UPDATE: As the cup sat a few more minutes, cooling off to probably around 140, suddenly the taste changed for me. It came across more mellow, less jumbled & more individually pronounced. Went from “meh” to “hmm”.

Signed,
Jane

Sipdown (135)!

Yes, this is definitely better brewed hot! I still think the flavour is mostly peach and nectarine, but I’m actually tasting sweet, ripe red cherries this time as well which is kid of what I was looking for in the first place. As well, there isn’t that sort of “dusty” white tea taste this time around; the flavours seem brighter and more, I don’t know, ‘polished’? It’s a tiny bit like drinking the syrup from canned fruit cocktail…

Anyway, point is that it’s much better! I feel good about being able to raise my rating on this one, as this mug was really enjoyable. From 63 to 73.

I brought this one out again today, simply because it’s so warm out and I was looking for more summer-like flavours than I feel I’ve been drinking recently. I actually had a better cup than last time, and I’m not really sure why. I always use 1 tsp of leaf, measured with the same spoon, I cool the water and it gets the same brew time. Something must have varied fractionally, but it meant that I got a pleasant, sweet tasting cup of apricot and plum. I only wish I could replicate it every time!

This is an old sample. I think this is one that came from a box from LiberTeas awhile back. Why I am not just trying this I am not sure. Tonight this is really hitting the spot. Light very fruity and definitely stone fruit. It is slightly sweet. I actually liked it more when it was hot, now as it cools I am thinking about heating it back up. A good cup for tonight.

Additional notes: Finishing this one today (and Mandala’s Noble Mark). Thanks for sending me one of your faves, CHAroma! Still delicious… I love the white base with an equal balance of the strone fruits… it’s almost 1/3 plum, 1/3 cherry and 1/3 peach/nectarine/apricot or else I’m imagining it that way!