Apple Jack's Apple Harvest Shou Mei

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – July 2023 Tea #5 – An apple tea

I’m also trying to write notes for all the teas from StarFevre that I haven’t written for yet… from that big box I received years ago!  Thank you again!  I have been drinking them, just not writing notes.  This is a Frank era apple blend THAT STILL TASTES LIKE APPLE. Nice.  I do love that the description says the white tea tastes like “hay” — accurate and also appropriate for a pony/apple tea.  It’s a good apple tea, aging great!  A horse might enjoy this tea with the two favorite horsey things — hay and apples. I like it too!

Finally getting there with my older 52 Teas (and with all my teas, come to that – I’m under 150 now!) This one smells great out of the bag – like mildly spiced apple cider. I’m hoping it’ll hold up in the flavour.

The leaf here seems quite fine for shou mei. There are a lot of darker coloured, small-shred leaves, but also a few silver tips. While brewing, the scent is slightly cloying in the way that white tea sometimes has – there’s a lot of sweetness and hay. To taste, it’s pretty good. There are apples, and although the flavour is fairly light they’re also pretty flavour accurate, too. This one puts me in mind of pink lady or something of that ilk, rather than a sharp green apple, but it’s good all the same. The white tea base pairs well, enhancing the sweetness without being overpowering. While I’m enjoying this one, I’m not overwhelmed by it. It’s tasty enough, but that’s about as far as my enthusiasm stretches.

This was tasty. Nice light and appley. What I’m more excited to say is this is a Sipdown!

Doing my Sipdown dance right now. . . #11- Huzzah!

The hubby and I were looking for something to sip while we wrestled with the online tax monster. This one seemed just the thing. We steeped it twice, as follows:
1st – 170°, one minute, 16 oz. water, two perfect teaspoons of tea
2nd – 180°, one and a half minutes

Both steeps were sweetened with a little clover honey (I prefer wildflower, but clover is generally more accessible, and cheaper besides). The clover taste, to my pleasant surprise, did not overpower the flavor of the apples or the tea, although it did take away some of the tartness that I remember this tea having. A very nice apple blend, although I would have preferred a sharper apple flavor (more like a Braeburn or a Pink Lady than a Gala or Red Delicious). I like my apples to bite back. :) The base tea was a sweet hay undertone, with just a hint of something floral to round it out. Lovely!

Backlog:

When I first saw the name of this tea, I wasn’t thinking ponies, I was thinking breakfast cereal. Then again, my daughters have outgrown their little ponies, and back when my youngest was into the ponies, they didn’t have an Apple Jack. My youngest’s favorite was Pinky Pie.

Anyway, this is a nice apple flavored white tea. I like that it isn’t a spiced tea, it just focuses on the apple. The light shou mei is a nice base for the apple notes. A nice, apple-y flavor.

This wasn’t my favorite of the apple flavored teas that 52Teas created this past fall, but, I enjoyed it. I especially liked it iced!

This is my 600th tasting note! The last 100 passed really quickly, it doesn’t seem very long at all since I hit 500. I’ve been meaning to try this iced for a while now, because I really thought it would make a great iced tea. I finally got around to it, and I’m… underwhelmed. It’s more bitter than I expected, and the sharp hay-like note of the shou mei is the most dominant by far. There’s an ever so slight hint of the sweet, crisp apple I expected to dominate right at the front of the sip, but it’s quickly overwhelmed by the base. I drank the first cold steep last night, and when the liquor came out deep and bitter I threw the leaves back in to steep a second time, hoping it would mellow out. It did, and the apple note is definitely slightly more noticeable, especially in the scent which is now all fresh green apple, but the hay still dominates. Never mind, I’ll just finish this as a hot brew.

This was yesterdays tea ie 4th day of Christmas tea from the box. I decided to have a smelly food day which meant I couldn’t taste much of anything past garlic, onion, chilli and spices hence why I didn’t review this until today.

The raw blend smells amazingly sweet apple like, very potent and strong.

The steeped tea smells sweet apple like though toned down from it’s raw form.

In flavour this is very mild compared to it’s scent. The apple comes through in the after taste while the white tea is the main flavour. It’s dry, floral and slightly astringent before the apple kicks in which adds a crisp sweetness. It doesn’t linger for long in the after taste.

It’s not as appley as it appears I mean the tea has apple twice in it’s name. The astringency of the white tea reduces what the apple could be, though saying that it is still a fairly nice tea. Perhaps if I try it again it will be iced.

Steep Information:
Amount: 9.5g
Water: 750ml at 180°F
Tool: Breville One-Touch Tea Maker BTM800XL
Steep Time: 2 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: cucumber, sweet, floral, green apples
Steeped Tea Smell: floral, vegetal
Flavor: vegetal, floral, sweet, fuzzy
Body: Light
Aftertaste: green apples
Liquor: lovely dark orange-brown

I love My Little Pony! Sadly this tea isn’t very apple-y

Post-Steep Additives:
sugar
more apple-y and sweet, less floral and vegetal

I think this would make a great iced tea, however it is chilly out

also this is the 4th day of the 12 teas of Christmas

Resteep:
Water: 750ml at 180°F
Steep Time: 3 minutes

a little more vegetal and astringent

Resteep:
Water: 750ml at 180°F
Steep Time: 4 minutes

not much flavor, but lots of color

Rating: 3/4 leaves

blog: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2014/12/52teas-loose-leaf-white-tea-apple-jacks.html

52teas’ 12 Teas of Christmas Day 4! (Drank Dec. 4)
Thought this was a green before I opened it, but have reconsidered, and now think it’s a white. A very fluffy white. And I’m not at all sure what it is based on the smell – both my roommate and I agree that it smells like white wine, plus a mishmash of fruity aromas, including banana and possibly orange (but orange juice was being consumed at that time, so we’re not 100% on that one).

I accidentally oversteeped it, so the base is a bit strong, but there’s also not really much flavour. Not really a fan. I’d guess that this was maybe a champagne white or something, but I don’t know if anything like that was released this year.

Uh, Apple Jack’s Apple Harvest Shou Mei? Never would have guessed. I guess the apple is what’s coming off as winey? Either way, not fond of this blend at all.

Thanks for uploading the photo, Cameron! For some reason, I can’t.

This tea is very very appley. I’m kind of amazed, actually. The white notes come out for me more as it cools, when it was hot and I just had a sip before I forgot about it and buried myself in the work binder shelves, it was very appley. The aftertaste is interesting. Apple to some extent, though I can’t tell what type. Also a bit of something else that doesn’t quite sit right on my tongue. Not quite sure what it is.

In other news, overtime during a normal workday while surrounded by engineers that seem to think that they’re above this type of work and like to make snotty comments as they walk by is not as fun as overtime on Saturday by myself. It’s work. You get paid. If the company wants and is actually completely thrilled to pay me for putting binders in boxes and documenting it in a spreadsheet, who am I to argue?