Silver Needle

Tea type
White Tea
Ingredients
White Tea
Flavors
Butter, Dry Grass, Floral, Melon, Wood, Apricot, Cantaloupe, Cinnamon, Cream, Eucalyptus, Grain, Hay, Honeysuckle, Mineral, Oats, Straw, Earth, Flowers, Honey, Citrus, Nutty, Smooth
Sold in
Loose Leaf, Sachet
Caffeine
Medium
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Michael
Average preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 5 min, 15 sec 5 g 8 oz / 238 ml

From Our Community

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33 Want it Want it

  • +18

104 Own it Own it

  • +89

119 Tasting Notes View all

  • “Dear Silver Needle: Thank you for keeping me company on my commute this morning. I very much appreciated that you were not planty or heavy, like your colleague, White Symphony. Thank you for being...” Read full tasting note
    70
  • “So, I didn’t get to taste this infusion, but this tea absolutely saved me today. I crushed my finger in the automatic car window today and broke the bone. Serious serious pain. Also, gross alert,...” Read full tasting note
    68
  • “Soooo. I forgot about this one while I was steeping it. Like I acknowledged the timer, and flipped it off, and then somehow I let the tea keep steeping. So it went about 5-6 minutes. Luckily, it’s...” Read full tasting note
    77
  • “I’ve tried this before in a sample pack I had back when I first started drinking whole leaf tea. I didn’t write a note, though. It might actually have been before I joined Steepster. Anyway, Silver...” Read full tasting note
    75

From Adagio Teas

Silver Needle (or Bai Hao Yin Zhen) is one of the most revered of Chinese teas, produced in the Fuding and Zhenhe districts of its Fujian province. Gathered only for a few days in early spring, the dedication to perfection is evident in the pale, ivory-colored liquor. The lingering fragrance of our Silver Needle is delicately honeysuckle floral, with a warmed sugar sweetness and a subtle hint of white grapes. Silver Needle feels refreshing, soft and airy on the palate. This is a high-grade Bai Hao version of this exquisite tea, perfect to enjoy in multiple infusions.

Ingredients: White tea

Steeping Instructions: Steep at 180° for 3 minutes.

About Adagio Teas View company

Adagio Teas has become one of the most popular destinations for tea online. Its products are available online at www.adagio.com and in many gourmet and health food stores.

119 Tasting Notes

100
16 tasting notes

I’m getting some kind of fruit aroma, maybe pear? Very nice flavor, slightly sweet. No tannins, very simple aftertaste.

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 7 min, 0 sec
Cofftea

Yeah a lot of their unflavored whites have pear somewhere in at least one of the infusions… well, it tastes like their pear tea, but that really doesn’t taste like pear IMO.

Jillian

This one is one my Shopping List to try in the fututre. I’ve heard a lot of people say good things about it. :)

Cofftea

@Jillian, It is very good. The only one I like better is the Jasmine SN.

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74

Sample by TeaEquelsBliss. Thank you!!! This pure unflavored white was just what I needed after the last few disastrous flavored teas I have tried. I can’t help thinking a silver needle should have a bit more flavor, but this was a nice relaxing cup and I was very glad to have it. :0)

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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80
639 tasting notes

Very light and sweet. Vegetal taste is more apparent in the aftertaste. A fantastic white tea for people new to whites. Not very complex, but it’s beautiful in its simplicity.

First steep at 180 degrees for 5 minutes, second for 7 ½ minutes, and third for 10 minutes. Flavor started to fade by the third infusion and got pretty astringent.

But the first two cups were so fantastic that I’m upping the rating from 73 to 80.

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 5 min, 0 sec

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67
158 tasting notes

Farewell to the last of my sample tin of this. I could’ve sworn that I had written a tasting note for it, and now I can’t seem to find it…strange. A tasting note I spotted by someone else mentioned sweet grains and artichoke, and that seems to sum it up pretty adequately.

Don’t think I’ll be buying another tin of it. It’s not bad, really it isn’t, but I’d take a cup of Downy Sprout over this any day. And will be, because I put my new Samovar order in, finally. Doing so knocked off a healthy portion of my shopping list. Whee!

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 3 min, 0 sec
takgoti

Whee, indeed!

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76
4843 tasting notes

Enjoying a cup of this right now. This came in the Gourmet Tea Collection Gift Set so it’s the bagged version – but it’s still quite good. It over-steeped (by about twice the amount of time it should have) and it is not bitter. It tastes a little grassier than it normally would, but, it is still quite drinkable.

A very calming, relaxing sort of tea. Nice.

Tea for Me Please - Nicole Wilson

I have these at work and they’re awesome. I love that they’re still drinkable if I don’t have time to pull the bag :)

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31 tasting notes

I thought I have reviewed this tea before. Apparently not. Unfortunately I did not approach this tea with the goal of reviewing it or sharing my thoughts.

If that is what you are reading this for, go ahead and skip this note. It is not going to hurt my feelings. There is nothing of some significant value here. Seriously. For real, I am not even going to give a rating! That will come later.

I had it with the goal of drinking some warm tea. I am feeling quite sick today, and had a higher than normal desire to drink something warm, and just warm water did not seem very appealing. The desire probably has something to do with the fact that my throat hurts. As a result I had 4 cups of tea (hint: it was this one) over the past hour or so.

I also tried to avoid/minimise caffeine so I could go to sleep earlier and hopefully recover from whatever I have faster. So, I did not drink the first infusion, since I have heard that most of the caffeine is in the first infusion, and any caffeine is seriously diminished after that. Obviously I have not done a study on this to confirm.

The second and third were both made with the recommended steep time and temperature (see preparation details). More so due to the fact that my TriniTEA goes up to 7 minutes…

Although my nose is running (so I cannot really smell), and my throat is sore (which will prevent me from tasting it normally), I can say that the second infusion was better than the third. The third one seemed stronger than the second. Or maybe I am just going insane too. We will see. We will see.

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 7 min, 0 sec
takgoti

Bah, I thought that had plenty of content in it. Though, I think my definition of content is different from what others may be. Anyhow, hope you’re feeling better soon.

I also wanted to gank this yet again from Carolyn – it’s something she linked to regarding de-caffeinating tea.
http://chadao.blogspot.com/2008/02/caffeine-and-tea-myth-and-reality.html

jlandsborough

Thanks for that link!

Looks like I should either do more/longer infusions, or stick with Tisanes for late at night from now on.

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79
38 tasting notes

I liked this tea a lot. It was light and smooth. Satisfying! Though I haven’t experimented with any other brands of Silver Needle to compare it to.

CHAroma

Teavivre has an excellent Silver Needle that is very affordable. Then again, all their teas are delicious and affordable, haha!

Dhart1214

Thank you so much for the recommendation! I really mean that. At this point in my tea journey it has been a lot of hit and miss. I just tried the Siver Needle from The Persimmon Tree and it tasted … Old!
Thanks again!

CHAroma

No problem. I actually have a lot of Teavivre samples if you want to try some for free. Send me a PM if interested. I think I’m out of the Silver Needle though, but I have a lot of their other teas.

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75
161 tasting notes

Light and mildly grassy. I can understand those who say that this tastes buttery to them. I’m not talking about a stick of butter here, but it is a little creamy and has depth. Not an everyday tea for me…but then again, I think I’m on a black tea kick right now.

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95
32 tasting notes

Enjoyed with my sister at the Radiance tea house in New Tork

Jason

Do they serve Adagio teas at Radiance? I love that tea house, so classy.

TeaEqualsBliss

Congrats on winning! That’s awesome and I am soooooo jealous! LOL

slygirl

I love Radiance too. Wished I lived in NY so I can go all the time :)

cultureflip

Never been to New Tork. Is it nice?

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50
76 tasting notes

So. Tired.

Running on something like four hours of sleep, just getting home after a tiring day at work, and I’m faced with an important question: Do I want to dive right into a long afternoon nap, or brew up some tea?

A few minutes later I’m yelling at these leaves. SINK, I SAY, SINK! Mashing them down into the water with the edge of the gaiwan lid. I forget these incredibly light and fluffy teas have a hard time actually sitting in the water to steep— they’d much rather float. It looks like tons of little asparagus stems floating in the tiny cup. They’re very cute. Trying not to fall asleep in it.

Picked this tea because I organized all my tea the other day and am making an effort to use up the teas that I just have little bits of, trying to narrow my selection a bit. I had a little more than enough for one session of this. So I decided it would just be a stronger session. And what the heck else was I going to do with a single gram of tea, anyway.

Since it was the bottom of the tin though, it was full of lots of little leaf bits, which were fun to watch swirl around in the bottom of the teacup. It’s like confetti. The leaves keep sticking inside the lid of that gaiwan too. I am so delusional-ly tired I find this very amusing.

Maybe I should have just gone to bed. But this tea is okay, if a wee bitter. It kinda irritates the back of my throat. Or maybe there’s just a bit of the leaf caught back there. But it’s warm and comforting and delicate. I find myself suddenly craving pears, and feta cheese. I don’t know why. I suppose there is a bit of a pear note to this tea. But then it’s also lightly vegetal, like… a pear salad. Yes, that’s it. But it still needs feta.

…I really think I should just go nap now before I come up with an even sillier interpretation.

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