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“Last tasting note of the day…I can’t take anymore. I feel like my eyeballs are floating and I’ve got quite the caffeine buzz going on causing a slight headache. I can’t remember the last time I...” Read full tasting note
“Another tea in my Shang sampler, I did not really know what to expect from a Pao Blossom but am open to new things. :) I felt the leaf, when dry, smelled very much like a grapefruit or some kind of...” Read full tasting note
“Green and white teas are teas that belong to spring and summer. I just don’t feel like drinking them much during the colder months of the year. Funnily enough, the reverse is not true for blacks...” Read full tasting note
“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...” Read full tasting note
Pao Blossom White Tea’s taste could be described as the more radiant and extraordinary sister of Jasmine Tea.
Cultivated on only 3-5 square miles of land in the world, the rare Pao blossom is a relative of the grapefruit, used medicinally in China to lower blood pressure and clean impurities away from the body.
Our artesian tea infuses Pao blossoms four times with smooth white tea to create a remarkable floral flavor unlike any tea. Shang Tea is the sole producer and only company to sell Pao Blossom Tea in the world.
http://www.shangtea.com/Pao-Blossom-White
Company description not available.
Last tasting note of the day…I can’t take anymore. I feel like my eyeballs are floating and I’ve got quite the caffeine buzz going on causing a slight headache. I can’t remember the last time I drank so many different teas in one day and each tea is being brewed at least 2-3 times. Tea drunk perhaps?
This one intrigued me because it supposedly resembles jasmine. Mmm, jasmine. The dry leaves appear to be mostly curled dark green leaves with some white leaves mixed in. The dry smell took me a while to place. It smells like the black licorice candies you get for Halloween. That put me off a little because I don’t like licorice. The wet leaves smelled like that candy licorice, some sort of citrus note, floral notes and a vegetal note hiding in the corner.
Taste was floral, not jasmine, a lot softer than jasmine, definitely not soapy. There were hints of sweet citrus and grapes and a tingling sensation on the tip of the tongue in the aftertaste. The licorice taste was still there but it wasn’t that icky sticky sweetness in the back of the throat. I didn’t care for it but it wasn’t entirely unpleasant.
The one thing I really noticed about this tea is that it is really calming. I’ve been drinking so much tea that the caffeine is really making me twitchy and giving me a headache. This tea is calming me down even though I’m still very alert and my headache has calmed down to barely noticeable. A nice bonus.
I would rate this tea a bit higher, but that candy licorice is slightly off-putting to me. It’s the only thing I have bad to say about this tea. Other than that it is wonderful.
Another tea in my Shang sampler, I did not really know what to expect from a Pao Blossom but am open to new things. :)
I felt the leaf, when dry, smelled very much like a grapefruit or some kind of citrus fruits but that seemed to be where the comparison ended. I do understand why folks may think this is like a jasmine tea since it has a very floral element but it seems less strong than a jasmine in my opinion. I am, however wishing for a tad less flowers…
I steeped my little 3g sample in the gaiwan and have enjoyed drinking this very much. I tried to keep the temperature of my water very low as well, around 170 – 180 F. This seems to be so much a very relaxing and meditative tea and has a very delicate flavor. I really just want to get more so I can keep experimenting with it, so that fact alone will give it a fairly high rating in my book… It resteeps very well without any loss of flavor but it is a very delicate creature and I’m trying to treat it as such.
Green and white teas are teas that belong to spring and summer. I just don’t feel like drinking them much during the colder months of the year. Funnily enough, the reverse is not true for blacks and similar. I can drink those all year around. Anyway, it’s summerly outside and I felt like something sweet and refreshing, but also tea.
Therefore we turn towards these summer-teas, and I just happen to have a sample of this one kicking about in the Bits’n’Bops Basket. I’ve mentioned before that I’ve only ever had good experiences with the samples I’ve had the good fortune to try from this company. Seeing that the lowest amount of points given to this one so far is 83, I suspect I’m in for yet another one of those success-stories.
In spite of the fact that I’m not usually a very big fan of flower scented teas. Flowers so easily take on a soapy quality for me, a very basic and dusty sort of flavour which I don’t find particularly pleasant. Like getting shampoo in one’s mouth while showering. Especially jasmine has a tendency to do this for me.
I’ve never had anything with pao blossoms before, and I’m a little concerned about them being compared somewhat to jasmine in the description. I don’t care much for jasmine, so I’m not sure I’d care for some sort of super-jasmine-y flower either. Mentions of grapefruit, however, calms me down a bit again.
It is indeed very aromatic, rather too much for my taste. I’m not really a flower person in anyway. They’re nice to look at and all, but I don’t much care for the scent. Not just in tea, but in real flowers as well. It becomes too heavy too easily. There are even a certain kind of potted plants which I have banned from the house on account of them being stinky (little pink/purple flowers, large, hairy, dark green leaves). I haven’t the foggiest what it’s called but the boyfriend knew which one I meant and thankfully agreed with me on that one.
So yeah. I’ve got a cup of tea on my desk and it’s positively stinking up my room. Having stood there for a few minutes, the worst of the floral odoeur has wafted off, and I have to put my nose down to the cup in order to smell it. It’s much more pleasant now! Can’t say what it smells like though. It smells like flowers. I can’t find any notes of the actual tea in the aroma. If they are there, they are concealed underneath the flowers.
The flavour is not even remotely as offensive as the smell. To my vast surprise, even with my previous good experiences of this company, I find it’s actually really nice. It’s only slightly basic and dusty floral in flavour. Very very slightly, and yes, there really is a good note of grapefruit. I love grapefruit. I eat one nearly every day. Especially the aftertaste is strong on grapefruit.
It’s hard for me to tell how much of the white tea I’m getting through the flavour. There’s definitely tea in there, but beyond that I can’t really tell. I don’t think I’m experienced enough in white teas for that.
Yet another hit from Shang tea. I’m giving it around 95 points to begin with, but I’m deducting some for the fact that I found the strong aroma so unpleasant. I believe that’s fair.
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.
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!
This Pao Blossom is one tea which doesn’t gain much (if anything) from a high tea-to-water ratio. I speak from experience. My first infusion was one minute, much too long for 3.5gm tea to 4oz water, which was a mistake. In all, I steeped it half a dozen times, with florality to spare every time. I think it has something to do with the height of the fragrance note of this flower, by which I mean it resonates at a higher frequency. Aaaah, tea, flowers, and music! To me, pao flower resembles jasmine, but is even more ethereal. It is hard to believe that this tea was scented by mingling with blossoms; I would easier believe that it was sprayed with a pure, organic essential oil from the blossoms … the fragrance is so very strong and/or powerful! I’m considering mixing the tea 50/50 with Shang’s White Peony King, to have more tea with my flowers, and to make it go farther, but first I’ll mix a small sample to see if the ratio is good. This is coming from me, who adores floral teas! The flower is truly exquisite, and I wish everyone could experience it!
Tea #3 in my white tea sampler from Shang. This time it was a white that was blended with pao blossoms. I’m not quite sure what a pao is; the only information I turned up was that it was like grapefruit. Doesn’t taste like it, though. This white had the typical requisite grape and butter lean, but with a jasmine/mint profile due to the added botanicals. The overall effect was quite pleasant.
This tea has an amazing, subtle delicacy — sort of like angelic white peony. Have never had anything quite like it. If you like scented teas, such as jasmine, this pao blossom white peony is like an ethereal version of such teas — like being transported to a higher plane. I gave some to a woman who works in my building and she said it cured her of a bunch of physical ailments!
Without question – this is my favorite tea from Shang. Not only is it delightful in scent and flavor – you actually FEEL better after drinking it. It can help lower your blood pressure! That’s just one of the many benefits of the pao blossom. I can’t describe how much I love this tea. I’ve always loved tea but this tea made me a daily drinker. Don’t over steep it! It’s a quick brew!
I’m not sure if I should do another note for Phoenix Herb Co. ‘cause that’s where I bought this, but the source is the same.
This is by far one of the best scented white teas I’ve had. It works wonders when shortly steeped and gives of a sweet, light and fragrant flavor. It is so naturally sweet it reminds me of valentines day sweet hearts. The only other things I can compare the taste to are oranges on cucumbers and flowers. This was true western or gong fu, but a very LIGHT brew overall. I would keep the grammage to 3 grams and not exceed a minute western or 30 sec gong fu.
My only complaint is the high price because I would drink this often. The fact that you do not want to use too many leaves for a cuppa staves off some cost along with re-usability, but it personally sucks that quality kicks quantities ass so hard.
For me, it is perfect because it is sweet, floral, creamy, and candy like, but other people might be overwhelmed with how strong this tea is. It might remind them of potpourri, or the citrus florals might be excessive. It was powerful enough for me to only have it on occasion, not every day. Let’s say three times a week if money were no object. The white tea though has enough nuance to not make snobs bored, however.
Know that I am resisting the urge to buy quantities more of this tea. Curse you expenses!
Backlog. Pretty sure this also came from the Midwest Tea Fest.
I was a little unsure about it, but I do really like citrus.
Dry leaf smells vaguely citrus.
Steeped westren for 1.5 min at 195F.
Slightly sweet, citrus. I liked it more than I thought I would. Especially as the last citrus scented tea I had from Shang I hated – unrelentingly bitter.
Flavors: Citrus, Sweet
The calming effect may be from the theanine in the tea; I primarily think of green teas as having lots of theanine, but my understanding is some teas in other classes—especially the teas that are largely composed of buds—can also have lots of theanine.
Drinking too much caffeine gives me migraines… I am definitely trying to cut back. I have heard if you steep your leaves more than once, the other infusions will contain less caffeine. :)
Whites have the most caffeine anyway don’t they?
I have personally not seen an accurate and straightforward answer to the ‘caffeine’ question. My understanding is that are primarily three things affect the caffeine in the tea liquor (there seems to be number of minor ones, as well). 1) The number of buds in the dry tea, as buds are purported to have the most caffeine. 2) Steeping time: the longer the steep, the more caffeine that is extracted. 3) Steeping temperature: here is a great graph (from Den’s Teas website) that show how the hotter the temperature, the more caffeine that’s extracted http://www.denstea.com/perfect_brewing.html (You may have to scroll down to see the graph).
White teas white teas are traditionally bud-only teas, but these days, some of the lower-graded white teas have more leaves than buds. They are often brewed at temperatures lower then with the other classes of Tea; they are often steeped for shorter on longer that other classes of tea, depending on the class. I often drink white tea in the evening (steeped about 160-170F, for 2 – 5 minutes) and have never had a hard time falling asleep. I am susceptible to caffeine however, and have had problems sleeping after drinking black teas in the evening. So, it all depends on how you brew it, and how your body reacts to it, as far as I see it.
I always heard white teas had the least amount of caffeine and black teas had the most…
As I understand it, all types have the same amount of caffeine. Black tea just tends to release it quicker, because the leaves are broken into smaller pieces. So the leaves have the same concentration but a cup of black will have a higher concentration than a cup of white.
the whole caffeine issue confuses me because there is so much conflicting data out there. All I know is that I drank a lot more than I usually do and I certainly felt the effects!
Determining wow much caffeine is actually in that cup you’re drinking does indeed seem to be complex. As Angrboda brought up, and as I understand it, the ratio of surface area to the weight of tea also pays a part. The more broken the dry tea is, the more surface area there is (by weight), thus the faster (and perhaps easier) it is for the water to penetrate into the leaf.
btw, from what I have read, I don’t think the method of processing (i.e. whether a leaf is processed into green, or black or white, etc,)
has a dramatic effect on the amount of caffeine that particular leaf has (although, theoretically, the shape of it may determine how quickly it releases caffeine into your cup).
Invader Zim: If the teas you drank were composed primarily of ‘buds’, and since you drank lots of them, then I can understand why you felt the effects.
@SimpliciTEA, I think you’re spot on with your caffeine in tea research. I’ve done my own research and come up with the same conclusions.
Thanks, CHAroma. I always appreciate hearing about the conclusions of others—whether they are the same or different than my own (especially when they’re based on ‘scientific research’—using that word loosely here).
Most of the teas were a mix of big peony leaves and buds.