We don't know when or if this item will be available.
“Hubby brought home a couple of vanilla beans for us to play with. I snipped off a few slivers into a second steep of this. Even at Steep 2, the honeysuckle is so strong, I’m not sure I was getting...” Read full tasting note
“I got a sample size of this with a very small order I placed with Shang. Actually I ordered one ounce of one kind of tea and several samplers of others. This tea smells like honeysuckle through and...” Read full tasting note
“I’ve never had honeysuckle in tea before so I wasn’t too sure what to expect. Steeped at around 175 F for 2 minutes the liquor of this tea is a lovely golden yellow color. The aroma of the...” Read full tasting note
“So the boyfriend opted for the black currant bai mu dan from 52teas, but I wanted something I hadn’t tried before. I took his lead on the white though, and started looking at what I had. This is...” Read full tasting note
Note: This Tea is 100% Organic
Smooth and soothing, Honeysuckle White Tea blends 30% Honeysuckle blossoms and 70% White Peony Tea for a round and enchanting cup. This combination is not only beautiful and delicious, it contains wonderful healthful qualities.
In China, there are over 100 species of wild Honeysuckle. Highly prized for its medicinal value, Honeysuckle is used in China and Europe to cool the body to alleviate headaches, sooth sore throats, and is considered to have anti-inflammatory properties.
http://www.shangtea.com/Honeysuckle-White
Company description not available.
Hubby brought home a couple of vanilla beans for us to play with. I snipped off a few slivers into a second steep of this.
Even at Steep 2, the honeysuckle is so strong, I’m not sure I was getting any of the vanilla. I think can steep this same batch of leaves well into tomorrow without putting a dent in the strength.
P.S. Have any of you seen the lid to my Finum brew basket that mysteriously disappeared from my kitchen counter? It’s green.
I got a sample size of this with a very small order I placed with Shang. Actually I ordered one ounce of one kind of tea and several samplers of others. This tea smells like honeysuckle through and through. I grew up around many honeysuckle bushes and always enjoyed picking the flowers and sucking out the juices. Actually I believe we would pull the stamen from the flower – I don’t know the actual word but I know how we did it lol. Honeysuckle has a very sweet flavor sort of like honey, but not, when you do this.
This tea is relaxing, lovely, scented, and buttery. There is almost this milky mouthfeel to it.
Its an enchanting tea.
The color is gorgeous!
A very light vegetal flavor comes out in the after taste.
Slightly nutty.
The vegetal flavor mixed with the buttery milky flavor remind me of buttered green beans. Yes I put butter on my green beans, don’t you?
This tea is a sure shot for my shopping list!
Shang tea is actually only about an hour or so from my home and I hope to be able to drop in there soon to visit and sample more of their teas but for now I have several wonderful samples here to try and this one to resteep many times! :)
Happy dance!
Ha! I used to do that too. My mom had one in her yard. Poor thing was stripped pretty fast.
Ah… I recall I really liked this one too! :)
A lot of people have been talking about honeysuckle lately. I’m completely unfamiliar with it!! So curious :)
I found an image for you Krystaleyn. This is the flower I remember from my mom’s yard.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://4.bp.blogspot.com/k12KFNQwzYo/TG-WVTHRt8I/AAAAAAAACRI/dAlvd18f1Ew/s1600/honeysuckle.jpg&imgrefurl=http://winerecipes.blogspot.com/2008/04/honeysuckle-wine.html&h=480&w=640&sz=42&tbnid=LHH2ZnlLd9fgM:&tbnh=92&tbnw=122&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhoneysuckle%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=honeysuckle&docid=RiPAJnXZ3RIvzM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=n4KXT7m7I4WziQL2it3PDw&sqi=2&ved=0CFoQ9QEwBA&dur=75
Hmm that link goes on forever, doesn’t it?
I think she means http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_k12KFNQwzYo/TG-WVTHRt8I/AAAAAAAACRI/dAlvd18f1Ew/s1600/honeysuckle.jpg
;)
Although it really does amuse me what happened up there. It’s like the link is trying to run away before you can click on it. NO! NOT AGAIN! AAAAAAHHHH.
Screenshotted for Jason ;)
LOL!!!
Clicked link – our honeysuckles were yellow those are pretty white ones!
Clicked link – our honeysuckles were yellow those are pretty white ones!
It was a pretty bush. Sadly only one bush in the yard or I could have had much more honeysuckle!
Bahahahaha @ the link issues. And thanks! So you pull out the stamens and what, suck on them? Does breaking them off cause the excretion of a tasty fluid?
Yes when you pull them out – I guess it is the stamen .. its those things poking out from the middle of the flower – there will be juicy stuff clinging to them and you lick them off! :)
I used to do that with those little white flowers that pop up on the grass!! no not dandelions. The white ones where you can pull out the tubes
This tea sounds amazing! I too remember hunting for honeysuckles in my neighborhood. The first time I didn’t know how to properly extract the honey so I had to learn from my brother a few times. I need to get my hands on this tea, it would be like a trip down memory lane!
We did the same thing but with petunias! My dad taught me how. You gently tug the flower out of its sepals and hold the flower base to your lips like you are playing a tiny trumpet, and give a little sip. There is a drop of nectar beaded at the base of the pistil. Sweet! I should try it with my jasmine! It is a wall of blooms right now!
funny….I have had many white teas that resemble the ‘honey suckle’ flavor profile, even without any additional flavors or additives..but I totally gel with your memories of sucking on honeysuckle, and then there is the difference bewteen the white and the cadmium yellow flowers..my childhood (and to this day) is full of plant foraging like that…
Shang Tea has some of the best white teas I’ve ever tried.
teawade I love a tea that brings back memories! :)
ashmanra did you also make dolls out of flowers? I don’t know if they were petunias or not – I think they were – my grandmother would do that with us.
Indigo – are you talking about clover flowers? They looked like white puff balls on top of a tube stem? You could make necklaces and bracelets out of them if you tied the stems together! :)
Clover flowers are good too!
Up until last night’s discussion, I thought clover flowers WERE honeysuckle. How about that?
Azzrian: it wasn’t until I was married that my mother-in-law showed me how to make dancing girl dolls out of Maypops, also called Passionflower!
Aweee what a sweet thing for her to show you! :)
So I guess I had a crappy childhood and not once sucked anything out of a flower!! Boo to that!
I’ve never had honeysuckle in tea before so I wasn’t too sure what to expect.
Steeped at around 175 F for 2 minutes the liquor of this tea is a lovely golden yellow color. The aroma of the honeysuckle is not too strong and the flavor complements the white peony tea quite nicely. Quite a lovely combination really… This is slightly nutty and sweet and would be nice for a mood booster and pick me up. It could be my imagination but I feel like this is soothing my frazzled nerves a bit. I look forward to trying more of my teas from Shang (I got one of their little tea samplers).
So the boyfriend opted for the black currant bai mu dan from 52teas, but I wanted something I hadn’t tried before. I took his lead on the white though, and started looking at what I had. This is one of those samples that I don’t recall who sent to me.
Two things gives me high expectations.
1. As has been previously established, it is in my opinion nearly impossible for Shang Tea to do anything wrong. Ever. I have loved everything I’ve tried from them, even things I did not expect to love.
2. Honeysuckle. I don’t actually know anything about this or what it tastes like, but it’s got such a very attractive name.
I smelled the dry leaf before brewing and was struck by a very rough, earthy, almost grainy note which I can’t imagine could be anything other than the honeysuckle. That’s not really the sort of aroma I would expect from that name, I have to say. It reminded me a bit of sour dough. That’s not really something I find very nice I have to say, so my expectations are taken down a notch. Maybe Shang Tea can make something that doesn’t appeal to me after all.
After steeping, however, the sour dough notes are gone, and the aroma is very sweet and very honeyed. That attractive name there is beginning to show its colours. It’s also quite floral, but not super-perfumed like many flower scented teas are to me, and I can easily pick out the actual tea underneath.
It doesn’t taste like honey. It’s definitely flower-y and it’s got this sort of dusty dry flavour to it. I often get that from flower scented teas, and that’s why I’m not particularly a fan of them. Here’s it’s sort of looming in the background. Not really making itself known, but impossible to overlook. It’s the elephant in the room. Everybody knows it’s there but it’s just not talked about. Maybe it’s even slightly menacing and brooding. (I can’t tell if it’s synesthesia (mine is very mild and spotty) coming in to play here or if I’m just exhibiting a lively imagination)
Apart from that it’s quite sweet indeed, and I suppose that is the bit that has given honeysuckle its name. Although I still don’t think it really tastes of honey. It’s just sweet, but it’s not honey.If the aforementioned is the dark and brooding gentleman in the corner, glaring at the rest of the company, this note would be the lovely ladies having high tea with dainty cups, scones, clotted cream, biscuits, the lot.
There’s something quite Regency-y over this tea, actually.
It’s harder to pick out the actual tea base in the flavour than it was in the aroma. I can’t really say anything about it other than it’s there. Slightly nutty but not really making much of a spectacle of itself.
While this isn’t one I would buy for myself, I will have to see that Shang Tea has still not managed to disappoint me.
Wow… Honeysuckle tea. I think I have to try this! I love honeysuckle! Was Shang Teas able to deliver internationally to you?
Yes, but it was a bit impractical to do so. I asked them about it and then had to write in an email what I would like to buy and send them the appropriate payment via paypal. I couldn’t do it directly from the site.
Hmm… May eventually be worth the hassle… Thanks!
Their stuff definitely is. I say give it a shot at least once. Me, I’m probably going to use the shop as a special treat thing myself. (And if they get enough international custom, perhaps they’ll eventually make it possible to order directly from the site. :) ) Oh, and I also forgot to say that they gave me a shipping fee of about $13 or $14 there abouts.
Mmm. I used to have honeysuckle vines growing outside my house growing up and I’d always suck the nectar from them in the summer. This doesn’t sound quite like it would recreate that memory for me, but I do adore honeysuckle so I’m probably going to have to give it a try (whenever I managed to order from Shang Tea).
Shipping doesn’t seem terrible… Hopefully it will be similar for Ecuador!
Thanks again! : )
Auggy, I have a few shops I never seem to get around to too. I have started making rules for myself and planning ahead where to shop, otherwise I would never get anything new. Any larger multiple-shop spree must contain an untried shop. And if that means saving even Standard orders for later, that’s just tough.
Ninavampi, I hope it will. They sell awesome stuff.
You know, I had forgotten I used to have a similar rule for myself. I had to alternate known vendors with unknown (or unused) when tea ordering. I need to get back to that plan because there are so many tasty sounding teas that I really want to try!
It’s a new one for me. I’ve also go the Finish X Tins And Y Samples First rule. It helps keep the stock down a bit, but mostly it feels like I’m working towards an order, so overspending slightly on it when I get to shop isn’t connected with the same amount of guilt. :)
As in, like from the Regency period?
Backlogging from Sunday.
This was the biggest reason I wanted to try the Shang sampler and I had such huge hopes for this one. Wild honeysuckle grows along the roadside where I grew up and where my parents still live. I still love to walk down the road and to pick it and taste the sweet nectar.
My dad has a convertible and puts the top down when we go out somewhere in the spring and summer and I always bug him to take the back roads so I can smell all the honeysuckle blooming. It grows everywhere, even along the highways. It is one of my favorite things about spring and early summer.
So, I opened the little sampler bag and smelled a slight sweet floral scent. The wet leaves smelled of sweet hay with a floral note. The taste was sweet hay, slightly floral with a nectar note in the aftertaste. It didn’t jump out and say “Hey! It’s me, Honeysuckle!” it was very subtle, I almost had to look for it. It was a light enough floral that had I not been told it was honeysuckle I may not have guessed it was.
I had too high of expectations for this tea to live up to. I was expecting it to be similar to jasmine teas, to be able to scent and taste the floral notes and go “Yes! That is honeysuckle!” to be blown away. Unfortunately this tea is not that for me.
Even though my expectations were way too high for this, after getting past the fact that I was not going to be blown away by honeysuckle, this was a good white tea with a soft floral note added to it. It was more like the tea picked up the floral notes by growing in close proximity than actually being added to the tea, that’s how soft the floral notes are.
Oh jeez. I absolutely adore honeysuckle. I wonder if just a tiny touch of agave would bring out the honeysuckle more? I do not like to put things in my tea, but I randomly experimented with Super Chocolate by Davids Tea and the other flavours that were hiding came alive and danced in my mouth. I only added about 1/8th to 1/4th of a tsp of agave too.
I didn’t think about sweetening it, and the sample was all or nothing size of sample…just dump the whole packet. If I get this again I may have to try sweetening it and see what happens.
Ohh bummer! I am accustomed to larger sample sizes I think, hence my assumption that you would have a cup left to try. =)
Made a pot of this thanks to Teafreak, who traded with me. (How are you guys bolding each other’s names?)
I’m really impressed with the way this looks. It’s like silver needle plus some sort of flat-leafed white tea, and then mixed half and half with dried honeysuckle flowers and buds.
It’s very mellow, even when brewed for a little over three minutes. It has a slightly vegetal taste, and sort of grassy also. It finishes with that white tea aftertaste that’s satisfying and mild. I can’t say that the honeysuckle taste is very strong, but it’s there and I really enjoy it. It’s more in the scent of the tea once it’s brewed. Reminds me of spring!
Bolding: * word * no space between the * and the 1st and last letters of the word/phrase.
What Cofftea said. If you want to know more there’s a thread about formatting here http://steepster.com/discuss/679-formatting-codes (underscore for italics, hyphens for strikethrough…) The rules seem to be a modified version of Textile markup
Thank you!!
The base white tea is Shang’s white peony king which follows the 1 bud and 2 leaves plucking standard
I find this tea to be a great way to ease into the night, it has a smooth mellow flavor with a light taste of honeysuckle combined with the smooth and light overtones of white peony. Great for 5+ steepings
I love honeysuckle. Going to have to take a look at this Shang Tea you’re always reviewing.
Most of my tea is from Shang because he has a shop in Kansas City (where my parents live). It’s pretty cool, he has a 40-acre tea farm in Fujian where he makes some of the best white tea in the world (in my opinion). You should definitely check out his selection!
That’s pretty high praise! This one’s going on the list. Anything in particular you recommend?
I would stick with his white teas, in particular, white peony king and silver needle king. In you like scented white teas, then I would highly recommend his pao blossom white which is phenomenal. His green and black teas are also good, but I wouldn’t say that they are anything special.
Thanks for the advice! I’ll root around for what I’m sure will be the great tea purchase slaughter of 2010.
It also looks like he has a sampler on his website which might be a good way to taste his different teas: http://www.shangtea.com/store/c/10-Tea-Sampler.html
SWEET. Bookmarked it.
This is an unusual white tea blend. In dry form, it smelled like it was blended with jasmine, but when steeped for three minutes, it turns up a beautiful gold liquor. The flavor is…interesting. On the foretaste, it’s like any white tea with a melon/nutty delivery, but then settles on a very soapy/citrusy middle. It reminded me of Lemon Pledge mixed with honey, only…y’know…not poisonous. It also had hints of marshmallow leaf. I liked it quite a bit. Certainly unusual.
I love the secound brewing of this tea, using a 3 minute brew time. It is smooth, naturally sweet, flavorful but light.
The down fall is, I find the first brewing at 4 minutes to be a bit grassy tasting, but sweet.
The third brewing is also quite good at 3 minutes.
Thank you so much Nicole!
I need to brew this again because I did not like it as much as I thought I would. This tea was thick, buttery and savory throughout with a grassy edge that I did not like. The first steep was like buttered corn followed by a rise of florals from the honeysuckle, but the honeysuckle did not have so much honey. Second steep tasted like popcorn butter. I got three more cups that were much the same fluxes of butter and florals. Maybe I’ll be better next time.
I think they must grow legs and walk away. Mine disappeared too :)
I think I need to retry this tea at some point when they get newer stuff in because when I tried it I didn’t get any honeysuckle and was really disappointed that it tasted like a plain white tea.
It’s contrary to every cheapskate fiber in my body to use a whole tablespoon of leaf in a cup … any less, and I don’t think you’d get that honeysuckle buzz. Whoops, another bee joke.
This tea sounds very interesting!
Regarding finum lids, mine always disappear. I really think its some kind of conspiracy… Tony’s are always right where they are supposed to be.
It’s probably with my new black sock that got sucked into a black hole after one wearing.