Organic White Peony (Bai Mu Dan) Tea

A sample from Angel at Teavivre. The first thing that struck me about this tea was how green the leaves are. I’ve had quite a few white peony teas where the leaves have been black or close to it — these are a pale spring green, very fresh looking! There are a high proportion of downy white buds, and some leaves and twigs (some of them also slightly downy!) The scent is quite heavily floral, but sweet and delicately hay-like as well. I’m a fan of white teas in general, and I’m really looking forward to giving this one a taste!

I gave 2 tsp of leaves about 2.5 minutes in cooled water (about 170). The resulting liquor is a medium yellow-gold, and smells sweet and floral. To taste, it’s as wonderful as I’d hoped. It’s not as heavily floral as the scent would suggest, but there is a floral, almost orchid-like, note to the flavour. It’s naturally sweet, although not excessively so — it’s the sweetness of flowers on a summer day, straw, or spring grass. The sip ends on a slightly powdery note, with a hint of dryness.

As white peony teas go, this is definitely one of the better ones I’ve tried. I love how green the leaves are, and how delicate yet multi-layered and complex the overall flavour is. Fantastic!

A wonderful scent of flowers escaped the canister as I pulled loose the lid. That scent translated well into the steeped tea as the leaves bloomed and swelled in the swirling scented water.

Pale golden liquor filled the cup as i poured the first cup. The flavor was light and flowery, no bitterness or astringency, no malt or yeast, but sweet and full in the mouth, a short finish the didn’t linger on the palate, but that’s not a bad thing.

As I had eaten the last of my tea cookies this morning with my Irish Breakfast brew, I drank this one without the benefit of residual sweetness in the mouth; it was still a wonderful drink, calming and soothing on this rare cold and rainy day in southern California.

Water: 8oz at 196 degrees

Leaves: green fuzzy leaves

Steep: 2m

Aroma: floral

Color: light yellow

Taste: It’s been quite a while since I made any tea,during that time I’ve experimented with coffee Starbucks VIA-Ice Coffee to be exact. So i went with this tea to get back into the swing of brewing. I really enjoyed this tea it was very smooth and had a light floral aroma. I’m sipping on it now as I prepare to watch my favorite anime of the moment Shingeki no Kyojin.

Big beautiful leaves spilled out of a sample package from TeaVivre, and they’re so pretty! Brewed according to directions (2-3 tsp per 8oz water), I’m getting a floral taste at first, and then a pine needle crispness on the tongue. I quite enjoy this, and wonder why I still buy flavoured white teas when I can drink this; delicious and pure.

3 steeps in, and my headache is starting to disappear. Thumbs up!