Organic Nonpareil Silver Needle White Tea (Bai Hao Yin Zhen)

Tea type
White Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Celery, Fruity, Melon, Floral, Smooth, Sweet, Cucumber, Peas, Cantaloupe, Cranberry, Flowers, Grass, Hay, Lemon, Lime, Wood, Cedar, Cream, Corn Husk, Nuts, Honey, Pepper
Sold in
Loose Leaf
Caffeine
Low
Certification
Organic
Edit tea info Last updated by TeaVivre
Average preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 1 min, 45 sec 5 g 7 oz / 205 ml

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41 Own it Own it

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105 Tasting Notes View all

  • “Same tea, new note. I added the rest of the sample. This is the last of one of the first teas I received from Teavivre. So sip down! This is still so fresh and clean. Along with the melon and...” Read full tasting note
    91
  • “I guess because of having to read about silver needle so much lately, I really started wanting some again. And like I said last time I broke out the Teavivre samples I need to a) drink the latest...” Read full tasting note
  • “Again, I am brewing this in my gongfu pot. I did 6 steeps:rinse,45s,1m,1m30s,1m45s,2m20s,3m The same notes come out as western brewing. Floral, slightly sweet, grass/hay, and that organic...” Read full tasting note
    93
  • “Hmm, have I never reviewed this? It seems unlikely, but there are no reviews to be found by me so I guess not. In that case I apologize to Teavivre for taking so long to get around to reviewing...” Read full tasting note
    86

From Teavivre

Origin: Fuding, Fujian, China

Ingredients: Tea buds covered in white hairs

Taste: A subtle, slightly flowery, sweet, lingering taste

Brew: 2-3 teaspoons for 8oz of water. Brew at 176 ºF (80 ºC) for 1 to 2 minutes (exact time depends on your taste – a longer time will give the tea a stronger taste and color)

Health Benefits: Silver Needle White Tea gives you the greatest health benefits of all White Tea’s. Composed of only unopened, fresh leaf buds, none of the beneficial antioxidants and minerals in this tea have yet had a chance to used by the plant to convert to chlorophyll or other parts of an opened leaf’s structure. As a result TeaVivre’s Silver Needle tea has the highest quantity of beneficial ingredients.

Certifications: The particular Organic Silver Needle White Tea (Bai Hao Yin Zhen) that TeaVivre is selling, is guaranteed to be organically grown and produced, independently verified to meet USDA, EU, JAS organic certifications.

About Teavivre View company

Company description not available.

105 Tasting Notes

90
250 tasting notes

Backlog. Also, really tired. This was my tea for the weekend, seeing as I didn’t have any rooibos to celebrate, and I also didn’t have any tea that could be considered “blue.” Regardless, it was very pleasant, nice and flowery, and great for quenching your thirst (It was annoyingly hot and murderously humid in Northern Virginia). I’m only half done with the sample I got from Teavivre, and I’m certainly glad that I have a lot more of it.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 1 min, 0 sec

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97
377 tasting notes

New Years Eve consisted of tea, friends, and good food. This is where my drinking for the night started. I have not been a huge fan of white tea. It’s been week. Done something to my stomach. Having this with kielbasa with kraut, pigs in a blanket, and homemade mashed potatoes…..with heavy whipping cream. Yum. A light yellow liquor. A little smell and taste of hay. As I’m continuing to enjoy this tea a little more like like almonds. Raw almonds. Un-roasted. I think this is the best white tea that I have tried so far. This one would make me add more white tea to the cupboard.

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88
326 tasting notes

Tea sample provided by Teavivre for review
Follow up to my last tasting note on this tea

Prepared this in my gaiwan, because the company website mentions you can steep this 5-6 times. So that is usually my tea vessel of choice when I resteep that much.

Surprisingly all of the steeps were very tasty and even the sixth steep had good character. Up’d my rating for this because I’ve grown to appreciate and love it even more.

100ml gaiwan, 1 packet (5g), 6 steeps (rinse, 1 minute for the first two steeps, then +1 min for resteeps)

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 1 min, 0 sec

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97
294 tasting notes

This tea has me mystified. The first steeping was very delicate. I followed the directions for a 1-2 minute steep and let it go for 2 minutes. I used the whole sample bag. The tea is visually stunning and very fresh as it seems all of Teavivre products are. I somehow expected this tea to weaken after 2 or 3 steeps. It did not. It got better. It got to the point where I was leaving it to steep in the Gaiwan for 5 or more minutes. Each different timing yielded a cup of wonder and enjoyment. My experience with white tea is limited. What I do know is what I love. I loved this. I love the delicate flavor and the way that this tea made me feel. This was tonights late night tea. I wonder how it would be in the afternoon? Also I noticed on the expiration it says “permanent preservation”. Interesting. This is another tea that I will be purchasing.

Jim Marks

Silver needle and “peony” white teas are just fantastic for providing long series of steeps.

Charles Thomas Draper

I was never of fan of white tea until I tried this….

Jim Marks

The trouble I find is that so much white tea gets used for flavors and blends. But if you can find unadulterated needles, or peony (bai mudan), they have a lot to offer.

I prefer peony to needles, myself, but both have their place.

Charles Thomas Draper

It would be a sin to flavor this tea…

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80
15 tasting notes

Thank you Teavivre for this incredible sample!

Dry this tea smells beautiful. Like fresh cut hay on a summer day!

Brewed this tea tastes incredible. This is my second white tea I’ve ever had and I must say I’m extremely impressed. This tea gives me an immediate floral note with a deep and rich honey aftertaste. I can also taste a distinct note of hay which is very neat as I’ve NEVER had that note in a tea before. Can’t wait to see what other notes I taste in further steepings!

All in all, this is a great white tea, and I can recommend it if you like grassy, hay like notes in tea!

Preparation
160 °F / 71 °C 0 min, 30 sec

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88
525 tasting notes

I finally got around to sampling this from Teavivre. Sorry it took me so ling. :( this tea is just lovely to look at. It’s cute and furry. I almost felt like I was drowning little fuzzy animals in hot water as I brewed my cup. :( fortunately its just dried leaves I’m drowning! Delicious dried leaves!

The tea is light yellow smells softly floral and tender green grass. Like a perfect spring day. It’s good to remind oneself such days exist on miserable rainy cold days like this one. I’m also getting some summer squash. Second steep went a bit too long but there’s no bitterness. This tea is truly lovely. If teas belonged to a season, this would go with spring. Drinking this tea now is like having a perfect summer tomato in the middle of winter. This tea is out of its rightful time. To get the proper feel of fall, I’ll have to drink some darker oolongs later. :)

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92
289 tasting notes

Finishing up my sample of this from Teavivre. It smells so good! I grew up across the road from a farm where they bred and raised Percheron horses; when we mowed our lawn we used to bag it and run over to the fence and throw it over for the horses. They loved that stuff, and we reveled in being so close to them! This tea smells like the fresh mown hay. And if this is how hay and grass tastes to horses I see why they like it! :)
The first time I drank this I didn’t pick up on the saltiness as much; now it’s apparent to me, especially in the aftertaste. Numm.

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97
251 tasting notes

This morning I had the last of this beautiful white and I enjoyed it just as much now as I did before. I will need to order more of this, though I keep telling myself I need to stop falling in love with some of the more pricey teas. I just recently picked-up a larger size of David’s Gyokuro Yamashiro and I told myself that then, too. :)

Anyhow, short re-steeps are lovely with this gorgeous Silver Needle so I should be able to enjoy it quite a bit longer today. Subtle, sweet, and fragrant. What’s not to love?

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 1 min, 30 sec
JustJames

i do not have a lot of experience with white tea. i do the same thin though…. i have expensive taste!

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61
149 tasting notes

White teas, and silver needle in particular, are always a struggle for me. They remain fresh for such a short period of time, and afterwards the flavor profiles just completely deteriorate.

All I can taste is stale hay. Maybe a hit of a daisy…but really not worth the money.

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 2 min, 0 sec
gmathis

White tea, 95% of the time, just doesn’t get my attention.

SFTGFOP

^ agreed. I had one though that completely changed my perception of them, so I probably hold them all to an un-fair standard.

I’ve also had some good silver needle teas from Sri Lanka. Those were a treat! I could taste notes of tropical fruits.
AnnaEA nods * whites have to be super fresh.
SFTGFOP

:/ I feel bad about a bad review for “freshness” as it is so late after harvest. Except that I had a pretty delicious silver needle from Camellia Sinensis a couple weeks ago that was very nice.

Teavivre’s packaging seems to be so focused on freshness, that I guess it could either be their warehouse or the tea grower.

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30 tasting notes

My window is open and there’s a cool breeze trickling over the music that softly plays in the background (City and Colour). The sun has set and the darkness is like a worn-in hoodie or sweatshirt you wear because you like the way it feels as it hugs you when no one else will. There is a couple walking down the street. I can hear their sneakers scrape on the pavement and the occasional laugh and murmurs of conversation. A man and an woman. Just taking a walk together at night. So beautiful. It’s one of those nights you take for granted. The simplicity of it. The pureness of it.

It’s over between us. It hurts. We’re trying to be friends but I think it’s harder for me than it is for her. “This too shall pass” and all that but. Man. It just hurts sometimes.

So. That’s where I am drinking this tea. I said on my first ever Steepster review that SN is a tea to be enjoyed alone and thought about. I still stand by that. There’s something intimate about Silver Needle, isn’t there? The untouched, unaltered, pure state of the leaves. White tea, more than any other, to me, is the best friend of the tea world. Like a shoulder to cry on or a friend to listen to you complain or to just sit in silence with you, SN is the solitary tea drinker’s tea. A rainy day tea. A blanket and book tea. A contemplate existence tea. A write tea reviews at night with City and Colour playing in the background trying to get your mind off her tea.

Sigh. Tea me.

I’ll just go out and say it: this is one of the best Silver Needles I’ve ever had. And I’m not saying that based off limited experience with SN’s. I may have acquired 30+ teas on my shelf but I drink SN the most. Its my second favorite tea of all-time (Dragonwell holds that honor).

The liquor is pale and clean. A quiet, golden tint; a flawless hue of simplicity. There’s a calm cedar-like woodiness, almost like whole-grain bread that peaks its head through the light veil of sweetness. There’s the hay-like taste. There’s the tangy deepness. There’s even a little spark of spice on the second infusion. There’s the smile on my face.

I have found my definitive Silver Needle. If you want to experience what white tea truly is and can be in it’s purest form, buy Teavivre’s Organic Silver Needle. This is absolutely fantastic.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 1 min, 30 sec
Sil

hmmm i may need to try this one with my next order

TheTeaFairy

I happen to read your review tonight, and it is bringing me to tears, cause at this very moment, I know exactly how you feel… thank you for these beautiful words.
(and City and Colour just adds to the mood)

Bonnie

I think of alpine pools of water flowing over granite. ICY! Pure and clean. Pine trees reaching fingers upward to the heaven’s and a welcome solitude. May your heart heal with love from many strangers and friends…good tea and great silver needle.

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