White Peony (Bai MuDan) Tea

I’m having second thoughts on this tea but it might be my mood and perhaps the time of the night – where this tea is least suitable for. What I am finding after a big hot meal is that this tea doesn’t go well. It’s more for a hot summer day and not on a full stomach because though florally light punched my stomach and I am not feeling well. Could be the food could be the tea. I’m taking a note to self to have this on a sunny afternoon an hour before any meals.

I don’t think I’m ever going to be a white tea person, but this is probably the best plain white tea I’ve tried. It doesn’t have that unpleasant hay flavor that white teas seem prone to, and it’s not at all astringent.

I enjoy white peony in general, and this is no exception. It is fruity and floral, lovely hot but I prefer it cooled. This particular brand of this tea doesn’t stand out to me, but that might be from just enjoying this tea everywhere. I’ve started to find that I notice quality differences more in black tea, which I often dislike.

I ordered this tea from Teavivre, since I didn’t have a single white tea in my cupboard, but was really craving it. My tea arrived on Saturday and was such a happy surprise.
After a day of feeling like I was fighting off a cold on Sunday (I have not been sick in over 2 years, so I have no right to complain, and I think I’ve beaten it off, because I feel almost 100% again this Monday morning) and drinking apple cider vinegar all day, I thought this would taste really nice last night. So, I did this up in my porcelain gaiwan (about 3 grams of tea), using 90C water. I rinsed for 5 seconds, then steeped for 45 seconds (70, 90 second steeps after…). The tea leaves are really beautiful, with their white hairs and delicate structure.
This tea is so lovely! Very light floral, with honey notes and that mouth feel I so desire in whites.
Since it was getting late, I stopped at 3 steeps last night, but have continued on this morning.
This cup in front of me has a honey golden liquor, with sweet floral notes on the tongue, and hints of grass and honey. This cup is like liquid sunshine… I love it.
This is definitely a white tea I’d like to have on hand at all times. :D

Found this as extra from my sample packet with couple others, that made my day so thank you Teavivre.
“My first…” – saga continues as this is my first unflavoured white tea, yay.
Smells like sweet hay and flowers, looks like shrivelled leaves. As white tea is supposed to be. Dry leaves are picked with bud and one to two leaves -method, couple branches can be found. Leaves are greenish-white color, dark and pale greens can be found, most of them are covered with thin white hair.
I used 1dl gaiwan and about 3-5g of tea (I don’t have scale). Liquid color varies from pale yellow to orange-yellow. Wet leaves has brownish-green color and that white hair is no more to be found. Aroma is flowery, sweet hay with grass like scent.
First steep (25s) has that usual sweet hay taste with some grassiness and flowers, color is pale yellow it might have some honey in it. Next steep is more darker color and has more sour and grassy taste in it. Third steep has more hay flavour, hay and grass almost take turns with every steep, all steeps still has that lingering sweet taste. Final steeps start to lose the hay and sour grassy flavours, but more delicate flavours like flower and sweet emerge. Overall I’m pretty pleased with this tea, it’s nicely calming at the evening and suits to cold early winter/autumn.

Sent samples of the Spring harvest of this tea by the generous Teavivre, am clearly ungraciously late in my review.

I admit I have a very hard time with straight white teas, because I don’t find they taste like much. I would even rather prefer a vegetal type of green tea instead.

This one smelled pleasant and haylike in the bag.

Tonight when drinking it. I admit I am surprised to report that I was tasting something slightly haylike, yet still refreshing somehow, and juicy?? Maybe like a tiny hint of peaches or honey.

Nice to see my tastebuds are improving slightly!

I will keep working on my white tea tastes.

Thank you Angel!

Just a newbie to the tea world and what really got me hooked on teas is jasmine green tea. I thought to give this one a try but it’s not really my favorite. The flavors are not as aromatic as the jasmine green tea…but I don’t feel like I know enough about tea to really compare it well. Just wanted to give my two cents. :D

This tea is very mellow, not strong at all. It smells delicious and taste wonderful with a little bit of honey added. Thank you Teavivre.

I’ve tried several White Peony varieties lately, and this is one of the better ones. Thank you, RogersCK for the sample!

It is very similar to Adagio’s White Symphony. It is fuller-bodied than many other white teas I’ve tried, but still very smooth with no astringency or bitterness. Like the White Symphony, it’s slightly sweet with a hint of nectar that reminds me of the nectar we sucked out of field clover as a child (I’m guessing this is probably what many describe as honeysuckle).

I steeped at 185 degrees for about two minutes (maybe slightly longer – I like a bolder taste) and added just under 1 tsp of table sugar.

Edited to add: Second steep – even better than the first! Brews to a deeper golden color and the flavor is even a touch more robust. I could be way off here as it’s been a while since I’ve had black tea, but the flavor almost reminds me of a good English Breakfast (but far more delicate).

Yellowish orange in color with the aroma of hay. The hay flavor hits you right away, it has a sweet taste and a little bit of cucumber flavor at the end.