White Peony (High Grade)

Okay, here comes the final review of the day. This was another recent white tea sipdown. I think I finished the last of my one ounce pouch of this tea two or three days ago. Some of you may recall my disdain for The Tao of Tea’s entry level Bai Mudan, but this one was great. I had no serious issues with it.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose leaf and bud mix in 4 ounces of 176 F water for 6 seconds. This infusion was chased by 18 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, and 20 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry leaf and bud blend produced subtle aromas of hay, cinnamon, pine, and smoke. After the rinse, I detected new aromas of almond, straw, and cream. The first infusion brought out a hint of peanut on the nose. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of cream, hay, pine, cinnamon, almond, and peanut that were backed by smoke, oat, and eucalyptus hints. Subsequent infusions saw a peony-like floral aroma make itself known alongside mineral, eucalyptus, and autumn leaf scents. There was a stronger cinnamon presence as well. In the mouth, I found stronger, more distinctive eucalyptus notes as well as impressions of golden raisin, autumn leaf pile, butter, minerals, birch, date, apricot, white grape, and lemon zest. The lengthier later infusions retained mineral, autumn leaf pile, straw, cream, and hay notes that were balanced by subtle lemon zest, butter, almond, peanut, and golden raisin characteristics.

This was another wonderful Fujianese Bai Mudan. It is a shame that it is either out of stock or no longer offered. Considering that I only paid around $4.00 for it, I was expecting another grassy, overly smoky, and relatively unattractive tea with plenty of broken leaf and bud material, but instead, I ended up with a gorgeous, silvery leaf and bud mix that was mostly intact and produced a wonderful, easy-drinking tea liquor with tremendous character. Go figure.