Early Spring Fuding Silver Needle White

I got up early this morning to go birding and climbed a lot of big hills. Saw a baby Barred Owl, which was amazing. But now I am exhausted; it’s warm outside but cool in our house; all of these things seemed appropriate for a white tea, and I admit I have been quite curious about this one. I recently decided, upon tasting several whites from Teavivre, that Silver Needles are my favorite type of white tea.

The dry leaf on this is some of the most gorgeous leaf I’ve ever seen. The leaves are ‘plump’ and large, and covered with the softest downy covering that felt like the finest velvet. Beautiful. I don’t have a gaiwan and can’t justify a purchase of the one I want right now, so I decided it would be fine if I brewed this one in my ru kiln gongfu pot. My rinse was almost colorless but I took a sip anyway… you never know when a tea will provide an amazing rinse. This one was not super flavorful, but it does have some light, creamy, hay notes popping through as well.

Even my first steep at 10 seconds was quite light in flavor, although it was quite tasty. I think I had expected more sweetness from this, but instead it is more like a dry white wine. The flavors seem like they should be sweet but the tea itself is not. I do think I get a sense of marshmallow from this, though it’s more the pillowy-ness than sweetness. Later steeps were thicker, more squashy and also more like clover honey. I am getting a bit of the breadiness that I have gotten from silver needles in the past, but not a lot. A nice, smooth white tea that isn’t too hayish nor too green. I did get some interesting cucumber notes as well in late steeps.

I very much enjoyed this tea, and now I am feeling the buoyant energy of a white tea. What a pleasant afternoon tea.

As tonight is a special night, mine and my guy’s unofficial 4 year, I decided to open up my reserve bag of this tea. I ordered it with my boyfriend in mind too, as his favorite variety of tea is white tea, especially ones from Verdant. Oh, and he made me a lovely dinner of parmesan meatballs with spaghetti, such a good chef!

Anyways, onto the tea.

This tea is very special and very fancy. It was rather expensive, the most expensive tea I have purchased. But it is totally worth it.

I took out my gaiwan for this, I cleaned my tea spoon, and got down my special cups from Verdant, I only really use them when I use my Yixing pot as they are very small and delicate. But this is a special tea, so special treatment was required! I set the water to boil to 185 degrees. Upon opening the package, this wonderful clover scent came out at me. Clover and hay. Spring time. And the leaves are the most beautiful white tea leaves I have ever seen. Almost a bright yellow, full, not broken at all. I didn’t even use my spoon in the bag for fear of crushing the leaves, instead, I tipped some out into my gaiwan.

A quick 5 second rinse, then an 8 second steep and into the small cups, with the remainder in my double wall cup. The smell is heavenly. Spring and sweetness, dew, life. The flavor…so delicious. Pure. I got the marshmallow sweetness right off the bat. I’m assuming clover and vanilla are also there, as this is so sweet and light. Like a sugared dessert. I can picture the whipped cream imagery. The subsequent steepings are also luscious and so, so good. I have been increasing steep time by 4 seconds. The flavor is deepening, changing a bit, a deeper sweetness. I haven’t had agave syrup, so I’m not sure if it’s that yet, I’m on steeping 4. A few more to go tonight.

And my boyfriend loves it! He said it’s very sweet, but one of the best white teas he has ever had. I echo his sentiments.

This is a beautiful tea. I want to drink it on a spring day, with the rain gently falling, lilacs beginning to bloom, drops falling on the clean spring grass. Alas, it is fall here, but it is raining out, although dark and not much green left. But this tea takes me to spring. Very enjoyable, a perfect tea for this evening. I am very thankful I was able to try this tea while it is available, it truly is a perfect white tea!

I’ve been working on my taxes for a couple of hours, going through receipts & stuff, in preparation for opening Turbo Tax & entering all the info. Every year I say I’m going to spend an hour once a month doing this stuff & although there have been a few years when I did & my taxes were quick & easy (or at least as quick & easy as it can get when you have a home office), this is not one of those years. In fact, although this isn’t my worst year ever (it was a nightmare, back when I was new at this), it’s one of those years where I just threw things into a file draw, without any sorting, & hence it’s taking me weeks to do what could have been done in one day.
Add to that, I relocated my office a few months ago from the 2nd floor to the first, & I still haven’t really begun to unpack everything (most of it is piled in the corner of my bedroom in boxes on the third floor). But luckily, I did set up my tea shation in my office, so I have tea.

So this tea is from the Reserve TOMC from last spring. It is actually very nice, with a creamy kind of texture, sweet & light, & the one taste that really stood out to me at some point was sourdough bread. I did 4 steepings at 30sec/60/90/120
& I might still do a few more. The last steeping had a nice tanginess to it.

Finally getting around to trying this one from May’s TOTM club. I’ve only been in the Reserve club for this one month and so far it’s awesome and I really liked 3 out of the 4 selections (still don’t like shu pu’erh).

Once again, I can’t seem to drink tea at work while it’s warm so this is for a room temperature cup of tea. I gave away a second cup’s worth of this to a co-worker with a really unrefined palate (“tasted like a milder tea than black tea”, “all tea tastes like ‘tea’”). I’m sharing a cup of my second steep (for which the water is heating up now) with a coworker with a more refined palate who actually likes white tea.

This tea tastes actually pretty green to me. Maybe it’s because I haven’t really tasted that many quality white teas at all, but this is a very mild, light flavour. I can definitely taste the clover in this, but not so much the marshmallow. This has a much thicker mouthfeel than I was expecting from a tea that barely turns the water yellow. There is something food-like that I also taste that I can’t quite identify, not quite ‘vegetal’ precisely, perhaps the green apple taste that’s mentioned in the description. All in all, this is a really nice tea.

Very surprised with this one :) I had CTG’s Silver Needle and didn’t really love it. It had a similar flavor to black tea, which I don’t like. However… this one was so much more!! It was so beautifully floral! The buds were so soft and downy too. I’m glad Verdant is bringing me out of my shell and forcing me to drink things that aren’t oolong or greens!

I was cleaning the house yesterday and I stumbled upon a stray bag of this. It is from Verdant’s now defunct Tea of the Month Club (Reserve). I have about enough for another steeping, which I will probably brew cold.
The leaves of this tea are amazing: huge, plump, silvery green “needles” that smell super sweet, with a hint of the “tea” smell, and a hint of a vegetal scent. I imagine that that is what caramelized green tea leaves must smell like, if such a thing existed.
The itself is as sweet as it promises to be, with a refreshing cucumber base and a toasted wheat aftertaste. Delicious.
Is is unique enough to deserve the “reserve” title? Yes.
Is it the best Silver Needle that I have tasted? Yes.
Will I recommend it to people, if it was readily available? It depends. The price tag is a bit too steep, even for such a good tea. If white tea is your favourite, then you owe it to yourself to try this one out. If you enjoy white teas on occasion, I’m not sure that this is where you’d want your money invested. There are very good and unique white teas to be had at a fraction of the price.

P.S. As of now the 12 hour ceasefire has been thankfully extended until midnight. Praying that it will be extended even more.
Be brave and drink tea…