White Peony Master Grade Bai Mu Dan

Dry, the White Peony Master Grade Bai Mu Dan gives us sweet trees right off the bat. Maybe it’s the Christmas season getting to us (whatever happened to Thanksgiving?), but you can almost detect a hint of pine.

And then you steep it.

This tea explodes out of the cup. The fragrance is incredible as soon as the hot water hits, suffusing the air with flowers tightly enclosed within their pre-spring buds. Wow. From the eggshell-pale liquor, you get… Full review here: http://snooteablog.com/2013/11/26/snooty-tea-review-yezi-tea-round-1/

One of three samples I requested. Steeped for 3-4 minutes with water just under a boil. The liquor is amber/golden and very fragrant with a medium/long finish. Very clean and pure with no bitterness and just the slightest touch of sweetness.

I didn’t know what to expect from this because I could have sworn that the dry leaves smelled a bit of rubber along with the floral. Each steep was pretty distinct. First had a mild astringency, soft mouth feel, and tasted a bit of almond husks. Second was soft and warming, but no nut or much of any other strong flavor. The nuttiness came back a very little bit in the third steep and there was an aroma of clean laundry. I was not blown away by the overall taste – it was not as nutty as I might have expected – but I have to say that the chachi was lovely after the second cup. I felt calm, full, and relaxed, and it made me sit up straight and smile.

Pretty good basic Bai Mu Dan – got 3 good brews from it.

High-quality White Peony tea is known for its downy, gray-green leaves and abundance of unopened buds known as tips. (Lower grades contain thinner, brownish-green leaves and fewer tips.) So, right away, I can tell why this White Peony sample from Yezi Tea is ranked at Master Grade. Each teaspoonful contains twists of fine, sage green leaves and strong, silvery tips. Many of the leaves have a soft, downy underside that’s velvety to the touch. White Peony is also fluffy and well-stretched, so fewer leaves will fit on your measuring spoon. This explains White Peony’s higher leaf-to-water ratio compared to other teas.

When dry, White Peony’s aroma suits its delicate appearance. A subtle floral aroma with hints of plants and almond drifts out of the package when I open it. I think I even detect a whiff of caramel. Once brewed, the liquid carries a mild floral fragrance with a trace of seaweed. I’m not crazy about the seaweed undercurrent, but it’s still a pleasant-smelling tea. Not a permeating jasmine-like perfume, but gentle and fresh.

Despite the tea’s high leaf-to-water ratio, 1 teaspoon of dry tea for every 2 ounces of water sounds like a lot of leaves. So, I decide to steep 2 teaspoons of White Peony in 8 ounces of 185-degree water for 1 minute. The infusion results in a faint yellow-green – almost colorless! The flavor is there, though: a mellow blossoming of floral, seaweed, and almond. Again, I could do without the seaweed note, but it’s quiet enough that it doesn’t overpower the more attractive flavors.

To my delight, White Peony improves with each subsequent brew. With Steep #2 (1 minute 15 seconds), the liquid turns a brighter gold, and the seaweed tinge dissipates to let the floral and almond notes shine through. As it cools, the tea develops a slightly sweet aftertaste that reminds me of the caramel I thought I’d smelled earlier. Yay! Steep #3 (1 minute 30 seconds) introduces a buttery texture that enhances the flavor combination even more, especially once the tea’s down to room temperature.

My fifth and final cup of White Peony steeps for about 2 minutes. The flavor bouquet is mostly floral and plant now, but still mellow. No bitterness, no astringency – simply soothing from sip to finish. The ambiance this tea creates reminds me of floating down a river: peaceful and serene, with the soft trickling of water, the flicker of sunlight on the surface, and a touch of mist. Ahhhh, yes. I can see myself meditating or relaxing with a good book while savoring this.

Read the full version of my review here: http://bibliophilesreverie.com/2014/11/18/yezi-tea-white-peony-master-grade-white-tea/

I’ve been loving using my new variable temperature kettle, so I thought that I would try out a white tea. First off, it was evening, and I didn’t want to much caffeine. Secondly, I could finally use my new kettle to get the proper low temp that white teas need. Now all I need is a scale to measure tea in grams rather than messy teaspoons. It’s especially hard with this tea to use teaspoons because it is so fluffy. So I just kind of ended up eyeballing it and steeping for about one minute at 180 degrees.

The tea ended up a lovely transparent yellow/brown color. I’m not sure if this is because I may have underleafed, but the flavor was very very delicate. I could almost barely taste it… which probably means I should add more leaf. Despite this, I do think I detected some grassier or hay notes. After I read the description on the Yezi website for this tea, I do think I started to detect some plum notes in there as well. Who knows how much of that was psychological, though, haha.

Overall, a very pleasant and mild tea that was the perfect fit for a calm evening. I’m going to hold off on rating the tea because I have not tried too many straight white teas yet, so I’m not sure how this measures up in comparison. I do have some left from my free sample, though, so I’ll definitely come back around to it sometime.

This is my first ever white tea. I’ve always been drawn to the descriptors used to talk about it – delicate, flowery, sweet (to be honest, I feel the same way about Pinot Grigio and yet I haven’t found one I’ve liked). So when I found that Yezi Tea was offering three free samples of my choice, I knew that this would be one of them.

The first thing I noticed about this tea is how large and lightweight the leaves are – I got about three times as much tea by volume for the same weight as my other two teas (an oolong and jasmine pearls). The small sample packet did not include brewing instructions, so I poked around on various tea sellers’ sites and found a good brewing recommendation.

When I first tasted the brew, I knew I liked it but was unsure how to go about describing the taste. There was a touch of floral and a subtle sweetness (which I accented by adding the teensiest amount of sugar), but the main flavor eluded me. I decided to poke around and see what other Steepsters had to say about Bai Mu Dan in general, and then I found exactly the descriptor I was looking for: hay. The smells and tastes chiefly of fresh hay (not the nasty rotting-in-a-pile-in-the-corner kind!). This is not necessarily a flavor profile I have encountered before, and I find it very warming and comforting, which surprises me considering this is such a light tea.

Overall, I don’t feel qualified to give this tea a numerical rating, considering I have nothing to compare it to, but I do enjoy it immensely and I can’t wait to try other varieties and sellers to see the difference. And now I REALLY can’t wait to try that Butiki Cantaloupe & Cream blend that I’ve been eyeing!

This is the last of the three samples I sampled from Yezi. Love it! It is floral and sightly nutty. And the finish I can only describe as…buttery. I am on my second steep and it hasn’t lost any flavor.