Imperial Pure Bud Bi Luo Chun Yunnan White Tea * 2014 Spring

Thank you to Mackie for this sample!

The leaf was so beautiful, and I love white teas. I was contimplating buying this when I make a YS order, so I’m glad I got to try it first.

Steep 1: 200 mL, 90 deg C water, 2 minutes
I’m getting the mouth feel of drinking tea, but none of the flavour? It’s weird. If I had to give it a flavour, I’d say grape skins.

Steep 2: 200 mL, 90 deg water, 1.5 minutes
Slightly astringent mouth feel, very delicate flavours of hay, grapes, fruit, slightly vegetal. It actually tastes a lot like a green tea. There doesn’t seep to be much of a flavour here.

I needed a tea that I haven’t reviewed yet cause my girlfriend just left to go back home for the summer and I’m sad and need a distraction :c

I’m brewing a significant amount of this in my 90ml gaiwan (about a quarter of the Gaiwan is full of dry leaf). After the first steep, which I only did for about 2 seconds, my whole brewing area smelled lovely and sweet, so I went to smell the wet leafs and it’s got a really bitter, smoky .. almost hot-dog-like aroma.

The first thing I notice in my first sip is an almost overwhelmingly spinach-or-lettuce-like flavour, amidst the obvious smokey, charred meaty taste. it’s light and vegetal, but it isn’t sweet like the aroma was.

The second steep yields a bit of a sweeter taste, there are noticeable honey notes. the meat notes are a bit clearer, and it’s thicker as well. There’s mild bitterness, this actually has a really nice mouthfeel. the bitterness and thickness are really nice. There’s a bit of a burnt taste.

The third one brings out floral notes and.. urgh there’s been a note at the back this whole time that I can’t seem to name.. meh.. It’s still smoky and bitter, I think it’s getting a bit less meaty.. there’s a bit of a coffee flavour to it too now.. but yeah, it’s getting really bitter now, to a point where many people might not be able to handle it anymore. The astringency is also very potent.

Fourth steep brings a bit of fruitiness as well, a sort of peachy or orangey taste. (peach is a really common flavour isn’t it). Ooh or even perhaps more strongly, grapefruit, especially with the bitterness of the tea. It seems not to be too vegetal anymore, but I just detected the slightest hint of chocolate.

I kind of accidentally over-steeped the fifth one (I got a snapchat okay?!), and it tastes really bitter and astringent and rather overpoweringly like sweet, thick coffee. Oops

Can someone let me know if this review is too long to be accessible to people? Cause I also want to continue into like the nth steep but I’ve already written so much

as the flavours fade, the bitterness softens and the fruits and sweets become more pronounced, the thickness naturally fades as well, and it becomes slightly vegetal once again.

I got like 50g of this cause it was on sale (I bought this in 2016, and it’s a year and a half old) and I was getting a bunch of pu’ers.

This is another sample from boychik. Sorry it’s taking me so long to try these! Visually, this tea strikes me as the white version of wee snaily yums, which makes sense since they’re both bi luo chun. The color is a lovely and very pale mint green with some silver and dark grey spots. The leaves have a very mild and soft hay scent. I have no idea whether I used the correct parameters for this particular tea, but I just went with my default white tea steep time and temperature.

Wow, the steeped tea actually smells quite smoky/savory! In fact, it reminds me of the black version of bi luo chun, which makes perfect sense. I just wasn’t expecting it! I can also smell hay and perhaps a slight hint of menthol or eucalyptus? Wow, this is an interesting one. I am happy to say that it didn’t come out bitter, so clearly my parameters weren’t too far off. The overall flavor is quite mild, and it’s mostly a mixture of savory smoked meat and green vegetables (spinach?). I can taste a little bit of that menthol quality, and honestly it’s numbing my mouth a little bit which is odd! I can taste a touch of floral and stonefruit at the end of the sip and in the aftertaste. It’s amazing how similar this is to black bi luo chun and yet how different at the same time! I’m not sure I would drink this, as the mouth-numbing is a little weird, but I do enjoy the flavor. :)

(I’m going to ignore the mouth-numbing quality for the rating.)

This is quite a visually appealing tea appearing assilvery corkscrews of downy white tea that has occasional sneak previews of the spruce green blades thee leaves would of been if they had been allowed to fully open. The tea is beautiful to look at while brewing especially during the first few steeps while the tea is unwinding and the leaves appear to be dancing in the liquid while shimmering as though reflecting light.

The dry leaf smells of light roasted/ smoke insence note from processing, cucumber, something sweet and honey like, perhaps a white peach tone, and clover.

The first steep yielded a pale green tinged broth that had a strong floral scent of gardenia mixed with rose, and a light green scent llike sweet pea sprouts, a soft fruity plum like sweetness lay underneath.

It tasted of a green floral, over sweet plum with hint of roasted notes and a reference to sprouted sweet greens.aftertaste is a lingering sweet honey note. The flavour is light but pleasant. As it cools the green cool floral note mixes with a bit of cucumber with the more rounded sweetness remaining muted underneath.

The next two steeps were brighter and more intense with the plum tone more intense and the floral scent heading to freesia, the green sprout note and honey were still present.

The flavour was of freesia, clover, light pea sprout, cucumber, light plum, and had a more delicate sweetness. They were very floral, and slightly spicy on the tongue. There was a slightly thicker broth that developed more creaminess. Once again sweetness intensified in the aftertaste.

At 100s. the broth took on more of a yellow tone. The scent reminded me a little of a sunscreen I’ve had with freesia and a cooler green orchid, over plum, and a cream note. It was soft and floral with a touch of sweetness.

The flavour was of green sprouts, cucumber a faint hint of freesia and sweet plum.

The following steeps consisted of a blend of fading cool floral notes, cucumber and plum, with the introduction and then rapid loss of an artichoke note. By the last steep the flavour was quite faint and was more of an impression.

The finished leaves are thickened straightened buds.

This is a tea that may be appreciated by lovers of green floral Oolong’s, as it has a similar bite in the mouth and a lasting lingering floral taste.

Thanks boychik this tea is certainly beautiful to look at and I quite enjoyed it.

Well, this is really different. Thanks for sharing boychik :)

I steeped this Western style for about 2 minutes. It DOES have some really strange tongue numbing effects. I’m not getting any bitterness, but it does have a strange under-ripe veggie flavor. The liquor SMELLS really sweet though. There are some complex notes I’m having trouble identifying. I am enjoying this. And the dry leaf is really twisty and fuzzy and pretty. I’ve gotten so many beautiful teas lately, I think I want to do some artsy tea photography this weekend. Doesn’t that sound fun? :)

heaping 1TBSP 185F 150ml gaiwan
1st steep 5sec. So pale, almost colorless. Smells of chorizo (i must be hungry). not strong, but so delicious. i find nuts, sugar snap peas, hay. its very smooth. nice mouth feel, some tongue numbing ( maybe I need it,cause i talk too much)
it is delicate but flavorful.
2 steep 10sec Whoa! this is too much.its like Longjing overbrewed. very strong vegetable notes and bitter. my mouth more numb.
3rd steep 5 sec its like young sheng. bitter. i dont like it.

Western style (Lee style)
1tsp 165F 8oz 7 min
Nice white tea, not much interesting notes . just tea. How abt leaving it steeping for 30min. Its nice more Longjing not overbrewed,almost no bitterness,but some interesting cool mint showed up.

To conclude, my favorite brew was 1st gongfu style, but its kinda wasteful, because i liked only one steep. Any suggestions on how to brew successfully white tea are welcomed. maybe i should start a thread.