Glendale Silver Needle Spring Nilgiri White

Tasting note 400!

And I am so glad I got this tea on sale. It is low caffeine, and I love it. The notes from Teabox are accurate as always. A rose, grassy citric smell emanating from the dry leaves, and rose and freshly cut greens from the cup. Steeped as instructed, 3 teaspoons for five minutes, and it is lovely. I didn’t expect it to be as refreshing as it was. There is absolutely no astringency or bitterness. It is oddly refreshing and hydrating, tasting exactly like a combination between rose water and cucumber infused water. I don’t think that I would have needed to read Big Daddy’s note to get that impression. It also still tastes like a fairly light and delicate white tea with some hay notes (in longer steepings), but headed by the clean rose and cucumber.

I partially get the sweetness of this tea, but it’s far from a sugary sweetness. Rose and cucumber are the sweetest things that I could compare it to.

I don’t know how many steeps I’m going to get out of this, but the smell remains quite strong. I hope I get the same thing or some thing better soon because it is lovely. I would actually rate the taste closer to a 95 because I like how rounded and delicate it is, but the price is incredibly steep being close to forty dollars for fifty grams. Another thing to consider with price is how many leaves you should use per cup: 3 tablespoons for every six ounces or 2.5 GRAMS FOR EVERY .9 OUNCE. Hence my getting it on discount with a coupon.

This is an awesome white tea that I think people should try…when it’s on discount.

I have to agree with Big Daddy on this one—it was a true eyeopener for a person that never drinks white tea. Granted, I steeped it for a good four minutes with fairly hot water, but the result was a quite flavorful brew which reminded me of this incredible ice cream I had at a Persian restaurant in Boston that was flavored with rosewater.

I had always felt that white teas had negligible flavor but this is a tea I could see stocking and drinking in the afternoons. Quite delicious!

I don’t usually do whites. Occasionally when I’m at my favorite tea house (Tea Drunk) I get to sample other peoples white teas they are enjoying but I never really paid them much mind since I was having robust Tie Luo Han or any other bold oolongs on the shelf. That said I expected this sample from Teabox to be anything other than inspiring. Dry and wet leaves have little to discern other than light hay notes. This tea is more than inspiring. Beautiful flavors abounding with headiness of rose with touches of lemon and Thompson grape. The soup is velvety and of a heavier mouth-feel than I would of expected. At the end there is a nuance of cucumber. One thing that did impress me was how this tea differs when first poured and when cooled down, the latter being my preference, it seems more sultry on the tongue.
I did twice the amount of tea as suggested on the website but increased the water to compensate and kept the steep at 5 minutes. Really enjoyable.