From the queue
A white tea that should be steeped with boiling water? WHAT????!?!? O.o Courtney shared this with me and these are not her instructions. These are Butiki’s instructions. There seem to be a general concensus on Steepster that Stacey knows what she’s doing, so… okay, I steeped it in boiling water, although it was very nearly physically painful to do so. It was certainly mentally painful. It goes against everything I’ve ever learned about tea and it just felt so wrong! Not wrong as in ‘oh dear, I shouldn’t do this’ but wrong as in ‘SELF! STOP! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! STAAAAHP!!!’ In spite of so many people following these intructions with great success I’m still very worried that I’m about to have a very big cup of bitterness.
It smells like a black tea and it has the colour of a black tea. How certain are we that this is actually really white? I don’t even understand the mechanisms behind this. How can a white tea behave like a black?
The aroma is mild, but it still smells like a black tea. A very high-grown one like a high-grown Ceylon, maybe. Not Darjeeling, I don’t think, it’s not grassy enough for that, but it’s got that floral touch. It’s also remarkably fruity. Something along the lines of apricots, I think. Quite sweet. OOOH! You know what it reminds me of? It reminds me of one of those oolongs with leafhoppers! Has this one had leafhoppers?
Okay, the flavour. Still not convinced that this is going to be a pleasant experience, I have to say.
It’s not bitter. HOW IS THIS NOT BITTER??? O.o I don’t get this tea. I simply do not understand one iota of it. Why is it behaving like this?
It’s actually quite sweet. Fruity-sweet again, like the aroma, bringing me back to thoughts of apricots. It’s got a fair bit of a floral touch as well, and I’m not too keen on that, but for me it’s mostly about the apricots with this tea. As it cools the floral tones get stronger, though, and I like it less.
It doesn’t taste like any white tea I’ve ever had before. If I was served a cup of this without being told what it was, I’d have guessed a high-grown Ceylon with natural notes of stone fruits (or possibly very lightly flavoured). I certainly wouldn’t have belived it was a white tea. Conundrum in a cup.
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There are a number of white teas that taste rather fantastic with boiling water. To me the boiling water gives this a touch of malt. It can be brewed in 180-185F degree for 3-4 minutes as well and produces a wonderful cup. It’s my personal preference to drink this with boiled water but you might enjoy it more brewed at a lower temp.
thank you for this great review Angrboda.I am very curious of this tea now.
Reading this note could explain why my green tea was bitter this afternoon! I think I used too hot of water. I didn’t let it steep too long, only three minutes…
I thought it was quite nice, once I got over the culture shock of using boiling water. I haven’t been very keen on white teas at all in recent years, generally finding them too courgette-y/cucumber-y which rather put me off. Perhaps when next I find myself in possession of one, I’ll try that with boiling water as well. I mean if I do it ‘wrong’ and it doesn’t work, I’ll get a cup I don’t much like. If I do it ‘right’ I’ll still more likely than not get a cup that I don’t much like, so there’s nothing to lose. :)
There are a number of white teas that taste rather fantastic with boiling water. To me the boiling water gives this a touch of malt. It can be brewed in 180-185F degree for 3-4 minutes as well and produces a wonderful cup. It’s my personal preference to drink this with boiled water but you might enjoy it more brewed at a lower temp.
thank you for this great review Angrboda.I am very curious of this tea now.
Reading this note could explain why my green tea was bitter this afternoon! I think I used too hot of water. I didn’t let it steep too long, only three minutes…
I thought it was quite nice, once I got over the culture shock of using boiling water. I haven’t been very keen on white teas at all in recent years, generally finding them too courgette-y/cucumber-y which rather put me off. Perhaps when next I find myself in possession of one, I’ll try that with boiling water as well. I mean if I do it ‘wrong’ and it doesn’t work, I’ll get a cup I don’t much like. If I do it ‘right’ I’ll still more likely than not get a cup that I don’t much like, so there’s nothing to lose. :)