White Rhino

This tea is so gorgeously light! Probably too light as a first tea of the day, but I really didn’t know what to expect. I do like it for what it is, though. It smells very sweet too, like maple syrup. I think it has a chance to become one of my favorite blacks along with Golden Moon’s Sinharaja and thepuriTea’s Jasmine Golden Yunnan.

EDIT: Ha! So it’s white tea. Amazing! I never would’ve guessed. I think google should become my friend before I post my tea musings ;)

Mmmm, I’m loving this. This is definitely one of my favorite whites, if not my new favorite.

Its flavor is surprisingly robust for a white — which I guess is why it’s recommended to lovers of black tea — and is oh so creamy and sweet. I find it tastes mostly of sweet corn with a creamy mouthfeel. So good! :D

I’m not getting the caramel or malty notes so much. I used boiling water (I was hesitant about doing that for a white tea though!) and I used two teaspoon, but a bit more than 8oz of water.

It tastes like a delicate darjeeling with some of the hey notes expected of a white hanging out in the distant background. I don’t much care for darjeelings, but the similar characteristics here aren’t too intense to scare me away.

I would happily enjoy another cup, but it probably won’t be a repurchase.

Oh boy, this tea puts my cupboard at over 200 teas, and I haven’t even added all the teas from my Butiki order, and none from my Verdant order! NO NEW ORDERS for a long time…….I hope.

Backlog from yesterday. This tea is delicious. I get how it has some similar notes to black tea. I really enjoy the malty, fruity, sweet notes of caramel that I get from this tea. I was a little scared to use boiling water, but it definitely does the trick.
The resteep was also enjoyable.

I got this gorgeous sample from Terri Harplady, here on Steepster, who is so sweet and is helping me learn more about tea!!!!!!!!!

The leaves are twisted, tan, and a pretty clay mud color; like a rhino’s hide!!! So cute and aptly named!!!

The scent of the brewed tea was very intriguing. To me, it was very much like the scent of dried mulberries which I love and get at the health food store every once in a while. It also has a strong essence of honey.
The liquor of this white is a deep, very auburn color so it is definitely a different style of white!!

The flavor is very good. It has flavors of orange which is a neat surprise because I didn’t detect it in the scent. There are notes of cream and a touch of persimmon fruit.

This is a very delicious and unique white tea!!!!!

Tried a second steeping and it is just as delicious with notes of honey and caramelized sweet potato or sweet potato with marshmallows at Thanksgiving.

The second of the Butiki teas I brought to work with me this week. White Rhino is a tea I picked up pretty much as soon as it was released, if I remember correctly. I’ve liked white tea for a long time, and black tea is my all-time, all-consuming favourite, so I was naturally curious to try a white tea reported to share the characteristics of a black tea. I followed the recommended parameters for this one, and gave 2 tsp of leaf approximately 3 minutes in boiling water. The resulting liquor is a light golden brown, reminiscent of either a seriously overbrewed white or a very light-bodied black. The leaf itself is a most intriguing and beautiful thing – it reminds me a little of a dian hong, with long, tippy, golden-brown leaves that are a little wiry. Some of them have patches of bright white which makes me think of rhino horns. It’s certainly a clearer white than pretty much any other white tea I’ve ever seen, but the only other indication that this is a white tea is that some of the leaves are very downy. It’s safe to say that the dry leaf is very pretty and I found it interesting to contemplate while waiting for the kettle to boil!

To taste, this does remind me more of a black tea than a white, at least on the whole. There are significant notes of sweet malt and a touch of honey in the initial sip, with a touch of sweet potato soon emerging. It’s very smooth, with an almost creamy mouthfeel, and this texture works really well with the intensely sweet, almost marshmallow, note that rounds off the sip. It’s possible to detect elements of white tea in the flavour, such as a mild, almost hay-like, slightly dusty floral in the mid-sip, but these are by no means as prominent as I thought they might be.

I’m really happy with this one, partly because it’s so unique and a little unusual, and partly because it displays the flavours I love most in black teas with the body and characteristics of a white. It’s light, refreshing, and pretty perfect for a warm, spring day like today. Teas like this make me mourn Butiki more than ever, for the quality and variety of teas they stocked, and for their lack of fear in introducing something new and unusual. I can’t say the same about many other companies. This will be another tea I miss when it’s finally gone for good.

I have been surprised by white teas as of late! I have been so “eh’d” out by white peony and bai hao that I thought I would be sworn off them altogether. Not so with white teas coming from Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Kenya! Which really surprises me.
This is like the malty, caramel-y, and sweet potato-y Rara Willow White that I have had from Nepali Tea Traders. Or should I say that that tea is like White Rhino? I don’t want to get into the chicken-or-the-egg debate, but both teas are quite comparable. I wasn’t able to get this tea while Butiki was still (alive?) but if anyone is looking for a substitute, look to NTT for their whites. This a great “I want black tea but all my brewing vessels are dirty except my glass gaiwan and I don’t want to burn myself” tea. It’s rich and thick with very nice bread and potato notes. There is a bit of classically hay and floral top notes of a white, but the dominant flavor is the malt. Ah, this is a nice tea! Thanks once again Roswell Strange for the generous sample!

Hello tea frens! So I recently made myself a tea cupboard spreadsheet (hooray!). Now that I can easily sort my teas by age and see which ones I have and haven’t tried, I decided to try every tea that I haven’t yet, oldest first. And this would be the oldest untried tea that I have! I’m not sure why this one never got tried, I think I missed it somehow. No matter, I will try it now! The leaves are huge and puffy, and they look more similar to a black tea than a white one. The color is half dark grey/brown and half golden. They smell of hay and malt with a touch of honey.

The steeped tea smells remarkably similar to a pure bud Yunnan tea. There are notes of bread and honey, and also that subtle savoriness that I associate with Yunnan teas. Wow, this tea… Another reason to be sad that Butiki is going out of business. It actually reminds me of a Darjeeling, but much lighter. It has that muscatel quality about it, plus a surprisingly milk chocolate note along with bread and honey. There’s a super sweet aftertaste, almost as if there was licorice root in here. What a unique and lovely tea! :)

I really wanted to try this tea, as it’s the base for butterscotch and hazelnut mocha candies tea, and I was curious as to what the base adds to the flavor. I also think it’s so unusual, brewing up a lot darker than other white teas, and tasting really different. I had a cup the other morning, brewed western style, but I had a hard time describing what I was tasting, so I brewed it up gong fu style today.

The first 20-second steep actually tasted like an almond pastry with powdered sugar sprinkled on top. Nice! The subsequent steeps turned into more of a honey, malty flavor, with maybe a hint of licorice sweetness. It reminded me a lot of those leaf hopper teas, which is super weird, because this is a white tea, right? I’m really glad I gong fu’d it to tease out the notes, and I might even prefer it brewed that way. At least I’ll know what I’m tasting now, when I make it western style!

March Mad(Hatter) Tea Tournament! Round #2
Round TWO of the 2021 super tournament of teas matches!  I think I will just throw the other rounds into one tea note.  And ‘White Rhino’ is the first in the matchup, so I’ll put it there.  If I put it in ‘random steepings’ I will probably never find it again.  I didn’t hate battling 32 teas, but it is now April and time to move along.    All of these are tough matches!   I didn’t drink most of these matches side by side, unlike the first round, since I had them so recently.

Match #1  Butiki – White Rhino VS. Adagio – Reichenbach Recovery
This classic ultimate favorite will be tough to beat… Winner: White Rhino

Match #2  52 Teas – Spiced Cucumber Melon VS. Simpson & Vail – Shanti Yoga Herbal
One of 52Teas finest blends will also be tough to beat.  Winner: Spiced Cucumber Melon

Match #3   Butiki – Taiwanese Bi Luo Chun  VS.  Pudtea – Caramel Brownie
Caramel Brownie is perfectly decent chocolate tea, but as far as greens go… Winner: Taiwanese Bi Luo Chun

Match #4   Teavivre – Taiwan High Mountain Oolong  VS.   Bird & Blend – Gingerbread Chai
As much as I love Gingerbread Chai, you can’t really beat Teavivre’s oolongs which have always been consistently delicious.  Winner:  High Mountain Oolong

Match #5   52Teas – PGB  VS.   Teavivre – Moonlight Dragon Ball White
The wackiness of PGB can’t possibly match up to this classic.  Winner: Moonlight Dragon Ball

Match #6    Lupicia – Strawberry Chocolate Puerh  VS.   Octavia – Berry Mocha Truffle
This is a TOUGH one and I didn’t want to sipdown the last of the Octavia just yet. (I’d definitely stock up on it.)  Even though I love raspberry with chocolate (the Octavia), the Lupicia’s strawberry flavor is always perfect.  So I guess it comes down to the chocolate ingredient.  Which one has my favorite, the cocoa shells???  Winner: Berry Mocha Truffle

Match #7    Bird & Blend – Hocus Focus  VS.   Yunnan Sourcing-  Premium Grade Anxi Ben Shan Oolong Spr17
Hocus Focus is great, but a decent enough oolong is better.  Winner:   Anxi Ben Shan Oolong

Match #8    Tealyra – Parisian Sparkling Wine VS.  Harney & Sons – Yellow Fairy
As much as it surprises me, Yellow Fairy has drastically lost its luster, and the other keeps shining.  Poor tea – it’s at least seven years old but two years ago didn’t seem like it was aging at all. Crazy impressive for a golden leaf tea!  No more natural lemon flavor here though.  Winner: Parisian Sparkling Wine