987 Tasting Notes
Another sample sipdown!
After my last note about this tea I followed the advice given by other steepsterites, and used the last of the leaf sample to make a single 8-oz cup instead of a 16-oz one.
I have to admit, it didn’t make much difference. There’s still no appeal to this for me – muted taste, nothing to really grab my interest. I’m downrating this, and I think I’ll just stick with flavoured white teas from now on.
Sample sipdown!
This is my second time trying this tea, and I have to say I’m not a fan. The first time I tried it, I used about 2/3 of the sample package to brew 1 small pot (24 oz) of tea. This time, I used the remaining portion of tea (probably 1-2 tsp) for a single 8-oz cup, and it’s still not much to write home about.
I’m really surprised by the dustiness and lack of vegetal notes in this tea. It’s a tad sweet, perhaps, but that’s about it – no brightness at all, or even any astringency.
Thank you very much to Indigobloom for giving me a sample of this to try! I don’t drink a lot of black teas (yet), but I figured that today I needed a bit of a caffeine boost.
The dry leaf smelled a lot like chocolate. The tea itself smelled rather fruity (like prunes or raisins) at the beginning. but as the tea has cooled down, the chocolate flavour is much more apparent, especially in the aroma. I am getting an almond/truffle aftertaste.
I’m holding off on a rating for now because I’m still new to black tea. Once I try some more and figure out what I like, I’ll come back and reassess this one.
Flavors: Chocolate, Nuts, Raisins
Preparation
I’m kind of in a drowsy netherworld right now. I woke up early this morning and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I got up to work on my computer. Now, I feel like I could sleep again, but it’s too late in the day to go back to bed without seriously messing up my sleep cycle.
So, extra caffeinated tea to the rescue! The extremely generous De and aisling of tea gave me a good-sized sample of this to try out, and since I liked the Mango Mate blend from Tea Haus last week, I figured I’d try out a different kind this time.
This is just plain, straight-up mate, and it tastes like it: smoky, grassy, and slightly sweet. However, I think it really does work better for me in blends rather than straight. Once this is done, I’ll probably add some flavoured mates to my collection.
Flavors: Grass
Preparation
It’s nowhere near my birthday, but I wanted something sweet! Lately I’ve been realizing that I don’t have many caffeine-free or dessert-like teas in my cupboard. So tonight I went to the closest David’s and got a cup of this to go, as well as their “sweet indulgence” box, which contains 12 examples of sweet/dessert teas.
This tea really does taste like cake! It was a bit plain because I didn’t ask for a lot of agave nectar in the mix (just enough to give a bit of sweetness), but the vanilla/honey flavour is very true to the taste of real cake.
For a long time when I thought of rooibos tea, I thought of the taste of pine resin. But it’s teas like this that are slowly winning me over – I’m seeing how how versatile rooibos is to carry and enhance sweet flavours. :-)
Flavors: Caramel, Honey, Vanilla
I steeped this 2 times today, both using roughly the same parameters: 16 oz, about 1 tbsp of leaf, 80°C, 3-4 minutes. The first steep (as I mentioned in my first note) had a weird, musky taste to it like baby powder.
This was still evident in the second steep. If I had to give it a more plant-like description, it was kind of like lavender or jasmine – which is definitely not the kind of flavour I would mix with a Dragon Well tea. It had a soapy undertone to it, which makes me wonder whether it’s some weird residue from not rinsing out my strainer well enough after washing it.
Anyways, because of the weirdness, I’m bumping the rating down from a 72 (in the lower end of “would restock” range) to a 57 (in the “interesting experiment” range). I’ll try steeping a fresh batch of leaf some other time, but if it still tastes soapy, I’ll give the rest of the sample away.
And with this steep, my Verdant Tea cherry has been popped! Thank you very much to aisling of tea and De for this sample (again, I’m amazed at the huuuge variety of samples they gave to me about a week and a half ago).
I’ve had a few other Dragon Well teas now, and while there are some similarities in flavour profile between those and this tea from Verdant, Verdant’s tea has an unusual sweetness lurking in both the dry leaf and the brewed liquor.
It’s not a juicy or fruity kind of sweetness. It’s not even a sharp, candy-like sweetness. Instead, it’s….soft. You’re not going to believe this, but I swear to god I’m getting hints of baby powder in this tea. How pleasantly weird!
The liquor itself is a nice deep greenish-brown. Based on some previous notes and comments left from others, I erred on the side of extra leaf for this brew. I used 3 good pinches of leaf, and I don’t regret it.
Now, I have a few other Verdant teas I need to try, but I’m definitely going to steep this a second time to see how it changes flavour.
Preparation
I’ve got to admit something: I’m pretty ignorant when it comes to white teas. I don’t know what it is – maybe I can’t ever brew them right – but they just don’t hold as much appeal to me unless they’re flavoured or blended with fruit.
This tea is a good example. The smell of the leaf and the taste of the tea are both extremely mild. So mild, in fact, that last night when I did my first taste of this, I couldn’t taste anything at all. Giving more leaf and steeping for longer did bring out some sweet notes, but nothing identifiable.
I just don’t have luck with straight white teas. What am I doing wrong? I know that white teas are delicate, so I steep them for less time at lower temperatures, but I just can’t find a straight blend that makes my heart sing.
Preparation
I suspect it isn’t just you—a whole ton of us just can’t really get into white teas. I hear butiki’s white rhino is pretty flavourful, though.
The temp looks good. You might have better luck doing it more gongfu style or attempt using more leaf. I usually use around 1.5 TSP for 8 oz. I usually only use one minute for my first steep. I sometimes find the first steep weaker but the later steeps are usually richer in flavour and creamier. You might try bringing the leaves as well. The Chinese whites I’ve had range from Cornsilk and floral, to fruity. So it might be that you haven’t found the right one yet. The African ones sound really nice and some of the higher quality Ceylon’s can be very nice as well.
I use extra leaf with my whites, almost always. Mine are so light that a tsp is hardly any tea at all.
Perhaps saying I used 2 tsp for 16 oz is off-base. I didn’t have my measuring spoon handy, so I just took a few pinches out of the sample packet.
I think I’ve just been underleafing things in general these days – had similar issues with some Mao Feng teas and a Dragon Well.
Honestly, even when I use more leaf and stuff, I just tend to prefer a more robust tea most of the time, and since whites are more delicate, they tend not to be what I gravitate towards, even if the flavours are nice. Shrug.
+1 what yyz said. I was having the exact same issue you describe until I tried yyz’s instructions. It was like a whole new world opened up! I’ve been filling the gaiwan to half and using water at 175 and steeping 45 seconds to a minute for the first few steeps. It appears the leaf/water ratio has to be much higher for whites than other teas for me to get flavor out of them.
You can use water at approximately 80 ºC (180 ºF) and Steep between 3-5 minutes. If you prefer flavored teas instead of plain teas, you can add herbs such as peppermint or lavender, or you can also add honey for a more soothing tea. Blueberry and other fruit flavors work well also.
Agree with yyz, you also can try gongfu style with Gaiwan, Pour 80ºC water into the Gaiwan, and wait for approximately 1-2 minutes. To extract the flavor from the leaves when brewing them multiple times, be sure to add an additional minute to the brewing time each time you re-steep the leaves. This will assure that you get the most flavor, aroma.
Sample sipdown!
I used the last of the sample packet from Teavivre (probably about 2-3 tsp) in an extra-large mug and steeped for about 3 minutes. No resteeping as I just wanted to get rid of the leaf.
This last cup had more buttered vegetable taste to it, and it was slightly astringent, but still very mild. An ok cup, but I’m not sad to see this sample finished up.
It’s St. Patrick’s Day. I need green tea. The leaves of this tea are very green. So why not? I’m having another go of the Dragonwell this morning.
Last time I had it I found the tea was very weak. So this time I used double the leaf (probably 2 tbsp) and made sure to steep for a good 3 minutes. The amazing thing about Teavivre is that I still have a good pinch of leaves left over in the sample so I can brew up one last straight cup.
So, this attempt turned out much better than my previous one: lovely light amber liquor, stronger taste, with nice vegetal notes and little astringency. However, I still don’t think Dragonwell is the green tea for me. I think I like things to be a bit sweeter. I’ll finish off the sample some time and call it a day.
I loved this one.
From what I’ve read of your blog, I know you find that white teas and black teas have a flavour profile more similar to each other than either have to green teas. I think maybe once I try more straight black teas, I’ll be able to enjoy white teas in a more nuanced way too.
I remember writing something like that. I think it was way back when my white tea experience was bagged tea. I was probably even using boiling water. I no longer really see the black tea similarity. This Teavivre tea was my first experience with higher end white tea and it is still my favorite silver needle. It left me in awe. This was cucumber and melon along with some grassy notes. I looked for my Steepster review but it looks like it no longer exists – that’s weird. My unsolicited suggestion and this is almost blasphemy to a lot of folks but try adding a little sweetener to bring out the subtle notes of white.