Silver Needle (or Bai Hao Yin Zhen) white tea is grown in the the Fuding and Zhenhe districts of China's Fujian province, and is picked only for a few weeks in the spring. It's a tea drinker's tea. There are no flavorings and no distraction from the tea taste.
This is not a bracing black "oh my god give me caffeine" wake up tea. This is a sipping tea that requires proper attention. Supposedly, there's an inherent sweetness to the tea, but with my over-sugared American palette, I don't quite taste that. However, this tea has layered flavors that I'd need days of swishing around in my mouth to identify properly.
Pay attention to the brewing instructions with this. There's a substantial difference in flavor depending on how long you steep this tea. Steeping too long (as, for instance, when your humble reviewer gets a call from work in the middle of brewing) kills off the subtleties of flavor. The over-steeped tea isn't bad by any means. But, it lacks the intricate flavor of the properly steeped cup.
Adagio sells a 5-cup sample pack of its Silver Needle (unflavored) for $6.00. They also sell a Jasmine Silver Needle, which I think I may need to buy for my jasmine-loving friends. I recommend that anyone who is a serious tea drinker (or wants to be) try this lovely, intricate tea.
No comments:
Post a Comment