Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tea Description:
This is a blissful blend of premium Shou Mei white tea, freeze-dried raspberries, white chocolate chips and organic flavors. I’m pretty sure even the Grinch would like this one.
Learn more about this blend here.
Learn more about 52Teas’ subscriptions here.
Taster’s Review:
I brewed up a big pot of this tea for my daughter and I – she loves raspberry and white chocolate, so it was as if this tea was custom designed just for her. As for me, I’m not as crazy about white chocolate as I am about dark chocolate. But, I like it alright.
And her verdict? She really liked this one. When the tea is still quite hot, the white tea is difficult to detect. It’s very much a raspberry tea when the tea is fresh-from-the-teapot hot. But after the tea has had a little time to cool, the white chocolate starts to come into focus. It’s a creamy, sweet note, somewhat vanilla-y and soft.
That said, this is still very much a raspberry tea. The raspberry really comes through strong and is especially focused in the aftertaste when the tongue tingles from the sweet-tart notes of berry.
And you’d think that maybe with as strong a raspberry flavor that this tea has, that the delicate quality of the white tea would be overpowered, but no. I find that the white chocolate notes seem to enhance the Shou Mei. The Shou Mei seems stronger here than in many of 52Teas recent white tea offerings.
Overall, this is a pleasant cuppa.
I infused the leaves a second time and I drank a small cup of that tea hot and chilled the rest. I actually preferred the second infusion to the first. The raspberry notes have mellowed a bit with this second pot of tea, and the white tea notes are more balanced with the berry. And it surprises me to say this, but I think that this is even better as an iced tea than as a hot tea. I usually prefer my chocolate blends to be hot, but this is really good iced.
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Candy Cane Flavored Iced White Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Southern Boy Teas
Tea Description:
Don’t let the simplicity of this flavor fool you: this is a blend of our premium organic shou mei white tea fannings with organic peppermint candy cane flavors and it does not disappoint. Believe me when I say, you’ll have a hard time keeping this tea in your refrigerator.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn about SBT’s subscriptions here.
Taster’s Review:
After having tried the Candy Cane Iced Black Tea from SBT last year and loving it, I had really high expectations for this white tea version. Unfortunately, it fell a little short of the expectations I had.
Oh, this is still a really tasty iced tea. It’s just not as amazing as I remember the black tea version. Then again, it could be that my expectations were too high, so this was not going to reach those heights.
But this is – as I said – quite tasty. The white tea is light and I like the crisp, refreshing flavor. It has a sweet flavor that’s airy and hay-like and very fresh tasting.
This fresh taste melds well with the cool notes of the minty candy cane flavor. It’s not just “minty” – there is a light sweetness in there too so this tastes more like a white tea flavored with a candy cane than it does a white tea flavored with peppermint. There are hints of vanilla and a soft, almost ‘candy-like’ sweetness in there. I like that I’m getting this really delicious sweetness but it isn’t too sweet.
It’s a tasty tea. That said, if I’m going to be shopping for a candy cane iced tea, I’d probably be putting the black tea version in my cart before I’d grab the white tea version.
Please take a minute to check out Southern Boy Teas’ Indiegogo campaign and support this small business – help them take their business even further.
Buttercream Toffee Shou Mei from 52Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tea Description:
As I was thinking about fall teas to create, it occurred to me that white tea sometimes gets the short shrift when it comes to richer-flavored, non-fruit flavored teas. This really bugs me because I think a nice, subtle, hay-like shou mei has the potential to be more than just the sort of sorbet of the tea world. So, I decided to experiment this month and I think I’ve found a winner. This is a delicious shou mei white tea with rich organic buttercream and toffee flavors and some buttery yellow marigold petals for color.
Learn more about this blend here.
Learn how to subscribe to 52Teas’ Tea of the Week program here.
Taster’s Review:
Oh my goodness! Yum, yum, yum!
On Steepster, I was noticing that a few of the people there had issues with the flavor of the tea. That is to say, they couldn’t really taste the buttercream or toffee flavors. I was a little surprised, because I can taste the buttercream and toffee flavors very well.
Maybe it’s all in the brewing? I don’t usually use my Breville One Touch tea maker for white tea but I was feeling a little lazy this evening so I used the Breville today. I measured out 3 bamboo scoops of tea into the basket (I use a little more leaf with white teas because of the bulky size of the leaf) and 500ml of water into the jug, set the parameters for 4 minutes and 170°F and let the machine do it’s thing.
The result is a mug full of yummy. The Shou Mei white tea is a delicate base, but it’s not as delicate as say a Bai Mu Dan white tea or a Silver Needle white tea would be. And even though it’s rather delicate, I can taste the white tea notes. The light, airy, hay-like flavor shines through. And while I wouldn’t dream of wanting “hay-like” flavors on top of my cupcake, somehow, the hay-esque notes work with the creamy buttercream frosting and toffee notes.
The buttercream and toffee flavors are on the delicate side. They aren’t in your face. But I don’ t think that they should be. We’re drinking tea here. And the tea that we’re drinking is white tea and it tends to be a more subtle taste and therefore the flavoring should be subtle as well so it doesn’t overpower the base. These flavors don’t overpower the base but they aren’t absent. I’m getting a strong flavor from both (well, strong considering that we’re dealing with a white tea).
It’s creamy and sweet and luscious! After I poured myself a cup and took a sip, I decided to pour another cup for my youngest daughter to get her thoughts on it. She took one sip and said, “Mmm, it’s GOOD!” This one is a winner!
Apple Jack’s Apple Harvest Shou Mei from 52Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Zoomdweebies
Tea Description:
YEE HAW! Listen up, everypony: this tea is a delicious blend of hay-like shou mei white tea, freeze-dried red-delicious- and granny smith- apples and organic flavors. This tea tastes like heaven and is great hot or iced. Don’t be surprised if drinking it leaves you uttering strange phrases like, “What in the hay is going on?”
Learn more about this blend here.
Taster’s Review:
OK, when I first saw “Apple Jack’s” in the name, my thoughts weren’t of ponies but of breakfast cereal. I love Apple Jacks. And that would be a really good tea flavor … don’t you think? Maybe a green tea, apple, cinnamon, some barley or malt for the grain-y/cereal-y flavor. Yum.
But this tea isn’t that tea. This is a apple flavored white tea. No cinnamon or grain flavors. And it’s been named after one of those ponies. My daughter used to be into those, but, she’s outgrown them. We recently took a bunch of them to the thrift store as a donation. Hopefully someone will love them as much as she did.
Moving on to the tea that is in my teacup at the moment, eagerly awaiting me to take a sip…
The dry leaf smells delicious – like apples! The aroma of the brewed tea is much softer but I’m still able to pick up some delicate apple notes.
To brew this, I brewed the tea in my Kati tumbler. I put about 1 1/2 bamboo scoops of tea into the basket and poured 12 ounces of 170°F water into the tumbler. Then I let it steep for about 3 1/2 minutes.
The flavor is very apple-y! It is definitely like an apple harvest in a teacup. There are both sweet and tart apple notes and I appreciate that there seem to be more sweet notes than tart. Just enough tartness to offer contrast without making me pucker.
The Shou Mei base is ideal for these flavors, I think, because the flavor of apple is on the delicate side and the light flavor of the Shou Mei allows for a good balance of both white tea and apple flavors to shine through. I taste the sweet, hay-like notes of the Shou Mei and the natural fruit notes of the white tea elevate the apple notes.
A really delightful apple tea that will provide you with several delicious infusions. I infused the leaves three times. I got a nice apple flavor in all three, but I noticed that the flavor was starting to drop off a bit by the third cup so that’s why I stopped there. A really tasty tea that tastes great hot (cozy and autumnal!) or iced (sweet and refreshing!)
Blueberry White Tea from Simple Loose Leaf
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Simple Loose Leaf
Tea Description:
Our delicate Shou Mei White Tea is infused with a playful explosion of blueberries, cornflowers and blueberry flavor. The naturally floral white tea leaves fuse harmoniously with their fruity additions. Enjoy this tea any time you feel like a treat, hot or iced.
Shou Mei White Tea, Blueberries, Cornflowers, Blueberry Flavor
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about Simple Loose Leaf’s Selection Club subscription program here.
Taster’s Review:
I’ve tried quite a few blueberry flavored teas during my time as a tea reviewer, and just like any other flavor, some blueberry teas are better than others. This one is definitely one of the better ones that I’ve tried. The blueberry is strong and exceptionally well-defined. Put simply, it tastes like BLUEBERRY!
The dry leaf is deliciously fragrant, smelling of sweet berries. The leaves are dark and brown and they look like most of the Shou Mei teas that I’ve seen. There are flecks of blue among the leaves: cornflowers. I see some blueberries, but there are not a lot of blueberries in this, but that’s OK.
When it comes to flavored teas, its not the fruit additions that make the tea taste like the fruit flavor, it’s the flavoring oil. So it’s important that when selecting the flavoring oil that a very high quality flavoring oil is chosen. A low quality oil can result in a flavor that tastes fake, chemical-y, or have very little taste that resembles the desired flavor.
Fortunately, this Blueberry White Tea from Simple Loose Leaf has been crafted using a high quality oil – as evidenced in the flavor that I’m tasting. I taste blueberry. I don’t taste chemicals. I don’t taste a fake blueberry or even an overly-candied blueberry taste. I taste an authentic, true-to-the-fruit, abundantly fruity blueberry flavor!
The flavor is sweet with that familiar tingly berry tart note toward the finish. Yum! As I said, this is one of the better blueberry flavored teas I’ve come across in some time. I love that the blueberry flavor is unmistakable … I like that I can easily identify that this tastes like blueberry. I like that it’s sweet and juicy and refreshing. It’s very summertime!
Incidentally, this makes a stunning iced tea!
The Shou Mei base needs to be credited for the flavor as much as the blueberry flavoring, because the crisp flavor of the Shou Mei doesn’t attempt to impede the delivery of bright blueberry flavor to the palate. It is content to let the blueberry do its thing, but at the same time, it doesn’t allow itself to be overpowered by the flavoring. There is a good balance here of earthy, sweet notes of Chinese white tea and juicy blueberry flavor.
A VERY good tea. This is the first that I’ve tried from the August Selection Club box, and we’re off to a really great start! I’m looking forward to the next one!
I know I’ve mentioned it before, but I want to let you know that you can save 25% off when you sign up for the Selection Club from Simple Loose Leaf. Just use the coupon code SISTERSELECTION25 for that savings when you subscribe. This discount is applicable only to the monthly Selection Club subscription and not the retail selection of teas.