Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Butiki Teas
Tea Description:
Our luxurious Champagne & Rose Cream pairs our Glenburn Silver Needle with sweet champagne, fresh cream, and delicate rose notes. The initial sip delivers a lingering sweetness and tang of champagne. Rose and cream notes remain long after each sip. The malty flavor of the Silver Needle tea adds to the champagne flavor and there is a bubbliness that can be felt on the tongue. With each continuing sip the rose and cream notes become stronger. We recommend drinking this tea at a cooler temperature.
Ingredients: Glenburn Silver Needle, Rosebuds, Amaranth, Organic Natural Flavoring (vegan)
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I’m impressed with this Champagne & Rose Cream White Tea Blend from Butiki Teas! That shouldn’t surprise me, of course, because I’m often impressed by this company … that’s why Butiki Teas is one of my favorite tea companies. They know what they’re doing!
I’ve tasted several different champagne flavored teas, but I think that this one just may be the most impressive to date. The champagne notes are so clear and on point. The white tea base is delicate and sweet, and accentuates the champagne very nicely, and I especially appreciate how these two flavors don’t seem to be competing with one another. They meld almost seamlessly, offering a flavor that is both champagne and tea – but in a soft, delicious way that is in keeping with the nature of the white tea. The rose is also subtle here, and the floral notes linger on the palate.
The sip starts off sweet, with notes of champagne and white tea making their presence known immediately. A soft rose note comes through next. Throughout the sip, I notice notes of cream, but it isn’t a heavy cream taste. It’s sort of there, just beneath the rose notes.
I have mentioned on more than one occasion on this blog that I’m not much of a consumer of alcoholic beverages, but one thing that I do remember from the days when I did consume an alcoholic beverage or two is how quickly champagne would go to my head. I’d start feeling “bubbly” very quickly (I guess I’m kind of a lightweight when it comes to booze), and I guess the reason I bring that up is because I’m feeling bubbly (but in a non-intoxicated way!) over this tea too!
A really amazing tea!
Silver Mountain Water Oolong Tea from Octavia Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Octavia Tea
Tea Description:
This is a characteristic green oolong that is calmingly sweet and fresh. The first steep is light and hints at what’s to come in successive infusions. Give it a second steep and you’ll discover more depth – with floral & fruit notes, vegetal flavours and a stronger minerality that works perfectly.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about subscribing to Amoda’s Monthly Tea Tasting Box here.
Taster’s Review:
The dry leaf aroma of this Silver Mountain Water Oolong Tea from Octavia Tea is vegetative with very soft notes of flower. The tea leaves have been tightly wound into tiny pellets and the color is a deep, forest green.
My first cup of this tea (a combination of infusions 1 & 2 following a quick 15 second rinse) was a very pale greenish-yellow liquid with very little fragrance. I take note of the texture – it is soft and silky – like a wispy cloud that floats over the palate. The flavor is as soft as the color and almost as subtle as the fragrance (but not quite!) But even with the delicate flavor, I notice complexity. I taste notes of vegetative tones and a distant note of flower that beckons me to taste more of it by infusing these leaves yet again. So I shall!
The second cup (infusions 3 & 4) is when I notice more flavors starting to emerge. There is more color to the cup as well … the tea is a deeper color of greenish-yellow, still a light shade but not as pale as the first. I taste a hint of fruit that evokes thoughts of a crisp apple. The floral tones are more obvious now. The vegetative notes are also more apparent, but they aren’t as dominate as the flowery notes.
The third cup (infusions 5 & 6) is where I begin to appreciate the sweetness of this tea. The description from Octavia Tea suggests a fig-like flavor with a raisin-y sweetness, but I am not tasting that so much. This is more like a honey-like taste to me. Somewhere between the sweetness of pollen and the honey that is produced from it. The floral notes are still present, but, I’ve noticed that the vegetative tones are beginning to wane somewhat.
The third cup was also noticeably creamier than the first two cups. This cup is very Milk Oolong-ish! Sweet and creamy and luscious! And because I loved this third cup so much, I decided to go for one more cup (infusions 7 & 8).
Cup four was not quite as sweet and creamy as the third. The third was absolutely my favorite of the four cups that I had of this tea. The fourth cup was still quite tasty though … sweet and of the four cups, this one offered the most floral notes and more fruit notes than the first three cups too. I taste very little vegetal flavor now, and the astringency has definitely begun to subside. The second cup was the most astringent, but even then, it was what I’d call a mild astringency.
A very enjoyable Oolong experience, I’m really that my Amoda Tea Box offered me this opportunity to try this tea!
Silky Silver Needle Tea from Teasenz
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Teasenz
Tea Description:
PURE, CLEAN and REFRESHING : enjoyed exclusively by the imperial family in China for centuries, the Silky Silver Needle is a top grade white tea that has a soft, smooth and silky-sweet taste experience – an ethereal cup with lingering fragrance and a refreshing aftertaste.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This Silky Silver Needle Tea from Teasenz will be my first experience with a tea from this company, and I’m excited about it! I love trying teas from new-to-me tea companies … especially when the teas are of such remarkable quality as what I’m finding from Teasenz!
The color of the dry leaf is beautiful – light green with silvery tips, each needle-like leaf is covered in fluffy fuzz. The leaves are soft to the touch … not dry or brittle. The brewed leaves are also quite lovely … I don’t see the “fuzz” anymore, but, the color is this gorgeous, spring-green color, evoking thoughts of the earliest days of spring when all the new leaves and buds of grass start to come alive. The fragrance of both the dry leaf and the brewed tea is subtle and hay-like, with an enhanced “vegetative” note in the brewed liquid.
The flavor is sweet and clean. There is a vibrant crispness to the flavor. There are notes of vegetation … and I’m noticing less of that “hay-like” quality that I often notice in white teas … this has more of a distinct fresh vegetable note … like somewhere between hay and freshly steamed, mild vegetables.
The texture is silky, thin and delicate, as is the taste. This is not what I’d call a ‘brothy’ kind of tea, because it doesn’t have that soup-like quality to the consistency of the liquid. It is thinner than that. It has a light quality to it … from the fragrance to the flavor to the mouthfeel … but I find this to be very refreshing and invigorating in its own way. I don’t feel weighed down in any way when I sip this.
I feel the cup calm me as I drink it … while at the same time, I feel a sense of rejuvenation … like it’s gently recharging me from the inside out. I really enjoyed this cup of tea … my first sampling of the teas from Teasenz … and I really am happy with this!
Doke Organic Silver Needle Second Flush White Tea from Driftwood Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Driftwood Teas
Tea Description:
Doke Organic Silver Needle is one of the finest examples of a white tea I have ever tasted. It’s easy to see the care that has gone into the hand harvesting of each one of these buds and personally I think this is easily more than equal to even the very best examples of silver needles being produced in China’s Fujian Province at the moment.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I find myself in total agreement with Azzrian’s assessment of this tea: “Doke Organic Silver Needle Second Flush from Driftwood Tea offers a crisp, clean, and juicy sweet cup.” It certainly does!
This is one of the finest Silver Needle teas that I’ve ever encountered – and I’ve consumed quite a bit of Silver Needle Tea!
The dry leaf is beautiful: long, silvery spears covered in soft downy fuzz, and the liquid they produce is softly fragrant with notes of fruit and perhaps a hint of hay, reminding me of the smell of the air after a field of hay has been harvested.
The flavor is delicate – no big surprise there. But what does surprise me is how abundant the flavor of apricot is in this cup. It is as though the flavor just bursts onto the palate. The background notes are of hay, hints of a grassy vegetation, and vague floral tones. There is a slightly dry astringency to the cup – slight! Those of you who tend to be “astringency-shy” … I don’t think you’d be put off here. This is more “juicy” than it is astringent.
It is a very enjoyable Silver Needle – as I said, one of the very best I’ve tried. I’d highly recommend this one.
Organic Silver Needle White Tea from Nature’s Tea Leaf
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Nature’s Tea Leaf
Tea Description:
Organic Silver Needle White Tea has exquisitely shaped buds enveloped in white down. This white tea excites with its savory aroma, rich body and a sweet flavor with rounded finish that is soft and airy on the palate. White Teas which include our Organic Silver Needle variety are known to promote weight loss and stimulate the metabolism. This low caffeine antioxidant packed tea is delicious hot or cold and can be enjoyed any time of day.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
When I opened the pouch of this Organic Silver Needle White Tea from Nature’s Tea Leaf, I knew I was in for a treat. The dry leaf is so beautiful – so fluffy, so soft, beautifully pale green with silvery tips! – and the fragrance was sweet and fresh. The leaves look so fresh and perfect!
And the tea they produce tastes as good as the dry leaves look. Sweet with notes of light vegetation, and a hint of hay. I’ve compared the flavor of silver needle tea as the taste of the air that surrounds a field of freshly cut hay and that is true of this tea also. I love the fresh taste of this tea, it’s so crisp and pure and light!
And even though it is a delicate taste, there is a certain invigorating quality to it as well. It’s a gentle vigor, like something that softly calm and relax you while still allowing you to maintain a certain level of alertness. It doesn’t leave me feeling overly stimulated – most white teas don’t! – but, it isn’t something I’d necessarily drink right before bedtime as it may cause me to stir a little longer than I want to when I try to get some shut-eye.
I prefer a high-quality Silver Needle tea like this one to be served while it is hot, although it does make a very refreshing iced tea as well. It doesn’t need sweetening – I find that adding sugar or other sweetener to a delicate white tea will overwhelm it – instead, allow the natural goodness of this tea to come through unadulterated.
I love this Silver Needle from Nature’s Tea Leaf … and I’m LOVING that it’s organic! Another great tea from this company – if you haven’t tried anything from them yet, I highly recommend visiting their site the next time you’re in need of some top-notch teas!