What a bold and dramatic name for a white tea: White Thunder. So many white teas get paired with desserts, like ice cream flavors or berries, so I was intrigued to try out this flavor just from the brash name alone. Besides, it doesn’t hurt that this tea is from Love Tea, one of our ChariTea companies. Learn more here.
The White Thunder blend features white tea, peony, spearmint, and peppermint. I brewed it both hot and iced, and preferred the flavors chilled. There’s something about drinking an iced mint tea, like Moroccan Mint, that just feels best suited over ice on a hot day.
Back to White Thunder, for a tea without any fruit ingredients, there is a delectable peachy flavor mingling with all the mint. This is a well-balance blend, despite mint making up half of the ingredients list. The white tea and peony really get a chance to shine and be tasted, and bring forward that bright stone-fruit taste. The white tea adds a sweet, mild, earthiness, and the peony compliments those tones with floral, blossoming notes of its own.
The spearmint and peppermint add a touch of frost to even out all the flowers and fruit. The balance of sweet and crisp feel like sitting on fresh green grass that has been cooled by the shade. White Thunder might be my new favorite summer iced blend, bringing just the right balance of cool mint and breezy florals.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: The Love Tea Company
Description:
Bai Mudan, also known as White Peony is a type of white tea made from pluckings of one leaf shoot and two immediate young leaves. Bai Mudan is sometimes preferred by white tea drinkers for its fuller flavor and greater potency than other major types of white tea. For an extra kick, peppermint and spearmint are added to this blend. Boom, crack, that’s the sound of your taste buds loving this blend.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Bianca from The NecessiTeas. . . . .
I’m long overdue for reviewing a flavored white tea so I figured today was as good as a day as any! Bianca from The Necessiteas is a flavored white tea sure to impress! I know it impressed me!
With lovely white tea flavored with lemon peel, lemongrass, lavender, marigold petals, natural and organic flavors it was hard to go wrong with this choice in flavored white teas
It was slightly sweet, creamy, floral, and citrusy upfront and lingered nicely, to boot! Because of its low caffeine it makes for a satisfying cup almost any time of day!
Bianca from the Necessiteas is YUMMY hot or cold, equally, in my opinion.
I doubt I would change anything about this tea. But if you are feeling a little squirrelly you could add a hint of mint to change it up without compromising the overall flavor of this tea. It’s not needed but adding mint is never a bad thing in my book!
This is a tea I could easily drink nearly each and every day!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: White Tea
Where to Buy: The NecessiTeas
Description
The perfect balance of white tea and rich satisfying white chocolate with notes of citrus and a hint of lavender flower that yields a floral bouquet.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Gin & Tonic from Tea Shirt
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Tea Shirt
Tea Description:
Flavoured white tea
Ingredients: White tea, white apple pieces (apple pieces, citric acid), lemon peel, rose flower petals, natural flavouring.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I just recently discovered Tea Shirt on Twitter a few weeks ago. I was instantly intrigued by the name and ended up placing an order. Yesterday the box arrived and I was eager to dive right in. I ordered a variety of different samples but I have to admit this one is the reason I placed the order in the first place. I’ve tried different Gin & Tonic blends but not a white tea version. The others were herbals.
I eagerly steeped the tea and loved the fresh lemon aroma that I was getting from the steeping leaves. The dry leaves were a gorgeous bright vibrant looking blend with pops of rose buds, white tea, and apple pieces. Such a lovely blend. So far, I’ve got some pretty high expectations out of this tea!
So after one sip I’ve decided that I should nickname this tea “Sweet Tart” tea. Because that is what it tastes like to me!
This tea is an absolutely vibrant fun tea with notes of a citrus lemon background, floral hints, with a sweetness and tang that yes does resemble gin & tonic slightly but to me it really sings and says, “Hey, I taste like candy!”. This tea is full of flavor and just keeps giving sip and after.
What I love the most is the acidic notes that give you the tang that reminds me of the tonic water from a gin & tonic. The lemon flavor hits you next. Such a great combo. You could also say this tea reminds me of clear sodas like 7Up or Sprite. Such a fun tea!
Anyway you look at it, this tea is vibrant, singing with brilliant flavors. I’m absolutely in love with this tea and am hitting the kettle again for my third infusion!
Thurbo Moonlight from The Tea Shelf
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: The Tea Shelf
Tea Description:
A signature spring harvest tea from the mystical hills of Darjeeling, the fluffy soft textured admixture of single leaves, both rolled and open, are complete with bright silver buds. The light golden liquid is a very clean tasting tea, with a subtle floral bouquet accompanied by notes of apple and honey. A remarkable tea which expresses itself beautifully.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This tea’s pouch was one of those teas that I happily found int he back of my tea stash. One of the problems with having a nice large stash of tea, teas seem to hide and almost get forgotten. I was excited to see I still had a few offerings from The Tea Shelf to try. So far, I’ve enjoyed checking out their selection.
From the very first looks of this tea, it looks just bright and happy. The tea leaves are a gorgeous light green with twinges of yellow popping thru here and there. Just a tea that screams for spring to come back to us here in the Midwest.
Brewed up per the package instructions, this tea’s brew has such a gorgeous color, a really lovely amber coloring. First sip in and this tea is just spot on. All of those gorgeous slightly vegetal notes combined with a subtle malty flavor with hints of a floral touch. A really nice complex cuppa that gives you a variety of different flavors in each sip. I would almost say this tea is a nice cross between a black, white, and green tea.
I’ll be sipping on this tea for some time. Just gorgeous and hitting on the right notes for me today! Yum!
Ceylon Idulgashinna Blooming Mushroom White from What-Cha
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White/Bloom
Where to Buy: What-Cha
Tea Description:
A hand tied ball of silver tip white tea, possessing delicate fruity tones which become stronger with subsequent infusions. Tangy apricot notes become apparent with some subtle malt tones in latter steeps.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I have to admit, the only reason I bought this tea was because it has ‘mushroom’ in the title and it intrigued me since I’m very allergic to mushrooms. Though the tea itself has little to nothing to do with mushrooms, it still felt kind of cool to get to say I was ‘having them’. #TeaOnTheEdge #ButNot2Edgy
I only bought a sample amount; two blooms. When I opened up the package I was pretty taken aback because the smell was very pungent and defined. It certainly smelled strongly of apricots but also something sort of akin to sweet and sour sauce? I wasn’t expecting that level of smell at all, though it was intriguing to say the least.
I made three 12 oz. infusions of this one over the course of a work day, making sure to take note of the differences. I certainly freaked out a few coworkers at my new job; they saw this unfurled tea bloom from a distance/in passing in my mug in the breakroom and assumed something fungal was growing in my mug and that’s because the bloom certainly wasn’t the most attractive one I’ve come across – there’s no “flower” tied into it just an arrangement of white tea leaves tethered together. Which is fine: I wasn’t drinking this tea for the aesthetics however I’ll admit I did expect the “mushroom” to tie in with the overall shape of the bloom but it certainly didn’t look like any mushroom I’ve seen.
The first infusion was a mix of sharp, lively, tangy notes of apricot and peach. Again, the intensity of the ‘tang’ reminded me a little of sweet and sour sauce. Actually, in particular I couldn’t help but think of a very particular flavour from highschool cooking class I’ve only experienced once: we made vegetarian meatballs with a “sweet and sour sauce” that used apricot jam and ketchup in the sauce and this was quite similar to my memory of that sauce. There was also a very slightly malty taste to the finish of this infusion.
The second infusion was about 50/50 malt and apricot/peach with less of the piercing tang. It was probably the smoothest infusion overall and I’d say my favourite. Finally, the third infusion was more malt than anything else with light notes of apricot and a bit of a peppery finish. I swear there were also very light cocoa notes on the top of the sip as well.
Overall, I thought this was surprisingly delightful – more so than I actually expected it would be if I’m being completely honest/transparent. What started off as a bit of a ‘gag’ purchase actually resulted in a wonderful tea session and intriguing learning experience. Also, credit where credit is due: What-Cha has done a marvelous job describing the overall flavour of this tea on their page for it. While I was taken back by the intensity of the apricot notes there’s no doubt in my mind that their flavour description was super accurate. I absolutely recommend trying this tea!
