It is November. NaNoWriMo is upon us. Well, it’s upon me anyway. (I am Angrboda there also if any of my other Steepsterites are NaNoing and would like a writing buddy)
So I’ve made me a cup of writing tea. Or cooking tea as it turned out, but still. This is one that ssajami shared with me and it’s a quite interesting tea. I encourage all to go and have a look at JK Tea Shop’s description of it (available here on Steepster), because I don’t think I can explain it in my own words. Basically it’s a white tea that isn’t a white tea. Go read it for yourself.
So consequently, I’m not at all sure what to expect from it. In my head I want to liken it to Bai Mu Dan for some reason. Probably only because it has ‘bai’ in the name, which is a rather flimsy reason for association, but such are the inner workings of the human brain. It doesn’t come out smelling anything at all like BMD, though. In fact, it has a rather strong note of honey. Rich, luxurious honey bought directly from the farmer and hasn’t spent three months on a supermarket shelf first. I can almost see the bee in my inner eye.
The flavour is twofold. There is a top note which strikes me as weak and watery and then there is a bottom note where all the flavour is. It feels unbelievably thick too. Like there’s something in it making it ever so slightly viscous. At first I found this a little unpleasant but actually it seems to enhance the flavour. The flavour seems more concentrated in each sip, as compared to just about most anything else ever to have come out of my teapot.
Given it’s thin and watery nature, there is no reason to dwell on the top-note. The lower note, the one with all the flavour in it, is a different matter. It’s one thing to say it holds the flavour and it feels like it’s concentrated, but what does it actually taste like? Well, dear readers. Good bloody question!
It tastes like tea. It actually tastes like a cheap bagged version of English Breakfast that I used to have. I think it was from Pickwick. A note of honey and an unmistakable flavour of default tea. Bear in mind, please, that I actually used to really rather like this EB it reminds me of. I really enjoyed that honey note in it and the way it tasted almost like there was a teensy bit of milk in it. It’s a bit woody in flavour as well and it tastes a bit toasted.
I can see why the comparison to white tea as the closest thing in type is still not quite satisfactory. It doesn’t taste anything at all like something I would suspect of being white. If anything it tastes more like an oolong on the darker end of the spectrum, which I find slightly bizarre all things considered.
What an interesting tea!
