Today’s white tea of choice. It’s actually warmer today than it has been for the last couple of weeks, so this one actually seems pretty appropriate. The description says that it’s a blend of peaches, plums, apricots, nectarines and cherries. There are actually pieces of dried fruit among the white tea leaves, although they look more like berries to me. Hmm. The base is clearly a bai mu dan – with broken leaves and twigs (mostly black-brown) and a few silver buds. I used 1 tsp of leaf for my cup, and gave it 2.5 minutes in water cooled to around 175 degrees. The resulting liquor is a pale golden-yellow.
To taste, this one seems moderately average to me. While hot, I couldn’t pick out much flavour at all beyond the light floral of the white tea base, and a sort of dustiness I associate particularly with white peony blends. As it cools, I can begin to pick out some nectarine, and maybe a touch of peach and plum, but they’re by no means strong flavours and they’re a little more fleeting than I’d have liked. Possibly I just need to use more leaf, or maybe this one would be better cold brewed or iced. I’ve got enough leaf to experiment a little, anyway, but at the moment I’m disappointed with this one. I had high hopes!
