Another from last year’s 12Teas of Christmas. The aroma is white tea (duh) with a hint of pink lemonade under it all if you smell it closely. I’m not a big fan of white tea, it can turn my stomach at times and I have an automatic worry of that happening every time I drink it. This one is not smelling great for me and I specifically have had trouble with 52Teas’ Bai Mu Dan a couple of times now. However, I persevere!
I cooled the water for about five minutes as I am at work and then steeped it for 4 to 5 minutes. This particular sample didn’t quite yield 2 cups worth of tea but I tried to split it evenly, hopefully the bit of extra time will help encourage more flavour from the leaves as the smell was quite mild initially.
The steeped aroma is a hint of something tart (lemon myrtle!) and a slighter wisp of candied strawberry. Nice, but unassuming. Appealing though! First sips are extremely mild in the way that white teas is, but I do get a hint of the flavours I smelled earlier. There is a bit more lemon than anything else, and that’s okay. It’s certainly not the in-your-face flavour of lemonade, but it is pleasant enough. It puts me in mind of Neo-Citran, but much more pleasant.
The strawberry flavour remains illusive for me here, which is a bit of a disappointment. Strawberry is one of my favourite flavours when done right, but I find it very hard to accurately replicate in tea. This one glosses right over the strawberry and focuses on the lemonade. That’s okay, but since the title suggests some yummy berries, I’m a bit disappointed. This is drinkable though mild – but not special either. A middle-of-the-road sort of tea, for me!
EDIT to add that as it cools, it is much stronger in flavour. I am sending the last bit of my sample home to do a cold steep with. MUCH better cold!
