This tea was a gift from my mom, and I’ve been patiently waiting for a calm evening when I could settle down enough to sit back and give this my attention. I used 3g for 200ml at 70C; first steep was 2mins, second was 3mins.
First off, it’s beautiful to look at. Light grey-green silver needles with bright and dark green pai mu tan, with raspberry (I think) leaves and whole rosebuds sprinkled throughout. The steeped tea is also beautiful: sunshine yellow. Dry or wet, it’s very sweet, smelling of white grapes, berries and roses. You can also smell sweet grass in the wet leaf. Did I mention it’s sweet? Back to the liquid, all the scents from the wet leaf are there, just much softer and they really linger.
The second steep is more balanced between the pai mu tan and fruit/floral notes. (I’ve had pai mu tan before, but not silver needles, so that’s what I recognise.) It still feels powdery, maybe even a bit “sparkling”, and that’s nice. It’s also still sweet, but the grassiness of the actual tea seems to be stronger against the others in their staying power.
There aren’t any other tasting notes for this tea, so I don’t know how long it’s been around. Maybe after this there’ll be a flood of others, Jane Austen tragics or not, that will also get to feel like they’re having a delightful, respectable celebration in their teacup.
My “companion” review to this is on my blog: http://hardlysupermom.wordpress.com/2012/08/24/longbourn-wedding-tea-by-bingleys-teas/
looks pretty :)