Here is another recent sipdown of mine. I think I finished what I had of this tea back around the start of the week. At this point, I have to state that my continued exploration of Yunnan Sourcing’s white teas has been very rewarding. Though I have not had a tremendous number of them, I have greatly enjoyed each of the ones I have tried. This one was certainly no exception.
I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a brief rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea buds in 4 ounces of 176 F water for 10 seconds. Again, I tend to favor these teas when they are brewed at lower temperatures. The first infusion was chased by 15 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, and 10 minutes.
Prior to the rinse, the dry tea buds emitted fairly pronounced aromas of hay, eucalyptus, sugarcane, and marshmallow. After the rinse, I found new aromas of cream, butter, vanilla, sweet corn. The first infusion then introduced some nutty hints and some impressions reminiscent of birch bark to the nose. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented extremely light notes of hay, cream, butter, vanilla, marshmallow, and sugarcane chased by equally subtle oat notes. Subsequent infusions brought out aromas of oatmeal, malt, straw, and melon. A stronger oat presence was easily detectable in the mouth, and new flavors of malt, straw, honeydew, watermelon rind, pear, minerals, lychee, and plum appeared alongside some fainter impressions of grass and menthol. Oddly, I did not pick up any nuttiness in the mouth, though notes of sweet corn and birch bark did belatedly appear in some of the middle infusions. The final infusions emphasized lingering notes of minerals, eucalyptus, hay, and sugarcane which were balanced by hints of sweet corn, watermelon rind, birch bark, and straw.
Yet another interesting and satisfying white tea from Yunnan Sourcing, I was particularly impressed by this tea’s fruity, sugary sweetness and the interesting herbal impressions it presented. Subtler and more delicate than some of the other Yunnan white teas I have run across, this was a great tea for a long, slow afternoon gongfu session. Check this one out if you are a fan of sweeter, fruitier white teas.
Flavors: Bark, Butter, Cream, Eucalyptus, Grass, Hay, Honeydew, Lychee, Malt, Marshmallow, Melon, Menthol, Mineral, Oats, Pear, Plum, Straw, Sugarcane, Sweet, Vanilla
