First order from Verdant tea came in! This lovely tea was a free sample I got. I’m not a big white tea drinker but I love jasmine tea and after a long day today helping out with grad I wanted green tea but didn’t want the caffeine since it was 4pm. Luckily I got this in the mail and knew I wanted to use it right away!
The website says to use 205F water and a 25 sec steep. I did it for the first infusion but changed it to lower temps afterwards since I was concerned about bitterness. Here are my notes from the infusions:
1st Steep: 205F, 8oz (as always), 25sec : lovely, lovely jasmine flavouring that also smells lilac-y. Natural sweetness as well; a great pick me up.
2nd steep: 185F, 35sec: glad I reduced the temp from here on in, cause there was bitterness in this infusion. Same jasmine taste though, and after it cooled down the bitterness was only slightly present.
3rd steep: 175F, 50sec: perfect smoothness with the jasmine flavouring. I think this is the right temperature for this tea.
4th steep: 175F, 1min: much the same to the last steep, perhaps more sweet notes?
I’m stopping here because in spite of the fact that white tea doesn’t have nearly as much caffeine I don’t wanna be awake all night. I’m gunna save the leaves for tomorrow afternoon. Altogether i really enjoyed this sample, and it was fun to change up how I normally steep tea since with a tea like this I usually just do like 1-2 tsp in 10oz water for 2-4 min. This way I can explore the tastes more thoroughly. Looking forward to trying the other ones in my order the same way!
Flavors: Floral, Jasmine, Sweet
Felt a bit stick for a while after doing so many cups in a short period of time. Next time for trying out new teas I’ll only be doing 3 cups and ONLY in the mornings when I drink caffeine.
*sick, not stick.