95
drank Golden Needle King by Shang Tea
4185 tasting notes

Thank you TeaTiff for this one a while back! The sample pouch had a not-at-all full two teaspoons so I went with that. I thought this was supposed to be one of those golden teas because of the name, but it almost looks like Teavivre’s Bailin Gongfu. The leaves are dark with only hints of gold occasionally and smell very grassy. The flavor seems to be the Bailin mixed with a high quality keemun. There is a lovely almost floral like fragrance even before taking a sip from this rusty colored cup. Keemun is always tough for me to describe. But the flavor is delicious — a medium bodied taste, but no smoke like a keemun. It’s like flowers, wine, biscuits, hay. Really it reminds be of Teavivre’s highest quality keemun mixed with their Bailin. The second steep seemed a little too much at those parameters. I thought it was a mistake on the packaging that is called a white tea and a red tea but it’s actually made from a white tea plant? But I thought all tea comes from the same plant anyway? It was good and then it was gone.
Steep #1 // 2 tsps. // 12 min after boiling // 2 min
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3-4 min

Shang Tea

Hi Tea Sipper, thanks for the review! To clarify your question about white tea on the packaging, yes all tea does come from the same plant, but like any plant there are hundreds of different cultivars of the tea plant. In China these different cultivars are considered to be almost completely unique tea plants. When we say it comes from the white tea plant, we mean that it comes from the Da Bai/Da Hao cultivar which is the traditional cultivar for white tea production in China.

tea-sipper

That helps to explain things, but I have a lot to learn about tea! Thanks for reading my tasting note!

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Shang Tea

Hi Tea Sipper, thanks for the review! To clarify your question about white tea on the packaging, yes all tea does come from the same plant, but like any plant there are hundreds of different cultivars of the tea plant. In China these different cultivars are considered to be almost completely unique tea plants. When we say it comes from the white tea plant, we mean that it comes from the Da Bai/Da Hao cultivar which is the traditional cultivar for white tea production in China.

tea-sipper

That helps to explain things, but I have a lot to learn about tea! Thanks for reading my tasting note!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

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Hi! I love tea and trying new ones – it adds a bit of variety to my day! Books, music, TV & movies are my thing… and tea, of course.

Some of my favorite tea shops (still operating):
birdandblendtea.com
teavivre.com
52teas.com
svtea.com
whisperingpinestea.com
justea.com
harney.com
Dammann Freres
fusionteas.com
Javateaco.com
Lupicia
Octaviatea.com
Davidstea
eco-cha.com
what-cha.com
singleoriginteas.com
teasenz.com
tealyra.com
Mandala
verdanttea.com

Favorite tea shops (RIP):
butikiteas.com
steapshoppe.com
steepcityteas.com
aquartertotea.com
dellaterrateas.com
zentealife.com
angrytearoom.com
theteamerchant.net
joysteaspoon.com
tealiciousllc.com
Rivertea
Specialteas

My icon photo is Richard Mayhew from the graphic novel ‘Neverwhere’ by Neil Gaiman, Mike Carey & Glenn Fabry.

Most of the teas listed in my cupboard are actually sample sizes. I don’t really have 2,000 ounces of tea around here! Many of my teas have only one teaspoon left… maybe two. But I like keeping them in my cupboard list for reference to what I could be sipping. Usually, I write tasting notes once for each tea. I’m still drinking them, just not writing tasting notes each time!

I’m always in search of: Hattialli, Qu Hao black, Jin Jun Mei, teas using marshmallow root.

My dislikes: hibiscus, ginger (unless in chai), turmeric, bee pollen, charcoal type flavors

My ratings:
95-100 – Super awesome deliciousness favorites – cupboard essential
80-95 – Also pretty delicious
65-80 – Pretty good
50-65 – Okay
1-50 – Probably won’t want to sip it again

I’m planning on being a Steepsterer as long as there IS a Steepster, so if you’re not hearing from me, that means something happened to my health… if you know what I mean. (Or as evidenced by the great computer hiatus of 2019, something happened to my computer… I have a dumb phone so can’t access internet on that. As of 12/20/21 my wifi might start getting unreliable.)

Happy sipping!

Location

USA

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