Forest Berry Silver Needle

I cannot believe that there are still 12 pouches of this tea left. It is SO GOOD. What are people waiting for?

Anyway, the berry flavor is delicate, in keeping with the delicate notes of the white tea. I like that the flavors are very well-balanced here, I taste the Silver Needle – sweet, fresh, light, airy, notes of hay – and I taste the fresh, ripe flavor of berries. I taste the strawberry as the strongest note, but other berry notes come through as well. Sweet with a tart tingle at the tail.

This is so yummy. If my subscription wasn’t going to have to be renewed next month, I’d probably buy another pouch right now.

I steeped at 180 for 4 minutes and that worked for me! This is lust! This is satin sheets and champagne! Frank better put this in his perm stock PLEASE Frank I beg of thee or you will ruin something magical, beautiful! I want more of this!

ahh! thank you so much Will Work for Tea!! your sample of this is SO generous.
It’s a very light, happy white tea with a vibrant berry accent. I quite enjoyed it. Odd though, the third steep was my fave… when the berry took on a hint of tartness. I love tart non-hibby whites :)
Next time, I’ll add a dash of sweetener.

The last light tea for the evening. Anything hereafter will just be a re-steep, of which there must be at least nine remaining between the three teas I’ve been drinking this evening.

The aroma of the steeped tea is lightly sweet and of strawberries.

Um…. yeah, this is pretty frigging delicious. The chunks of freeze-dried strawberry are heavenly, and I got a light strawberry ice cream flavour from my first sip. It’s a bit reminiscent of Strawberry Pancake from 52teas, but that’s probably from the strawberry (duh). I’m not getting any white tea in the flavour, although I’m positive it’s there; perhaps I should have steeped for longer. Maybe I’ll go for a second infusion of 2 minutes.

I don’t have a clear memory right now of how Strawberry White from DavidsTea tastes, but would like to compare the two. I think this tea might be a bit more on thecandy-flavoured side, and the DT offering a bit less sweet. But I’m not positive.

Either way, definitely delicious, but out of my price range for re-stocking in my cupboard.

ETA: Second and third infusions, admittedly steeped two days later, tasted EXACTLY like pink cotton candy. I kid you not. It was delicious, and doubly so because I knew I wasn’t ingesting copious amounts of sugar in the process.

I totally caved to peer pressure. After all the rave reviews, I just had to buy a pouch of this tea!

The dry leaf aroma is pure berry! Blackberry, raspberry, and yes, even strawberry is detectible in the aroma. The brewed tea aroma is nearly identical, which is very cool! So far, so good.

First taste…hmmm, the white tea actually isn’t overpowered by berry. And the berry is still very present too. The white base adds a slight nuttiness, while the berries are both sweet and tart. Blackberry is the most prominent of the berries in my opinion. This is an interesting blend of flavors and perfectly balanced. I’ve definitely never had another tea like it.

Second infusion was steeped at 180 degrees for 4 minutes. I know it’s a drastic change. Normally, I would only increase the steep time by 30 seconds with a white tea. But I really wanted to see if I could intensify the flavor. I was probably a little light on the leaf, but 1 ounce doesn’t go very far.

Mmmm, I like this better. It’s not a huge difference in intensity, but I can pick up on the difference. This second steep is definitely my favorite. It’s going to be interesting to see how many steeps it can hold up to before the berry disappears. Of course, I usually get full on tea before the flavor runs out. So, maybe I won’t find out the answer.

This is good, but when it comes to 52teas white tea blends, I have to say that I enjoy the Ginger Ale Bai Mu Dan better. Don’t get me wrong; I am enjoying this too! But at the steep price of 52teas’ Very Important Teas, I just can’t afford to restock it. That’s probably better for the Steepster tea community anyway. Gotta’ spread the love around, not horde it like a dragon! Oooh, now I’m totally picturing Smaug sitting on a pile of tea leaves and furious with Mr. Baggins for stealing his prized Darjeeling!

Thanks to Azzrian for sending me a sample of this! I can see from her review how precious this tea is to her. :)

I think I used too little leaf in this brew, but despite that I’m finding it pretty tasty. The white tea is the most prominent flavor. It’s hay and sun dried grass. Smooth and slightly toasty. The berry flavor is just an enhancement. A very tasty enhancement.

It’s like sitting on the summer meadow with a bowl of mixed berries. What a romantic flavor.

I think I’ll try cold brewing this next. :)

I’m pretty sure indigobloom gave me this one, but if it was Kittena, she’ll be too busy to notice :)

I really like this tea, it’s every thing I want in a berry tea, when I’m drinking a berry tea. I can imagine that it would be super nice iced. I really like the balance that this tea has. None of the flavours are overpowering the others. It’s not too sweet nor is there any bitterness to it.

I’m hesitant to write this review for a couple reasons: 1.) I only have enough to make this into iced tea one more time before I’m completely out and 2.) by the time I do have some cash to buy more, Frank could be completely out of this – then what will I do?

So be nice and don’t buy it all! Save me some, like 4 pouches to get me through this summer, um okay? :)

Forest Berry Silver Needle is awesome iced! I can’t say what it’s like hot because I already love it when it’s cold and slightly concentrated. I did add a couple more dehydrated strawberries to the mix, because I like to over-enhance things… (its the former-coffee drinker in me!)

I was a little heavy handed with the leaf and was able to get four steeps out of this, each time increasing the temperature 5 degrees and brewing a minute longer. The last two steeps I brewed with half the amount of water I used for the first two. A bit of simple syrup to make the berries shine, and I’ve got a great carafe of Frank’s Forest Berry Silver Needle iced tea waiting to be rationed enjoyed!

I’m with Azzrian – this is definitely worthy of being on the list of permanent stock! Heck, I’ll settle for just being in stock seasonally, I don’t know – say, around summer?!