White Peony

Okay, so the Sawadee stemed Darj was a fiasco, but there are other fishies in the sea. Here is one that came to me from Infusin_Susan and the amount of leaf was just right for a small non-sharing cup, although not for many short steeps, I don’t think.

This type has also been touch and go for me in the past. Either it’s tasted very floral and sort of cucumber/courgette-y or it has been slightly astringent with a strong note of nuts. I very much prefer the latter, really.

The aroma of this one is very much in the cucumber department with a few floral hints around it. At first sip, it’s very sweet, but then that cucumber-y notes start creeping up along the sides of the tongue and after just a few sips, I’ve got a strong aftertaste going on, reminding me a bit of the flavour you get if you take a sip of water just after having woken up. For some reason that just always taste a bit weird. The more I think about this one, the more I feel it has a metallic sort of tinge to it. Perhaps there is a smidge of nuts at the very, very top of the flavour, but not very much. Certainly not nearly enough to fit my idea of what I want it to taste like.

But on a positive side, it’s a decupboarding. We are drinking down the stash!

Now for the handful of other BMD samples I’ve got… I’ll finish this one off first though. It may not be anything particularly great, but it’s drinkable, which is more than I could say of the Sawadee.

OH! And I forgot to mention that yesterday’s expedition for bridal equipment was a success, and if anybody is interested in seeing a picture of the dress I chose, may add me on Livejournal or Dreamwidth (ask me for username) if they have an account there, and I’ll show you. Can’t do it here, because the boyfriend creature sometimes looks, and as far as he’s concerned, it’s a state secret. :D

I have a lot of White Peony on my shelves from different companies because it’s my favourite white tea and it’s high time I started to drink it up. From Adagio I only have a 9g sample to try.

I was disappointed to see that my leaves are no where near as fresh and green as they are in this picture. Instead they are brown and almost completely broken down, dry and brittle. There are some silver tips amongst them but also a lot of twigs/stems. It has a strong peony scent that is very thick.

Once steeped the tea is amber in colour and has a mild sweet floral aroma. Flavour wise it’s nutty, woody, floral and sweet. It’s not as bad as I thought it would be but it’s by no means good quality. It lacks any real peony flavour, it’s not as sweet or delicious as it should be.

I’m glad I only bought a sample pack of this. I think I will stick with Teavivre and NothingButTea when it comes to White Peony.

A short and unsophisticated little note about this tea:
Our housemate doesn’t like hot beverages, but does like looking at the tea I make, so earlier this week I found a nice cheap pitcher to make iced tea for him. Last night I brewed up my sample of this as iced tea, and we both tried it today.
Success! Not a lot of sophisticated flavor, but as an iced tea it’s very refreshing, and reminds me of those bottled ItoEn teas that are all over San Francisco. They all taste the same to me even though they’re supposed to be different teas.
The housemate is happy and has been enjoying cups of iced tea today!

I like this tea quite a bit. It has a darker color than I expected, definite honey aroma. Clean taste.

OK i got this in teabags and it’s called Pai Mu Tan but ill log it here anyways. Should be pretty much alike.

Smells of dry tea is very herbal in a nice way. Leaves look well half like silver needle and the rest just looks like dry leave chunks.
I’m expecting to like it…
Tea is clear yellow and smells like hay or something. Like a farm with sheep’s lol.
Tastes quite similar to the smell. It has a nutty thing about it. Slightly. That I love. It also has a slight acid note.

I don’t like it like i like Adagio’s Silver needle but i quite like it. ‘Might buy more sometime’ category. Oh and it’s quite strong flavored for a white tea. Nice aftertaste tho…

The dry leaves smell just like hay, but that’s a positive for me (I grew up riding horses). The brewed tea has a light hay smell with an added component. The tea, I’m assuming.

Wow, this tea is interesting. I’m getting so many flavors! One of the flavors is almost like lightly toasted pumpkin seeds. Yum!! Of course, now that I’ve picked out that flavor and identified it, I can’t taste anything else.

Mmm, but this is good. Really different from any of the other teas I’ve had. I’m not even sure I’ve ever had white tea before! This might be my first!

I didn’t know what to expect, but I guess I thought it would be like an oolong. More vegetal, but less grassy. That’s what I thought anyway.

This isn’t grassy or vegetal at all. It’s a unique flavor all of its own. I’m really impressed, and I think I’ll be drinking this a whole lot more. First white tea is a success!

Astonishingly honey-dark color after 7 minutes steeping, with a light, slightly spicy scent that does remind me of peonies. Sweet, and slightly salty taste, with almost no bitterness even after the long steep. Second steep is bolder and darker, with more of a honey taste.

I have been drinking all sorts of Adagio this weekend as one of my good friends got a huge set of samples. This was included in the sample pack. I had it before in one of the Twilight blended teas (Jacob’s Tears). I can now pick out the White Peony in that blend. I thought that was nice. Anyway, about this tea.

The leaves smell slightly floral and very sweet. The tea itself has a clean taste, you definitely smell and taste this tea at the same time while you are drinking it. I would have enjoyed the tea more if it was more floral or sweeter. Overall, was decent.

When I first got into drinking loose leaf tea, Adagio Teas was the first place I found. I love that I am in a one day delivery zone & that they offer various teas at really reasonable prices. For us tea addicts, we strive for the best quality & pricing possible to help our addiction.

FYI….I’m very happy in my addiction!!

This White Peony is good. Not the best I’ve ever had, but it’s good. It’s typical white tea in the Earthy smell & taste. But I didn’t get the dark color that everyone else did when steeping. Maybe I used too little tea? Maybe they used too much? Who knows…who cares.

I enjoyed it. I might not rush out to order more & always have it on hand, but I would share a pot of it if someone asked me to brew it up.

This here is not a tasting note or a pipe.

I only had enough White Peach left in my Jade Teapot sample to make .2 cups, so I dumped some of this in with it. Of course, I can’t really taste the rest of the Jade Teapot sample, but the white peony is sweet and tasty. Since I’m having it in an adulterated form, I am not going to write a full note now. More to come on this one.

This is a tea I love, and never want to be without. My adoration of white tea came as quite a surprise, initially. I didn’t actually realise I liked it until I was introduced to whole leaf tea, having only had a dreadful shredded teabag variety previously.

This is such a light, smooth, creamy tea. You have to admit that, in the packet, it just looks odd. There are leaves, twigs, and the furry white buds, and the dominant colours are white, grey, and black. It looks very much like sweepings from a forest floor. But oh, the taste!

I don’t find this tea strongly floral, whatever its name might suggest. There is a floral element to the smell once brewed — it’s rather like sitting in a garden on a spring day. To taste, it’s very delicate and light, with a slight honey-like sweetness. I imagine it to be rather like drinking nectar.

In the cup, this tea has a much darker colour than I was expecting. There’s absolutely no hint of bitterness or astringency, however. I haven’t yet experimented with multiple infusions, so it will be interesting to see how this affects the taste.

So far, drinking this tea has been a heavenly experience, and one I will definetly repeat.

Figured I’d knock out my sampler of white tea, something I’m new to and not as crazy about in general. Tea and toast for the evening.

I’m very naive when it comes to white teas and prefer stronger blends myself. Even I can clearly tell this is a quality tea, very smooth and light ‘clean’ taste with a tad touch of grassiness. Sugar would likely kill it as it’s naturally sweet on its own. Uplifting and refreshing, just not something I’d drink normally as I enjoy more flavor. Going to retry soon by steeping longer and adding even more tea than just 2 tbs.

Basically seems like a high-quality white tea, white tea in general is just not for me. Rated this higher because it deserves it and shouldn’t only be rated by personal preference.

I made a mistake of tasting it an hour later after it had completely cooled in my teacup – had gotten quite astringent letting it sit. So, don’t do that!

Upon opening the bag I was rather surprised to find out that this tea smelled like chocolate! When brewed, it has a very delicate floral aroma to it. The color is quite interesting- an almost golden hue. It’s definitely not a delicate white, as the grade would imply, so from some reviews I’ve read that point that out as a negative, I really have to scratch my head. This is coming from a person that enjoys more of the bold flavors that come with lower grades, though. The aftertaste is very sweet and like the dry scent suggested, there’s a faint taste of chocolate, too.

Sample #2 from my white tea sampler…

1st Infusion:
The raw leaf has a stronger scent than I was expecting, kind of like gunpowder- no floral scent as the name implies.

Steeping method:
2.25g of tea per 6oz of purified water heated to 180 degrees F and steeped for 7 min.

The liquor and aroma are both stronger than I expected. The liquor is a medium orange tone and the aroma is solid, no floral notes. Smells kind of like some of the bagged green tea I get when I go out to eat.

The strength of the flavor matches the liquor, but is still stronger than I had expected from a white tea. It’s not heavy like a black tea, smokey like gun powder, or fecal like pu erh, but it’s not light and floral as the name might suggest either. Quite possibly my favorite unflavored white tea so far. I’ve been on a string of “the 3rd infusion was my favorite” teas so we shall see if that continues.

2nd Infusion:
Steeping time: 8 min

The liquor and aroma are both lighter than the 1st… The liquor lost some of the bright orange hue the 1st infusion had and is now duller, almost like tarnished brass. The aroma is still more solid and earthy than I expected from a white tea, especially with the word “peony” in it, but the floral scent is starting to appear.

I love when the aroma matches the scent. It shows consistancy. It is more grounded than I would have expected a white with a floral name, but as the scent eluded to, the floral notes are starting to peak out.

3rd Infusion:
Steeping time: 9 min

I’m still surprised at the darkness of the liquor… The third infusion resembles the flesh of an acorn squash, especially after it’s been roasted. The aroma is slightly lighter than one may expect based on the liquor. It’s light and smooth with a touch of floral.

The taste is something that I’d expect from a 2nd infusion… quite strong considering the leaves have now been steeped for a total of 24 min. There is no floral taste when I take a sip, but there is a very light floral aftertaste. One that would not scare off anyone that hates floral teas.

Conclusions:
Very interesting tea. Stronger in all 3 aspects through out the infusions than I had expected, but not over powering. I probably could get a 4th infusion out of this but I have 2 more teas in my sampler to try so I’ll have to come back to this one.

I want to start drinking more white tea for spring and summer. This is a nice, gentle sweet one.

The Leaf appearance, dry, was a mixture of buds and leaves, silvery-white and brown respectively. Some twigs were contained within. The leaves smelled earthy and sweet, with an subtle fruit undertone I later understood to be peachy. After the brew, the leaves looked like a forest floor after rain; Browns and glistening dark greens. The leaves were rubbery, with almost a crunchy feeling before they gave.

The liqueur of the tea was a beautiful golden yellow, sparkling as topaz in the glass cup I poured it into. The nose was a heavy woody note, with subtle peach undertones. It had almost a chewy, thick earthy taste with a subtle floral undertone and a fruity-sweet finish.

This tea was a sampler from adagio, and originally I followed the 195 degree instructions. I found the tea then to taste horrible, muddy brown and too astringent. Experience has taught me that white tea is white tea is white tea, and even though this isn’t first flush, it’s still best enjoyed under similar conditions. After a few months of not even looking at the tin, I did extend the normal time, and it was a good choice.

I ended up having this as a midmorning tea after sleeping in. I was surprised by how light the tea was after steeping for seven minutes. The smell was pleasant. There was hit of floral, and something underneath that I kind of recognized from drinking Cantaloupe Bai Mu Dan by 52teas.com.

The first couple of sips had that floral note, but eventually that note seemed to fall away. The tea cooled rather quickly, which I thought might bring some of the flavor back, but no, it didn’t. It still had that very light flavor I associate with white tea, which isn’t unpleasant, just very wasn’t very flavorful.

Any suggestions would be helpful if someone out there has a different way of brewing this than the instructions given by adagio.com.

Well, I’m pretty surprised by this tea. It might just be because it’s my first white tea, but it’s really delicious. Definitely an accessible tea for anyone who is starting to get into drinking loose leaf.

I guess I expected more obvious differences between white and green tea… if I had two methods of steeping I’d do a side-by-side taste test

My favorite white tea from Adagio. Mellow and light, with a touch of Silver Needle sweetness. Highly enjoyable.