Silver Needle

I must say, I love silver needle tea, but adagio’s silver needle was somewhat of a disappointment. First it was almost old looking (the leaves), the color was ok in the tea the taste was very bland, your artichoke notes, toasted grain. there was not very much after steeping once. One steeping was all I got. score 85

Love this tea!!!! I was wondering if this was the best place to buy it? I just got a sample today.

Sweet and gentle. A nice cup.

This is indeed a delicate white…I would prefer a bit more flavor. Based on the observations of others, I’m sure there’s more in there somewhere so I’ll see if I can find it. I ignored it for a while after brewing, so I can’t claim this was an ideal-scenario tasting. Also, this has been in my possession for quite a while. In any event, it is very smooth and clean tasting. Aside from additional steepings of this batch, I should have another couple pots from my little sample and may adjust my rating.

The dry leaves had little to no aroma, which, for this style, I find unfortunate. Lifting the gaiwan to my nose after the first steep, a distinct rush of jasmine and cooked spinach come on strong. The jasmine is detectable to the point that, if I didn’t know better, I would say that this tea either had jasmine added to it, or was stored in very close proximity to jasmine tea. Unfortunately, I really, really dislike jasmine-scented anything. In the end, I feel two ways about the jasmine character: (a) if it is not an added character (highly unlikely), it has to be the strongest non-flavored character I’ve ever experienced in any tea, (b) the jasmine character is fleetingly light enough that if one were looking for a jasmine experience, they would likely be disappointed.

Pressing through the hazy cloud of jasmine occlusion, the green spinach character is noticeable again in steeps two and three. Hay-like grassiness picks up, but stays rather minimal. The sweetness is moderate to low and I find the overall complexity rather minimal. By the fourth and fifth steeps, the wet leaves smell of dry clay, a sign that they are exhausted, the soup singing a similar note of thinned out tiredness. Sadly, this may be the the least enjoyable silver needle experience I’ve ever had.

Full blog post: http://tea.theskua.com/?p=134

Silver Needle maybe the ultimate beverage… or at least the ultimate cup of tea!

Tea brews to a beautiful golden color, will brown slightly if steeped longer.
Flavor is delicate, slightly leafy (barely detectable), with mildly sweet aftertaste. This tea is known to be high in antioxidants and relatively low in caffeine (confirmed by a caffeine-strip test).

Leafs are 100% unbroken, so this tea will never turn bitter, even if over-steeped. You can create a stronger, grassier, sweeter cup by steeping double amount of tea for 6-8 minutes in 180F degree water.

Appropriate adjectives: smooth, mild, balmy, soothing, gentle, tranquil, relaxing.

This tea is what I was thinking of when I was a child and making imaginary magic potions that could heal your lifeforce or imbue you with magic. The tea itself is a feel good item and can lift spirits. It allows you to shrug off discomfort, like it was some kind of winter coat and just feel good.

It has a cool blonde liquor and a mild smell like tanned leather or some sort of soft herb like tarragon. The taste has notes of butter and hay, like some impossible grain beverage. There are no truly bitter flavors present.

This was included in a White Tea sample pack gifted me by a friend who was trying to turn me on to loose-leaf tea. It may be because I’m so new to teas, but I found this tea, often described as “subtle” far too mild for my tastes. I could barely distinguish this from hot water. Drinkable, but not something I’d like to try again. I liked the White Symphony in the sample pack much more, and later tried White Peony and found I also prefer it to Silver Needle.

I am usually not a fan of white tea. But my cousin was drinking silver needle from adagio when I was in the mood for some tea tonight. So I made myself a cup of this tea. The color of the tea was definitely misleading because the taste was quite strong from the light color. It was a light tasting tea without any particular aroma. But after the tea passed thru my throat, there was a returning sweetness in the mouth. I was told that tea like this is good. Since I am not a fan of white tea, I’m not rating this tea just to be fair.

Not a super-complex silver needle, but also quite sweet tasting with a subtle herbal backnote. Refreshing.

180°, 3 minutes Very grassy.

Very flavourful, but not really the “sweet and light” I tend to search out in my Silver Needles. It is good and much sweeter than I expected, and my blueberry scone is meshing wonderfully with the cup. I personally wouldn’t buy it since I can get Silver Needles I enjoy more for around the same price, but it makes a fine cup.

Silver Needle is still one of my favorite teas. I have flings with others now and then, but I always come back to my love.
This is a decent, base Silver Needle. It’s very drinkable, but it lacks structure. Also, the tea looks handled for some reason; if that makes sense.

Silver Needle was very pleasant, it’s doesn’t have an outstanding taste but it’s one I can see myself drinking more often than not . It’s a light tea that goes down really smooth. There was no after taste (some after taste are good and some are bad so this statement is just an observation), the smell is subtle, and it is my first Adagio white tea. I give it thumbs up

very soft flavor i get almost a creaminess to it. i enjoyed the touch of grassy flavor aswell

Delicate, but very rich flavor. This definitely goes on my list of teas to reorder.

Decent Silver Needle. Slightly sweet flavor, not very aromatic. I was able to get 3 quality infusions out of it. My sample contained a noticeable amount of broken leaves. Would not buy again, there are much better Silver Needles out there.

I’ve had white tea blends, but never straight white tea so I thought I’d give this a shot.

As one previous reviewer said it almost tastes like nothing at first. As one becomes more acclimated to the taste, there’s just a hint of sweetness (barely noticeable, at least to me) and something vegetal. I’m really a fan of it.

I’d only gotten a sample of it… but I know exactly what tea I’m buying next time I go on one of my sprees~

A nice and delicate white. Nice flavor and bouquet. It was good…but it really didn’t stand out for me like I was expecting it to. I’d be happy to drink this every so often, but wouldn’t want to pay the premium usually associated with it.

Delicate flavor. Straw/bamboo colored liquor. Refreshing taste with very subtle nutty and woody notes. Crisp finish if brewed for short times, but flavor develops a lot with longer infusions.

Makes a good light iced tea for hot days.

I like to use silver needles as an addition to other green or white teas in my collection to get a variety of unique flavors. This tea is subtle and mild enough that it pairs well with many other teas as well as most foods.

With a light refreshing taste, silver needle is still the number 1 white tea in my book. It really keeps my mind at ease and helps replenish my body.