Happy New Year - Bai Mu Dan

Oh my gosh, I am stash reducing! I haven’t seen the other side of 55 in AGES!

Since I’m not allowed to buy anything for another couple of months it’s a good opportunity to use that stuff up, try some of the ones I’m unsure about so I know whether to actually finish them or give them away, or just throw out stuff which is ancient and known dislikes, and there are some that I’ve tested out in coldbrews instead of hot, seeing as the weather is more than right for it.

I’m working on it.

Apparently I also have to be careful because the boyfriend just noted that the shelves were thinning out and joked that then he could take one of them down.

Ha-ha-ha. Hmph.

Now. This one is one of those white teas that I always seem to end up having a couple of. Years ago, I bought one from a then local shop and I thought it was all sorts of awesome, so I bought more. And then I just… lost interest. Fell out of love. Changed my preferences, perhaps. These days, I’m having a hard time seeing what it was I found so wonderful about the type. Now I find it too cucumber-y, too courgette-y. I like cucumbers and courgettes. We eat the latter several times a week. But as a flavour aspect in my tea?

…bleh.

This one is no different. Kind of floral and quite, quite courgette-y. That’s really all I have to say about it. It was a sample sent to me by a person who shall remain anonymous because I can’t remember and the tin doesn’t have a number, and I’ve been confirmed in the thought that I was right not to buy it when A&D released it. As their Year of the Rabbit special.

I’ve got one more BMD on the shelf, which I think I’ll try out in a cold brew when next I make a new pitcher, but generally, BMD is just not my thing anymore.

My tea came today (#48 out of 100) and I was so excited!

This is an exquisite Bai Mu Dan! The leaves look greener than other Bai Mu Dan teas I’ve seen. The aroma is fresh and vegetal. The flavor is beautiful – delicate, sweet, lightly vegetative with hints of flower. Delicious.

Thank you Ian for this sample! I’ve taken some time getting to the bottom of my sample box so I’m sorry to keep Ian waiting. Now I’m in an hurry waiting for new deliveries to arrive from my April purchases (I’m an addict) and want to start with all the waiting reviews finished.
For Happy New Year, I followed regular steeping regulations for a Bai Mu Dan which was a mistake. Too short on the steeping and too cool a temp. I should have read the vendor review in this case first because it says steep 7 minutes and much hotter water. Explains why my first pot was flat and weak at 2 minutes. Not giving up, the first extraction was so poor that most of the tea essence was still inside the leaves ready for a proper second go.
Now the second (almost first) steep at almost boiling and 7 minutes. If this is highly forgiving tea like the vendor says, then I must agree that any other tea would have gone all bitter and this didn’t. There is a little vegital flavor but I can’t taste any floral notes. Maybe if it cools a bit. I’m waiting. And waiting. And waiting. No floral notes.
Not very impressed to tell you the truth. I’ve been spoiled with other Bai Mu Dan’s that are so beautiful that maybe I’m looking for the same here. This is just flat. There is a bit of astringency and vanilla cookie on the finish sort of. I’m feeling that I’m in a wind tunnel with this tea wanting to like it because everyone else does…but I don’t. Every time I walk towards the wind…I get pushed back to the wall. This is not good to me.

“I’ll have what Batrachoid is having!”
Thanks for this gem!

This infuses darker than I expected. I’m told I have do try multiple infusions and I am going to put it to the test today!

As for the first one…this is quite nice. I, did, under infuse at about 4-5 minutes only because I am FREEZING and can’t get warm and have been wanting to try this one for quite some time…ok…since it was released!!

I agree with the other reviews that this is a wonderfully flavored plain white tea. It’s quite exceptional! It’s VERY fresh, very clean, slightly mouth watering and a hint of floral and even less hint of vegetal notes!

A pure delight!

I rediscovered this at the back of a cupboard yesterday and was chagrined to see that it’s more than half full – the bunny has been neglected. But when I checked the steeping instructions I remembered why I set this tea aside: it confused me! 7 minutes with almost boiling water for a white tea? That seemed too complicated, so I decided to just try it Dragonwell style – tossing a couple tsp of leaves in the bottom of the mug, fill with hot but not boiling water, top up whenever the water gets low – and that’s working quite well so far. The liquor is a rich dark honey color, more like a light roasted oolong than a white tea. The flavors are also a bit roasty, as well as floral. It’s not getting bitter, but it is a little astringent. Hopefully this will be a nice & easygoing tea to last me through the day.

Ohhh, hello caffeine. Funny how it just hits me with some teas lately.

ETA: This did last quite well – I’d say I’ve refilled the mug about 6 times today, and it still tastes like tea, not just hot water ^_

Many thanks to the very generous Mercuryhime who was so kind as to give me not only a sample of this tea, but an entire box full of tea samples! I can’t wait to try them all! This being the first of many, I picked a favorite and what’s sure to be a winner.

I wasn’t sure that a Bai Mu Dan existed that was much different than what I’ve tried in the past. I should have known that Andrews & Dunham would manage it.

This is delicious! It has that lovely hay and sunshine flavor of White Peony that I love, plus something extra. I’m not sure how to describe it. My first instinct says this is a greener version of Bai Mu Dan. But I think that might be understood differently than I intend it.

It’s honey-sweet with a bit of unexpected tart. Subsequent steeps yield floral, toasted pumpkin seed-esque, flavorful cups. It really is lovely. I’ve enjoyed this sample very much. Here’s how I brewed it:

170 degrees for 2.5 minutes
175 degrees for 4 minutes
175 degrees for 7 minutes
175 degrees for 14 minutes

No astringency. No bitterness. Just awesome. It’s too bad there’s not more of it. I could probably drink this every day. Thanks again to Mercuryhime for making this great experience possible!

I opened this tea up about a month or two ago. It has been a blazingly hot summer so far, so all I’ve been drinking is cold-brewed tea or coffee. This one tastes very refreshing when cold. This last batch I made, I mixed this Bai Mu Dan with a pinch of Adagio’s peppermint. Delicious! The crisp, green and slightly floral tones mixed with the peppermint quenches my thirst. This is great! I’ve made this about 3 times already!

Backlog from last night.

I really like this Bai Mu Dan. It’s verrrrry light (although all white teas typically are). The leaves were pretty green but once brewed it was obvious that this was a white tea. The scent was very fresh-slightly vegetal with a floral hint somewhere in there.

The taste was phenomenal. I was in the mood for a light tea and this definitely satisfied that desire. The word that I instantly thought of when I tasted it was fresh-it was very spring-esque, and it definitely invoked the feeling of being in a field in early April (that sounds cheesy but that’s what I thought of). It started of a little grassy and vegetal (almost nutty) and then at the swallow a lovely floral note came out.

Very good!

Mmm… This tea is lovely. So smooth and rich. It’s savory and sweet and slightly floral. This is not your typical white tea. And the leaves are lovely as well. After steeping they look freshly plucked. So green! They tea itself is a yellow that matches my teacup. Perfect for a sunny weekend morning.

Andrews & Dunham could take over the world. Seriously. They’ve got heart stealing marketing down pat. Their service, tin art, value, exclusivity are a titanium trap for life time loyalty. Oh, and the tea can induce swooning and tears of joy. That helps.
And their new rabbit snare caught a frog. A&D now have first priority in my purchasing for life. I think I’m in love.

Not much of a scent from the leaf but what it lacks in aroma it makes up for in visual delight. The leaves are a nice mix of green and silver. It’s like confetti! Perfect for the Lunar new year. Oh, wow, they’re really packed in. One has to fluff the leaf just to extract it!
First infusion: 1 “Fluffed” TBSP for 7:35 minutes, eight oz 205 F water in a glass teapot
Rather dark for bai mu dan! The aroma is quite strong too. Forest honey, honeysuckle, wakame and hijiki. Ooh, matching taste! A bit too strong for white but that’s my fault. The lid did not want to go back on the tin (tha’s good actually; I need a deterant from drinking this every meal…)
Next time try it at six minutes and see if I can get a stronger flavor in the next two steeps.

Second: Six oz water in 205F water for 10 minutes Third: 12 Fourth: 15
Yeah, that extra thirty seconds at this high a temperature exhausted the poor little bunny. Much weaker and smilar, but not as sweet. Given that the brothy vanilla taste is still hanging about, that’s quite fine. Perfect actually. The first sweet infusion one wants to gulp down in thirst, then smaller, more savory infusions to drink carefully and slowly. A cup lasts all evening if one is patient. These three infusion slowly slipped from honeyed oceanic hay to clear vegetable broth with some wood notes popping in and out.

Edit: Fifth, Sixth: 25
I was going to stop at four but after hearing that six was possible and looking at the festive, verdant leaves in the the pot, I had to try. I actually didn’t mean to leave them so long but I did forget they forgave! Not a tinge of bitterness!

Seventh: 35 minutes with 3 0z 185F water to start and left on a warmer that hadn’t fully warmed
I had to try. I don’t want it to end!
And it worked! Two long sips of perfectly smooth clear vegetable broth that definately included wakame in its production. But it was very thin broth, and definately the last infusion it would give. Still, amazing. Happy hopping lunar new year.

I acquired the 25th of 100 of this series. I was a bit infuriated I missed the Year of the Tiger Yunnan edition.

I decided to include a new review on the tin’s label; as A&D and Aesthetic Apparatus’s decisions on label design are produced to almost expand upon the tea’s nature. Something I’ve noticed from previous series. So from now on, I will be reviewing A&D’s on their tin AND tea. Please skip the following mini-review if you wish to skip unto the actual tea review.

Let me take note of the similar aesthetic design of the tin’s label, compared to last year. It has an almost absurd eye-blotting ~ pop art colour scheme. You could argue to use a different shade of pink. The colour is something so contrasting to the type of tea that is actually inside that it makes you think there’s some overly flavoured Jasmine green, or dank aromatic “plum oolong” which would discredit this series as a homage to Chinese tea, let alone to celebrate the year of the rabbit. However, the ‘lively’ colour scheme appropriately corresponds upon the nature and spirit of the rabbit itself.

The similarity in character design of the rabbit to the tiger of last year says: “lack of originality”; but there’s a lame “special” sense of continuity to last year’s design, that may pressure a future label in similar apparatus.

I may be a little too hard on the label, which I believe somewhat misrepresents Bai Mu Dan. But I appreciate the sense of effort, and individuality despite the clown colour scheme that yells: “THERE’S CANDY INSIDE!”. It still in a sense, appropriately represents the year of the rabbit, and the spirit of the new year.

Now unto the tea:
Prying the tin open with a butter knife, I humored myself that I’d discover cotton candy or bubble gum, or maybe paint of the label colour, being as the tin was a paint can.

Getting over myself, I discovered a lovely multi coloured collection of leaves ranging from fresh greens, to silvery hairs, to matte earthy colours. Similar aroma to most whites. Reminiscent of fresh cut grass, the warmth a hay, and sweet melancholy nature of a breeze in the country. The smell was enjoyable and inviting to brew. The leaf quality of a myriad of colours with somewhat uniform broken leaves and scattered rolled young needles.

I brewed two teaspoons in my red Tokoname kyusu (I’m currently ‘gaiwanless’) to A&D’s recommended temperature: Seven minutes at shy of a boil. I am always scared of white teas loosing their heat at such long brew times, so I insured that I adequately pre-warmed the teapot.

Bai Mu Dan was incredibly refreshing! The cup was a transparent, pale yellow, and owned an aroma that followed the leaves. Fresh, sweet, warm, and smooth in take and finish. A lingering aftertaste that is enjoyable. Leaving you wanting to drink more. Light in body like most whites, but still fuller in flavour than most White Peonies. A complex flavour that evolves in your mouth. I tried for a second steep, at boiling for another seven minutes, but came to a watered down cup. The sweet refreshing cup was so inviting I repeated the ritual again.

I thoroughly enjoyed A&D’s tea. As this Bai Mu Dan makes a DAMN fine cup of tea. Fuller in body than most White Peonies, and a stronger aroma than even the more sweeter Silver Needles. Take note my score is reflected upon the tea itself, and not the tin. An overall enjoyable tea, worth it for a white leaf drinker.

Brews up golden yellow. Smells like roasted seaweed, caramel and vanilla. Taste is mildly floral and sweet at the start with a refreshing, astringent, slightly bitter finish. The vanilla returns and lingers as an aftertaste.

1. 24 :)

Dear lord I love this tea. First infusion is strong for a white (which has already been mentioned). Complex, and with a delicate and slightly sweet aftertaste. Sorry, I’m terrible at tasting notes, as I don’t seem to be able (or have the desire) to separate out individual notes. However, it’s the kind of tea that you want to just sit with and enjoy.

It’s come at the perfect time in my work day. “With miles to go before I sleep” this is the perfect thing to keep me going.

Yet another tea reinforcing the Damn Fine in A&D.

absolutely delicious tea. it is mild, but it is very refreshing. This tea is smooth, slightly floral, slightly sweet in the back of my palate and even a tiny bit vegetal,too. This is a great tea to sip on on rainy mornings like today when it is hard to get started.

“Seek happiness. Be Kind. Drink tea.”

I will do exactly two of those things. Slightly floral, sweet, bitter like most white teas when hot. A little lighter than I expected. I’m curious what it’d be like cold. In my experience that’s usually where white teas shine.

I found this tea to be quite tasty. It seemed somewhat bolder and stronger than many whites that I’ve tasted, which I liked. Smooth and slightly floral, it produced a nice golden color. On the second steeping, I went with a cooler 185° for eight minutes. I think it turned out better at 195°, so I’ll probably stick with that. I’m looking forward to enjoying the rest of the tin.

Quite savory. I don’t get much sweetness others describe. A solid white and I look forward to multiple steepings.