White Rhino

This tea is AMAZING. I’d seen some rave reviews about it before finally picking it up during Stacy’s Birthday Bash, but was pretty skeptical given that it’s a white tea (I usually find that they greatly lack flavour). However, it sounded interesting enough to try. So glad I did – the aroma from the bag is so incredibly sweet, light, hay-y, and the tea flavour follows accordingly. Probably the best white tea I’ve ever had, and I hope it stays in stock because I desperately want more! If you’ve never had success with a white tea before, this is one I’d strongly recommend trying as it’s wonderful.

ETA: Re-steeps are incredible too. 2 additional fantastic ones; number 3 is fairly flavourless so I’ll stop there, but I’m quite impressed. Yum.

Ok, time to work my way through my tasting note backlog. Yes, it’s 2am, but I knocked out 10 hours of sleep last night and am feeling great, so my natural night owl tendencies have come out to play. Plus, it’s Saturday night, so I can do whatever I want and I feel like drinking some tea :-P

This tea though. LOVE IT. Not only is it tasty as all get out, it’s just so interesting. It’s the white tea for black tea lovers ( I heard that on Steepster, although I don’t remember where, so the credit does not go to me). The leaves are just luscious; long and plump in browns, yellows, and greens. They smell citrus-y when brewing, although I did not get any citrus in the taste, and the liquor is a goldenrod yellow. So pretty :). The first sip is a mouth bomb of honey and malt dropped on your unsuspecting taste buds (mine don’t mind at all!). Once you’ve recovered, further sips bring out strong notes of bread and cream with subtle sweet potato notes floating here and there. Oh my yum, I have serious need of this tea. It will have a permanent place in my cupboard from now on! Thank you, Virginia, for sending me this sample! I discovered a new favorite :)

First tea of the day and I’m having it with slices of buttered bread with rapsberry jam.
I was expecting something maltier. Of course it is not a black tea but there is a lack of body to meet my tastes.

I particularly like the apricot notes, very present from the first sip. I love apricot notes in a tea and I’m glad this one is so fruity. But it’s not enough for me especially in the morning. I may have chosen the bad moment to prepare Black Rhino and I’m afraid I am too much a black tea personne to appreciate this tea for what it is.
Thank you Stacy for the sample, I’m glad to have had the chance to taste it.

I have procrastinated with this one as well. I think the reason why I don’t drink unflavoured oolongs, whites and greens as often is because I just want to sit down and enjoy them, focus on them and analyze them….Since my life is kind of crazy now, I don’t have time to do that, so these guys have been sitting on a shelf, begging for me to choose them for a while now.

I’m also extremely lazy with watching steep temps and too stingy to risk screwing up an expensive tea, so there’s that.

Had I checked the steeping guidelines on this one, I would’ve had it a lot sooner: boiling, 3 min….Really??? This is a white tea? Amazing.

It actually smells a lot like a black tea. Very malty (well, not very, but very for a white tea I guess :P) with honey. What a pleasant surprise! Now taste wise, I’m like :o . It’s so much more delicate than a black tea, but just as flavourful. Malt and sweet potato are the things that jump out at first, followed by a drizzle of honey. There’s also something that reminds me of fresh, raw, garden picked green peas in the background. What a lovely cup of tea.

I really love this. As a matter of fact, I just grabbed the bag, put it in my purse and said “You’re coming to work with me, you.” Lucky.

This one surprised me. More than anything, it smelled malty as the tea was steeping. But when I drink this there’s no malty-ness at all. It’s really sweet, kinda like fruity almost. Not what I expected but pretty good! (:
Thanks so much for the sample, kimquat!

This is a unique white tea. It does indeed brew a bit like a red/black tea. The apricot notes are apparent from the start, and the brew comes off with a nice malty caramely kind of tone. It’s subtle, sweet and earthy. Nice and mellow.

I might be fooled by the fact that it is a white tea though and perhaps it would benefit from being steeped more like a black tea (which for me usually involves a longer steeping period and hotter temperature). The flavor was great and I can only wonder if a longer brew would have yielded more richness and complexity. I only brewed it for 45 seconds, gongfu style in a gaiwan. I didn’t check the vendor’s steeping recommendations this time around. Just brewed like I do most whites. Adding 15 seconds to each steeping, it did build in flavor and peaked around the 3rd steeping. Really nice.

I. LOVE. This. Tea.

It brews a beautiful cup of clear amber liquid. Scents of honey, cream, malt, and fruit come wafting out of my mug. I want this scent bottled! Sipping, I’m first given the impression of slightly sour citrus fruit. It then evolves into honey and malt, followed by notes of cocoa and caramel sweetness. All of this is underscored by the suggestion of hay in the background. Wow! It’s soft and luxurious. It’s thick and heady and sweet like pudding. It’s truly wonderful. It has the characteristics of both a white tea and a black tea, and it’s everything I love about both.

The second steep is very similar. The citrus, malt and caramel qualities of the first steep are accentuated in the second. There’s a sweet potato thickness to it. The sweet flavor of hay is still present—perhaps a bit stronger. The tea liquid itself has a smooth, creamy texture. And at the end of each sip is the light airy taste of marshmallow! It’s too good. I begin to notice as it cools that the at a lower temperature, it tastes more like a white tea. The malt and thickness of the tea wane and the fruit, honey and hay flavors become more prominent. It seems lighter somehow, and sweeter. That’s really interesting.

Wow, I’m madly in love.
I tried it once after my order came in, and now I remember why I’ve been squirreling this one away! This is exactly what I wanted tonight, exactly what I needed.
Outstanding!

Paremeters:
Pre-boil water
Approx 3tsp / 10oz
First steep – 2min 30
Second steep – 3min

Oh hey, this is really neat! Thanks so much for sharing, CrowKettle!

It’s dry and slightly toasty, kinda like genmaicha. Also really malty with honey notes. Yet somehow this isn’t as thick feeling of a tea as I would expect. So easy to drink.

Yum! I’m gonna have to feed this to my BFF, since she just texted she was bored, so she was coming over (probably to play with the cat). Such an interesting tea!

TTBC Rd2

Brewed this tea up this morning and only got one sip before having to set it aside and run away for an appointment…but the good news is that it’s just as deliciously complex cold as it was when warm.

It’s all the things I love best out of white teas…woodsy and toasted and delightfully tasty, but for some reason it doesn’t resonate with me the way some others have. It’s a shame, but it’s going back in the box for the next person.

So Courtney and Sil are to blame for piquing my interest in this tea, and this tea is partially to blame for my first Butiki order. This was one of the few on the wish list.

And it did not disappoint.

Everyone’s already said it but it really is the black tea drinker’s white tea. It’s not a black tea, no, but it’s so malty and dark brewing for a white. And steeping at boiling feels so weird. It’s wonderful and exciting.