Cresting Cranes of Legend

I wasn’t going to get this, but then my mother picked it up and loved it. I wasn’t sure about picking up a pre-packaged white tea, especially from a grocery store. Aren’t white teas supposed to be far too delicate for the grocery store treatment? Well, colour me surprised once again by this company! This tea tastes a whole heck of a lot like the white needle tea I bought a few years ago from one of the fancy tea shops downtown, and many (many!) of the leaves have the white needle appearance, delicate fuzzy covering and all. Deeeelicious.

This was the first white tea that I tried in the loose form and the tea that made me understand that I have to switch from bags to loose tea. I’ve tried many different brands of bagged white tea before that and every single one was turning into dark brown liquid in under 60 seconds of steeping time. This one was first to brew into a golden color.

Overall taste wise it’s a very pleasant tea. I enjoyed it quite a bit until I stuck my head into the premium department and realized what else is out there. It’s sitting a little lower on the quality scale for me because the leaves in my tin came quite broken up and I even got a stem or two.

I wasn’t expecting this tea to actually have full rolled leaves. I also wasn’t expecting this tea to look as good as it does, with nice deep green colors and surprisingly lovely silver needles. The scent leaves a lot to be desired, a light woody scent, but it is quite lovely to look at.

Steeping gives a nice golden color, with a light and planty aroma. Very promising.

The flavor, although very surprising as well, is also a little disappointing. There are light hints of earthy and woody flavors, and a bit of astringency, but it is not strong enough, and because of the light flavor, can drop out once the pale taste takes over.

This could be due to a mass production process, but if the tea were fresher, the scent would be stronger and the flavor more full bodied. A very promising tea that just couldn’t go further.