Xin Gong Yi (New Craft)

Very good tea!! thanks for sharing Amy! yummmmm.
Light, bright, and very sweet without any additions. Fresh tasting, remnicent of something floral. Could that be the rose? I can’t tell.
I also get something honey like, bakey even. I tend to notice that when there are claims of “apricot” so it makes sense to me!
There is something savoury in there as well but I need to sit down with a gaiwan before making any declarations on that…
I made it through three steepings, each a little softer and sweeter than the last, becoming more like spun rather than raw honey.
Overall… A lovely tea. I highly recommend!
Steepster won’t let me rate this for some reason. I’d give this a solid 91!

I had to go in today to replace a gaiwan I just broke… how sad. I hope I can make the new one last a bit longer, I had accidentally dropped my lid on the floor and it broke.

Anyway far be it from me to resist trying something new. I wanted to try a white tea that I had never heard of before. I was told you could steep this in 190 F hot water for a minute or two but it wasn’t that sensitive to oversteeping. This new craft tea is supposed to be a hybrid of sorts between white and green. I also used a pretty high leaf to water ratio. I might try it again with a little less leaf.

This tea is a golden color when it’s brewed up. It doesn’t seem really flowery like a lot of other white teas. It reminds me a bit of an oolong – probably due to the higher oxidation here. It’s a little sweet like honey and has a nice soft finish that’s a bit apricot-y. This I can see being a really nice every day tea, especially for the afternoons since it’s gentle and kinda low in caffeine. I am saving some of the leaves for when I wake up from my afternoon nap.

Tea swap sample provided by @Amy Oh

This turned out to be a very interesting experience. I didn’t really expect such a dark colour and bold aroma from white tea. That being said, I wasn’t confident enough to write tasting notes, because I was so focused on just enjoying the tea.

So I’ll pass on rating it, and maybe purchase some in the future. It seems like the sort of tea you’d have to make a few times to appreciate.
On a scale of I hated or loved it, this is somewhere between this is really cool and I liked it a lot (not loved it).

100ml gaiwan, 5g, 6 steeps
_{(Sorry for the vague tasting notes!)}

This is a lighter tasting tea in my opinion. It has a hay-like taste and… Not really sweetness, but sorta. It has a roundish mouth feel. It’s not refreshing feeling, it’s more hardy it seems. There is a long finish of the hay tone.

Over all, I like it but it’s not a favorite. I’ll keep it as a some variety in my whites, something to mix it up with.