Silver Needle King

Another early morning white tea from the Shang sampler. This is divine. Beautiful white fuzzy buds brew up to have lovley cucumber notes, slight sweet fresh hay notes, a nice juicy melon dew texture. This tea is very light and crisp and subtle. The hay notes are one of the prominent notes but it doesn’t overwhelm your mouth and taste buds like other white teas can.

This tea reminds me of the beautiful early morning hours of pre-dawn right before the sun comes up when the sky is starting to lighten but is still nice shades of blue. This is the best Silver Needles I’ve had, it’s just so wonderfully light, crisp and airy.

Backlogging a bit.

Shang Tea’s specialty is white tea, and I was lucky to get their magnum opus in the sample pack I bought. I’d hoped it lived up to wildest expectations…and – boy – did it. This is one textured and nuanced Silver Needle, and I’ve had quite a few. Along with the usual mellow melon notes, nuttiness, grape line, is a smoothness echoing vanilla. Unusual but wonderful. It also holds up to three good infusions. Can’t recommend this enough.

Prepared with two mounded teaspoons to a little over one cup of water.

Steeps a pleasant golden color making me look forward to a silver needle…

Smells slightly of fresh cut hay, but has something sweet added to it… Maybe clover some smell from my past that I can not quite pinpoint tonight. I got two bags of this and they were individually dated with the date of harvest. This one is from March 26. Taste is mild, very pleasant and subtly layered. I am definitely going to have to order more of this after the next harvest! Using a sip with air, I get a hint of sweetness that may be the clover smell coming through on my taste buds that I smelled before. Slight notes of what seem to be cereal grains, mixed with sweet and a very slight hint of dryness after swallowing.

If you like silver needles this is a very good one. If you have not had one before, expect a subtle pleasant crisp tasting tea. If you are looking for bold flavors or something to assault your taste buds go somewhere else. This is a tea for quiet contemplation which in this household (with a four year old) doesn’t happen very often, however it sure is appreciated when it happens, and this tea makes this quiet moment better yet.

I have another bag of Silver Needle King from ShangTea that was dated April 2. I will hopefully get some free time to write about that as well. After this one, I am looking forward to it!

A clean and crisp taste, this is the best white tea that I have ever tasted. What’s even better is that it can be steeped 5+ times easily. Today I steeped 6 times, starting at 30 seconds and eventually working my way up to 6 minutes. The complexity of the taste changed, but I never felt like I wasn’t getting a good cup.

Anyway, this is the first and possibly the only tea that I will give a perfect rating.

Excellent white – pure bud leaves, lives up to it’s accolades!