Snow Geisha

I discovered this tea when I was browsing a Teavana shop wondering if they even had anything that wasn’t overwhelmingly sweet and candied. I like lighter teas for the most part, and I love sour cherries and cranberries, so this one caught my eye. I was initially wary of the candied fruit in the description, but decided to give it a try. I loved it.

When I went back to buy more, I didn’t try any in the store — just ordered an enormous refill and went home as usual. It tasted different (I didn’t realize until later that it was because they came up with a new blend), and it ended up on my back shelf for a month or so.

Recently, I’ve pulled this out and started drinking it again.

The smell in the canister is very medicinal and sharp — very similar to cherry cough syrup, like others say. It actually reminds me of the sharp scent of a codeine cough syrup I once got prescribed. It’s not a pleasant smell, in my opinion.

The first few times I brewed this, I used water at boiling temperature (because I’m lazy and I don’t really have tools to measure water temperature in my office right now) and let it seep for about two minutes. The resulting flavor was pretty awful. It was sharp, bitter, and unpleasant.

Thankfully, I was being extra lazy that day and rebrewed another cup from the same leaves. That cup turned out exactly how I wanted it to taste — sour, floral, without being too heavy, sweet, or bitter.

For some reason that gave me the idea of rinsing or awakening the leaves, much like an oolong tea. The next time I brewed it, I gave that a shot — heating the pot first, then adding the tea leaves, then adding hot water. I rinsed the leaves for about 10 seconds, and drained them. Then I added water and brewed it for 1 minute (the recommended brew time is 2 minutes). That turned out pretty good.

The next time I tried it, I did the same rinsing routine, but this time tried mixing the hot water with a little bit of cold before adding it to the pot (to reduce the water temperature), and I tried brewing it for even less time (45 seconds). This turned out even better: the taste is tart and fruity, without being bitter or astringent, and the scent carries cherries, cranberries, and roses.

I wouldn’t drink this if I were looking for a white tea — the fruitiness completely drowns out any traces of the white tea flavor. But for a sour, tart tea, this is pretty much the bee’s knees, as long as you take extra care when brewing it. If the tartness is too much, you can add sugar and it will balance out some of the sourness; I often do this when offering this tea to my friends or family.

This is a super strong cherry tasting tea. The smell reminds me of cough syrup, honestly. It’s okay iced and I know some people love it but it’s just way too fruit for my tastes. I’d recommend it to people who love cherry and want a really bold fruit flavoured white.

I’ve never been a fan of cherry teas. They always remind of those Ludens cherry lozenges.

And this tea is no different.

This is my favorite tea ever!!! It is good iced and hot. When I brew it just right it tastes like white gummi bears :D A very nice light fruity white tea

I hate this, and most teavana blends =(

I agree that it’s not very delicate and tastes much more of a fruit blend than a clean, white tea. And the scent is really strong – very, very cherry.

Oh, god. I hate this tea. Hate. It. I can’t believe how long it lasted at Teavana. It’s bitter, has a fake cherry taste, and if you burn it/oversteep it, it tastes like cough syrup.

COLD BREW
DO NOT COLD BREW! Tasted like cough medicine. This is a tea that should be brewed warm.

I had a nice cup of this one earlier today, its not my favorite cherry tea but its the 2nd best I’ve had so far. Some have said it tastes medicinal, but I honestly don’t taste that, it has a nice mellow cherry flavor.

This is quite possibly my favorite Teavana tea. I don’t mean to imply that this means a lot because I have lots of Teavana favorites. Quite the contrary. I’ve liked few teas from Teavana, and this is one of those. It’s especially weird, given the low ratings this tea has. But I’ll just start with saying that, in its defense, it does not contain Hibiscus.

The tea brews to a clear, pale yellow, with a peachy hue. It does have a tendency to bitterness that can be eliminated by fastidious brewing and drinking (drink fresh and hot) procedure, but it does lead me to think that the white tea in this is not particularly high quality. This makes sense given that it is only being used a carrier for other, much more pronounced flavors. Enter the offensive sour cherry others have noted. So… I went through 1.5-2 oz. of this stuff over the course of a year or so, and never did the cherry flavor seem particularly sour or overwhelming. Strong, dominant, certainly. But never did I get the medicinal flavor mentioned in so many of the negative reviews. Not only that, but I found that although many of the reviews had a problem with this flavor, many did not. I mean, one expects that if a tea has a very pronounced flavor, some will love it and some will hate it, but it seems unlikely some would taste it and some would not. So I can only conclude that either Teavana changed this blend about 2-3 years ago or the flavor of the blend is severely inconsistent due to the distribution of “sour bits” (which, again, I didn’t really notice). The sour bits being presumably cranberry bits that the description mentions (and shows) but which I didn’t really taste or even remember seeing for that matter.

As for the flavor I did taste, it starts with sweet cherry, which dominates the palate but is accented delicately by faded rose (I sincerely mean that in the most positive way possible, like a faint scent of rose rather than its flavor) and carried by the mild, grassy notes of the white tea.

I found this tea pairs well with sweet, dessert dishes and fruit. It’s also great as a standalone treat when craving something sweet but light. Teavana’s regular price is definitely excessive, given that, as I said, I doubt the quality of the white tea is very high, but I would definitely buy it again if it was on sale.