Organic Silver Needle White Tea (Bai Hao Yin Zhen)

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Thank you to Bonnie for this decadent sample from TeaVivre!!

As I’ve never tried a straight White, this one completely refashioned my perception and respect for what they have to offer! This Bai Hao Yin Zhen is fragrantly refined and tempered living hayfields yet is also tinged with the slightest salt balance in the cup. The buds were amazingly downy and delicate but tripped the light fantastic when given the chance over five steepings. Simply quite wonderful and a splendid offering from TeaVivre!

Wonderful in every way! This might sound strange but of course this takes like silver needle and of course it tastes like white tea…but…I also find a hint of something like mashed potatoes or Potato Soup…I know…it’s a stretch but it’s super yummy regardless! LOL It’s quite malty for a white and I really like that!

As much as I love big, strong, bold, dark teas, my favorite dry leaf is white needles. Big, fuzzy, white buds that look cool, and always smell like freshly rolled hay drying in the sun.

The steeped aroma is quieter, almost shy. There’s a kind of sweet grain essence to it, like opening a fresh box of corn flakes, but not nearly that strong. Like someone opening a fresh box of corn flakes in the other room. Down the hall.

The cup is round, and wet and sweet almost like fresh snow peas or papaya. But again, from very far away. Like you’re tasting what your identical twin is eating downstairs while you sleep in under a huge, downy duvet.

Instead of saving back some of the samples that I am pretty sure I am going to love, I notice I am grabbing them first. Oh well, here goes another. The dry buds are long and silvery white with a bit of green. Very fresh and sweet smelling. Hate to over use the hay word but that’s what I picture when I inhale. Let’s call it alfalfa because that sounds cooler.

Steeped per the instructions for 1 ½ minutes. Wet leaf smells really good. The brew is very pale almost clear with a greenish tint. What a contrast to the puerh from yesterday! Hard to believe they both come from the same plant. Well, not literally but you know what I mean.

The first sip is light with cucumber notes or melon as some may interpret it. Sweet with a touch of grass. I am not sure my description is doing this justice. This is a really good cup of relaxation. My stress level has been through the roof lately and this is just the vacation moment I needed. I am sitting back and staring out the window while sipping the cup. Ahhhh. I would hate to imagine any one would slam this down and not take the time to appreciate it. Cups two and three were every bit as pleasurable.

Yummy :) On the sweeter side out of all the silver needle teas I’ve had. I love silver needle because it’s (nearly) impossible to ruin it – I just steep the leaves straight in a cup, either while working or on the go, and there is always a 50/50 chance I will get distracted with something and come back to my tea a while later. This one never lets me down.

_{Tea sample provided by Teavivre for review}

Scent from the dry leaves reminds me of straw (in a good way). The liquid aroma brings out some melon and cucumber notes.

Onto drinking it, I taste very subtle flavours; melon, cucumber, essence of spring, straw, something sweet, “tea” flavour. It goes down very smooth, the texture is kind of fuzzy and velvety. I’d say this is more comforting than it is refreshing.

The second steep yielded much of the same flavours. My husband liked it, but felt this was too subtle for him.

Overall this is very similar to Bai Mu Dan, but here the leaves are all buds. The buds make for a very smooth tea, with no obvious faults poking your mouth as you drink. I think trying “plain” white tea once (Bai Hao Yin Zhen or Bai Mu Dan) is a good experience. If you’ve only had the flavoured stuff before, the original tea flavour can be lost.
Personally, I enjoy white tea because it’s not too heavy on the flavour and doesn’t become too grassy like some green teas.

Next time I brew this, I’ll try multiple short steeps in the gaiwan. The Teavivre website lists 5-6 steeps, so I will aim to get the same results.

200ml glass teapot (filled to the brim), 1 packet (5g? 2 tsp?), 2 steeps

Wow! Mmmm! Yum! This tea is so delicious! It’s the perfect exemplar for this type of tea. Hay and flowers!

I received this as a free sample from the company. So far, I’m really impressed. The packaging is very professional; it’s actually double packaged. The interior packaging is split into individual steeping samples. No measuring required!

This silver needle tea is sweet and lovely with no bitterness at all. The taste lingers long after the sip. Light and pleasant. It’s slightly astringent, but overall just a beautiful tea. Perfect for enjoying late before bed!

Thanks to Angel and Teavivre for a sample of this tea!

I love silver needles- the little fuzz all over the leaves just makes it seem so alive!

This might be the RICHEST white tea I’ve ever tasted. It is hard to describe. The smell of wet straw dipped in white chocolate maybe? Its sweet, earthy and VERY smooth.

If you like white teas this one is a sure bet!

This is the first sample I’ve tried from Teavivre (who I have to thank for being so amazingly generous, especially Angel) and it’s hands down the best white tea I’ve ever tasted. It was light and refreshing, absolutely gorgeous! It’s definitely hooked me from the first sip. The second steeping was just as good as the first as well. A definite keeper.

This tea is light and fresh. The floral taste is nicely meshed with what appears to be reminiscent of crisp cucumber. This tea is so refreshing that it feels revitalizing to drink it. It is so delicate, yet so good I have dubbed it my crack tea.

This morning I was having even more trouble than usual shaking the slumber off of my metabolism so I could face the day. I yearned for some potent black tea which usually does the trick.

However, fate dealt me a different hand as I accidentally, with squinting eyes, reached for the Teavivre Organic Silver Needle White Tea instead. Since, in my half-asleep state, I had already ripped the seal from the packet when I realized my mistake, I decided to make the best of the situation and go with it.

As I raised the cup to my lips and the first few drops of liquid trickled down my throat, my eyes popped open, not from the usual caffeine jolt of black tea, but from the incredible flavor that emerged from this amazing white tea!

I’m not a fan of flowery tasting teas, but the wonderful sweet floral flavor of this tea brought me back to memories of my childhood when I would suck out the sweet nectar of honeysuckle blossoms during the hot and humid New Jersey summers.

This tea has an extremely smooth taste to it. The floral and sweet flavors are in perfect harmony. There is no bitterness and neither flavor sensation overpowers the other.

The clean light golden yellow color of this tea, like white wine, is very inviting. You may want to serve this one in clear mugs to get the full effect.

Teavivre has once again broadened my horizons with another fantastic tea. I now see (and taste) the value and good in all tea colors. Black, white, green; they are now all equal in my sight (and tastebuds).

My samples from Teavivre came! Yay thanks Angel!

The leaves are beautiful here, long and fuzzy. The smell out of the bag is subtle, grassy and a bit floral. So when I took my first sip, it was completely unexpected. Salt. hmmm.
I had to make myself try another sip, but it was well worth it. Not sure where the salt came from, but now it was wonderful. A bit like hay as others have mentioned, but soft and silky, with later sips giving way to notes of melon, savory grass, and a light, delicate, floral. This is only my second or third silver needle, but it has left me very intrigued. I love the subtle, delicate but complex nature of this tea. I look forward to trying more silver needles to compare.

Once again, another generous sample from Teavivre! I’ve been craving the lighter unadulterated teas today. I LOVE silver needle teas! They remind me of what good chamomile should taste like. It is very smooth, light, and a bit floral. The leaves aren’t as fuzzy as some other silver needles I’ve tried. However, I really, really like this. It is calming, yet it seems to help me focus.

Drank this one yesterday evening.

Great tea, very bold taste, very humble and unpretentious. Though a tiny bit too grassy for me, I guess. It lacks some flower-y notes for my liking, But still, I’d drink this one every day for a long time.

However, if I’d have to choose between Organic White Peony (Bai Mu Dan) Tea and this one, I would choose the first one (that’s why I’ve got 3 packages of it :P ).

Have had this several times now and am appreciating the subtle yet flavorful nuances of this excellent silver needle. Though mild, it is far from boring. Following the directions, I brewed 2 (heaping) tsp in 8 oz water for 1 min, increasing by 30-60 seconds for subsequent steepings. As I read other reviews, I was nodding when I saw descriptions like cucumber, hay, floral. I would say all these were just hints-combining to give a very satisfying experience. I enjoyed it with a tiny bit of Stevia. Perfect for a soothing cup in the evening

Another sample from Teavivre. They sent a nice big sample! So nice for testing temps, etc… I’m not done deciding on this yet..it has such a delicate flavor I’m giving it more steeps so I can better express it!

Later…ok, I steeped it a little differently and now I can really taste it! I used water at about 190 degrees and used more leaf to water ratio. The aroma and first taste is allll hay and grass, which I really enjoy. It has a lingering, mouthwatering sweetness. I love it! I got four good steeps out of this before I quit!

I’m wondering if I did something wrong the flavor is so light. The brew is almost the color of water. I used the entire sample bag so I don’t think the amount of tea is the problem.

What flavor there is is light and pleasant. I get the hay notes other people are getting but my cup seems to be a bit more on the fruity side. I think this would be delicious cold brewed but it’s very refreshing hot.

I don’t know what it is with certain white teas, but they seem to vary in flavor and freshness with me. Well, this white tea is good. It’s very light when it’s brewed up, and I kept getting faint hints of sweetness on the aftertaste.

This was the first white tea I’ve had that I actually went for a second infusion. It has a warm hay/dried grain aroma and flavor in lighter quality, floral notes are strong and tend to linger.
I brewed this as directed, but ended up liking the 1 min brew more than the 2, personally finding the subtle gentle flavors more appealing than a bolder brew.
The leaves are very pretty, fuzzy frost blue spears, very little dust at the bottom of my cup :) if I were to serve this for guests I would be pairing it with a little bite that had a floral component, like a lavender-salt goat cheese spread with a nutty/multi grain cracker, or something similar.

Great tea, always in my cupboard.
http://www.teablr.com/2012/12/organic-silver-needle-white-tea-bai-hao-yin-zhen-from-teavivre/