Jasmine Silver Needle White Tea (Mo Li Yin Zhen)

This is super backdated, as I’ve since placed and received an order for this incredibly soothing tea. The Jasmine is strong, but also light at the same time. I was originally afraid it might be a bit cloying, but that wasn’t the case at all. I’m a huge fan of Teavivre’s Silver Needle, so anything using it as a base is almost a guaranteed home run in my books.

I figured I’d attempt to unwind from the holiday craziness with some aromathera-tea and I have to say it’s working very well.

I blind purchased Teavivres Jasmine Pearls as a Christmas gift for my mother. I’m looking forward to sharing a cup with her and seeing how they compare to this lovely tea (superb as usual for Teavivre, I’m sure).

Thank you Teavivre for this generous sample!

Glorious Jasmine Silver Needle White Tea. There is nothing else like it!

I have been waiting for this sample…anxious to taste what I was imagining would be fine, high quality flavor as all my Teavivre samples have been.

I set aside a time before dinner to enjoy my tasting. Chose Alex Bugnon and Peter White for some Smooth Jazz, and was ready to go.

The fragrance drew me hard into the cup. How could I have resisted.
I was stepping into a Harem, a forbidden place…all incense and silk scarves. A gentle spray of Jasmine flowers was flowing from a crystal pitcher. The taste was heady and luminous. Rivers of flavor so wet with juiciness rolling on and on.
There was something of the forest at the end of that initial taste. It reminded me of pine needles that are blue-green and icy. My cup was never bitter but I felt as though I had gone down deep into a dark blue pool of glacial water. It was the juice that took me to that new place and the flavor I found was in the tea trees. Dark green pine needles, tea needles somewhere high in the clefted hills.

Some tea’s are different by nature. The dance of preparation for this type of tea…spreading of flowers on the tea leaves…taking the flowers off…laying on fresh flowers. It has to be done just right. Everything must be perfect to become this cup. My cup was just so. Just the way I want it to be.

This is the way I love my Silver Needle. The Jasmine so light and fragrant…and the Forest..the tea needles…wild and dark, clothed in mystery.

I drank this straight. Later I tried it sweet and it is delightful for those who like sweet tea.

http://youtu.be/UdRc1bgqKqw Peter White…. Glow

A big thank you to Angel and Teavivre for a sample of this beautiful tea.

This is the tea that takes you away from it all, soothes, and calms you after a tough day.
This jasmine tea has just the right amount of jasmine and if you are afraid of a jasmine tea tasting perfumeish don’t be with this one. Teavivre are masters at what they do, and you won’t ever feel like you are drinking your grandmother’s perfume!

Now I will admit jasmine tea is not my all time favorite nor would I reach for this every day but there are just some days I really need transported and this is my comfort tea!
This particular Jasmine from Teavivre seems a little more mellow, more subtle, and it is so relaxing.

Thank you Angel and Teavivre for allowing me to try this one and share my feelings on it!

_{It has been many months since my last review, and I hope to start writing (and posting) reviews for teas again, although probably not as often as I had previously.}

Preliminary review

The leaf is stated as being harvested on March 25, 2012. I received 15 grams of this tea as one of many tea samples provided by Teavivre during the summer (thank you Angel and Teavivre!) and as the wife is out for the evening, I decided to brewed it up for the first time (she likes jasmine even less than I do, and she’s very particular about not wanting to drink a ‘type’ or ‘flavor’ of tea she previously disliked).

This tea looks like any standard silver needle tea I have seen (having had a few), and on the first inhale it smells strongly of jasmine, but not in a overpowering way. After taking a little more time to really take in all that the dry leaf aroma has to offer I could smell what I believe was the fresh white tea underneath the Jasmine scent.

I brewed about 2 full teaspoons of this tea using my standard parameters for my white teas by starting at 170F (I was actually shooting for ~165F) for 2 minutes in my new 14 OZ Glass Victorian Trading Company teapot (I absolutely love this little teapot), adding a bit of Stevia. I did three steeping sessions.

The tea liquor was a light straw color—possibly a little more yellow than what I am used to seeing in the liquor of a silver needle style white tea, with a mild jasmine scent.

It tasted light and refreshing, as any quality, fresh white tea seems to me to taste, such that the jasmine was not overpowering (as it seems to be in just about any other jasmine scented tea I have had).

The tea buds stood straight up and down—as silver needles are suppose to—while brewing; the buds smell about the same wet as dry, with a jasmine scent; interestingly enough, the buds are greener-looking than any other white tea I have seen. There are a few brownish looking buds and bud-ends, and a few stems, but otherwise the wet tea was comprised of nice-looking greenish-colored buds.

For the record, I want to emphasize that I am not a fan of jasmine flavored teas. I’ve only had a few (one or two green and one black) and I didn’t even remotely like them. So, I was leery about even agreeing to try this one (it is my first jasmine silver needle white tea). Still, after doing three steepings with it, although it’s not a tea I would choose to buy and drink, I will admit it has its appeal: it’s light and fresh, reminding me of the simple pleasure of spending a quiet sunny Sunday afternoon in a spacious garden or some high-ceiling-ed glass-walled atrium where floral scents abound. It held up well through three steepings (when I brew up the remainder of the sample at a later date I hope to push for 4, possibly 5). I am starting to think this may actually be the tea to change the way I view jasmine scented tea. Teavivre claims this tea is “the absolute highest quality scented white tea available,” and having tried many teas from them to date, and from what I have experienced here, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is indeed true.

As it’s my first type of this tea (and a preliminary review), I am leaving off the numerical rating.

Tea of the afternoon… (SRP #30)

Hmmm. The needles on this one are definitely longer than my previous cup. It also is incredibly fresh and you can see the difference in the steeped leaves compared to my last cup. The brew is so pale, it does not look all that much different from water. I had to double check the water temp, because I have not really seen a white tea brew up this pale. I used the same setting on my electric kettle as the last and steeped for 2 minutes. It could also be that I should have twice as much tea than the 5 gram packet I added to my 24 oz teapot (I am really thinking this is where my problem lies). This is quite different from my previous cup. But, this would be the prime choice for the person who likes subtlety in their floral teas. For me, I pretty much prefer a sweet form of jasmine in overdrive as long as it doesn’t go to perfumy. I do get the high quality white tea flavor profile. Also, the price of this one brings it in line more with an every day tea

I am off to try a resteep of the first half along with the rest of my sample for three minutes to see if it helps. Stay tuned.

Edit to add: Yes, much better on the resteep. Light jasmine, high quality white tea. Liquor is still on the pale side, but what I woud expect from a white tea.
In summary: Lovely tea. Unbeatable price. All form a company with great service and attention to detail in presenting themselves in a way appreciated by tea drinkers.

Another gratuitous sample from Teavivre! I really wanted to try some more of their teas but I didn’t feel like sitting down to something dark, and I’d already had a cup of the Dragonwell this morning. So here goes with this one.

When I opened the sample package, I looked inside to see that the buds were a bit more curled than I’d seen previously, and there are some small leaves mixed in with the buds. Bending down to take a closer look, I was hit with a really strong scent – much more strong than I’d expected. It was a lot different too – very flavorful. Beyond the jasmine I got whiffs of peach, plum and nectarine. There’s something else there that I can’t quite put my finger on. Maybe a sort of orchid scent? It almost reminds me of the forest, mossy and cool, but not dark. Regardless, it’s the best smelling unaltered white tea I’ve ever smelled.

The steeping instructions asked for 1-3 minutes; I steeped mine for approximately 2 to 3. I didn’t set a timer. After steeping, the buds look a bit of a brighter green than before, and they’ve started to unroll just slightly. The wet scent of these is similar to the dry scent, but not as strong. I’m also getting a little bit closer to the flavor I was unable to identify in the dry leaves – it smells almost mossy, somehow.

I used my 2-cup teapot for this, which is a light rose color. I really do need to get a glass or a white teapot. I’ve been eyeing the 18oz glass ForLife ones… sigh. Too many teapots, so little money. As it pours, the stream looks white. Even in the light pink teacup, I can see that the liquor is a pale yellow in color. The scent of the liquor is even fainter than the scent of the wet leaves, but it’s still along the same line.

It tastes fantastic. I haven’t had a lot of experience with yin zhen teas – I’ve tried the Teavana silver needles and David’s jasmine-scented. Both of them have been soft but fairly tasteless to me. I can hardly taste the jasmine in David’s.

But this – this is something else. I can taste the jasmine there without a doubt, but it’s light and delicate, without the overpowering dryness or “soapy” qualities it can have when used in excess. The best descriptor I can find for the tea is “round.” It’s clear and pure, mild and sweet. It’s the fullest-flavored yin zhen I’ve ever tasted, and it has its own distinctive flavor.

The first time I went into Teavana (hardly knowing anything about tea, but knowing that silver needles was considered “expensive and quality”) I asked for a cup of their silver needles so I could taste it. The girl there said “Sure, but it has a very light flavor it’s really best blended with other teas. Would you like to try that?” She blended it with another, and it was good, but this is a tea which, while very light, needs nothing extra to taste fantastic.

Thanks again Teavivre – you’ve sold me. Another one I have to add to my shopping list!

This came as a sample provided by Teavivre. This tea is so light and fluffy it barely fit in the sample bag – seriously. When I opened the bag I was hit with the jasmine scent. I was a little afraid as it seemed very strong, like many of the jasmines I have tried and not liked in the past. Within moments the scent calmed down and mellowed into that beautiful fragrance I love so dearly in their Jasmine Dragon Pearls (my favorite Teavivre tea).

The leaf itself is gorgeous. So light in color and almost brittle looking. I kept spooning it out until it ‘looked’ like the right amount in the bottom of my French press. Heated 12oz of water until it steamed then let it cool until it stopped making noise and poured. I steeped this for about a minute and a half. The liquor had the faintest yellow tint in the press and looked nearly clear as it poured. The wet leaf gives off an intoxicating aroma somewhere between honeysuckle and grape. Love it.

The sip is jasmine, the good kind – note overwhelming and not medicinal or fake. In addition is something I did not expect. This tastes and feels very milky to me. It’s almost creamy moving across the tongue. Really nice. At first I was having trouble picking out the white tea. Then I realized it was largely in the aftertaste. Though the flavor profile is a bit different, this is every bit as delicious as the beloved jasmine pearls. Seriously good.

Thank you Teavivre for sharing this tea and for showing me again that jasmine (done right) can be a work of art.

Ok, looks like I love this way more than others but I am going to rate this one because I think it deserves it.

Thankyou so much Angel and Teavivre for this sample. This is the sample that I have been most anxious to try. I think I am falling in love with jasmine teas.

Dry leaf appearance: Beautiful fuzzy long white needles

Aroma: smells like fresh jasmine in a sunny meadow

Taste: Light jasmine, with that wonderful delicate white tea in the background. Sweetness comes through in a silky smooth way. This has a wonderful mouth feel to it, creamy like! I am glad I got such a large sample pack of this because I am certainly enjoying this!

2nd steep: 85degrees, 2minutes, just as delicious as the first with a little stronger jasmine.

I have had a LOT of tea today, so I will have to do the other steepings tomorrow and update!

Not sure how it compares to my beloved pearls, I will have to taste this tea again, and then on another day…have a side-by-side taste comparison.

Edit: 3rd steep, 90degrees, 3minutes, starting to lose flavour and silkiness, I think I would cold brew this steep next time.

Oh, jasmine. I’m not sure there’s a more intoxicating smell on this earth. It envelops you, comforts you and lets you know you’re in for a treat…it’s truly something special.

This one tastes very pure and natural. The jasmine does not smell or taste perfumey or over-the-top at all. As I sat and contemplated the imagery this tea was presenting to me, I noticed some of the same things that Bonnie identified. Pine forests and blue glacial water like in the Canadian wilderness. Then to a moonlit forest late at night, seeing the precious jasmine flower bloom before me. Wonderful. I absolutely love the imagery that tea can give me.

This is a very smooth and very sweet tea, probably the sweetest jasmine tea I’ve had. Absolutely marvelous, thank you for the sample Teavivre.

Oh wow. Wow oh wow oh wow. I love the smell that hit me when I opened this package. It was almost too rich to be true. The jasmine was muted, the white tea magnificent! This is a sample from Angel and Teavivre.

We made this western style for tea party day. The liquor is a pale golden color, with perhaps the barest tinge of peach color. The aroma is now light, somewhat frosty/fruity, very subtle. The jasmine is there, but it is almost just a sweet high note, not strong like in my beloved Jasmine Dragon Pearls.

This is a lovely white tea and clearly an excellent tea base. You could never accuse this tea of being perfume-y or soapy, or of having too much jasmine. Because I find GOOD jasmine so relaxing and it is a real stress reliever for me, I love the Jasmine Dragon Pearls. I dislike fakey jasmine very much. This is great white tea with a hint of jasmine giving sweetness and interest. The sweet taste lingers and makes me keep reaching for my cup and drinking this much more quickly than I intended!

Thank you, Teavivre, for the opportunity to try this lovely tea!

This sample comes thanks to Angel Chen and Teavivre. I haven’t drank a lot of jasmine white teas before. and I wanted to have this one soon after the Jasmine White Yunnan from Verdant yesterday. Of course, this is a Fujian white and that was a Yunnan white, so I’m interested to see the differences.

One thing that’s immediately different is the aroma of the dried leaf. This one is jasminey, but also with almost a savory note to it. Steeped, all the scents kind of mellow a bit, but I still get an almost herbaceous jasmine quality. The flavor on this is bright, crisp. The jasmine is sweet and leaves a slight honeysuckle aftertaste. I get a slight hay-ish note from the white tea, but overall it’s mostly really bright, leaving an almost tingly sensation in my mouth. It’s a light tea, but it doesn’t seem like it’s understeeped as much as just light in character. This is a very tasty tea, but I do think that the white yunnan was more my style. Glad I got the opporunity to try this one, though!

I picked this one up from teavivre to broaden my tea experiences and continue in my quest to branch out with teas and figure out what types of teas I most enjoy. I much prefer strong blacks so i knew there wasn’t a lot of hope that I’d fall in love with this white tea. The dry scent is not my favourite. The Jasmine is a bit too floral for me.
This tea brews up into a pale golden liquor but the aroma isn’t overly floral. At first sip, I am pleasantly surprised. This is a really nice cup of tea. As i drink this, the floral builds up and it becomes a bit much for me. That being said, this is a wonderful cup of tea for anyone who enjoys jasmine. It’s smooth and delicious.

Thanks Teavivre for yet another generously-sized sample of a tea I’m quite interested in trying! I seem to have developed a fondness for jasmine whites instead of jasmine greens, so hopefully this one works for me!

The aroma emanating from the packet is strongly of a sweet, delicious jasmine. It almost makes me think candy! Delicious. The tea is a bit more subdued (probably a good thing), but has a nice jasmine aroma that makes me think of Chinese food (haha), but unlike the tea I have at my favourite Chinese restaurant, the flavour here is sweet and delicate (and quite floral, although that’s the same), and completely smooth and silky. All the jasmine deliciousness without the bitterness/astringency from green tea.

I’m not quite sure whether I prefer Verdant’s Yunnan White Jasmine or this tea (I’m not likely to keep multiple white jasmines on hand), so will have to do a comparison one day.

Ahhh… this is lovely! It seems that I’m quite a fan of Teavivre’s Silver Needle White teas. This Jasmine tea has quite a strong smell when I open the package, but as I sip, it’s nicely floral, fragrant, and sweet.

I accidentally spilled a little of this tea on the shirt I was wearing this morning, and I decided I even liked the smell of this tea as a perfume…kind of strange I know.

Thank you Angel and Teavivre for this sample, this one was a perfect fit for my taste. I will have to explore any other options you might have with Silver Needle White – I’m curious what other treasures I might find. In the meantime I will be enjoying this one….mmmmm….

Thank you for this sample, Teavivre! Sorry for taking 3928752 years to get to it.

I wanted more white tea tonight, and realized I had a lot of unopened silver needle samples. Jasmine sounded especially nice so I brewed this one up.

This is really light after 90 seconds. And I don’t know if I like jasmine with silver needle, because it tastes so amazing by itself. I’ll give it another try at some point, because it was just too muted for me.

I feel like Goldilocks…first a white has too much flavor for what I was looking for, then the next one is too light! I’ll revisit this again soon and steep it longer.

(Free sample provided by Teavivre. Thank you!)

This will be the first tea from sample pack I’ve received from Teavivre some month ago or so. I’m not a big fan of jasmine scented teas, I’m OK with mild jasmine aroma but when there’s a tea scented with perfumy and overpowering impression it makes me run for the hills.

With a sample pack weighing 5,5 grams I managed to distribute it for traditional western and gaiwan gong fu brewing method, so I’ll be doing western method now and gaiwan gong fu some other time.

This tea was chosen for me to review by one fan from my Facebook page, so if you’re from ex-Yugoslavia area I encourage you to check it, just search – Dobri čajevi.

Setup:

Glass teapot (250 ml)
Leaf – 2,5 gram (2 tsp.)
Water – 80 Celsius 200 ml
Time – 1 min, 1 min, 2 min

Leaf & infusion:

Dry leaf – Leaf is somewhat broken (most likely due to handling and tight packaging) revealing its flakey leaf texture, but it retains a lot of whole buds with white-grayish color texture and almost completely covered with fine white hair. In complete sample pack there’s only few yellow jasmine flowers. Jasmine scent is mild, pleasant and natural.

Wet leaf – While brewing this tea almost no buds sank, with few standing upright as heavier stalks free of air get soaked up. Once drained, buds air with cucumber-like aroma and appear more fat with emerald green color and accent on veins.

Infusion (1st) – First infusion is clear with light gray-yellow hue and on the bottom there are some leaf parts that have managed to pass through the strainer. While jasmine aroma seems to be gentle but firm, and almost sweet-like.

Taste is soft, fruity (peach) with jasmine finish that lingers for short time. On first sip, the tea makes a strong impression, as with additional sips that stretch out sweetness even more and introduce smooth, silky flow across the tongue and light tingling sensation in throat. With last sips minty freshness appears and one can enjoy lingering fruity peach and jasmine notes in between.

Infusion (2nd) – Second infusion is more intense in taste, and even savory. As jasmine aroma shifts to almost an undertone, for best enjoyment it’s better to drink it when it gets almost lukewarm as sweetness and smoothness get accentuated. With last sips some dryness on tongue can be noted.

Infusion (3rd) – Third infusion reveals less delicate but still pleasant aspect of this tea as it gets more dry and even with a touch of astringency.

Conclusion – As I’m not a fan of jasmine scented teas I was actually surprised how much pleasant sips I got from this one. This tea is both delicate and delicious even if I got this session a bit of the balance with steeping time, but I’m sure that I would get it even better provided that I have more leaf. Anyways, I’m expecting some good results with the rest sample and gaiwan brewing method.

I found this tea to be similar to Verdants’ Fuijian White Jasmine. The jasmine in this is very nice and floral with no honeysuckle. I found the floral in this one to be more garden floral, not hot, humid summer floral with honeysuckle. I could also taste the white tea too, melon, sweet, and hay notes throughout. I found this to be a very nice balanced jasmine tea that isn’t overpowering with its jasmine taste.

This sample was sent to me for review. Thank you Angle and Teavivre.

The white teas I’ve tried so far see to consist of a dry vegetal note that reminds me of hay, cucumber and pepper. This doesn’t really have the cucumber flavor and very little of pepper. It may be the jasmine as it’s pretty powerful in here. Underneath the jasmine there is a sweeter apple note.

I think the jasmine fu is too strong with this one for it to earn a spot in my cupboard. However, I’m glad I got the chance to try it.

Tea Vivre Samples Round #3

The best word for this tea is balanced.

Long running readers of my reviews will know that I am not a fan of floral things, least of all in tea.

For reasons that are not entirely clear to me, Houston’s Chinese restaurants all seem to serve jasmine tea rather than green or oolong as their “default” tea. I’ve never come across that in any other city. Unfortunately, most of it is bad, bagged, or low quality tea, besides.

Which is part of why I opted to taste this sample in spite of my biases.

Now, I freely admit that my biases against flavored, scented and spiced teas derives largely from my book knowledge of why teas began to be processed this way in the first place. But, I am learning to accept that many of these techniques have become a tradition and that there are those who are trying to elevate them to an art in their own right and not simply as a way of selling mediocre tea across vast distances and time.

This silver needle scented tea points the way to beginning to understand this. The floral notes are absolutely heady, almost cloying, the moment the leaves are first struck by hot water. I freely admit I was terrified that I was about to drink the equivalent of a cup of rose water. But amazingly, after this initial offering of intensity, the jasmine has quickly settled into place side by side, perhaps even a step behind, the tea itself.

I’m several extremely short steepings into these leaves and I’m only just now thinking that longer steeps are in order and so far there is no bite, no hard edge, nothing unpleasant in these cups. A soft, but present tea being supported by unassertive, but present flowers.

These teas will never be my first choice. Never be my ‘go to’ cup. But if more people served tea like this one that Tea Vivre is offering, I’d wrinkle my nose far less when dining out.

Thank you very much to our tea Angel for putting me on the right path.

This was a sample (to Missy!) from the wonderful Angel and the Teavivre crew.

The first thing you notice about this tea is WOW, JASMINE! It is very heavily fragranced, they definitely do not skimp on the jasmine for this particular batch.

The tea itself brews into a beautiful, placid, lightly yellowish-green color. You think for a second that maybe you haven’t brewed it long enough. Especially when you pour it into a big red mug!

The flavor is a really strikingly powerful sweet jasmine flavor, with a secondary flavor that sits somewhere near golden apples. Sweet and fruity, powerfully so. Beneath that, there is a lightly hay flavored, dry white tea taste, with a hint of that brushy-pepper aftertaste that I associate with many white teas.

Overall, a very tasty brew if you’re fond of jasmine. I think I prefer Teavivre’s jasmine pearls to this, but in general I would prefer most green teas over white, methinks.

And after one 2-minute brew, these leaves barely look touched. You could easily go two or three brews off these babies.