Ancient Yellow Buds

Still on location at the London Tea Room. I come to this place often enough that my waitress, Audrey, gave me a big hug upon my arrival! We talked on & off while I was enjoying the first pot of tea, & I decided to stick around for lunch. I ordered the Chicken Waldorf Salad: chicken, golden raisins, walnuts, apples, pears, red onion & curried mayo on a bed of mixed salad greens, with a walnut vinaigrette dressing on the side. I’ve had it before, & it’s delicious.

For a tea, I’m having the Ancient Yellow Buds. This is my first yellow tea, & I’ve been thinking of trying it for awhile. The smell & appearance of the tea leaves is similar to a silver needle, a little nutty & bright. It brews into a beautiful pale yellow liquor, leaning towards an almost apricot tinge. They served it in a 12 oz glass teapot (made by rishi, I have one, & I love it. It looks like a miniature koolaid pitcher), & a small white porcelain cup, which really shows off the color of the tea. LTR doesn’t have photos of their teas on their website, so knowing I’d be the first to list this tea, I snapped a pic off with my iPhone so you could see the lovely color.

The flavor? Very mellow, light like a silver needle, but a little richer & sweeter. Slightly fruity, almost a little buttery, & although it doesn’t taste like corn, it has a savoriness that almost reminds me of cornbread stuffing. I know, that’s crazy!

I lost interest in my salad & had them pack up the rest of it to go.