Mothola Estate White Tea (TA98)

In the ER, out, in the ER out. At least I managed a three day interim this time.
Thanks to Ellen for this. I hadn’t tried an Indian white before but I’ve only heard laudatory reviews. This one wasn’t astounding but a nice change. Not as malty as I’d like but it’s definately a good Assam. Surprisingly like oak and held up to seven small steeps for me, not much variation in flavors. It piqued my interest in Indian white tea. Hmm, how would an Izu white taste, I wonder?

Interesting for sure, smells like Assam, looks like silver needle but less silver and slightly larger. Its certainly larger than the Kenyan tips and Darjeeling white. The color of the liquor of this first 3 min steep (what can I say, I’ve become cautious with these sample sizes) is quite striking, it’s a peachy champagne.

The tea has nice light notes but with all the depth of an Assam, minus the big bite. I definitely prefer this to black Assam but it’s a really hard to top the Tinderet Silver Tips surprising cocoa sweetness, I do think it’s more interesting than the Darjeeling Arya Pearl though.

Two more steeps adding on a min each, color is more golden, flavor stronger on the second and lighter on the third. It’s a good Assam and a good white, but I dont really care for Assams unless they are the base for spices, so I shan’t be ordering it again. Tomorrow, a white Ceylon.

Update for sipdown. There is a something roasty but still vegetal and still light about the first two steeps. I’d recommend this as a white for those that like roasty blacks and oolongs. Third and sixth steeps are quite sweet while the fourth and fifth had something dry and winey going on. I steeped these at 3-4 mins each the second time around. To be fair I did add the white Kenyan as I had less than a teaspoon of it left, but I definitely was tasting mostly Assam.

I just received my order of white tea samples from Upton. This is the first tea I fished out of the box.
The description says it was grown in Assam region so I was very curious to try it because I really enjoy white Darjeelings and like the idea of white tea having characteristics of black tea.
The aroma coming from the bag is intoxicating, it smells like black tea with a touch of honey. The dry leaf is similar to Silver Needle but a bit darker in color and is bald, doesn’t have any hairs at all.
I brewed this in a Gaiwan. The brew is darker as well and tastes exactly like it smells – black tea, notes of honey and almost no Silver Needle sweetness.
I’m on the 4th steeping right now and it’s still flavorful. Amazing.
I’ll be adding this tea to my regular white tea rotation, no doubt here.

I really like Assam so the concept of a white Assam tea was really interesting to me. It had a nice aroma coming out the bag. It smelled characteristically of Assam, but also reminded me of silver needle. But when I tasted some, the flavors were just too weak, even a bit perfume-ey. Maybe I should have brewed it for longer?

This tea was ok but nothing spectacular. In my opinion too expensive for the taste.