Laoshan White

My goodness, this tea is taking me to heaven on a Thursday. The dry smell reminded me of creamy green oolongs, and that smell to me has a Pavlov’s Dog effect.

The taste though, the taste! First steep is at 175 degrees, water gently introduced and poured out at 20 seconds. The scent is so intoxicating – I could just breath it in all day. Luckily, I also get to taste it – so I take a sip.

So many flavours, like a silky smooth wave. Vegetal with a slight astringency that fades as the cup cools off into a buttery, savoury flavour that has me licking my lips after every sip. Honestly – I just close my eyes with each sip and drift away to a heavenly place where this tea must exist, or else I don’t want to go. I’m done my first steep and my tongue is tingling, with a lingering sweetness that has me going back for more.

The leaves are so gorgeous – vibrant green and curly, waiting for me to steep them again. (And I will, be patient leaves)

This tea is satisfying both my sweet and salty cravings (like a salted caramel would). Or, more specifically, a salted brown butter and honey glaze over fresh green beans straight from the garden. Crisp and crunchy, but juicy at the same time!

This tea is hitting me with waves of emotion – grateful to be sipping this tea that brings tears to my eyes, grateful to be surrounded by an amazing tea community, and especially grateful for all of the events of my life that lead me to this moment, here and now.

Thank you David & Verdant for this amazing offering.

EDIT: After going to heaven for the 2nd steeping, I was naughty like Bonnie and added a teeny tiny bit of honey. It was so good my eyes rolled up in the back of my head. This is the one!

EDIT again: Michael smelled it and tried a sip, all he said was “Porkchops” so, yes. The second steep has the flavours I use to make porkchops, and I totally smell and taste it now too! haha. Seasoning salt and crispy, dark butter!

Just brewed some of this one up, and OH MY GOODNESS this smells so incredibly delicious! Like creamy caramels mixed with that delicious vegetal flavour… it is all I can do not to gulp this down, but I’d surely burn my throat quite badly.

Cool faster, tea!!! Updated tasting note to come…

Also, for reference, I brewed ~4g of this in ~6oz. of 175F water for about 30 seconds. All approximate, yep. If this is as delicious as the aroma, hopefully I can replicate it…

ETA: Ok, I have very little experience with straight white teas, but this one is absolutely amazing! I love love LOVE vegetal greens, particularly ones with a natural rock sugary sweetness (like the Dragonwell-style Laoshan Green), but this is completely something else. Not rock sugar, but definitely creamy, sweet caramel with that Laoshan background. Amazing. I only picked up a sample of this one, but I suspect a full ounce or two may be headed my way sooner than my bank account would prefer…

ETA again: Yummmmm. I would be hard-pressed to identify this as a white tea over a green, but I really don’t care… this one is so good!

ETA a third time: Second infusion, 175F for a minute, is astringent but not unpleasantly so. The vegetal, green-beany flavour is very present, and leaves a strong, caramelly, vegetal aftertaste. Oh so good. I do, however, think that a 45s infusion may have been a touch better – less strong! Or more water. Either way, this is one yummy tea.

I was going to drink this last night but then I ended up cold steeping it. The only problem is that for some reason my refrigerator decided to be very cold, and I opened the jar to find some ice! So I think that kind of ruined the flavor, sadly. The end note is very bitter, which I’m going to say is either that or me sleeping so long it steeped for 12 hours, and if I had gone with 10 maybe the stupid ice wouldn’t have formed.

But before it gets bitter, it is so overwhelmingly creamy and tastes just like snap peas. It’s sweet and yet savory at the same time.

I probably won’t have time until next week to give it a proper steeping in my gaiwan, but I had to try the cold steep! And next time I try that, the refrigerator is already set to not be so cold.

I was a little skeptical of this tea before trying it, and that’s because I was a little disappointed with the Laoshan Green when I tried it. I mean, it was a good tea, I just think that Verdant’s poetic descriptions can get my hopes a little too high sometimes.

This one, however, was even better than I thought it would be. This tasted how I imagined the Laoshan Green would taste. This was what I wanted. It’s extremely smooth with luscious silky mouthfeel. The prominent notes are green beans and maybe a little bit of spinach (but not in the same way as a Japanese green). Besides that, there’s a pleasant mineral taste that fades into a sweet, delicate finish. But there is more to this tea flavor-wise that I just can’t put my finger on. There’s something enchanting about it. It’s the definition of refreshing, and this has been my go-to tea lately for moments of calm and meditation. It just puts me in a great, relaxed state of mind.

I absolutely LOVE this tea.

My tasting note went bye bye after Firefox crashed on me. :(

This is an exquisite white tea … the leaves are incredibly green. If I had not opened the pouch myself, I would swear that these were green tea leaves and not white. They are so tiny and delicate looking… and deeply green!

The flavor is amazing. Sweet and vegetative, tasting very much like sweet sugar snap peas as suggested by Verdant. I also taste the hint of almond to this, it tastes almost creamy like the creaminess of a raw almond, but, with the sweetness of a roasted almond (but not so much of the toasty flavor of the roasted almond). It’s really quite delightful. Delicate in the way that I taste generally only from a white tea, but, also quite green tea tasting. Very intriguing and lovely.

In subsequent infusions I notice more sweetness, like honey… reminding me of the honeysuckle of my childhood memories, but not quite that either. It’s somewhere between that honeysuckle and wildflower honey.

I really love this White tea … I can see why it has been so highly regarded by other Steepsterites. I’m enjoying this immensely.

Thank you to Geoffrey and Verdant for this new Laoshan White sample!

Most of the time, tea is an experience to share with a friend or a time to reflect on scenes from my life. The places I’ve been and the sweetness of life that I sometimes have forgotten about.
Like a magic key, drinking tea unlocks those special memories in a mystical way that I accept as just being the way things are. I can’t explain it.

When I received this sample, I was so pleased. The packet looked stranger than any White tea I had seen before. Green, green little tightly curled rings of tea that looked like thin noodles. I think I chuckled with delight.

This morning I began with a small glass pot, spring water, 1.5tsp tea. 30-35 sec. steep at 175f 6oz water and will record here 3 steepings. (It could go to 5) The liquor was pale yellow green, then golden and finally pale yellow. (I drink from a small sipping bowl)

My experience with this Laoshan White had a place in mind.
I was immediately taken visually somewhere familiar in my life. I lived in Northern California. My father was from Napa, my mother born in a logging camp. Being close to the Monterey Coast and the bounty of fruits and vegetables…with the fog cooling the fields of lettuce, beans, squash, grapes, artichokes, berries…you feel that life inside you. For some reason, the picture of the fields, and the fog rolling in as it did every afternoon was in my mind as I drank this tea.

My first sip had an immediate startling impact. Wow! Wow! “What is this?”, I spoke aloud.
There was a sizzle, a sparkle and instantly a coolness. I thought about the vegetable flavor that was present and could not figure it out. There were no notes on this tea yet to help me. Thinking of the freshest vegetables on the Coast with a delicate flavor and sweet skin…I thought of yellow summer squash. Sliced at an angle and cooked al dente
in unsalted butter…creamy but the sweet tender flavor intact. Juicy, fresh.

I was left with the feeling that I had finished a good meal. Lingering flavor and rich mouth-feel.

Second steeping.
The smell of the wet leaves were strong! Meaty! I wanted to eat them!
This bowl was sweeter and more floral and like the fog it was a vapor cool in my mouth…drifting by. There was a slight bitterness and less of a vegital taste. I was moving so fast like tea speed dating. I Paused……
When I slowed down, I was able to notice heat on my tongue and an aftertaste that was good…but I couldn’t tell what it was. Somewhere in this second steep I was meandering…wandering and got lost. Maybe the tea was in transition. Maybe I was.

Third steeping.
The wet leaves had fully opened up to a vibrant green. They smelled delicious.
The sip from my bowl was exciting! My mouth lit up, fully awake and tingling. There were wild clover flowers, sweet juice on a carpet of cream. “This was where the tea was taking me…and this is a fine place to be,” I said. The lingering taste of the tea is outstanding. For the longest time you taste the flavor. You want more and more. The tea is addictive.
At that point, I realized I had consumed 18oz. of the finest White Tea in short order and was feeling the effects. What is called a “Centerdness” among other things, a little tea buzz. Really nice!

This is a curious review for me. I have no background in White Tea, no guidelines, no instructors. I know what I like. The experience of where this tea took me…to a place where my children and I picked berries, where I bought artichokes off the farm. Where I worked with migrant children years ago on the farms. This vision with the tea was special.

very interesting tea – I had to get this in my latest order from Verdant as I love white teas. I am drinking this tonight in a wine glass, aren’t I sophistimicated?

Anyway, this is lovely! I am surprised by the flavors and everything going on here with this tea. I decided to steep it for two minutes at 165F — Western style — but would like to gongfu it sometime just to see what that’s like.

I got a nice, clear infusion and I agree with Doug that it has some similarities to a dragonwell; the light vegetal notes with a hint of butteriness is what struck me first about it. There is a definite light creamy element about it that is rather charming. The clover element is what sticks with me through the finish. I’m not really getting vanilla soymilk, but perhaps I need to steep it differently in order for that to happen? It isn’t as sweet as some white teas I have tried, but still rather nice all the same. A very nice offering from Verdant! I don’t know why I am so sleepy this evening, or I would try to write more… I feel like all I do is work, sleep, eat and drink tea!

Dry smell: The dry smell is light but thick. It smells like a mix of strong green vegetables. It is a mix of bean and pea smells that could go along with a meal like steak.

Wet Smell: The wet leaf smell is still light but loses the thickness that the dry leaf had. Now it has more of a thick nutty smell mixed with an array of dark green vegetables.

Taste: This tea is very light at first. There is no flavor that just comes out and immediately hits you. It’s almost like it starts off with a warm flavorless crispness. The next flavor that comes out reminds me of edamame. It has the same crisp bean flavor but with a smoothness at the back. When you begin to swallow you notice the nutty and dark green vegetable flavor. Even with the strong finish the aftertaste is very light and pleasant.

This tea would be great after dinner when still have things to do but want to add a little relaxation. It’s a nice light tea overall.

I’m sad to see this go. Is this where I say sip-down? This tea is fantastic. It’s not like any other white tea out there that I’ve ever encountered. It’s a lot like Summer Laoshan Green, but lighter. It’s super smooth and creamy, I love it. This was my morning and early afternoon partner today for studying…finals are coming.

So after bashing my head in Stage Combat, I decided to fix up my head by trying my sample of this tea. After reading all of these reviews I cannot wait to get this going, I can only hope it lives up to the hype hahaha.

I have decided to follow the instructions on the site, which seems interesting. I hope this turns out well. So far the dry smells a lot like Matcha tea or peas, loving it.

1st: 20sec @ 175F. Tastes just like snow peas with a bit of sweetness similar to honey or rock sugar. Color is a nice pale yellow. There is a tail note of soy milk or almond milk

2nd + 3rd: 25 sec @ 175F. Taste is even stronger this time, in a good way. My mouth feels so fresh and clean right now and I love it.

4th+5th: 35 sec @ 175F. Very sweet this time and a little less peay.

So in all this is fantastic. Would order more, if only I had money.

Quick Notes Thanks to Bonnie for sharing with me :)

Dry – lighty vegetal, sweet, somewhat nutty/buttery.
Wet – Vegetal, snow peas/sweet peas, nutty, buttery.
Liquor – light/pale green.

1st 20secs – lightly sweet and refreshing with buttery and creaminess up front. As it washes down the vegetal notes become more apparent but the creaminess. The after is clean and slowly turns sweet and vegetal.

2nd 15secs – Creamy, buttery, sweet and vegetal notes up front. As it washes down, it is smooth and sweeter with snow pea notes and sugary sweetness that lightly lingers in the aftertaste.

3rd 20secs – Creamy, buttery and vegetal with some sweetness up front. As it washes down, it is more vegetal and slightly savory that wears a slight, pleasant astringency. The aftertaste is vegetal, nutty and sweet.

4th 40secs – Lightly creamy, smooth, sweet with vegetal hints up front. As it washes down, it is more vegetal and slightly savory that turns sweet again; there some astringency present.

5th 1min – Cleaner, sweeter with light creamy and vegetal notes up front. As it washes down, it is slightly creamier with faint vegetal notes that turn sweeter.

Final Notes
Amazing white tea, I like how it is creamy and smooth. Once again I love whites/greens to reset the taste buds, I feel like ‘back to basics’ and you can’t EVER have too much ‘basic’(training, learning and tea).

This is one of the many teas sent by Bonnie in the amazing package she sent to me!

This was the final tea of tea party today! I even changed where I sat so that I could make it just as they suggest. My guest and I thought it was GREAT!

It is hard to believe this is a white tea! The first steep was spinach, and we both like spinach! The second steep was buttered squash and more vegetal than the first. The third steep is still going strong. These steeps are short, too. The first ones – 25 seconds. Three and four – 35 seconds. Who could believe that this much flavor would come from tea leaves in such a short time?

Thank you, Bonnie! This was a fun treat for tea party day and I am saving the Laoshan Black tea for next week so we can all enjoy it together!

The dry leaf and the brewed tea smells very vegetal. Not really floral like I expected from a white tea. The leaves are really cute looking, curly and bright green when steeped.

First steep, 20seconds. I am getting boiled spinach with slightly salted butter. No hint of floral, but it is creamy.

Second steep for 25seconds. Maybe a little bit sweeter with a little bit less vegetal taste. More creamy in a way.

Third steeping for 25seconds. The aroma and taste of snap peas with a silky smooth finish enters my senses at this point.

Fourth steeping for 35seconds. This is probably my favourite steeping, it is lightly vegetal with creamy notes. I am not sure if I am getting soymilk, almond, or vanilla but there are maybe hints of each one.

Fifth steeping for 35seconds. Much the same as the fourth

To be honest, this is a lot more vegetal than I was expecting for a white tea. However, it is a tea of exceptional quality and flavour.

First off, I would like to give a hearty (and italicized ) “Thank YOU!” to LiberTeas for this sample. I’m always up for trying new whites, especially one with a name that looks dangerously close to “lotion”.

I was able to try this after a day of two failed interviews, a well-deserved nap, and a cat-puking wake-up alarm (no really). I am constantly impressed with the oddities that Verdant is dishing out, it tickles my geeky bone. As…wrong as that sounds.

This looked like a green tea on appearance, also smelled like one. It had the aroma of buttered veggies. When I brewed it, I accidentally went a little hot on the water. As a result, I decided to lower the brewing temperature by a minute or two – going with a minute-thirty.

The result was a pale yellow liquor that smelled like a green but tasted like a white. It reminded me of a cross between a Bai Mu Dan and a Mao Feng. Or some unholy hybrid of the two. Point is, I loved it. Mainly for the full-bodied aspect of it…but that might’ve just been my brewing. However, a good sign of a good tea is whether or not it can put up with my neglect. And this did. Good orphan.

This was a sample that came with a recent purchase, so I’m going to take a moment to give a big shout-out to David!

Alright, the first cup was preparrtd with gently-steaming water, and steeped for 15 seconds. The result is a very pleasant sweet tea, which tastes like the finest sweet peas. Unlike most white teas, which get their sweetness from therir floral flavors, this does it by refinig the Laoshan pea flavor. While I wouldn’t call the texture silky, it is a very smooth cup of tea, which is perfect for the lovely weather that I’m enjoying today. I can;t wait to see how the tea develops.

The second cup was prepared the same as the first, except it was only steeped for 10 seconds. It has lost a bit of the sweetness, but not enough to make it unpleasant. The texture has also changed, and is almost creamy, but not quite there. The aftertaste seems to climb up your mouth, and lingers for a good 90 seconds on the hard palate. Wow, that was a lot of interesting developments, can’t wait to see what comes next.

The taste of the third cup is pretty much the same as the second, except the bolder parts havce started to fade away, which is pretty much what I expected, since I rarely get more than four infusions out of a white tea. Oh well, I’ll just have to see what the next cup tastes like, and if it’s too weak I’ll stop.

Right, last cup, REALLY late, and I’m super tired now. This cup tasted adn selt much like an asamushi sencha, with a delicate grassiness and a smooth, almost creamy texture. The taste lingers pleasantly on the roof of the mouth, and stays there for about a minute. A very nice way to end an interesting session.

Music of the Day – Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47: IV. Allegro non troppo by Dimitri Shostakovich, conducted by Leonard Bernstein.

Link – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogJFXqYEYd8

Pretty good quality, and Bernstein is a great conductor for pieces like this, with lots of energy and emotion.

Another Verdant white tea night. The aroma of dry leaf when it falls to the bottom of my warmed mug is incredible, so green and creamy, it takes me away, leaving all my cares behind. Lovely dark curly leaves turn vibrant green when steeped for mere seconds and produce the palest gold liquor. Now in this tasting I can’t help to compare this to the Aged Yunnan White I drank last night whereas the description contrasts it more with the green. In this respect I find the first steep to be quite creamy in addition to being silky, its just a very different silky than the silver needle, it’s thicker and greener and milkier, yes milky. And yes, I am very much reminded of the Laoshan greens, but this white suits my taste buds better than the intense but still delicious greens. I have a hard time pinning down the second infusion but the third brings new sweetness which has coated my tongue and seems intent to stay and I am very content with that. This is so very good and I am so grateful to be drinking this, thank you to the folks at Verdant Tea and the farmers of Laoshan for their continued innovation, hard work and artistry.

Another sample sent to me by Bonnie. Many thanks for the generous selection and especially for this tea.

This was not what I expected from a white tea. I made it as per the directions on the website and took a sip. Prime steak! Yes, that’s right, the first flavour that hit my tongue was a high quality steak flavour. Then it settled down into a more pea-like vegetal flavour. This was nothing like any white tea I have had before. It was meaty yet smooth, sweet and silky. It gave me a prickly feeling on my tongue and the aftertaste was delightful. I resteeped it half a dozen times and each cup was as good as the last. Better yet, it has left me all relaxed like a good massage might. This tea is most excellent.

First of all, thanks so much to Bonnie for greeting me with this sample, as well as a host of other samples, when we met at the Rocky Mountain Tea Festival!

I have been super busy lately, and I have not had time to review, let alone taste, any new teas for quite some time now. Today, I finally have a wealth of free time, and what better way to use it than drinking and writing about a tea from one of my favorite tea companies :)

Bonnie gave me quite a generous sample of this tea, enough for two pots, but I decided to chuck the entire sample into my little 100mL gaiwan and put it to the ultimate gongfu test. I put the water on the stove, put the leaves into the vessel, and waited for the crab eyes to start blinking at me from the bottom of the pan. When the crab eyes caught my attention, I drenched the leaves, stirred them up a bit, and took a whiff…

It smelled like green tea. There was nothing white about it. It was beany, vegetal, and earthy. The first sip confirmed my nasal sense. It tasted just like a high quality, everyday-type green tea. This is not to say that it was not delicious. It just tasted nothing like a white tea. The second steep mellowed out the balance of tannin and sweetness. Once, again, it was very delicious. The third steep was even more mellow, with a lighter body, but still nothing white about it.

This Laoshan green tea that may have been processed as a white tea is very good indeed. It upheld its freshness very well. Every steep tells a different story, or at least chapters of the same story. Maybe I will tell the story some day. It will be a story of how there is absolutely no agreement in the tea business on what a white tea should be. Every company seems to have a different definition, and these discrepancies are enabling them to produce a wealth of different flavors, looks and aromas — essentially, different teas that all parade under the name of “white.” With all these variances, I’m becoming more and more confused. If you’re reading this, maybe you could tell me: how do YOU define what a white tea is? Do you simply submit to what every company tells you, even if their white tea tastes completely green, or even almost black (as Teatulia’s white tea tastes)? Or do you, as I do, feel the need for a little more formality in the definition of “white” tea?

Okay, first a Mea Culpa: Other than green pu erhs, I don’t do multiple steepings of teas. Yes, I’m an unrefined westerner, but here’s my reasoning:
1. I don’t have time. I’m lucky to be able to steep a cup of tea and drink it while chasing my two boys, 4 and 2, around the house/yard/street, etc.

2. The interaction between caffeine and flavor in tea is as important to me as the interaction between alcohol and flavor in beer. I don’t see the point of drinking tea once the caffeine is gone, in the same way I don’t see the point of non-alcoholic beer.

3. I don’t necessarily feel that tea “reveals” different flavors over the course of multiple steepings. To me it just seems weaker and less interesting.

4. Tea is an inexpensive luxury. I don’t feel compelled to extract every drop of tea essence from the leaves. My wife spends more on wine in two months than I do in a year on tea. I just spent $250 for a little hose for my motorcycle. And don’t get me started on the price of “artisan” meats and cheeses, local produce, or the price of books.

So maybe some day I’ll change, but for now most of my tasting notes are based on a single steep.

I found it odd that this was classified as a white tea, as it seemed more of a hybrid between a dragon well green and a white. It’s pleasant and light, and I was gratified that I detected the almond/vanilla flavor mentioned in the description. I don’t often notice the sometimes esoteric flavors attributed to teas. Anyway, while this tea is definitely not in my wheelhouse, I’m thankful to the folks at Verdant for letting me try it. It’s a nice summer tea that went well with pushing my four year old down the street on his new pedal bike.

Thank You to Bonnie for this wonderful sample

This was actually a very good white tea…Tasted very similar to a green tea, with a melon/peach taste that was very subtle, and left the palate with a rich creamy texture. Quite good for a white tea ;) ( I usually like green or stronger oolong teas better)