Laoshan White

Yay! I’m over halfway through finals, only 2 left, so I am treating myself to caffeinated tea today :D and my Verdant order came yesterday! Now just waiting on my brick of pu’erh from them then all Black Friday orders will be here haha.

Anyways, onto this tea! It is most definitely a Laoshan, the leaves are the nice little springy curls that I like so much. The dry smell is nice and light vegetal, reminds me of a lighter version of Laoshan Summer green, which I LOVE!

The wet leaves are more vegetal goodness. I used approximately a tsp and steeped the first steep (for my boyfriend, as he was the one who requested I get this tea haha) and second steep 25 seconds for me. I just tried a taste of his, it’s very beany! Yummy, also, the liquor is a nice white tea color, looks very refreshing.

As for taste of mine, I like this! It’s very vegetal and fresh tasting! I get a tiny bit of sweetness at the end, not a lot yet though, might have to wait for later steepings. This is unlike any other white teas I have had, granted, I have never actually tried a pure white tea, only jasmine ones and ones with fruit flavors and things. So to me, this tastes like a lighter version of the Laoshan Green, but with more of a caramel aftertaste and less of the broth-like texture that I always get with the green.

Overall, this is very nice. I’m excited to see how the next steepings go. The aftertaste is actually very interesting, the sweet makes me feel like I’ve had something sugary, but the initial taste of the tea is quite salty! Unique and awesome, thanks again Verdant!

ETA: The boyfriend also enjoyed this a lot, and is ready for more! :)

This tea tastes more like a green tea to me than a white; I enjoy both however, and this is really good! I was trying to figure out which vegetable this tasted like and to me it tastes like fresh edamame. It has a lovely soft texture and delicate sweetness that is enjoyable. It has this wonderfully weird trait of leaving the feeling that I just ate something very savory, and salty.
I brewed this western style with about 1 1/2 tsp of leaf for 12 oz. I know I’m naughty for not brewing it like Verdant suggests but I don’t have much of this tea and I’m trying to stretch it out! It was good this way, too.
Steep one, one minute. Steep two, 1 min 30 sec. I plan to keep going!

Thanks David, for the wonderful sample of Laoshan White you tucked into my most recent order! Bonnie mentioned how cute this is dry: like little ringlets of green leaves. I picked up a pinch with my fingers and it clung together in clumps like hair. Very fun.

I did a regular brewing with this (my gaiwan needs washing) and it’s just as wonderful as the previous reviewer says. I used filtered water and got a sort of greeny-gold liquor; the first taste yields sort of the hearty/vegetal taste I associate with gyokuro (or the yummy Laoshan Green I got in the same package from Verdant), but it goes on from there: lightness, coolness, expansiveness, and then maybe a little bit of astringency, which I admit may have come from my western-style brewing; I’ll have to try gongfu with the last of the sample. There is a sweetness all the way through the cup that is sort of vegetal (sugar snap peas? I dunno, I’m not fond of them, but I can kinda see where that description comes in) but reminds me more of the taste of fresh air after rain, if that makes sense. All in all, this has aspects of the brothiness of gyokuro or Laoshan Green, but without any heaviness.

This is really unlike any white tea I’ve ever tasted. I normally expect white tea to either have very little taste, or to be kind of a “lite” version of a black or green tea. This is not “lie down and be submissive” tea; this is white tea that can hold its own without extraneous flavorings. Laoshan White grabs the taste buds, yet it’s very, very drinkable; I could see drinking this all day and feeling not that I’d been drinking something on autopilot, but that I’d had a really nice day!

It being summer, I wish I could try this iced; I think it would probably not change in character (hard to say—I hope not, anyway), but it’d be VERY refreshing. Unfortunately the price of this, and the fact that I just spent too much money on two really lovely teas from Verdant, will keep me from ordering again anytime soon. But at least I can share my impressions so others will hopefully want to try this. It’s absolutely worth it.

I returned from a weekend getaway to cooler weather in Atlanta, so before I even unpacked I was thinking about what tea I might be in the mood for. I don’t usually jump for the whites first, but for some reason, I pulled out the Laoshan White that I received in early August. I used 4 Gm for 6 oz water at 175 starting with a quick rinse followed by a 20 second steep, just as suggested. I increased the steep time to 25 seconds for steepings 2-3, and 35 seconds for steepings 4-5, getting plenty of flavor all the way through. I would agree with others who commented that this was unlike many whites; it had more flavor than I expected and literally filled my mouth with its juicy freshness. The flavor was reminiscent of the smoothness and lingering sweet aftertaste of something I’ve had before, but I’m not sure what—very satisfying though. Now, what to do next? Unpack, or sample another Verdant tea?

This came as my sample in my recent Verdant Tea order and once again Verdant Tea wows me. I’ve had a lot of white tea and they always seem so bland or are doused with flavorings to hide the fact that they are fancy water. This tea has a wonderful vegetal flavor like a green tea and has a wonderful tingly feeling as well. The snap pea flavor is definitely there, I wouldn’t have even thought about it until I read the description but now that I know that’s all I can taste. I really enjoy this, mostly because it reminds me more of green tea then white. If this was a blind taste test there would be no way I would think this is a white tea. Very enjoyable.

Thank you, David at Verdant Tea for this free sample!

I’m really excited to try this tea. I’ve heard great things about he Laoshan Black tea from Verdant, and loved the Aged White Tea Cake I got. Now here’s another white tea for me to try.

Leaf Quality
The leaves are thin, curly, and an almost black-green color, with little strands of white in the mix. When I opened the sample pouch, I could barely tell what the dry leaves smelled like. After some time, I began to notice traces of Cinnamon and Vanilla. When I brewed the leaves for the required 20 seconds, they showed a beautiful color. Light and dark green leaves intertwined with pale yellow leaves. The leaves smelled grassy, sweet, and slightly vegetal. I’ve reviewed quite a bit of vegetal teas lately.

Brewed Tea
As quick as the steeping was, the brewed tea yielded a very nice, but very light yellow color. It smelled sweet, but it tasted much sweeter, and silky. It was a very smooth brew, with a very light flavor. I got a honey-like aftertaste.
Second Brew
Again, the flavor of this tea was very light, as was the color. The second brew did not have the same silkiness as the first steeping. The vegetal notes only showed in this second steeping. However, the vanilla notes I mentioned earlier also showed up.

I’m glad I got to try this tea. It’s character was complex, flavor light, and was very sweet.

David at Verdant hit this spot on with his description. I followed his brewing instructions to a T and yielded wonderful results. Not much more I can offer that he didn’t clearly illustrate already. Just love this white.

Though different than other white I’ve tasted, this expresses a lot of Laoshan green qualities. A profoundly lingering honeysuckle-like sweetness remains between each sip, and hangs long after the cup is done. “Silky” indeed with a wonderfully soft mouthfeel. Not a huge fan of the aroma of the wet leaf, which is quite strong after that first steep. But it is true to other whites I’ve had in its subtle complexity. I don’t want to write anymore… this tea demands my attention and I’m fighting the urge to buy more.

I’m purposely not rating it, because I think something may be wrong with this batch. Maybe it was contaminated somehow, or I made it wrong. I used a second-hand shop gaiwan, put 2tsp of leaves in, and after 3 minutes it was only watery with a slight bitter taste. Wondering if I need to steep it more, I left it another three.

I’m trying to re-train my palate for green, so that may be part of the reason, but this… bleh. Even my dark pu-erh-loving husband agreed with me that this tasted bitter and somehow burnt. I don’t know if this one is even worth putting on my swap list, it’s so gross!

Update: Okay, I watched several different videos about using a gaiwan, did a conversion so I could use the correct amount of tea, and came to understand that the crazy quick steep time wasn’t a misprint! This is much better – actually palatable! The husband stole my cup, so I made myself another with (don’t hate me!) a little sugar and I actually kind of… may I say? Like it! The bitter and burnt taste must have been a combination of the over-steep and too many leaves.

This is such a pretty tea! I haven’t seen a tea with leaves like this.. it’s fluffy, curly, thin.. so nice. I’m tasting snow peas paired with a bit of butter and floral notes in the background. I have to admit that white tea isn’t exactly my favorite thing to drink. It’s a little astringent and flat unless it’s very flavored. I’m sure that others who enjoy white tea more would appreciate this one. I will still finish drinking this cup, but won’t purchase more.

This is currently my favorite unflavored (camellia sinensis only) white tea.

I tried this tea iced recently and I think I like it even better than hot. It didn’t lose as much character when iced as most of the iced teas I’ve tried.

To ice the tea, I cold steeped it in the refrigerator and used about 8 oz of tea for 24 oz of water at first. I then diluted slowly diluted the tea as needed when drinking and resteeping. I got between 60 and 80 oz of refreshing iced tea out of the leaves over 3 days by this cold steeping method.

Appearance & aroma of dry leaves:
long shaped, green wirey & white buds mixed in. Light vegetal aroma smells like green tea.
Appearance & aroma of wet leaves:
Very bright green colour young, leaves and little buds if any smells like a nutty japanese green similar aroma to Mae-da En sencha possibly.
Colour of liquor:
Very pale green not much of a change throughout 4 steeps.
1st infusion Brewed in a 4 ounce gaiwan with 3.5 grams of tea 20 secs:
Light buttery vegetal flavour not bitter or astringent at all, don’t know what a snap pea is but this definitely reminds me of a snow pea. So Duckler was spot on for that one.
2nd infusion: 27 seconds
Slightly cloudly liquor with strong vegetal flavour very light & slightly astringent & bitter but in a positive usual way you expect from a green, little weird for a white