Kenya 'Rhino' Premium White Tea

4 apr- I really like this tea. Flavors of caramel, honey, and malt. Smooth. Lingering sweet caramel aftertaste.
I steeped this 7 times in 150ml gaiwan at 175F. I probably could have gotten a few more steeps from the leaves, but I ran out of hot water. I did cold steep them and it was good. 92
I started out this day with a caramel tasting tea that was good but not what I was looking for and ended the day with a caramel tasting tea that was the bomb.

I wrote a lot more than this and must have accidentally closed the tab, so here’s a short version.

Leaves are dark green with lots of golden hairs. Caramel notes could be smelled in the dry leaf and became stronger in the wet leaf.

This tea deserves the hype. It’s delicious! It reminds me a lot of Butiki’s White Rhino. The leaves are fuzzy green and gold, and medium in length. I ignored the western steeping instructions and gongfu-brewed it, but only at 190 degrees, because it’s a white tea. It has a touch of malt, but I mostly taste the caramel and sweet potato sweet notes. It’s also a little floral with the slightest hint of vegetal in the background. The texture is super silky. Very nice!

So I scented a sample with a crap ton of Bourbon vanilla beans for a month…. and the results were great. First steep at 30 sec, slightly higher grammage no more than 4 grams, and water at 185 F.

It turned being a light, sweet floral vanilla with a light malt background. In short, it was very close to Liquid Proust’s French Toast Dianhong, just a hint fruitier, lighter, and oddly dryer. This confirmed what I thought though: vanilla blends naturally well with white teas. Though this one is incredibly unique compared to others, there are a few notes that undeniably belong to a white, and I’ve had vanilla with a white before.

The second steep was closer to western, getting in at a minute and five seconds. Maple, dry malt, honey, and playful vanilla come up. Experiment=success.

This is such a surprising white tea. The dry leaf is twisted, ranges from dark to pale green and powdered with the same kind of dust you see with a lot of golden tips black teas. It smells and tastes very malty! The opening of the sip is all malt and sweet potato, very similar to a lot of black teas, but with a certain lightness (but no lack of flavour) that makes it different. The finish is very long and is malty but with a floral and tangy note to it.

I made this cup earlier and then had to run out the door, so I’m drinking this cold. It’s lovely, but I’ll have to try it hot one of these times too.

Edit: Resteeped my leaves from earlier – still lots of flavour in them – malt, sweet potato and a touch of floral. So tasty, so not what I expect from a white.

And woah! 90% of the way through this cup I suddenly have this really intense sweet taste in the back of my throat. I haven’t had anything but this tea in hours so I don’t think it’s something else.

Edit again: OMG! I just licked off the spoon I used to sample this tea earlier, and the dry tea residue is intensely sweet and tastes exactly like maple syrup!! WHAT?! Amazing! I’m going to have to experiment with this, because I have never encountered maple flavour like this in a tea before. It was like licking syrup off a spoon, it was that intense.

This is the first tea I’ve tried from several that I bought from What Cha. The shipping was fast, it was packaged well and I received the order with no problems. A handwritten note and a sample tea was included with the order. This Kenya Premium White tea is beautiful! On opening the sealed bag the smell was wonderful. The bag has the water temperature and steeping instructions which I find very helpful in getting the best cup of tea possible. This tea had no bitterness or astringency. I don’t really go into “taste like baked bread, carmel, fruity etc.” I just know that its a really beautiful, calming tea that I was able to resteep several times with it tasting wonderful each cup. My husband and daughter who aren’t big tea drinkers had some and said “this is our favorite of all the teas you have right now!” That is saying a lot! I have not had many white teas in my cupboard but this tea will now be a staple for myself and to serve friends and family!

Okay, this is the first What-Cha tea sample of the day that I actually kinda like. It’s different. Didn’t really know what to expect, but it’s pretty good.
It’s pretty malty, which is weird since it’s a white tea. Kinda expected it to taste like hay and have a really light flavor. But I taste malt, which makes me feel like I’m drinking a black tea. :O
I don’t know if I like it or not. I have mixed feelings.
I can’t pick out the other flavor. It’s malty and something else. Not bad. I look forward to sipping down the rest of this one and figuring out what I think of it. It’s definitely one of the best white teas I’ve had so far. xD

last cup of tea for the day, what with travelling and all, but another one from cookies She was kind enough to let me try and few teas from what-cha and Han Xi…

This one was intriguing because it’s another white tea, brewed hotter than i would normally for whites. I was curious as to whether this would be similar to white rhino or the other tea from Mandala that i can’t recall that’s a white that turns black. it’s similar, but in a totally different sort of way. Makes me wish i had white rhino to compare against…not that i can order that ever again sniffles

this tea is juicy and tastes….like flowers smell, but isn’t floral. if that makes sense lol there’s a bit of malt in this and caramel like notes…though not overly strong. a really nice cup to end my morning with. I’ll be adding this one to my cart when i get around to a what-cha order for sure…which is great because i’m not sure i would have otherwise since i’m not a fan of white teas!

What a cool and interesting tea! Had I not read it was a Kenya white, I would have believed it was a Yunnan Dian Hong. The leaf is absolutely spectacular. The nose is caramel and malt with a scent that reminds me of corn growing in the field. The first cup is all malt and caramel deliciousness. In the second cup the malt steps way back with the caramel right in front. The corn type grain moves front and center. The aftertaste which was malt and caramel, now has a floral air that is not over the top. It is pleasant. I cannot associate it with a know scent but definitely floral. This is worthy of your investigation if you were planning an order while the sale is going on. Almost everything from What-Cha has been excellent.

Guess who has perfectly dyed vibrantly teal hair? Yeah, ok, no guess really, it is me, for the first time in a long while my hair turned out perfect, it practically glows with the level of brightness. I have Minecraft diamond hair now, which is awesome. What isn’t awesome is I went nocturnal and I am spending today staying up very late in hopes that I can flip my schedule back to diurnal, the constant struggle, of course this means I might be a bit more rambling than usual.

It is Wednesday, meaning it is time for another tea from What-Cha, today’s lucky leaf is Kenya Premium White Tea. Alright everyone, stop, collaborate, and listen…this tea might be the most unusual tea I have ever had (that is actually Camellia sinensis and not some strange herbal concoction) seriously, go out and buy yourself some, heck buy me some, because I went through my sample of this unique tea in record time. Looking at the dry leaves, it doesn’t look like a white, it looks like a fuzzy golden tea from Yunnan…sniffing the leaves it has the sweet corn notes of a Kenyan Silver Needle, the heady floral notes of an oolong, and the malty, sweet potato, and caramel notes of a golden Yunnan tea. I am confused and totally in love, Ben thought I lost my marbles because of the maniacal giggling coming from me while sniffing the leaves.

After a moment of contemplation on the best way to brew these mysterious chimera like leaves and inevitably settling on my gaiwan, I gave the leaves a good steeping. The aroma of the now quite soggy leaves is delicious, a blend of sweet corn, malt, sweet potatoes, and flowers (specifically peony and orchids) waft out towards my nose. The liquid is much yum, very sweet with notes of peony flowers and sweet corn mixing with malt and cocoa. It is like someone did a cocktail of half Yunnan Gold and half Kenyan Silver Needle…two of my favorite teas, oh dear this might undo me.

If you do heed my advice and buy this tea to try yourself, make sure you are sitting down because this tea will sweep you off your feet. It tastes just like the liquid smells, it starts with sweet corn and peony with delicate mouth tickling trichomes and then transitions to malt, caramel, and cocoa notes. It is quite unlike any tea I have ever experienced before.

Second steep time! The aroma is so wonderful, the sweet corn, peony, and malt notes work really well together, no note overpowers. This steep has more in common with the Yunnan Gold aspects of its personality than the Kenyan White, with notes of malt, caramel, cocoa, and sweet potatoes. At the end there is a strong note of peony and a hint of sweet corn with a lingering aftertaste of molasses.

For the third steep the aroma is very sweet, lots of sweet corn and caramel with a touch of malt. This time the tables turned, the taste is more focused on the Kenyan Silver Needle with more delicate notes of sweet corn and a burst of peony. This fades to a blend of caramel and molasses with lingering sweetness.

Alas I did not take official notes or snap a picture because I was in a hurry and grabbed the first tea off my desk (this lucky one) to toss in my travel infuser for sipping while out and about. Using slightly cooler water (180) and an obviously longer steep (several hours) I noticed that it started out with sweet corn and peony, very delicate and sweet. This grew into malt and molasses notes until the finish of my sipping which was quite robust and very sweet. Teas like this really make me happy, not only do they taste fantastic, they are outside the ‘norm’ for that type of tea, it reminds me to never go into a tea expecting something, to treat each tea like an adventure…sometimes you get a few new and unusual flavor or aroma notes and sometimes you get something completely unusual and unique.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/09/what-cha-kenya-premium-white-tea-tea.html