Teardrop of Peony

The description of this tea looked intriguing, so I had to order 20 g in my latest Zen Tea order. The dry smell is very fresh and lovely, the peony is present mainly but very light, reminding me of rain in a garden, a garden with peonies of course. I should mention that at my parents acreage, the peonies bloom profusely sometime in June, and they are big and beautiful. The petals in this tea are red, so I am assuming they are some sort of pink peony?

Anyways, onto steeping..I steeped for 2 minutes with 185 degree water. The resulting tea is a very pale yellow, definitely a white tea. And man, does this smell floral!! It’s like a bouquet of flowers is in my cup! Peonies, that is :) I don’t smell any lychee that I can tell, although it is sort of floral too, so it might be blending in with it.

The flavor is also very floral, although as it cools it is not as strong. It has a very clean finish as well. I am not sure of the flavor of the white tea yet, but it is supporting the floral burst quite nicely. Next time I might try brewing without a giant petal in my infuser lol, and see how that is.

Overall, this is a nice change from other floral teas such as jasmine. It is a bit strong on the flower scent, but makes for not a bad cup. I love how the cup invokes images of spring and rain-soaked flowers on an overcast day. I will have a few more cups before deciding on a rating.

Teardrop of Peony, is a complex flavoured white with a mao feng base that brews to dark gold and whoose scent and flavour reminds me of late fall or early spring in the forest or countryside.

It smells of smoke, lemon, nuts (walnut) , pine, and peony. It taste rich. The tea has a creamy, nutty base, which leaves a tingling sensation in the mouth at each sip. The lychee/ citrus flavour reminds me of some earl greys, and may make a replacement for those moving away from black teas. It taste a bit of pine and smoke.

The tea generally leaves me feeling really alert whether this is due to lychee, or whether the tea simply has a higher level of caffeine than other whites that I have tried I don’t know.

There is an aftertaste of floral spice from the peony, and nut. The tea tastes more citrusy than sweet. The dry leaf is very beautiful with twisted ropes of light grey (almost white), dark grey and yellow/green leaves interspersed with large dried red peoney flower petals.

The tea rebrews really well with flavour lasting into the fifth infusion. The nuttiness disperses after the second or third. A fairly unique tea and a nice step away from the either the soft and silky or fruity unadulterated whites, or the very soft and flowery, or fruity flavoured whites I’ve had.

I really like this tea and would like to keep it in my cupboard.