Bai Hao Yin Zhen (Organic)

This is one of my favorite teas, it has a lite earthy taste with a bit of a subtle -almost citrus – aftertaste. The leaves are beautiful and young and for the most part intact in the tin, even after shipping.

As corny as it sounds- if you close your eyes and mull the tea over in your mouth you can almost see the scene where this tea is picked. I like my tea to be steeped in water a little cooler than what David suggests, and at the far end of the spectrum for time — 7 minutes.

(DavidsTea 7)

Decided to try this as an iced tea, mostly because I didn’t have anything else immediately available. It is ok, but I think I prefer it hot/warm. That said, I might feel differently in the summer when it might be more refreshing. It’s very hay-y, maybe mildly sweet.

Hands down the best Silver Needle tea I’ve tried to date. It’s very refreshing and juicy with a sweet floral honey flavor profile. This tea is a good one to experiment with different temps for steeping. I found my favorite was around 190F for 4 min. Normally, White Tea leaves me a little disappointed because it always feels like it is lacking something. This one, however, is very complex and satisfying.

Had a delicious little teacup of this earlier in the week while I was at the office. It was something we were tasting in the lab (just a new QC batch) and the lot was so insanely fresh that I ended up scooping up the tasting cups afterwards to drink while working on other things…

Super delicate and light, but with a creamier mouthfeel and honestly mouth watering notes of honeysuckle, lilac, creamy honey, and fresh cucumber pulp. I felt so calm all throughout drinking the cup – it was the fresh Silver Needle I’ve had in a while as, for the last few months, most of my straight white tea consumption has been aged white teas.

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

This is a very clean tasting white tea with BEAUTIFUL silver needle leaves. I was so impressed while buying this as a gift for someone else, I bought some for myself as well. The leaves smell slightly vegetal, but not in a grassy Bai Mudan/White Peony kind of way, more like a classic fresh white tea kind of way.

Steep 1: (2 minutes, 80 degrees C water, 400mL) There is something sweet and something floral in the flavour of the brewed tea. It is really fresh tasting, and the tannins give it a complex flavour that isn’t overly strong, but isn’t weak either.

Steep 2: (1.5 minutes, 80 degrees C water, 400mL) I’m really impressed with how fragrant the brewed tea smells. It has that classic tea smell, but is also very sweet.

I first had this tea in the summer at a DavidsTea store. They had a pitcher with this tea iced and some sliced cucumbers in it. It was delicious!

Yes, this is what tea is meant to be. Wonderful smell (almost floral). Tea itself is sweet and subtle and very much up my alley.
Underleafed the first cup. Don’t do that; it’s not strong enough.
Had some weirdness with bitter pine/resin/plastic notes when I got towards the bottom of the sample tin. Not sure what to put that down to (lower quality leaf bits? wonky water? unclean mug?).
In any case, definitely buying a bigger stash.

As time go on, I seem to be more and more fond of straight teas.

I really like this one. It’s floral, sweet, and quite vegetal; it reminds me of corn husks among a number of other things. This seems to be a nice sipping tea. It’s a little intense in big gulps and the flavour changes as it cools. Completely ignored the brewing instructions, opting to steep it for 3 minutes at 85 degrees and there’s no bitterness and plenty of flavour. Really liking this one.

I really enjoy this tea! I take it in the evening and it’s perfect to just calm down! :)

I picked this to give my night a calming end. This had an amazing aroma while steeping. I could hint at honey, sweetgrass, and a soft flowery undertone, However, the flavor did not match. The taste was dry and with slight bitterness. It has a pleasantly sweet aftertaste, but altogether not what I was looking for. I guess this company just isn’t the company for me.