White Christmas

This is a nice, comforting tea with a flavor that’s slightly spicy and slightly sweet. The sachets are really convenient, particularly for holiday travel. A great winter tea!

I’m a sucker for Christmas and teas called White Christmas. Whatever. Fight me.

Mom aka ashmanra had been holding out on me for this one because I don’t really care for artificial almond flavored stuff or amaretto and this has almond flavor, both natural and artificial, but eventually she gave in and showed up with it one day near Christmas.

You may notice that the flavors on the rating for this tea are allll over the place. Yeah. You have to make it exactly right. If you do, it’s great. It’s warm and smooth and cozy and there’s vanilla and something a little nutty. It tastes like twinkly Christmas tree lights, the pretend fireplace on, my favorite ugly blanket, and Bing Crosby music. Until it gets cold or if you didn’t make it right.

So don’t touch it once it gets cold and make sure you make it right. Think of it like a mogwai. Totally worth it.

A few months back I wrote a review for this product on the Harney & Sons website (harney.com). In the review I wrote that I have observed on multiple occasions the color of this White Christmas tea after steeping to be a maroon-red and not the pale yellow color that is pictured on the Harney & Sons website. The Harney & Sons website never posted my review. Be wary of the suspiciously disproportionate one-sided reviews on the Harney & Sons website (harney.com).

This was really disappointing :( No Christmas, no fun, nothing like I expected at all. It was really weak, even when I used less water than normal. Oh well. It’s not totally unpleasant. It’s just something I don’t feel a desire to reach for.

My mom gave me a sample of this tea from her BF order. I’ve been curious about it for awhile, but I’m not the biggest H&S fan, so I haven’t yet tried it. The aroma and flavor are nice and cozy. It’s a good winter tea. I taste vanilla, mint, and a pastry element, which could be the almond. There’s not supposed to be mint, so that might just be me misinterpreting the cardamom. It’s not super strong though. There’s also an herbal element to it that I’m not fond of, but overall, it’s a nice afternoon or evening tea.

This was an unexpected treat! My sister bought a tin of this tea at Barnes and Noble, and graciously allowed me to try a cup with her tonight. (I’ve been converting her to the ways of tea, slowly but surely.) White Christmas is a white tea with almond and vanilla flavor, plus cardamom and a little chamomile. I tried to err on the side of under-steeping it, since my sister doesn’t like bitterness in her tea. And I think it turned out well!

As you may know, fellow Steepster users, I love spicy teas. So I tend to be a fan of holiday blends with lots of spice. Oddly enough, what I like about this tea is that it isn’t especially spicy. Instead it’s sweet, with lots of almond and vanilla (and just enough kick from the almond and the cardamom to give it a little warmth). It’s a nice change from all the cinnamon and clove in the holiday blends I’ve tried.

And I love the white tea base, too. It’s light and gentle and goes well with the sweet flavors. The second steep of this tea wasn’t quite as delicious as the first, but I still enjoyed the muted flavors (and the chamomile became more noticeable, which I liked). Something about it even tasted a little minty, but I think that was the combination of chamomile and almond? It gave the blend a even more wintry feel, in any case. This tea tastes like standing outside on a cold winter night and taking a bite out of a slice of almond cake. I might have to beg my sister to let me borrow a few more sachets!

Got a sample of this one with my last H&S order!
Was hoping it would be more Christmas-y. But the dry leaf and steeping smell are hardly anything at all. I have allergies, which means I don’t have the best smelling ability, but usually I can at least smell something. But there was like nothing, which is weird….
Definitely is light and smooth like a white tea should be. Also, the leaves are fluffy and cute, which is also good. xD
The flavor though…
It’s slightly citrus-y, with maybe a hint of vanilla? It really doesn’t taste strong at all…
It’s kinda a pathetic tea. Even silver needle tastes like more! Least that just tastes like sweet hay!
This I just…I don’t know.
I really don’t. xD
It’s just hardly any flavor at all. :/
So I’m gonna give it a low rating until I can find a way to actually make it taste more.
Maybe if I just use all of the sample next time. xD But then it might be bitter….I’ll have to experiment with this one later >>

Sipdown! (9 | 206)

This tea sounds so good in theory – a white tea with almond, vanilla, and cardamom.

But it tastes… I don’t even know. I guess I get a bit of cardamom, but otherwise maybe wax? Nothing even approaching vanilla or almond, and the white tea has an unpleasant musty flavor to it. None of those pleasant haylike white tea notes.

I’m a bit baffled by this one. Is it because I had the sachets? I’m just not used to such a miss from Harney & Sons, and some of the other notes are very positive. O.o

Can’t make up my mind about this one. I’ve been wanting it since last year when I saw it at Chapters as part of a package. I didn’t buy it then because I wasn’t interested in the other teas that would have come along but I’ve been eyeballing it ever since. Well, now I have it.

Smells divine. Taste is decent but not what I expected. A lot of notes say “chocolate”. I’m not getting chocolate at all. I’m getting vanilla and cardamom, but I think I’m getting chamomile at the end of the sip, and that’s what’s turning me off a little. I will try to mask that in later cups, maybe with some almond milk but I’m hesitant to add that to a white tea. So yeah. That’s my take. I’m drinking it out of an blue glass mug so I have no idea what color it brews.

I also wasn’t sure how much water to use for 1 sachet so I went with 8 oz, which is half the mug. 177F, 3 minutes.

Tastes much better as it cools down. Another mild tea. Vanilla notes and creamy texture.