White Peony (Bai MuDan) Tea

What a great sample! I have to thanks Teavivre for this.
The leaves are simply beautiful. There are snowy buds, deep vegetal leaves, and smells just like light hay and sweetness. I love just inspecting this tea.
I can’t comment about the color of the liquor because I’m drinking from a green, opaque cup.
This is very light and surprisingly sweet for a white tea. I really like this one! I think I have become more fond of white teas. This one has a very nice mouth feel as well. I would recommend this for white tea lovers!

It’s been a long time since I’ve had a straight white tea. Actually, it’s been so long, I’m not even sure if I have ever had it…but I got my package from teavivre this morning, and I opted to try this one out first.

I’ll come out and say that I’ve never been good at picking out subtle flavours in wine, coffee or tea, but I can say that this tea is very light and mild. I admit I did add sugar, just a wee bit. After reading notes that there is a cucumber essence, I’ll have to remember this next time, and try it unsweetened.

The buds in the package are a beautiful green and white, and I can see the fuzzy hairs on the white. The smell of the outer package is somewhat buttery, though the inner package opened, is rather earthy and I suppose grassy would describe it. I can’t really discern a cigar or smoky smell from either pouch.

The liquor brewed up a lovely golden colour, and it smelled very light. In my eagerness, I took a sip right away, but…too hot! So I patiently waited, chatted with a friend on IM about floral teas, and so on, whilst the tea cooled.

There is a tiny bit of floral I suppose, but I think grassy is probably best in describing this flavour. I have a light fuzziness on my tongue.

Interestingly, I just had some leftover turkey (thanksgiving) and herb-crusted roast beef from a few days ago as a light snack, and the flavour has changed…I think it is more peppery from the roast beef seasoning. It is also possible that it has simply cooled and that is what changed the flavour.

I look forward to trying this one again, along with the other 4 teas I got. I admit I had a hard time deciding which one to try first. I opted with this one because it was in the smaller mini bags, more like single serving samples, rather than the bigger AIO bags, but also because I am out of milk, and I know I can do this tea straight, with just a dash of sweetener. The golden tip yunan and the pu-erh tuocha are ones I will probably add milk too. I look forward to trying the oolong and jasmine pearls green tea too.

Mmmmm, soooo yummyyyyyyy. :). I wouldn’t dream of sweetening this tea. It’s divine on its own. I get notes of honey and sweet hay, with the mouthfeel of honeydew melon. Yep, this tea is JUICY! I will be buying more and keeping this on hand. Even after I accidentally let it cool all the way (and I’m talking colder than just lukewarm), it was still delicious and refreshing. The first steep was only about forty-five seconds, while the second steep was a bit longer, maybe a minute and ten.

My first experience with white tea.

The dry leaves were strong and full with beautiful white hairs. The leaves had a nice fresh, cool scent. I was immediately impressed.

The first steep was at 195 for 2 minutes. The liquid was a hint of gold with a toasted aroma. The taste was a delicious borderline sweet leaf, full of flavor yet mellow….I had always heard of white being a weak tea, certainly not! Quite a pleasent surprise!

The second steep was at 195 this time for 3 minutes. The liquid was a strong gold color with a vegetal scent. The taste only benefited from the first steep and stood out proudly.
My expectations were quite exceeded but this tea!

This is my first white peony, and my second white tea experience. It was fairly good, but definitely not my favorite that I’ve had out of my Teavivre samples. It’s got that soothing hay/fruit/floral flavor that I loved when I had Rishi’s silver needle, but to a lesser degree. I feel this may have been partly my fault as I’m still a little shaky on how to properly brew a white tea (all I have equipment wise is a basic cooking pot to heat the water in and I have to totally guess on the temperature). This one was just so-so for me. I’m sure it’s a high quality white peony, it’s just not my favorite.

I’ll be honest- most of the time I find Bai MuDans to be a bit subtle for my liking. But.. there are times when I want something quiet, something warm that doesn’t shout in my face with its aggressive flavor-added gimicky self. This is great for those quiet moments. It’s also surprisingly good with food, for me.

I think I may have brewed this a bit weak- because of the size of these gorgeous leaves I thought “hmmm, this looks like about a pot’s worth”. Maybe not. But it’s a credit to the tea that I’m still enjoying it.

The taste, to me is almost grassy, but in a very light way. There’s something in this that reminds me of wheatgrass, but less aggressive and, um, horsey.

Steep Information:
Amount: 5.4g
Water:750ml at 185°F
Tool: Breville One-Touch Tea Maker BTM800XL
Steep Time: 3 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: floral, sweet, vegetal
Steeped Tea Smell: sweet, floral, lightly delicate vegetal
Flavor: smooth, silky, sweet
Body: Light
Aftertaste: floral, vegetal
Liquor: translucent light yellow-green

Resteep:
750ml at 195°F for 3 min
weaker flavor and smell

Resteep:
750ml at 195°F for 4 min
weaker flavor and smell, no longer silky smooth mouthfeel

Steep Information:
Amount: 4.8g
Water:750ml at 185°F
Tool: Breville One-Touch Tea Maker BTM800XL
Steep Time: 2 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: floral, sweet, vegetal
Steeped Tea Smell: sweet, floral, lightly delicate vegetal
Flavor: smooth, silky, sweet
Body: Light
Aftertaste: floral, vegetal
Liquor: translucent light yellow-green

Delicious, smooth, silky, wonderful cup of tea for just sipping and enjoying. 2 minutes was better than 3.

Rating: 4/4 leaves

Blog: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2012/02/teavivre-loose-leaf-white-tea-white.html

Thank you TeaVivre for sending me this sample :)
This one is actually a lot beter than the first White Peony I tried, This one i could drink all the time it is realy nice, this one to me also has an almost honeylike taste to it if you add a little sugar, a little sugar goes a long way in this tea, I like it :)

I have to admit, I was a little skeptical about this tea. I never had white tea before and I shied away from it. My impression was that white tea would be weak and watery and not as robust as I prefer tea to be, particularly in the morning.

When I brewed this tea, I was still suspicious. Teavivre’s instructions to steep it for a maximum of two minutes made me think that I was going to have to really focus my tastebuds to find enough flavor for me to appreciate. I followed their instructions anyhow because the Teavivre black tea samples I tried were perfect after I went along with their recommendations.

After brewing for two minutes, the tea had the color of a nice white wine. When I tasted it, I was very surprised by the sweet floral flavor that flooded my senses. Although I can’t say that the flavor is strong (and this may just be a normal characteristic of white tea), I can say that the tea is delicious. A very pleasant sweet aftertaste was also left on my palate after each sip.

This is another terrific tea from Teavivre. Even though I thought that once I went black (tea), I would never go back, I would definitely select this white tea again for afternoon drinking. I’m also now curious about other white teas.

Got this as a sample with my Bailin Gongfu order.

The leaves are nice, pale green color when brewed and are, overall, pretty undamaged. Smells kinda good too…

The problem is – I never really liked this particular type of tea. And while the taste is surely there, I simply couldn’t bring myself to care. Won’t rate it `cause its useless anyway.