I have no idea why Adagio recommends such long steeping times for their white teas, just about any tea is going to taste unpleasent if you steep it for that long! So I stuck with the steeping times I’ve used for other whites tea (I go for something between 2.5 – 4 minutes, usually). It certainly made this tea more palatable – it has a vegetale flavour but it’s not too strong and I can even taste a bit of that nutty flavour that’s characteristic of many bai mu dans. But where the heck is the pear? I can’t taste anything beyond the tea base except maybe a very vague, general fruit flavour. I’m not sure if that’s due to how old this tea is (I got it out of the Travelling Teabox so I have no idea of its age) or if it’s just the blend itself.
So it’s not outright teaFAIL, but it’s not something I’d be willing to shell any money out for. So back into the TTB it goes – hopefully someone down the line will like it more than I do.