Silk Road Teas

Fujian Province, Zhenghe county. Pre Qing Ming buds picked from Zhenghe Da Bai varietal.
Perfectly picked, beautiful buds that have a fresh sea foam green color and scents of light cocoa and honey.
Liquor is light, clear, golden champagne color with the same essences of light cocoa and honey.
Flavor is really perfect Silver Needle,,,honey, subtle cocoa, cream, dried fruit notes,,,,fantastic.
Hummingbirds and Lizards are having so much fun out in my garden this beautiful Spring morning in the desert and this tea is the essence of Spring!!

6/1/14
So delicious and a lighter tea for this warm desert day. Going to brunch later and Silver Needles is always perfect.
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6/12/14
Having more today,,,a necessary tea in life!!!
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6/17/14
My morning tea today,,,,only going to be 100 in the desert today!! That’s chilly to us!! lol

yin (Yin2) = silver (银 or 銀)
zhen (Zhen) = needle (针 or 針) 1; or precious (珍) 1
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7/24/14
I have this tea all the time but don’t always log it. But today, I brewed up a White Peony next to Silver Needle and the quality of Silver Needle is just the best. It is creamy; equally on the mouthfeel, flavor, and nose. It has a color of creamy champagne. Not a golden color but a creamy color. It has a scent that is vanilla and a tiny tiny tiny touch of ylang ylang. There are subtle flavors woven throughout the vanilla and cream flavor, which today I caught almond which I realize I have been tasting the whole time but failed to notice it properly. It is truly the most exquisite tea to me.
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8/8/14
Having a cup this afternoon, always one of my first loves, Silver Needles.

Fun Fun!! I tried this tea today because I am making stir fried greens for lunch!! Lol
The dry leaf smells just like when you get sushi, it has a nori scent big time!! Also, even though the name is greens, this tea is little curly brown cuties. Very thin and you can tell that a lot of work went into this leaf.
Steeped for 2 minutes and it created a very light, light spring green liquor with flavors of butter bean and notes of the seaweed but it really doesn’t taste like seaweed like I thought it would.
This green tastes like a lot of green teas that I have tried like Dragonwell, etc. but it is so attractive and I love the name.

This is a very beautiful tea blend that comes in large sachets but I didn’t want to make a large pitcher so I cut one of the sachets open to get enough for two cups out. Plus I could see the beautiful colors inside!!! The dry leaf is so pretty that it is better out of the sachet!!!! It is a dark bancha green tea with blue Mallow flowers and Cornflowers plus Quince fruit. There are little tiny flowers mixed into the pretty blend.
I brewed this first to try as a hot tea and then ice the rest. I am enjoying it so much as a hot tea that I don’t know if I will get around to icing it!!! The liquor is a light green apple color with sweet green apple scents and flavors. It is the quince that is flavoring this so nicely. I have had quince only once and this is what it tasted like to me,,,a creamy green apple flavor.

I iced the second cup and it is pure heaven!!!! This is going to be a lovely iced tea for the hot months here in the desert. Yummy creamy quince flavor and the green tea really takes a back seat to the quince. It just seems to provide the color rather than any vegetal or bancha flavor to this tea.
I really enjoyed this blend!!!!
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7/24/14
Made a couple of glasses of iced tea this afternoon,,,very refeshing and unique-tasting with the quince. Yumm

Cute little snail-shaped light moss green leaves.
Liquor is golden color.
The flavor is very nutty, not vegetable or grassy. I really enjoyed this green tea!!!!

The dry leaves are golden and dark black/brown twisty threads that smell of orange, malt, cocoa.
The liquor smells sweet like stewed fruit, honey, cocoa,,,smells so heavenly.
I tasted this at two minutes and it was really delicious and still see-thru so I took it to another minute. It gave the tea a dark coffee look after that and the flavor was a deep, rich sorghum. I liked both two minutes and three minutes but I think I liked two minutes for this one the best.

Second Steeping—I gave the leaves another steep and stopped at two minutes. Yum Yum this brought out more malt and vanilla to the flavors.

The dry tea is little tiny tiny black twisty threads with golden ones mixed in and it smells like hay or straw.
The liquor smells very different, like sweet raisin bread. It is a dark colored liquor that you can’t see through.
The flavor is smooth, rich, and malty. Though there is a sweet scent, the tea is not that sweet tasting to me. There is no bitterness or astringency. Very good.
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7/9/14
Tried a bit of this Gong Fu style today,,,,8 oz porcelain gong fu pot, 190F 15" infusions.
Liquor is a beautiful color, auburn orange clear jewel.
Wet leaves are cut and chopped. Smoky scent.
In the flavor, I was catching just smoke today. It gets better as it cools, but no sweetness and a bit one note really, just smoky.
It may be better served the way I first brewed it, Western style,,,, or I might do longer infusions gong fu style to see if I can pull different flavors from it.
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7/15/14
Gong Fu today at 175F and this is still very smoky and one note. I usually believe Gong Fu is the best method for all tea but this one might be better Western style.
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7/26/14
Having this one today, Western style in a new cup size teapot with huge infuser, the same size as the pot. I am loving these teapots (I got 3) bc they really let the leaves open up and I am now brewing by the single cup so I can have more of a variety of tea during the day. When I was brewing in my other Western teapots that house 2 cups,,,,I was brewing a pot of tea and the infuser wasn’t reaching throughout the entire pot like my new little cup size ones are. I got them on Amazon, they are Hario glass teapots and they are the bomb!!!!!
As a result,,,,this tea is awesome today. Very sweet and mild. I brewed at 190F for 3 minutes. It has a beautiful red auburn liquor with malt and bourbon scent. The flavor is malt, molasses, smoke, raisin pie,,,yumm.
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7/27/14
Having again this morning!!!! Smoke, malt, honey, raisin. Smoke is dominant for me this morning….maybe taste buds are working the smoky side more today lol

Beautiful menagerie of different green colors in the leaves. I love White Peony, it is one of my cupboard staples that I drink lots of mornings.
This one is very good.
Liquor is golden and smells like sweet honey.
The flavor is very subtly sweet and has notes of shortbread or oat bread.
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6/19/14
Enjoying this sweet, lovely tea this summer morning!! Always delicious!!
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6/28/14
Enjoying good old reliable White Peony bc I just got back from vacay and I have a bit of a cold so I know this will make me feel better and easy to brew makes it simple.
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7/24/14
I did a side-by-side comparison of White Peony and Silver Needle today and found that I have not been noting the flavor in both that is Almond! Silver Needle is definitely the best, of course, with the added Cream note that White Peony doesn’t have as much of and White Peony has a more golden liquor compared to Silver Needle which has an all creamy pearl color. I love them both and White Peony is a good travel tea to me, one that is always reliable in brewing, flavor, and not as expensive to bring on a trip.
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8/24/14
I wanted this exactly a month later from the last time I had it,,,,must be a moon phase thing mmmmm. Anyway, enjoying this as always. Well balanced, almond, sweet, tiny hint of a pumpernickel bread, good.

Gorgeous, fuzzy, 2 leaves & a bud with pretty multi hues of light green, dark green, and silver green.
The liquor is a clear champagne color and has a slight honey scent.
The flavor is slight butter bean with a sweet honey note mixed in. Very light, fresh and cleansing.

Second Steeping—I found the second steeping even better than the first which bumps this tea up to 100. ( I am giving lots of high scores lately because I found the teas I like and so I guess that’s why the scoring on here is very personal)
The flavor on the second is sweeter, loses the butter bean and just keeps a sweet fresh note.
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5/16/14
Leaves look so much like white peony but the flavor is almost like a mild green tea. This tea is not as sweet as most whites but does have a little sweet note. Good tea for when you want a green tea but not a strong vegetal or mineral type green (even though it’s a white tea lol).
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6/8/14
Origin: Guo Shan (Drum Mountain) Mountains along the coast of Fujian Province, China.
Wet Leaves are very tender young leaves with scents of butter and spring peas.
The Liquor has a light light celery green color which I love.
Flavor is light spring pea with a touch of butter and a touch of sweetness on the finish.
This is a lovely tea.
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7/18/14
Having some more this afternoon,,,,very spring-a-licious tea!!
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8/7/14
Gaiwan style this morning!!!! Very delicate and lovely tea. Qualities of both a white and a green tea. Delicious, I would like a touch sweeter in the morning though so this is a good one for after lunch.

Pretty good every day green tea. I also have a Fo Mei (Buddha’s Eyebrow). I love the tiny tiny rolled green leaves and they smell spinachy, minerally.
The liquor is light and cleansing, great with my lunches. Very subtle notes of butter and larger notes of butter bean. A bit of green bean flavor as well.

6/16/14

Had a bit of this Gaiwan style at 175F today,,,I definitely have other green teas that I like better but this is a good one to play around with and try different temps bc it’s not like precious Long Jing that I don’t want to run out ever lol.

This is a beautiful tea!!! The dry leaves are dark brown with orange-brown colored threads mixed all in and they smell like bourbon balls at holiday time.
Brewed, the wet leaves look like brown crochet thread, staying all thin and wispy.
The liquor smells fabulous, sweet and “caramely”
The flavor is smooth and sweet. So good and has that caramelized sugar flavor that I love love love. Then there is a malty finish. Yum YUM YUM!! A good black tea for me to keep on hand!!!
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7/2/14
Tea for the day,,,my little doggie helped pick it out. I had lots of black tea bags out and he kept nudging at this one with his nose so Congou Black it is!!!!!!!!!! My doggie has good taste.
Origin: Fujian Province, China
Dry Leaf: Thin threads, mostly black with some gold ones mixed in. Scents of malt and tobacco.
Method: Took this one down to 190F today with 1 tsp tea per 8 oz water. Brewed Western style, 2 cups at a time for 3 minute steep.
Wet Leaf: When these leaves hit the water, it was sweet malt heaven scent. Very young buds and leaves that have turned milk chocolate brown with scents of honey, chocolate, and molasses.
Liquor: Red/Brown color with malt and molasses scent.
Flavor: Smoke flavor up front but a sweetness hits the back of your throat. There is malt on the nose. Detect a bit of apple peel too. Good complexity.

I couldn’t wait to try this!! This is a lovely herbal with cute, tiny, tiny little dried white flowers mixed into a potpourri of little tiny flower middles and pieces. The little white flowers are whole and they are very tiny, very beautiful to look at!! It’s like little fairy tisane!!!!!!!! Dry, it smells like mulberries and herbs.
The liquor smells like sweet honey and biscuits. It is a golden yellow color, like chamomile, but not as bright yellow gold as chamomile gets.
Silk Road Teas assumes you know what you are doing because they have no specific brewing instructions,,,,so I brewed this one like chamomile only I took the temp down a little to 190 and steeped for 4 minutes.
This is so yummy and naturally sweet. I love this. It has the herbal, wildflower quality of chamomile but it is sweeter and tastes less harsh than chamomile. This is one to keep on hand in my cupboard along with my other herbals chamomile & dry desert lime. My chamomile will be jealous because I see myself drinking this Elderflower a whole lot more often!!!!
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6/11/14
Having a bit of this after dinner as a dessert. So sweet and lovely. I love this tisane.
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7/2/14
Having some more of this good stuff!!! My stomach hurt a little bit so I am using it to soothe a tummy ache.
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7/4/14
Another pot tonight,,,,I LOVE this tisane.

My favourite Earl Grey, the black tea base isn’t bitter and has a lot of flavour and the bergamot isn’t too strong or artificial. Perfect balance.

I’d really rather make No Review at all before I make a Bad Review BUT in this case I really had to, there is something horribly wrong with this tea to me :(
This tea seriously makes me stomach hurt, I’ve tried it on 3 different occasions and I decided to try it again this morning but NO Good :(
I have honestly never had a tea that made me belly hurt like this after drinking so very little of it, tho I have drank teas that have made me feel bad, this one really hurts I can’t even change to something else because my belly is upside down.
Tastes like a Yunnan Black but really taste all goes out the window when your belly starts hurting.
It makes me sad too because I ordered a few teas from Silk Road Teas(4) and honestly only 1 out of 4 was even worth drinking and that was only when it was Iced.

Very Disappointed with Silk Road Teas :(

Sipdown
I’m all out of this lovely yunnan black today. It has served me well. Though today I feel like I need a caffeine injection!

I am a busy lady. Taking digital marketing classes and night and doing volunteer work in between applying for jobs. I think staying busy is going to be the key to keeping me sane through all this unemployment!

And at my evening class there is hot water and tea. Of course the tea is not up to my standards but I can always bring my own. :)

Tea of the super early morning. I am loving this a bit more every time I have it. A delicious yunnan, malty, peppery, chewy. Makes a great breakfast tea with a splash of soymilk. I may need to make it part of the permanent collection. :)

Tea of the morning, purchased at Bi-Rite grocery in San Francisco. This review is for the mesh teabag form of the tea. The company is Silk Road in California (not the one in Canada).

For a black tea, this is very mellow and easy to sip on plain. I get a nice malty note in the very beginning followed by a gentle cocoa. There is something almost creamy about this, it also seems very pure and light. Devoid of astringency, even in the finish. This isn’t as spicy/peppery as some yunnans I’ve tried. Recommended if you enjoy a smooth and gentle cup you don’t need to bombard with milk & sugar. I’d like to try more things from Silk Road once my budget permits more tea purchasing…

This is my kind of oolong—a little bit roasty, fragrant, sweet, and lightly floral. I don’t get plum initially, but it comes in very nicely in the aftertaste. Just the thing for yet another snowy day. Thanks very much for sharing this with me, CharlotteZero! I wasn’t familiar with Silk Road Teas prior to this swap, but this lovely tea has prompted me to check out their site and I see they have lots of other exciting offerings. Definitely one to keep in mind for a future order.

Assuming that this Golden Monkey is the higher grade variety that Silk Road offers, this tea is really quite a find. Most gold-bud black teas will have about 20% gold buds; however, this tea is closer to 50/50 on the tea leaves to tea buds front.
I was initially brewing this at 200-boiling, however after accidentally brewing it at 180F I realized the true potential of this tea. The lower brewing temperature allows for more of the soft maltiness of the roasted teabuds to shine through, while not allowing the black tea leaves to oversteep and exude their bittering astringency. As a teadrinker who tends to stray away from black teas, this Golden Monkey is one of a kind in the class of gold-bud teas.

This is a very high quality bouquet-style Dancong oolong. Some times I will brew this tea perfectly and it gives me the chills. The second infusion is always a little better balanced than the first, but the fourth infusion is the prime of this tea.

The infusion yields an amber and gold liquor, the aroma is woodsy and nutty and the taste is creamy like honey and butter, yet also pleasantly minerally with an allusion to tasteful astringencies.

I would highly recommend this bouquet style dancong oolong

I didn’t like this tea the first time I had it, but I was hoping I would like it better this time around. The aroma is pleasant, but the broth lacks sweetness and is very drying to my throat. At this point it way just be too old.

Stale and sour. Can’t give a better description because after two sips I threw it out. If you like black tea their Golden Monkey would be a far better choice…albeit at over twice the price…but worth it! Not my cup so I’m not going to give it a number. I have the rest of this 1/4 lb and 1/4 lb Dragon Eyes which I find tastes the same. If anyone wants either of these send me a pm or email and I will ship them to you for free. If no one wants them I’ll dispose of them in my garden like I do with my spent tea leaves.

Chewing on a couple dry strands reveals a dusty (sawdust like) crunchy, mellow taste with the slightest hint of bitterness. The cup that follows is similar in taste. This batch had many more golden buds and was much more dusty than my order last March. I’m guessing it was taken from the bottom of the bin while my previous order was probably from the top. I’ve been out of this tea for a couple weeks and the first sip is like sitting down with an old friend. The cup is mellow and smooth with a nice chocolaty flavor that resides on the pallet for some time afterwards. Brewing the cup for 4 min 15 seconds is my preferred length of time. It results in a chocolaty and malty cup with a texture that coats the tongue. I find 4 minutes results in a slight numbing of the tongue (not unlike a sip of coca tea) which steadily fades. That numbness as well as a hint of dried apples is overpowered by a chocolaty, almost coffee like flavor when steeped for 4 min 30 seconds or more. The longer steep also results in a hint of bitterness that isn’t present when steeped for a shorter amount of time. The tea feels strong in both caffeine and theanine. This along with Silk’s White Peony I prefer to keep continuously stocked. These two along with Mi Xian Black and Caramel Assam by Butiki are by far the best teas to dance with these taste receptors. My first order of a few pounds came with a free gaiwan and a few tasting cups. This act of kindness has resulted in me becoming a life-long customer. With a tea like GM (Jin Hou) it makes that easy. By far, one of the best teas from Silk I’ve had the pleasure of tasting and one I could easily drink for life.

The marriage of honeysuckle nectar and clover honey. Sweet and refreshing. Very light and easy to sip quickly. The leaves are very tender and remarkable good quality.

This is a nice greener oolong and complements other more oxidized and roasted types of teas. I like drinking this one along side a sweet Sun Moon Lake black. Sometimes nice going back and forth between the two, fully absorbing the complexity and contrast of the different class of teas. Nonetheless, this tea can be certainly drank by itself with great pleasure.

Chose to gongfu steep this one. Wow – this tea brew a nice clean, thick liquid. The aroma is spicy in its chai-likeness, yet has deep hay notes and a sweet molasses and oats thickness. This tea is pretty remarkable in how it continues to produce several cups without weakening. I may load up on this one on my next purchase. Thank you, Silk Road Teas for including this generous sample with my purchase!