Blackberries & Cream Shou Mei

(52teas (Anne) 2022: 25)
2022 Sipdown 13/365!

Oof, never properly reviewed this. Oh well. Maybe a reblend candidate? The final cup was ok – creamy but not really much berry flavour. I’ll give it a pass at 6 years old, though.

Today’s cold brew. I thought I’d mucked up on this one at first, but then I read a couple of other tasting notes and I think I probably haven’t – it’s just that this is a lightly flavoured tea to begin with. I went with my usual preparation – 2 tbsp of leaf in two litres of water, into the fridge for 10 hours or so overnight. The resulting brew is very pale, but it’s white tea so I wasn’t expecting anything else. The flavour is just about blackberry. The initial sip is very watery, but the berry flavour starts to develop in the midsip, to the point where it’s slightly tart and slightly sweet in the best way. The creaminess is a high point, although it’s mostly confined to the end of the sip. The whole thing puts me in mind of some impossibly light, airy berries and cream confection, and icing sugar. It’s pleasant, but very…insubstantial.

hmmmm this one is kinda flavourless even with the giant berry in it. I was hoping for a much more pronounced flavour even though it’s a white tea. Sadly this is really light and disappointing. I do however appreciate the share variaTEA as this is one i would have built in to a cart :(

Sipdown (140)!

This one’s been on and off of my wishlist for what feels like forever, now. Everything about it sounds really, really good! And I’m elated that it doesn’t disappoint.

The blackberry notes are bright and sweet, and there’s a good balance between them and a creamier, buttery note that together makes me think of some sort of lovely, soft and perfectly baked sweet blackberry confection. Blackberry croissants with powdered sugar and vanilla, or blackberry strudels? It’s also just a little lemony in the same way that straight/pure white tea sometimes has a subtle lemon note. Hell, maybe even blackberry pie. It is pi day, after all. But honestly, this is the perfect light, airy and fresh tea that still manages to deliver a really full bodied flavour. Mmm!

Thanks VariaTea!

Today has not been the best day for tea in my house. Every time I opened a pack, I spilled some leaf. This package was so stuffed to the brim that when I opened it up, leaf came flying out. Then, I went to prep a cold brew and dropped that on the floor too. Oh well.

Anyways, as for this particular tea, I am a little disappointed tbh. I had 2 large berries in my filter and I don’t taste them at all. However, I am getting a vanilla creaminess slightly but mostly I am getting shou mei (which I have learned more and more is not for me – definitely a silver needles type of girl). I still have some to play around with but tbh I may end up just passing this along to someone who would appreciate it more.

I love the smell of this tea as it really does evoke freshly-picked blackberries. The flavour of the berries in the tea itself could stand to be a little bit strong though. The cream flavours are well done as the shou mei base has a nice natural sweetness that works well with that hint of vanilla smoothness.

The dry leaf aroma sure smells like blackberries! Oddly enough, the brewed tea has no aroma whatsoever. Thank goodness that doesn’t translate into a flavorless tea! The sip is clean, hay-like white tea with a punch of vanilla and a subtle hint of blackberry. I’m definitely getting more cream than berry in the cup. This is good! It’s not big on flavor but all the expected notes are there. The berry comes out more as it cools. I will enjoy the rest of this one but I don’t think I’ll re-purchase it. I simply have too much tea!

I can get behind this one, since it’s full of many of my favourite things: a creamy “hay” white tea with the smoother qualities of an oolong, flavoured to taste like baked goods and blackberries. Yep, Crowkettle tea.

Flavoured white teas don’t always seem to have the base thickness and consistency necessary for rich flavourings, but I think this one works out pretty well. The aroma of the liquor alone is alluring, full of fresh blackberry dessert goodness.

This tea makes up for the fact that there are no blackberries to be found in this household right now, except for the huge blackberry that magically appeared in my strainer (bonus). One (berry) definitely feels like many here. Now, I’m off to see if I can get a decent second steep!

Edit: This tasted better when I used a smaller cup with more leaves, and berries. It doesn’t have that “thickness” this time around. Eh. Will play around with it. The first session was really good!

I can’t even…

Shou Mei is like 4 hour old McDonald fries to me :/

I went into this tea with positive vibes because there was blackberry chunks it in which make me happy, but… the base tea is what brings this tea down. The flavoring might come off as good, but I’m not sure if it is because it shines through the tea or if it’s being held back by the tea.

It’s going to be hard to finish drinking this cup…
Edit I give up, i cannot drink this.

I’m taste testing this tea right now from the reblend I created for the Kickstarter Campaign incentives.

It’s good. Nice blackberry flavor – lovely cream notes. I like my great big blackberries that I found for this.

I’ve learned a lot while blending/packaging this tea: I need bigger pouches for certain teas. I can’t fit 1 1/2 ounces of this tea in a 2 ounce pouch … so everyone who ordered 1 1/2 ounces of this tea will receive a large pouch and a small pouch because there’s no getting 1 1/2 ounces in that pouch without crushing the leaves into dust. As one who respects the leaf, I just can’t do that.

I’ve also decided that while the shou mei tea is alright, for future blends (and reblends) I will be using a white peony. I like this shou mei but I like white peony better. Yeah, it costs more (quite a bit more, actually) but as someone who is a tea snob, it’s worth it.

That said, this is a good tea. The blackberry flavor is well-defined and I love the berry tingle at the finish. The cream notes soften the tart-y notes of the blackberry nicely. It’s sweet and yummy and I like this a lot.

PS: I also learned that LiberTEAS rated this tea previously and I can’t change LiberTEAS rating using my 52Teas account.