No D&D for me tonight, my DM’s wife has a sickness and with my immune system being the way it is, I screamed PESTILENCE and ran the other direction, declaring his house now the residence of Papa Nurgle. He assures me that Nurgle will have to fight Cthulhu and an especially large Draco Lich for dominance, so that means she should be better in no time. I do still have Seafall playtesting today, and of course my sleep schedule being what it is, and Ben’s need for the computer being what it is, oh the work load waiting for me when I get home. Honestly the visit from Nurgle might turn out to be a sanity saver for me, who would have guessed?
Since the Midwest Tea Fest is in a couple days (the hype is real, yo!) I decided to review one of my favorite vendors (yes, favoritism, but we all know that I love Shang Tea, I mean I have a yixing teapot dedicated to Tangerine Blossom Red for Pete’s sake!) and since this is Thursday, that means it is also a #TBT review, this tea I bought when I visited their Grand Opening event over a year ago, logged in my notebook more or less a day later than the event since I wanted to try the new tea samples I purchased immediately! Presenting Shang Tea’s Wild White! This tea is harvested from the Tai Mu Mountains in China, the plants left to grow wild before being plucked, cultivated tea fields are beautiful, but there is something that cries out to the nature lover in me who loves frolicking in the forest, foraging for wild edibles, my soul gets soothed by the knowledge of wild growing tea plants. The aroma of the rather fluffy leaves with their blend of fuzzy tips and large unfurled leaves, is delicate, no overpowering notes, just a dance of fresh vegetation, honeydew melon, a touch of thyme, and a finish of cucumber. If you stick your nose in the leaves long enough you pick up a hint of honey and loam as well, but it is super faint and at the end, more like the dream of a scent than a defined note.
Into ye old fish gaiwan the tea went. Ah this gaiwn, adorably tiny and perfect for travel, well except the drippy cha hai, but oh well. The aroma really wakes up once the tea gets its soaking, sweet notes of fruit and fresh vegetation drift out of the gaiwan. There are notes of delicate melon and fresh grapes (like white table grapes specifically) a touch of lettuce and cucumber, broken leaves, and a finish of lettuce. The liquid is honey sweetness and flower nectar, honeysuckles and a touch of muscatel at the end, a tiny bit of tartness as well.
Well that turned out to be a fun adventure, Seafall was canceled last minute so Ben, Fish, and myself wandered around 888 International store for like three hours. I procured ingredients for the pre-Tea Fest party the night before, by party I mean I am making Hot & Sour Soup, my new specialty! Also I finally tried Tea Eggs and have fallen utterly in love, but back to the tea at hand! The mouthfeel starts out slightly fuzzy (hello trichomes) and moves into smoothness pretty quickly. The taste is sweet, surprisingly muscatel, almost like a Darjeeling, but much, much lighter. There are also more familiar White tea notes of cucumber, lettuce, and a slightly herbaceous peppery finish.
I hear the sound of distant rumbling, and if the radar is to believe, we are about to be slammed with storms! Exciting! The aroma of the second steep is very sweet, blending honey and grapes with a delicate finish of lettuce, giving a level of crispness to a heavy sweetness. No fuzzies this time, just all smoothness, with a start of raw honey and grapes, and just a hint of spicebush. This moves on to lettuce and fresh vegetation, with a finish of hay. This tea tastes very fresh, in a way it reminds me of laying under a tree and watching dappled light through the leaves, very much so a tea that evokes memories in its taste!
For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/06/shang-tea-wild-white-midwestteafest-tbt.html
Give yourself credit! You took time to really investigate this tea! So many times people say "White Tea …don’t like it! " take a sip, write an I told you so note and that’s it.
Good review!
Oh yes, the number of times my nose has accidently met with the contents of my teacup…
Okay, what’s the inhale-exhale-inhale trick?
I think you’re the third person I’ve seen to say cinnamon and tea shouldn’t go together. I find that so odd, I love cinnamon in tea! Now maple syrup…that’s a flavour I can generally do without in tea.
Daniel, when you want to have a closer look at the aroma, instead of just sniffing at it, try to keep your breath normal through your nose, but keep your nose near the tea, so that you sort of breathe on it. It makes a lot of steam and makes the aroma easier to smell.
As for the spice, I think it’s because it’s such a strong one. It’s the same sort of problem I have with ginger. It prickles and there is SO much of it. I’ve never met anything that was just a smidge. The difference between cinnamon and ginger, though, is that while I can have both of them in cooking and baking, but ginger still not in large amounts whereas a cinnamon stick or two in a vegetable stew can be really awesome.
I tried adding some maple syrup to a tea once to see what would happen and it didn’t work for me. I never sweeten tea, so all I got was a cup of sugary ruined tea and no maple.
Krystaleyn, yes indeed. And I go ‘WAH-WHAT-WAS-THAT?!!-oh…’ every single time and then feel like an idiot. :p
Bonnie, I try to keep an open mind with things I’m not super-fond of. There are some that I’ve simply given up trying all together, like for example anything which is known to contain the Evil Hibiscus, jasmine scented things and to some degree Darjeeling because I know I definitely won’t like them. With things like white tea it’s more diffuse why I don’t care for them. I can’t put my finger on anything in specific in them; they simply don’t really push my wow-buttons and they don’t have what I’m generally looking for in a good cup of tea. But there is always the chance of being surprised, so I try to give it a go and I try to keep an open mind. I don’t always manage it, sometimes something is just bleugh or I don’t have the energy for it.
I could have sworn I wanted to round this reply off with something intelligent and insightful on the subject, but I’ll be damned if I can remember what it was. I’ll return if it comes back… All I can remember is ‘oh I should remember to mention whatever it was!’ which is not super-helpful.
Angrboda – so, funny story… I happened to glance at myself in the mirror this evening during one of my numerous trips to the bathroom, and what did I find? Oh yes… there was matcha on the tip of my nose! Now, dunking one’s nose in most teas just results in a bit of surprise and possibly burning, if the tea is hot. Matcha, on the other hand, is green. Bright, dark green. The worst part? I definitely had just come back from the supermarket. I hope the cute guy manning the self-checkout didn’t notice! It wasn’t super-obvious… I think…. (Now, I’m not entirely sure how this matcha got there, but given the colour, I suspect it was from a sniff of the matcha packet itself and not my tea, but I could be wrong if I sniffed and got a floaty blob of unincorporated matcha at just the right/wrong spot…)
LOL! Okay, I’ve never done that, but then again I’ve never been sucked into the matcha trend either. :p At least my tea is only wet. :D