Organic Nonpareil Silver Needle White Tea (Bai Hao Yin Zhen)

This tea is light and fresh. The floral taste is nicely meshed with what appears to be reminiscent of crisp cucumber. This tea is so refreshing that it feels revitalizing to drink it. It is so delicate, yet so good I have dubbed it my crack tea.

This morning I was having even more trouble than usual shaking the slumber off of my metabolism so I could face the day. I yearned for some potent black tea which usually does the trick.

However, fate dealt me a different hand as I accidentally, with squinting eyes, reached for the Teavivre Organic Silver Needle White Tea instead. Since, in my half-asleep state, I had already ripped the seal from the packet when I realized my mistake, I decided to make the best of the situation and go with it.

As I raised the cup to my lips and the first few drops of liquid trickled down my throat, my eyes popped open, not from the usual caffeine jolt of black tea, but from the incredible flavor that emerged from this amazing white tea!

I’m not a fan of flowery tasting teas, but the wonderful sweet floral flavor of this tea brought me back to memories of my childhood when I would suck out the sweet nectar of honeysuckle blossoms during the hot and humid New Jersey summers.

This tea has an extremely smooth taste to it. The floral and sweet flavors are in perfect harmony. There is no bitterness and neither flavor sensation overpowers the other.

The clean light golden yellow color of this tea, like white wine, is very inviting. You may want to serve this one in clear mugs to get the full effect.

Teavivre has once again broadened my horizons with another fantastic tea. I now see (and taste) the value and good in all tea colors. Black, white, green; they are now all equal in my sight (and tastebuds).

Enjoyed this white. Tolerated long steeps that I didn’t time, just based readiness on color. Probably somewhere in the range of 2-5 mins. The profile was familiar, similar to other whites I’ve liked. Overall it did not disappoint. Re-steeped about 5 times in my Finum, keeping water temps low and using the entire sample from Teavivre (Thanks Angel!). Liquor was lovely yellow and fresh tasting— lightly sweet, hint of black pepper with notes of hay & cucumber.

Whites tend to be subtle in my experience. This was a bit more overt, but still laying low. I don’t gravitate to white teas as much as I do greens, but I specifically made this note so to remind myself that Silver Needle is the way forward for me.

My samples from Teavivre came! Yay thanks Angel!

The leaves are beautiful here, long and fuzzy. The smell out of the bag is subtle, grassy and a bit floral. So when I took my first sip, it was completely unexpected. Salt. hmmm.
I had to make myself try another sip, but it was well worth it. Not sure where the salt came from, but now it was wonderful. A bit like hay as others have mentioned, but soft and silky, with later sips giving way to notes of melon, savory grass, and a light, delicate, floral. This is only my second or third silver needle, but it has left me very intrigued. I love the subtle, delicate but complex nature of this tea. I look forward to trying more silver needles to compare.

Once again, another generous sample from Teavivre! I’ve been craving the lighter unadulterated teas today. I LOVE silver needle teas! They remind me of what good chamomile should taste like. It is very smooth, light, and a bit floral. The leaves aren’t as fuzzy as some other silver needles I’ve tried. However, I really, really like this. It is calming, yet it seems to help me focus.

Organic Silver Needle White Tea (Bai Hao Yin Zhen) was another contender for the Most Unexpected First Impression award. The dry leaves hit you with a fresh hay smell, which catapulted me back into fond memories of horse camp. Shows promise to be a fine outdoorsy tea, for sure.

Another letdown, aroma-wise. If Jasmine Silver Needle is the showoff, then Organic Silver Needle is her ludicrously timid younger sister. Again, the steeping instructions don’t let this tea really show what it’s capable of. It’s not very entertaining to have to sit and wait for the flavors to come to you–especially if you’re not the patient type. Go for a higher water temperature and let it sit for longer, that way you can reap the full effect of the softly winding florals that set this silver needle apart. It lacks the heady perfume of the jasmine version, so that the true taste and aroma of the leaves has nothing to hide behind. However, if you steep it according to the instructions, you’ll be there spending more energy coaxing the flavors into mind than actually drinking it, during which time you could have just left it in the infuser another two minutes and gotten the better cup out of it.

Full review here: http://snooteablog.com/2013/07/05/snooty-tea-review-teavivre-round-2/

Drank this one yesterday evening.

Great tea, very bold taste, very humble and unpretentious. Though a tiny bit too grassy for me, I guess. It lacks some flower-y notes for my liking, But still, I’d drink this one every day for a long time.

However, if I’d have to choose between Organic White Peony (Bai Mu Dan) Tea and this one, I would choose the first one (that’s why I’ve got 3 packages of it :P ).

Have had this several times now and am appreciating the subtle yet flavorful nuances of this excellent silver needle. Though mild, it is far from boring. Following the directions, I brewed 2 (heaping) tsp in 8 oz water for 1 min, increasing by 30-60 seconds for subsequent steepings. As I read other reviews, I was nodding when I saw descriptions like cucumber, hay, floral. I would say all these were just hints-combining to give a very satisfying experience. I enjoyed it with a tiny bit of Stevia. Perfect for a soothing cup in the evening

I don’t know what it is with certain white teas, but they seem to vary in flavor and freshness with me. Well, this white tea is good. It’s very light when it’s brewed up, and I kept getting faint hints of sweetness on the aftertaste.

This was the first white tea I’ve had that I actually went for a second infusion. It has a warm hay/dried grain aroma and flavor in lighter quality, floral notes are strong and tend to linger.
I brewed this as directed, but ended up liking the 1 min brew more than the 2, personally finding the subtle gentle flavors more appealing than a bolder brew.
The leaves are very pretty, fuzzy frost blue spears, very little dust at the bottom of my cup :) if I were to serve this for guests I would be pairing it with a little bite that had a floral component, like a lavender-salt goat cheese spread with a nutty/multi grain cracker, or something similar.