Jasmine Silver Needle White Tea (Mo Li Yin Zhen)

Thanks Teavivre for yet another generously-sized sample of a tea I’m quite interested in trying! I seem to have developed a fondness for jasmine whites instead of jasmine greens, so hopefully this one works for me!

The aroma emanating from the packet is strongly of a sweet, delicious jasmine. It almost makes me think candy! Delicious. The tea is a bit more subdued (probably a good thing), but has a nice jasmine aroma that makes me think of Chinese food (haha), but unlike the tea I have at my favourite Chinese restaurant, the flavour here is sweet and delicate (and quite floral, although that’s the same), and completely smooth and silky. All the jasmine deliciousness without the bitterness/astringency from green tea.

I’m not quite sure whether I prefer Verdant’s Yunnan White Jasmine or this tea (I’m not likely to keep multiple white jasmines on hand), so will have to do a comparison one day.

Thank you for this sample, Teavivre! Sorry for taking 3928752 years to get to it.

I wanted more white tea tonight, and realized I had a lot of unopened silver needle samples. Jasmine sounded especially nice so I brewed this one up.

This is really light after 90 seconds. And I don’t know if I like jasmine with silver needle, because it tastes so amazing by itself. I’ll give it another try at some point, because it was just too muted for me.

I feel like Goldilocks…first a white has too much flavor for what I was looking for, then the next one is too light! I’ll revisit this again soon and steep it longer.

I found this tea to be similar to Verdants’ Fuijian White Jasmine. The jasmine in this is very nice and floral with no honeysuckle. I found the floral in this one to be more garden floral, not hot, humid summer floral with honeysuckle. I could also taste the white tea too, melon, sweet, and hay notes throughout. I found this to be a very nice balanced jasmine tea that isn’t overpowering with its jasmine taste.

(Free sample provided by Teavivre. Thank you!)

This will be the first tea from sample pack I’ve received from Teavivre some month ago or so. I’m not a big fan of jasmine scented teas, I’m OK with mild jasmine aroma but when there’s a tea scented with perfumy and overpowering impression it makes me run for the hills.

With a sample pack weighing 5,5 grams I managed to distribute it for traditional western and gaiwan gong fu brewing method, so I’ll be doing western method now and gaiwan gong fu some other time.

This tea was chosen for me to review by one fan from my Facebook page, so if you’re from ex-Yugoslavia area I encourage you to check it, just search – Dobri čajevi.

Setup:

Glass teapot (250 ml)
Leaf – 2,5 gram (2 tsp.)
Water – 80 Celsius 200 ml
Time – 1 min, 1 min, 2 min

Leaf & infusion:

Dry leaf – Leaf is somewhat broken (most likely due to handling and tight packaging) revealing its flakey leaf texture, but it retains a lot of whole buds with white-grayish color texture and almost completely covered with fine white hair. In complete sample pack there’s only few yellow jasmine flowers. Jasmine scent is mild, pleasant and natural.

Wet leaf – While brewing this tea almost no buds sank, with few standing upright as heavier stalks free of air get soaked up. Once drained, buds air with cucumber-like aroma and appear more fat with emerald green color and accent on veins.

Infusion (1st) – First infusion is clear with light gray-yellow hue and on the bottom there are some leaf parts that have managed to pass through the strainer. While jasmine aroma seems to be gentle but firm, and almost sweet-like.

Taste is soft, fruity (peach) with jasmine finish that lingers for short time. On first sip, the tea makes a strong impression, as with additional sips that stretch out sweetness even more and introduce smooth, silky flow across the tongue and light tingling sensation in throat. With last sips minty freshness appears and one can enjoy lingering fruity peach and jasmine notes in between.

Infusion (2nd) – Second infusion is more intense in taste, and even savory. As jasmine aroma shifts to almost an undertone, for best enjoyment it’s better to drink it when it gets almost lukewarm as sweetness and smoothness get accentuated. With last sips some dryness on tongue can be noted.

Infusion (3rd) – Third infusion reveals less delicate but still pleasant aspect of this tea as it gets more dry and even with a touch of astringency.

Conclusion – As I’m not a fan of jasmine scented teas I was actually surprised how much pleasant sips I got from this one. This tea is both delicate and delicious even if I got this session a bit of the balance with steeping time, but I’m sure that I would get it even better provided that I have more leaf. Anyways, I’m expecting some good results with the rest sample and gaiwan brewing method.

This sample was sent to me for review. Thank you Angle and Teavivre.

The white teas I’ve tried so far see to consist of a dry vegetal note that reminds me of hay, cucumber and pepper. This doesn’t really have the cucumber flavor and very little of pepper. It may be the jasmine as it’s pretty powerful in here. Underneath the jasmine there is a sweeter apple note.

I think the jasmine fu is too strong with this one for it to earn a spot in my cupboard. However, I’m glad I got the chance to try it.

Tea Vivre Samples Round #3

The best word for this tea is balanced.

Long running readers of my reviews will know that I am not a fan of floral things, least of all in tea.

For reasons that are not entirely clear to me, Houston’s Chinese restaurants all seem to serve jasmine tea rather than green or oolong as their “default” tea. I’ve never come across that in any other city. Unfortunately, most of it is bad, bagged, or low quality tea, besides.

Which is part of why I opted to taste this sample in spite of my biases.

Now, I freely admit that my biases against flavored, scented and spiced teas derives largely from my book knowledge of why teas began to be processed this way in the first place. But, I am learning to accept that many of these techniques have become a tradition and that there are those who are trying to elevate them to an art in their own right and not simply as a way of selling mediocre tea across vast distances and time.

This silver needle scented tea points the way to beginning to understand this. The floral notes are absolutely heady, almost cloying, the moment the leaves are first struck by hot water. I freely admit I was terrified that I was about to drink the equivalent of a cup of rose water. But amazingly, after this initial offering of intensity, the jasmine has quickly settled into place side by side, perhaps even a step behind, the tea itself.

I’m several extremely short steepings into these leaves and I’m only just now thinking that longer steeps are in order and so far there is no bite, no hard edge, nothing unpleasant in these cups. A soft, but present tea being supported by unassertive, but present flowers.

These teas will never be my first choice. Never be my ‘go to’ cup. But if more people served tea like this one that Tea Vivre is offering, I’d wrinkle my nose far less when dining out.

Thank you very much to our tea Angel for putting me on the right path.

Tea provided by Teavivre for review

The scent of jasmine was very noticeable as soon as I opened the tea sample pouch. I love the scent of this flower (more so than others like rose), so I was excited to brew this up and share with my husband.

With the first sip, my worries of an overly scented tea were washed away. I can taste the familiar delicate aroma of white tea and nice hints of jasmine. When I downed the first cup, the tea liquor also made me think of jasmine paired with fresh fruit (like peaches or apples)

The second cup was still quite nice. Jasmine is more prevalent but tolerable. Still no bad flavours such as bitterness.

Third steep was good, but perhaps maybe I steeped it too long. The floral aroma is still going strong, but the more I sip the more I yearn for just regular white tea.

Fourth, fifth, and sixth steeps I am mostly tasting the jasmine aroma. Which I guess helps prolong the flavour of each steep.

Overall I liked this tea but for white tea I still prefer regular silver needle, and for jasmine; the silver jasmine green tea. (Personal bias: I am not a big fan of white teas. They are enjoyable but not my preferred tea.) Teavivre has graciously mailed me quite a bit of this tea, so I will continue to play around with steep parameters to get the best result.

100ml gaiwan, 2tsp, 6 steeps (1min, +1min each resteep)

This was a sample (to Missy!) from the wonderful Angel and the Teavivre crew.

The first thing you notice about this tea is WOW, JASMINE! It is very heavily fragranced, they definitely do not skimp on the jasmine for this particular batch.

The tea itself brews into a beautiful, placid, lightly yellowish-green color. You think for a second that maybe you haven’t brewed it long enough. Especially when you pour it into a big red mug!

The flavor is a really strikingly powerful sweet jasmine flavor, with a secondary flavor that sits somewhere near golden apples. Sweet and fruity, powerfully so. Beneath that, there is a lightly hay flavored, dry white tea taste, with a hint of that brushy-pepper aftertaste that I associate with many white teas.

Overall, a very tasty brew if you’re fond of jasmine. I think I prefer Teavivre’s jasmine pearls to this, but in general I would prefer most green teas over white, methinks.

And after one 2-minute brew, these leaves barely look touched. You could easily go two or three brews off these babies.

So I want to say THANK YOU to Angel at Teavivre, and also apologize for being slow on the reviews. School has made it hard to really sit down and enjoy a cup of tea, though I’ve gotten a few bagged teas in.

To be honest, I’m still adjusting to the different flavors of Chinese tea. I think since Chinese tea is probably the most natural compared to bagged teas or other loose leaf, learning how to taste and like the different flavors has been an interesting challenge. So far, I like many of the teas I’ve tried, and then there are some that I need to taste a few more times.

However, this tea has blown my mind first try. JASMINE BLOSSOMS ARE YUMMY! Or at least in tea, I’ve never eaten a full one. Haha, but no, really, the floral smell hits you right out of the bag and is light enough to not choke you but strong enough to be enjoyed, even with my slightly stuffy nose.

Steeping it’s just as strong, and the first sip I literally went “Ooh!” because there was just this explosion of floral, jasmine awesomeness and then a very light, mellow taste of white tea. It blends so well and is just really pleasant, I have no complaints.

Just for anyone’s reference: This tea steeped really light in color for me, which makes sense because, duh, it’s a white tea, but it was much lighter in color than some white teas I’ve tried. That being said, the flavor was not missing at all, so if you feel that it didn’t steep strong enough, I’d try it first because it is PERFECT for me. Of course, tastes and preparation varies from person to person, so do it your way! Either way, GO DRINK THIS TEA! With a good book or movie! And something sweet to eat with it! (Although I’m craving popcorn…)

UPDATE: Each sip gets better and better! I LOVE THIS TEA!!

Just a quick note. I wanted jasmine pearl tea and found to my horror that I was out of it and had to replace it with this one instead. I am craving jasmine at the moment :)

Steeped 6 times in my gaiwan and each cup was as beautiful as the last. Plus in the loose tea there are actual jasmine flowers amongst the white tea leaves and it looks so delicate and perfect, very warm and summery.

It started off gentle and refreshing with just a hint of jasmine and within a few cups it changed to become stronger and stronger with the jasmine exploding marvellously on my tongue.

This wasn’t what I intended to have but it certainly cured my taste for jasmine. Yum yum.