Silver Buds Yabao

Okay, I am going to try to keep this one short. Knowing me, I will probably fail. I have been working on a small sample bag of this tea for the past two days and should finish it by tomorrow. Since I find writing about yabao difficult, I’m just going to record my first impressions as clearly and succinctly as possible in this review.

I brewed this one gongfu style. I followed Verdant’s gongfu guidelines closely this time around. Following the rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose buds in 4 ounces of 208 F water for 10 seconds. I performed eleven additional infusions, increasing the steep time by 10 seconds per infusion. So, steep times on the additional infusions ranged from 20 seconds to 2 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry buds gave off a subtle aroma that reminded me of spices and herbs. After the rinse, I noted a combination of spices, herbs, pine, juniper, cedar, and citrus on the nose, but I was not particularly able to pick out clear impressions. In the mouth, I noted a blend of straw, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, pine, juniper berry, cedar, eucalyptus, clove, and lemon on the early infusions. The middle infusions were sweeter and fruitier. I began to note impressions of peach, apricot, yellow plum, oatmeal, and marshmallow beneath the woody, spicy, and herbal sensations. Later infusions continued to emphasize sweeter aromas and flavors, though I could still detect impressions of oatmeal, straw, pine, cedar, lemon, and juniper lurking in the background. I also noted a subtle minerality on these infusions, though it was not particularly distracting.

Well, now that I have completely failed at writing a short review, allow me to state that I found this tea to be very enjoyable. I’m still not particularly familiar with yabao, so I do not know what separates a decent one from a great one, but I did very much enjoy this offering. As a matter of fact, I have only had one other tea of this type (the yabao offered by Whispering Pines), and I have to say that I found this one to be the better and more accessible of the two. In the end, I would recommend this tea to drinkers specifically looking for something subtle, graceful, deep, and challenging.

I was looking through my cupboard/s trying to decide on a brew to wake me up, and this stuck out to me. I was trying to decide between this or a 2008 Bulang. This won for some reason. I could just taste the sweet liquor and it just sounded “thirst quenching”. So, into the gaiwan these little guys went. I always loved the look of Yaboa. They are so alien looking. These buds give off a strong hay and wheaty scent. I washed them once and prepared for brewing. The liquor is so clear; it’s as if I’m drinking the hot spring water. I give the steeped little buds a scent and pick up that iconic hot hay. I can hint at some fruit notes in the background and just a pleasant dryness, like steel cut oats. The liquor deepens to a slight golden, but it remains translucent. The taste is juicy! This brew instantly hits my taste buds with an oily sweetness. This is exactly what I needed to get my morning started. The nectar succulence mixes well with the light woodiness and brings my spirit up as it quenchs my thirst. I really enjoy Yabao. Every time I brew some up I recall the first time I discovered this peculiar “Puerh”. I was always fascinated by the colour of the tea. I think that is my favorite part of this brew. I was able to steep this for quite some time before I had to go to work. I love that this brew is so durable; I was able to leave in the gaiwan and still yield a sweet and smooth drink. This is a good Yabao offering, and I’m glad I rediscovered it.

https://www.instagram.com/p/_EpzYYzGYI/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

https://www.instagram.com/p/_EqIfIzGY0/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

I’ve made some progress with gongfu, and finally discovered what is meant by “sweet aftertaste”. So, I thought I’d give this one a try, and I happened to have some lying around. I remember not liking it, before. It had no flavor, but seemed to smell nice. Today, I decided to use a full 7 grams to 4 oz ratio, and a long 45 sec steep. Turns out, this helps dramatically. Spicy notes were in the aroma. But, there’s also a sweet white chocolate, and slight butterscotch note, as well. They are also very present in the taste, even though the spice notes are absent. Mouth-feel is creamy smooth. There’s also a sort of taste that reminds me of the corn meal coating around the corn dogs at the Fair. Sweet, and buttery. It’s ironic that this tasting would coincide with fair season, where I live. Although, I wasn’t even thinking about it at the time. I’m also noticing a caramel flavor, which reminds me of Autumn candy. The white chocolate part is my favorite aspect to this tea. It’s also a little bit like cake frosting. The taste is very subtle, and I would only recommend this tea to an experienced taster. It’s rather unique, and certainly adds a completely new experience to be discovered for those who appreciate such things.

Edit: Aha! I knew I recognized that sweetness… It’s definitely like Blue Agave nectar!

I’ve been dating SBY for a while now and am now committed to a permanent relationship. It has taken me a while to write a review, as this charmer is quite the chameleon. The flavor profile changes dramatically over the successive steepings, as well as through the temperature changes during each steeping. Early steeps are quite spicy, becoming more fresh, sweet and subtle over time. I orders 2 packages and am aging one and drinking the other. I’ve also ordered these intriguing buds from another company for comparison. I love this enigmatic generous tea.

I was very intrigued by this tea because I had never seen it before. According to Verdant Tea’s website it states that this tea is unlike others in the sense that it does not come from the plant camellia sinensis which all tea comes from and then goes through an oxidation process but rather are buds picked from ancient tree’s in the winter in China. Sounds dreamy and romantic, right? So of course I bought some from their moving away sale. Opened the bag and instantly got the smell of fresh cucumbers. So far, I’m still tring to figure out the right ratio. I’ve only brewed it in a gaiwan. The first time I did 5 grams of tea with boiling water. I don’t have a tea kettle that controls water temp just yet so I’m not sure if that matters for this brewing. The flavor was incredibly light. Once the tea cooled their was a faint taste honeydew. I then changed the ration to 10 grams of tea and got a lot more flavor out of it once it cooled down! The honeydew was there with a nice hint of honey that sticked to the tongue a little. I can see in other reviews people said to cold brew it-I will try that soon because the flavor enhanced the more it cooled. Would also be curious to age this myself and see where that goes. Besides being tasty and unique it also is a gorgeous looking tea!

I could never place this tea in a flavor category but I know when I taste it, it just feels great to swish around my mouth. It’s spicy but also tender, the body has a slick thickness to it that I really enjoy and with just a little bit of honey it tastes totally different. I also love how you can make a cocktail out of this tea with a little bit of gin. Definitely something I will be coming back to again and again.

Got a nice box full of new teas to try! This one was in it and I really wanted to try it. Steeping it gong fu style. The aria of the wet leaves is amazing. It’s sweet and spicy with pine and herb notes. The first steep kind of tastes like lightly sugared warm water. The second steep has a nice piney spice with a touch of sweetness. There is almost a soft ginger taste to it. The third steep lost a little of the spice and is turning a bit sweeter. I think I may have under leafed. Next time I will try adding a little more :)

This is the first tea I’ve up-rated for its ‘fun’ quotient! It’s a brain-tickler… normally I would not expect to enjoy this combo of flavors but they are mysteriously intriguing. I dislike clove but the first steep it was all about clove and licorice… but with a countervailing smoothness and sweetness that removed their edge and left the whole palate stunningly interested. Smooth, sweet and savory.

The last sip, by then cooled, was another stunner: caramel. Just this intense sweetness out of nowhere. What fun.

As Amanda ‘SoggyEnderman’ Wilson noted, it has a fragrance of basil, which is just another twist in the interesting profile. Maybe there’s a little juniper in the flavor, but I didn’t pick up the strong pine that characterized it for so many other fellow Steeps.

This tea is a great conversation piece, so a must-have for any tea tasting having the purpose of sampling a wide range of different tea personalities

The name “yabao” is a perfect psycho-onomatopoeia – what your thought ‘sounds’ like in your head when you taste this… like a flash-impact word in a superheroes comic book : bam! … yabao! ha!

Plus it’s fun how the buds puff up like little seaweed pillow-fingers in the Atlantic, if you know the ones I mean.

Thanks to Christina for the great trade!

This is the second yabao that I’ve tried, the first being from Whispering Pines. These buds from Verdant are thinner and sharper, looking more like wild bamboo shoots, though the dry aroma of pine, rosemary, and dried grass is much the same and quite inviting. The difference that comes through when brewed is an additional, cinnamon-sugar aroma that is just a little spicy and sweet. It’s very unique, though the overall impression of the brew is still quite subtle, even more so than the WP version. Now I finally understand why Verdant had a blend called Yabao Snickerdoodle, because that’s exactly what this reminds me of!

Will play more with multiple infusions some other time, I feel like there’s more I could be getting out of it. I do find the part in the description about yabao being relatively obscure in China to be true, it’s a tea I have never seen in China or mentioned by anyone I know there, and there is relatively little information about it even online. It is something that I hope people will appreciate more in the coming years.

This tastes like wood and hay. Sweet wood and hay though. xD Think I like normal Silver Needle better than this even. Oy. Not for me. :S