Fuding "Bai Hao Yin Zhen" Silver Needles White Tea * Spring 2021

So, it’s been a bit since I’ve posted anything here, hasn’t it? In truth, I did not mean to step away from Steepster for so long, but I got thoroughly wrapped up in life and work and all that kind of stuff. A lot has changed for me in the past two years. I’ve had to reevaluate where I want to go in life and what activities I want to pursue both personally and professionally going forward. Through my life’s ongoing chaos, the once incrementally shrinking backlog of tea reviews has exploded. There are now reviews that I have sat on for so long that I am no longer certain they are even worth posting. I mean, it’s 2024, and I still have reviews from like 2018 or 2019 that I never got around to putting on here. I guess we’ll see what happens.

Rather than starting off with a more recent sipdown, I am returning to Steepster with something from the backlog. I think I drank this tea in either early 2022 or sometime during the first half of last year. I vaguely remember wanting to see how it compared to similar offerings from Whispering Pines Tea Company and What-Cha. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this turned out to be a quality offering, though it was not as refined as the other Fuding Silver Needles I tried previously.

In order to review this tea, I relied on my trusty gong fu method. Following a 10 second rinse, I started off by steeping 6 grams of loose tea buds in 4 fluid ounces of 194 F water for 5 seconds. Twenty additional infusions followed. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, and 30 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea buds emitted aromas of cinnamon, pine, straw, almond, peanut, and hay. After the rinse, additional aromas of cream, butter, kale, peas, broccoli, and cabbage emerged. There was something of a subtle chestnut hint as well. The first infusion yielded a slightly stronger chestnut scent as well as mineral aromas. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented delicate notes of cinnamon, sugarcane, honey, butter, hay, straw, cream, almond, cabbage, broccoli, peas, and green banana that were chased by hints of earth, grass, kale, pine, and vanilla. The bulk of the subsequent infusions added aromas of grass, earth, green bell pepper, moss, white pepper, sugarcane, white peach, and yellow plum with touches of honey, pear, apple, and white grape coupled with a slightly stronger chestnut scent. Notes of minerals, chestnut, peanut, pear, apricot, apple, white peach, moss, white grape, watermelon rind, green bell pepper, and yellow plum emerged in the mouth alongside stronger earth, grass, and vanilla flavors. Hints of white pepper, guanbana, guava, nutmeg, honeydew, birch bark, green wood, orange zest, and star anise seemed to perpetually lurk in the background. As the tea faded, the liquor emphasized notes of minerals, hay, cabbage, broccoli, cream, butter, peanut, chestnut, and almond that were backed by subtle impressions of moss, straw, green banana, green bell pepper, kale, pear, apple, yellow plum, white grape, earth, grass, green wood, and watermelon rind.

There was a ton going on in this tea. It was a blast to pick apart, which I absolutely loved, but I did have a few minor quibbles. Traditionally, Fuding Silver Needles should not be perceived as being overtly vegetal, and this tea had some very pronounced vegetal aromas and flavors. It also produced a tea liquor that could be a bit gritty and sharp in the mouth. There was slightly more astringency than one would/should expect to encounter in a few places that detracted slightly from the overall drinking experience. As I am a Western reviewer that is not terribly beholden to traditional Eastern notions of how specific types of tea should be approached, consumed, and evaluated, I was not particularly bothered by what I perceived as relatively minor flaws. I would still not really hesitate to recommend this tea to others.