What White Are You Drinking

[Bac]

Some baimu dan from 2018 wich was a gift from a friend who made a trip in china, usually brew it gong fu cha at 90-95 degree in a porcelain vessel but also tried it grandpa style, in a zisha mug, still very good!
Fruity and honeysh yet with a slight woodsy dark tone, quite intense.

IMG_20201117_002415.jpg (341.21 KiB) Viewed 13671 times

Sadly i cannot read chinese, if anyone has any idea of provenience/quality of the tea i would be very grateful

[Bok]

Had the most wonderful surprise of a white tea yesterday: a little something I bought on impulse at the Taipei tea trade fair last weekend, a Taiwanese made organic white tea from Thailand.

It’s quite apparently organic in the typical bug bitten honey notes only these teas have. It is impossible to brew too long and kept going for almost 12 rich and flavourful rounds! The vendor had offered me of what he said almost spent leaves brew - it was still very nice I knew it must be very good tea.

Expensive though. Not quite the level of a comparable oriental beauty, but still more expensive than most premium Taiwanese teas. Being from Thailand it should be a lot cheaper than local tea. Anyways, worth to spend that on a treat if a 50g bag... I’d like to get a jin of it though

[Bok]

Back to this white tea. You know a tea is good when you crave for it the next day...

[debunix]

You know a tea is good when you crave for it the next day...

Yes

[Ethan Kurland]

Had the most wonderful surprise of a white tea yesterday: a little something I bought on impulse at the Taipei tea trade fair last weekend, a Taiwanese made organic white tea from Thailand.

Congratulations on your discovery! I never found a good white tea from Thailand. I never found any tea there that is good for more than several infusions. Enjoy!

[Bok]

I never found any tea there that is good for more than several infusions. Enjoy!

For the longest time me neither... White teas had always been a sad affair for me in the past.

[Bac]

Some baimu dan from 2018 wich was a gift from a friend who made a trip in china, usually brew it gong fu cha at 90-95 degree in a porcelain vessel but also tried it grandpa style, in a zisha mug, still very good!
Fruity and honeysh yet with a slight woodsy dark tone, quite intense.

Sadly i cannot read chinese, if anyone has any idea of provenience/quality of the tea i would be very grateful

Some additional information that i missed due to distraction.
All i can tell, its the date of manufacturing.

IMG_20201123_225134.jpg (237.1 KiB) Viewed 13525 times

IMG_20201123_232211.jpg (290.35 KiB) Viewed 13525 times

[Victoria]

Followed this mornings black 1st Flush with another Thunderbolt Tea, this time a white Darjeeling from 2020 - Castleton Moonlight, 1st Flush. Need to remember the white Darjeeling is more sensitive than oxidized black to oxygen degradation over the months. While the 1st flush black Darjeeling from 2018 was still very good, this 1st flush white from 2020 shows a loss in complexity and freshness. When fresh it had stronger aromatics and flavor profile was smoother, with creamy, nutty sweet notes. Those notes have become more tannic now. 4.6g/150ml/185f/3-4min in Konishi Yohei 180ml.

[Victoria]

This morning revisited Thunderbolt’s Arya Pearl a white organic 1st flush Darjeeling from 2020. Asparagus sweet pea notes in warmed dry leaf and wet leaf are unique. The liquor has elegant light vegetal baked bread notes with a silky viscosity. There is a slight drying sensation on roof of mouth if over steeped. The air is permeated with an asparagus sweet bread aroma. Reminds me of a high quality LongJing layered with that special Darjeeling White profile. A little thin though, thinking this white was probably best up to six months after it was picked. Steeped: 7.6g/280ml/182f/5.40 min in Seto-ware glazed vine handle kyusu.

[LeoFox]

Okayti snow buds. A few years old and growing lovelier and lovelier.
white tea evening

[mbanu]

Drinking some "antler tea" from the Satema estate in Malawi. It is usually marketed as a white tea, although it isn't quite. It uses tea buds kept attached to their stems, making it a sort of tips-and-stems tea. The flavor is that of a good black-pekoe tea, but with a sort of faint weediness underneath that is hard to put my finger on (not a bad combo, though). It's very distinctive!

[Victoria]

Still waiting for this years 1st flush Darjeeling. Thunderbolt Tea hasn’t posted any yet. Anyone else get a 1st flush white Darjeeling that they think is AAA grade (SFTGFOP 1) quality? While I wait, thankfully a freind sent me the rest of their 2020 Arya Pearl Darjeeling white, it’s organic handpicked SFTGFOP1 grade. Even though it’s now a year old, it is still tasty with that special champagne like character that a good Darjeeling white has, plus asparagus sweet pea notes are still coming through. Stuffed Konish Yohei 190ml mayake kyusu with 5g/180ml/180f/5.30min

137917DE-3874-4103-891F-36817FB366DB.jpeg (222.52 KiB) Viewed 12002 times

70F47BD6-1FA4-44B5-9A51-3A315F67460A.jpeg (232.9 KiB) Viewed 12002 times

[TeaTotaling]

Still waiting for this years 1st flush Darjeeling. Thunderbolt Tea hasn’t posted any yet. Anyone else get a 1st flush white Darjeeling that they think is AAA grade (SFTGFOP 1) quality? While I wait, thankfully a freind sent me the rest of their 2020 Arya Pearl Darjeeling white, it’s organic handpicked SFTGFOP1 grade. Even though it’s now a year old, it is still tasty with that special champagne like character that a good Darjeeling white has, plus asparagus sweet pea notes are still coming through. Stuffed Konish Yohei 190ml mayake kyusu with 5g/180ml/180f/5.30min

The Konishis have been making the rounds A charming one here topped with some heady white, lovely!

[bentz98125]

Still waiting for this years 1st flush Darjeeling. Thunderbolt Tea hasn’t posted any yet. Anyone else get a 1st flush white Darjeeling that they think is AAA grade (SFTGFOP 1) quality? While I wait, thankfully a freind sent me the rest of their 2020 Arya Pearl Darjeeling white, it’s organic handpicked SFTGFOP1 grade. Even though it’s now a year old, it is still tasty with that special champagne like character that a good Darjeeling white has, plus asparagus sweet pea notes are still coming through. Stuffed Konish Yohei 190ml mayake kyusu with 5g/180ml/180f/5.30min

The Konishis have been making the rounds A charming one here topped with some heady white, lovely!

Your description makes me eager to try Arya Pearl as well as heighten my anticipation of more Castleton Moonlight. Right now I'm drinking Thunderbolt's Arya Diamond 2nd flush EX-57 and 1st flush Castleton Moonlight EX-3 2020. Am enjoying them but not at the level of the EX-1 I hope is forthcoming. Sure wish I could describe tasting them with your virtuosity. I love reading it and recognizing the flavors described therein. But seems like a big jump from recognizing elements of someone else's flavor description to being able to compose my own. Kind of like hearing, enjoying, and even playing, music, yet not being able to write it at even close to the same level.

[debunix]

But seems like a big jump from recognizing elements of someone else's flavor description to being able to compose my own. Kind of like hearing, enjoying, and even playing, music, yet not being able to write it at even close to the same level.

Practice, practice, practice, mindful sipping and mindful eating helps....along with reading the terms others are using. I just saw a post that compared some flavor notes in a light-roast BaoZhong to coconut, and now I'm going to drink some oolongs with that flavor in mind--may sniff a little toasted coconut, prepared for some cookies later today, to make sure my sense of coconut is up to snuff--to see if that might work as another way to describe the notes that I experience as like a meadow drying in midsummer, with grass turning to standing hay, but still some wildflowers in bloom amidst the golden stalks of grass/hay, a sense of something that is not loam/hummus earthy, but something others sometimes call buttery, but to me not quite like what I melt over popcorn or the buttery quality of my favorite pastries. I've also been enjoying some corn on the cob this week (tis the season, yay!), and that too reminds me a bit of this fundamental note that so eludes description.

But it's not a note that often comes up in drinking white teas, whereas peaches, champagne, and sweet wildflowers definitely come to mind.