I’m actually taking time to sit down and drink the tea while I write about it! I’ve tasted this tea several times in the last two weeks, but I didn’t take the time to sit down and record my thoughts on the tea until now.
I love the flavor combination of Bai Mu Dan and apricot. These two flavors work together really well. The vanilla adds a creamy element that plays to the natural creamy notes of the white tea nicely. The violet adds a very slight floral note to the cup – it’s not a strong or prevalent flavor and it’s most noticeable while the tea is hot. As the tea cools, I find that the floral note softens as the vanilla and apricot emerge a little more.
I definitely prefer this one hot because I like those floral notes (Note: you probably won’t taste the floral notes if you don’t make sure that there’s a violet in the brewing vessel when you steep this tea because I didn’t actually flavor the tea with violet essence – I just added the crystallized violets to the blend)
Here’s my blog post about this tea that I just published: http://52teas.com/blog/taste-test-when-doves-cry-a-tribute-to-prince-and-his-art/
_For those of you who are looking for brewing parameters, I do make some suggestions on the blog post. If you weigh your tea when you measure it out, I suggest weighing it without the dried apricots and crystallized violets on the scale as they will throw off the weight (both are rather heavy). _
There’s still some of this tea left – there’s only one of the large (maybe 2) and a few of the taster size – it’s going fast!