Fish and I just made the best Chicken Soup! We decided to combine our different styles of soup and specialties, he sauteed the chicken and onion garlic blend, and cooked the beans, I was in charge of the root veggies (the store was out of ruttabagas, and sadly we ran out of carrots) the broth, spice blend, and the surprise. I call it a surprise because at the last minute I wanted dumplings (not dumplings really, but dumplin’s) but have never made them gluten free, so I winged it and they turned out awesome! Not to toot my own horn, but I seem to be really getting the hang of baking gluten free and adapting recipes, there is a lot of trial and error, but the ratio of edible to utterly gross baking creations is mostly edible. Man, this soup is good, I am on my third bowl!
It is Wednesday (I think, my sleep schedule has gotten weird, I ended up staying up 24 hours again and sleeping for a couple hours…hmmm) which means it is a What-Cha day! Making my way through my notebook and the adventure of trying to taste all their teas brings us to Yunnan Silver Needle White Tea. Good old Dian Yin Zhen, like Fujian silver needles, but with a distinctly Yunnan quality and smokiness. The aroma is not really sweet, it is a savory tea with notes of smoke, tomato leaves, lettuce, sauteed bok choy, and a touch of fresh tomato as well. At the finish there is a tiny touch of smoked peaches that adds a hint of sweetness, but only a hint.
I decided to do a psuedo-western bowl steeping kinda thing for this tea, brewing it in my green gaiwan for a long time (7 minutes if you are curious) because I kinda love the way silver needle really shows off with longer steeps. The aroma of the leaves is very savory, bok choy and tomato, smoke and mineral, cedar and a touch of peach at the finish. The liquid is lightly smoked peach (think a grilled peach) with a touch of tomato leaves and lettuce and a tiny finish of distant floral.
The tea is very smooth and smoky, it starts out with sauteed bok choy and hay with a touch of tomato leaf. This moves on to delicate cedar notes that start off mild and build to a sharp cooling sensation that feels like it goes all the way to the tips of my fingers, gotta love that distinct Yunnan cooling sensation. The finish is mild peach and honey sweetness that mixes with the cooling cedar for a very refreshing end.
I went for a second much longer steep, the aroma is much sweeter, less smoke and more peach. The taste can be summed up the same way, but with an extra boom of cedar and now camphor for a peachy resinous cooling tea with a slight smokiness to it. The finish is delicate honey and distant flowers. Yunnan silver needle is a unique tea, if you were expecting the more familiar taste profile of a Fujian silver needle, you will be a bit shocked, but pleasantly so, especially if you are a fan of Sheng Puerhs and Yabao.
For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/07/what-cha-yunnan-silver-needle-white-tea.html
