Silver Needle Premium

WOW! Was very fortunate to receive some of this from my aunt for Christmas. Probably the best tea I’ve ever had. Perfect steep. Was smooth and refreshing. Cleanses the palette. Sweet and savory.

I’m tasting the Zingerman’s Organic Silver Needle, but I’m pretty sure that it’s really Rishi. This is quite nice and pleasant, citrusy nose, clean flavor. A very good white tea!

This is quite a nice tea from which you can draw a lot of complex intricate flavours, over multiple steeps, from a small amount of leaf. Of my two Silver Needles that I own at the moment this is the one that I go to want something softer, and maybe more meditative. The other one I own is Zen Tea’s offering.

Dry, the tea smells of straw and hay mixed together with soft and slightly powdery, sweet and citrusy notes. The leaves are pale yellow to pale green with fine silvery downy pale hairs. The leaves are around one inch long.

The first steep of around 50 seconds resulted in pale beige with a grey tinged tea. it smelled faintly of buttered rice both slightly nutty and creamy, of faint citrus notes, of notes of straw and grain, and of a touch of smoke. It tasted sweet, with a smoky note, a hint of citrus/vitamin C and of straw, all underlain with a silky sweet note that hinted of a mildly flavoured bready fruit and a taste that reminds me of Choclo ( a corn staple in many countries in Latin America). The tea has a noticeable full and silky body. The sweet flavour intensify as it cools.

The 2nd steep had a scent that hints of citrus, with nutty sweet grains, and a faint combined floral/vegetal note like blooming alfalfa mixed with a note of jasmine. The smoke was gone leaving a hint of amber. It tasted of citrus notes, combined with wildflowers nectar (clover and someting spicier), with the straw receeding to the background. The tea remained sweet, but in a cooked fuit / squash or grain type of sweetness. Their was a faint taste of smoke. The aftertaste was mainly a mix of sweet, citrus and vegetal notes.

The 3rd steep was a silky straw, and grain flavour, followed by sweet floral nectar/citrus flavour with an aftertaste of stewed mild flavoured plums with a lingering sweetness.

In the 4th steep the sweet nectar references were more dominant with citrus, straw accents in the background

The remaining steeps required an increase in brewing temperature and maintained a sliky, warm sweetness over straw flavour.

I have steeped this tea up to 10 times before and it is a nice tea when you have some time to explore subtle nuances in flavour and scent. A nice example of this genre of tea. but I am going to hold off rating at this time until I have an opportunity to compare it to Zen Teas option.

Rishi’s Silver Needle has a light delicate flavor. It tastes a bit like sweet hay and baked bread flavor, but is very smooth and not at all bitter. I believe that this would make an excellent tea for someone who is sick or just feeling under the weather.

has a nice sweet smell, tastes great. no bitterness whatsoever. if you look closely you can see the little hairs from the buds in the liquid. seems to have thicker consistency than most teas i’ve had. one of my favorites.

I’ll be honest and say I haven’t tried many other silver needle teas outside of this one, since it’s the only one my local shop carries. But that being said it was a really nice taste and the guys even had a bodum pitcher filled with this tea cold pressed which took it to a whole new level.

I’m a big fan of Silver Needle teas and this one doesn’t disappoint. The dry leaf smells very green. However, the brewed tea is a classic, smooth drinking Silver Needle. However, it isn’t quite as sweet or complex as my favorite Silver Needle from Adagio.

So fresh and so clean (clean).

I would have to say this is in my top 3 favorite teas. I think it has great qi and makes my cheeks pink when I have it first thing in the morning. It is probably my favorite tea to have first thing in the morning. When I taste it I can see the leaf bud on the plant taking in the dew of spring. I really like the sweetness this tea offers. It is high in amino acids and low in catechins which is why it has such nice sweetness. The sweetness of amino acids to me in synonymous with the fresh taste of spring.

I use more than the recommended amount and higher temperature. I like to get a rich mouthfeel and extract all of the goodness from the leaf. I let it infuse until I have a deep yellow infusion. (Over night cold brew is also delicious!)

Prized for its delicious sweet flavor, fruity aroma and wonderfully invigorating energy, this is our most popular white tea and well worth the investment!