Organic White Peony (Bai Mu Dan) Tea

I decided it was tea time and I was getting my tea ready when I noticed that my little sampler bag of tea was harder to open. It was the long skinny type and usually there is one serving in there. When I dumped it into my press it really started to look like two servings in there. Maybe it just looked like that because the leaves are so fluffy. I brewed it anyway for one minute and then poured it into my TARDIS mug to take downstairs with me.

The liquor was really yellow. I was expecting it to be pale since my other white tea was water-like in color. It smells like a flower. I’m not sure what a peony smells like but I imagine this is spot on. I could wear the scent as a perfume.

It tastes exactly like it smells. It is not chemically or perfume-like, but it tastes like a flower. I ate a dandelion one time and the way this tastes reminds me of that texture.

I’m not sure if I actually like this or not. I get the mouth feel of chewing a flower and it smells like a flower but it is tea. I can see why people like using it as a base for flavored teas. I bet this would add a lovely texture to other flavors. I can imagine making a really good vanilla cake tea out of this.

I love how “shabby chic” White Peony tea looks like, unstructured and lacking in formal rules. The leaves look like they just woke up and didn’t have time to fix their hair yet!

Fluffy, some large and some small, oddly shaped, it’s beautifully disorganized.

Brewing it never fails me. It’s one of those I always go «Ahhh, yes, here you are, it’s been too long…» cause I usually shy away from white tea during winter but drink lots of it during summer season, cold or hot.

I am using the Gaiwan, I don’t measure or weigh it cause it’s too light, I just completely fill the vessel, it’s simpler.

It smells and tastes like hay warmed by the sun. It has beautiful notes of stone fruit, maybe apricot, and I also get some cucumber.

The second steep is always the best, it bursts with sweet melon juiciness, more stone fruit, hay still present.

Very relaxing and warming, a solid tea I can always rely on.

Welcome back to my life Bai Mu Dan!

Such beautifully fluffy leaves! After what seems like quite the trying journey, being prodded and slit open by Canadian Border Services, some generous samples from Teavivre reached me today.

I wasn’t going to log this one yet, having grabbed it running out the door to work to brew what I’ve seen termed “grandpa-style” in my infuser flask. But, I was really happy with how well it held up! I boiled the water before leaving and it cooled (in a double-walled glass flask with a neoprene sleeve) for almost two hours, so it was kind of just tepid by the time I used it. The leaves floated happily in the flask for probably half an hour while I drank. It was very flavourful but never got bitter or burnt-tasting. It was delicately-green tasting, juicy, and invigorating but soothing as I find Bai Mu Dans to be. This is a lovely example. Really sweetly earthy in a way that makes me think of spring.

I’ve been drinking this tea every few days for almost half a year now. It tastes great with sugar or without it and accompanies many different meals in a magnificent way. I usually steep it a little bit stronger than it’s recommended by TeaVivre, but that’s just my personal way of drinking it :) A delicate taste, very rich, but also humble and very “quiet”, so to say. I can recommend this to everyone who is looking for an everyday tea.

I’ve tried a few blends that called themselves white peony, but this has to honestly be the first real Bai Mu Dan I’ve encountered, and I like it. I’m truly not a fan of white tea simply because the ones I’ve tried in past were too delicate to be noticed or would otherwise have to be oversteeped to the point of being bitter to get any flavor to suit me.

Teavivre’s version is truly just a blend of different leaves and buds, the number of white downy leaves had me impressed. It came in a single-serve pack, one pack made a nice aromatic 2-cup pot that was smooth, delicate, but it also had flavor. A bit floral, and a bit of hay.

I enjoyed two pots of it on Thanksgiving day and am reserving the other two packs to sip closer to the other holidays. I now “get” what people who like Bai Mu Dan are talking about.

Slightly sweet and slightly floral. A bit juicy and velvety as well! Thumbs up! This is a nice relaxing white tea :)

July Sipdown Prompt – Chess day: drink a black tea and a white tea

My black tea was served at breakfast – Decaf Paris, and then I had an unexpected black tea (sweet tea at Wendy’s) while traveling. I was really worried about how I was going to manage this prompt today since I would be gone pretty much all day and I donkt handle caffeine in the evening well.

In spite of heat and humidity, which have actually let up just a little bit today, I decided I would make a travel mug of this tea and take it with me and sip it in the afternoon. I really didn’t think I would enjoy it since we were to be outside the whole time and hot tea doesn’t mix well with July weather in the South. It was actually quite good. This tea has a lot of body. I sipped it slowly with lunch and as we sat around chatting while watching the children play.

This has a rich, golden hay aroma and a woody sweetness.

My heart fell a teeny tiny bit when I came on here to review this and saw that I didn’t have it listed in my cupboard, which means my numbers went up instead of down. My last order of it was so big that it took tins to hold it, but it is also a large leaf tea and very light so it doesn’t take a lot of weight to full two tins. I am down to about 1/2 or 3/4 of the final tin, so maybe I accidentally removed it when I finished the first tin a while back,

This is one of Ashman’s favorites because he loves white tea.

Today I had one of those meals that seem like a good idea at the time but put you into that i-could-doze-off-at-any-moment haze afterwards. Unfortunately I was at work, so couch sprawling was not an option. I was craving something “clean” and refreshing to perk me up, and decided to go with this sample from Teavivre, mostly because the name sounded pure and cleansing. The smell was very grassy, which made me unsure, but the taste wasn’t at all. It was light and delicate and floral, but still flavorful and full bodied in its own way. Mid-sip a sweetness emerges, but a soft, natural sweetness that satisfies the craving without venturing into dessert tea territory. I don’t think I’d have this one first thing in the morning as it’s very light, but it’s perfect for relaxing. Or successfully emerging from a food coma.

Thank you Angel and Teavivre for all the wonderful samples! I was so excited when these came in and I ended up being sent a lot more than I expected to receive!

I decided to start my taste testing out with something I have never had before, White Peony. When I opened the package I took a whiff and got didn’t really get anything worth mentioning. It was light and fresh.

Actually after reading the instructions, I just realized that I have been using only 1tsp per 8oz instead of 2-3tsp. OOPS! Regardless, I cannot stop drinking this. I drank 3 12oz cups, and made 2 8oz cups with the same leaves yesterday, and have had 3 12oz cups again today. Though the taste is really light it’s really great. It’s definitely something I could drink at any time of the day. It’s floral, and calming. The leaves are really cute too. Next time I’ll make it with 3tsp instead of just the one, but I’m really loving this as is.

NOTE: Originally, this note was written on non-organic Bai Mu Dan. I just noticed that I made a mistake, so I’m doing copy-paste on an organic one (the one I actually have and drink)

Hmm, now this is an interesting Bai MuDan… Before I get to the point I’ll focus on the dry leaf a bit.
I’ve drank only two Bai MuDan teas so far, this is my third. I noticed that leaf doesn’t have that pollen-y aroma like the other two, it’s more subtle aroma of certain textiles that I can’t quite put my finger on.
Leaf seems to be somewhat broken but has a decent amount of silver tips in two leaves and a bud fashion. I’m not a big fan of white tea, but I’ve learned that you can’t judge the leaf just by smell and appearance. After all, we’re supposed to drink this, right? My guess is that some of the leaf got broken during the handling and transportation. But in the end I don’t really mind, I just want a tasty cuppa.

Moving on

First infusion (1min)
This tea shows more of taste than of smell compared to other White Peony I’ve drank. With its bright white-pinkish color it’s sweet, fruity, almost sour-citrus-like and it lingers. I really didn’t expect this for a white tea such as this. It’s actually very surprising, in positive manner.
To make myself more clear, this tea is more tasty and refreshing and less aromatic.

Now, into the second infusion (2min)
Second infusion brought out golden note and with taste cut in half where aromas are better expressed with same intensity as taste. I think that temperature of 90 Celsius squeezed a lot of its flavor in first infusion. I might experiment with this one to get two infusions that are almost even in appearance and taste.

This one surprised me. I’ll try cold brewing it overnight and see for the results.