White Peony (Bai MuDan) Tea

I brewed this in my Breville according to the suggested parameters on the package (or as close as I could achieve since the temperature variables on the Breville are at 5 degree intervals): 190 degrees F for 1.5 minutes.

Delicious. Very pale in color (beautiful!) and such a delicate yet incredible flavor. Smooth, creamy, with notes of grass and hay and flower. Such a wonderful white tea.

Gaiwan 3oz Tea: 5g 5 steeps: rinse, 25s,45s,1m10s,1m40s,2m30s 90ºC / 194ºF

The leaves are a nice quality with a fresh and gentle green smell.
Once brewed the leaves gain strength and sweetness.

The tea soup is pale yellow in colour.

Flavour wise it’s sweet and fresh and a little green tasting. The sweetness is almost like subtle sweetpea.
During the second and third steeps the colour becomes golden yellow and smells gentley floral, like flowers in a breeze.
A green vegetal flavour becomes prominant during the third and fourth steeps.

So I kind of have a completely neutral relationship with white tea so far. The last one I had was a silver needle, that — while I’m sure it could have been a great silver needle — didn’t really do it for me.

I think this one is better, but I didn’t really get much of a delicate floral taste. Probably due to my “throw it in a cup and add hot water” style of drinking tea at work, it tasted a little more “bakey” or “bready”. Those don’t really sound like the most appetizing words to describe tea, but it’s not in a bad way, I promise. Another aspect that I repeatedly fail to consider is that some of the little leaf pieces don’t sink to the bottom and it’s kind of tricky to drink straight out of the cup (and a bit awkward during meetings). But overall it’s a solid bai mu dan.

First review and a huge thanks to Angel from Teavivre for this generous sample! I very carefully opened the tea package (which is beautiful) and inhaled deeply several times to catch the first burst of scent all dry, nutty and vegital but still muted and light. I got my Spring Water…loaded my electric kettle to temp 194 and set my glass teapot to the ready. I put 3 teaspoons for 8 oz. water in the SS. basket. The leaves are a mulch of forest green lush leaves tinged with brown and small brown twigs. Steep time 2 minutes. Ready for the tasting. Put my nose down to smell the wet mash…all spinich and buttery rich. The pour into my glass mug is a champagne gold liquor nice and pale with no vegital scent at all. In fact…the scent is like cherrios dust…like at the bottom of the box. There is no floral taste like I expected or acid. The next step was to check on what would happen when I added some sugar. I didn’t overdo the sweet out of respect for the light character of the tea. There is a change…a light biscuit tone. Really there is. I think this would be a good tea choice with raspberries and cream or a croissant and jam because of the balance of acid, cream and butter in the food and biscuity lightness in the tea. No milk in this tea for me. Milk would be too heavy and the flavor of this tea is just too delicato. A second steep for 4 minutes proved a bit weak and more vegital. Still, good color and flavor. In a tea tasting I would put this in the forefront before stronger and heavier tea.

This is delightful! A new muss – no fuss…White! Peony, indeed! Gentle and soothing a semi sweet floral make this wonderful!

Dry paper, flowers, and perfume. Read my full review here…
http://iheartteas.teatra.de/2012/01/white-peony-tea-bai-mudan-teavivre/

This is probably the fourth sample from Teavivre and I again find myself in love with this tea (ok there was that moment where it went down the wrong pipe – but that was all my fault). It is very delicate and the leaves are light and fuzzy. I used my clear tumbler/infuser to watch the magic happen. It was a good show. ;) The first steep was more vegetal, while the second steep brought out more of the flowery taste. But I enjoyed both. I’m going to try for one last steep. I sense another order to Teavivre coming after the holidays! Many thanks to them for this sample!

I am so very grateful to Teavivre for this sample which I am long overdue on reviewing. I tried it over a month ago when I was just getting over a cold and didn’t get a great tasting from it, so I wanted to revisit it to give it a fair rating and review, and just . . . got distracted. It’s horrible of me but here I am now, hoping that a good solid review helps make up for my faults.

I did two steeps of this one tonight, both with water that was filtered through a Brita since my tap water can be fairly chemical. I followed the package instructions for brewing temperature, amount, etc., for the first steep. This meant a 90 degree C steep for one minute. The colour of the tea was a light yellowy-green, and my first sips were . . . not much flavour at all. In fact I got halfway through the cup and still hadn’t much flavour. Knowing that second steeps are always the better, I dumped the rest of cup one and eagerly went on to cup two.

This time I did the same temperature but for twice as long, this time two minutes. The tea was the same colour but slightly more intense, which left me hopeful. There was definitely flavour here this time. And as I sipped more and more I got floral notes.

Now I’m still fairly new to straight teas, especially whites since quality whites can run top dollar sometimes. And while I am extremely grateful for this amazing sample from Teavivre it has helped me realize that Bai MuDan teas just aren’t going to be one of my favourite types. It wasn’t until tonight as I was sipping this one that I put together the Peony in the english name with . . . floral. Stupid of me I know, but truth! I’m not a big jasmine fan so I’m not surprised to also not be a large fan of peony, but I wish it was different since this is clearly a quality version of the type of tea.

I’m not giving it a rating since it isn’t the tea but my tastes that would give it a lower number. Again, a huge thank you to Teavivre for letting me try this tea!

This sample very generously provided to me by Teavivre.

This tea smells and tastes like a weak black tea (I’m not familiar with white teas so I’m using the knowledge base I have). There is a roasted, vaguely honeyed undertone that I’m picking up on (the black tea part) but there is also a grassy note that exists alongside it. Together I guess that does equal the hay-ish taste others were getting.

This tea is very smooth and light, with no astringency. The brew does seem a little thin, but I may have been too stingy on the leaf used because I’ve never measured out leaves that fluffy before and likely miscalculated as a result of it. I will change that for next time and see if that improves the mouthfeel any.

This tea is quiet and understated; the kind of tea you’d want to be able to focus on while you’re drinking so you don’t miss any of the flavors.

This tea was sent to me for review by Teavivre.

I think this is the last of the sample of teas I was given. The packaging was puffy on this one, which was to be expected since it is white peony. The inside packaging were small white packets. They were cute. Again, I totally appreciate the large amount of samples.

The dry leaves were fluffy and fuzzy leaves with buds and some shiny green leaves as well. The colors were mixed with white and green. They were beautiful. It smells like a white tea. It smells strong green and floral.

I brewed this in a kyusu. The liquor was a mild yellow color. The flavor was fantastic. Just like other white peony teas, this one was flavorful and bold for a white tea. It tasted fresh like fresh salad with sweet floral tones to it. It was delicious! There was an underlying nutty tone to it as well. Good tea!