Silver Buds Yabao

I have yet to be disappointed in a Verdant Tea offering.

In a Gift-of-the-Magi-esque situation, my wife and I both got the other a six-month subscription to Verdant Tea’s Tea of the Month club. Because David is awesome, he’s making them consecutive instead of concurrent, so we can look forward to a whole year of amazing tea.

Anyway. This yabao is incredible, I’ve never tasted anything quite like it. It’s a white tea, but there is a depth of flavour to it that’s quite incredible, especially since it brews up practically clear. From the colour, I was expecting a faint delicate flavour, but I was pleasantly surprised by the party that happened in my mouth. Very heavy and spicy, as promised. Definitely a tea to be savoured.

This is intensely grassy and woodsy, but surprisingly light at the same time. No snickerdoodles here – I wish! – but I am picking up on the pine notes. This reminds me of some Darjeelings – the driest, grassiest, most herbal kinds. Those are not my favorites, and this isn’t either. Still, it’s my first yabao, and I’m glad to have been able to try it. It’s unusual, for sure. Thanks (very belatedly) for this sample, moraiwe!

Not assigning a numerical rating on this one. I’m tasting it from a surprise sample that was included in my recent verdant order (I feel I need to try the tea several times before making final judgement on it).

Anyways, first things first, I like it very much! Very light and subtle but with a clear sweet woodsy taste. I decided to write on note on this one because I currently have a much newer yabao (produced in 2012), and when this sample was included in my order, I was excited to see what the differences would be between an aged yabao (2008 according to verdant’s site) and a new one.

All I can say is that the aging makes it sweeter and definitely more complex. My newer yabao is very flat and with a strong pine needle aroma/taste, so I’m glad that aging it will make it better on the long run :)

I’d definitely recommend this one if you enjoy white tea.

My first-ever Pu-erh! Thanks for widening my horizons with this sample, Verdant. It’s my first official day of summer break and I’m celebrating with tea! Also, I lined up a position for the fall. Feeling golden!

These little tea buds are so cute. Fuzzy and smaller than I expected – they look like little sheaths of wheat. After the rinse they smell strongly of… something I can’t put my finger on. Sorry, that’s not helpful.

The tea tastes interesting and has an unusual mouth-feel. It’s a good tea but I’m not loving it. Maybe with a little resteeping it will grow on me, but so far not so much.

Edited to say: Chaqi like woah! Maybe I do like this tea…

Got this as a sample on my last order.

So this note is for Western brewing. I think I’ll do up the rest of the sample as gongfu, because I think that might be a better representation of this tea.

Anyway, as it was, Western brew style isn’t anything to write home about. The idea of buds rather than leaves is intriguing, but the result wasn’t really anything exciting. I can’t decide if what it’s making me think of is corn or cauliflower. I have nothing against corn/cauliflower, in fact I really love it, but I’d rather eat it than drink it.

Second infusion is the same. A cup of corn/cauliflower. This tea is very similar to white tea — which I really like by the way — but a very lifeless version of it.

As I said, I’ll try the rest of the sample gongfu style. Unless it’s quite a bit better that way, this won’t be anything I buy again. Too boring.

Edit It’s not corn nor cauliflower it’s making me think of, it’s rice. Sweetish rice. Well at least that mystery’s solved. lol

What a unique flavor (⊙０⊙)
I’m not sure exactly what to make of it. It smells like weeds and weedy-flowers (like lemon verbena maybe). The taste is like weeds and garden mulch, very earthy! It’s smooth with no detectable astringency. The first few sips did not do me well and I made some funny faces at it, but the flavor started to grow on me after that. I think this is a tea that I can learn to appreciate given some time, but for now I am undecided.

Remember the first time you had milk oolong and said ‘this is just TEA?’ before buying a pound of it? (No? That was just me?) Silver Buds Yabao is kind of like that. A revelation. Yes, it’s a pu’er, and that comes through quite clearly, but … actually, maybe that’s the difference. None of the muddiness. Depth and lightness and complexity all in one cup. Verdant even suggests icing it, and yes, thank you, I think I will do that too. Despite its lightness, there is nothing delicate about this tea.

When I opened this packet I was greeted with a familiar sight. My parents have a camellia sinensis plant that is often covered in these little buds. I’ve never drunk them though and was really excited to try it.

I prepared this using the gongfu method on the verdant website which produced a very pale brew with a faint pine and honey aroma. Thankfully the flavour was stronger than the aroma, with the first infusion producing a delicate sweetness with lovely woody notes and some kind of tropical fruit that I can’t quite pin down. I started enjoying this a lot more as it cooled and could see it making a wonderful delicate unsweetened iced tea.

For me the whole experience is let down a bit by the aftertaste which is reminiscent of chewing up paper to make spit balls back at primary school (don’t pretend like you didn’t do it too!). It is also such a subtle flavour that I think if it was drunk with food the enjoyment would be completely lost.

This isn’t a miss for me but it isn’t a hit either. Some sips I think “yes! yum!” but others are just “meh”. It is so unique that I’m really pleased that I got the chance to try it. Thanks Sil :D

flails My package did end up showing up today! I asked for no jasmine for my sample and ended up getting Yu Lu Yan Cha black; which I’m really excited about because I wanted to try it, but couldn’t fit it into this small sample order. I also got a very nice, personal thank you note. :)
I have wanted to try this type of tea ever since I first started to study pu’erh online. It was really interesting to me and it is just cute. At first I had a difficult time placing just what the smell reminded me of and then it hit me! Peppery sawdust. (not in a bad way either)
I am steeping this in my very small (6oz) little teapot. I am using just about half of the given sample and brewing in short steeps.
1st steep (5 sec+2 quick rinses): Now, I’ve called rooibos woodsy before. No, that was not really accurate after smelling and tasting this. It reminds me instantly of cedar. The liquor is almost completely clear. After this I’ll be using a different drinking vessel! I forgot that these don’t expand as much as other teas and so the level of liquid in my wide-mouth drinking bowl is near to spilling over. This cuppa is distinctly cedar and not too much else but what I could describe as warmth. At first I thought of pepper, but that isn’t quite it. More cayenne pepper, actually! Very intriguing.
2nd and 3rd steeps (5sec & 6sec): I combined these two to equal one mug. The liquor looks a bit more yellow this time than the 1st steep. I actually just ate a kashi apple cobbler bar and it tastes really great with this tea! I don’t know how to cook with tea, but some kind of warmed apple something would be fabulous with this; maybe fall themed? Still tasting mainly cayenne and cedar.
final notes I actually steeped this 4 more times. The cayenne kind of tapered out near the end and was replaced by linen flavors. It was a very up-front tea and left an interesting tingle on the back of my tongue. I am so glad I had a chance to try this, as it is one of the most unique things that I’ve tried, but ultimately, I don’t think it is for me.

Quick tasting note for this, which i got as a sample

String players will understand this but this smells just like rosin and tastes like what rosin SHOULD taste like (don’t ask how i know it doesn’t…). I’m definitely smelling and tasting marshmallow too, but like GOOD marshmallow. It’s way sweeter than most other unsweetened teas. I didn’t understand the description of “sparkling” but now i do. It tastes almost like someone squirted perrier in there! Ahh! So strange but good

Will resteep (brewed western)

Edit: green apple flavor identified. Even though i hate green apple this is strangely yummy. This tea just plain confuses me