Songyang White

Ok…. in conclusion, I suck at brewing this tea. 172F for 20 (or was it 30?) seconds, and I’m literally getting tasteless water. There’s a hint… juuuuust a hint, of tastiness, but even with the fairly weak houji-genmaicha that I just drank, it’s too weak. Bleh. I think I have yet another cup’s worth of leaf left, but I’m about to give up. I’m sure that age is affecting this tea (although I see that JC logged this tea a month ago and clearly thought it was still ok).

ARGGGGHHHHHH!

ETA: Ok, half the water, 1-minute infusion at 175F for the second infusion. Best flavour yet, but it’s flirting with being too astringent. Oh! But there’s finally a nice aftertaste! Not enough for me though, unfortunately. I just don’t think this tea is for me (and it’s seemingly impossible to brew, haha, perhaps someone can offer a suggestion?)

This is a really intriguing tea to me.

Most white teas are either straight or flavored/sceneted versions of Silver Needle (Yin Zhen) or White Peony (Mu Dan). They are sweet and spicy, with some citrus notes coming out in a Bai Mu Dan. Other than that, I find the profiles to all be very similar, with only varying degrees of strength, quality, or staying power. As a result, I’m just not that into white teas. I love things that are complex and unexpected, and I love my teas to change and take me on a journey over multiple steepings. That’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but we’re talking about what’s in my cup here.

And then Verdant brought in this Songyang white. I’ve never heard of Songyang before. I’d also say “not even while I was living in China,” but that doesn’t say very much considering the folks in Qingdao didn’t care about white tea at all. The only other place I’ve even seen a Songyang white is at Adagio (Songyang Serenade Tea). They describe Songyang as " light in color, with a tender aroma and a sweet, refreshing taste. If you enjoy the subtle taste of white tea, we recommend you give Song Yang a try." To me, this description says, "this is an extremely light tasting tea. we don’t know what it tastes like and the flavor is obviously not interesting to us, so we’re just going to says it’s generically “sweet” and “refreshing. Even though it’s bland, we’re sure you’ll drink it because it’s white tea so it obviously has ‘health benefits.’” The description goes on more about how hard and expensive this is to process rather than taste.

I haven’t tried Adagio’s version of Songyang (it’s no longer on their website), but I can’t imagine anyone calling this version from Verdant tasteless or just generically “sweet” and “refreshing.” This tea is so different from any other white tea I’ve ever encountered, it’s something I’d recommend to others just to broaden your mind a bit.

The dry leaves are as pictured.. long tongues or little green, complete leaves that look like shards. The dry smell has hints of sparkling spive with some dry sweetgrass notes. There is a bright crisp note that really reminds me of a snappy Darjeeling (disclaimer, I rarely ever drink Darjeeling.. this just fits with my impressions of them so far.) Once steeped, the leaves are incredibly green! It’s a reminder that words like “green,” “white,” and “oolong” refer to how a tea is processed, not the color of the leaves. The smell of the steeped leaves is of steamed, fresh greens- brussel sprouts or baby asparagus- but still with a nice, light sweet and spiced blanket over the top. We spent quite awhile just sticking our noses in the steeped leaves, trying to figure out just what the intriguing aroma reminded us of..

The taste, as I mentioned above, must really be tasted to be believed! It’s so green and snappy in taste, like an uncooked sweet pea pod.. or like creamy, thick steamed edamame with some butter (at the same time, without being savory). The words that keep popping up all over my notes page are crisp, snappy, and clean. Later on, the consistancy remined me somehow of tea ice cream, and again that bright Darjeeling comparison.

What this tea makes me think of the most, however, is eating leaves. When I was younger, I would (stupidly, I know!) wander around the neighborhood, picking leaves off of the neighborss plants and eating them. I lived in Indonesia at the time; my mother would have a heart attack if she knew. Point being, those leaves all tasted so fresh and alive.. like there were crystals of bright green life buzzing around in them. This is what the tea liqour tastes like. It really makes me imagine that this is what true, virgin tea tastes like. The Priomordeal Tea- tea of the Garden of Eden… Tea. This must be what Emporer Shen Nong tasted when those tea leaves blew serendipitously into his little couldron of boiling water, the tea that cured him of his deadly poisonous ill.

That virgin, untouched, unprocessed taste is what intrigues me so and draws me to this tea, over and over, to try. It’s so crazy, so weirdly appealing, and for me is very true to what white tea processing is.

I tried this later with another friend with even shorter steepings (steeped in two glass pitchers), and suddenly some expected white tea flavors started popping up along with my TEA taste. Without warning, there was clove, sparkling sweet spice of pastries, or even of an almod croissant. Such a surprising tea. I will keep playing with the steeping times and methods to figure out just what causes one flavor to come out over another, and which method I prefer for what mood and setting.

If you’ve tried all the white teas, you haven’t tried anything like this yet. Give it a try- it is unlike anything else. A true taste of untouched tea.. crazy fun. I am having a good time figuring this out.

PS: Yes, this is one of Verdant’s few teas where steep time, etc is actually important (the other being Dan Cong and maybe Farmer’s Coop). Basically everything else is very forget/work-proof.. I take the tea, I put it in a cup, I add water, and I can just drink all day.
You could probably do this with any other white tea- Bai Mu Dan and Bai Hao Yin Zhen shoudl never get bitter, no matter how hard you try. But this is a very different white tea. Western style, I’d say two minutes or less. In fact, whether you’re doing it in a small glass pitcher (like I do so I can see that dancing leaves) or in a bigger pot, I’d recommend going by the smell of the tea the first few times. Just like green vegetables are done when they look done and most delicious, so too will this tea be done when it smells just right.
In a glass pitcher, I added the tea leaves (enough to cover the bottom, plus a tiny bit more), and then poured my boiling water onto the side of the glass until the water covered the leaves. Poured until the glass was 2/3rds-ish full. Let it steep for 15 or 20 seconds the first time.. basically, I swished the leaves around once, smelled them, swished again, smelled- and then poured off.
So if this tea seems bitter or overly sharp, I’d say back off on the steep time. These leaves have had the utter minimum in processing, so they are very unprotected from the hot water we pour on them to wake them up. Be gentle, and they should reward you with the fun flavors described above.

Thank you kindly Verdant for sending me a sample of this in my last order!

Everyone else has been raving about their Jasmine white tea but I was rather glad I got this one instead. Upon smelling the leaves I decided to brew them up in the xi ying and let it steep for about 1.5 minutes, very bitter. I thought perhaps the clay was throwing off the taste a bit so I transferred the leaves to the gaiwan and let it steep for about 20 seconds, still very bitter. Then I finally decided to heed the gong fu directions on the bag and let it steep for 8 seconds which basically meant I poured water over it and poured it back out into a cup. They recommend 205 F for whites but when I did that it got brackish really fast. I had to brew this like a green. Now I am getting the clean vegetal aromas were described. This is very interesting and reminds me more of a green tea than any other white I have had. I think I need to start all over again on a new day with a little less leaf and very short steepings. I was very surprised at how easy it was to mess this up but I really don’t have a very good track record with white teas. I will be glad to increase my rating if I can figure out how to make this more palatable.

This tea piqued my curiosity so much that I decided to try it first form my Verdant order.

I steeped it following the directions on the site. I used about 6.5 ounces, knowing by the time I spilled it I’d have 2/3 of a cup. Worked out. I sprinkled a teaspoon of leaves into the cup, swirled it, let it steep for 20 seconds and poured it into a mug through a strainer.

The first few sips were creamy, and gave me like a sparkling wine impression. It was light, but something was there. Now it’s cooled a bit, and it smells and tastes like buttery green vegetables.

Onto the second steep! This is really like the green tea ice cream mentioned on the page! It’s so sweet and creamy. And it’s leaving a feeling similar to carbonation on my tongue.

Third is similar, less sparkling and maybe like a bit of citrus mixed with edamame. And for now I am going to stop because I am supposed to study, not keep playing with tea. But I don’t want toooooo…

Wow I can’t believe I still had this and that I had not logged it in. I found a stash so I’m sharing with a friend at work. Even though this is a white tea this tea seems to cross the line between green and white tea, I’m sure it will be enjoyed.

I’m having this today because I felt like its been a while since I’ve just had some white/green and this one is easy to drink, sweetness that is not overwhelming with strong vegetal notes that always remind me of parsley for some reason.

First steep is sweet and slowly turns smooth, buttery and vegetal. What I like the most is how pale it is, tricks you into thinking it will be extremely subtle, it certainly isn’t bold but the flavors don’t hide either.

The second steep was still sweet and buttery but not as the first one. This one does wear taste that resemble Edamame when steamed. It turns sweeter and refreshing one it has gone down.

I feel like sometimes white/green teas are like a ‘cleanser’ of the mind. A purity about them that just relaxes you.

I Like this tea, but it has a glaring problem: It’s a picky tea. Water too hot? Tastes bad. Steeped too long? Tastes like crap. Gets too cold after brewing? Tastes bad. The sample from Verdant had enough for three sessions, and two of those were bad. This led me to drop my rating down a bit.

The first infusion was fine, but the second turned out horrifyingly bad. I threw that out, and got the same result when I tried again. So I gave up.

A nice little sample I received with my order. Been wanting to try it but been lazy. So, here we go!

This is a very interesting and different white tea from any other white tea I’ve had before. I don’t get any hay or straw notes or the sweetness I get from Silver Needles. Instead I get steamed green vegetables with a touch of butter.

There’s a crispness to it that seems odd since I’m getting butter notes. There’s a hint of floral notes, more so as the tea starts to cool. There is a spice flavor in the aftertaste like pepper, but not quite. It reminds me of a Darjeeling. Tea grown from that area (or Ceylon) doesn’t exactly tickle me pink.

I can see where people say they get tea ice cream. It’s not something that jumps at me screaming ice cream either. It’s in the way the greens mix with the buttery notes and retains the crispness.

Now that the tea has cooled considerably I can taste the traditional white tea hay notes. It still smells and tastes like steamed green veggies. There is a slight astringency in the aftertaste, more as the tea cools, not enough to be unpleasant.

This is a very interesting tea, one I’m glad I tried, but one that unfortunately doesn’t quite fit my flavor preferences.

I finally nailed this tea! But first, let me tell you about my nigh-tealess week.

It’s only just cooled down enough outside that my apartment isn’t an oven inside. I can do things around the home without feeling like I’m dying! Seriously, the past few days, the temperature inside my apartment reached the 90s almost daily. No amount of fans helped. The windows only open a couple of inches, so that didn’t help either. The Boy and I spent most of our evenings nearly immobile, moving only to feed the furbabies something cool. Needless to say, we didn’t go into the (significantly hotter) kitchen much. That included forgoing tea making for the most part. I did make a couple of tea slushies, but it was nothing too fancy. In fact, I was pretty sloppy with the steeps, because I just wanted to get back to vegetating in front of the two fans.

Needless to say, this 60F weather is a dream come true in comparison. It’s still a bit stuffily warm in the kitchen, but I can tolerate it enough now that I can make myself tea more often. I feel human again.

Now, this is the tea that I sadly mishandled last time I tried. I crowded the leaves and oversteeped it Western style. Even then, I could tell how much I’d like it if I got it right. And now I’ve gotten it perfect.

I took Mr. Duckler’s advice to try this Jingshan style, though leaving the leaves in a basket so I could stop the steeping a bit more easily.

1 tablespoon to a 12oz glass (one of those Pom Tea glasses they discontinued a while back). 175 degree water. First steep – about 15-20 secs; second steep – 20 secs; third steep – 30-35 secs; fourth steep – I eyeballed it until it was the right colour, about 3 minutes, sipping every so often to check the taste.

The result is a beautifully thick, vegetal, delicate, and extremely compelling tea. I’m not sure I have enough tasting experience to do it justice. It’s some sort of buttered vegetable, maybe green beans, that melts into a vegetal sweetness that’s delicate without being boring. A whisper of a green apple tart at the very end – tangy and buttery and sweet.

Beautiful and soothing, hot. Wonderful and refreshing, cold (I made enough to stick some in the fridge overnight!).

I’ll keep playing with this tea, next time I’ll try it in a gaiwan!

I just received my package today although it was "delivered"on the 29th, my apartment complex held it in the office.
I asked for a sample of this tea because I thought " why not sample both of the whites Verdant has to offer?" The jasmine Yunnan was great so I asked for this, this time.

Hmm.. I went on Verdant’s website to see what temp I should boil this at. I usually do it at 185, but the site said boiling and to use a tablespoon of tea. Instead of using my gaiwan I decided to go for the tasting cup instead.
I brewed it for about a min. It had a nice yellow color. The wet leaf had some floral notes, but I really could not smell more then that. The taste for me was even a little harder to make out. It was sweet at first then a little bitter. It had a floral note but there was something more.
After reading both of the tasting notes that were on here, I think I am going to try again with a lower temp. Maybe 175?
I will come back to this….

Once again Verdant Tea upends my bias against white teas. This tea has got a lot of heft for a chinese white. Its buttery and brothy and tastes just like baked asparagus, even the slight tang. It definitely needs to be watched while steeping because it can get bitter fast, I’d stick with 2min at most. I’m not used to a white tea with such flavor and if I didn’t know I would probably think it was a very light green tea. Also over time there is a nice grape flavor coming through. I know I can always depend on Verdant Tea to pick top notch teas even when I don’t fully love that particular kind. A great tea and I always serve it to my white tea only friends.