Moondance

For the sipdown prompt, “a tea paired to music.”

I don’t, in general, turn on music (crazy, I know) but after decades of living with chronic migraine I’m just sort of used to it. But I put on some Emancipator this afternoon to provide some mellow and relaxing vibes while I do some manga scanlation work.

I had a sample of this tea, I believe acquired from Ost from a cupboard sale back in 2018 (thanks, Ost!) that I just dumped in a cold brew jar and left overnight, and am sipping on now. It is delicious… has those hay and flower pollen notes I typically get from white teas, but it also has a distinct honeyed apricot flavor going on as well.

I don’t have much experience with white teas, and most groups, say for instance Bai Mudan, or most of the silver needle teas, taste very similar to me even from different vendors. This one really stood out for me though.
Nose; Blood orange, honeydew, light hay, clover, bergamont ( for you earl grey lovers ), red raspberry.
Palate; mandarin orange, clover honey, sweet grass, peach, lime, very nice finish and throat.

I still have a lot of notes to catch up on. Been drinking Moondance a lot lately and enjoying a variety of different experiences with it. I’ve had a total of three “distinct” sessions with it over the past two weeks. More if you count reusing the same leaves on a later day.

When started, Moondance is so nice and smooth, with a melon fruity flavor accompanied by light malt. Sometimes it is sweet enough that it truly tastes like sugar or honey has been mixed in, and that sweetness lingers in the back of the throat. It tends to be accompanied by complementary hay notes at this point, and really has a good amount of depth.

After being left to oxidize the flavor ends up transforming in a number of ways. This last session, I revisited the leaves a few times over a few days, and today the resulting brew was very reminiscent of an Assam black.

I was lazy, and instead of fully writing a profile of this specific tea, here’s the review that I wrote earlier of it.
Another lovely offering from White Antlers.

All the notes on here pretty much describe it and I agree with the tasting notes. It tastes like a fruitier moonlight tea with the added bonus of buttery later steeps. Cinnamon butter is a weird description, but it really does taste like you’re drinking a light glaze of it. I’m personally impressed with how the honeydew melon and peach note are stronger than the malt note.

I am very glad to have tried it, but I’m not sure if I would get a full ounce of it. If it were cheaper, I might make it into a seasonal staple.

Breaking off from my recent Keemun and lapsang souchong binge, I decided to turn my attention to white tea. I ordered an ounce of this tea from Whispering Pines a little less than 2 months ago and enjoyed a couple glasses of it, but had shoved it to the back of my tea cabinet and forgotten about it. I guess I will now work on polishing the rest of this off before I move on to something else.

As far as preparation goes, I decided on a three step Western infusion. I followed Whispering Pines’ preparation outline and steeped one tablespoon of this tea at a temperature of 190 F. The infusion times were 3, 5, and 7 minutes.

Prior to infusion, the dry leaves showed a lovely dark green with pronounced white tips, offering aromas of cucumber, honey, hay, and a floral, nectar-like sweetness. The first infusion yielded a light ecru cup with pleasant aromas of cucumber, nectar, honey, white peach, and honeydew. The palate followed the nose, producing delicate, subtle notes of cucumber, nectar, honey, white peach, and honeydew, with subtler grain, cream, and hay accents. The second infusion produced a darker, slightly yellowish liquor and a fruitier, grassier bouquet. Notes of honeydew, honey, white peach, and nectar were underscored by cucumber, grain, hay, cream, marshmallow, and grass. I could also detect faint traces of nectarine, white grape, and apricot. The third and final infusion yielded a somewhat lighter cup with a gentle fruity bouquet. The notes of cucumber, grass, grain, marshmallow, cream, and hay skillfully balanced a melange of honey, nectar, white grape, apricot, nectarine, white peach, and honeydew. As hard as I tried, I could find nothing resembling eucalyptus, cinnamon, or honey wheat bread.

The aroma and flavor profiles of this tea tend to be what I think of when I think of a typical unflavored white tea. For what it is, it is very good. I have enjoyed my experience with it so far. This is a very subtle, delicate, and sweet tea. In the end, I would say it is a very respectable white tea.

I received this tea as a sampler in an order. I really love Moonlight Whites so I was pretty excited to see this arrive in the mail.

This isn’t going to be an in depth review because I am drinking it while watching The Walking Dead. It is very good though. Good enough that I felt it deserved at least an actual review mention.

Seriously, if you like Moonlight Whites and you understand the quality that Brenden brings to his tea than you know why you need to pick this up.