New Harvest Spring White and Black Teas
Last week, we briefly reviewed some of our latest green tea offerings for this season, and so this week, we turned our attention to our newest white and black teas.
Fuding Silver Needles (Bai Hao Yin Zhen) – Our 2017 offering of Silver Needle white tea is absolutely exceptional. We were finally able to secure some of the highest grade available, a first flush, pre-Ming Silver Needle. The leaves have a special vibrancy to them, matched only by the freshness it produces in the cup. Light, sweet, crisp, and refreshing, this tea produces a pleasantly complex liquor that will only get better with time.
Fuding White Peony (Bai Mu Dan) – Rounding out our 2017 white tea lineup is our King’s Grade White Peony, a white tea that is just perfect as an everyday drinker. It showcases a wonderful flavor profile reminiscent of sliced melon with bits of vanilla. Hailing from Fuding, the “Home of Chinese White Tea,” this White Peony has soothing aromatic characteristics that are simply hard to match.
Sichuan Gongfu Gui Fei Hong – This gongfu style black tea comes from 1000 meter tea gardens in Gao Xian in Sichuan Province. Sichuan has become quite renowned for its black tea, and these gongfu style, hand-crafted black teas make it easy to see why. Gui Fei Hong features fine, golden tippy and tightly twisted leaves with an aromatic profile of dark chocolate and roasted black cherry. It makes for an ideal afternoon tea or, better still, a dessert tea to be enjoyed with chocolate cake or other similar sweets.
Organic Sichuan Gongfu Black – Robust, malty, creamy, and smooth, this exceptional, hand-crafted black tea has a velvety mouthfeel with a milk chocolate sweetness and a hint of Chinese cinnamon spice that is hard to achieve in a good cup of black tea. It should come as no surprise to learn that it also hails from Gao Xian, from an organic tea garden no less. For those who prefer a rich, hearty tea, this is the black tea for you!
Yunnan Wild Ye Sheng Ancient Tree Black Tea – Yunnan is quite popular for Dian Hong black tea, and Feng Qing is one of the major production areas of it. Feng Qing also features very old, wild tea trees that are often used to produce puerh or black tea. These trees are of a different varietal from the traditional Yunnan Da Ye, and so the leaves produce a very different cup of tea. At elevations of over 2000 meters, these tea leaves were crafted into a black tea with an intoxicating floral aroma. The resulting infusion produces a sweet, fruity liquor that has wonderful character, and the leaves are capable of carrying you through more than ten more infusions.
Xinhui Mandarin Black Tea – Perhaps the most exciting black tea offering for this spring is our Xinhui Mandarin black tea. This black tea has been stuffed in an authentic, dried Xinhui mandarin shell, which naturally scents the tea, giving it a delightful citrus component without overpowering the taste of the black tea. When we sipped this tea for the first time, it immediately brought to mind a relaxing afternoon on a sunny, tropical beach. For those who enjoy flavored teas or have had trouble finding a tasty black tea, this is a “must try!” We recommend breaking some bits of the shell into the tea leaves before infusing!
Stay tuned for a final look at our new pu'erh offerings for this season! It’s been a truly incredible year for tea!