“Bad news this evening has me reaching for a comfort tea. This one fits the bill nicely. Opening the canister, I get a delicious whiff of honeyed nectar. The taste is sweet, soft and gentle with...” Read full tasting note
“For some reason I want sweet tea instead of savory today. I found this sample from Ellen after staring forlornly at my far too empty staple silver needle tin. Given the silver sleet drowning...” Read full tasting note
“Exquisite. Simply exquisite. Use a tiny porcelain gaiwan to brew this silver needle and heaven is yours.” Read full tasting note
“Very delicate. Sweet and vegetal. Really good quality stuff :)” Read full tasting note
Silver needle (Bai Hao Yinzhen or Silver Tips) white tea from China’s Fujian province is perhaps the purest of teas. This tea is made up of fleshy, silver-colored budsets covered with tiny white hairs, or “down.” It is estimated that more than ten thousand hand-picked buds are needed to produce just 1 kilogram of this tea. This tea was picked in early spring of 2010 before the buds were able to open into leaves. The buds are dried in a shaded area with good air circulation then packaged and shipped. White tea Silver needle white tea can typically stand up to 2 or 3 steepings. Because of their delicate nature, these silver needle buds should be steeped in water that is 150-160 degrees fahrenheit for 1-2 minutes. This tea was sourced by David Lee Hoffman in China’s Fujian province in spring of 2010.
Chicago Tea Garden is an online tea shop committed to providing extraordinary teas and tea education to tea lovers and those new to the leaf. Chicago Tea Garden's co-owner Tony Gebely also runs the World of Tea Blog [http://www.worldoftea.org] and Tweets at @WorldofTea.