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“Nice peachy notes with just a touch of some tangy pineapple. Some hay. A nice white tea. This mini weighed in at 6.88g per my kitchen scale.” Read full tasting note
“Pleasantly sticky with nice fruit undertones. The leaves are durable and hold up well to several steepings. More bitter than I like, though, I might prefer this with some age on it.” Read full tasting note
“*Backlog from Advent This was the first tea I brewed today. It was late in the afternoon and the rain was really making me unmotivated to get anything done. I did manage to spend the necessary hour...” Read full tasting note
“Day 3 of the Tea Thoughts Winter Countdown box. Once again failed to take notes the first time I steeped this, so I only have notes for the second time, when I opted for grandpa style brewing....” Read full tasting note
A don’t judge a book by its cover white tea from Yunnan.
Our 2023 Karst isn’t likely to win any beauty contests with the bud fans, but it’s better than pretty teas in a much higher price bracket. Floral honeysuckle, bright clover and sweet grass aromatics. With a lighter hand and lower temps, it’s a bright and sweet easy drinker. With boiling water and an extra gram or two, it’s an intense golden fruit experience. A great tea with a great price tag.
*Backlog from Advent
This was the first tea I brewed today. It was late in the afternoon and the rain was really making me unmotivated to get anything done. I did manage to spend the necessary hour or so to clean, but it took a lot out of me.
I randomly pulled this from the leftover pile from the Advent season. A white tea sounded like potential. I have to be in a VERY specific mood for a white tea, and I was sure I was ready for it. This one took a lot of hits to open and really shine, but it did shine. It had a thicker mouthfeel than I anticipated and it was a refreshing, sweet, & apricot or peach (?) kinda tea. I’d image grabbing a cake of this, boiling the heck out of it, cooling it off in the fridge, and making this as an iced tea. It worked in a gaiwan, but it’s definitely work in that manner, too.
Flavors: Apricot, Peach, Sweet
Day 3 of the Tea Thoughts Winter Countdown box. Once again failed to take notes the first time I steeped this, so I only have notes for the second time, when I opted for grandpa style brewing. Probably because I did it this way rather than gong fu, I got more of the savory notes rather than the sweet ones. It’s like warm hay. There’s a cooked note in here, but also a dry grass note. I don’t have the right words but it’s really nice “sunny day on an imaginary farm” vibes (key word imaginary, very much sans all the less pleasant smells of real farms).
Sunny day on an imaginary farm is perfect.
It’s a very city-girl way to describe something. I’ve been to real farms a few times and have vivid memories of how they generally look and smell very different in real life than on tv.
Love that comparison! I eventually landed on feeling like this was the palest, softest shades of orange in a sunset
Adventageddon Day 3 – Tea 4/4
Gongfu!
I was a little bit surprised to see another W2T inclusion so soon from the Tea Thoughts countdown, but when I realized what tea this was I got really excited because it seemed like such a perfect fit for the Bonne Maman jam of the day: Apricot Banana. I also got to put the apricots I picked up yesterday to good use as a pairing with my white tea gongfu session, albeit sooner that I had expected. I knew that, doing a jam advent, it was only a matter of time before I hit an apricot jam – I just didn’t expect it to be the next day!
Anyway, though it took forever for this mini to open up, I thought these three things all worked wonderfully together. This white tea is rather soft and delicate, but the flavours it does have are very much in a similar sort of vein. Peach skins and other gentle, warm stone fruit flavours with a bit of a mild lemon verbena note and overall floral honeysuckle note – ironically a little bit like the jam from the first day of Adventaggedon but without the sour top notes, and just a lot less sweet. Ambrosia is another word that comes to mind, though when I usually imagine what ambrosia might taste like it’s richer and more intense than this white tea was. Like the palest, softest shades of orange in a sunset. Yeah. That. That’s what this tasted like.
Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C0aC3COOTwI/?img_index=1
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3lX2p_Uy9I
Bumped up my rating five points, because as I am finishing the tea, I find it has some interesting texture to it and a nice lingering finish.
These notes are tempting me to place my first W2T order…
If you have the budget and the patience for aging, I suspect this tea will probably develop into something really fantastic when gets around the 7-year mark.
The 2018 Turtle Dove didn’t seem to have any rave reviews in prior years, but I would swear is is an absolute knockout at the moment.
Ooo, good to know! Thank you! I haven’t seen the prices, so I don’t know if I have the budget or not, ha ha!