TeaChat

What is a good tea for a white tea beginner? I just don't seem to like any that I have tried. Has anyone else had this problem?

If you are used to stronger tasting or more scented teas, white teas like Silver Needle and White Peony may be too subtle for your tastes, althought its' this pure lightness and delicacy's that make white tea so grand.
Tevana has a few good scented and herbal concoctions...Lavendar Dreams, To Life, and Scarlet Cloud being among them....
but ya, white tea is a whole other kind of experience-and i love it. I hope you'll grow fond of it yourself and good luck!

Before you give up on whites, try playing around with the steeping time and temperatures. Adagio recommends 180 degrees Fahrenheit with a 7 minute steep, but I prefer a 2 minute first steep and others prefer a 15 minute stew. You might get better results at 165F or 190F...it's all up to your palate.

If you do want to wean yourself onto whites through flavors, look around the internet before settling on Teavana. They are very over priced. If you do want the exact Teavana blends, try SpecialTeas or Dragonwater. They both sell many of the exact flavored blends that Teavana does (all three have the same wholesale supply), and they offer much better prices. ($120 lb for Teavana's Honey Dew White--$38.80 lb for SpecialTea's Casablanca Melon White, and they really are identical). You won't be able to find Teavana's entire catalog...but you can find most of it.

Don't discount Adagio! They sell four white flavors, which seem to have pretty high reviews.

When I first started drinking tea, I didn't get white tea either, and I hated green tea. It took about a year for me to appreciate them; I needed time to adjust my palate. Most things we put in our mouths is very sweet, or bold, or spicy; we as Americans simply aren't used to appreciating something as subtle or nuanced as silver needle.

My advice, beyond Mary's excellent suggestions, is to give it time. If after playing with it you still don't like it, try it again three months from now and again a few months after that.

The other possibility is you may just have been trying some crappy white tea. My first silver needle was TROT's "Silver Rain," and it wasn't until I bought some silver needle from Rishi that I became hooked. There was a big difference.

Mary you may be saving me a load from my wallet...i think, even though not directed at me, I'm gonna go check out Dragonwate and Special Teas

Thanks so much for all your suggestions. I will take your advice and shop around for a good white tea. I'll keep you posted on my transition to white teas!

If you are having trouble getting into white tea, I'd get some Shou Mei. It's the darkest and boldest of the white teas.

Bai Mu Tan, aka...Pai Mu Tan...white peony is also pretty robust.

A very important consideration with white tea is freshness. I know I have said this before, but make sure you are aware of harvest info. You have the right to ask your vendors what season and year was a particular tea harvested. Personally, I like to see this right on the vendor's site, kind of adds credibility to the vendor and the information. So, if you are buying now, look for 2007 harvest or buy very conservatively if you must get 2006.

I used to drink every white tea I could get my hands on. And I will still occasionally get a few different ones. But for the most part, I stick with Yin Zhen, silver needles, unflavored. It is sublime and it is amazing how many steeps are in those needles. 2007 Yin Zhen has been realeased in China as of April 10th...I will have mine within a week or so.

To me, the source is everything. I have to completely trust a vendor since I have had more than my share of stale tea over the years...never again.

crazy4tea wrote:What is a good tea for a white tea beginner? I just don't seem to like any that I have tried. Has anyone else had this problem?

try adagio's white pear- i don't like fruity teas (but i do like white tea) but this is one of two that i love. i also like black rhubarb- i wish they made a white rhubarb. also try adding mint and/or a fruit tea like black berry.

flavors that adagio sells that would blend well w/ white tea- w/ or w/o mint:
*almond (this might end up being a dessert tea, i haven't had almond tea)
*apricot
*blackberry
*currant
*grapefruit
*mango
*melon
*passionfruit
*peach
*plum
*pomegranate
*raspberry
*rum
*strawberry
*vanilla

I've never really understood flavored white teas; it just seems to defeat the whole purpose.

If you want to list what white teas you didn't like and why, crazy4tea, I'm sure we'd be able to make some more specific suggestions.

Unlike Ms. Mocha, I would strongly advise against making blends of white and black tea. The two require entirely different steeping times and temperatures. You'd be wasting your white tea. In fact, TeaChatter JamieMT--the author of a great blog--Tea on Tap--wrote a good review of just such a blend here, characterizing it as "a cruel joke for the average tea drinker." Take a page from Jamie's (and Nancy Reagan's) book and just say no.

as i think about it, you're right- yet another reason i wish there was a white rhubarb:)

You know, I really don't think the chances of finding a rhubarb white are very high. Rhubarb is very tart, but it doesn't really have that trademark bite once its dried...and even then, it's cellulose content is so high that it would take an awful long time for water to penetrate into the dried matter--far longer than is appropriate for practically all teas. The black blend I pointed out earlier almost certainly uses some sort of flavoring to get the tart taste and the green blend has plenty of other flavorings to cover that flaw up. I'm sorry, but what you want is all but an impossibility.

Teavana, however, has a white blend called "Queen of Babylon" with a couple tart components--pomegranate and sour cherries--that will most probably give you a very similar flavor. Unlike most Teavana flavored blends, which can be found elsewhere for a cheaper price, this one is their exclusive property.

Space Samurai wrote:
The other possibility is you may just have been trying some crappy white tea. My first silver needle was TROT's "Silver Rain," and it wasn't until I bought some silver needle from Rishi that I became hooked. There was a big difference.

My first white was also TROT's Silver Rain, and I'm currently drinking Rishi's SN (RSN.) I found that Silver Rain was very very subtle and needed a very long steep time, causing some bitterness to develop without gaining a whole lot of 'flavor.' RSN is very different, and is much stronger imo. I think the extra flavor in RSN is primarily vegetal. Aerating and exhale yields a very sweet note.. almost fruity.

I do enjoy both, but for the tasters out there, RSN has more body.