TeaChat

I'm wonderin' if I'm alone on this one or what. To me, White Peony and White Symphony (a refined version) taste unique onto themselves, and essentially different from the other white teas available.

I try Silver Needle and I taste the depth, subtle sweetness, and the buttery texture. I like Snowbud and its extremely light, cleansing aftertaste. I also recently received White Darjeeling and like that one a lot too--sort of a mix of the white undertone with a radiant "top" to it.

Both White Peony/Symphony were disagreeable to my palette however. I find--and not to be intentionally crass with my language here--the smell of the tea after infusion to resemble a zoo. Seriously, it reminds me of the elephant/monkey section at the zoo when I was a little kid. That weirdness carries over into the flavor as well: it tastes like a variant of the other white teas but somehow got mixed into it some strange animal essence---urine, meat, or otherwise. I dunno.

Anyone else enjoy all the whites here at Adagio except White peony and White symphony ??

I'm probably the opposite; enjoying the fuller body of the White Symphony and White Peony. But I do like all of them.

I agree with you it was just like going to the monkey cage. Only my monkey cage was with the silver needles.I had some white peach that was quite good though.

^ haha. well what the heck are the suppliers doin with the tea??

no...it's very good

irish13 wrote:I had some white peach that was quite good though.

This I strongly agree with.

Love Silver Needles.

Cannot stand Peony... in fact I threw mine away and never bought it again.

I like Baimudan (White Peony) much better. I've never had any that tasted like a zoo. Drink some bad shu puerh and you will get to know what real zoo tea taste like

My favorite white tea of the ones I've tried is the Bai Mu Dan from Jing...it has a lovely soft floral/honey character with a slight touch of astringency to balance it out...a very clean and refreshing aroma and flavour. No hints of grassiness or 'zoo'

I can't really comment on Adagio's offerings...I've been tempted to try a few but they only take credit cards.

Well I for one like silverneedle I have to correct myself the only tea I have tried from rishi and I really like it is the ancient moonlight white.

It depends on particular vendor and harvest. If you don't like Pai Mutan (white peony), that's just because the one you bought wasn't good. The best Pai Mutans are absolutely incomparable. They're cheaper than SN and in theory of lower grade but when I compared the best Pai Mutans with the best SNs, it was always a wash, SNs have more buttery sweet flavour while PMs have a more balanced overall aroma and more prominent almond notes. Nominally I consider SN to be my favorite tea, but considering lower price, Pai Mutans are the best value in teas and are tied for the top spot even if you disregard the price. Of course, that's only as far as my taste is concerned :-). Oh, and if you brew a really good Pai Mutan - no zoo there, not even close.

Actually, Pai Mutans do have one flaw - even the good ones will have a somewhat rough aroma on their brewed leaves, but never from the tea itself, and never from dry leaves. It's really pretty weird and amazing - it always surpised me how this offputting aroma can be pretty strong in the wet leaves but not even the slightest shade of it is transferred to the liquor. All the good stuff is brewed out of the leaves and bad stuff only is left!

That's one refinement of SN - they're good all over, the buds that are used in SN are 100% free of that problem. It's not a big deal, though, the taste and aroma of the tea is what matters, wet leaves are thrown out anyway :-).

I would have to say that I love Bai Mu Dan. I have been drinking it for years now, and I find its aroma and taste to be lovely, everything I'm looking for in great tea. High quality Bai Mu Dan carries within it all the sweetness of Silver Needles because a good Bai Mu Dan has a liberal scattering of downy buds ("silver needles") among the whole & broken leaf.

I have enjoyed Silver Needles many times, and while I find high quality SN (i.e. "2 Dove") to be wonderful, I still prefer the slightly more robust and rounded out quality of a good, organic Bai Mu Dan. If I find I've purchased a low quality Bai Mu Dan, I "spruce it up" by adding some SN to the leaf. To me Bai Mu Dan tastes somewhat like nutty winter squash with a little honey-butter drizzled on it. I celebrate diversity though, I love how palates differ and people react individually toward foods, films, etc.

I really like the white peony I've tried - it's from Andao teas. http://shop.andaotea.com/products/organic-white-peony

That's the only white I've tried so I'm not sure how much more/less I'd enjoy the more expensive varieties. I'm running low on white peony (and all other types of tea) though, so I might order a sample of silver needle.

This is something new to me. A 2009 white peony cake.... am I suppose to age white tea now! Just want to share. Any thoughts?

Where'd you get a white peony cake?! Interesting.

Sam. wrote:Where'd you get a white peony cake?! Interesting.

I think this is a Taiwan/China venture Tea Company:
http://www.pinpinxiang.cn/mall/list.asp?id=551