Tea: Okayti White

A Darjeeling White Tea from Harney and Sons

This tea has been retired/discontinued.

Picture of Okayti White
Brand:Harney and Sons
Style:Darjeeling White Tea
Region:Darjeeling, India
Caffeine:Caffeinated
Loose?Loose
# Ratings:1 View All

Review of Okayti White

AromaFlavorValueTotal
9 of 104 of 54 of 588 of 100
SuperbGoodGood Value

I liked this one a lot, much more than typical for white teas.

I normally don't like tippy white teas, but I was super impressed by what may be this same exact same tea, or at least a similar one, sold by Golden Tips Tea. Unfortunately, this tea is no longer in stock at either company! It is worth waiting for this tea and jumping on it if it is available from any company, because it is exquisite. Kudos to Harney for (briefly) supplying this one!

The leaf of this smells fantastic, both sweet and fresh...it's intensely aromatic, first bursting with light floral and melon tones, followed by a deep, sweet, smell of fresh-baked pastries. There's a vegetal note in there peculiar to Darjeeling teas, almost like asparagus. Just the smell of the leaf is exquisite.

The brewed cup adds a lot of aromas not evident just from smelling the dry leaf. Upon steeping, I notice grape, slight skunky notes. Overall it smells more like a Darjeeling black tea, such as a first flush, than like a white tea, but the color of the cup is very light. The mouthfeel is very smooth and the body very light. Flavor is sweet, slightly tangy, and low in bitterness, giving it a feel a tiny bit like a mild fruit juice.

I was surprised at how different this was from the other batch of white tea I had tried from Okayti estate, that one Okayti Silver Needle Darjeeling White Tea Second Flush, sold by Golden Tips Tea. This one had more melon notes in the arom, like a typical silver needle, and lacked the cocoa and coffee notes.

I initially wasn't quite as wowed by this tea, but I still really enjoyed drinking it.

Resteeped really well. I liked steeping 2-3 minutes following by 15. I think the full, very long steep of 15 minutes was necessary, when I went shorter it was still a little weak, but with a long steep the second cup was very potent. I don't think I'd want to go any shorter on the first steep because it was already not super strong; this is a delicate tea, about at the delicate limit of what I tend to like, and I was using a fair amount of leaf. The second cup was a little more like a silver needle in character, but still had some of those Darjeeling-black-tea notes.

Overall this tea was excellent but not quite as insanely good as the batch of a presumably similar tea I had tried from Golden Tips Tea.

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