White Night
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Commercial Description
...differs from other whites because the processing creates the conditions for a tea that ages like a fine wine, with the passing years slowly turning it to a black tea. A light, sweet, full bodied flavor with a smooth and easy palette. Honey notes abound in both aroma and flavor...
Ratings & Reviews
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83 Aroma: 8/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 4/5Alex Zorach (1453 reviews) on Dec. 29th, 2013
This was among the most interesting of the white teas I've tried, although more familiar and similar to typical white teas than moonlight white. E. Alex Gerster called this tea "sturdy" and I like that; I also want to thank him for providing me with this sample.
Dry leaf has a peculiar aroma, like caramel and overripe fermenting fruit, especially like the fermenting pulp inside fallen honey locust pods.
Upon brewing, this tea takes on a much different aroma--very floral, with a melony quality as well. The fragrance almost suggests jasmine but not quite. Flavor is sweet and mild, but the mouthfeel has a good deal of astringency. Upon drinking more, there's a hint of black pepper that emerges in the aroma. A second infusion was similar but brought out more cinnamony tones. Subsequent steepings were pretty similar (I made 3 but I think there was still flavor left in the leaves; I brewed western-style with long steepings in a mug). In the third infusion, an aroma of autumn leaves came out.
In spite of the dark leaf color and larger leaf size, this one seemed to behave and taste more like a silver needle (bai hao yinzhen) more than a white peony or other larger-leaf white tea that it looked more similar to, especially in the first cup. The later cups became more similar to darker white teas.
I also liked this tea most when it had cooled to room temperature.
I also found it was not picky about brewing temperature. Hotter temperatures may bring out more of the autumn leaf fragrance, and less of the melony tones, so I may slightly prefer hotter water than Mandala Tea recommends.
At an ounce for $8, I think this is a great buy for a special treat, to expose yourself to something genuinely new and interesting. I don't think of this as an everyday tea, more as something unusual, to pay attention to, but it also had a comforting quality to it that I think would make it enjoyable to drink casually.
83 Aroma: 8/10 Flavor: 5/5 Value: 4/5E. Alex Gerster (66 reviews) on Sep. 13th, 2013
Recently was able to restock my supply of this wonderful tea, after enjoying it on and off for the past two years. It is quite unique for a white tea, with light flavors and subtle complexities that change as the tea ages. Added a link to the Steepster page where I have added a few notes on this one. A "sturdy" white tea that made me re-think how complex white teas can be.
Page 1 of 1 page with 2 reviews
