One of my favorite teas of all time is Floating Leaves Tea’s Red Peony, a Ruby 18 cultivar usually made into black tea, but made into white tea. I check out their Red Peony every year, deciding whether I will buy volume. If you want to compare, here is the 2016 Red Peony and 2017 Red Peony cake reviews.
This year Floating Leaves Tea started a podcast, and we sampled the newest Red Peony together. Floating Leaves Tea podcast is available on all your podcast listening places as well as youtube.
After the podcast, I purchased an entire 5oz bag of 2019 Red Peony as I enjoyed it so much.
Leaf and Steeping Method
2019 Red Peony smells lightly fruity. I sadly got a lot of sticks but I just rolled with it.
I used 1 gram of leaf per 20ml of vessel size, gongfu steeped with boiling water with no rinse. You likely can go slightly less leaf as it was a feat to fit this all in the gaiwan. I am gaiwan brewing here for neutrality, though in the Floating Leaves Tea podcast we used a teapot. I normally use a clay teapot for white teas, but for the blog, I always go with a neutral vessel. The steeped leaf smells winter-o-green mint and fruity
Tasting of Floating Leaves Tea Red Peony Ruby 18 White Tea
First and Second Infusion: 2019 Red Peony has a soft light profile to start, with a lotion-like texture. The flavor is of honey, then the aftereffect sets in of cooling menthol. Some sips have a birch wood note. After drinking, the aftertaste leaves a fruity pear and berry aftertaste.
Third and Fourth Infusion: Now Red Peony is sweet and strongly of honey. The main feature is the strong mintiness of the tea – it is like I brushed my teeth an hour ago and when I breathe in my mouth feels cold, but no sweet peppermint taste, just the fruity flavor.
Fifth and Sixth Infusion: Red Peony got really dark for a young white tea.
It has a tickle of astringency drying the top of my tongue, but the main attraction is drinking this tea for a mint extreme feel. I wonder if I can get away flossing and drinking Red Peony. The main flavor is birch and honey, but quickly gets set aside for the minty feel.
Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Infusion: Impressively, Red Peony is still going. The flavor is light, woody, and honey with the aftertaste and feel carrying on, but also getting quite astringent. With each steeping, the tea is getting very dark.
Comments
Floating Leaves Tea’s 2019 Red Peony is the mintiest of the Ruby 18 white teas I’ve had so far. 2018s wasn’t bad, it was balanced. 2017 was strongly fruity to the point of fruit leather, whereas in 2016, my favorite year, was floral and complex.
Go with this year’s Red Peony if you love minty. Te profile is very nice with honey and woodsy notes with great resteep ability. It does go astringent, but you can drop to 200F/93c to reduce it.
