I was incredibly excited to see Denong come out with white tea. This tea is from their own tea gardens, I’m assuming puer material. At the 2019 PDX Tea Festival, I purchased a box of the 2019 White Tea without any hesitation.
Leaf and Steeping Method
Hands down, this Denong White tea is gorgeous looking with lots of fuzzy buds, looking moonlight white in style. Strangely, this tea smells just like my bunny Benson’s fur. When I got this tea it smelled strongly floral.
I went with my usual white tea gongfu ratio of 1 gram of leaf per 20ml of vessel size, steeped in boiling water. With an infusion, the hot wet leaves smell like sweet aloe and flowers.
Tasting of Denong Tea’s 2019 White Tea
First and Second Infusion: Denong Tea’s 2019 White tea is smooth and sweet. It sips in creamy feeling and thick with a delicate light flavor. As I drink, the aroma rises and I taste a soft juicy floral note. After each sip, there’s a nice level of salivation. The second infusion got a stronger carnation floral flavor, but the tea is still light and gentle.
Third and Fourth Infusion: The floral note is strong in aroma, I smell more through my sinus than actually tasting the tea as I drink. Flavor intensity wise, Denong White is still light but has notes of linen and malted milk in addition to the floral notes.
Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Infusion: Denong’s White tea turned darker and stronger in flavor. It is now a pungent carnation, bordering on bitter and astringent from the concentrated floral flavor.
Eighth and Ninth Infusion: I steeped the final infusions for a long time and the flavor was sweet, malty and a bit cottony. It got slightly dry, but not bitter.
The spent leaves are gorgeous! They are all these intact buds with barely any imperfections.
Comments
Denong’s 2019 White tea is a soft, floral, and creamy white tea made of beautiful material. It resteeps well, so you get your money’s worth, at this time of writing, $22 for 30 grams of tea. I am glad I made this tea purchase and I’ll likely savor it over the years.
The packaging is beautiful however not quite functional. In my experience, white tea does best with airtight packaging and this is simply in a paper box with folded over plastic. I don’t trust aging it in this packaging, and I’ve noticed since I’ve gotten it I’ve lost quite a bit of aroma. Either way, I threw the box in my white tea pumidor for now.
