Cotton Candy White Tea is a shou mei base with cornflowers and organic flavoring. This white tea blend is tea of the week for September 2, 2013 as part of 52 Teas. You can purchase this blend at their online store, Zoomdweebie’s.
First off, I need to mention that Zoomdweebies has a crowdfunding project at Indiegogo to revive their local tea bar. Totally check that out!
Mmmm, cotton candy. It was one of those foods my parents never let me try as a child. I finally had cotton candy as a teenager, when I was old enough to go to the fair on my own and buy it myself. Cotton candy is one of those treats I like once in awhile, but admittedly, I enjoy the texture of the cotton strands of sugar the most.
I do get suckered to get cotton candy out of those machines of “serve yourself cotton candy” at asian supermarkets and night markets. The machine drops down a pair of chopsticks, begins to whirl and you pick up the spun candy. I LOVE asian night markets. They have tasty fair food, but asian food – giant dim sum, takoyaki, meat on the stick, bubble/boba tea and interesting fusion food like bulgogi pizza. They also have store booths filled with cutesy toys, electronics and sometimes bootleg stuff. My favorite night market is the Richmond Night Market in Vancouver, Canada, which runs all summer long every weekend. I’ve been missing it since moving to California, however we do have the 626 Night Market which is pretty good, but needs to run more dates.
Anyways, my first time at the Richmond Night Market they had one of those “serve your own cotton candy” set ups. I walked by a couple who.. well… were very ambitious.
Dang. I wonder if they ate all that cotton candy?
Either way, I’m sure I can get through my 1oz package of Cotton Candy White Tea.
Dry Leaf: The smell of the tea leaves is quite different that is hard to identify. I’m guessing the tea leaves are the scent of concentrated sweet with a hint of fruit. The leaf is quite nice, mostly a mix of white tea with a light dusting of blue cornflowers.
Steeping Instructions: I did 175F steep for 2 minutes in my gravity steeper – my favorite steeping method for flavored whites and greens.
Cotton Candy White Tea smells faintly sweet – like when you just catch the scent of the cotton candy booth at the fair. The colour is a deep gold.
Taste: Up front, I can taste the strong white tea base. Shou mei is quite a flavorful white compared to bai mu dan (white peony) or bai hao yinzhen (silver needle). The white tea base is good quality and not flat with a sweet flavor. The white tea flavor carries throughout the sip until I get to end of sip. End of sip there is a sweetness that sticks for a bit that reminds me of that sugary cotton candy, but much much less sweeter. Overall, the cotton candy flavor is on the subtle side. Hmmm, we might need some backup.
Sweetened: I added some german rock sugar. POW cotton candy! There is a smooth fluffyness in the flavoring of Cotton Candy White Tea throughout the sip, ending with a spike of caramelized sugar sweet cotton candy. I still think this tea could preform better…
Iced: I made a strong cup of Cotton Candy White Tea and poured it over ice and a little regular sugar. The blend came out much better! The flavoring of cotton candy, sugary sticky sweet, came out much stronger and flavored throughout the sip, with the white tea base as support. More I drink this, the more this tea blend fills my sugar craving.
Comments: Cotton Candy White Tea is a really cool, unique blend. 52 Teas has had a couple other cotton candy tea blends in the past, along with an iced tea that is quite high rated.
If I wasn’t told what blend tea this was and drank it unsweetened, I wouldn’t of guessed it was cotton candy. I would be able to guess it if the tea was iced.
Overall, Cotton Candy White Tea is another pretty neat offering from 52 Teas / Zoomdweebie’s. Sugar fiends, totally try out this cool tea blend!
