Organic Silver Needle (Bai Hao Yin Zhen) is a white tea from Teavivre, an online chinese tea seller.
I received this tea, and a few others for review, from Teavivre. They have a really nice lineup of unflavored teas and blooming teas. I also love Teavivre teaware – great prices! My tea was shipped from China and came a few weeks later, in perfect shape.
DRY LEAF: Organic Silver Needle has a peachy dry floral scent. Very nice looking white tea leaves with a mix of silver and green.
Organic Silver Needle is also FUZZY! Oh, I’m a sucker for fuzzy tea leaves. Oh man, I just had the most amazing crafting idea – a giant fuzzy silver needle tea leaf plush doll! Ehhhh, not sure if it would sell well. Knowing me during a Oolong Owl tea drunk session, I’ll be nomm’ing on the stuff toy.
Owly decided to join the tea session. I think he mostly wanted to show off his Owl-scouts sash and merit badges. Sigh, he needs more merit badges.
STEEPED: I followed Steeping instructions listed on the Organic Silver Needle product page: Gaiwan – 5g. Rinse, 45 seconds,1 minute ,1.5 minutes, 1.75 minutes, 2 minutes 20seconds,3 minutes. The sample package is 10g, so I used half for my gaiwan, the other half for my cold steep!
Post rinse, the leaves made a huge pop in colour to a vibrant green mixed with silver!
I love my glass gaiwan for watching tea. Arg, Owly foot bombed!
The result is a gorgeous pale yellow colour. Another owl foot bomb!
When I brought my cup of tea up to my office, I noticed in dimmer light this tea was glowing!
Organic Silver Needle steeped smells fruity, like a bosc pear.
First Infusion: BAM! FULL FLAVOR, but also delicate! 45 seconds for a full flavored cup of white? Now this tea is FRESH! Organic Silver Needle is sweet, gentle, slight peachy pear fruit notes – an earthy fruity sweet. The earthy sweeps through my tongue, with a touch of silky texture. End of sip, the fruityness quickly slips out, leaving a fresh aftertaste. Absolutely no bitter or dryness.
Second, Third, Fourth Infusion: A little stronger flavor than the first infusion with the fruity pear also has a touch of warm honey notes at mid sip. The sweetness is also lingering longer after each sip. I’m getting a little floral mixed with the earthy touch.
Owly and I admired the tea in the gaiwan <3 so pretty!
Fifth Infusion: The flavor has lightened in strength and the pear notes are blending in with the floral, but still slightly sweet. The sweetness is more earthy floral. 2/10 on the Floral-o-meter.
Sixth Infusion: Very very light flavor with the flavor only present in mid and end of sip. Organic Silver Needle flavor is a soft, exceptionally delicate and sweet. A great conclusion to this tea!
Bonus Seventh Infusion: I thought I try to squeak out another infusion. The flavor is even lighter and less sweet – actually it has a savory quality now with a floral earthy orchid note end of sip.
COLD STEEPED: I cold steeped Organic Silver Needle for almost 5 hours.. I simply forgot about it in the fridge to test it sooner. This tea is really florally sweet! Much more floral than hot, say a 5/10 on the Floral-o-meter, it’s like drinking sweet flowers at a lovely tea party! End of sip tastes sharply like sweet pear. Throughout the entire sip, this tea is very clean and crisp!
COMMENTS: Organic Silver Needle is a very fresh, lovely tasting white tea. White tea purists and organic tea drinkers, Organic Silver Needle is calling out to you!
If you are new to white tea, this tea is a good start as it has lots of flavor, yet delicate.
