Today we are sampling some Tea Crystals from Pique Tea. I’ve reviewed them in the past and they have since come out with some new teas – Sacred Lily Oolong and White Peony. These organic teas are freshly picked and cold brewed crystalized processed within 60 days. Pique Tea goes another step forward and their teas are triple toxin screened for pesticides, metals, and mold. Their teas are packaged into single serving packets to make around an 8oz/240ml/1 cup serving.
If you are a long time reader, you know this tea drinker is a hooty tea snoot that is especially picky about oolong and white tea. I admittedly jumped again to sample some tea crystals to abuse for my entertainment.
Pique Tea’s Sacred Lily Oolong
Sacred Lily Oolong is a roasted, semi-oxidized Wuyi Mountain Oolong. The powder tea crystals smell strongly sweet like instant tea. From past experience with Pique Tea is that the smell is a lie as they do not sweeten their teas.
There is a discrepancy regarding the temperature on the packets vs the box. Either way, I used 175F/80c water temperature. That temperature is certainly low for an oolong, especially a loose leaf Wuyi oolong that I usually boil, but I’ll follow the directions the first time.
Tasting of Pique Tea’s Sacred Lily Oolong
Sacred Lily Oolong sips in not bad. It has a malty roasted quality with a nutty shell finish. Some sips have a mineral woodsy vibe, other sips bring me back to “this is instant tea” as it has that brisk tart flavour. It is leaning a touch astringent, explaining the low-temperature recommendation. It is subtly silky in flavour, likely lost in translation from the low temperature and processing. I was braced for Sacred Lily Oolong to be not great but I drank most of the pot.
Out of sheer curiosity or hating myself, I made another batch but at 200F/93c – a closer Wuyi oolong temperature and a water temperature you would find on the go (ie, filling your tea thermos at the airport) I actually prefer Sacred Lily Oolong hotter. It has a moderate astringent bite, but it shines ore nutty and stone fruits, making it more distinct. It has much less of that instant tart and brisk flavour too.
Iced: Iced, it needed some help to dissolve or it would have floaters. Pique Tea needs to be dissolved first in a little bit of hot water before adding the ice water.
Pique Tea’s Sacred Lily Oolong tastes just like an iced Wuyi roasted oolong and richer than a cold brewed one. It’s sweeter here because of the cold water though not as fruity as the hot version. There is still the odd sip of “instant tea” flavour but it is subtle. For instant tea, this is better than that bottled oolong from Trader Joes/ Ito En as it is naturally sweeter and has more depth. No weird lemon/citric acid preservatives taste either.
Overall, Pique Tea’s Sacred Lily Oolong is actually pretty darn good. I will drink the rest of the packets and consider buying it for travel as this is decently flexible with water temperature. If you are newer to teas, stick to making Sacred Lily Oolong with cold water or the recommended water temperature. An experienced oolong drinker will likely want a hot temperature.
Pique Tea’s White Peony
I predicted White Peony wasn’t going to be good. I am really up my own owl butt on white tea these days and I drink expensive Bai Mu Dan / White Peony as well as aged white tea. The review on the Pique’s site was lowest out of all their teas (though some scores were not related to the tea taste). I had some very bad experiences with powdered white tea matcha which were all an astringent bitter disgusting nightmare.
The colour is strangely red, which is shocking for White Peony. My guess is the processing into crystals oxidized the tea some. White Peony’s tea crystals also smell like overly sweet instant tea in a can. Again, I know the smell is misleading with this product.
I used 175F/80c water temperature, to be close to the directions.
Tasting of Pique Tea’s White Peony
Wow, I am impressed! This Pique Tea tastes like a Bai Mu Dan/ White Peony 100%. I can taste the fuzzy buds and leaves adding a blur of green, straw, hay and a bit of honey. It is a pretty robust dark tasting white peony too. There are no weirdo instant tea flavour in this one. I can put my snoothoot tea hat on to compare it expensive white peony and would say it is missing that fruity coconut note and thicker mouthfeel. I miss the literal bud fuzz in my cup too. There is a touch of astringency, but it is pretty slight. I think some might want to water it down more if they are accustomed to a more delicate white tea.
I had to try this also at a hotter temperature. It is how I like white teas (though I like boiling, for White Peony 200f tends to roll better) plus again, the hot water temperature in the wilds of coffee shop airports. Pique Tea’s White Peony isn’t as good with hotter water. It comes out strong, straw but quite tart.
Iced: This time I dissolved the powder in a bit of warm water (whatever was left in my kettle that was 175F half hour ago) which worked well. This again tastes like a Bai Mu Dan and even closer. It is fresh tasting and crisp, with green hay, and bit underripe melon. It is sweeter, fresher, and less astringent than the hot version. Likely most, especially those newer to tea and white teas, would prefer this iced.
Again, zero weird tastes. I could be blindfolded and think I had real tea leaves floating in a cold brew. Darn good. With that said, with Pique Tea’s White Peony, only go 175F or iced with this one – this is where I can see why some people rated it low because they didn’t respect the temperature suggestion.
The overall pros of Pique Tea is the big convenience factor – everything is portioned for you and all you need is to have water. The Wuyi Oolong and White Peony are pretty decent. Much better than tea bags, bottled tea (price and taste), and some cheap loose leaf.
The con is the price. These Pique Tea packets are expensive, clocking around $0.80ish a serving. A cheap $0.80 worth of loose leaf wuyi oolong would yield more tea as you can resteep it. Processing, pre-packing into single servings, and 3 times the testings add a lot of cost to tea. If prepackaging ease and strict testing for pesticides, metals, and mold are important to you, Pique Tea fits.
Pique Tea is also available on Amazon.
(tea provided for review | affiliate links)
