My Zen Tea order came today and I have to say, the gift box was IMPRESSIVE. I was expecting 1 oz of tea per tin but I was really wrong and it’s clearly about 3 so for those people that managed to get the half-priced gift set, you are getting one steal of a deal. I picked the white tea gift set which included this one, Toffee Dream and Tear of Peony. Silver Needle is a rare, expensive white tea with supposedly a delicate taste and I’m really excited to try such a delicacy. Hell, I almost think this tea is too good for me :(.
Outsides: I love the long tealeaves, although I think I need a different infuser or a gaiwan. The tea is a light yellow green with long leaves that smells fresh and floral. I don’t normally comment on the texture, but these leaves feel soft and young, but they are dry (I ate a few). I brewed this at a pretty low temperature, about 70 degrees Celsius, and put about a tablespoon and a half in the infuser and let it sit for about 2 and a half minutes. The tea is almost colorless and has that same fresh floral scent to it. It reminds me of the beginnings of spring and life, with dew falling off the fresh leaves, which is a pretty existential thing to think of when describing the smell of tea.
Insides: The flavor of this is so delicate and pure, like the spirit of spring. It has an extremely smooth body with top notes of fresh florals and vegetation with a slight mossy base note. This is not a chugging tea like so many of my cheap green teas, but an uplifting sipping tea when you want to feel the life of spring go through you. It’s really quite beautiful and doesn’t need sugar but would probably be lovely chilled, but not freezing.
Overall: A bit pricy but something everyone should experience at least once. Take advantage of this during Zen Tea’s half-off sale if you can.
My Rating: Buy it!
Zen Tea is a relatively new online tea vender that seems to specialize in higher quality tea moreso than vendors like Adagio.
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