Category: Review

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DavidsTea’s Bai Hao Yin Zhen

Bai Hao Yin Zhen by DavidsTea
White Tea / Straight
$14.90 for 50g

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First Impressions

I don’t often drink white teas, but I opted for DavidsTea’s Bai Hao Yin Zhen when I had a Frequent Steeper reward to use (I usually save those for the more expensive teas to try out). This tea is quite light and airy, I got my 50g of this tea in a larger bag than usual. The leaves themselves are quite long and pale in colour, if you touch them you can feel how soft they are because the leaves have a light layer of fuzzy down that adds to the silvery colour. DavidsTea’s description of the tea that it “is a true luxury”. At $14.90 for 50g, it is not one of their most expensive teas, but it is on the higher end of their prices. Bai Hao Yin Zhen’s ingredient list is simply “high-grown white tea from the mountains of Fujian Province, China”. The dry tea leaves have a sweet honey smell to it, and also has very subtle hints at a grassy/vegetal fragrance.

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Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Bai Hao Yin Zhen in 90°C (194°F) water for 4-5 minutes. I consider that suggested water temperature to be too high for white teas, I opted to steep in 80°C (176°F) water for close to 3 minutes.

First Taste

Bai Hao Yin Zhen steeps to a beautiful pale, golden yellow colour. The smell of the steeped tea reminds me a lot of grass and dry hay. On first sip, the tea is smooth. There’s a very mild sweetness with a light taste of grassy notes in each sip. There’s zero bitterness, and it’s overall a very nice cup of tea. The flavours aren’t particularly strong, but I have never found silver needle to be the type of tea that you make and have on the go, it’s more of a tea that you have to relax with and sip.

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The silvery down layer of the tea leaves isn’t visible after being steeped, the leaves open up and they’re a bit of an olive green.

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A Second Cup?

Bai Hao Yin Zhen resteeps well! I resteeped the same leaves four times in my tea pot and the flavour improves for the second steeping (the flavour is richer, a little bit stronger, and the colour is a deeper golden yellow). The flavour holds true for the third steeping, but doesn’t hold out very well for the fourth steeping. So overall, I found that Bai Hao Yin Zhen resteeps well for two additional times.

My Overall Impression

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I liked DavidsTea’s Bai Hao Yin Zhen. I think it’s a nice quality silver needle and it makes a great cup of tea. It resteeps well, something I always appreciate when the tea is on the pricier side of things. I gave Bai Hao Yin Zhen only three cups out of four because of the steeping directions given by DavidsTea. Their directions are much too long and too hot for a white tea, something that would probably result in a lackluster cup of tea for someone who followed the directions to the letter (and would be disappointed by their Bai Hao Yin Zhen, considering how pricey it is).

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Two Leaves and a Bud’s Jasmine Petal

Jasmine Petal by Two Leaves and a Bud
Green Tea / Straight
$8.49USD for 37.5g (15 sachets)

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First Impressions

I received this box of Two Leaves and a Bud’s Jasmine Petal as part of a swap, so it did get a little bit crushed in the packaging. Each tea sachet comes individually wrapped in a clear plastic wrapper. There is some print on it that tells you the name of the tea and type (Jasmine Petal; whole leaf green tea) as well as the caffeine level (light) and steep time (3 minutes). At the bottom it states “compostable tea sachet” which is something important because I always feel bad if I have tea in a sachet that can’t be composted (can I really enjoy tea if I’m contributing the landfill?).

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The sachet itself is a pyramid with a handy string to fish the tea back out. It smells amazingly floral – it has a very bright and strong jasmine scent to the dry tea. If you look in the tea sachet, you can see fairly large tea leaves in there. No fannings or dust for these tea sachets, that’s for sure.

The side of the box states that the ingredients are from China (ingredients of Jasmine Petal are: green tea, jasmine flowers). The other information includes the fact that the tea has about the same amount of caffeine as a third of a cup of coffee, to use water that is 180F and to steep for 3 minutes.

Preparation

Two Leaves and a Bud recommends steeping in 180°F (82°C) water for 3 minutes.

First Taste

I steeped Jasmine Petal for about 3 minutes. It steeps to a familiar yellow colour that I’ve come to expect from a green tea. It smells amazing, the jasmine scent is a lot stronger in Jasmine Petal than in most jasmine green teas that I’ve tried before. I think this is because it contains jasmine flowers, rather than just having been scented with jasmine flowers. The tea itself is quite nice. It’s got a smooth taste to it, with a touch of bitterness at the end of each sip. I think 3 minutes might be a little long for this tea, I would try it again on a first steep at maybe 2 or 2.5 minutes to see if that makes a difference. The bitterness isn’t terribly off-putting because the tea itself still has a great flavour. The jasmine taste isn’t as strong as it smells, but I don’t mind that too much because I’d prefer to have my green tea tasting like green tea.

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A Second Cup?

I tried resteeping the sachet and it didn’t do too well. While the sachet uses whole leaf, it just didn’t do as well as I would have expected for a sachet that uses whole leaves. The second steeping was weak in flavour and aroma.

My Overall Impression

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I thought that Two Leaves and a Bud’s Jasmine Petal was just okay. It makes for a good cup of jasmine tea, and I really appreciate that Jasmine Petal contains jasmine flowers instead of green tea that’s been scented with jasmine flowers. I think that 3 minutes is entirely too long to steep this tea for, because of the fact that it begins to get bitter and nobody likes a cup of bitter tea usually. I would have rated it higher if it had more appropriate steeping instructions. Overall, I think that Jasmine Petal does okay as a jasmine green tea and I will definitely have another cup again, but I don’t think I would buy it when there’s so many jasmine green teas out there that don’t give me too long of a steeping time in the instructions.

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DavidsTea’s Roasted Gyokuro

Roasted Gyokuro by DavidsTea
Green Tea / Straight
$19.90 for 50g

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First Impressions

Roasted Gyokuro was another one of my free Frequent Steeper rewards. It’s one of DavidsTea’s pricier green teas, which meant that I really wanted to give it a try. I haven’t tried other gyokuro teas before, so bear with me. The dry tea leaves has a saltiness to the tea, the smell of it reminds me of the smell of grass and steamed spinach. It’s an interesting combination, but not so odd that it stops me from trying it. Roasted Gyokuro is made of organic green tea from Kagosima, Japan.

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Preparation

DavidsTea recommends seeping in 80C water for 2-3 minutes. I steeped it closer to 2 minutes since I wanted to resteep it and increase the steeping time for each additional steep.

First Taste

Roasted Gyokuro is a lovely pale yellow. It definitely has a fragrance that is unique to itself – it has a bit of saltiness, some grassy-spinach notes still. On first sip, I’m pleasantly surprised. There’s a bit of a buttery quality to the tea that mingles well with the grassy-spinach flavours. It does have a mild saltiness that I don’t find unpleasant. It adds to a different level of intrigue to the tea, which I quite enjoy because the flavour profile is different from the other green teas I’ve had in the past. The description from DavidsTea suggests that Roasted Gyokuro has a brown butter flavour to it, with a nutty aroma. While I do get some of the butter, I can’t really pick out any of the nutty smell, but it still makes for a very nice cup of tea.

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When I steeped for just the two minutes, it made for a very pleasant cup of tea. It wasn’t bitter at all. I think 3 minutes would be pushing it and might result in a sad cup of tea. I would recommend steeping for the 2 minutes for the initial steep.

A Second Cup?

Roasted Gyokuro resteeps well! The salty buttery-grass taste is a bit more pronounced with the second steep. It does fairly well for a third and fourth steep as well. It makes for a delicious pot of tea, I think it would pair well with sushi since it has that salty taste to it that would go well with fish.

My Overall Impression

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I liked DavidsTea’s Roasted Gyokuro. While I haven’t tried other gyokuro teas, I found this one to be tasty! It makes for a great cup of tea. The salty vegetal taste does lend itself to an enjoyable cup of tea, although I was a bit skeptical at first. there’s a lovely buttery taste to it. I wish I got some of that nutty aroma that DavidsTea mentioned in the tea’s description because I think that would have been a nice addition to the flavour profile of the gyokuro. As it is, it’s a great cup of tea, I just wish it had lived up a bit more to the expectations I had after reading the tea’s description. It resteeps well, so even though it is a bit on the more expensive side, it has great value from the amount of times that you can resteep it.

Curious about the cup rating system? Click here to learn more.