Tag: White Tea

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DavidsTea’s Monk’s Blend

Monk’s Blend by DavidsTea
White Tea, Oolong Tea, & Green Tea / Flavoured
$11.50 for 50g

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First Impressions

Monk’s Blend got me curious before I even smelled the tea because of the description on the DavidsTea website. Monk’s Blend is a blend of white, green, and milk oolong teas – which is interesting in itself as I’ve tried other teas called Monk’s Blend before, but those have always been flavoured black teas.

Monk’s Blend has this nice mixture of smells – there’s the light floral notes of jasmine, mixed with the smell that reminds me of heavy cream of butter. DavidsTea’s version of Monk’s Blend consists of white tea, milk oolong tea, jasmine green tea pearls, and natural milk flavouring.

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Preparation

DavidsTea’s recommendation for steeping Monk’s Blend is to steep in hot water for 4 to 7 minutes. According to the website (not the label), “hot” is 75-80°C (167-176°F). That steeping time is much too long (in my opinion). White teas should be steeped for 2-5 minutes, oolong for 2-3 minutes, and green teas for 1-3 minutes. I opted to do the first steep of Monk’s Blend for 2 minutes.

First Taste

Monk’s Blend steeps to a pale greeny-yellow colour in two minutes. There’s a really nice buttery quality to the smell that mingles well with the floral. I can definitely taste a grassy flavour, as well as sweet jasmine and the buttery cream from the oolong. The buttery quality to the flavour isn’t as rich as from Guangzhou Milk Oolong, but it is still quite rich and pleasant. It’s a mix of flavours that play well together and is a pleasant cup of tea. Steeping for two minutes resulted in a smooth cup of tea with no bitterness.

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A Second Cup?

I resteeped this tea for an additional four steeps. The buttery cream flavour in the tea starts to wane with the more steeps done, but the floral and grassy components of the flavour are more prominent with subsequent steepings. I added an additional 30 seconds per steep. Monk’s Blend becomes a deeper yellow when you steep it for a longer period of time.

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My Overall Impression

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I liked DavidsTea’s Monk’s Blend. I found this tea to be very interesting – in part because it’s such an interesting mix of teas and because it isn’t a flavoured black tea like I was expecting from the name of the tea. I love the complexity in the flavours of this tea, you can definitely pick out the flavours that each tea base brings to the cup which is very enjoyable. I think that DavidsTea does need to correct the recommended steeping time for this tea, 4 minutes is far too long for most of these teas (but especially for the green tea). While allowing the jasmine green tea pearls to unfurl is important, allowing them to do so for far too long is a detriment to the tea itself. Nobody likes bitter tea, especially when it can be prevented! If you do try Monk’s Blend, I would recommend steeping for short periods of time, and do many steeps. It resteeps very well and can make many cups of tea from the same tea leaves.

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DavidsTea’s White Nectarine

White Nectarine by DavidsTea
White Tea / Flavoured
$11.50 for 50g

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First Impressions

White Nectarine is a tea that DavidsTea put out last year, and they brought it back again for the spring. It’s a rather curious tea because while nectarine is in the name, the first listed ingredient is apricots. Nectarine comes into play as natural flavouring, but none of the actual fruit is included. That said, this tea smells amazing. It smells like a mix of nectarines and peaches, I can’t really discern any apricots from the scent at all.

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White Nectarine is made up of: apricots, white tea, blackberry leaf, safflowers, and natural nectarine flavouring. For those concerned, this tea does contain sulphites (in the apricots).

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping this in 90°C (194°F) water for 4-5 minutes. I steeped for about 4 minutes.

First Taste

White Nectarine steeps to a nice medium golden yellow colour. It smells of a mix of peaches and nectarines, it’s a fairly strong scent too. The taste doesn’t quite reflect the fragrance of the tea though, as the taste of white nectarines isn’t as strong as you might expect. There is some sweetness to the tea. It’s an okay cup of tea, I allowed a cup of White Nectarine to chill in my fridge and it’s quite tasty. I think it’s far more enjoyable iced than hot.

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A Second Cup?

One more steep did not do White Nectarine any favours – the nectarine/peach smell isn’t nearly as strong, and the taste leaves a lot to be desired. I would say that White Nectarine does well for one steep only.

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My Overall Impression

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I thought that DavidsTea’s White Nectarine was just okay. I thought it did better as an iced tea than a cup of hot tea. The obvious mismatch in taste to aroma leaves something to be desired, and the tea doesn’t hold up well to being resteeped, which is disappointing. Adding a little bit of sweetener helps to punch up the flavour, if you’re finding that the tea is a bit bland. It’s fairly middle-of-the-road when it comes to price, and I think there are other fruity teas that do much better than White Nectarine does. However, I will be finishing off this bag that I have because it’s delicious as an iced tea, but I don’t think I’ll be buying more for my tea stash.

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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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