Tag: White Tea

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Teakan’s Jasmine White

Jasmine White by Teakan
White Tea / Straight
$25.00 for 70g

Jasmine White is part of the Teakan’s Spring 2020 Exploration Box, which I purchased at the 2020 Vancouver Tea Festival back in March. This Exploration Box consists of 5 teas and Jasmine White was 15g of the 70g.

First Impressions

Teakan is a Vancouver-based tea company that I was first introduced to at the 2020 Vancouver Tea Festival. Two lovely tea enthusiasts who came together to produce this: the Spring 2020 Exploration Box – which consists of five single origin teas that they love and packaged together to create an affordable collection of high quality teas. So of course that meant I had to purchase a box for myself (fun fact: they sold out of their boxes at the Vancouver Tea Festival!).

The collection itself comes in a cardboard carton, sealed with string. The teas are individually packaged in kraft paper pouches that are sealed and resealable. The labelling is minimalist – white with black printed text. The front side features the name, origin, type of tea, harvest time and weight. The back has steeping instructions, tasting notes, and a QR code to use that leads you to their website for more information.

Jasmine White comes from Lincang, Yunnan, China. It’s a scented white tea (silver needle, to be exact) and was harvested in spring of 2019. The tea leaves are fuzzy and are heavily scented with jasmine – it just has a nice floral note to it. Quite inviting and I love jasmine, so what’s not to love about a white tea with jasmine?

Preparation

Teakan recommends steeping Jasmine White in 95°C (203°F) water. I opted to use 93°C (200F°) water. For western style steeping, it’s a 25 second steep. For gongfu style, it’s 5 seconds. I opted to do 25 seconds because by the type I filled the teapot and put the kettle back onto its base and checked up on the leaves, it was much longer than 5 seconds.

First Taste

Jasmine White steeps to a very pale yellow after a 25 second steep. The aroma is very sweetly floral with the jasmine. The tea itself is very light – it has some sweet floral notes, something fresh and inviting in the background. Zero bitterness or astringency, which I didn’t expect to have any issues with such a short steep. The flavour is pleasant, and there’s a mild vegetal note that lingers on the tongue.

A Second Cup?

With any single origin tea, you know I’m going to resteep it again and again – Jasmine White is no exception to that. I ended up resteeping this white tea seven times (eight steeps total). I added about 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. The colour of the tea became a nice golden yellow after the initial steep. The flavour stayed consistent and the tea itself was quite flavourful even by the last steep that I did.

My Overall Impression

I loved Teakan’s Jasmine White. I really enjoyed the flavour of the tea, since I do adore jasmine teas. The tea leaves stood up quite nicely to being resteeped, and it just showed off the quality of the leaves themselves in how well they did. I would definitely recommend resteeping this tea as much as humanly possible just to get all of that beautiful flavour out of it. I would pair this honestly with any meal or dessert – it can lend itself to being a contrast with a savoury meal (and adding some lightness to a heavy meal) or just pair well with the sweetness of dessert since this tea is sweet, but it won’t overpower cakes or pastries.

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DavidsTea’s Zomba Pearls

Zomba Pearls by DavidsTea
White Tea / Straight
$19.98 for 50g

First Impressions

I’m a sucker for rolled teas because I always find them that much more impressive than other teas – I think it has a lot to do with the fact that there’s a lot more care and consideration put into the teas during the processing of the leaves. Zomba Pearls is one of those teas that didn’t hesitate to impress me. I ordered Zomba Pearls online from the DavidsTea website (the tea, at the time of writing, is part of their current sale!). Zomba Pearls comes in a sealed, resealable foil pouch that has a seafoam green label that has the information regarding the tea on one side.

Zomba Pearls comes in large, almost oval-shaped pearls – no round pearls here! The dry leaf has a light vegetal and grassy notes to it. The leaf detail is lovely, and the pearls are tightly wound together. I noticed that there was a beautiful variation in the colour of the leaves that I could see, raging from green to brown to almost black.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Zomba Pearls in hot water for 4 to 7 minutes, according to the product label. As per the product page, that would be 90°C (195°F) for 3 to 5 minutes – a bit inconsistent. I opted to use the white tea temperature setting on my Breville IQ Kettle (85°C/185°F) for 4 minutes, and I used 4 pearls in a 600ml teapot.

First Taste

Zomba Pearls steeps to a light golden yellow colour. There’s a warm vegetal aroma from the cup. I found that Zomba Pearls has a light sweetness to it, there’s a buttery/creamy quality to both the texture and flavour of the tea. I didn’t find the flavour to be too grassy, despite smelling that it the dry leaf. Zomba Pearls has a pleasant, smooth mouthfeel to it and the lack of bitterness or astringency makes for a pleasant cup of tea.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Zomba Pearls a total of seven times (eight steeps total with the same leaves). I opted to keep using the white tea temperature setting on my variable temperature kettle, and I added an additional 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. I found that the flavours deepened for the first three resteeps from the initial steep and got a bit more floral with each steep, and then the tea began to slowly lose flavour after that. There was still a considerable amount of creamy flavour by the last steep, so I do think that I could have just continued.

My Overall Impression

I loved DavidsTea’s Zomba Pearls. I was just really impressed with this tea from my first impression of the dry leaf, to the flavour of the first cup, and all those many cups after that. While this tea may be on the pricier side (and you can get it on sale right now!), I found that there’s that much more value in the leaves that you can find with the additional steepings of the same leaves to just get all of that flavour out of there. I only used 4 pearls and got eight steeps out of those pearls, so it steeps pretty darn well and tastes good too!

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DavidsTea’s Lavender Swirl

Lavender Swirl by DavidsTea
White Tea & Oolong Tea / Flavoured
$10.98 for 50g

First Impressions

Lavender Swirl is one of those teas that I smelled in store, was super intrigued, and decided to buy. Oh, and if you’ll notice the label was printed in March because I somehow misplaced it and recently rediscovered it – and here we are now! I purchased this tea at one of DavidsTea’s retail stores, which is why it came in a silver pouch with a printed label. The tea itself smells really inviting – I mostly get the fragrance of lavender and vanilla. It reminds me a lot of walking into a bakery that specializes in cakes and pastries.

Lavender Swirl is a very pretty tea to look at, which is always nice. This tea is actually categorized as a white tea on the DavidsTea website, but it also contains oolong. Lavender Swirl consists of: apple, candied pineapple, white tea, oolong tea, blackberry leaves, lavender, and artificial flavouring.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Lavender Swirl in 90°C (195°F) water for 3 to 5 minutes. My initial steep was for 3 minutes.

First Taste

Lavender Swirl steeps to a lovely honeyed orange colour. When I pulled the infuser out of my cup, I did notice that some of the debris from the tea came through the infuser – if something like that bugs you, I’d recommend putting the leaves into a filter bag. The tea itself has a very fragrant aroma – I smell lavender, vanilla, and fruity undertones in the background. On first taste, I note the lavender and vanilla notes, followed by the fruity sweetness. I found that the tea has a bit of a thickened mouthfeel, which is pleasant. The lavender notes made for a very relaxing cup of tea.

A Second Cup?

I attempted to resteep Lavender Swirl and found that the lavender notes just weren’t strong enough to make me want to continue drinking it. I would say that Lavender Swirl is good for just one steep.

My Overall Impression

I liked DavidsTea’s Lavender Swirl. I really enjoyed the lavender and vanilla notes that I found in this tea, and it had a nice level of sweetness that I appreciated as I could drink it as-is and not need to add anything to it. The strength of the lavender was very pleasant in the initial steep, and I found it to be nice to smell and to drink – it didn’t end up being overly floral in that way. The thickened mouthfeel of the tea was a pleasant quality that I wasn’t expecting, but liked.

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