Sau-Mei Tea by Wing Wah
White Tea / Straight
100g
I received Wing Wah’s Sau-Mei Tea as a gift, and was unable to find information regarding the price.
First Impressions
Wing Wah’s Sau-Mei Tea came to me in a fairly big gold foil bag. There’s minimal information about the tea on the packaging, aside from some key instructions of storing it in a cool, dry place. For those unfamiliar with shou-mei, it’s a traditional Chinese white tea.
Shou-Mei tea has some beautiful dried leaves. There’s a mix of colours ranging from brown to bright green. Some of the leaves have visible downy feathers on them, quite reminiscent of a silver needle. There’s a few sticks mixed in. This is a very airy tea, it takes up a lot of space with just a little bit. The dry leaf has a light floral aroma with slight plum notes.
Preparation
There were no steeping instructions on the packaging. I opted to steep Shou-Mei Tea in 185°F (85°C) for 2 minutes.
First Taste
Shou-Mei Tea steeps to a beautiful golden yellow. The texture of the tea is very smooth, with a light creaminess. The flavour is a nice mix of floral and fresh-tasting plum notes. It’s a really enjoyable tea. The light sweetness to it makes it a good pairing with pastries (I might have had this with a chocolate croissant…).
A Second Cup?
I resteeped Sau-Mei Tea seven times (eight steeps total with the same leaves), I added an extra 30 seconds for each additional steep. As I steeped it, I found that the creaminess grew stronger as the colour became more golden yellow. The floral notes were more prevalent in the subsequent steeps while the plum notes subsided.
My Overall Impression
I loved Wing Wah’s Sau-Mei Tea. This was a very pleasant white tea to drink. I loved how well it resteeped, and how the flavours changed with each resteep. I really enjoy teas that can be resteeped that retain their flavour – it really shows to the quality in the leaves. Additionally, I know that 185°F is a bit on the ‘high’ side of what you’d want to steep a white tea in, but the leaves held up beautifully and I had zero issues with astringency or bitterness.
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