Rishi's Moonlight White vs White Peony

I have long been curious about the differences and similarities of these two teas, and though I have had them both frequently in the past, I thought a side by side comparison would be a fun learning experience.

The number one difference is price. The White Peony is only $4 an ounce vs the Moonlight White's ridiculously high, in my opinion, $22 an ounce. The Fair Trade Certification can account for some of the price difference, but I would be curious to know how much of the price increase makes it back to Yunnan.

The prices for the retail tins are more comparable, both about $7, but the Moonlight white is only .6 oz vs 1.1 oz of the other. While you may pay the same, you will get twice as much with the White Peony.

The next noticeable difference is the leaves. The Moonlight White is comprised of large, whole leaves:

While the White Peony is more bits and pieces.

After that, the only real difference is that the White Peony is Fujian and the Moonlight White is from Yunnan.

The Moonlight White has a cleaner, less complex aroma and yields a more delicate. lighter brew that will share many flavor nuances of other Yunnan teas. Quite simply it tastes like it comes from Yunnan. If you prefer dian hong as I do, I think it is likely you will enjoy this tea.

The White Peony has a thicker bouquet and mouth feel and an over all stronger flavor, the latter I think can be attributed to the smaller, broken leaves. Smaller leaves equal more surface area equals a stronger cup. It shares similarities with other Fujian bai cha.

Both teas are equally sweet and better when consumed hot. I noticed that as the tea cooled, some of the flavor diminished.

Which of the two a person will prefer depends on two factors. 1) How much money does that person care to spend, and 2) which province do they prefer, Fujian or Yunnan.

I am partial to the Moonlight White as long as I can buy it in a retail tin and can avoid the online price. My preference for Fair Trade aside, I have always loved teas from Yunnan, and as little as I drink white tea, I don't mind paying a little more for it.

And after all, bai mu dan can become fairly common, so a white tea with refreshing characteristics is a nice change of pace. The only real question is, are you willing to pay the extra money for it?

A note on brewing: if you haven't tried gong fu-ing your white tea, I recommend giving it a try.

Roy Fong Tea Class

Did you miss me? It feels good to be back at it again.

On January 30th, The Republic of Tea brought Roy Fong to our store to teach a tea class for employees. He sources their higher quality teas, including the ones that were offered exclusively to us.

I was like a kid before Christmas all day, waiting for the class to start.

Roy Fong was great. He was friendly, funny, and humble, quiet; he kept to himself before the class started. But mostly he was a Tea Guy, not unlike my fellow tea bloggers and tea chatters and myself. Throughout the class he was asked the same questions we are all asked, "What do you think about tea bags?" and "How do you feel about sweeteners?" and what not. He answered how most of us do: However you like your tea is great; there is no "right" way. But how 'bout you keep that nonsense away from my tea.

The class was only an hour and a half. He talked at first about the history of tea, its evolution from the Tang to Song to the Ming Dynasties. In the Song Dynasty, tea in China was not at all unlike Matcha, a carefully produced tea powder that was whisked in a bowl. It was the Ming Dynasty that brought us the full leaf tea we enjoy now. What I didn't know was that this change was brought about by the first Ming emperor, who was a peasant. He felt China had had enough of this pretentious, powdered poppycock, and it was time to move on to something else, something less wasteful.

Other tid bits I learned were from listening to how he pronounced certain words. He said yixing with a y instead of ee-shing, and long jing was long ching.

He also talked about different ways of tasting tea, holding the tea in your mout and dipping the tip of your tounge in it, or touching the tip of your tounge to the roof of your mouth then sipping tea. The idea being to expose different taste buds in different ways.

It was such a blast to just watch him. This was the first time I was able to have tea with another Tea Guy. I tried to absorb as much as I could. He was so casual, reaching into tins and picking out handfuls of tea.

We only had time for four of the six teas he brought.

Dragon Well

The leaves smelled more fruity than nutty. He brewed it gong fu style and mixed the first and second infusions into a sharing pitcher. The tea itself was light, fruity then vegetal, had ubiquitous elements I seem to taste in almost every Chinese green tea I try.

Silver Rain

This one suprised me. The leaves had notes of sugar of all things. He used hotter water than I do, 200 degrees. The tea was grasy, and there was something different, something I couldn't place; I only had a little tasting cup. My last sip I thought "milk."

Jasmine Jazz

It smelled like Jasmine. It tasted like Jasmine.

Moving on.

Sheng Puerh (Menghai?)

This was the last tea he did, and I'm glad he got to it. It was one of the teas that started it all. Roy must brew this better than I do, better than Bill did, and better than Curtis, the TRoT rep who sold it to us, because it didn't suck. That or its a different sheng pu.

There was a hint of camphor in the dry leaves. The tea was cooling, mild, pleasant, light; he purposely brewed it light, and I couldn't tell if further steepings would reveal the thoroughly harsh pu that I had previously encountered.

I did get to snag a picture of the wraping. Unfortunately I don't speak puerh wrapper. Can someone finally tell me what this tea is?

As I said, Roy was great. Republic of Tea on the other hand hasn't changed. After the class I spoke with the Minister of Education, and asked her why they were packaging a Formosan oolong as Wuyi. She said that was "interesting" and that she "would get back to me on that." Then she walked away to find someone else to talk to.

I will leave you with a short video of Roy talking about rinsing and gong fu.

Choice Tea

I had been aware of Choice Tea for some time now, since I started getting involved with Fair Trade a few years ago, and I had seen their teas at Whole Foods, but I never got around to trying them. So I was delighted when they offered me a few samples, and of course I chose all Fair Trade teas.

Original Chai

"A loose blend of 'ready to brew' spices and fine black teas." The description doesn't give one much to go on, but it tastes like a fairly traditional blend, cardamom, black pepper, and what not. The spices are evenly chopped and distributed with the tea. In a tea with multiple ingredients, smaller, homogeneous pieces help provide a consistent brew from one cup to the next.

I prepare it with equal parts milk and water, using my People's Brew Basket with a chopstick shoved through it (these baskets are quite versatile; I use it to sift matcha one day, prepare chai the next). Its creamy, a bit of pepper to it, but moderate. On a scale of 1-10, I'd rate this about 6.5 or 7.

Ceylon OP High Grown

This one comes from the Thotulagalla Garden in the Uva District of Sri Lanka.

The dry leaf aroma is fresh, not overly aromatic, but I better than I expect for having spent the last few weeks in a cellophane wrapper. The liquor is brown-orange, which makes me think of crayons when I was a child, the two colors, red-orange and orange-red. This seemed a relevant observation when I wrote it down in my notes.

Taste: It is a Ceylon, which in my opinion equals bland, but this is one is better than most. In spite of the ubiquitous "tea" taste, there are pleasant notes of fruit, and the tea has a natural sweetness. Again, Ceylons are not my thing, but this wasn't a bad cup at all.

And if you just noticed that Ceylon and crayon rhyme, you're as silly as me.

Classic White Peony

My only complaint about this tea is that I only had 1.5 grams of leaf to play with, where as I typically use at least 3. The website does not specify where this tea comes from, but I'm fairly sure it isn't Fujian, as there are no Fair Trade projects there that I am aware of.

The aroma is different, I can't place it, not Fujian. A bit of melon that makes me think of sheng pu. I wonder if this is a Yunnan white. The tea itself is light, not as bold as bai mu dan that I'm used to. Their is an intriguing evanescent astringency, almost an after thought.

Dragon Well and Gunpowder

I drank these two a day later side by side with a pair of gaiwan. The origins of the Dragon Well aren't listed, but the Gunpowder comes from Jianxi. These two interested me because they only FTC teas of their respective types I've come across.

The Dragon Well has a light, fruity aroma, while the Gunpowder's scent is fuller, stone fruit perhaps.

The Dragon Well tastes light, moderately fruity, a tad sweet. There is a hint of something that makes me think of something that reminds me of honey. The Gunpowder is more astringent, but not overly so. Words like "woodsy" and "pine" come to mind.

Himalayan Green Tea.

I am not at all fond of tea bags, but the rep. from Choice specifically asked me to review this one, and I'll drink anything for a good cause. Not only is this tea Fair Trade, but 10 cents per box is donated to help save the Himalayan Kingdom.

The problem is one can't go from fresh, Japanese sencha one day to tea bags the next. You need a decompression stop along the way. Perhaps a nice cup of Chinencha. I will refrain from describing this tea. If you still like teabags, I encourage you to buy a box and try it yourself. Tea drinkers closer to myself already now how it turned out.

Whew! That was a lot of tea.

Final thoughts: This is the icky ambiguous part. These teas are good, but I've have gathered enough experience to know that there is better tea available, so how to be honest but positive. There should be weight classes for tea vendors, like in boxing or wrestling. When I put it like that: Choice Tea is a clear contender in their class, better than the competing teas you are likely to see on the shelf next to theirs.

T Ching's Morning Dew

It was a pleasure and an experience to once again participate in one of T Ching's online tea tastings. The Morning Dew, a white tea, was one of three teas we tasted this time, including Margaret's Hope Muscatel and a Keemun Hao Ya. I've decided not to publish a detailed review of the two black teas here; though they were both solid examples of their respective types, I didn't find either of them particularly memorable.

This tea comes from Mirik, located in Darjeeling, India. This is the best Indian white tea I have enjoyed so far. The dry leaves are large, light, like a bai mu dan, but a vibrant green. The aroma is fresh and crisp, makes me think of fall apples.

I used a lot of leaves, 3.5 grams, looks like the equivalent of 3-4 tbsp.

The brew is amazing, tart but sweet with a honeysuckle finish. The flavor is bolder than I am used to in a white tea, bolder than some green teas I've tasted.

My only complaint is that it doesn't stand up as well to multiple infusions, which is all that keeps this tea from becoming my new favorite white tea. I've experimented with using more leaf and shorter brewing times, but the tea started to become unpleasantly astringent. I ran out of tea before I could experiment further.

Weil for Tea

Ito En teamed up with Dr. Andrew Weil and released a line of tea bags, loose tea, and RTD cans.

Lest you think...I don't know what you might think, but I wish to make it unequivocally clear that I am here to explore the palatable, historical, cultural and aesthetic side of tea, not to perpetuate the current tea related health craze. If you drink tea for health, I think that is wonderful; we could all benefit from healthier lifestyles, but it is not my thing. I work with tea in a retail setting, and one can only sell so much wulong weight-loss tea before becoming a mite tetchy with the subject.

It turns out this stuff is quite good, standard disclaimers concerning ready to drink teas not withstanding. I brought home three flavors, Jasmine White, Gyokuro, and Darjeeling, all unsweetened and calorie free.

I think that these are the tree best RTD teas I've had. They are well balanced. Some unsweetened teas are too weak, watery, while others become overly astringent and unpleasant. These are flavorful, clean and fresh.

I have yet to try real Gyokuro, so I can not properly compare this one to anything. It is smooth, less astringent then Ito En's Just Green, kind of nutty. The Darjeeling was amazing for what it is. Possibly a blend, definitely a late season flush if not, but unmistakeably Darjeeling.

I am impressed. Never before have I had a bottled tea that had as much natural flavor without tasting over-steeped or relying on sweetener to mask the bitterness.

Anteadote

One of the nice things, an unexpected bonus, to running a tea blog has been the free stuff. Even bad tea is kind of fun when someone took the time to give it to you. Though this time the free tea has nothing to do with the blog and everything to with the fact I have no life and spend an inordinate amount of my free time on TeaChat. Adagio recently introduced a new flavor of their Anteadote bottled tea, Oolong, which I understand uses TGY, and asked their more chatty users if they would like a free case.

To which I said, "Yes, please."

I received the case a few days ago, and I thought it would be just the Oolong, but it turns out to be an even mix of all five flavors.

Adagio's Anteadote is a line of five organic ready-to-drink (RTD) teas, Green, Jasmine Green, White, Black, and now Oolong. They're all sugar and sweetener free and only three ingredients, water, tea, and vitamin C.

The Green and White are my least favorite. There's a funky taste that I can't place, and to be honest, they're kind of hard to tell a part. That being said, they're still better than most of the bottled alternatives. The Oolong isn't much different, but I like it a bit more.

The Jasmine Green is pleasant enough. Nice and jasmine-y, moderately astringent. I have a small appetite for jasmine tea; its nice every now and then, and it went well with my dinner.

The one that really excites me is the Black Tea, made with dian hong. I think dian hong cha is vastly superior to most other types of black tea, and while I am sure that Adagio is using a very low grade, I still prefer it to the standard Indian, Ceylon, or African tea that you usually find in RTD teas.

Thanks again, Adagio.

Lochan White Tea Samples

After I wrote a review on Rishi's Silver Needle, Ankit Lochan was kind enough to send me a package of white tea samples, which I received a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, with half of my department on vacation, and my grocery manager in Houston, I had to work through most of my regular days off and haven't had a chance until now to sample them or write a review.

To the Lochans, thank you for the tea, and I apologize for the delay.

I've never been proficient at identifying and describing the characteristics of white tea, but I will do my best. I used the same parameters for each tea: 3 g/8 oz/5 min, brewed in a kyusu.

Lochan Silver Silver Snow Buds

2nd Flush 2007

Darjeeling

I rushed this one a bit. Over all it was okay. The color was strong, but the taste was sort of watery; I should have brewed this one longer. There was a slightly unpleasant, artificial taste, that had me checking to see if my water was the culprit, but it wasn't. I have some leaves left, so I plan to try this tea again.

Giddapahar White Tea Needles of Jade

2nd Flush 2007

Darjeeling

This one was my favorite. The color was very strong, like a 1st flush Darjeeling. It has the characteristic white tea smell, a clear Darjeeling taste, and a mild astringency in the back of the throat. This is the first and only Indian white tea I've had that I would hold on par with bai hao yinzhen in levels of uniqueness and enjoyment

It also came with a toy surprise.

Doke Silver Needle

2007 "Special Edition"

Doke is an interesting garden started in 1998 by Rajiv Lochan on a plot of land that others said was useless. Nonetheless, Doke started to prosper, and Rajiv shared the profits with the local community through the development of the Indus Foundation, a non-profit organisation promoted by Lochan Tea. Its main goal to promote education and primary schools in a way the will most benefit Indians. As a supporter of Transfair USA and Fair Trade Federation, I'm pleased to see a grass roots project such as this.

The Silver Needle was enjoyable, similar-ish to the snow buds in color and in that I should have steeped it longer, but kind of sweet. Over all a decent tea but not super great.

Locahn Wiry Delight of the Himalayas

2006

Darjeeling

The wiry delight is my second favorite of these four. Good strong color, and a pleasant fruity smell I can't place. It is kind of tart. Very good. I like the unique appearance of the dry leaves.

While some were better than others, all of these teas were enjoyable. Thanks again to the Lochans for the samples.

Teance Free Leaf Tea

This is something new from Teance, FreeLeafTM Teas. We got them in about a week ago, and I haven't made up my mind about them yet, but I do think they're neat. It seems the idea is to offer the convenience of a tea bag by attaching a string to a bouquet of hand tied leaves--I assume they are hand tied. A simple and effective idea; I'm surprised no one hasn't tried it before. There are four varieties available, White Peony, Jasmine White, Green Carnation and Green Rosebud. There are eight bouquets to a box, each individually wrapped in foil.

I sampled the Peony, and I was surprised by the quality. The bouquet uses lots of buds, and you can see the fine white hairs. The flavor is very pleasant, and it reminds me of the xian tao, only "whiter." It is also fruitier than most white teas I've had. The single bouquet easily yielded a few solid infusions. I would happily drink this tea again. But I wouldn't want to pay for it. I didn't care for the $10 price tag at my store, and I am less fond of the $13 price on their website. Even taking into consideration the labor intensive bouquets, $1.63 a bouquet seems a little steep. The overall quality of the leaves is quite decent, but I fear this may be just another expensive gimmick.

Edit: I feel I should clarify that my comments about the price are based solely on my opinion and limited observations. I know nothing of the costs involved with producing this kind of tea, and for all I know, it is a fair price. Just not one I'm going to pay.

Lochan

I received my samples from Lochan today, so thank you, Ankit. I'm drinking one right now, though I wont write a full review till I have more time. This one is very interesting; I like the color, and it has a pleasant...fruitiness. Its probably the best Indian white tea I've had. More on that later. Expect a mega-lochan-Indian-white tea review as soon as I get back.

If the cat doesn't eat it all.

Bai Hao Yinzhen

Its another cloudy day, I like clouds. We re-arranged some of the rooms in our house, and now I have a place to make tea in the back that provides me with a view of our back yard. The back yard is one of my favorite things living here. It helps me forget that the Interstate is 100 yards away, and some of the busiest shopping areas in West Ft. Worth are less than a mile in either direction. Sitting back here in the mornings on my days off, drinking tea, forgetting I live in Texas, has become a highlight of my day.

Since receiving my shipment of wuyi oolongs from Tea Spring, I've been itching to write about them; wuyi cha and I seem to be made for each other. But I was distracted by Mary's blog, so I find myself drinking some bai hao yinzhen from Rishi instead.

I'm sure by now most people are familiar with white tea, or bai cha (白茶), but for those of you who don't, I happen to have a whole folder of POS material from Rishi, so I'll fill you in.

Production of 'authentic' white tea is limited to Northern Fujian, in Fuding, Zhenghe, and Jianyang Counties. The leaves are picked from specific bush varietals including Da Bai (大白) and Da Hao (大毫). The leaves are picked, withered, and dried, and that's about it, making it the least processed of all teas.

Brief History of White Tea:

• 618 - 907: Compressed cake tea is listed in ancient Tang Dynasty tribute tax records as white tea.
• 960 - 1279: Song Dynasty records list a type of imperial tribute tea as white tea.
• 1796: The unique withering process of loose leaf white tea is developed.
• 1889 - 1891: Original production and and export of bai hao yinzhen.
• 1922: Original Production and export of bai mu dan.

Tea: Bai Hao Yinzhen (白毫银针), White Hair Silver Needle

Origin: Fuding, Fujian, China

Year: ?, Spring (I wish they'd post harvest dates).

Vendor: Rishi-Tea

Price: $66/lb, $9.99/Retail Tin (C.M. price)

(Organic)

Rishi's Silver Needle is hand harvested from Fuding Da Hao bushes, and like other silver needles, uses only first flush buds picked for just a few weeks in spring. This is also the first certified Organic white tea imported to the US.

I've had numerous white teas from Fujian, Yunnan, and in various places in India, but in my opinion, nothing can compare to Fujian silver needle. My palate is not refined enough to pick out individual nuances of fruit or what not. It has an extraordinary cooling effect with a wonderful mouth feel. More often than not, I start to sip this tea and end up gulping the whole cup. Its very refreshing.

Notice the fine white hairs:

You want to be sure to use enough leaves, about 3.5 - 4 grams or a heaping tablespoon for 8 oz.. I use water between 180 - 185 F. I start off with 5 minutes and add a minute and a half for each subsequent brew. White tea tends to be very forgiving, so even if you fudge the brewing parameters you will get an enjoyable cup regardless. Indeed there is a wide variety of opinions on things such as steeping time, so experiment and find what works for you.

In terms of white tea, I don't think it gets better than this. I give it a 5 out of 5.

Ju Hua Bai Hao Yinzhen

Tea: Chrysanthemum Silver Needle
Origin: Fujian, China
Year: ?
Vendor: Rishi Tea
Price: $64/lb.
(Organic)

I do not enjoy flavored teas, and in the past I was not fond of chrysanthemum tea (ju hua cha). If you asked me, I would have told you that this tea was a waste of some perfectly good bai hao yinzhen. However, it was one of the new teas that came into our bulk dept., and I like Rishi, so I took some home.

This is a pretty tea. Throughout out the session I was taken in by the aesthetics of it, the colors, yellow blossoms of chrysanthemums, on white porcelain, punctuated with tender buds. A liquid-gold liquor. It felt like Spring.

Brewing parameters: 2 g/150 ml/185 F/4 min, 5.5 min, 7 min.

My over all impressions of this tea are a bit conflicted. I think it could have used a slightly smaller ratio of chrysanthemum to tea; the tea compliments the chrysanthemum perfectly, but gets over powered in the process, loosing the finer nuances of good bai hao yinzhen. On the other hand, it all tastes really good, naturally sweet with a...sort of 'spicy' mouth feel.

There was no discernible fluctuation in taste from the first three infusions. I imagine you could get a lot of mileage out of the tea, possibly six, perhaps even seven infusions before it paid out, although I tend to get bored with any tea before I get that far. This isn't any every day tea for me, but I'm tempted to give it a 5 out of 5.

Chuao Earl Grey Chocolate Bar

Sooner or later the extraordinary becomes ordinary when you are around it every day, thus it is easy to forget how good all the food at work is, or how fortunate we are to work in that kind of culinary environment. Oddly enough, it is the chocolate aisle that tends to remind me. I don't even like chocolate that much, but seeing shelf after shelf of gourmet chocolate bars in their shiny wrappers inevitably drives home the fact that my job is anything but ordinary.

Chuao, pronounced chew-WOW, is a Chocolatier in Southern California named after a cacao producing region in Central Venezuela. This is good chocolate (41% cacao), you don't taste tea per se, but the bergamot clearly stands out, giving the chocolate a pleasant citrus, umm, citrusy? citrusness? I would like to see a version of this bar using darker chocolate, something in 60-70%. That would be good, too.

T Ching's Kashanganj Snow Bud and Meghma Nepalese Oolong

Earlier this week I recieved my samples from T Ching for their online community tea tasting. They sent 25 g each, well worth the $3 paid for shipping. This is my first time to be involved, and I was looking forward to it. Thanks Mary for the heads up.

Tea: Kashanganj Snow Bud

Origin: Kashanganj, India

Year: 2007 (?)

Vendor: T Ching

Price: $14.50/50 g

The dry leaves are very attractive, clearly hand picked. I have a special affection for white tea, so I played around with this one quite a bit. I started with 3 g/8 0z/185 F/5 min., then I upped it to 4 g, then 3 g for 6 min. The first brew was a little weak, but it had a very nice finish, just a touch of astringency that left a tingly sensation. The second brew was bolder, perhaps just a tad strong. Very similar to bai mu dan. The third was more mellow but still made a statement. The last cup I brewed to T Chings brewing instructions, 6 g/8 oz/175 F/3 min. This yielded the best results. The over all flavor was the same, but it was the smoothest.

I have tried an Indian white before and was not impressed. I think Fujian whites are superior by far, but this tea left me with a good impression. I still prefer Fujian bai hao yin zhen, but this is a close second. I give it a 4.

Tea: Meghma Nepalese Oolong

Origin: Nepal, Meghma Estate

Year: 2007 (?)

Vendor: T Ching

Price: $7/50 g

Certified Organic

I'm a sucker for knowing exactly where my tea comes from--please, show me pictures of the people who picked my tea, so my interest in this tea grew when I found an interview with the owner of the family-run Meghma Estate, Madan Tamang. This guy makes a good oolong, completely hand-rolled and follows a production process similar to what you would find in Taiwan.

My first attempts at gong fu-ing this...well, the results sucked. So I followed the tasting instructions more or less, 5 g/150 ml/195-200 F/5 s. for the first infusion/ and it was much, much better.

The dry leaves are aesthetically pleasant, and so is the liquor, which progresses from a buttery yellow to a rich, honey orange. The taste is very smooth with a natural amber sweetness that reminds me very much of the Golden Needle from Yunnan, yet the familiar fruitiness of a Darjeeling is still present. It's a wonderful combination.

I like this tea, and I didn't think I would to be honest. It's got a great price, tastes good, and its enviromentally and socially friendly; I'll probably buy this tea again. I give it a 4.5.