Today I am drinking a rare White Tea from Sri Lanka. When I visited the shop in Haarlem the owner of the shop recommended this one so I had to try it. Now exploring the world of tea is not always as much fun as you think. In this case I was a bit disappointed. First of all the smell of the dry leaves didn’t excite me at all. My sense of smell is not too good anyway so in order to get excited I need strong smells. This tea was a bit faint. I could smell a bit of nuttyness (is that a word?? I think it is) and some minerals. But it was way in the back. The dry leaves looked okay so I brewed it at 70 degrees. I didn’t want the water to be too hot in case it would get bitter. Well, the verdict is that it was bitter anyway. Although the taste is fresh and grassy. It made my mouth feel dry. I had a clenching feeling at the back of my throat and it was quite bitter. That bitterness turned into sweetness after a few seconds. But the minerality of the tea is overpowering the grassy and nutty notes after a few infustions. I stopped drinking it after about 8-9 infusions because I got bored with it. The overall feeling was not as nice as I hoped. Not that it is a bad tea. I am sure there are a lot of people that like this tea. And I have not giving up on it yet. I want to do a cold brew with it as well to see how that goes. Because this might be a perfect tea to drink on a Summer day when it is a bit warmer because I think it will be very refreshing. But for now I have decided this is not my cup of tea. Hopefully I change my mind when I try it again in the future.
Because I felt a bit disappointed with this White Tea I went on to one of my favorites: Milk Silk Oolong
This is the first Oolong tea I’ve ever tasted. And from the moment I smelled this tea I knew I was onto something! It smells sweet and comforting and this enhances when you start to brew. This is a feelgood tea. As soon as you take a zip it’s like someone throws a comfy blanket over your shoulders. It smells sweet and the taste is rich and creamy. It reminds me of buttered popcorn and condensed milk with hints of coconut. It coats your mouth and leaves it soft and smooth. Only when you infuse the leaves more than 6-7 times the sweetness transfers into nuttyness and it starts to get just a little bit more clenching in the back of your throat. But only a little bit. Not too much. The smoothness stays but the nuttyness is getting more to the front and it also starts to taste a bit weaker and the minerality takes slightly over. But overall this tea is just so soft and smooth. And the look of the leaves is just stunning. The dry leaves are ball rolled. But when you start to infuse they expand to this huge wonderful coloured leaves.
Look at the size of the leaves! Just absolutely amazing. I compared the one I bought at The Art of…..Tea, Haarlem with the one from Mei Leaf and I was happy to conclude they both tasted and looked pretty much the same. The only difference I could spot was that the Mei Leaf one had a few more stalks with the leaves attached to them. I don’t know (yet) if this is a good or a bad thing but as I said I didn’t taste any difference. They were both smooth and sweet and absolutely gorgeous. I both brewed the first infusions at 80 degrees. Later infusions were around 70. That was when the taste became slightly more nutty and you started to get that little bit of clenching feeling in the back of your throat. But as I said, it is just a minor clench. Nothing too strong. This is a very creamy, smooth tea that I can easily drink all afternoon (which I did) Only after 20-25 infusions the tea gets weaker if you keep brewing at 70 degrees. But as soon as you start to brew with a higher temperature and longer infusions it gets stronger again. So this tea might be slightly expensive. It is definitely worth the money because you can infuse it so many times. I also tend to let the leaves in the tea brewer overnight with the lid open and start infusing them again the next day and it will be just as good as the day before.
So if you are looking for a smooth and creamy, and sweet tea. This is your cup of tea.
Next step will be finding out which cheese goes well with this tea! I am really looking forward to combine tea with cheese. At the moment I am still educating myself about the do’s and don’ts of tea pairing. But there are a lot of nice videos on You Tube. I am currently binch watching the videos of Betty Koster from ‘L Amuse. She runs a cheese shop in IJmuiden and is a well known name in the world of cheese. She was also one of the first people to tell everyone about tea pairing with cheese so there is a lot to learn from her!
So that is it for today. I am going to curl up on the couch with a book and drink some more tea before heading for bed.
’till next time!
