Imperial Silver Needles

Tea: Imperial Silver Needles
Vendor: Imperial Tea Court
Price: $11.00 / oz
Source: Fujian, China
Vendor Description: To meet "Imperial" standards, our Yinzhen ("silver needle") White Tea is harvested from the Da Yeh ("big leaf") tea cultivar grown in the Fu-An area of Fujian province. This varietal grows unusually large leaf buds covered with white down. The leaves must be harvested in early spring and carefully sun-dried for several days before being given a sort of brief roasting over hardwood charcoal in order to remove residual moisture and, in effect, seal in the flavor. White tea has been found to be unusually high in anti-oxidants. Imperial Silver Needles White Tea is mild, soothing, and delicious.

Leaf: The leaf had a very nice appearance to it, the needles were very even and uniform. They had a very even coating of hairs and they were almost all nicely intact buds.

1st Infusion: The liquor was very light in color, although it was slightly murky due to the small "hairs" from the needle floating around. The tea has a very rich aroma, and although it is strong it was still a light aroma. The flavor was light yet very robust. The flavor is very strong and powerful, but the strong flavor was quite light, just like the aroma.

2nd Infusion: The leaves were very evenly expanding and showed that almost all of the needles were quite even. There were very few broken pieces, and the small pieces that were broken were all small bits, no half broken needles. The flavor in this infusion was actually much sweeter and had a light delicate feeling to it. It had a very clean feeling and a very clean white flavor.

Rating: 10/10

Conclusion: This was a very nice silver needle. The taste was light and clean, and yet strong. The leaf had a very nice appearance.