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Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Radiance Tea House and Books Loose Leaf White Tea 'Silver Needle'

Tea Information:
Tea: Silver Needle
Type: White Tea
Packaging: Loose Leaf
Company: Radiance Tea House and Books
Purchase: In Store, 158 West 55th Street, NY, NY
Description: One of the most renowned teas of the world. This tea only uses the best and youngest handpicked buds and leaves of the tea plant. The result is an unforgettable sweetness and delicate cup that leaves the mouth in amazement.
Ingredients: ?

Steep Information:
Prepared as part of the Steepster meetup and tea tasting
There was a rinsing steep, about 2 seconds
Then it was steeped approximately 2 minutes

It smelled vegetal
It has a light body
The flavor was milky

We learned that higher temperatures (and shorter steeps) lead to sweeter flavor with this brew.

Over all we reviewed that you can come up with whatever method works for you to do temperatures, just be consistent so it's repeatable (boil the water but pour from arm height if this bring it down to 195 for example)

With a good silver needle there is supposed to be buds, and the leaves should not turn black after brewing. If they turn black then it is old or poor quality / not first pick

We did a second steep that was sweet and milky

For the larger pot we had we could have gotten away with about 3 quality steeps

You should be using 2-3grams per 6-8 ounces

Milky teas should never have been soaked in milk, or contain condensed milk, as this is a mark of fake or low quality.

Sorry my notes are so short and cryptic but it was a whirlwind tasting of so much information and flavor!

I am intentionally not rating these teas as I didn't really have a chance to sit there and sip on them and think whether I would by them again, like to play with them more, although none were awful (1 leaf) or fabulous (4 leaves)



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