Cup 6-- Precious White Peach White Tea

Sorry for the lack of posts this week. But today i have a White Tea for ya'll.

Precious White Peach White Tea from Teavana. This white tea has bits of dried white peach mixed in to add it an extra burst of sweet peach taste. Teavana presents this tea as a "An incredibly smooth blend of delicious peach pieces and downy white tea buds". We'll get back to this later.

The first thing that i noticed about this tea was the smell as i poured the hot water over the leaves. It was incredibly fruity, giving the dry leaves a sniff as well there was a slight peachy smell as well. The second thing that i noticed while serving the tea up was that this tea has a lot of particles in it. Most of them seem to be from the dried peach pieces and while not large enough to be gross or bothersome, it was an interesting sight to see. The fine white hairs that cover the leaf buds can also be seen floating about the glass, which is a good indicator that, yes, this is actual white tea.

Regardless of the originally fruity smell this tea does not seem to taste as fruity as it smelled. It is quite smooth, and there is a slightly fruit taste but i was expecting more from the smell of the leaves. and speaking of the leaves...

Those 'downy white buds' well, there are buds in the leaves, but poking thru the brewed leaves i see about a half and half mix of what looks like chopped leaf pieces/stems and clusters of a bud with two leaves. Not exceedingly upsetting, but i expected this to have more buds from the description that Teavana gave. With further reading up about different grades of white tea, this seems to be fourth grade, rather than first, which would explain the mix of leaves. When you look at any Silver Needle tea (@ Teavana $9.00/oz @ Adagio $4.00/sample) which is actually a real all bud, first grade, white tea, i can't help but be a bit disappointed by this tea.

It's not a bad tea, but it's not a tea that i would get very excited about.

The sun makes the tea that i brewed look rather dark, but the real color is a pale yellow or a yellowed beige.

White Tea is the lightest variation of teas. It is un-oxidized, unlike oolongs and black teas. White tea is picked when the buds are still covered in fine white hairs, which accounts for the name of the tea. While some people have made claims that white tea contains less caffeine than any other type of teas, that seems to be a rather bogus claim since it depends on many different factors. Other health benefits of tea have been claimed, such as it's higher levels of Catechin, a chemical that has been proven to reduce aging effects and carcinogenesis. However i highly doubt that white tea is the fountain of youth or the cure-all to cancers.

Kind-White Tea
Brew Time-5 minutes, give or take
Water Temp-180*
Color- pale yellow
Fragrance- fruity
Taste-slightly fruity, smooth
Best during-before bed or with a snack
Style- Loose
Price per oz- $7.50
Place bought- Teavana
Overall- unremarkable