Not long ago I reviewed an exceptional quality version of Assam whole-leaf black tea, sent by a producer friend Maddhurjya to enjoy and to review. These were sent with it, a green and silver needle version. They look amazing, and they should be amazing.
As with the first post I'll keep the back-story here to a minimum. Maddhurjya started working on exploring better quality tea production, new types of processing and equipment use, and organic tea production quite a number of years ago. He might've been somewhat new to it when we first met, something like a half dozen years ago, but he was making quite good tea then, and it has only improved since. There's more on him and that project is on FB and Instagram.
It's now on a level with better teas from anywhere else. The highest end Chinese teas tend to draw on an older and more developed tea tradition, with the absolute best tea versions the result of many decades of tea growing and processing, or really centuries, so the absolute highest quality Chinese teas tend to have an edge on others from elsewhere, but that matters more for some tea types. Black and green teas are more basic in general style (as I see it), and white (the silver needle) is the least processed broad type, so it might vary a little less. Differences related to terroir and plant type issues might stand out more than processing being dialed into optimum for these. But we'll see.
I haven't been drinking much green or white tea for years, but many cycles of trying many teas from a lot of different areas over a decade give me confidence that my judgment will be reasonably informed. Related to brewing process I'll go with a Gongfu approach, and a pretty high proportion, as is normal for me. Brewing water temperature might be a little high, possibly around 90, or maybe down into the mid to upper 80s as a thermos I'm using sheds some heat, which is probably not optimum for the green tea version. But I'm a sheng pu'er drinker, so if it includes a little extra astringency edge, extra mineral base, or if a heavier vegetal tone stands out a little I'll be fine. It would be sweeter and lighter brewed 10 degrees cooler, which I'll probably be able to comment on a little as I go.
I should mention that some people consider silver needle a certain style of white buds-only tea, and often silver tips is used as a more general term. Silver needle is often used for the English derived name for a Fuding, Fujian tea version, based on plant type and growing conditions that result in a larger bud form. I don't even get caught up in naming issues people far more often consider important or restricted, like pu'er (although I do respect the registered Yunnan-origin only convention by awkwardly calling other versions "pu'er-like), or Oriental Beauty, which isn't registered to describe only Taiwanese teas. I don't have any conclusively grounded opinion on whether this is truly silver needle or instead should be called silver tips, but I'm pretty sure that silver needle is closer to the Oriental Beauty example, not a registered and restricted naming convention, so I think it's fine.
Review:
green tea: I brewed this round a bit fast, not trying to compensate for the tea needing time to become soaked, instead going with a first light introductory round instead. Range is pleasant so far, light and sweet. This tea could have far less of an astringency issue related to being in a mostly whole leaf form. Umami already stands out, even though the tea is brewed quite light. I'll save adding a flavor list for next round.
silver needle: a lot of mineral base stands out in this; interesting. Often buds-only white teas can be subtle to the point of not tasting like much, with some vague floral sweetness coming across. That's not how this is. Sweetness is still pronounced, and there's plenty of floral range there, but at least right away a mineral base stands out most. It reminds me of how Nepal white teas often strike an amazing complex balance, including all that I've mentioned, and maybe even a bit of citrus. For people familiar with good Nepal white tea that's clearly very high praise. This should be interesting.
green tea, second infusion: I brewed this more like 20 seconds, if anything perhaps slightly over optimum, but it will avoid another comment about these needing another round to get started. Umami, underlying mineral, and heavier flavor range really stand out in this. I think it's already to the point where using nearly 90 C water is pulling flavor range to a heavier, less bright and sweet range. I'll cool the next round to experiment on that, mixing in just a little room temperature water (not sciencey, or optimum, but it'll work). Floral tone is a main input, along with umami, and from there heavier vegetable range stands out. It's hard to place, non-distinct, maybe as close to cooked okra as anything else. I'll keep working on a more detailed flavor list.
silver needle: warmth, sweetness, and depth really bumped up in this tea. It's not really that close to Nepal white, which is lighter in form, with flinty mineral, light floral, towards a light citrus edge; that was only similar to the early round profile, it seems. A much warmer range of floral tone and citrus both really kick in, but it's more like a warmer orchid scent than a lighter version of that, and more like a tangerine than a sweet and light orange. Rich feel rounds out the experience; for still developing this has a lot going on. There's even a hint of drier edge, relating either to oxidation input or to a natural mineral flavor tone (feel and flavor ranges tend to naturally couple in standard ways).
green tea, third infusion: cooling the water (mixing it) did shift results a little, but not too much. Heavier mineral and vegetal flavors still stand out, along with sweetness, and rich floral range. I brewed this for a bit under 10 seconds; infusion strength is fine for both even brewed fast. I won't pin down floral or mineral range much, which are hard to describe, but I will attempt to say more about the vegetal range. There's a grass aspect to it, but it's complex, and not mostly that. Vegetable range could be fairly close to okra still. That gets odd because it's not a heavy, cooked vegetable flavor, but who is familiar with eating raw okra? It seems like what is happening relates to a lot of range combining. Rich and lighter floral tones seem to mix, along with a lot of mineral base, grass, some vegetable, and some holy basil spice range. It's intense, but it's pleasant for being such a clean effect, with decent balance.
I've mentioned many times that green tea isn't my absolute favorite range, which I suppose could seem odd given that I drink mostly young or slightly aged sheng pu'er, which is closest to that. I don't hate the entire flavor profile range, I just don't like the straight-grass effect, or more one dimensional vegetable flavor inputs. Sheng often tastes floral, and essentially never like grass or vegetables, although characteristic astringency and mineral base can overlap with some green tea range, and unusual pine-like aspect can enter in (which I just noticed in a Jing Mai version two days ago). For this green tea being complex, generally positive, and balanced I like it. I'd probably like a sheng version that's this high in quality and distinctive better, but that's how type preferences and acclimation works.
silver needle: this is richer, sweeter, heavier on rich floral tones and warm citrus fruit, and thicker in feel. I think this would naturally appeal to a broader range of people; there is no conflict with aspect preference range to get in the way, it's just good. It's definitely not subtle or wispy. This was even brewed for 10 seconds or less; pushing it would draw out even more intensity, although lighter flavor balance would give way to heavier range if you did that, to some extent. I should push the next round a little to check on that, since I've just brewed these quite light. It will be more of a test of the green tea; I don't think that you could easily ruin this tea with brewing variations.
green tea, fourth infusion: I cooled the water even more by mixing one third room temperature version; this will be brewed quite cool, maybe even under a 70 C relative optimum (160 F or below). Ordinarily that would impact intensity, but I've let these brew for more like 20 seconds, probably just under that.
It's lighter and sweeter, for sure, with feel range not diminishing at all, or the heavy mineral base flavors. Interesting! If someone absolutely wanted to keep the heavy grass and vegetal range in check this is the way, use fairly cool water, maybe even dropping slightly below 70 C. I'd probably see using 75 to 80 C as an optimum, and might even go with 85, accepting some heavier flavors that I don't love as much as a trade-off for bumping intensity way up, even brewed fast. Sweet floral tone does come across well in this round, with an even stronger mineral base, so it's not overly light, but for being a sheng pu'er drinker I'm accustomed to intensity, which sticks around even with fast and light infusions.
silver needle: not changed, really; the last description still works. Heavy floral tone might be bumping up as the sweet citrus drops off, but it's still similar. I'll probably do one more round to check on changes, back to brewing the green tea hot, and leave off taking notes. These teas are not half finished yet though; cutting off writing is about keeping this length moderate, and about later transitions not being as interesting to me as describing the basic character of the teas.
green tea, fifth infusion: the heavier flavors punch is back, related to using quite hot water again. I suppose it's nice that the flavor can be that dialed into different ranges like that, if one likes. Other tea types tend to not work out like that; you can shift the range of experience, but not necessarily the basic flavor profile. The grass and vegetable might seem a bit much to some but to me it's balanced well enough with heavy mineral base, umami, and equally pronounced floral range input. I like that feel structure too; it has an edge to it, brewed hot and somewhat intense, but again I'm familiar with teas including intense feel along with intense flavors.
In discussing what I like about sheng with a Yunnan producer friend he guessed that people might just adjust to liking a little more complexity and intensity, then a little more again, until they need a lot of both to get their fix. Oolongs are plenty complex and interesting, with full feel, but once you follow that pattern it might not be enough, since they tend to give up both--related to sheng--in exchange for exhibiting refinement and flavor aspect range that's a more natural fit to ordinary, unconditioned preference. Bitterness alone is a big part of that (which of course I've not mentioned in relation to this green tea; they tend to not be bitter). People new to drinking beer would probably love a mild amber more and then later on IPA and pilsner can somehow seem more appealing.
It's interesting the bag it came in has a common type of orchid on the front, and the "flavour of Assam" branding. There is plenty of floral range in both these teas. This seems to be transitioning more to green beans in later rounds, so there's other range too, but it works better for it all balancing.
silver needle: not transitioning too much, but a little. The gradual, subtle drift towards warmer floral tones might be leading into a light spice-like range now. For this tea being so approachable, while still being complex and intense, you could try out pushing it with full boiling point brewing water and see what that changes.
It might work as an optimum to start cooler, maybe in an 85 C range, and then keep bumping temperature as intensity fades just a little. This is still plenty intense, and you can add more to that just by lengthening brewing time, but drawing out warmer tones and a touch more astringency could be good--in the form of feel depth at this lighter level--as the tea softens further and narrows in flavor range. At five infusions in it's far from fading away, so I'm talking here about messing around to experience change and an optimum. Or it's great like this, or surely brewed hotter; this is the opposite case of when I'm describing how one might get a decent but mediocre tea to give up a bit more intensity, more about how one might try out a finer level adjustment of brewing process just to highlight what is already present.
Conclusion:
I liked the silver needle more; that really stood out for complexity, intensity, and flavors being in a very positive range. I liked the green tea more than I like an average good-quality green tea version, and if I was a green tea drinker this would all be framed in completely different context, much more positively. It's a green tea version that a sheng pu'er drinker could appreciate, but they would still probably like sheng pu'er of equivalent good quality even more. Drifting off the subject a little, I tend to like sheng versions that seemed to have been heated a bit too much, spoiling a lot of the long term aging potential, and shifting the aspect range, but they can be nice as very young / new versions.
It's interesting considering if these were better than I expected, or different in any way. I thought that they would be quite good, so that matches. This white tea intensity was a pleasant surprise; fine bud content white tea can be intense, as this was, but often that comes with negative or neutral aspect range trade-off, for example the mineral tone not integrating as well as this did, or giving up brighter floral and fruit range. You usually don't get that kind of balance across a range in white teas; it's either mostly a very pleasant sweet and floral high end, or a deeper base joins much less of that. That's why Nepal white teas really stand out, but they often express a brighter, lighter-tone range, light floral, and bright citrus, not the warm and deeper range.
Probably I'll come to love this green tea more as I try it a few more times, and automatically dial in brewing better, versus messing with it round to round. To me green and black teas can tend to be more basic in range expressed, which can still work out as a positive experience, in a way that can work really well drank along with food. I still drink sheng with breakfast almost every day, or black tea, oolong, or shu if I feel like it, but that's not really about setting up an optimum pairing. I eat plain foods, breakfast cereal, toast, or fruit, and the sheng is often out of balance related to intensity, even brewed light. I probably should buy more black tea than I tend to, but I often end up reaching for sheng anyway. It'll be nice to have a couple more options to mix in, while I have these teas.
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