Rare Tea Co – White Silver Tip
Kung Hai Fat Choi! I meant to post this yesterday but as Lunar New Year celebrations last for sixteen days, I’ve decided that I’m not too late for a Chinese New Year post. I’m celebrating the start of the year of the rabbit with a cup of White Silver Tip tea from Rare Tea Co. It was given to me by my lovely friend Rebecca and it’s really very nice indeed.
I don’t drink white tea very often. I tend to think of it as basically like green tea. It’s not though, you know. White tea is a whole other taste experience. I think it’s the fact that despite being less processed than green tea, the white tea-making process means that it’s been slightly more oxidised than its green brethren.
This means that for a predominantly black tea drinker like myself, there’s something more recognisably tea-y in the taste than some of the more fragrant, leafy, vegetal-y green teas I’ve tried. It’s nothing like black tea, of course. Nor should it be. Rare Tea Co’s White Silver Tip is a subtle, pale, delicate infusion. The dried leaves are long, rolled, and looked like hefty-sized pine needles, which unfurl pleasingly in the pot.
It’s a light, zingy affair that tastes of spring and the hopeful beginnings of new life. (Yeah, I didn’t realise that “hopeful beginnings of new life” were a flavour either, but this tea totally tastes of it. Look for “hopeful beginnings of new life”-flavoured crisps, chocolate and gin coming to supermarkets near you soon.)
All in all, it was a very appropriate tea to welcome in the new lunar year. According to Chinese astrologists, the year of the Rabbit promises to be a gentler, more soothing year in which we’ll all be able to catch our breath. That sounds heavenly. Have a good one, everyone!
Today’s featured book is Chinese Myths by Matt Clayton.
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