Some of you might remember that back in April I did a virtual group tasting, dubbed the Fleece Feast, with a rowdy group of tea friends. It took us a while but we finally came back together for another group tasting. This time around our focus tea was the Wild Tea Qi Ancient White Bud Bar. I previously reviewed this tea and it has been one of my favorites for some time. There were some giggle fits but we managed to stay a bit more on topic. Despite some technical difficulties a good time was had by all.
This was a tea that the group seemed to struggle with a bit. Being a white tea, the taste was very subtle at first. We joked that it was a 5th date (er, infusion) kind of tea. Most of the gang used a gaiwan for steeping and so we progressed together, comparing notes and impressions. While the ladies had slowly gone through three to four steepings, Sir Geoff blazed ahead and consumed somewhere around fourteen 6oz servings. Talk about tea logged! It was interesting to see how the taste evolved and the way that my fellow tea drinkers interpreted those changes. What was floral at first gave way to woody, herbaceous and even creamy notes. Towards the end, I was getting a unique taste that reminded me of the aftertaste of sage. Each of our brewing setups was a bit different so it was also interesting to compare the taste differences between them.
There was of course lots of talk about tea in general and several mentions of +Jay T. Hunter‘s book, Wild Tea Hunter. We all live in different parts of the country and it was wonderful to get to share tea face-to-face. We’ll be tasting another tea in a few weeks so keep an eye out for more tandem tea tasting adventures,
I’ll be adding everyone else’s blog posts here as they become available.
+Geoffrey Norman of Steep Stories – Moonlight Tandemonium!
+Jo J of Scandalous Tea – Ancient Moonlight White Wild Tea Qi Tandem Tea Tasting 2
+Darlene Meyers-Perry of The Tea Enthusiast’s Scrapbook
+Rachana Rachel Carter of +iHeartTeas – Giggles, Fun, and Moonlight