Even as I was/am enjoying my sencha, matcha, and wakoucha, I still can not resist the urge to get more new tea. I’ve been eyeing some of the teas from What-Cha since Northern Teaist introduced the site to me, and when I heard that their Georgian teas were back in stock, I decided to buy some tea to try.

I was only going to buy a little, but one thing led to another and I ended up qualifying for free shipping. Such is life (my bank account is NOT happy but what can it do?).

If you want to see everything I got and get a sense of what type of teas will be coming up for review soon, I made a haul video!! Check it out or just scroll down to read more about the tea:

My first tea review from this haul is the Malawi Bvumbwe Peony Whte Tea from Satemwa Tea Estate. I’ve previously had some of their teas, like the Malawi White Antlers and thoroughly enjoyed them. I was especially excited for the White Peony after reading Northen Teaist’s review of the leaves

First Impressions

I haven’t had much experience with White Peony so my first impression was: these are basically dry leaves. I was unable to appreciate their beauty, though I did note a floral scent from them.

Tasting Notes

First steep: I was expecting something quite light since this is a white tea, so the yellow tea liquor was darker than expected. The tea is sweet and floral, and for some reason, I was also reminded of candles/wax. The candle thing was a bit of a puzzle, until I realised that I get the same waxy candle-note from Osmanthus so I suppose this tea has osmanthus notes as well? Quite perplexing, this last one. I’m also getting a woody note from this which is interesting.

Second steep: The tea liquor is a darker yellow but the floral notes are not as strong. I am getting some sweet and woody notes and it is reminding me of a black tea (disclaimer: I read Northern Teaist’s post ahead of time so I may have been unintentionally influenced).

Third Steep: By now, I’m just getting the woody black tea notes. I don’t actually feel as though I’m drinking a white tea.

Fourth Steep: This was an interesting tea because I accidentally forgot about the tea while it was steeping so the leaves were there for fifteen minutes instead of five. Surprisingly, the bitter and astringent notes were rather subdued – I did get some of that at the sides of the mouth but it was very mild – and instead, what I tasted were mostly sweet and woody notes. It was almost as though I’m drinking a Chinese black tea.

Spent leaves: The leaves are surprisingly red, which is not something that I would have expected.

Conclusions

I really enjoyed, and was surprised, by this tea! As you can tell, I can pick up a lot more from a tea when I have time to sit down and slowly taste it a couple of times, as opposed to when I have to give my thoughts on the fly for a video (this is something that I have to work on).

Happily, I managed to find some of the Chinese white peony samples that I received a while back. I’m planning to compare both teas over the weekend, so the next tea post on Tuesday should be a comparison post!

Malawi Bvumbwe Peony White Tea from What-Cha (Currently OOS but you can enter your email to be notified when they have more!)