This review has been a long time in the making. I originally wanted to post this in early October, but I forgot to bring the tea with me into Malaysia and I didn’t want to write a review without spending at least two sessions with the tea (just to make sure my first session was not an abnormality). So… here is the review (finally)!

I got this tea because it sounded very interesting – apart from the “pearls” part, the “zomba” part reminded me of “zombie” and “zumba”. It’s definitely not associated with tea, but I do like an eye-catching name. The tea is from Satemwa Estate, which also makes the Malawi Bvumbwe Peony White Tea and White Antlers, two other delicious and unique teas.

First Impressions

Look at the leaves!! They seem to be tied into balls, which I haven’t seen before. They smell very rich, almost malty, and if you didn’t tell me this was a white tea, I probably wouldn’t have been able to guess.

First steep: The tea liquor is pale yellow, almost like water. In terms of taste, it’s smooth and sweet, and reminds me of antlers from Satemwa. It has more flavour than you’d expect from the first steep, esp since the leaves haven’t unfurled.

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Second to fourth steep: These three steeps were very similar with slightly darker yellow tea liquor that was smooth and light. It’s pretty sweet and it reminded me of a traditional Chinese white peony tea for some reason.

My first session with the tea ended after the fourth steep – I took a picture of the spent leaves and you can tell that they still have a lot to give!

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Fifth steep: I’m pretty impressed by the fact that the leaves still have not completely unfurled (see picture). That’s probably why the tea has still been pretty light and I’m getting the same notes (sorry for being repetitive). This tea liquor is still a medium-light yellow. still sweet and smooth and mild vegetal notes.

Sixth steep: I left this for too long (oops) so the tea is a light amber colour. Despite the long steeping time, there’s completely no bitterness. The tea isn’t as sweet as when it started out, but there are stronger vegetal notes with what feels like a hint of maltiness/richness. I’m not sure if I’m overthinking or wishing this because of my experience with the Malawi Bvumbwe White Peony tea, but there’s a hint of a black tea vibe in this.

Incidentally, I gave some of this tea to my dad the day after and he left the tea leaves steeping for, I think about half an hour? The tea liquor, very surprisingly, had no bitter notes but I did feel like it was a light black tea, a la the Malawi Bvumbwe White Peony tea leaves. But if I steeped the tea gongfu style, even the slightly longer sessions didn’t give me this black tea vibe – I think it’s something that’s drawn out through much longer than usual steeps.

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Seventh steep: If you look at the tea leaves, there’s still a small knot in the leaves but it’s pretty unfurled otherwise. While steeping, the tea has a smell that reminds me of caramel and biscuit. The tea liquor isn’t so fragrant, but it’s still sweet and smooth and light.

I will not talk about the rest of the steeps because this tea has a lot to give, especially gongfu style, but I managed ten steeps from these four pearls before I gave up. It was getting a bit light towards the end, so I think you could do about 12-ish gongfu-style steeps from these leaves.

If you take a look at the spent leaves after ten steeps, you can tell that it’s mostly unfurled except for a knot.

Conclusion

In terms of taste, this tea is a delicious white tea. It doesn’t provide a lot of surprises (unless you steep it for a crazy long time), but it does provide a very consistent brew and lasts for a very long time. I can see this being something that I reach for over the course of a very long workday, or for use with a tea party, where I don’t want to have to worry about steeping time.