3 Leaf Tea, Silver Snail

Picture Credit: threeleaftea.com

3 Leaf Tea Description:
This white tea is grown in Fuding, in Fujian Province in China. The tea is made from the buds that grow on bushes then lightly roasted and rolled. As the buds dry, they twist into small spirals. For being a white tea, the taste is strong with a gentle sweetness that follows each sip.

Sample provided by 3 Leaf Tea

My Review:
I am in the middle of Holy Week services at our church. I play guitar and write out the chord charts for the team. Add on to this updating the church website and trying to write on this blog, and you get a little bit of how my days have gone lately. I mention this because I have been absolutely swamped. It is like a full time job at the moment. And then we get to add seasonal allergies on top of it all. I don't normally review stress relieving bubble baths here so I guess we should have some tea.

Today, I am steeping the last of this season's samples from 3 Leaf Tea. Silver Snail is listed here as a white tea from Fuding which is the home of great white teas. The leaf is rolled into loose balls and resembles jasmine pearls without the jasmine.

Looking at the balls you can understand why this is listed as a white tea. There is a lot of silver colored buds present. I have discovered in my research that the Chinese debate among themselves if this is a white or a green.

My sense of smell is a little out of sorts at the moment. Sniffing the dry leaf I get notes of marine, but again I am probably missing a lot.

I put the snails into my press and added freshly filtered water heated to 175F. I let it steep 2 minutes while I rinsed and warmed my mug.

When I returned I found the press was filled with buds and leaves. In comparison, White Peony also contains a fair amount of leaf in addition to buds, while Silver needle is composed of only buds. While I was expecting the latter here, it is obvious this tea contains a lot of leaf.

Generally, I find the mix of leaf and buds produces a less nuanced tea but a stronger flavor. People who normally drink stout black tea or don't like subtle light flavored teas should consider the white teas that contain more leaf. I believe it would make a better match.

The steeped leaf has a warm and inviting vegetal fragrance. The liquor is a golden yellow.

The aroma off the mug seems to have nutmeg and floral notes. It smells quite lovely.

The taste is really hard to define. It is definitely different than any white tea I have had before. On the other hand it doesn't come off as really a green tea either. It has a well defined bite travelling throughout the sip. It is the good kind of bitter. This sensation reminds me of a Chinese green. Like the aroma, I am getting traces of spice, nutmeg in particular, and floral. It is not on the level or intensity of a green high mountain oolong, yet that is my point of comparison. There is also an earthy woods flavor that kind of rests under other notes. This earthy quality speaks to me as a white tea.

As I said earlier this is a hard to define tea. The flavor is strong and would probably strike most people as a green tea when tasting. That is not s bad thing. Even though it has a strong flavor, there is good depth to the cup. This has some unique and interesting qualities whatever angle to approach it from.

You can find 3 Leaf Tea Silver Snail here.