Tealyra - Imperial Yunnan Silver Needle - White Loose Leaf Tea - Top Chinese White Tea - Caffeine Level Low - 200g (7-ounce)

I was drinking other white tea from Tealyra for years, and like it a lot. A year ago I switched to Yunnan Silver Needle and now keep buying it on subscription plan. My friends also like it a lot, so hopefully this good tea will keep coming.

Great quality white tea. Hubby loves it!

Fantastic tea!

Good value & elegant taste .. my opinion

This review is for the Imperial Yunnan White Tea. I'm just realizing that there is also one from Tealyra called something like Premium White Silver Needle that is different...that's the one I had on auto-ship and when I ran low I ordered some Imperial Yunnan by accident and it is so much better. Just fresh and fragrant. I'm not saying the other is bad, but in my opinion the only reason to get that one is that it might be a little less expensive per ounce. This stuff converted me from a bourgeois teabagger into a loose-leaf tea snob.

This is not imperial grade. Some of the buds in the tea are black, so I have to inspect and clean the tea every time I brew it. I even found a hair and a small feather now that I've been looking closely at it. I don't know if mine was a bad batch or if this is a general problem with this brand.

This didn't taste anywhere near as good as Tealyra's "Premium White Silver Needle Tea". Although, the visual quality of this Yunnan tea is MUCH better, with very large needles and no loose leaves whatsoever. The smell of this tea in the bag is more of a grassy-type smell. When brewed, it smells less sweet and not much of a honeysuckle-like taste or aroma. I'll definitely finish off this bag, but I'll more than likely stick with their other Organic silver needle tea from Fujian.

I purchased this tea because it was listed on a fluoride-conscious website as lower in fluoride than almost any other white teas. Who knows...I hope it is. It is not jasmine, but it has a slightly jasmine taste.