This tea is an interesting one, and if that sounds like "damning with faint praise" well, congratulations on reading between the lines. What we have here is a white tea from 松阳 (Sōngyáng) and people who have a bit of knowledge of Chinese tea culture are already nodding along sagely and saying "nice!".

See, Songyang is a tea growing region in 丽水 (Lìshuǐ) prefecture in 浙江 (Zhèjiāng) province that has provenance dating back to the Tang Dynasty. Songyang tea is justly famous for its high quality, noted for its lasting sweet aftertaste.

Except that's Songyang green tea. This is Songyang white. And Songyang is not noted for being a producer of white tea at all.

Welcome to the wild, woolly world of "experimental tea". See all these bewildering varieties and subdivisions of tea in China didn't just happen by accident. China has literally *thousands* of years of tradition in cultivation, transplantation, and processing experimentation where plantation owners try new ways to distinguish themselves from their neighbours by swapping varietals or processing techniques or growth techniques. This white tea is essentially a Songyang green varietal processed like a Fuding white.

I'm sorry to say that the result is ... mixed. It is by no means a bad tea (especially at the price; this was priced at an introductory level) but it lacks the Songyang trademark sweetness in the aftertaste (something that usually requires pan firing to seal in), but is a heavier, more vegetal flavour than the traditionally light and dainty white teas.

I don't regret the purchase, but I won't be repeating it either. I'll stick with 松阳银猴 (Sōngyáng Yínhóu), the tea Songyang is (justly!) more famous for.

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#茶 #中国茶 #松阳茶 #白茶 #实验茶

#Tea #ChineseTea #SongyangTea #WhiteTea #ExperimentalTea