King Silver, matured traditional white tea
King Silver, matured traditional white tea
$ 23.10
頭採新品種 古法銀針王
Baihao Yinzhen at its best
If you like Silver Needle for its health benefits, but wish for more taste, King Silver is perhaps the choice. There are a few reasons why this pure leaf shoot white tea has better epicurean appeal:
- Traditional processing — it takes more time, more mastery
- Mastery in maturing — not most people in the tea trade know how to mature a white tea like we do
- Special cultivar — we have employed a special cultivar that combines the complexity of a Yunnan Daye and the sweetness of Fuding Dabai to have it grown in Zhenghe, the mecca for old style white tea
- Top quality pluck — only top quality first flush from our specially appointed garden, no blending. Not only does that give a uniform, pleasing visual appeal, but also the fantastic taste that is possible only with such care and dedication.
Net weight: 40 g (1.4 oz) in Kraft-alu pack
In stock
Taste profile
Nose: Earthy, herbal nose in overtone of the sweetness of hay and notes of Chinese nan-xing almond. Interplayed with accents of liquorice, matured mandarin orange peel, fresh moss and a slight hint of cacao. Palate: Softly smooth body that is slightly sweet and cooled with a lightest accent of mint and mellowed citrus peel. Finish: Quenching, sweet and lightly malty aftertaste.
Infusion tips
Use boiling water and 25 ~ 30% more leaves for a full taste profile of this rare and matured white tea. As always with Fujian white teas, blanch well before infusion.
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Additional information
| Weight | 90 g |
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| Dimensions | 18 × 9 × 5 cm |
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Reviews(1)
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Orchid Gratus, Phoenix dancong oolong
Tea, Oolongs, Fenghuang | Phoenix, Floral Aromas, Fuller Bodies, Neutral Energy烏崠 鋸朵仔 ( 杏仁香單欉 )
Wudong Xingren Xiang
For people who like classic style Phoenix but desire something more mellow than Honey Orchid, Orchid Gratus offers a taste that is as full-bodied. It is balanced with as subtle a warm and slightly sweet aroma. Not only is this a great choice for the veteran tea connoisseur who seeks peace in the cup, but is also a bridge between softer oolongs and the more vibrant world of taste in Fenghuang Dancong.
Net weight: 40 g (1.4 oz) in Kraft-alu pack 
Cream Stout, Wuyi yancha oolong
Tea, Oolongs, Wuyi-shan, Floral Aromas, Fuller Bodies, Neutral Energy武夷岩茶、矮腳烏龍
Silk Finish Aijiao Wulong:
No this is not the beer but 100% pure oolong. Wuyi classic oolongs in general distinguish themselves from other oolongs with a stout, rather immediate and powerful impact. Tea Hong’s Cream Stout differs from the crowd with a soft creamy finish and a light tone of cream that is developed naturally in the tealeaves themselves. This is possible only with a new pedigree of tea cultivar, Aijiao Wulong. We believe you’ll like the oolong much better than the beer, as we do.
Net weight: 40 g (1.4 oz) in Kraft-alu pack 
Snow Orchid, bouquet Phoenix dancong oolong
Tea, Oolongs, Fenghuang | Phoenix, Floral Aromas, Fuller Bodies, Cold Energy鳳凰冬茶、雪片銀花香
Xuepian Ya-shi Xiang:
Finer winter Phoenix oolongs have always been sought after for their unforgettable natural bouquet fragrances. To us, an aroma of a premium tea has to be complete with a winning taste profile. It has taken us over a decade to fine tune the mastery of the processing of the choicest harvest to attain a result we can be proud of. Presenting Tea Hong’s very own Snow Orchid, the roundest, smoothest, and by far the most seductively fragrant oolong ever known. It is our luscious indulgence secretly from Nature.
Net weight: 40 g (1.4 oz) in Kraft-alu pack
Sold out
Huangshan Maofeng Classic, traditional green tea
Tea, Green teas, Huangshan & Anhui, Lighter Aromas, Milder Tastes, Cool Energy黃山毛峰、雨前翠玉
A quintessential traditional pre-rain green tea
Huangshan Maofeng green tea is a must-have souvenir when one visits Huangshan. However, even if you know the way to real teashops rather than tourist traps, a pack of such quality as Tea Hong's Cuiyu would come at a high price. That is why this pleasant tasting and slightly sweet baked green tea is a most popular item not only for our retail, but also export. To maintain consistent high quality, we employ only harvest before the lunar almanac demarkation of “guyu” — the first rain for seeding, around early to mid-April. "Yuqian" — before the rain — is the traditional term for this.
Net weight: 35 g (1.2 oz) in Kraft-alu pack
Definitely the best aged white tea I’ve ever had. Not that I drink much of this category, but I’ve aged my own Silver Needles before, and occasionally stumble upon something interesting that is stored well and has good flavors, so I have some familiarity with how white tea can change over the course of time.
I’m no expert but this is easily the cleanest and most pristine flavor profile I’ve experienced with an aged white tea – it feels like King Silver was aged in a pharmaceutical-grade time capsule, where not even a single particle of dust was introduced. The aging and storage of this tea is entirely without flaw.
An initial rinse with warm water or a blanch with boiling water opens these leaves up – the aromatics are vibrant and complex, yet convey all of the tempered characteristics one would expect from 10-15 year old tea. It’s tempered like perfectly smooth chocolate that has zero grit whatsoever, but is still explosively fragrant and complex.
It’s not musky, it’s not stale, and it doesn’t smell like fermented stonefruit – it feels like the compounds which have aged in these leaves are volatile and in their prime, ready to leap up and grab you by the nostrils to pull you in.
The flavors are unreal. It’s the depth and viscosity of that licorice root note that really captivates me. This is a total flavor bomb, even the initial sip is an explosion of sticky-sweet licorice root (Glycyrrhiza glabra).
The more I drink, the more the flavor profile builds up, increases in its complexity, clings to the throat, sits stubbornly on the palate, and reverberates long into the aftertaste.
The way the flavors layer themselves on the palate and wash away into the long-lasting aftertaste is really special, this is way more sophisticated than any other aged white tea I’ve had.
In my opinion, the price to quality ratio of this makes it a no-brainer. Good luck finding even half the quality for twice the price. If this is in stock and you’re reading this, do yourself a favor and get a bag, this is rare and exceptional.
Really grateful that you have spotted the efforts we have put into maturing this tea. There are a set of routines that we follow to make sure the aging environment for all our teas is optimised not only for hygiene but more importantly also for that difference in how well each different tea can further develop in taste. When a well seasoned connoisseur like yourself can point it out so precisely and in detail, that means we have done the right things.
I cannot claim the credits though. The most important components for delivering such a wonderful profile really have been established by the producer who has been an old style white tea maker confident enough to manage a much longer withering time than what is trendily practiced. A lesser experienced producer could easily spoil a whole harvest when turning the withering pile at the wrong time, at a wrong pace. It has been lucky for me to have met him twenty years ago.
It is also a gift from Nature. An old fashioned white tea like this, whether produced from a new cultivar or an old one, really depends a lot on the year’s weather and the conditions of the harvesting time. While ample rain is critical for healthy growth, the sun is critical for such a meticulously withered batch, especially a few hours and continuously for two days after the plucking.
So you see, this is really a blessing as much as it is the work of all who have laboured to make this tea happen. I have the duty to make sure such a wonderful gift from Nature and honest hard work be perfectly delivered, especially to those who can appreciate, like yourself. I am really grateful to be told that we have done our job well. Thank you.