Silver Needle white tea is among the most revered of Chinese teas. Gathered only for a few days in early spring, a dedication to perfection is evident in the pale, ivory-colored liquor. Delicately honeysuckle floral, with a warmed sugar sweetness.
Customers use these reviews to describe their experience with Silver Needle, including flavor, aroma, preparation preferences, strength, and how the tea fits into daily routines. Browse the full review history page by page to compare tasting notes, steeping tips, and favorite ways to enjoy this tea.
Today's CommuniTea is Silver Needle, a lovely Chinese white tea. Unlike many teas, with silver needle you see the whole leaf and the fuzzy down that helps protect it while growing. When brewed, the leaves make a tea that tastes as delicate as the leaves look. Such a lovely tea. Not a tea to toss down on the run, but one to sit back and savor.
While this tea wasn’t unpleasant, I didn’t find anything that stood out about it to me. I’m generally not over the top for white teas however. If you are, I’m sure you’ll find more appeal in it than I did.
175 degrees for 2 minutes. Soft smooth and delightful! Velvety leaves with a delicate floral lightness. I love silver needle, it's one of my favorites.
I was a bit disappointed in this tea. I usually like white tea a lot but I just thought this was okay, nothing remarkable about it.
CommuniTEA 3/20/22: I love silver needles. They are super smooth and bright, a perfect tea to welcome spring. I brewed in a Gaiwan just under 180, long steeps because I had mostly tiny bits of tea dust in my packet and only a few full sized leaves, 4 infusions. Very smooth, delicate texture. Thirst quenching. Overall, great tea. I wish there had been fewer tiny particles and more full leaves, but I'm guessing my portion size just was at the bottom of the barrel.
This is a delightfully smooth tea that has a slight sweetness. The soft and clean taste needs no sweeteners and is perfect just as is. This will definitely be a favorite. Steeped at 180 degrees for 3 minutes.
CommuniTEA portion: Lovely, smooth, wonderful. All thumbs up!
I really enjoyed this tea. I love pure teas. It is honeysuckle and grass flavored with a slight toastness to it.
This is a delicate and crisp tea that packs a punch of caffeine. I enjoy it!
I really enjoy Silver Needle tea. It's so soothing and calming. I found the Adagio offering a mix of broken buds, intact buds, and tea dust. To me, the liquor tasted like glucose water. I'm used to higher quality buds, I guess, that offer more complexity in flavour. This isn't bad, by any means. Just not what I had been expecting, so I was disappointed.
Tried as a CommuniTEA sample. This tea didn't really taste like much of anything to me. It just had the faintest hint of a hay flavor that was barely there. It's not bad, just not something I'd seek out. I had it plain since it's such a delicate tea.
Perfection in a cup of white tea! Very tasty, clean and very smooth mouth feel I love the surprise kick of caffeine, it also reminds me of (adagios) White Symphony.
This tea has a subtle aroma, reminiscent of a hay field on a hot summer day. The flavor is very delicate with notes of bee polen and clover. I'm not normally a white tea drinking as I prefer more flavor in my cup but if you are a fan of the more subtle flavor profiles then this is a good one.
When you need a tea that is simply peaceful, go for this silver needle! I can't believe how perfect this tea is. I love to delicate honeysuckle flavor it carries, especially as it cools down. No sweetener needed but I'm curious to try it again and again. 3 min @ 180F
Wow, lovely tea to sip. Slightly floral aromas coming from a beautiful golden colored tea. Delicate flavors of honeysuckle and apricots with a slight natural sweetness. Slightly dry finish. Absolute pleasure to sip this. So happy I was able to try this with communiTEA. Steeped at 180° for 3 minutes. Can easily get 2-3 steeps with this one, which helps it be a bit more economical. Enjoy!
3.20.22 review - still remains one of my favorites and will always have a place in my tea cabinet. This tea reminds me to slow down and savor my tea. Cheers!
Love how light this is! A perfect white tea with just a hint of caffeine
A generous portion of little beautiful white silver whole leaves. While steeping sparkling little hairs rose to the surface of the tea. Hints of floral notes and slightly sweet light grape flavor. What a delightful refreshing cup. Love this delicate white tea. Light, yet a satisfying cup of tea,delicious.
A lovely delicate flavored tea! I usually prefer the bolder taste of black tea, but I'm quickly learning that some lighter teas are also very good. Silver needle is one of my favorites! Light, but very flavorful. Brewed 180F, 3 minutes.
3/20/22 - Updating my review. I have come to really love this yummy light tea. I brew with just a touch of stevia and a lemon slice. mmmmmm tasty! Upping rating to 5 stars. 3 Minutes, 180F.
Elegant tea, subtle hue and light sweet taste. Beautiful to brew and delicious to sip.
Silver Needle is light, smooth, and slightly sweet. Its sweetness reminds me more of apricots than honey. I steeped it four times, each time tasting slightly different from each other but as good as the one before.
Delicate and fine, silver needle is a great tea if you can avoid bruising the fragile leaves. Adagio shipped them well packaged, and they arrived undamaged.
This tea is SO GOOD. One of my favorites, great with lots of honey. Light tea.
I found myself enjoying this a lot more than I expected; It has a very clean, crisp feel to it.
Lovely white tea. I usually pick this tea to drink after dinner, when I'm reading a book just relaxing before going to bed.
This tea might be too subtle for me. The first cup is always too close to nothing, and the longer brew times on subsequent cups are better, so I can taste what I consider a very mild green tea, but otherwise? When there are other teas to drink, this falls to the wayside.
I really enjoyed this delicate tea - I originally got it in the 'Advent' calendar and then got a little more in a sample pack. I followed the directions - not too hot! - and savored this tea for an entire week. I need to buy more!
Very smooth , pleasant tea, very unique tasting , very very fresh.
Neutral flavor, easy on the stomach. Liked it, but may not order again.
Smooth, soft tea. Perfect night cap. Low caffeine.
This tea had very little flavor or anything. It was like drinking hot water. I may need to add some other teas to it to finish it up.
Delicious white tea. If the price difference is low, like during a sale, I would recommend the White Symphony over it. The lone needles make this hard to use in a tea ball.
Light and refreshing, with some floral notes to it. No bitterness at all and lingers in your mouth pleasantly. A great option for a high quality white tea
I enjoy this tea in the mornings with my breakfast.
This is a nice delicate flavor. I will probably repurchase this one in the future.
This is a really mild tea and unfortunately you need a lot of leaves (comparatively) to get a cup of tea but I really love the flavor.
Very light and refreshing! Almost like a more airy jasmine flavor. You may have to steep a little longer than recommended to get more of the flavor.
Lovely flavor. A favorite. While most teas are good for one or two steepings, I get four good ones out of this at 3, 4, 5 and 6 minutes-- helps to justify the price!
This is a great white tea, I highly recommend it! Very subtle and smooth.
Great quality, very nice taste. Completely convinced me.
When it comes to straightforward teas, I have a ways to go in terms of acclimation. Ordinarily, I'm content with a cup of bagged tea livened up with some stevia and all but drowned out beneath whatever milk is on hand. I'm working on the finer points of appreciating teas on their own and to understand, with more depth, why some teas are more precious than others. I'm hardly a connoisseur, but this tea was one I opted to try in order to work on becoming more of an aficionado! I was pleasantly surprised by this tea. Even with a duller understanding of the finer points of such things, I was still able to appreciate the subtle flavors and mouthfeel of this tea. I read a description advising of notes of flintiness in this tea, which I can agree to, but the somewhat mineral profile is actually very nice. Ultimately, this is one of my favorites, which I shall surely be revisiting many times to come.
I purchased this special tea along with rose petals for a friend who had experienced a loss. It was just the right little ritual she needed to have a sense of peace. She loved the delicate flavor.
slightly bitter and earthy, but i really don't mind that..i like jasmine silver needle better..its a touch smoother
Mmm! I like this white tea! Not too astringent, and just flavorful enough for me to really enjoy it.
Mostly I use this tea as an addition to my favorite black teas. By itself, this is a mild and mellow tea with no bitterness and is a very nice after-dinner soother.
A light and refreshing tea that made for an enjoyable cup. The taste of sweet white grapes was gently present in every sip.
Very potent and yummy. Used to make ice tea so steeped for a long time
This tea is one of my favorites. It has a mild taste
This tea is perfect when I just want something light. This makes a great afternoon or evening tea.
Sometimes simple is the way to go. This tea has one ingredient - silver needles, and that's all you need for a beautiful tea experience that is both relaxing and invigorating.
This tea is light and refreshing, it had a lot more flavor then I though it would kinda floral, I added honey and it was really good, going to coldbrew a 2nd cup overnight.