Forleaves Tea Company: Lavender White Tea

I have been tea blogging now for just about sixteen months. And, it's been an utter delight writing this blog. Happily, I'm now at a point where I've started to have tea companies writing to me offering to work with me, or, send me samples to review. I've reached this point due to hard work. However, I never take anything for granted and I still get excited when a new company approaches me. I get very excited trying new tea's and I think I always will. As a true tea lover I'm always searching for something new, and I believe that search will never end!

A few weeks ago I was approached by a chap called Drew from Forleaves Tea Company. They are a company based in Leicestershire who concentrate on artisan loose leaf tea. Of course I said I'd love to try some of his tea thank you, then it went a bit quiet. Earlier this week a message popped into my inbox on Twitter saying that he had blended for me a white tea with lavender and it was in the post. Oh what joy, a wonderful new tea. I couldn't wait and it arrived yesterday.

I do like white tea. Now I have the tea maker I have tended to drink more of it because the hard work of precisely getting the water at the right temperature and brewing it for the right time is pretty much done for me, so I always get a nicely brewed cup of white tea.

White tea is so popular for me because it makes a change from drinking black tea, and is a little more gentler then green tea. It's perfect to relax and unwind with, and with the added bonus of lavender (regular readers will know I love floral tea's such as rose or lavender) I had a extremely positive approach to this blend.

Forleaves Lavender White Tea is quite an international tea. The white peony tea comes from China (Fujian Province) and the lavender comes from France.

 (The Lavender White Tea loaded up on the tea maker basket - all ready to go!)

Lavender White Tea is just an exquisite looking tea and will say it's perhaps one, if not the most prettiest tea I've seen. There is greenery from the tea leaves, and splashes of bright colour from the blue cornflowers and lavender. It's just so, so pretty, stunningly so, actually.

Upon opening the pack the tea has a extremely strong aroma. In fact it's was slightly overpowering, but this is never a problem. This is typical of lavender tea as, of course, lavender is strongly scented and when it's in a pack it's even stronger, however, as I later discovered, it brews to a nicely, delicate flavour.

I filled the basket for the tea maker with three good, heaped, teaspoons. I normally put a extra spoon for the pot, but, as this was the first time trying this tea I thought I'd put a smaller amount. Likewise, with the brewing times, it's suggested three to five minutes, so on this first infusion I played it safe and went for midway - four minutes.

Even though I've owned the tea maker since January, I still find watching it infuse the tea a magical, almost hypnotic experience. The world just simply stops for four or five minutes as I watch the tea infuse, the bubbles dance around and the actual act of the infuser raising out of the water. Today was no different. Watching this tea brew to it's glorious, barely there amber colour was great fun.

(Lavender White Tea brewed to a pale, golden colour.)

I couldn't wait to pour a mug of this tea, and shortly, I was sitting down enjoying my first cup.

I REALLY loved this tea and was impressed. Of course, you would be right to say that I am slightly biased due to my obsession with floral tea's, but I think even if I was just so so on floral tea's this still would of made a impressive impact.

Possibly due to lavender being associated with soap, perfume and lavender water, your brain somehow expects to drink a tea that is highly perfumed and almost synthetic, but that is certainly not what you get with this tea.

The lavender is exceptionally delicate and gentle, but, makes it's presence known for sure! It is surprisingly delicate actually, but leaves a really wonderful flavour in your mouth. It's feels very fresh, natural and is just blissful. And there is a sweetness to this tea too which I am enjoying!

Even though I'm drinking this tea just after 10am, I feel relaxed, slightly sleepy and comfy. I could just doze off. It's just so relaxing and makes you feel at peace, even for a short while. This is perfect for any time of the day, but I feel it would make a wonderful evening cup of tea.

What of the white tea? It's flavoursome and works really well with lavender. Other lavender tea's I've tried tended to be paired with black tea, which works, but I like the two delicate flavours coming together to make a lovely cup of tea.

White tea lacks that robustness that black tea has, so it's a perfect pairing with the lavender as the two flavours enhance one another rather then fight against one another.

Forleaves Tea Company have produced a wonderfully chic and classic tea. I can well imagine this tea in your finest china teapot, served up with afternoon tea. It's stylish, a really wonderful example of a very good, high quality tea. I was more then impressed.

In my sample pack Drew kindly also included a Russian Caravan tea and a White Monkey green tea, I'm very much looking forward to sampling and reviewing those tea's in the coming months.

A huge thanks to Drew for sending me this beautiful tea. I certainly appreciated - and enjoyed - trying this wonderful blend.