Mississippi White Tea!

Hello hello!

Longleaf Tea is a tea company that produces Mississippi-Grown tea, right in the US! Despite producing green and black tea since their launch, I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a couple of samples of their white tea. While only producing less than a pound of white tea for experimenting with tea production methods, Longleaf Tea sent me samples of two different kinds -- one from this Summer (2021) and one from the Fall of 2020. This makes it one of the worlds-first North American produced white teas -- ever.

Note: For today's write-up, I'll primarily be going over the most recent harvest in white tea

Just like how other teas from different regions are reflective of its surroundings, can the same be said for Mississippi-grown white tea? Is Mississippi-grown white tea worth getting hyped over, or will it soon be a Louisiana/Mississippi bayou front porch myth?

Let's find out!

(Photo: Fall 2020 Harvest)

Dimensions: 5g of white tea in a 75ml teapot

Infusions: 14

Price: n/a

Water Temperature: 200ºf

(Photo: Summer 2021 Harvest)

Infusions 1 - 7:

My initial reaction upon seeing this tea was the wide range of color the dry leaf was. Alongside the wide array of colors, the dry leaf also smelled line pine-wood. The first infusion of this tea brought a smooth and savory texture of grass, along with a faint mouthwatering aftertaste of an autumn leaf pile. As the tea kept opening up, its texture continued to refine a consistent energizing sharpness that brought on heavy notes of tree bark, more green grass, and a radiating humid-mouth feeling that reminded me of what the woods that surrounded the Red River smelled like when fishing with my father. However, by the seventh infusion, the green grass started to resemble tall weeds in a cool and humid summer afternoon.

(Photo: Summer 2021 Harvest)

Infusions 8 - 14:

Halfway through the session, I noticed that a faint pine sap-like sweetness tried to echo in the corners of my mouth, but was still being covered by the tall brown grass and fresh forest smell. By the tenth infusion, this tea was already showing signs of slowing down and by the fourteenth infusion, this tea was showing signs that it had no more to give...

(Photo: Summer 2021 Harvest)

Conclusion:

To start, one of the main aspects about this tea that I enjoyed was in regards to its profile. Despite being harvested from young tea trees on a new farm, this white tea was ready to make itself known. I also enjoyed how the woodsy and grassy notes of this tea were refreshing -- something I don't often associate with woodsy tasting notes. While most white teas are often either floral or fruity, it was lovely to taste a white tea that was strong in carrying an identity of its own.

However, one of the main differences between this white tea, and the other sample of white tea from 2020, was that the production of the tea was a little different. The fall 2020 white tea had more tea buds and had better consistency regarding its appearance. Despite how it looked there was something ornately different about how the 2021 version of this tea was made, and was much more appealing to me.

Overall, I was a fan of the 2021 Mississippi-grown white tea. One thing that rarely happens to me in tea, that happened to me with this session, is to be brought back to a memory that I had long forgotten. My dad was from Mississippi, and when I was a kid, we'd use to go to the Red River and go fishing during the summer. Now when I drank this tea, and when I closed my eyes, the tasting notes took me back to the Mississippi woods in the summer with my dad. Despite that my dad has long-left this earth, it was surprising to be taken back to another visit with him :')

If one was to ask the question: Is Mississippi-grown white tea reflective of its environment?

I'd answer with a strong yes. While this tea may not be talked about among the native-Cajun in the Louisiana and Mississippi bayou as a myth, it will actually be enjoyed under the stars that shine on the US-South at night instead...

~ The Oolong Drunk

"Blissfully Tea Drunk"

(Photo: Summer 2021 Harvest)