West China Tea Company

White teas are typically not my favorite. However, this one has a pleasant mouthfeel and does not become astringent if you follow the steeping instructions closely and do very short steeps. I first had this in-person at their teahouse before buying 50g later during one of their sales. Smooth, even buttery, and fairly floral/sweet… like a berry. The wet leaves smell strongly like a jam! Note that steep time says 15s but I did about 6s.

This tea coats your entire mouth and teeth with its acidic and piercing citrus flavor. Oily texture and truly unique. Do long steeps for a full experience.

Sweet, fragrant taste similar to raisins or figs. Does not grow bitter easily.

I had this during work last Friday, so I made minimal notes during the session.

“Has a lightly aged, earthy, and mineral flavor. The cup isn’t producing much flavor/texture, and the tea completely faded after the 6th infusion. Not very strong and didn’t last long.”

Backlog

The tea took a while to open up and produce any flavor (3 infusions). Around the 4th and 5th steeps, the tea began to gain texture/flavor—very lightly—yet there was more than prior infusions. I noted that this tea might have been a better loose leaf tea, for the flavor jumps through between 6 & 7, but is completely gone after the 8th infusion. I longed steeped the 9th with near-boiling water, but the flavor was no more.

Backlog

1st and 2nd Infusion (20 sec.): Light flavor & heavy texture.
3rd and 4th Infusion (45 sec.): Florals, mildly sweet, & lighter texture.
5th and 6th Infusion (1 min.): Mouth puckering, floral, & incense
7th and 8th Infusion (2 min): Astringent, green peppers, bitter florals, & malty.

Backlog

Gongfu’d

Dry Leaf: Trichomes flung out of the bag into my face. If you’re prone to sneeze, this is the tea for you! While I was able to get close to the tea leaves, despite the dust, they had a delightful vegetal aroma (garden greens/soil).

1st Steep: Broccoli, buttery, & viscous mouthfeel.

2nd Steep: Bitter, collard greens, Brussel sprouts, & butter mixed vegetables.

3rd steep: The same as the second infusion, but a little more bitterness.

4th steep: Progressively more bitter.

The notes end there, but I added, “Stopped at the 8th steep. Not much change to the leaf, with the exception of losing most of the bitterness at the 7th infusion, and all flavor at 8th infusion.”

This was amongst another club month (August?). I’ve had a few puerh stuffed oranges before, which had been extremely flavorful and intense. Unfortunately, this tea wasn’t as intense as I was hoping it to be. The orange peel was quite nice, but the tea flavor was subtle and lacking. I broke the material up after 4 infusions, but I wasn’t able to draw much flavor from the tea/orange peel after 6 infusions.

We are having some work done today on our ceiling (in short, I set my foot through it last month), so my typical spot for tea is occupied. I’ve been spending my morning in the “Retro Room” in the basement, watching VHS, reading, and playing through Lagoon on the SNES. I’ve decided to take pause and catch up on my tea sip downs, reviews, and catch up reading everyone’s recent logs. :)

This is the current tea I’m topping off from one of the club months. While my feelings on these clubs seem to be that the teas are random and lack any direction as to why they were selected, there are some bits of tea that fall into the mix that are a pleasant experience. This isn’t the absolute best sheng I’ve experienced, however, there are subtle notes of vanilla, sticky rice/rice cakes, and coconut.

Dry Leaf: Pepper, bay leaf, tomato.
Wet Leaf: Melon, spice cabinet (mixed spices such as Italian seasoning).

Notes: The tea start with a slight bitter and astringency in the cup. Eventually, the tea was opening a bit more, allowing the tea to offer a subtle sweetness to the session, and forming a perfume floral note in the aftertaste. Toward the 5th infusion, the bitterness returned to the cup and remained until steep # 7, where the session had concluded. Unfortunately, not the best white tea.

Sip down

This was one of those teas that stumped me because it was different to other white teas I’ve
tried. It had a peppery/spice rack aroma to the leaf, and peppery note to the flavor. It lasted 7 infusions with each session. Quite pleasant and unique!

Backlog

Sweet caramel, graham cracker-esq, and thick mouthfeel.

Sip down
I topped this off yesterday before heading to the Canton, Ohio “Italian Festival” for much of the afternoon/early evening. TGY was the first tea that brought me out of my soda daze. I realized that tea could taste of something more than the occasional bland Lipton or overly sweetened Arizona’s Arnold Palmer (which I admit, there are cravings for it once or twice each year).

This session was packed with florals and soothing, gentle tasting notes that I didn’t get too deep into. I wanted a moment to drink tea while I spent time reading Rumi’s Essential Poetry and journaling. I noted that it was a “refreshingly sweet and floral” tea, perfect for the warm day ahead. If I had more, I’d probably make it iced for future sessions. This is the perfect tea to cold brew or grandpa style in a thermos. It was refreshing and still reminds me that tea can be far better than non-tea drinkers give credit to the beverage.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C9DbIxRuHeG/?img_index=1

Backlog: 14 May 2024

This was from either March’s or April’s monthly tea club. I didn’t make many notes on the packet nor audio recorded the session. This may have been an impromptu session before heading into the office, so it’s likely I never really put much thought into it. I get into the zone on office days.

I only noted the following: Bitter florals and cotton mouthfeel.

Sipdown & Backlog

Another rainy-day tea on Saturday whilst reading. I noted that the texture was viscous and containing a thick mouthfeel. I noted that the tasting notes included: woody, earthy, mushrooms, mildew (really, past self?), and lacking butter. Maybe the butter note derived from the texture? While I thought it was a good shou, it isn’t my favorite. For the price, I could purchase Lumber Slut from W2T and have a slightly better time (no dis toward West China).

Backlog April 17, 2024

This was a relaxing cup of tea after an office day. I wanted a red tea for the caffeine, but I didn’t want anything too bold, such as an Assam blend. This is the type of red tea that one may not enjoy because it lacks the complexity and boldness one may hope to get from a tea session. Heck, I may not find myself going out of the way to buy any, but if I were to make the purchase, it’d be set aside for any of my non-tea friends who wouldn’t want a harsh cup.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C53qEq2OiQ6/

From the April Tea Club

Three things I’ll note:

1. I usually don’t like white tea that much. There have only been three white teas that have blown me away (and that I think about often, but resist purchasing due to a limited self-allowance of tea spending per year. However, if the day were to arrive where I dropped the money for these, I’d buy very little tea the remainder of the year) and those include a. White2Tea’s 2019 Censers; b. White2Tea’s 2020 Night Life; and c. White2Tea’s 2019 Turtle Dove.

2. Now that we’ve established my limited tolerance for white tea, we can establish that this was not on the top list of teas I’d grab willingly. One thing I shall, and will, note is that West China’s offerings are usually top tier and unique. I’ve never had a bad experience, even here, but this wasn’t a ‘blow my mind’ session, either.

3. The tea session was average in time and length. I brewed this around 8-9 times but called the session after the last infusion. It wasn’t extraordinary by any means, and I wouldn’t go out of my way to grab anymore of this tea. I’d rate it as average.

Sipdown

From the February Club

Sipdown

I finally have a day off. My boss wanted to know what was so special to have requested it and I just kept it at, “Chilling.” None of their business, anyway. I just want a day off. ;)

First tea up – Rum Raisin. This was from the one and only West China Tea club I had a while ago (August, 2023?). Thankfully, I signed up for their club again, on the account it was a really solid venture. Now that I’ve February’s club headed my way, I’m topping off the previous teas from long ago.

Notes in no particular order: Citrus peel (IPA-esq), malty raisin, grains/oats, unripen peaches, grape skins, & not bitter, but not sweet.

I got 6-7 infusions out of the full session. I used the remaining 4g of leaf in my 60ML gaiwan.

PS. I usually don’t prefer red teas. I have to be in a very specific mood when I purchase and drink them; which is a short-lived period. I’ll dip back into a red tea now and again, but it’s usually an Assam or chai blend. However, YS and West China Tea oftentimes give me the hope that red teas are actually worth trying more often. This is a prime example of a tasty tea, which wants me to keep going back for more…

Backlog

I over brewed the 6th infusion, but to my surprise, it was packed with flavor. It was a little bitter, but it reminded me of cooked spinach, cauliflower, and herbs. Overall, this was a pleasant session.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C3DpryWOxOp/?img_index=1

I brewed this earlier in the morning while sitting at the table, watching the rain fall. The tea went well with the weather; it was mineral heavy in aroma and flavor. The energy from the tea was subtle, but it helped get me off my feet and out into the world to run errands.

Gongfu!

Oops, all shou!! I noticed this morning that I’ve had three ripe pu’erh sessions in a row, so I decided to make a challenge out of it and go for a whole week of shou. So, with that in mind, I pulled out my sample of Rain Butter to start the day with! The name was definitely extra fitting since it rained quite heavily all throughout the day.

This was my first time making this tea, and I think I went into the tea session expecting the tasting notes to be quite literally inspired by the name. Though there was a buttery quality to the slick mouthfeel, I didn’t quite get any flavours that made me think of rain. That’s not to say it wasn’t a very delicious tea, though!! It was very savory. I felt with some steeps in particular that I was drinking a rather hearty broth. I’m allergic to mushrooms so that’s not a tasting note I have a solid reference point for within my “flavour library” but I’ve been told that some of my favourite ripe pu’erhs have strong notes of mushrooms and what I was picking up here was in line with the notes I get in those same teas. I loved the complexity of all the umami and maillard tastes all mingled together.

I guess I went in expecting literal rain, and what I got was a tea that matched the sort of cozy, warming foods that I drink DURING those big downpours – which was, ultimately, even better.

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CxJOB-eOxzo/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwXIpjQjEy8