white2tea

Unwrapping this cake, only a faint aroma of duiwei was detected. This is my first ripe pu’er and I was worried about encountering this.
The cake broke quite easily, and small bits could be crumbled off by hand.
2 quick rinses and the first 15sec steep is soft, biscuity and slightly earthy. A golden orange colour in the piao-i.
I left the leaves covered for 30 minutes to open out and the second steep (15secs) was a treacle brown, now with hints of plum in the smell of the leaves. An element of fig in the taste and more earthiness coming to the fore. Still very smooth.
An enjoyable puer although little complexity so far.

2 quick rinses and a 15sec steep. Ouch- heady flavours but a bit too full-on with a tannic aftertaste that I wasn’t expecting. Good balance though, and reducing the 2nd steep to 8secs gave a smoother experience. I took in the smell of the leaves – old paper strangely mixed with the tang of the sea (and of course, the smoke!)
I left the piao-I lidded for a few hours and re-steeped, again for 8secs. Flashes of camphor coming through the smoke. The lingering tannic feel in the mouth was now more palatable – I bought five bricks of the 002 Whale and although it’s enjoyable now I think I’ll wait a few more years before opening the rest in the hope that the tannins masking that lovely pu’er ‘earthiness’ mellow out over time.

I don’t know whether this is a shu or a sheng. Is this what sheng becomes after 17 years of aging? It’s not as potent and fishy as most of the shu I drink. It seems slightly smokey, but not nearly as smokey as the young sheng I’ve had.

The flavor is subtle and a little grassy, but I enjoy it.

This is the first tea I’m sampling from the White2Tea TOMC.
The dry mini bricks are very very dark & fudgey looking, with an aromatic wood/camphor & earth aroma. There are 2 10G squares, so I decided to go with 2 different steeping methods. For the first try I used 10G in my regular mug, giving it a quick rinse & then 15 sec steeps, increasing time as needed.
The early steeps were a light shroom broth, & a sweet bready after taste.
This built over time to a rich & very dark cup, very smooth, reminding me the feeling of unsweetened cocoa powder, with a taste of dried black figs, & blackstrap molasses.
It was very rich!

So I started this yesterday, drinking several cups. Today I gave the leaf a rinse & am enjoying it some more. I started on it when I got home at 3:00 & I think I’m on my 3rd cup. It’s still very dark, damp wood, tobacco, light camphor, & this last cup was kind of like cream of wheat with agave, & a little bit of a light shroomy broth.

The 2nd mini brick will be gongfu steepings in my yixing, sometime. I might have to pick up some more of these in the future.

You’ve got to enjoy this wrapper! Also known as The Wild Elephant King cake, this is a blend of Naka and Bulang material. At the price I paid, it was a great bargain purchase given the high quality. The visual appeal of the cake is acceptable, not beautiful by any means, but pleasant looking. The level of compression makes it fairly easy to pick apart and produce a mixture of whole leaves and pieces. The dry leaf offers a pleasant smell which became sweeter as the leaves steeped. The liquor is dark brass in color. The sip conveys what I would term power with a definite sweetness – clean, strong and smooth with a very nice cooling effect. The activity in the mouth is strong and clean offering a swelling sensation with nice huigan. The leaf has good endurance and remained strong and flavorful through ten resteeps. At the end of the tea session I was left in a very thoughtful meditative state which persisted for about two hours.
Purchased from White2Tea in June for $34.50 (quite a bargain). Unfortunately the current price is $115 (a true indication of the escalating price of Naka tea products during the past 12-18 months).

Thank you SO much Marzipan for this sample!

This is such a nice shou! Only my 2nd tea ever from White2Tea. This is the first shou I’ve had with pronounced camphor notes that I’ve actually enjoyed. It is quite balanced with the earthiness, sweetness, and dark fruity notes. A perfect tea for a cold and snowy day :)

Overall its just really has a really nice pleasant earthy taste exactly what I would expect from a shu, also very smooth and easy to drink. Seems very consistent tasting for each of the brews and liquor is a nice clear brown color. Not really much else to mention but when I think of shu pu’erh the taste of tea would be the ideal taste I would think of.

Really enjoying this sheng this morning. It develops into a sweet honeyed tea with just a slight edge of bitterness. Really well balanced and smooth. The color is a nice amber and the tea gives for a quite a while. This is one of the more mellow shengs that I’ve had in a while. It is another enjoyable tea from White 2 Tea!

The sticky rice description is incredibly accurate. If the whole sipping a hot liquid thing didn’t give it away, I’d probably think I was eating lightly sweetened sticky rice.

On a side note, I think I’m coming down with something. My sinuses were really bothering me earlier today and I could barely pick out specific flavour notes between the two shus I had today. Bleh.

No rating because I think I’ve given up on doing numerical ratings at this point, since recalibrating previous reviews is a pain.

Time to revisit my tasting note on this one. I can now say that this has become one of my frequent drinkers when it comes to ripe puerh. Simple, sweet and creamy with chocolate undertones and a bit of age. Rich dark red tea liquor which is clear and bright; some would say it is sometimes rather syrupy. Smooth and balanced (the more intense flavors are balanced by more subtle flavors) with a great mouthfeel. These are the attributes which have made it one of my daily drinkers. This is a very tolerant and forgiving tea even when overbrewing it and quite affordable at $49.50 for a 357g cake.

This is a tea with a roasted, earthy aroma and a mellow, creamy balanced taste. The dry leaves are very dark in appearance (even darker after being steeped) indicating the careful cooking process and twelve years of aging. The crystal clear tea soup looks like a fine burgundy. The sip offers a rounded sweetness with a light hint of vanilla. The quality of the leaf seems to offer power and durability – seven infusions and I’ve only used 5s or 10s steepings. I plan to continue tomorrow for another six or seven times. This tea has both age and beauty and deserves to be savored and enjoyed.

Breaking this out as the “chairman” indicated her desire for it.
I got 8 grams out for the Gaiwan and gave a very quick wash. The sample of this one I have is from the back circle/divet of the cake. it is probably tightly compressed so it may take a bit to unravel.
I let this one sit a while and then did 3 very quick cover it and pour it into the cup. Ended up about 10 oz. of tea brewed.
This one has a
light color that belies it’s age a bit. light golden and not as bronze as some other cakes
this age.
This one comes up with a little floral. citrusy. bitter and piney on the front third of the tongue. just for a second or two . It disappears quickly and goes slightly sweet on the back end of the tongue. This is light easy to drink albeit I like the kick some others give but in honesty I think as the compression loosens it will give a bit more.
A good tea for bringing someone into the field of puerh.

This is a nice Shou with a little bit of age on it. It has a good, strong earthy flavor and definitely hits some of those nice dried fruit notes that can come through in some of these Shous. It is super duper smooth and a very pleasant tea.

Although this has the seemingly-obligatory smell / taste of dirty work pants, it has less of it than other shengs I have tried. There is also a touch of the sweet and floral here. A definate improvement over previous shengs I have tasted, but still pretty bad.

Puerh is a subjective experience. As such my review is personally from subjective thoughts, feelings and tastes. I have been itching to try out this puerh. It would appear that this puerh is like the spread “marmite”. Some people love it, some people not so. The deciding factor in purchasing a sample was basically because I needed a new yixing. I have a really decent lao zhuni yixing that I use for younger puerh, but have been on the lookout for a decent quality zini yixing for aged puerh. My eyes lit up when white2tea announced they had some lao zini yixings for sale…I ended up getting one of these teapots which I have decided to dedicate to aged puerh. Whilst ordering the yixing I thought this would be a good time to order some of the 90’s Hong Kong stored puerh as well, to perhaps get the yixing off to a good start. I ended up having two tea sessions yesterday…one before work and one after work. Here are my notes…

This is my first every wetter storage puerh, so I was a little apprehensive to begin with. Many thoughts were racing through my head “Would I even enjoy wetter storage?” was the main question. My parcel arrives and I immediately open it with much anticipation. Despite a healthy post office bump on the package, the yixing is fortunately fully intact and it looks like really good quality. Off to a good start. I ordered 25 grams, so according to my logic that would be 8 grams per two session, and then one 9 gram session. I smell the dry leaves in the foil bag…yes there is definitely humid storage as it smells musty compared to my other dry stored. aged puerhs. Two, quick three second rinses and already the liquid is becoming very dark in colour…reminds me of shou to be honest. I smell the wet leaves and I get a big whiff of earthy minerals, rich, balmy and spicy aromas. Wetter storage sure don’t smell that bad.

First proper steep at 7 seconds using boiled water. Liquid comes out looking almost a blood red, bordering on black. Again I think to myself “this reminds me of shou”. I take a nice long sip…earthy minerals, very smooth and clean yet rich, reasonable thickness, dense complexity, muskiness, some pleasant sourness, sweetness in the finish. My verdict=Yum!. I devour the rest of the steep.

I take a second and third steep and the results are very similar except the resulting liquid is almost black. Again I am reminded of shou..rather very good quality shou. Now the camphor notes are beginning to shine and come through, spicy notes are also prominent. Sour notes also kicking in a bit more, however not obtrusive in my opinion. Regarding QI I did not feel that much, however this puerh put me in a very positive mood before a long slog at work. I steeped this to roughly 8 times before I left for work…by this time I was getting more sweetness and camphor, spicy notes. I go to work…just to add the finish is so long….I still had the taste in my mouth 5 hours after beginning my shift.

I decide to have another 8 gram session with this puerh after work, just in case my first tasting was a fluke. Again I am hit with all the taste sensations from my earlier session…this certainly was not a fluke. My final thoughts are “This is really good, but it reminds me so much of a decent quality shou”.

So, overall in my humble opinion, this is a stellar example of aged, wetter storage puerh. If you are used to the taste of dry stored sheng, like me, you will immediately taste the difference. For me the perfect blend would be a mix of dry and humid stored. For example the one tea I reviewed, Big Green Tea Yiwu 2001, is a perfect example of drier storage. However after tasting this puerh I am thinking “Imagine how it would taste with a bit of wetter storage added to the mix?”. My conclusion after tasting wetter storage vs drier storage is that there is no winner. It would be impossible to calculate the odds…drier storage for me means more youth, sense of adventure and of more things to comes, wetter storage comes out more mature and complex initially but I ponder upon its future. I am tempted to purchase a couple of cakes from white2tea…one for immediate drinking, and one to sit down for a while. I live in a European climate which is drier than the likes of Hong Kong…perhaps with a bit of dry storage we can balance things out a bit? Perhaps come to some mutual understanding?

Having said the above all that is left to say is that this is an excellent puerh. I love the mineral earthiness, the wetter storage, the spicy camphor notes, the sweetness and the ultra long finish. Weird thing is I still think this would make an excellent shou…mainly because of how dark the texture of the soup becomes, and also because of its later steeps. If you are into wetter store puerh I would guess this one is a no brainer…if you like dry storage this will take you out of your comfort zone, which is never a bad thing. As I said in the beginning of the review puerh is subjective, and this would be a classic example of that statement. Many thanks to white2tea for the great yixing and great tea! I am left to ponder on these lyrics from one of my favourite bands..

“Words can never justify
That I have never spoken
Communication broken
I try to understand
My wordless, little language
Is all you’ll ever need
To reach the bottom of my basement

She’ll guide you through her midnight hall
And offer you a place on the
Gallery wall
Perhaps you’ll hear ’bout our history
She quotes from texts on papyrus
You gladly follow when she takes
Your hand and lead you further down
The corridor

You peeled the fruit but threw away
The stones
did it taste sweet?"

Thank you Sarsonator for this sample. This tea was good. There was s slight bitterness in the early steeps and a slight sweetness. It was smooth throughout most of the steeps. I noticed a small, very small amount of sourness in the early steeps but then I was drinking it without sugar. Normally, a small amount of sugar will override such flavors. I did not notice a strong Qi in this one but it had a mild effect on me. There were a variety of flavor notes to this tea but I was not paying attention to the specifics.

I steeped this six times in a 150ml Gaiwan with 5.7g leaf and 200 degree water. I steeped it for 15 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 30 sec, 1 min, and 2 min. There were more steeps to this tea but I am watching my caffeine tonight.

Been wanting to review this for a while now, but chose to delay so I could let one of the bricks air out a bit. I ended up getting 5 bricks before the price rise which only cost $75 (£45) for 500 grams of this. Already we are in “major bargain” territory, possibly underpriced in my opinion. Bricks are wrapped in a “tailor made” white2tea white wrapper with a rather charming portrait of Moby Dick on the front. I like the simplistic nature of this…usually a sign of good things ahead. I stick on a Mastodon album called Leviathan to get me into the right frame of mind. Leviathan is a progressive metal concept album all about…you guessed it, Moby Dick. Here are my tasting notes…

I break apart 7 grams of this which goes straight into my 130ml yixing. Two quick 3 second rinses and I smell the wet leaves. I am getting some woody smoke, with a dash of malt in the background. The smokiness reminds me of the aroma of a classic Scottish Malt whisky, like the amazing Lagavulin. Very nice indeed. However the wet leaves reveal a lot of chop stems, so visually this is not the most impressive puerh I have seen. I remind myself that appearances can be deceiving.

I take my first proper steep at 7 seconds. Liquid is already coming out dark amber in colour. I take my first sip…very smooth, clean, crisp and precise, hints of woody smokiness, nice balance of savoury and sweetness, reasonable thickness, and minty coolness already beginning to develop on the tongue.

Second steep and third steep are similar to my first steep. The malty aroma of the wet leaves is now much more apparent with the smokiness lingering more in the background. QI is beginning to develop, my body begins to calm. I would not classify this as a sweet puerh, but I am enjoying the subdued sweetness in the back of the throat. This puerh also has a tasty, long finish which I find really enjoyable between steeps.

Later steepings and I am getting some light camphor notes, adding another dimension to this bargain priced tea. I do prefer a stronger camphor taste in my aged puerh, but who knows maybe a brick or two needs to lie down for a few years to develop further. Maybe not…we will have to wait and see.

I am now at 11 steeps and this is still delivering on taste. I could possibly push this a lot further but decide to let the leaves rest until tomorrow. Really great durability. A really calm, relaxing 3 hour tea session. Overall, this an excellent semi aged puer, at an even more excellent price. Sure this is not the grandest aged puerh I have ever had, however those ones command a much higher price tag. Really good value in my opinion. I know the price has now gone up to $23 per brick but I still think even at this price this is still very good value for money.

I really enjoyed the subdued woody smokiness texture, however I can understand and appreciate that these sort of notes will not be to everyone’s liking. Keep an eye on your steep times…I did 7 seconds consistently for at least half a dozen steeps and was very satisfied with the results. So yeah this is another surprising puerh from white2tea that punches well above its price. It’s a puerh I could quite easily drink on a daily basis, however I really should keep a few bricks to age further. Many thanks to white2tea for another great bargain!

Woo woo woo

This tea is something else. It’s yummy, but I’m decidedly woozy and will have to wax eloquent on THAT later. I wanted to get an initial note down quick. This leaves me with a very distinct sinking feeling. It’s like you’re on vacay in a swank-ass hotel and you collapse back onto an ultra soft and fluffy bed, sinking away into a cloud. I’ve also had a similar feeling in savasana after a long ashtanga yoga session.

To sum up: Tea=good=happy=super feelings=wooooooooooo

This one isn’t cheap, but I believe samples are available, so get one. NOWZ.

Edit: I’m currently sitting on my couch, reading text message fails, and laughing like a hyena. Tears are, quite literally, streaming down my face. This stuff is the real deal. If I could, I’d buy it all.

What a nice tea surprise! This is White2Tea’s latest value-priced find for everyday enjoyment – definitely a great value given that it is quite nice material with a good amount of age. The expected dark leaves of a fine shou offer an aroma with clean notes (sweet and earthy with a slight hint of mustiness) and produce a dark orangish-brown tea soup which is very clear. No sign of fermentation remains and I detected absolutely no bitterness – a very pleasant sip. Overall impression: bold dark leaves of good size and integrity; thick but smooth body; hints of vanilla; dried fruit flavor (raisins or dates); the feeling in the mouth and throat is decent. I definitely want to have this shou on hand so I am quite sure I’ll purchase more very soon.

Mr. White2tea is an amazing guy. Very patient, writes well, knows his stuff. If you don’t know him online yet, you should.

He saw a post that I made where I expressed my strange and unexplainable sort of fear of puerh. And since then he has been helping me get past it. A lot of what has helped is that he has assured me that what I feel is normal and I can get past it.

I told him that I think pu is like red wine. Like, at one point I decided I wanted to learn to like wine, and I started with the really sweet ones, like Malvasia (which is a red for people who don’t like reds). By now I like any type of red, even the really oaky and bold ones. But it took a while of sipping and appreciating.

That’s where I think this pu thing is heading. Last week I had a session with this tea and I enjoyed it. Now, I don’t think it tastes like any other tea. It’s its own THING. It tastes like it tastes. And I speculate that is what trips people up – they expect it to taste familiar and when it doesn’t, they just stop. But I’m willing to keep going. I ended up drinking two infusions of this tea while at work one day, and then saved it and took the next four infusions in a modified gong fu, all in one mug. There was no magical qi and nothing life changing, but I enjoyed it, so I consider it a success. I only used about 40% of the tuocha so I’m going to pass the rest of it to Stephanie so she can try it, and move on to the next pu in the flight.

Every journey starts with a single step, right?

In my quest to find the “perfect” shu pu I have had an amazing opportunity to sample what I personally think is some of the best shu pu around. From the amazing 1995 9016 Tuo Cha, to the pristine 1980’s Ti Tian, both have left a distinct impression on me, and both have delivered ultra-tasty tea sessions. At £340 per 330 gram cake, to 99 euros per 250 gram Tuo Cha, there is one thing that is missing from my tasting lineup…a downright bargain. Cometh the hour, cometh White2Tea.

I recently noticed that they had some new ripe puerh for sale…the mysterious white wrapper immediately sparked my interest and beckoned me to make a purchase. White2Tea always tend to have a very keen eye for high quality puerh at bargain prices, and at only £55 ($87.50) for 500 grams of this stuff it is simply a no-brainer purchase. I trust Paul 100% and have never been disappointed, so with good faith I placed a rather large order. Here are my notes…

Carefully unwrapping the delicate white wrapper, I see a cute compressed 100 gram Tuo staring back at me. I give the tuo a quick sniff…aged aromas with a sprinkling of humidity comes forth. Breaking apart this cute Tuo is easy with a puerh pick…I chip away a nice 9 gram chunk. Two very quick rinses in my 140ml gaiwan and I smell the wet leaves…a hint of fermentation, lovely rich, bold and nicely aged aroma. I hope that this tastes as good as it smells.

First proper steep at about 2 minutes. I pour the liquid…black and syrupy…perfect. First sip and I am in shu heaven yet again…rich, thick, earthy, creamy taste, bold flavours, ultra-smooth and slick down the throat, sweet long finish. This is seriously good shu pu.

This is not just a one steep wonder…the same lovely taste progresses steep after steep. It does get a more amber colour at around 10 steeps, however it still delivers on taste. It never gets bitter, no matter how long I decide to steep it for. This lovely shu pu punches well above its price. In fact, I don’t think you will find a better shu than this at the same price.

I usually write longer reviews than this, but there is not that much more to say. It is a fantastic example at an awesome price. I would say it is just as good as the 9016 Tuo Cha, therefore I have given it the same score. Both are very tasty, however taste quite different, so it is good to have high quality variety depending on what mood I am in. Does it topple the 1980’s Zi Tian from its throne? I personally don’t think so but that does not matter to me. What does matter to me is getting excellent quality at good prices, and White2Tea has delivered this in spades. I highly recommend this shu to anyone that is into shu. Many thanks to White2Tea for the amazing shu pu!

I was also going to review EOT’s 1970’s Y562 Shu Puerh tonight however the 1970’s powerful QI has got the better of me. I will leave that for tomorrow…

7g used.

Aroma of wet leaves, after two rinses, is creamy, sweet and rich.

5s – It has a milk chocolate, sweetcorn likeness. This tea is moreish, similar to some Lattes (the coffee) I’ve had in the past. This is consistent with the seller’s description: ‘has a creamy body similar to that of warm milk’.

10s – Although this has had 12 years to air off, it still has a faint ‘fishy’ taste.

15s – The consistency is thin. The flavour is lingering, and the burst of flavour does not come until after the swallow.