white2tea

2011 Dashu Bulang White2Tea— Nothing short of very tasty. I see that it is no longer on the site but the 2013 is there. It’s a serious price performer. I found it to be sweeter than bitter, but with hints of smoke and a bitterness that builds. This was another sample from JC. Highly drinkable in oppressive heat, refreshing, what a Bulang should be.
Flash steeped. I’ve been experimenting with 195 degree water and flash steepings of around five seconds with good success. This one works well that way, no overwhelming bitterness and little astringency, a kind of slickness is evident as with other highly alkaline teas. Not as bitter as I would expect a Lao Man E tea to be.
Yum.

Tonight I want to get myself positively tea drunk, and what better way to do this than to brew a big, fat 12 gram chunk of this amazing tea, courtesy of Paul from white2tea.

Unfortunately this is now long out of stock, but I was very fortunate to get a full cake of this last year. This was actually my first purchase from Paul, and ended up being the best young sheng puerhs I have had the pleasure of drinking. I really should have bought another cake…last year this cost just over $300 which sounds like a lot, however look at some of the prices of young, raw sheng today. Lao Ban Zhang has become ridiculously expensive. Anyway, enough talk, let’s get onto the tea.

If I had to describe this tea in two words this would be it: RAW POWER

I used my 130 ml yixing with this and as I mentioned earlier decided to use a big 12 gram chunk, which nearly ends up filling my whole yixing. The leaves are simply beautiful to look at, long and elegant. The dry leaves smell sweet, but there is something lurking there in the background that you can smell and sense: RAW POWER

After one very quick rinse I smell the wet leaves…already my mouth begins to salivate at the potent aroma the leaves eject. My first proper steep is literally 5 seconds. I can already see that the liquid is starting to become nice and thick. I draw a deep breath and take my first sip. Already the energy begins to enter my system. On first steep I get a a lovely sweet/savoury taste, and can sense that Lao Ban Zhang bitterness lurking there in the background like a fallen angel. It lurks but not for long. Vibrancy on my tongue begins to develop…not a tingling sensation but a numbing sensation. The RAW POWER is starting to take over.

Second steep at 10 seconds. The brew is starting to get even thicker and I can see by the change of the liquid that this is going to be a strong steep. I take another sip…my god…there is that powerful bitterness that I love so much. The QI is starting to become very pronounced, I can feel my heart starting to beat faster, sweat is beginning to develop on my forehead, and my whole body feels uplifted and positive.

Third steep, there is that powerful bitterness again, followed by some floral? notes hidden away behind the bitter textures. This stuff is simply amazing. My mouth starts to feel dry which accentuates the variety of different tastes and textures. On my fourth steep the bitterness is still there but now I am getting more sweetness in the mouth and at the back of the throat. By now my body is becoming really relaxed, and I begin to melt into my sofa. I take a break…wow what an experience.

This young puerh is quite simply the very best that I have ever had the good fortune of tasting. Not only is it the best, it is by far the most powerful from a QI perspective. It’s RAW POWER may be too much for some people, but if this is the sort of experience you enjoy from your sheng puerh I cannot think of a better example. It is robust, heavy, rich, thick, powerful and cannot be tamed.

Many thanks to Paul from white2tea for introducing me to this beast, and also for your honest, no frills service.

Nice punch, great Bulang personality. Very enjoyable ripe. Some astringency. I gave it very, very short steepings, basically rinses. I think it held up for more than five infusions.

2002 Little Yellow Mark
7g used

5s – Excellent – Full of flavour. Complex: Concentrated green, thick peppery-smokiness, herbal, no strong bitterness.
8s – Smooth but with the peppery smokiness it’s interesting and textured. It has a wholesome flavour.
12s – The concentrated flavour lingers on after swallowing.
20s – Floral sweetness sits on top of the concentrated green base – wow. The treble sweetness is an octave higher than the bass darker notes.
25s – It makes the mouth water and this contrasts with the sweetness of the tea – very good. The tea has astringency, bitterness, sweetness, smokiness, floral notes over a dark green herby base. It combines to something great: it sings in harmony.

It’s yu tea

7g used.

Very loose compression.

3s – Strong. Bright flavour on a dark base, which isn’t green. The bright flavour is interesting in that it lingers on with a honey sweetness. Fruity, plums, hints of fresh basil. Faint smoke.

5s – Stronger. High mountain Oolong (Dayuling) in the background. Bitterness, astringent. Green flavour sweetness has honey and high mountain Oolong flavour.

7s – Pleasant, warming.

?s – No notes.

12s – Lost most of the flavour, milky, going bland. Just bitter, strong high mountain Oolong now.

This tea has disappointed me in only lasting four – five brews; it has done this twice.

7g used

Strong, bitter, green. Flavour is singularly green. Drying, bitter finish. Smoky. Wet leaves are chopped and green.

7g used.

5s – Mellow, light flavour, something like oxo/bovril in the background.

5s – Getting stronger. There is a small amount of green amongst the mellow floral bit. All very faint. Pleasant: not too strong, floral and bit of green.

7s – This is not overly bitter like 2012 Ruiyan Nannuo. Tastes of stewed tea, after it’s gone cold. Not very interesting, unless it changes/open up :(

10s – Concentrated herbyness is there. It was there earlier, possibly as the green taste.

I could discount this tea tea as not very good because it is unlike a dry-stored raw pu-erh but then I decided to take some notes anyway.

7g used. Mid/tight compression.

The dry leaf aroma is raw beetroot; an earthy sweet smell. Liquid is deep red/brown, like a cooked pu-erh after a few steeps. The aroma of the liquid is earthy and not as sweet as the dry aroma.

5s – It is unlike a dry stored pu-erh: instead of being green and herby, and concentrated, it is purple (like a mellow taste of beetroot), sweet and open. It has a lingering soilyness which is not simple, unlike another wet-stored pu-erh I’ve had. To hope it to be like dry-stored pu-erh, you are disappointed. This has a different flavour profile.

12s – The soil taste is not unpleasant as it is accompanied by a warm, raw beetroot (or how I imagine the skin to taste) flavour. There is dust. The flavour does linger.
The dark wet leaves do not have the concentrated, complex aroma of raw pu-erh but instead is much simpler, being between raw beetroot and mustyness.

20s – The liquid is darker; the flavour is stronger. It has a sour taste when swallowing. The beetroot, earthy aroma sparkles on top of a dark earthy base.

22s – More sourness in the swallow. Flavour has dark fruits.

I bought a four-pack of these tuos, difficult to buy just one of these because they cost only $9.80 each. The age already on this tea enticed me, I prefer to buy something with some age on it. The other reviewer of this tea gave it a poor rating, but didn’t know to gong-fu this tea.

The positives are this is one Energizer Bunny of a tea, just goes on and on and on. Two days in and I’m wondering when it will end. The shiboridashi is stuffed to the gills and I’ve got more buds and leaves than sticks. Long huigan, thick and full, very bitter when pushed with boiling water and less so with cooler water. Mellows to sweet on the tongue.

Description includes tobacco notes, but this is more of a fresh pipe tobacco. There is no actual char from processing in this tea, so for me this doesn’t qualify as smoky. Not compared to a Menghai or Xiaguan raw tuo. The soup starts out caramel colored and yellows after the fourth steep or so.

One downside is the tea was dry stored and is still so green. It is definitely in second stage and hasn’t turned any corners yet into something I would consider aged. My tea fridge storage doesn’t penetrate the thick paper so well. I transferred the tuos to stoneware. Would love to ship them off to puerh boarding school for a year of humid storage. I like a bit of traditional storage on my tea, but not so much it obscures other flavors. This tea is very strong and could take a year of humidity without losing the other flavors. As it is now, the tuo tastes like a lot of other teas I’ve had, the dusky apricot with caramel notes.

Dunno if I’ll be around when this tea matures into a dark, red/brown love nest, still got so far to go. The material is what we want for aging, but I’m probably too far ahead of this tea myself.

Photos and blog post which is mostly unrelated to the tea itself, at http://deathbytea.blogspot.com

Revisiting this “gentle” tea built upon Manzhuan material found in the broader YiWu area. Softer and definitely less aggressive taste with a pleasant rather sweet lingering aftertaste. I always enjoy drinking it on a low-key day. Nice big leaves which have remained in-tact in the loosely compressed cake. Golden yellow tea soup with a sip that is not at all bitter and tastes of light stonefruit. The tea becomes a little sweeter with successive brews but it is never “powerfully” sweet. Not an earthy tea but should be considered a sweet tea carefully processed with high quality whole tea leaves.

Manzhuan + Spring + gushu. What’s not to like? This tea is even better than I expected (since it is a new 2014 tea, I figured I would try it just for fun and then wait a few years to enjoy it). The dry leaf looks very nice; the aroma of the brew is pleasantly fresh and sweet; the liquor is a clear yellow; the flavor of the sip is smooth, sweet, and slightly fruity. This tea is lovely and very easy to drink. What a lovely sheng to own (even though it is rather pricey)!! I rather doubt this particular cake gets much age because I am likely to pull it out frequently to pick off more leaf.

7g used.

The dry leaf aroma promises a very welcoming drink, with fairly strong green, herbal notes.

5s – Lots of flavour! Green, herby. Long green herby finish. Hardly any bitterness.
10s – Getting stronger on the flavour, in a pleasant way. It has some complexity which makes it very interesting to drink.

Later notes: There is a likeness to honey and lemon sachet drinks I have had before, without any of the sugary sweetness of course.

This tea is really good. I find myself liking sheng more than ever before. It was a little fruity as the description says and there were slight notes of apricots. It was just a tiny bit bitter in the first steeping. This was gone by the second steeping. By the fourth steeping it was very smooth. It was slightly sweet too (not meaning sugar sweet). It was good.

I steeped this four times in a 140 ml yixing teapot with 5g leaf and 200 degree water. I steeped it for 15 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, and 20 sec. It had a very pale yellow color.

This is the most intense tea I’ve tried to date. That is, the stoner kind of tea. 8 grams per 125 ml of this and I become unbearably wonderful. And I can’t shut up. Also, I crave salty snacks and chocolate. After 8 steeps I turn into Spinoza and start writing mystical essays.

I can only attribute the effect this tea has to the small mountain tea leaves of the wild trees on Naka mountain, as opposed to the plantation or terrace type of teas produced in the same area. I compare two cheaper Nakas and even sent a sample of this to a friend to be sure I’m not crazy.

If the price of this tea scares you off, I can recommend the 2007 Spring Naka Qiao Mu Bamboo Raw from Chawangshop which also appears to be the small mountain leaf, and I got a bit of a buzz on that, nowhere near as intense as this tea. But an okay substitute, and I have reviewed that here too. This 2005 Naka has a slight humid storage which I prefer to the drier storage of the Chawangshop bamboo.

More comparisons on my tea blog, http://deathbytea.blogspot.com.

Dry – Sweet, fruity, refreshing, buttery?, bitter floral and slightly nutty.
Wet – Warm sugar sweetness with very apparent tobacco and some faint smoke, fruits, cream, floral and nutty.
Liquor – Light amber to Amber.

This notes is a summary of two separate sessions in porcelain gaiwan

The first steep in both sessions were sweet and mellow with a fast overtake of the tobacco notes up front. As it went down, the texture was thick/creamy while still wearing the tobacco notes, yet it feels sweeter with fruity and nutty notes.

Following steeps switch to a tobacco front with the sweetness coming in second together with bitter-tobacco and bittersweet floral notes and some nutty and herbaceous hints up front. As it goes down, it has a thick and almost creamy texture, but has some minor astringency to it. The fruity and floral notes a more apparent as the liquor washes down, yet will continue to hold the tobacco notes.

Final steeps are about the same in terms of the notes you find and the order, but much more mellowed down and a refreshing finish easier to detect.

Final Notes

I liked this one, It has strong tobacco notes, but is not overwhelming. I’d say this is definitely stronger than the Repave, but WAY gentler than a Xiaguan the same age would be and has a lasting Huigan.

This pu’er doesn’t quit! I got 17 infusions!

2002 White2tea White Whale has plenty of camphor minty notes, some woodsy enoki mushroom and a hint of smoke. Later steepings the tea smooths out, gets sweeter but the refreshing notes remain (and don’t go away). A little bit of dryness, but still very easy to drink and forgiving to steep.

For $15 for a 100gram cake (price going up sooon!) this is a great deal for a cake with some age on it, especially if you are new to pu’er. Recommended!

Full review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/2002-white2tea-white-whale-raw-puer/

This is a pleasant enough shou. The predominant flavor is definitely wood with perhaps a little leather flavor. This tea really is very smooth. Almost too smooth for my liking as there is very little that really stands out in this tea, but maybe that should be expected for the low price, which is really exceptional at just $12 a cake. I have had better luck brewing western style which produces a more flavorful cup. Because of the low price I have also enjoyed messing around with cold brewing it after a couple quick rinses which resulted in a pretty interesting iced tea. To give you an idea of how hard it is to get flavor out of this I steeped 7 grams in 24 oz. water for 48 hours to produce a flavorful enough iced tea. It was a fun experiment.

In the end I don’t think I will buy this again, but I surely do not regret the purchase. As the website says, this may be a great starter tea for those new to puer but i feel I am perhaps past this point in my puer tasting journey.

So this was a sample from the lovely and wonderful MzPriss.

At first I didn’t smell the tobacco, but once it was pointed out, I picked it up right away. I do enjoy this one, but I didn’t fall in love. So while I’m quite happy, I went with other White2s in today’s order. :)

I really, really, really, really loved this sheng. I can’t EVEN believe this is 2014 tea. It does not taste like baby sheng at ALL (and I <3 baby sheng by the way). It is so smooth and so sweet – there is hardly any bitterness and a very nice mellow body feel. Warm and contented.

But HOLY SHITAKE!!! This bad boy costs over $120 for a small cake. Sobs. I had to decide between this and the Little Yellow Mark and the Little Yellow Mark won. But this is EXCELLENT and I wish I had more disposable income at the moment, or a cake of this would be mine.

Today is a Smokey Robinson kind of day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ly8G9Psdqxw

I did Sary’s combo method for this. The liquor is pale yellow and the aroma to me is almost completely tobacco. Not a strong overwhelming tobacco, but that is the main aroma to me. This is quite sweet and fairly smooth, especially for its age, but I also taste tobacco with a very slight bitterness and no astringency.

It will interesting to see how this turns out in a few years. Just for fun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oVBvxA0mm0

I like this! I’m not finding it quite as punchy as some – it’s definitely in your face and all over the place. Yeah, it’s bitterish at first but not in a bad way and I LOVE the sweetness. Love it. It’s a baby now, but I think this is gonna be a badass in a few years.

There is an almost grapey flavor, but not quite. There is very little smoke, but some nice tobacco and it keeps getting sweeter.

I’m having a good time with this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBShN8qT4lk