white2tea

Warning, Sheng Yiwu snob alert. Another EXCELLENT Sheng Yiwu from Paul at White 2 Tea. Unlike the 2007 Taochaju Yiwu, this Sheng is pressed from old arbor material harvested in 2009, 2010 and 2011. This tea is every bit as good as the 2007 Taochaju Yiwu yet, despite being younger, it is even more mellow. Well worth the money!!!!

This is just a tasting note. After tonight this lovely tea is really starting to grow on me. The lovely tobacco flavor was highlighted by a very subtle smokiness that wasn’t present on my first tasting. Once again, the kuwei was perfect. I just may have to rethink my rating for this tea!!!!

When I read the description for this tea on the White 2 Tea website it intrigued me so much that I decided to buy some. For the first steeping, the flavor seemed almost timid to me. After steeping two the flavor was much bolder and by steeping three it had hit its stride. White 2 Tea nailed this one with their description: “It has a formidable amount of tobacco flavor and kuwei [pleasant bitterness].” This is a solid Sheng that I will be enjoying for a long time!

The website says this tea is burly, but I would describe it as bitter. Tastes like an infused version of my father’s old work pants. Awful. Thankfully it was only a complimentary sample.

First infusion – 3 g. per 6 oz water, 90 deg., 2:00 min.

Second infusion – 3 g. per 6 oz. water, 90 deg., 3:00 min.

Third infusion – 3 g. per 6 oz. water, 90 deg., 4:00 min.

Fourth infusion – 3 g. per 6 oz. water, 90 deg., 5:00 min.

Fifth infusion – 3 g. per 6 oz. water, 90 deg., 10:00+ min.

With this tea I have officially become a Yiwu Sheng snob. The three men that I have to blame for this problem are: Garret at Mandala Tea who opened my eyes to Sheng Pu’er, Nicholas Lozito at Misty Peak who opened my eyes to Yiwu and Jiāng Luo who introduced me to White 2 Tea. To these three gentlemen I offer my deepest and most heartfelt thank you!!!! Now for the tea. This tea is everything I love about my Shengs from Misty Peak, just more mellow as a result of its aging. Anything I write will fall well short of explaining how great I think this tea is, so all I will say is I LOVE THIS TEA!!!!!!!

My friend gave me a sample of this tea and told me to pay attention to its longevity. So I am going to write this note in terms of steeps in my gaiwan:

1st steep: Dark amber liquid. Robust and uniform grassy notes. By uniform I mean each sip reproduces the same strength in taste. I noticed an incredibly pleasant after taste while I waited for the second round to steep.

2nd steep: Pretty much the same dark amber liquid with more orangey hints. The taste has evolved and is now quite sharp in a sense. The tea still posses the grassy undertones, but masked by a reassuring bitterness. The last sip tasted extremely sweet.

3rd steep: Usually by this point, my tea begins to lose both color and taste. I steeped it for a tad bit longer and the leaves have really expanded at this point. The color has lifted considerably to more of a peachy orange. No more dark amber lingers in the cup and the color is more clear. This steep has brought back the uniformity in taste and has taken away the bitterness. Back to a pleasant almost indescribable taste.

I want to go enjoy the tea now, so I will hopefully come back and finish this.

This is a cup of smoke-flavoured brown water. Not much more to this one than that (though I may have tasted a very brief sweetness at the beginning). I’m very glad this was a sample, and not a tea I paid for. Awful tea, but great service from White Tea Two!

Brewed grandpa style: 5 g. tea per 450 ml water over 4-5 infusions.

Smells sweet and smokey. It’s not too bland but not very bold. It’s a little too bitter for my taste. It’s not my favorite, but it’s not bad.

The leaves of this one are very long. Usually I associate sheng with campfire smoke, but this one smells more like tobacco to me. From the strong smell, I expected this to taste more bitter and less sweet. It tastes smokey, but smooth and slightly fruity.

Fairly smokey and a little bitter. I think I’m still not a fan of sheng.

This tea smells slightly tart and a little fruity. The first couple steepings taste a little smokey and then slightly tart, eventually sweetening more. After a few steepings it starts to leave an after-drinking mouth-feel like ceylon tea with milk. This is not currently one of my favorite shuos.

This tea may have changed due to the container it was stored in. I am using an air tight container which I believe had no smell beforehand, but I may be mistaken.

I really like the flavor of this shu. It smells kind of nutty to me and the flavor reminds me slightly of yerba mate.

Very smokey (pleasantly so).

I drank this with a spicy and creamy dish. The smokey flavor stood up well.

Chrysanthemums helped bring out more of the flavor. I also think this tea benefits from more tea (or less water) while steeping.

This took more than a few steepings to open up and darken in color. A few of the darker steepings were fairly sweet but the sweetness faded quickly.

The dry tea smells somewhat creamy like white chocolate. It’s fairly mild when brewed. Very palatable