white2tea

I got this mini as part of a giant purchase of samples from white2tea’s newly released teas ! (https://skoomaden.me/posts/teas-arriving-in-july/)

I actually got two of this mini by mistake lol, nice to note I also got a free 2024 nightlife mini ! (yay)

20s wash 95c

1st steep (15s):
Very bland vegetal green tea for now, nothing note worthy, no bitterness for now.

2nd steep (20s):
Boring, bitter green tea that I know is going to inevitably evolve into a bitter mess of vegetal astringency.
I can’t feel the “blend” part for sure.
Not great.

3rd steep (10s, 87C):
I don’t see where this is going at all, I’m sure a bigger fan of green teas could probably explain to me what’s going on but to me this is just not pleasant. While I admit it’s far from the worst green blend I’ve ever had, this is simply not good.
Bitter, boring, vegetal, the same traits we find in bad japanese greens, I didn’t like this one.

- Flavor Complexity: 10/30 – No complexity I could find at least.
- Brewing Forgiveness: 12/20 – Probably okay forgiveness overall.
- Quality Across Infusions: 10/20 – I mean it’s just boring throughout, and it got worse with time
- Overall Enjoyment: 12/30 – Boring (zzz).

- yaro

Gongfu!

This ripe pu’erh is really full-bodied, with a thick and syrupy feeling mouthfeel. The top notes are surprisingly sweet with a really nice balance of soft, somewhat woody bamboo and just a really clean earthiness. I get undertones of steamed milk, white rice, and molasses as well, which add quite a lot of coziness to this tea session. The bamboo comes back in the finish, with a very subtle herby quality. I feel like this is the type of pu’erh that would make a fantastic base for a milk tea or boba, as slightly blasphemous as that sort of feels. Maybe if you simmered the spent leaves from the end of a session on the stovetop for a long time (like laochatuo) to make a concentrate…

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DAeY75yyYgp/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chKy6KLeokA

Gongfu!

This ripe pu’erh is pretty tightly pressed, and was kind of a pain to break up into a session sized piece. Well worth the effort, though. In many ways it reminds me of the Zong Zi Keemun I had yesterday – both share a sort of creamy, starchiness. Makes sense though, as they each incorporate bamboo leaves in different ways. This is so full bodied but also super smooth, with a really approachable rich earthiness. Just a little sweet, but a little savory too. I’m about three steeps deep now and all I can think is how much I want to be drinking this tea with sushi!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C8h5TQCuKU8/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKfD8d3XJok

I’ve only had this tea a handful of times now, and all of those times have been gongfu, but I vaguely remembered the website blurb for this tea specifically mentioning it was also really good Western style so I wanted to give it a go. Though there’s maybe a little less nuance to the cup, I definitely think this is still a very rich, full-bodied brew with a ton of those darker, lightly sweet stonefruit and red berry notes I’ve observed with other steeping methods. Very, very plumb heavy in particular with undertones of buckwheat honey and malt. Super jammy.

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/DBM1o8vSRCl/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0Se1-n_hdI

Gongfu!

Enjoyed this tea paired with some of the sweetest and most melt in your mouth haskap berries I’ve ever had!! This was definitely a complimentary pairing, as this black tea is also quite sweet, aromatic, and fruity. Deeply jammy notes of stonefruits and plump red berries, but with a thick, ever so slightly brisk full body and lots of maltiness. It matched the intensity of the haskaps very, very well. W2T specifically calls out that this is a good tea for breakfast, and I 100% concur. Also, a total steal for the quality to cost.

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C8R8zKUugr_/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGd3Xk1dtS8

Notes of leather and stonefruit.
The fruitiness is more prevalent in the aftertaste.
Smooth mouthfeel, relaxed body feel.
Lots of activity going on in the liquor.
Its color shifts from a pale amber in the first few steeps to a rich, plummy gold in the later ones.

6g/100ml
10/5/5/5/10/15/30/45/60/120/240/480 = 12 steeps
95°C for the first 5 steeps, boiling for the rest.

My go-to daily drinker.
Lighter profile than the 2022 version.
Fleeting sweetness, light huigan.
Fruity, flowery, lightly astringent, bitter if pushed.
Notes of strawberry and stonefruit.

Would score 65 but due to the affordability, bumped it up to 70.

6g/100ml
5/5/5/5/10/15/30/45/60/120/240/480 = 12 steeps
95°C for the first 5 steeps, boiling for the rest.

I admit this is where my knowledge of Black Tea stops, Lao Chuan Hong is a supposed well know hongcha but I admit, reading the description we got, I cannot stop being curious about what I possibly await with this one.

This tea was part of the June 2024 Tea Club

Paul wrote:
“Brewing Instructions- Boiling water, even for the very fresh raw Puer. Use gongfu style brewing if you can. If you’d like a softer experience, drop the temp to 85C – 95C, this will lessen the harsher notes of the tea. 90C-95C for the black tea will coax out different aromatics and favors, but will still prefer boiling.”

Wash (15s)

Smell is… just filled with Umami I can’t describe in any different way, like how Beef noodles would smell like, with a very light tint of cinamon.

1st Steep (15s, 95C):
Yellow
It tastes exactly how it smells like, Umami with cinnamon, very very tasty ! I love it !
Nougat, Cinnamon

2nd Steep (10s, 95C):
Deeper Red this time color-wise
Dough, Toasted Bread, Cinnamon.
This is probably the best alternative to a “flavored tea” that could ever be.
It’s not too sweet, it’s just perfect.

3rd Steep (10s, 90C):
Mahogany red
Now the Nougat is overpowering, for my greatest pleasure.
Truly, this is the most enjoyable tea I’ve had in a whiiiiile, First time I genuinely cannot stop drinking !

4th Steep (15s, 85C):
85C is where it’s calmer, much calmer, yet oh so delicious.
I think this is the best w2t I’ve ever had hahah.

- Flavor Complexity: 30/30 – A very complex and full tea ! So Many different layers, Nougat, Umami, Cinnamon.
- Brewing Forgiveness: 20/20 – This can be probably withstand any temperature change (which I’ve tested extensively, trust me !)
- Quality Across Infusions: 20/20 – Layers and layers, different levels to how good this is, The hotter the water is the more we get that Umami note, then as the kettle cools down we get Cinnamon Toasted Bread to end in a sweet fruity melon taste, with no bitterness whatsoever, this is a chef d’oeuvre for sure.
- Overall Enjoyment: 30/30 – This is the tea. I’ve never enjoyed a Black Tea ever like this, most of them can’t withstand boiling water on the long run, end up being bitter and then fall appart, some have artifical fruity notes, that overpower each other in a horrible mess. The few Black Teas I’ve successfully enjoyed weren’t part of the better ones, I seem to have consistenly rated them around the 50-60s/100. This is a whole other level though, and seeing how cheap it is on w2t’s website, I absolutely will be ordering more ! I don’t give my 100s easily, and this will be my proud 1st one.

Congrats Lao Chuan Hong !!!

100/100
- yaro

Okay, Round 2.

95C, 15s Wash.

- First Steep (20s):
Very light, transparent so it probably didn’t open up correctly, I’m getting some very vegetal notes not unlike a very light japanese green tea (?), I mean I admit I’ve only tried Palais des Thés’ Sencha Ariake but I guess that reminds me of that. Maybe that’s because of how young this sheng.

- Second Steep (15s):
Oh oh so bland, yeah this isn’t going anywhere, tea still hasn’t opened up and this tastes very generic, this next Steep I’m gonna try longer times with colder water, I wanna avoid bitterness as much as possible because this tea feels like it’s just waiting to become earwaxy bitter.

- Third Steep (35s, 90C):
It didn’t become that bitter, but it’s definitely not good.
Now, this could be due to me putting a minimal amount of tea in (3.5g) but I sure didn’t feel like this tea gave me anything interesting :(
That being said the tea isn’t unpleasant.

- Fourth Steep(40s, 95C):
It’s starting to get bitter and I already see where this is going.
The vegetal notes are gonna keep become more and more bitter and there is no complexity in this whatsoever.

N.B:
I’m not going to rate this tea, mostly because I’m scared I don’t know enough about this tea category to give a formal opinion.

The Hype is one of the if not the most well know w2t tea with “This is”, definitely one of my Spring favorites that I was shocked to see arrive in the mail. This is probably the most value we got out of a w2t tea Club, it’s just amazing and I cannot wait to review it here soon.

Let’s see if it lives up to the hype, all puns intended.
Wash: 15s.

1st Steep (10s):
Faint but very floral, this is pleasant and very well rounded.
We get some Lavander, sweet middle taste, mellow fruity after-taste.
This is amazing, would be a great morning tea.

2nd Steep (1min20):
Okay, I f-ed up and didn’t look at the infusion time correctly (I’ll definitely review this properly a later time), but this could be a happy accident.
The bitterness is not a violent one in any shape or form, it compliments rather well the fruitiness, this could be an oolong in its oxydation-like bitterness, but it truly isn’t unpleasant.

Alright, you guys don’t worry I’m going to review this properly tomorrow !

95C

1st Steep (15s):
Light but sweet, with some lemony undertones ? Other than that nothing too interesting about this first steep, very light color.

2nd Steep (25s):
Nice and still, the citrusy taste is still pretty present, I admit this isn’t what I envisioned this to taste like.

3rd Steep (30s):
Some mild bitterness is starting, but for now it’s not prevalent, the citrus notes now fuse with that bitterness, giving a well-dimensioned taste, although most is at the front.

4th Steep (40s):
Not much difference to note

5th Steep (45s):
Now the bitterness is overwhelming, the citrus taste is gone

6th Steep (60s):
Completely bitter, gross.

- Flavor Complexity: 5/30
- Brewing Forgiveness: 15/20
- Quality Across Infusions: 5/20
- Overall Enjoyment: 20/30

- yaro

Preparation:

- Temperature: 185°F / 85°C
- Time: 10s, 15s, 20s, 25s, 30s
- Tea Amount: 5 g
- Water Volume: 3 oz / 100 ml

I brewed this tea using the Gong Fu style, hoping to explore its depth through multiple short infusions.

- Color: White wine
- Flavor: Very superficial, with hints of wool and mustiness without much definition.

- Flavor: The mustiness is now complemented by a very subtle sweetness that appears only in the aftertaste. There’s also a faint earthiness that requires careful attention to notice.

- Flavor: Similar to the previous steep, with pronounced notes reminiscent of pungent meat and wet wool. Despite these strong flavors, there’s no bitterness.

- Flavor: No significant change from the third steep. The same musty and wool-like flavors persist.

- Flavor: The flavor profile remains unchanged, continuing with the same musty and wool-like notes.

In conclusion, the 2018 Turtle Dove by white2tea was not an exceptional tea. While it had consistent flavors across the steeps, these flavors were not particularly enjoyable or memorable.

- Flavor Complexity: 10/30 – The tea lacked distinctive or exceptional flavors.
- Brewing Forgiveness: 14/20 – The tea’s flavor did not evolve significantly with different steeping times.
- Consistency Across Infusions: 15/20 – The tea was consistent, but consistently unimpressive.
- Overall Enjoyment: 10/30 – The tea was drinkable but not enjoyable or exciting.

- yaro

After much anticipation, I’ve finally had the chance to dive into white2tea’s 2020 Nightlife. Here’s my detailed review of this intriguing white tea:

Preparation:

- Temperature: 203°F / 95°C
- Time: 10s, 15s, 20s, 25s, 30s, 35s (progressive infusions)
- Tea Amount: 5 g
- Water Volume: 4 oz / 120 mL

1st Infusion (10s): The tea starts with a golden hue, hinting at hazelnut notes. The flavors are still finding their feet at this stage.

2nd Infusion (15s): The color transitions beautifully from amber to copper. This steep unveils a delightful sweetness akin to caramel candy, leaving a pleasant, lingering taste that ranks this among the best white teas I’ve ever tasted.

3rd Infusion (20s): As the tea deepens to a rich copper, it starts to lose some of its initial charm. The once prominent caramel taste shifts to the background, with a slight bitterness beginning to creep in, thankfully not yet overpowering.

4th Infusion (25s): With the tea cooling down, the anticipated bitterness mellows, although the sweetness begins to retreat as well.

5th Infusion (30s): The liquor takes on a mahogany color, with no bitterness in sight. It pleasantly returns to the caramel and hazelnut profile experienced in the second steep.

6th Infusion (35s): Maintaining its mahogany color, the sweetness starts to fade once again. It seems this cycle might repeat through the 11th infusion, suggesting a predictable continuation with little new to explore.

2020 Nightlife by white2tea is a complex tea that offers a journey through evolving flavors, especially recommended for those curious about the nuanced transformations in high-quality white teas. Keep the brewing temperature at 95°C to avoid any undue bitterness, which this tea is prone to at lower temperatures. While it showcases moments of brilliance, particularly in the early infusions, the experience might feel cyclic and predictable as you progress through multiple steeps.

- Flavor Complexity: 25/30 – Offers a delightful range of flavors, particularly in the early steeps.
- Brewing Forgiveness: 15/20 – Can become bitter if brewed incorrectly, but generally performs well with proper care.
- Consistency Across Infusions: 15/20 – The flavors evolve but maintain a coherent profile.
- Overall Enjoyment: 20/30 – Highly enjoyable in initial infusions, but becomes predictable and less exciting.

- yaro

Today, I’m reviewing the 2021 Sunskate by white2tea. I got this tea in a mini form from w2t with the [2018 Hot Brandy](https://white2tea.com/products/2018-hot-brandy) I got this month (https://skoomaden.me/posts/teas-that-arrived-in-june/).

Preparation:

- Temperature: 200°F / 93°C initially, then up to 212°F / 100°C
- Time: 20s rinse, followed by increasing steep times
- Tea Amount: 7 g
- Water Volume: 4 oz / 120 mL

Rinse (20s): The rinse was quite tight, which is expected given the tea’s compression.

1st Steep (20s): The first steep yielded a very faint flavor, likely due to the tight compression even after a 20-second rinse at 95°C. The flavors were barely detectable.

2nd Steep (20s): Despite opening up slightly, the tea remained incredibly light, making it hard to distinguish any clear notes. There was a mild sweetness, with a detectable sweet toasted brioche aroma.

3rd Steep (50s at 100°C): Even with a significantly longer and hotter steep, the tea failed to deliver any substantial flavors. It felt akin to drinking hot water rather than experiencing the lightness typical of white tea. The steep was disappointingly bland, more akin to oversteeped black tea.

4th Steep (1 min 20s at 95°C): The fourth steep was purely a formality. The tea continued to present a washed-out profile, resembling an oversteeped black tea. This was particularly disappointing given my high expectations for a white2tea black tea.

The 2021 Sunskate by white2tea was underwhelming and fell short of my expectations. Despite various adjustments in steeping times and temperatures, the tea failed to develop any significant flavor profile. The experience was frustrating, as each infusion seemed to promise potential that it never delivered. The tea’s tight compression may have contributed to its inability to fully express its character, but even accounting for this, the results were disappointing.

- Flavor Complexity: 0/30 – Virtually no discernible flavors despite multiple attempts.
- Brewing Forgiveness: 20/20 – Surprisingly, the tea did not become bitter, even with aggressive steeping.
- Consistency Across Infusions: 20/20 – The tea was consistently weak and underwhelming.
- Overall Enjoyment: 8/30 – A disappointing experience with little enjoyment.

- yaro

Already at the smell, I get this classic fishiness we get from shou puers. It smells like a Lin Cang puer, though the charcoal-roasted part isn’t necessarily obvious. The soup is thick; both the wash and the first steep were maroon.

- Temperature: 203°F / 95°C
- Time: 10s successive infusions
- Tea Amount: 0.25 oz / 7 g
- Water Volume: 6 oz / 180 mL Yixing teapot (it looks so cool!)

I brewed this tea using a Yixing teapot, hoping to explore its depth through multiple short infusions.

- Flavor: So earthy! This makes my cheap Lin Cang taste like mud in comparison. Very light and pleasant at this temperature and brewing time.

- Flavor: This smells and tastes exactly like an espresso, and a strong one at that. The soup is thick, and close to black rather than red. Strong grainy smoky smell, exactly like freshly brewed coffee. It’s not unpleasant tasting, but just like its coffee counterpart, I don’t think this would qualify as a crowd pleaser.

- Flavor: I cannot fathom the caffeine content in this; it has to be insane. I wouldn’t drink this at night, just like other puers. I just don’t have the vocab necessary to explain what I’m drinking. It’s coffee, shockingly coffee, and just like coffee, that final bitterness that hits in the aftertaste is either highly appreciated or hated.

- Flavor: Yeah, that’s coffee, not much to say and the flavor probably will evolve to taste more and more like it. This is fascinating.

Well, I just read w2t’s own description of the thing, I guess they got the exact same notes I did. This is coffee. I’m very surprised by what the talented hands out there can make—a tea that tastes like coffee? That’s definitely uncommon.

- Flavor Complexity: 15/30 – Complexity is where I guess it should be. This isn’t one of those multilayered teas, but what it lacks in complexity it definitely makes up for in originality.
- Brewing Forgiveness: 20/20 – This tea is definitely forgiving. I started with near boiling and ended at a cooler 85°C yet this tea showed a lot of resilience.
- Quality Across Infusions: 15/20 – It was definitely a consistent and high-quality tea.
- Overall Enjoyment: 20/30 – This tea is highly original, a surprising take on what seems at first, at least smell-wise, like a very classic shou puer. Definitely up there with the most interesting teas I’ve, humbly, tried so far.

Flavors: Coffee, Earthy, Espresso

- yaro

I recently tried the 2024 Great Blue Heron by white2tea. Here’s my detailed review of the experience:

Preparation:

- Temperature: 194°F / 90°C
- Time: 2-3s, 5s, 10s
- Tea Amount: 7 g
- Water Volume: 6 oz / 180 mL

I brewed this tea using my new Yixing “小西施” (Small Xishi) teapot.

Smoked goodness, very pronounced smoked taste already.

Anise, biltong, algae, and most importantly, charcoal. No astringency whatsoever, incredibly balanced tea.

New astringency, but it’s not predominant yet. What an incredible personality this tea has, it’s very complex, and it constantly evolves. I don’t see the point in going any further, this is great.

Flavor Complexity: 30/30
This tea is consistently great, with a diverse profile that dares to go rather far. This young sheng puer impresses by its ability to be as interesting as its older brothers.

Brewing Forgiveness: 15/20
I have not tested the brewing forgiveness thoroughly, as per my small sample size, however I am going to assume this is a high quality tea that can be pretty forgiving. I’d still stay around 90-95°C.

Quality Across Infusions: 20/20
The flavors evolve constantly but maintain a coherent profile, perfect mix of evolution and stability.

Overall Enjoyment: 25/30
Incredibly enjoyable tea, with lots of personality and complexity. I cannot recommend it further, I truly was impressed by it and will certainly be buying a cake, it tastes even better than the 2024 Spring Old Arbor Raw Puer by white2tea I tried recently.

- yaro

- Temperature: 212°F / 100°C initially, adjusting to 194-203°F / 90-95°C in later infusions
- Time: 2-3s, 5s, 10s, 15s
- Tea Amount: 5 g
- Water Volume: 4 oz / 120 mL

white2tea

Welcome to the May tea club. We’re still grinding away in the tea mountains of Menghai, but we hurried along this lovely little spring tea cake just for you. Picked, processed, pressed and sent along the way before May 1st, quite a feat if we do say so ourselves.

By the time this tea arrives at your door, it’ll likely only be about one month or so old. Why so late this year? Drought continues to be an issue in another undeniably hot and dry spring. Climate change is being felt clearly in the mountains of Yunnan. A stark contrast from weather I experienced nearly 20 years ago in Yunnan, or even a decade ago in Menghai. The temperatures continue to rise and the rainy season seems to be shifting as well, both in timing and volume of rain. Just the anecdotal worries of this here tea fellow, but it’s been a few years since weather seemed “normal”.

Alright, enough of the climate dread; this is a lovely tea. If you’d like spoilers, continue reading. Otherwise, you may want to break into your cake and form a few untainted opinions before knowing any backstory.

2024 Spring Old Arbor Raw Puer – 50g – This year’s Yunnan raw Puer teas were somewhat of a mixed bag of good and bad. This dry weather for the some areas meant that their growth size was small and stunted, the resulting leaf uneven and some sites light (if you notice this very fun recurring theme!) and some locations had precious little gushu [old arbor]. This particular cake is sticky sweet, with a heavy sugar and sweet as a recurring [sic returning sweetness]. The aromas will be a little muted because it was recently pressed, but given six months or so the fragrances will also tighten up into bright florals and honey to be enjoyed for months to come. We recommend trying a little now and saving the rest as a Christmas gift to yourself, but who really wants to wait until Christmas for presents?

Brewing Instructions- Boiling water, even for very fresh raw Puer, is our preference. Use gongfu style brewing if you can; we have new articles on how to brew gongfu and Puer tea on our blog, check those out for extended advice and explanations more thorough than we can provide in a mere one page letter. If you’d like a softer experience that limits bitterness and astringency drop the temp to 85C – 95C, this will lessen the harsher notes of the tea.

One last quick note; we are ambitiously planning to update our tea club payments to be through Shopify in the coming months. This will mean that you can receive automatic tracking and edit your address directly through your white2tea.com account. However, as we are currently swamped with spring tea, there’s no clear set release date – but keep an eye out in the future, we will make an official announcement when its possible!

We couldn’t do it without you and you’ve got our most sincere thanks for being in the club. We’ve got a lot of exciting clubs planned for the coming months, so stick around and share your experiences with us online #white2tea

1st Infusion (2-3s):
Oh so light and incredibly sweet, this is a really nice young puer. Slight vegetal notes that are very pleasant, very light. This might be the tea to reconcile me with young puers! Pleasant earthiness, although I sense some bitterness coming.

2nd Infusion (5s, 90°C):
Some astringency on the front that will cause me to probably let my water cool down to 90°C. For now, however, it is still an excellent young puer. I’m getting tobacco and smoked meat.

3rd Infusion (10s, 90°C):
The astringency doesn’t evolve as badly as I thought. We’re getting more of that delicious smoked meat and tobacco.

4th Infusion (15s, 95°C):
Going to 95°C with this one. A bit more woody. Overall the same flavors, and I expect this to be a generous tea, giving us probably about 11-12 very good steeps.

2024 Spring Old Arbor Raw Puer by white2tea offers a delightful and complex flavor profile. The initial lightness and sweetness evolve into more robust notes of tobacco and smoked meat, with a consistent performance across multiple infusions. Adjusting the temperature helps manage astringency and brings out different nuances in flavor.

- Flavor Complexity: 25/30 – Great complexity, a very full tea with a lot to offer!
- Brewing Forgiveness: 13/20 – Definitely forgiving, though I wouldn’t expect it to hold well to anything other than gong fu style and near-boiling temperatures.
- Consistency Across Infusions: 20/20 – This is a very consistent tea!
- Overall Enjoyment: 22/30 – A very enjoyable young puer. I didn’t think I would enjoy it as much as I did. I definitely recommend it. Got 50g in the 2024 w2t tea club!

- yaro

This tea is quite the experience. A camphor tasting shou that is pine smoked in the style of lapsang souchong. I was a bit worried about how these flavors would mix, but they are absolutely stellar. The smokiness isn’t overdone. You can still pick out the pine wood and the tingly potpourri flavors in between the sour, smokey flavor. It has a great spiciness that lingers after each sip.

Grandpa Style!

Of the new smoked tea releases this year, this was the last one I needed to try, and it seems like I may have unintentionally left the best for last. The soup of this tea is quite thick and almost creamy, with a heavy yet sweet and floral smokiness that permeates all facets of the sip. One thing I especially like is that after the whispy fog of smoke has settled the flavours that spring forth are very cool, crisp and fresh. Petrichor. Cucumber pulp. Morning dew. It’s an incredibly well-balanced and nuanced feeling tea without skimping on that robust camp fire smoke flavour that I also crave and love.

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/C7hbh_dOGvq/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IUCyniCWzg

I didn’t save my letter for the monthly club this was in. I remember it being a part of the smoked tea series, but this must’ve been a club offering or listed as something else on the W2T website. All I can tell is that it’s a lightly smoked sheng.

I wouldn’t place this at the top of the list for my favorite sheng offerings from Paul. It’s fairly light (hint of smoke) and the flavor is mostly lacking. No qi charges from the session, which means more tea ahead!

A smoked sheng from white2tea. I definitely purchased this tea because of the description that is almost completely unrelated to the tea itself. The first few smoked teas I got from white2tea were a little too harsh for me and I fully expected this one to be smoked too much. To my surprise, while completely up front with the smokiness, you can still taste the sweet and sour flavors from the sheng. I really enjoyed this tea, but I think it will really improve over time. It’s a nice break when I want something with tons of smokey and briny flavor, but I’m hoping to save some of it for a few years to see how it mellows out.

Grandpa Style!

Quite citrusy with a pleasant pithy orange rind note and peach fuzz astringency. It strikes a solid balance between a bright top note sweetness, zesty grapefruit and lemongrass aromatics, and a snappy green bitterness and that good, soothing sort of medicinal note. Pretty great huigan, too. Definitely the kind of raw pu’erh I don’t think I’d have appreciated nearly so much just a few years ago…

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DALpfxoOK0D/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc6gnPV149k

Grandpa Style!

I have to admit to drinking this raw pu’erh somewhat absent mindely – enough so that I am confident I missed much of the nuance this tea seems to have to offer. However, I did quite enjoy the almost fuzzy feeling texture of my brew; it was just enough astringency to be assertive and pleasantly captivating without dipping into that more sandpaper sort of territory. I also got tasted a sort of pithy citrus note in the finish, like grapefruit zest. I’m quite intrigued to see how that flavour may fit in the overall picture of this tea when brewed with more care and attention. Thankfully I still have a good handful of minis left, so I will definitely get my mulligan in the future!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C7W6_LtOZkS/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR4UxVJ1DQo

Gongfu!

Happy International Tea Day!! Today, I’m celebrating by breaking in a new shiboridashi set with a session of raw pu’erh. Though the tasting notes of this sheng were somewhat soft and delicate, the mouthfeel was exceptional. Thick, brothy, and unctuous in a way that perfectly highlighted the nuanced dance of vegetal yet creamy and fatty tasting notes. I found it quite hard to describe, but deeply satisfying nonetheless – in particular with regard to the huigan left after each swallow. Like fresh, sweet, and crystal clear rain water.

Is anyone else drinking anything special or particular today?

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C7PsA5JO7PB/?img_index=1

I’m also in love with this new set!! I tend to steer pretty clear of neutral coloured or “plain” teaware, which is probably pretty obvious from a quick scroll through my profile. However, something about the delicate cream colour of this shibo with the gorgeous white rabbit adorning the lid really caught my attention; and it’s even more darling in person. All day I’ve been fiddling about with it, and I’m relieved to say it also handles and pours like a dream! I think it makes a great addition to my always growing teaware collection.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBGE_2h1dWo