Fuding Shou Mei White Tea Cake 2012

This white tea has a deep amber color and an aroma of hay. It tastes of hay and wood and it is a little soapy. I found the 2011 cake to be much better.

I was actually impressed with this tea. For the price, it is quite solid aged white.

The flavor is of paperback books, honey, and woodsy. The final infusions got dark and slightly medicinal. Some more age likely will get more medicinal and date notes. I love the colour of aged whites as they steep up light gold, then finish off dark like a black tea.

I should really buy a couple cakes to stash to age, maybe at the next Teavivre sale.

Full review on Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/2012-fuding-shou-mei-white-cake-teavivre/

Brews a medium yellow-orange. Taste of honey, citrus, and dry leaves with a hint of cinnamon spice. This is a decent tea but not nearly a mellow and complex as Teavivre’s 2011 Shou Mei.

I’ve decided that this is a tea style (aged white) that needs to be in my cupboard all the time. So far, I’ve been incredibly lucky to have subsisted solely on samples from generous Steepster users and companies, but I think it’s high time I officially invest and stock up!

Why do I love this kind of thing? For starters, it combines my favourite floral, hay, and fruity notes of white tea styles with the smooth, creamy-earth profile of an aged tea. It also proves to the world that you can be the low-grade by-product of Silver Needles, and still retain ALL the class. Dance on, classy tea.

This shou mei has a heady sweetness that I associate with blueberry wine. I can’t say why shou mei’s and blueberries are interlinked in my mind, but there it is. Not sure anyone else would get that particular flavour. It turns into a spiced juniper berry in later steepings.

Steep Count: 3

Sample provided by Teavivre. Thank you!

Additional notes: Sipdown of a sample! I also just wanted to write a note to say that over four quite lengthy steeps, the leaves from this cake only loosened a slight bit in my big infuser. So the leaves had plenty of space, they were just not moving. The last steep was even at boiling for many minutes. This is an alright tea, but I must say I feel like the steeps aren’t working if the tea is barely unraveling. (Does this mean many many more steeps are possible?) Also, this one never gets bitter which is great. The last steep has a lovely sweet autumn leaf flavor. But I think I still prefer the 2011 better.

Aged shou meis are one of the reasons I like whites so much.

Earthy like autumn leaves, very flavourful (lots of tannins), no storage/mold/fishy taste that some puerhs have. It is Earthy a bit like how Taro root is a little Earthy but still sweet. Or like hay/long yellow grass. It kind of has the sweetness of the smell of hay.
Light sweetness, brews a medium amber-brown, can be rebrewed many times. No hint of bitterness/astringency. This is super smooth.

You can’t mess this tea up. Brew hot, brew cold, any temperature and any brew time. Assuming you like Earthy teas, you can’t go wrong. This tea is incapable of brewing a bad cup.

This tea has such a unique appearance! It literally looks like something you have raked up in the fall. I have prepared it both Western style and gong fu, and it really keeps on giving. The taste is smooth and creamy, it is very mild, and it doesn’t seem to get bitter even with long steeps. I paired it with chocolate and it was lovely.

Fuding Shou Mei White Tea Cake 2012 By Teavivre

Review:

Dry leaf: spices, musty.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BRyCkUvA6MV/

Wet leaf: seaweed, roasted.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BRyExNcAZeE/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BRyE3LxgNo1/

1x short rinse.

Light steep; I taste/smell: (smell) slight floral. (Taste) light —→ spices, roasted, floral.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BRyCzZHA3iU/

Medium steep; I taste/smell: (smell)
Little to no floral. (Taste) light floral. (Weird at the lack of flavors)

Heavy steep; I taste/smell: (smell) slight fruity. (Taste) light —→ roasted, floral.

All in all an ok tea. Nice taste to it. I rate a 80/100.

Where to buy: http://www.teavivre.com/fuding-shou-mei-cake/

(note: either this tea did not have that many flavors, or it was just me)