2002 White2tea White Whale

Tea type
Pu'erh Tea
Ingredients
Pu Erh Tea
Flavors
Astringent, Bitter, Smoke, Wood, Camphor, Menthol, Pine, Stonefruit, Tobacco, Wet Wood, Peach, Hay, Oak, Tart, Burnt Sugar, Cranberry, Resin, Spices, Berries, Seaweed, Caramel, Dark Wood, Dust, Malt, Roasted Barley, Scotch, Strawberry, Berry, Red Wine, Tannin, Earth, Tannic, Sweet
Sold in
Not available
Caffeine
High
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by d11t
Average preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec 7 g 4 oz / 115 ml

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25 Want it Want it

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58 Own it Own it

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29 Tasting Notes View all

  • “Aroma: Old red wine barrels, cork, yogurt, old woodsy furniture, fine delicate cranberry smoked ham and camphor – Very magically sourly mouth watering. A hint of dark chocolate. Taste: This is...” Read full tasting note
    100
  • “I missed this back when it emerged at $15 the brick. By the time I was looking at W2T the price had already escalated to a point where some cognoscenti were saying “not worth it,” and it kept...” Read full tasting note
  • “Strong with a good balance. Despite age still astringent and very spicy. Good mix of astringent, bitter, woody and smoky. Images and more at https://puerh.blog/teanotes/2002-white-whale-w2t” Read full tasting note
    85
  • “There is something about this tea that always has me coming back for more. It’s hard to put my finger on it, but something about the smell and taste take me back in time. I remember hearing a...” Read full tasting note
    92

From white2tea

2002 White2tea White Whale Raw 100g
Smooth aged raw puerh tea brick. Ready to drink or age further. When we first drank this tea, we knew we had found the bargain of our dreams. Plenty of body, but aged enough that it has a smooth and inviting character.

The White Whale can easily go toe-to-toe with similar factory productions from the 2002 era, but the whale weighs in at a fraction of the cost. Those in search of a smooth daily puer tea with over a decade of age that doesn’t hurt the wallet need search no further.

About white2tea View company

Company description not available.

29 Tasting Notes

350 tasting notes

You guys, I went to put away the Basics Set and grab something else from my latest White2Tea purchase to try. I looked at the white whale and thought, “yeah, maybe that one”. And then I looked a little closer and saw that in the plastic ziplock along with it was a puer pick! Woohoo, I have a puer pick now! What a thoughtful add-on! (my order must have had “newbie” written all over it) Anyhow, it was definitely necessary, because this brick is tightly compressed. So yay, I was able to chip off 6g for my gaiwan, did two rinses (one quick, one longer, hoping to get the tea chunks to open up a bit), then started with a 5-10sec steep. I found this one actually got intense and a little bitter quite quickly, so I ended up doing a bunch of 20sec steeps in a row rather than going longer with each one, which seemed to help. I might go with less tea next time.

This is a nice aged sheng, with lots of musty and earthy flavours and a cooling bitterness in the late sip / aftertaste that I presume is the camphor. It’s kind of like… taking a walk in the woods after a rainfall… while chewing on pine needles. But in a good way. ;) It’s also fairly smooth, full-bodied, and it mellows out into a bit of sweetness in later steeps. I’m writing this from memory for a tea I mostly drank yesterday, so this review is a bit lacking in detail. I’m glad I have a brick of it, and look forward to giving it another try!

But… how do I store this? The packaging doesn’t really lend itself to rewrapping as well as the cakes do. I currently have it semi-rewrapped and sealed up in the ziplock it arrived in, but I’m pretty sure that’s not a respectful way to store aged sheng. So Steepster, help me out, what should I do? :)

mrmopar

Leave the bag open and store it away from odors and sunlight. Not in the kitchen!
Gong Fu this at some time. The quick steeps do keep the bitterness down. If you build a pumidor later I will help with that.

boychik

It’s not big so grab some kind ceramic jar. Until you ready for pumidor as mrM suggests

MzPriss

But beware – mr mo will have you building a pumidor soon. He is an awesome good/bad influence

Lindsay

THIS is the reason I was trying to stay away from puer. Everyone I know already thinks my tea obsession is a bit crazy, but puer drinkers take it to a whole other level! No pumidors for me, at least for now. :)

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90
38 tasting notes

Nom nom nom this is delicious and complex and wonderful. It has that slightly aquatic dirty note I love in aged Sheng, followed by a foresty wonderfulness. There is a camphor note that lingers, and almost a berry taste. I’m a fan and so glad it’s back in stock at the moment so I can pick up a cake with my Clover Patch! I wish I had found this when it was $15 a cake, but even at $29 its really tasty within that price point. Not to mention the cute label.

Flavors: Berries, Camphor, Pine, Seaweed

Preparation
5 g 3 OZ / 88 ML
Sil

welcome back!

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99
50 tasting notes

A perfect middle aged tea. Not too dry not too wet, but very smooth and pretty complex. I should get more of this

Preparation
9 g 3 OZ / 100 ML
paxl13

100% perfect review :D

The whale is indeed perfect :D

Cheers!

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86
17 tasting notes

This brick’s virtues have been described a lot more eloquently than they will be here, but I thought I might as well corroborate. While I don’t quite share Hobbes’ level of enthusiasm for this thing, I think it’s a great deal, even with the rising price. The taste of the 5g I (very messily) liberated the brick of was consistent throughout all the steepings — dark wood, a little caramel, a slight cooling effect and a dark undercurrent of sweetness. It brews up a deep, visually pleasing orange and the leaves continued to yield quality tea for about 4 mugs. My only complaint flavorwise is that there is a bit of a sour aftertaste and not quite as much bitterness as I expected. My most substantial issue with this tea is that the qi isn’t very strong for the amount of caffeine present. This isn’t a huge gripe for something as cheap and as tasty as this, though.
Usual brewing methods, though I didn’t have to extend steep times for quite a while…

Flavors: Camphor, Caramel, Dark Wood

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100
13 tasting notes

This is my second all time favorite,

I’ll do a lazy review, let me just say that all the buzz around this brick is real
I should have bought more when it was cheaper!!!

Preparation
Boiling 6 g 3 OZ / 95 ML
jschergen

Agreed. $30 is not at all a bad price for it, but it’s still almost painful to buy more knowing it was once $15!

paxl13

@jschergen: yep… but I knew about the 2nd price raise and I said to myself, it’s no fun rebuying stuff when you can buy new stuff… Long story short, ended up buying 2 more.. I’m almost done with the first one sadly so… Anyway :D

paxl13

BTW, It’s not a bad price yet, it no more in the bargain bin at all IMO. It’s ‘correctly’ priced, which is perfect for anyone who would like to taste a good mid aged tea example!

jschergen

Yeah, I have 3 too so I shouldn’t really be complaining :). Yep, totally agree. The only reason the price is painful is because it was less in the past!

paxl13

+ the fact that I decided to stock it right after the price break shall I say :) But that’s only me :D @jschergen

yssah

what’s your first?

paxl13

@yssah 7572 CNNP Tiepai 2002 Green Mark shou from the same drug dealer :)

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82
14 tasting notes

I received this as a sample from a fellow connoisseur, Joe. (Thanks for the hook up by the way, man!) This is my first time having this, and I’ve been meaning to pick up a brick for a while now. So, with my first attempt of brewing this, I used a little bit too much leaf, not realizing how strong this was. I tend to use a bit more with Aged Sheng because I really like to as much camphor out as I can. Anyway, I had to reduce the amount by about half, and it without fail helped preserve the flavor. Right away this gives you a punch in the face. This sheng is quite strong, and with it being 13 years old, it is a decent “middle-aged” puerh. You get the same astrigency, and bitter tannins you would with a young fresh sheng, and the smokey, dusty, camphor taste you get with an aged. It really is a mix of the two. I didn’t catch any mineral flavor, to my disappointment.

I brewed this in my sheng yixing, at boiling for about 7 seconds each infusion up to about the 9th where I tripled the steeping time. Two 4 second rinses. After about the fourth infusion, there are notes of malt, barely, tobacco, and an aftertaste of what I caught as strawberries?

This was a very enjoyable tea, but there are quite a few flavors and notes I can’t really pinpoint. I think with this session I can probably get maybe a dozen more, but for now I’m gonna let the leaves rest a bit and try this again tomorrow. Maybe I can get more of review out of this.

I feel this could be an absolutely amazing experience if this tea sits and ages again for maybe another 6-7 years. It seems it may be similar to the 1982 Menghai I had a while back, if left in dry storage long enough.

I’ll give another review on this tomorrow once my pallet is a little more open.

Flavors: Astringent, Bitter, Camphor, Dust, Malt, Roasted Barley, Scotch, Smoke, Strawberry

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec 4 g 6 OZ / 177 ML

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81
127 tasting notes

Burpin’ Ole’ Book

Finally learned how to store and brew this guy which makes me a happy camper because I took a risk based on the price going up and bought more. I still wrestle with perfect steep time to acheive white whale nirvana which is a slightly tannic slightly fruity thicker smooth luscious cup. If I over brew it is a bit astringent and fruitiness is drowned by old book taste. Under brew and it’s a boring thin bland brew. I still sporadically smell and burp the old book taste hours later which is fun.

At the current price I like the yangpinhao better but I am spoiled to say this will be my daily drinker.

Flavors: Berry, Dark Wood, Red Wine, Tannin

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec 7 g 3 OZ / 100 ML
Cwyn

Keep airing it.

Jiāng Luo

I actually like the taste but I do have a few bricks broken up in a jar in my ghetto pumidor for ease of use.

Related question though, I have been airing out samples but fear they may lose some oftheir ccomplexity due them basically being the equivalent of loose maocha is this just paranoia

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84
3 tasting notes

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.

Flavors: Bitter, Camphor, Dark Wood, Earth, Smoke, Tannic

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec 11 g 6 OZ / 175 ML

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90
26 tasting notes

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!

Flavors: Camphor, Malt, Smoke, Sweet

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 15 sec 7 g 4 OZ / 130 ML
boychik

Great review! what the temp.? i have a sample but i dont want to ruin

DarkStar

Hi boychik. Don’t know the exact temperature but basically boiled water, then I let it sit for 3 minutes to cool down slightly. This worked out nicely for me.

boychik

Ok little cooled, not boiled. Thanks

mrmopar

I really liked this one as well.

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90
1271 tasting notes

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/

Preparation
Boiling

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