2016 Head

Song pairing first this time: Portishead — Strangers
(Roseland NYC Live album on my turntable)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbSu2UM8kcQ

Did you realize no one can see inside your view?

Stoner tea if you believe in tea energy. Like a heady sativa dominant strain with enough grounding indica to keep me in one spot. Sedating hyper-awareness. How uncomfortable. This feeling is why I no longer smoke marijuana. I submit, though. How could I not to such a power?

A sample courtesy of Togo.

Dry leaf is shades of brown with leaves and buds furry beige and camel. Smells citric tart and vegetal with a hint of unripe raspberry. Warmed leaf brings out a leafy, bitter medicinal smell with powdered sugar. Rinsed leaf aroma is old wood, buttery floral, sweet vegetal. Drank the rinse. it was very good.

The tea begins viscous with an undeniable lingering rubber-aspirin bitterness. You can’t hide from it. It is there and you know it. The liquor is substantial yet light as in it’s heavy, yet no one characteristic or flavor dominates; well balanced. Leafy medicinal with cotton candy and corn soup sweetness, osmanthus florality. Drying with thick gummy-fluffy salivation. High minerality leaves a clean finish. Initial aftertaste of gingerbread catches me off guard. Warming in throat, cooling in chest. The thing about this tea in its current state — it’s really quite drying but that quality just lets this ridiculously complex, space-filling peachy-plummy-floral-buttery aftertaste resonate for what feels like forever. Time dilation with too much thinking. My brain whirls, I come back to the aftertaste. Too much thinking again. Oh hey, how am I still tasting this tea? And she’s off again.

By the fourth infusion, camphor is coming out my ears and each inhalation through my parted lips cools my entire mouth. I sit for a while with a deep returning honey sweetness. Fifth and sixth infusions, the astringency finally departs, opening up to a less viscous but bittersweet, buttery-rich liquor with apricot-osmanthus, honey-powdered sugar, hay. Tongue coated in tea oil. I have no idea how many infusions I got. Ten? eleven? longer than usual gongfu steep times before I called it.

The experience of this sheng gripped me for better or for worse. I loved what it had to offer but the heady energy was overwhelming for my currently questioning mindset. If you’re into powerful teas and crave that bitterness, for the current price of $0.38 USD/g I can recommend Head. It does seem like it will age well.

I think this tea is aging quite nicely. I only have a sample of it, but it’s a nice one to drink with a full body, strong and clean taste, and powerful energy. The only aspect that’s lacking is the aroma, but that’s not such an issue for a sheng.

I don’t find the bitterness to be overpowering, it’s very pleasant in fact, even when using boiling water to brew the tea. It’s a strong herbaceous and woody bitterness that quickly transforms into a fragrant sweetness. There are also some floral sour notes in the finish, that, together with the very mineral aftertaste, remind me of high mountain oolongs. Thanks to the protracted aftertaste, the tea stays with you for a long time. The liquor slides down the mouth easily. It has a buttery and slightly powdery mouthfeel and medium viscosity. Drinking this tea makes me sweat a bit, but it’s most noticeable effect is the mind clarity and perception enhancement I get from it. The qi is one of the nicest ones I found, yet it’s not overpowering at all.

I don’t have much to say with regards to particular flavours, it is a very tasty tea for sure though, albeit quite a standard sheng taste profile. I have a feeling it will age well too. The price seems about right to me, it’s neither overpriced nor a steal. However, because it’s not so distinctive, I don’t think I will be tempted enough to get a cake.

Day full of homework, so decided to start off with some Head. 7g into the gaiwan, quick rinse, quick steep to start with.

The smell that came off these dry leaves wasn’t super strong, and I would say, when wet, oddly enough, the aroma is not unlike fresh, unsweetened sun tea. The liquor is a color similar to apple juice. Seems a bit cloudy. Texture is definitely thick, and the bitterness is there, but isn’t particularly strong in the beginning. I love the aroma that lingers in my nostrils after each sip.

Second steep is the same color and free of any cloudiness. The flavor remains consistent, and an appreciable huigan becomes apparent. Texture becomes even thicker and fluffier in steep three, the huigan strengthens, and there is even a bit of up front sweetness. Contrary to the description, I don’t find this particularly bitter or astringent. The flavor is opening up more, as well. Vegetal undertones, very light florals, some hay and a hint of a buttery aftertaste.

The texture thickens again around steep four, and I start to experience some qi. Body buzz carried me through hours of homework, even after the flavor and color lightened up.

I’m working my way through various samples from White2Tea. After having multiple sessions with this tea, 7 can honestly say I’m not a fan. This tea has body charactics of Menghai material, which I’m typically a fan of. However, although this tea has nice energy, the exucution of flavor doesn’t do it for me.

My only issue is that this tea’s tastes ‘airy’. Like, the flavor is thick and everything but it tastes like the backbone of this tea’s body went missing. Even on different temperatures and steeping times, something was still missing.

In its youth, this tea only worked for me with 200 degree water. Sessions with boiling water were overly astringent and short-lived.

This session started out simply enough with vegetal, zucchini notes and slightly sweet finish. This lasted for about three steeps, each one getting thicker and having a longer lasting finish. The finish and lingering aftertaste were like baking spices to me, like how a house smells when you’re baking a pie. Around the fifth steep, the flavors and feelings, mainly the thickness, started coalescing and coming together beautifully. The front of the sip got less vegetal and more sweet. By the seventh steeps, the astringency which had been lingering under the sweetness was just about gone. The tea had a thick, buttery texture. A bit of a hay note was all that remained of the former vegetal notes, and the sweet finish began almost immediately and lingered for quite a while. The tea started giving up after about 13 steeps. The last couple after that were mostly astringent bitterness returning, so not entirely pleasurable.

I think the most apt word I’ve seen to describe White 2 Tea’s tea is “gestalt,” used by fellow Steepsterite moot, whose reviews I’ve been greatly enjoying the past few days. I’m not too proud to say I had to look up what word meant – essentially a whole which is greater than the sum of its parts. I think that could be used to describe most of the teas I’ve tried from W2T, including this one. Having recently read some of what moot wrote about W2T, I had it in my mind while I was drinking, and when the flavor and thickness really synergized on about the fifth steep, I found myself agreeing with him on the appropriateness of his word choice.

Another good one from W2T, though I think it might be the first puerh I haven’t been able to enjoy with boiling water. I think this tea might be a little better once it gets just a bit of age on it, to take off that bitter/astringent edge. Then I could’ve used boiling water, and I bet it could’ve been even thicker!

The White2Tea 2016:

I purchased samples of all the 2016 new line up this year, and I started at the bottom (cheapest) and worked my way up. I did this to taste the profile improvements and variances. I brewed in the same pot with same leaf water ratio. Also, this helps to hone in my palette to identify what’s a good deal and what’s not. At the conclusion of my tasting I will be placing my cake order.

hahaha. Love the name. I gave my packet a shake and opened her up. Immediately, I am hit with a sweet and spicy tone. I take in some odd cooling sensations with basil and other herbaceous tones. I warmed up my pot and placed some in. The scent opens up into some wet wood, wildflowers and honey. the aroma is heavy and sweet. I washed the leaves once and prepared for brewing. Side note; once brewed the leaves are incredibly fragrant! A hot grassy note with some bitter and pungent aromas fill the tea room. The brew begins with some vegetable tastes such as: bok choy, asparagus, and Sichuan peppers. The taste is thick and oily with some sweetness towards the back. The forefront grows with honey tones that warm the body. I take in some astringency in later steeping along with a nice kuwei finish. The puckering and drying of my tongue begins around the third steeping. The brew grows to become more and more bitter with a lot of astringency. I can feel a wonderful qi fill my body and make me feel top heavy. The sensation is powerfully and heady (hehe). The last steeping brings about soft sweet tones with an underlying dryness. The qi grows and sends chills up and down my spine and pushes pressure outwards from my body. I liked this tea, but I feel it needs a some more time to dry out and calm down.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BJnZ1PAAsEg/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

~8g off of a 25g sample. I found this really balanced with a mellow bitter note coming in by the second steeping that was balanced by a sweetness and full almost buttery body. I found flavors of hay and a floral aroma. The bitterness came in with woody notes. Overall I really enjoyed this! Not overly sweet or bitter.