2013 Shoumei

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge – August Tea #1 -A tea you’ve never tried before

Looking at the fresh challenge list, this tea that I have been drinking for days just happens to fit for this prompt. From derk a LOOONNGG time ago, thank you derk!  I debated about putting the entire BIG piece of this in the infuser, figured this poor tea has waited long enough, and I’m glad I used the entire piece.  It was a slow unraveler.  I may have steeped this the most of any tea, over three days, six big mugs making sure to put the steeped leaves into the fridge for that third day, as I don’t usually steep the same leaves for THREE days. I think it could have kept giving. The flavor was definitely shifting and changing, but it was also difficult for me to tell what those flavors were.  It was also never too strong in flavor.  I steeped delicately at first, then really going for boiling water and long steeps towards the end. The last steep brewed for ten minutes. At first tasting like minerals. Towards the end, the color and flavor of autumn leaves.  I’m not doing this fantastic white tea justice.  But I sure enjoyed it!
After I wrote the above, I read derk’s note on this tea and was pleased to see derk also mentioned it tasted like “minerals” and “autumn leaf”. I feel like derk has the superior tasting ability, so there you go. :D
2022 sipdowns: 91

I enjoy this one, it has woody notes and the tea is almost juicy when pushed. I used 6.5g in 100ml gaiwan, first steep I kept relatilvley short because I found that this tea can get quite bitter if pushed too much in first \ second steep, but from there on I like to push it. I got 7-8 infusions and then put the leaves in a small pot and boiled it for around 8 minutes, which got me some really nice nutty notes! Could probably even be boiled once more.
Would overall recommend.

2013 Shoumei had 3 Ways

Dry leaf smelled like yeast rolls, fermented fruit, brain says Hot Cross Buns.

1) Gongfu.
Warmed leaf smelled of peonies and redfruits, forest floor and autumn leaf, yeast rolls. Rinsed leaf revealed old wood, red plum, red currant. All infusions had a similar character, that of a honeyed body with tangy citrus and redfruits, straw and floral undertones. The most memorable aspect was a pure aftertaste of raw honey.

2) Boiled.
A pinch thrown in a small saucepan. Simmered for who knows how long. Good dark redfruit aroma but disappointed with stewed autumn leaf and twigs. Poured it out.

3) Bowl. Tried this for the sake of Cameron B.
Complex floral aroma of beeswax-redfruit-pastry-nectar. First sips were intensely fragrant and waxy with peony and chrysanthemum, mineral, faint autumn leaf, very drying with a crystallized honey aftertaste. Pleasant but seemed to lack substance. Next sips had an herbaceous undertone, kind of missing midtones. Later sips became thicker and numbing to the top and the tip of the tongue. Despite using boiling water, I think preparing in a bowl doesn’t heat the leaf long enough to bring out deeper flavors beyond the florals. I did find this method very enjoyable though and I’ll try it with another pressed white.

It’s a decent pressed white that I think would do well for beginners to the type. Expect multiple western steeps and long gongfu sessions and be prepared for hours-long speedy caffeination if you’re sensitive. I could only drink this stuff into the late morning.

Wet leaf scent will immediately strike Koreans who grew up drinking hanyak as well… hanyak. I’ve half a mind to call my childhood 한의사 to ask if white tea aged for 6+ years was part of the recipe.

Taste is very mild if you gongfu, but I forgot I was steeping the last one and the resulting dark liquor tasted unmistakably like hanyak. This isn’t a bad thing. I’d be surprised to meet non East Asians who like this, though. It is probably an acquired medicinal taste.

As a Korean I want to boil the heck outta this tea and see what happens. But if you’ve never had eastern traditional medicine, see if you like it made with short steeps.

It would be fun to experiment adding dried dates and pine nuts and honey and maybe a cinnamon stick . Possibly also goji berries and snow fungus. It is a tea that invites attempts to make it into a complex but harmonious wellness dessert.

수미차 백차
노백차 수미[老白茶 寿眉]

This person seems to know what he or she is talking about: blog.daum.net/puerchalove/7815983?np_nil_b=-2

Gongfu!

Another tea from last weekend; and in case you haven’t been following the trend from the last few weeks worth of Gongfu sessions I’ve had, this tea was also paired with fruit. In this case, I enjoyed munching on several slices of Santa Claus melon while drinking the tea! It was my first time ever trying Santa Claus melon so I wasn’t totally sure what to expect from it, but it was delicious (as was the tea).

The Santa Claus melon was fairly mellow and sweet, sort of like a tamer version of a cantaloupe? Also super crisp! I’d 100% eat it again – I was very taken back by how much I enjoyed it and how familiar the flavour was, even though I’d never experienced it before.

This was also probably one of the better white teas I’ve ever had from White2Tea! I find, personally, that their aged/compressed white offerings are very hit or miss for me – there have been some that have totally blown me away, and others that are just kind of mediocre. In this case, I thought the tea was very flavourful and nuanced, with great longevity (10 steeps!) and evolution of flavour. It was light to medium bodied, and sweet throughout the session – in an appropriate and non-cloying way. I observed notes of honey (not creamed, but more fresh and raw), red fruits, white peach, and fresh straw with undertones of springtime flowers. That sweetness present throughout the session lingered right on the back of my tongue, as if I’d just had a giant bite of sweet, juicy fruit – even in the sips when I hadn’t had any fruit at all, which is how I know it was a quality of the tea and not of the melon. Later infusions had a deeper peach note, more like an overripe peach and less of the clean “white peach” I’d observed earlier. Less straw notes were present, as well.

This was insanely good!

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/BxX1TuZneeu/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgfK62zpQvk