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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

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 !

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

Preparation:

- Temperature: 167°F / 75°C
- Time: 8 min, 20 sec
- Tea Amount: 7.5 g
- Water Volume: 15 oz / 450 ml

This tea is part of the list of the teas I got this month. (https://skoomaden.me/posts/teas-arriving-in-may/).

Would you believe me if I told you I tried this tea 4 times in 4 different ways before writing this review?
I simply couldn’t believe it was as bad as I thought it was, so I tried it again and again, and again, and again.

First, I tried Gong Fu Style in two different combinations of time and temperature, then I tried it in a temperature-controlled tea maker, and finally, I tried it in a regular teapot.
The first time, I thought that perhaps Gong Fu Style wasn’t made for this tea, the second time, I thought perhaps I had too much concentration, then, I thought that perhaps the temperature dropping during the infusion (since the infusion time is 8-10 min) was the cause, and finally, as I am writing this review, the tea is in a teapot, and I am waiting for it to cool down to see if it’s better cold.

Now let’s see how Palais Des Thés describes this tea:

From Palais des Thés:

“White peony” is a very fine tea, made up of all sorts of leaves in their natural state: silvery buds, Souchong leaves, first and second leaves and stems.
Its woody taste is like the autumn fruits: hazelnuts and chestnuts.

Alright, pretty self-explanatory, onto the tasting notes.

I’m going to break down every single tasting experience I had with this tea, and then I’ll give you my final thoughts.

“What the hell am I drinking?” must’ve been my first thought. It wasn’t the bitterness that struck me, but the toughness of the tea. It was like drinking a very old, very dry, very woody piece of wood. The taste was so strong, so overpowering, that I couldn’t even taste the bitterness. I thought perhaps I had too much tea in the gaiwan, so I tried again.

Okay, less tea, less time, maybe that’s the trick. But no, the tea was still as strong, as overpowering, as woody. I couldn’t even taste the bitterness. I thought perhaps the method itself was wrong.

Ark! Strong as hell this one, overpowering, woody, dry, old, and strong, and most importantly, not anything like a Bai Mu Dan.

Huh, is this it?
Is this the tea I’ve been trying to taste for the past 2 hours?
It’s so incredibly light, so incredibly tasteless, so incredibly… boring.

But still woody, still like what a minecraft birch plank would taste like, still not a Bai Mu Dan.

But I cannot say it’s bad, because it isn’t. “Truly I was the one to blame by trying to taste it in a way it wasn’t meant to be tasted.”
But why would this Bai Mu Dan not be meant to be tasted in Gong Fu Style? Why would it be so strong, so overpowering, so woody?

Not every white tea can be tasted Gong Fu Style, and this one is a perfect example of that. It’s not bad, it’s not good, it’s just… there. It’s a tea that you can drink without thinking about it, without tasting it, without enjoying it. It’s a tea that you can drink while doing something else, while talking, while working, while reading, while watching TV.
It’s a non-tea, it’s not light yet with character as I wished it would’ve been, and after trying a stable method, and under these very specific and controlled conditions, I can say that it’s an overpriced tea that does what it’s supposed to.

I would feel it to be unfair to judge it badly, my apprehensions disappeared after the last tasting, but I cannot say it’s good either.

- Flavor Complexity: 10/30 – The tea lacked depth and distinctive flavors.
- Brewing Forgiveness: 10/20 – Difficult to get right, with inconsistent results across methods.
- Consistency Across Infusions: 8/20 – Varied widely, mostly disappointing.
- Overall Enjoyment: 10/30 – Despite its shortcomings, it’s drinkable and fair.

- yaro

I recently tried Chaï Impérial, a masala chai blend from Palais des Thés. Here’s my detailed review of the experience:

Preparation:

- Temperature: 212°F / 100°C
- Time: 3 min, 0 sec
- Tea Amount: 7 g
- Water Volume: 14 oz / 400 ml

What a great Masala Chai, paired with milk (50:50 ratio) this is definitely one of the best ones out there.

Nothing much to add, the cardamom and ginger overpower the pink pepper, but that is to be expected from a Masala chai. I made myself some Karak Chai with it too using concentrated milk.

Flavors: Cardamom, Ginger

- Flavor Complexity: 25/30 – Rich and well-balanced spices, although cardamom and ginger dominate.
- Brewing Forgiveness: 18/20 – Performs well even with minor adjustments in preparation.
- Consistency Across Infusions: 20/20 – Maintains strong flavor profile throughout.
- Overall Enjoyment: 19/30 – Highly enjoyable, particularly with milk.

- yaro