white2tea

Back to this tea (again), the cake is disappearing faster than I like to admit. Chip off ~11g for a ~150ml yixing; that’ll hit the spot (where I dance involuntarily with a grin on my face while touching the music).

Quick rinse, leaf aroma is sweet woody with a little smoke; let it rest for 10 minutes and flash brew. Liqour is deep orange, aroma is predominantly sweet. Light bitterness and some astringency, probably in part due to my relatively high leaf:water ratio. Flavor is sweet and woody, medium body/texture, leaves an oily mouth and throat (that is offset by some lingering bitterness). On later steeps, I sense some new stonefruit notes and a hint of vanilla in the aroma.

It’s not an exceptional experience in terms of dynamic taste, but the energy is unusually strong, and I find myself going back to this tea more often than I thought I would. Not exactly a bargain at almost $1/g, but if you want to experience a tea with strong qi, this is a good one to sample. Recommend focused brewing with your favorite music.

edit: it’s two days later and I’m still steeping this tea; the longevity is excellent..

This was a sample that a friend provided :)

It went well with all my other W2T that I tried yesterday. This one was a bit creamy for the lightness that it brewed. I really enjoyed this one as it didn’t dry out my mouth while it was the last tea I drank it would have the highest possibility to do so. The leaf of this one looked a bit dark and yet it brewed lighter than the rest which was fun to observe.
Not as tasty as the old bear that was tried next to it (for only 12 steeps each) but it was smoother with nice light tones.

Pu’erh TTB 2015 Tea #12

This had the most flavor out of all the W2T that I drank on Sunday. Rather nice taste, but it was a bit darker than I like my pu’erh. I think it’s the flavor that makes this special. It doesn’t seem that 9 years has really mellowed out all of the bitterness, but sometimes that’s okay because with a nice punch you want to feel it

Christina was so kind to send me a substantial sample of this tea. Thanks Christina!

I tried it almost as soon as I got it but just didn’t get what the fuss was about this tea. I have to admit I was busy at the time and just not enjoying the tea experience as much. I put it aside and thought I would come back to it again before leaving a review. Glad I did.

Brewed it up today in my gaiwan at 90C. Don’t remember how much tea I put in but I tend to go on the lighter side than most with my tea. Two quick rinses and then tried it out. It was light with a brown sugar sweetness, No bitterness at all.

2nd infusion – Not as much brown sugar. Picked up a hint of vanilla. It had a creamy mouth feel and just a bit fruity (not as much apricot as I get in other shengs)

3rd infusion – Vanilla note stronger. Brown sugar just a bit less but still sweet & creamy. I picked up a bit of astringency in this one. At this point the sweetness of this tea made me hungry and I ate something with garlic in it. Tsk Tsk. Yes, I know. A bad decision but I still kept enjoying the tea.

I don’t know which infusion I am on now but thoroughly enjoying this young sheng. It’s an amazing sheng and definitely worth ordering.

Backlog

I couldn’t find this tea on White2Tea’s website but it came in the monthly pkg Christina and I are sharing. When she sent it to me I almost missed the tiny tiny tiny (yes tiny!) little brick. They say this size is very deceptive. No kidding. I think this tea swelled about 4 or 5 times it’s size. Maybe more.

Supposedly this tea is roasted, then aged , then re-roasted and pressed into a brick.

I found it extremely smooth and roasted. Very full bodied tea. Very dark. I got plenty of infusions from this tea. Probably could have gotten more.

This is a good tea for those that love a full bodied, dark , roasted tea. Although, it was good, it just wasn’t the type of tea I would want very often since I prefer the lighter teas.

Backlog

This tea brews up the colour of liquid gold. It’s slightly smokey , very woodsy and no bitterness at all. Also, very sweet.

I enjoyed this tea but it didn’t grab me as something I had to buy. Maybe if I drink it again….

Backlog

This came from the monthly W2T box I am sharing with Christina. I have ripe puer with tangerine before and wasn’t too impressed but gave this one a try.

Although I found this puer smooth with no bitterness, I couldn’t pick up an citrus notes. I may give this one a try on another day. I find that many things determine how you feel about a tea on that day. Even with some of my typical green teas I have quite often; there are days when it’s amazing and other days when it’s only okay.

Pu’erh TTB 2015 Tea #10

This was a much darker liquid than what I just drank which made me think it was going to shock my taste buds awake. While this tea is a beautiful bronze color and has a nice aroma, I believe that a few cups of this in a row becomes rather drying. Someone might say: “hey didn’t you just down 15 steepings of another sheng?”
That would be a valid question, but… if you saw my drinking habits at work you would understand that on some days I am drinking 12+ ounces of sheng per hour for roughly six hours straight and there are certain teas that do not produce that dry effect. Does the taste negate the negative effect of the dryness? Not for me, but this is still a pleasant darker sheng that has some qualities of the light ones such as a small sweet aftertaste that makes me think in years this will lower on the roughness and become a much nicer elixir. Unfortunately, I do not store tea because I buy and drink… so I’ll pay the higher price later on if someone lets me know that this has become better with age :)

Pu’erh TTB 2015 Tea #9

Today is going to the craziest tea day… I’m going to drink 15 steepings of 8 different W2T pu’erhs to compare them to one another. As of right now this one is light but then creeps up on you after multiple steeps which is nice. The flavor is consistent and rather smooth, yet there is still astringency running through every sip that I take which kind of kills it a smudge. W2T has me hooked on their products with the Repave alone, but this one isn’t going into my small shopping cart as of yet. Maybe in say 3 years it’ll decide to not sting my tongue a tiny bit every time.

NOOOO I wish I hated this tea as the price tag on it is high! Unfortunately, I love it. No wait, I hate it. I hate it so much that I need to consume it like a lust for revenge and blood like I’m a 90’s kung fu movie hero.

First off, cha qi off the charts. Maybe I should of made 3g instead of 7.5? I ran to the gym already and deadlifted 200lbs laughing like a maniac as I worked the railroad. Thankfully, it’s my birthday today so no one is questioning my sanity as I get a pass today, others think I hit the bottle early and needed a muscle pump before birthday dinner. But its TEEEEEEEa!

The flavor is freaking smooth, new born smooth with an aftertaste of pretty orchid floral and fruity green grapes. It’s thick and lubey (HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA) of a tea. That fragrance is the best though

I’m on steeping 10 and it’s not showing signs of quitting. No quitters here, just tea. RAWHHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Dammit, my eye makeup is crooked.

Puerh Tea TTB. Thanks to White2Tea for giving me the opportunity to try this tea. The main notes I get from this are bamboo, spice and wet wood. There is a lot of wet storage taste to this tea. I wish I could say I really liked this tea but I can’t. It is however a nice example of an aged sheng. There is no doubt in my mind to the age of the tea, bot the color of the liquid and the taste say aged sheng.

I steeped this tea twelve times in a 60ml gaiwan with 5g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min. I stopped because of the caffeine factor but I’m sure that this tea would go the distance if I wanted to continue.

This was a unique aged shou experience. I unwrapped the nest and give it a whiff. I could take in some moist earth and must. I was also getting a lot of dirt tones. Also, this aged chunk kinda resembled dirt, ahah. I warmed this in my gaiwan and got relatively the same tones, but they were more intense. I washed this twice, for the heavy compression caused for some difficult brewing. The thick and dark liquor poured from my gaiwan, and it carried some more must and dust tones. The taste was smooth and lightly fermented. There was a distinct drying sensation that followed every sip. The liquor carries a brief oak wood and finishes with a dust taste. The smooth and delicious part is a slight petrichor that follows the brewing. The leaves are fairly large, and it consists of several stems. The steeped leaves give off an enticing tree root, deep earth, and light mineral tones. This brew is an easy drinker, and you could keep refilling the gaiwan all night with this one. The tones are pleasant and intriguing. I did not note any qi from this one. I liked it, but I don’t think I’d be spending any money on it. I have had better examples of aged shou, and this is definitely a bargain aged shu.

https://instagram.com/p/8e18K2zGRP/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

Pu’erh TTB 2015 Tea #1
This was the first tea that I tried because I figured getting home from work that this would last a good two hours while I go through the box, sure enough it did.
Drinking it here: https://instagram.com/p/9mclSPxYHl/
This is smooth with what I call the ‘aged vegetable sweetness’. While drinking this I have one constant thought throughout the 18 steepings of this tea, other than ‘this gets darker with each steep’, being that this tea taste very similar to the 1999 Golden Bud tea I bought from Royal Tea Bay. I’m not sure if that is good or bad because the price difference per cake is $150 which is a pretty big difference. Unfortunately this is one of the first times that I can comment on price holding me back from purchasing a sheng, but we shall see when I buy a sample of Last Thoughts :)

Enjoying this tea today. Thanks Christina for the sample.

It has a nice sweetness. No bitterness and there’s a slight floral note in it. It has a slight heaviness or oil feel in the mouth which I like too. Overall a great sheng!

I needed this after my scare of the snake. I’ve been in this house many years and never saw a snake in the front or back garden. Well today I open up my back door and there’s a baby brown snake on the door step!!!! Yikes! My cat stepped right over it. He’s blind and it didn’t move when he stepped over it so no problem However once he sensed it’s movement he would be right on it. I have no idea of what type of snake this was so I just wanted to get rid of it without hurting it. I finally got it in the big outside dustpan and took it to the front garden. Hubby says I was kind of mean to put it so close to the road but I checked later and didn’t see any dead snakes so he must have hid somewhere. Wish I could have taken him even further away but will see. I hope he doesn’t come back!!!

I used 90C water and lots of short steeps, ranging around 5 seconds or so. The smell of the dried leaf was tart, slightly smoky, somewhat fruity. After a quick rinse, the leaves began to stick out from the ball and make the whole thing look shaggy. After a few steeps, the dried leaf bloomed and unfurled like crazy!

Over this steeping session, the flavour was pretty consistent, though it got stronger over time: smoky, grassy, kinda apricot-y and astringent. The taste was pretty clean — no mushroom, fish, or other funky flavours. The initial steep was a lovely pale peach colour that deepened into a nice sunset peach over time.

Full review at http://booksandtea.ca/2015/10/white2tea-october-2015-box-lots-of-puerh/

I took a chunk that was about 6.5 grams and rinsed it a few times. Then I did steeps of 10, 20, and 30 seconds, but even after all of that steeping, the chunk still didn’t break apart into smaller leaf. Ultimately, I had to break it apart by hand after the third steep to get any traction. The first steep was extremely light, though the longer steeps were darker. All in all, the brewed tea ranged from mid-orange to deep burgundy/red.

The taste was as uncompromising as the dry leaf. I didn’t get much flavour development beyond notes of fish, earth, and something resinous like cedar or pine. After the fourth steep I gave up, because this thing just wasn’t happening. I’ve heard that good shou can be really rich and chocolaty, but this tea was way too much effort for so little satisfaction.

Plus, I did not like the way I felt after drinking it. I started to notice the kind of jittery, tapped-out muscle tension that I feel when I don’t get enough sleep — a cold, stringy hissing across my body that made me feel like I had pulled an all-nighter!

Full review at http://booksandtea.ca/2015/10/white2tea-october-2015-box-lots-of-puerh/

So disappointed. This is beautiful tea though. It has an odd vinegar like taste that’s too strong for me.

Got a gift of this tea from Grill, who is awesome. So… sweet apricots, hint of grass, slight pleasant bitterness with first steep; second steep slightly more bitter, third steep has gone into “way too bitter” territory for me. Four has calmed a bit. Five: I just noticed a little bit of smoke in the brew. I’m sure it was there from the beginning, but I was focused on the size of my tongue and the fact that it seems to be taking up an unreasonable amount of room in my mouth. Six: Ah, the bitterness has faded away and this tea has blossomed into something wonderful. Hello gorgeous, where have you been? Seven: la la la la la my face feels funny.
How this tea makes me feel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NQ3kXLKfDM
Eight: Now. This. Fantastic.
Nine: …
Ten, maybe eleven or fourteen: I have never laughed so much drinking tea. Everything is hilarious right now. I’m on YouTube watching videos of screaming goats and I’m in hysterics.
10/10 would drink this again.

This was a very interesting brew for me. I unwrap the paper to reveal this little “melon” shou. The compressed dry leaf has a slight fermentation scent. I break it in half (7g of the 14g whole) and pop that into my warmed gaiwan. I gave it a shake and then let the chunk relax for a bit. The scent that emitted from my gaiwan was deep and sweet. It was a dark savory scent with an earthen background. I washed the leaves once and prepared for brewing. The leaves took two washing sessions to fully depart from the melon whole, and they gave off a dry cherry dusty scent. The flavor was fairly good, but it was somewhat lacking. The initial sip was filled with deep cherry notes, but it plateaued at only the fourth steeping. I then decided to pop the other half in. This made the liquor amazing. The flavor was deep and powerful. The taste was of cherry cordial and a deep fermentation flavor. The brew was smooth and warming; it made my ears burn red hot. The pour from my gaiwan was incredibly dark and blood red. This session lasted fooorever and continued with a smooth and rich red wine taste. The finish of each sip included a candied huigan that was sweet and tangy. This sensation would slowly drip and follow me throughout the session. The qi was only present with a light head buzz. This session did incur a heavy tea drunk and slight slurred speech. I really enjoyed this melon. I highly recommend just throwing the whole thing in the pot. My melon was short (14g instead of 20g), but it was still perfect. This is an amazing value, and I will definitely be getting more in my next order.

https://instagram.com/p/8grjw8zGW_/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

This is a nice little shou — mellow, smooth and with a hint of sweetness, but having a substantial mouth-feel. It would make a nice daily drinker for those who like their shou’s on the lighter side. Too many stems / twigs and hints of smoke though for my liking.

10 g. of leaf in 1 cup of water, grandpa style

This tea is very easy to drink. Due to the small leaves, the cake splits apart easily and it brews dark quickly. It doesn’t last too many steepings because it brews quickly.

It’s sweet, nutty, smooth, and not very stinky.

Loved their “Old Arbor” so I thought I would love this one 2, but I won’t be trying this one again. Super sweet with an almost chemical taste.

Starts out very light. The first steep/rinse is not worth drinking and the second is only slightly better. The third is much better as well as a significant improvement in the color. There is an aroma of wood smoke in the gaiwan but it doesn’t seem to come through much in the cup. As many people have said, hay is the predominant note especially in early steeps. Green wood is a good description for mid to late steeps along with some stone fruit coming through on the finish. It has a certain sweetness but it is fresh and clean, almost mineral at times. Overall very light but enjoyable.