Gosh, these leaves must be ancient! If there is some fading, however, it doesn’t really matter today as what I was looking for was something mild. Let’s not go too much into detail here. Suffice to say that I had milkshake-tummy all day yesterday and that yesterday’s diet consisted primarily of water and the glass of juice I had in the evening was somewhat regretted at bedtime.
So. Something mild for me, please. I’m feeling better in the stomach department today, but let’s not rock the boat, eh?
This turned out as orange as… an orange today. I always get surprised by the colour with this one. I keep expecting it to be very very light and then I get shocked at how dark it actually is.
The aroma is weirdly custard-y. A bit buttery and a bit sweet and I wonder if the fact that I made lemon curd earlier today is messing with my senses. I can’t really spot much nuttiness in the aroma. Perhaps a little almond here and there, but not really anything noteworthy.
Which is funny, because I distinctly remember it as being quite nutty. Or maybe that was just all in the flavour?
Yes it was. It is indeed quite mild, likely due to some fading, but the note of walnut is still quite obvious. Sad to say, however, that either the remainder of the leaves will have to be brewed somewhat stronger than this or it will mainly be used for occasions such as this where I’m feeling it best to stick with something mild.
I had originally given this one a grand total of 98 points, but seeing as how I’ve been so disinterested in it for so long, I’m going to take it down somewhat. No tea that one loses interest in like this is really worth 98 points.
IMPORTANT EDIT!!! GAH!! I completely forgot! Happy New Year, Steepsterites. Be careful around the fireworks.
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Have a Happy (and safe) New Year too!
Happy New Year!
In the vein of old Bai Mu Dan – I always set aside some of each batch I get for aging. If sealed away, airtight in proper cool conditions, it will just steadily decline over the course of a year or longer. However, if exposed to a bit of air as you would store puerh, wrapped in paper or stored with a lid slightly ajar and moved between warm and cool areas of the house according to season and the behavior of the leaves’ surfaces, you can get a progression and accentuation of smoky and fruited qualities in good examples of the tea as it continues to oxidize over time. Takes a fair bit of effort, just like in aging a sheng puerh, but it can help with batches of tea you can’t finish within the 3-6 month grace window of good flavor in certain white teas.
This one must be about 1½ years or so old already and starting to fade. Would it be too late to start that sort of experiment with it now, do you think?
Probably, but if you aren’t drinking it, there isn’t much harm, is there? Aging whites is just like puerh – alternate between warm and a tad drier to draw visible oils to the surface of the leaves and cool and lightly humid to force re-absorption. Heat around 60C with 50-70% humidity will dramatically change the tea by forcing oxidation in puerh and white teas, which is why Hong Kong/Vietnam/Malaysia storage results in huge differences in flavor in a pretty short time.
True that. It wasn’t hugely expensive at the shop either (I think it’s a somewhat middle to low-ish of the higher end of quality to begin with) so not worth crying a lot if I ruin the leaves. I’ve got enough leaf too that I can do it with just half of them and keep the other half in the current tin so I can see about making a difference.
If I heat the oven up to 50C and put some oven dishes full of water in the bottom it might do the trick. Hmmm… I’ll need to do some planning here first, I think.
Thanks for the tip, I’m quite interested in giving it a go. Especially if I can make a smoky note come out (yay smoky!)
Have a Happy (and safe) New Year too!
Happy New Year!
In the vein of old Bai Mu Dan – I always set aside some of each batch I get for aging. If sealed away, airtight in proper cool conditions, it will just steadily decline over the course of a year or longer. However, if exposed to a bit of air as you would store puerh, wrapped in paper or stored with a lid slightly ajar and moved between warm and cool areas of the house according to season and the behavior of the leaves’ surfaces, you can get a progression and accentuation of smoky and fruited qualities in good examples of the tea as it continues to oxidize over time. Takes a fair bit of effort, just like in aging a sheng puerh, but it can help with batches of tea you can’t finish within the 3-6 month grace window of good flavor in certain white teas.
This one must be about 1½ years or so old already and starting to fade. Would it be too late to start that sort of experiment with it now, do you think?
Probably, but if you aren’t drinking it, there isn’t much harm, is there? Aging whites is just like puerh – alternate between warm and a tad drier to draw visible oils to the surface of the leaves and cool and lightly humid to force re-absorption. Heat around 60C with 50-70% humidity will dramatically change the tea by forcing oxidation in puerh and white teas, which is why Hong Kong/Vietnam/Malaysia storage results in huge differences in flavor in a pretty short time.
True that. It wasn’t hugely expensive at the shop either (I think it’s a somewhat middle to low-ish of the higher end of quality to begin with) so not worth crying a lot if I ruin the leaves. I’ve got enough leaf too that I can do it with just half of them and keep the other half in the current tin so I can see about making a difference.
If I heat the oven up to 50C and put some oven dishes full of water in the bottom it might do the trick. Hmmm… I’ll need to do some planning here first, I think.
Thanks for the tip, I’m quite interested in giving it a go. Especially if I can make a smoky note come out (yay smoky!)