white2tea

Gongfu!

I love a bud heavy black and the bright, coppery liquor practically glows in the sunlight. It’s quite a sweet black tea, with a velvety smooth mouthfeel and more of a medium body. As expected, it tastes a lot like honey, with warm floral undertones that make me think of wildflowers. More unexpected are the sweet, airy, and creamy confection notes – like marshmallow fluff! They don’t eclipse the honeycomb that takes center stage, but they’re an undeniably present supporting role. It’s probably one of the more standout black teas I’ve brewed up as of late.

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DJmacE0Nja2/?img_index=1

This set looks right at home out here among the grass and stones; AKA my favourite spot for outdoor tea as of late.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRBa34X5Hwg&ab_channel=SayaGray-Topic

Wow! Love this one. Next to Yunnan Sourcing’s Green Dragon for my favorites. Strong and reminds me of fresh, healthy compost. Smells so good and woodsy out of the bag too.

Tea is delicate and sweet with an upfront honey taffy and earthy funkiness, which leads into a floral and fruity aftertaste. Honeysuckle and white peach notes lasted many steeps.

Good daily drinker. Sweet and light floral notes that last for many steeps.

Floral, clear, and refreshing. Slightly bitter, but in a pleasant way. In later steeps floral notes decline, but are still present.

Trying this Western style for the first time as that’s how I usually would drink a breakfast tea, but no milk or sugar for this first tasting. Part of me expected this to be brisker and more tannic, but I’m also delightfully surprised to be met with a very rich and full-bodied cup that is actually quite smooth and velvety. Though there is a woodiness and almost oak-like note, mostly I found this quite chocolate-y tasting. A less refined and more bittersweet cacao chocolate, sure, but chocolate forward nonetheless.

I have had other black teas from W2T steeped Western style that have left a more immediately striking first impression, but I thought this was solid and it’s something that I could see servicing that early morning breakfast cuppa role quite well.

Fresh sweet hay, leather, and apricot notes. Leaves are tightly compressed, but opens up after a short wash and two ~50sec steeps with boiling water. Brewing with Gaiwan, first steeps have clear notes of fresh hay, which settles into an apricot and leather aftertaste. In the later steeps, the fresh hay notes weaken and become sweeter.

Decent daily drinker, as expected and advertised. Tastes a lot like a red (aka black) tea, so not my favorite gong fu style but that’s alright.

Gongfu!

It was the description of cotton candy that attracted me to this tea, and I have to say that I think it’s pretty accurate! This a softness to the start of this session, and really to most of the infusions within it as well. With it comes a light, sugary sweetness than transitions into a mid-sip with more overall body and a slightly more vegetal and mineral undertone, like darker leafy greens. The finish is a little bitter before returning to that almost caramelized or spun sugar quality. Very interesting how each sip sort of “seesaws” between delicate, fluffy indulgence and snappy greens. Though I felt really engaged whilst steeping this raw pu’erh, I haven’t yet fully decided whether I’m into it or not. I love the sweetness, but those kale-like vegetal notes are definitely a lot less up my alley…

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DJNGu6JyByh/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCa2atlQtWk&ab_channel=WicWhitney

Gongfu!

Usually, I just blind cake all of the smoked black teas because at this point I’m just so confident I’ll enjoy each of them, but this one was a little bit more expensive so I decided to play it safe and start with a sample. And, well, let me tell you that I immediately regret that choice. Not only is this so smooth with such a rich, clean, and aromatic woody pine smoke flavour, but it’s also deeply chocolate tasting with a bit of caramelized sugar! A perfect cross between the sweetness of a milk chocolate and the pleasantly bitter bite of very high quality dark chocolate. And if you’ve ever had smoked chocolate before, you know it’s fantastically divine. If there were just a bit of a graham note, then I feel like this would be such a dead wringer for the straight/scented tea equivalent of a smoky campfire s’more. It’s pretty close, though!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DJH-JU3yEhc/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-nTEsxPlVY&ab_channel=Husbands-Topic

I recently received a small white2tea order with some of the latest smoked teas, something that I’ve come to deeply look forward to each year! Though I’m sure it won’t be long until I’ve tried each of them, but couldn’t resist brewing one up immediately. I’m starting with 2025 Northern Grown, the smoked sheng pu’erh. It’s bitey and abrasive with a lot of upfront pine smoke, tobacco and peat moss notes. However, it’s what follows after the initial wave of smoke that really makes it feel so compelling to me. Still smoky, but cushioned with the bitter sweetness of burnt sugar and a slightly tropical fruitiness like a greener, slightly underripe mango. So unique, even among the other different smoked raw pu’erh from W2T that I’ve gotten to try!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DIwat9QpgWb/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMtKc9eyMN0&ab_channel=PaulSpring-Topic

Strong lapsang-like smoke well-balanced with fruity sheng flavor. Compared to most smoky raws, this feels very “clean”, I guess because it’s a clean modern production that has been smoked, rather than a rustic factory production with smoky processing.

Quite nice.

Grandpa Style!

I only did half of a coin snapped, along with quite a lot of fresh basil leaves muddled up and steeped together in the liquor grandpa style, just to do something a little more fun and experimental. The result is still pretty delicious with a very, very bitter dark cocoa note swiftly followed up by a whole lot of fresh, savory herbaceousness. Even though this isn’t even close to being a sweet brew, there is something sorta indulgent about it. If you’ve never had dark chocolate dipped or coated basil before, I’d highly recommend. It’s a unique juxtaposition of flavours, but it works shockingly well and this is basil just the tea version of that!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DIHpb49yGcA/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7szEV16-wI&ab_channel=TheBrook%26TheBluff

I topped this off in the office on Monday, which means that the following notes were half- assed. Haha.

Aroma: Green peppers, honeydew rind, watermelon rind, rinds, rinds, rinds!
Tasting Notes: Peppery honeydew

It was a chaotic week at work, so I didn’t get much time to work on the sip down pile as much as I would’ve liked (here’s looking at you, coffee). Unfortunately, the W2T club – sometime last August – only had 15g of this red. As I’m both grateful to have had the opportunity to try this, I’m a touch sad that there was only so little. That’s life – never enough, but enough to be happy. Lol

Aroma: Black pepper, toast (not burnt but almost), & cocoa powder.

Tasting Notes: Citrus, grapefruit, zest

Gongfu!

All my steeps have been long and drawn out, really stretching out the most I get get from these beautiful little nuggets of ripe pu’erh. It’s deeply smooth with both a creamy mouthfeel and flavour that reminds me a lot of oat milk, though with a bit of a more brothy and savory undertone and earthiness. There’s also a few sweeter notes like vanilla and date sugar. Very nice and easy going! Probably going to try and squeeze out another steep or two, and then I’m very much looking forward to simmering the “spent” leaf on the stovetop for a while to make some milk tea to enjoy later. Gotta love a tea with utility!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DHzCwYsSfUZ/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BW0fGH-Ueu8&ab_channel=DavidDeanBurkhart

I’m trying to get back into adding logs again…Life has been wild. Not the bad type of wild, but the type that catches up to you all at once (work, friends, etc.). I feel like not writing or reading reviews is like not calling or texting friends. Sure, I’m active on IG, however, Steepster is the foundation for my tea journey. It is where my thrill for tea took the further plunge into this endless abyss called “CommuniTea.” With that said, thank you to those who’ve stuck around and those who keep on with their posting – it’s giving me plenty to catch up on – and just being here to drink and share tea! :)

Tea Review Time:

My experience with aged tea is limited. I’d love to have the money to afford to drink the “older” stuff; unfortunately, my funds and taste are relevant to most of the newer/fresher teas on the market. Buy it now and save it for later, I suppose. I’m getting better at drinking every little sample sitting in my hoarded pile (hoarded might be too strong of a word, as I’m sure, most tea heads are holding onto their goodies for a long time). Ha-Ha.

Yes, yes, I’m getting into the review now.

Aroma: Leather, moss, earthy, damp paper, old books, beets, & wet earth.

Tasting Notes: The tea was quite nice. There were notes of woodiness, beets, gasoline (whatever that means), paper, a little bitterness, and eventually astringency.

Feeling: Qi so heavy I floated my way toward the end of the workday.

PS. I’m afraid to rate this too highly on the account I enjoyed it, yet, it’ll be the last of it, forever. Thank you W2T for giving me this moment.

Grandpa Style!

The more experimental charcoal roasted offerings from W2T have been really hit or miss for me, but in this case I really felt like I tasted each and every tasting note described by W2T: spiced plum, cinnamon, mulling spices. Especially the stonefruit and cinnamon notes, which were perfectly rich and cozy. I’d also add molasses, figs, dark exotic woods, and baker’s chocolate to the list of flavours. Teas with the combination of plum and cocoa notes have a special place in my heart, so this especially resonated. I also really appreciated how full bodied and thick the brew was, with an appropriately balanced tannic briskness. Just a really lovely tea that seemed to offer a little bit of everything in a really nice way.

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DHuBZxxyWh4/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9A3OO3lsoio&ab_channel=maryinthejunkyard

Thermos

To-Go Cup

White Gaiwan

Teapot