white2tea

Gongfu!

Had a session of this now that I’m past the worst part of a pretty awful cold. It’s my first session in a few days, so I picked something a little bit sweeter and softer to ease back into things. Tea is something that so many people drink when they’re sick, but I tend to do the opposite. Since the joy of tea (for me, anyway) is so centered around taste, I just find the muted flavours I experience when I’m sick make me feel even more dejected and that negative mental headspace certainly doesn’t help in pushing through the physical ailments of a cold…

Today I can taste the nuanced and delicately sweet notes of spun sugar that sort of define this sheng, as well as the lingering and mouth coating notes of ripe and sugary green melon that come at the end of each sip. I feel lighter and more awake than I have in several days. Though I was mostly already there before this session, I do feel like it sort of pushed me back over the edge. I think by tomorrow I’ll be right back to my regular tea drinking schedule.

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C2VXoTwOEK8/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGl3GlrnMCQ

Gongfu!

I ended up ordering a brick of both this tea and the 2023 Milan Maocha after revisiting a previous year’s pressing of the Milan Maocha using the more restrained steeping suggested by W2T in the new listings and having a really positive experience. I do think I may have swung a little too hard on the side of conservatism with this session as, between the smaller amount of tea leaf used and some congestion I’ve been fighting off, I found the steeped up to be a little too mild for my tastes. However, I feel like I could taste the foundation for something really exceptional here: a pleasant mineral roast and LOTS of smooth, fragrant florals that stretched past the advertised magnolia. I’ll be revisiting this tea soon – I just need to kick this cold first!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C2N54sOOa44/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cT5RrISARnc

I’ve been trying to save some money by not buying new things so it’s been quite a while since I tried a new tea to review! This was actually a free sample with a white2tea order. I’m not usually a huge fan of sun-dried dianhongs but I liked this one, maybe it’s the lighter oxidation. Pretty sweet, a little bit malty, some of that funky vegetable matter flavor I associate with Yunnan.

Tried only in granpa and it was wonderful.
I’ll try it also in gongfu

Gongfu! Fantastic flavour never had a lapsun so rich and intense

I grabbed this one in the TTB; so thank you anyone who put it in!
I am not so sure if I like it or not? It is an unique tea, somehow smoky, but when drank it is a floral bomb. Powdery note here as well.

A bit too much floral for my tastes.

Used 3g / 300 ml for 3-4 minutes western steep. Definitely going to gongfu remaining 3 grams.

A nice robust daily drinker that trades blows with factory offerings in the value department.
It features some of the classic chocolate and vanilla robust ripe flavors, but with more of a focus on woody notes, like a spicy oak wood. There is also a slight smokiness and just a touch of pleasant basement funk on some brews. Some of the smokier brews made me think of a campfire or a scented candle. The leaves seem to indicate a high degree of fermentation.
Overall, a well-balanced ripe with a touch of something extra. Not as challenging as the edgy name might suggest.

Grandpa Style!

I almost skipped over this tea in favour of some of the other new releases, but based on this first taste I’m glad I didn’t! It’s a dense, thick and brothy sort of tea with a lot of tasting notes that feel particularly apt for its namesake. Leather, oak, peat moss, and a big of tobacco smoke. If “dark academia” had a flavour, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was this – especially with how potent the notes of leather are. I can just picture exactly what the reading room inspired by this tea would look like: low lighting, antique wood furniture, and rows upon rows of first edition texts. Definitely sets a particular mood as I’m drinking it, and I’m very much digging it!!

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/C1pn-lQOKMy/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a79C3jWUiYE

From CameronB!  Thank you again!  A lone tiny mini waffle.  This MIGHT be my first mini anything from white2tea?  I’m excited to try it.  This tiny waffle fits perfectly in the bottom of my infuser basket.  I don’t know if that will help it infuse… Honestly, the amount of leaf here is probably less than I would use in a mug for a ripe puerh.  The flavor is fine — a bit starchy, nothing negative about it.  I would expect magical waffle flavor, even if in the back of my mind I know that is a stretch… but it seems like plain puerh to me.   The second steep possibly did have more waffle qualities… more bready.  The third weakened a bit.  But the fourth is rich and coffee like… just the way I like it!  The tiny waffles might lead to more expectation than otherwise, but the flavor here was decent enough if you want a cup of ripe puerh. I would say white2tea’s description is accurate anyway!
Steep #1 // 24 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 //  12 minutes after boiling // 2 min
Steep #3 //  9 min after boiling // 5 min
Steep #4 // just boiled // 12 min
2023 sipdowns: 101

I’m in a rush to find some low-hanging-fruit-last-session-sipdowns for the last few days of the year, to up my sipdown number….

Gongfu!

Enjoying a session this afternoon as I continue to sip through samples from tea orders that arrived earlier this month. It was the description of cherries and molasses that drew me to this tea; and I would agree that this tea definitely delivers on at least one of those notes. Though there’s something to the finish that is just a bit molasses like, it’s the cherry I find especially on the nose. The top notes of this more medium bodied ripe pu’erh are bright and fruity with a more lively, slightly acidic note. A mix of sweet red cherries and chicory root, perhaps. The mid-sip then shifts into something quite different; a more savory and brothy profile with a slick oiliness to it that makes me think a little bit of Chinese hot pot. The mix of tangy red fruit notes with the more unctuous elements is really unique and dynamic; like a sweet and sour shou!?

If I have any real critique, it’s that all the tasting notes have a rather “surface level” feeling to them; I’d like a little more depth and overall body to the session. However, I think that’s something that may come with time as this tea settles into itself and continues to age…

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C1Xahr-ObFD/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TUvMf_WkFs

Grassy, sweet, with a rather nice note of mandarin orange. Astringent and drying aftertaste and a decent mouthfeel.

Grassy, sweet, mellow. Basically exactly what the description on the site said and nothing more. For my taste it’s a bit boring, but pleasant enough.

I really enjoy bitter flavors so was excited when I got this for Christmas this year. But 2021 Gas is not bitter just to be bitter, there are great flavors during and in-between each sip. The aroma actually reminded me of menthol, maybe candy cane? Some sugary treat that one might have on the boardwalk. However, all steeps had this intense bitterness that I really enjoyed, even using flash steeps. As I got to later steeps, the gasoline flavor (no other way to put that) came out, but it’s subtle and enjoyable. I also got some winter fruit and honey flavors in between steeps. This is one of the more unique teas I’ve tried and would happily get more.

I really enjoyed this (am reviewing the minis). From the get-go, this was a Wow tea that I would want to keep in my collection: I think this is a great tea to share with someone new to shou pu’er, especially doing horizontal tasting with a fruity or sweet ripe pu’er for contrast (for example with White2Tea’s Waffles, which I also enjoy).
- oily, thick texture
- aroma and taste are woodsy, but resinous varnished tropical hardwood, so not just petrichor. there is a spicy, incense quality, medicinal volatiles, camphor, and perhaps brown bread with burnt raisins that adds a welcome edge (no bitterness). I found myself enjoying the pronounced lingering aftertaste of the first steepings for ten minutes before brewing again. Yah, super long aftertaste!

Day 3 of the Tea Thoughts Winter Countdown box. Once again failed to take notes the first time I steeped this, so I only have notes for the second time, when I opted for grandpa style brewing. Probably because I did it this way rather than gong fu, I got more of the savory notes rather than the sweet ones. It’s like warm hay. There’s a cooked note in here, but also a dry grass note. I don’t have the right words but it’s really nice “sunny day on an imaginary farm” vibes (key word imaginary, very much sans all the less pleasant smells of real farms).

Adventageddon Day 3 – Tea 4/4

Gongfu!

I was a little bit surprised to see another W2T inclusion so soon from the Tea Thoughts countdown, but when I realized what tea this was I got really excited because it seemed like such a perfect fit for the Bonne Maman jam of the day: Apricot Banana. I also got to put the apricots I picked up yesterday to good use as a pairing with my white tea gongfu session, albeit sooner that I had expected. I knew that, doing a jam advent, it was only a matter of time before I hit an apricot jam – I just didn’t expect it to be the next day!

Anyway, though it took forever for this mini to open up, I thought these three things all worked wonderfully together. This white tea is rather soft and delicate, but the flavours it does have are very much in a similar sort of vein. Peach skins and other gentle, warm stone fruit flavours with a bit of a mild lemon verbena note and overall floral honeysuckle note – ironically a little bit like the jam from the first day of Adventaggedon but without the sour top notes, and just a lot less sweet. Ambrosia is another word that comes to mind, though when I usually imagine what ambrosia might taste like it’s richer and more intense than this white tea was. Like the palest, softest shades of orange in a sunset. Yeah. That. That’s what this tasted like.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C0aC3COOTwI/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3lX2p_Uy9I

Day 1 of the Tea Thoughts Winter Countdown box. I’ve gotten every countdown box Nazanin has made in the past three years. Because they are usually a delightful mix of tea, stationery, teaware, and other items, it generally doesn’t occur to me to post advent-style tasting notes. Since this year’s box is mostly tea, though, I guess I’ll do it this time! I did pick up the stationery advent too. I already opened all of it as a countdown to tea advent season and absolutely loved it – lots of variety, not limited to just wintry vibes, but enough wintry stuff to incorporate into all my mail and gift wrap for the season. I think she still has some left for anyone who needs more tea-themed stickers and washi in their lives.

I made this gong fu. Somehow I just didn’t get a lot of sweetness out of it. Mostly slightly dry, rocky, and mineral-y, with a hint of cassia. Mayyyyybe stone fruit, but more stone than fruit. Pleasant on a cold wintry day, just not sure it’s what the tea is supposed to taste like.

Drinking now after 5 years, received in the white tea basics set of W2T.

Very sweet and creamy, flavour of apricot, fruit jam,

I fell in love!
This tea has an unique profile, so complex, it smells of cinnamon and tastes of cream and salted butter a little bit of bitter to enhance huigan.

My initial experience with this tea seems to deviate from other reviewers: when I opened the package and had my first gongfu session, I got a very strong shrimp/seaweed/brine smell that seemed to overpower even the ‘shou’-ness I expected, much less the supposed orange I was supposed to be tasting. But two things reduced this: (1) I waited a few weeks before opening it up again, which helped dramatically, so there must have been something in shipping or storage that gave it that smell; and (2) I also increased my rinsing time: this brick is very tightly packed, especially if you break off a piece along the lines, so the increased time and even a double rinse helped me out.

Tasting notes after these ‘fixes’: this was actually a bit less orange than I thought, to be honest. I did get that bitter mandarin taste which I loved, but was surprised at the medicinal notes I was getting (this wasn’t a turn off, just unexpected). I think I would have preferred something called ‘Channel Orange’ with a bit more orange flavor. Overall though, I was really happy to have tried this, and it’s great for cold days – it just needed some time to get right.

Gongfu!

Such a relaxed session. I was pleasantly surprised with just how quickly this dragonball opened up after the rinse. The liquor is super thick, but also incredibly velvety smooth with a lot of upfront creaminess to both the texture and taste. In the past I have found this shou pu’erh to be sweeter than what I am tasting today, but even with that said I am still getting notes of brown sugar with an almost porridge or oat milk-like undertone. Homemade oat milk though, where it’s thicker and especially oat-y tasting. The finish is more earthy and unctuous, and I’m finding myself happy to have that grounding note to anchor each steep and break up some of the other tasting notes!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C1-RvIHOX8j/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDdGzKOgA48

Gongfu!

Though the aroma of the dragonball wasn’t giving off anything particularly distinct, this tea really sprang to life after the rinse! What caught me most off guard was how naturally sweet tasting this shou was. Like a rich yet bright Sticky Toffee Pudding or, as W2T describes it, a Creme Brulee – but with a smooth, earthy undertone to anchor the session. Admittedly, I was skeptical about how accurate the description would be when I ordered it, but dang! It’s not pretty freaking spot on and I’m having a fantastic time drinking through this tea while working from home this afternoon. 10/10 would recommend for fans of sweeter leaning or less forest-y and camphorous shou pu’erh!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C0ChdnKOP2x/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3neYD17Hrjk

After how many years, I’m back :)

I found a sample of this in my humidor and decided to break it out! It was sweet, acidic, and thick. This tea really blew my mind, and after 5 years, I can’t believe I was sitting on something so remarkable.

Received as a freebie with my last order — thank you!

This tastes just like persimmons to me complete with cinnamon and vanilla undertones. Syrupy liquor with typical sheng astringency that’s somewhat drying; bitterness is at a good level. Easy to drink.

It is good now. How would time treat this leaf?