2007 White2Tea Repave

The smell of this leaf is soooo strange. Sour zucchini mixed with old books? Luckily I never trust the smell of the leaf being indicative of the tea.

I’m getting a lot of what everyone else is getting: smoke, camphor, and wood. There’s still a bit of that green sheng flavor underneath, but it’s old enough that it tastes like zucchini rather than formaldehyde.

This session was pleasant enough, but I don’t think it’s a flavor I would actively seek out.

Amazing nuclear orange, the dry leaf is an agreeable generic sheng smell that does not accurate preview the result. This tea creeps up and hits you HARD. I thought I was doing fine until about steep 8, not really expecting anything much when I started dropping all the teaware all over the table and realized it was here, when did that happen?!?!

I’m still a bit tea drunk, I must admit, so this isn’t the most lucid review, but here’s my attempt. Opens up with a strong medicinal dried herb flavor and a bitter tinge that lingers and intensifies into an aftertaste something like hot concrete/dirty gravel after the swallow. This is the main flavor for a while, maybe a hint of camphor that plays with smoke, if you keep going for long enough, you’re rewarded with a surprising sweetness and a mellowed out version of the previously maybe too intense flavors, but the sweetness doesn’t really last too long.

Not a lot of throat coating or throat taste, this one has a bit of astringency that matches the bitterness to start, but stays more constant (which is to say, not ever all that much) while the bitter ramps up and then dies down throughout the brewing process. Overall, the taste wasn’t a favorite of mine, but it wasn’t wholly unpleasant either and calms down throughout the process which is fairly generous at around 15 steeps, I think, wasn’t counting, but when it’s done, it’s done, dropping off very steeply in flavor, which felt abrupt to me because of how strong it is in every aspect while it lasts. If you’re looking for a stoner tea on a budget, however, this one definitely caught me by surprise and clubbed me while I was looking, might be one to look at.

Cleaning out my Steepster cupboard and realized I never logged this tea. It was not for me – there is a certain flavor here that I can neither place nor enjoy it seems. There were some decent and tasty flavors under that, including camphor and some tobacco, but I couldn’t get past that weird note. I still mark this tea as recommended, because many teafriends and people here on Steepster really enjoy it – so the issue may be more on my end than the tea’s end.

dark amber and indicative of its age (9 years old), seems aged much longer than its age, but was maocha for 7.5 years before it was pressed in 2014. Not as intensely complex or deep flavors/effects/qi as a higher quality tea, but this tea is not lacking in any area (except maybe chi). Its flavorful, immediate cooling huigans, and lasting sweet kuwei bitter to sweetness aftertaste. I enjoyed this tea, was instantly wow’d by this, and when I saw the price per cake at $36.50 I put 3 cakes in my shoppping cart!

THIS is what a daily drinker should be. No chi, no sedating, just flavor and aftertaste. Really good daily drinker.

I guess I am specifically reviewing this to be a contrarian. I get no smoke and no bitterness from this and I brew rough, boiling and 8 grams/95 ml. I don’t know if other people’s tea have been in Paul’s storage more recently than me, but even then I only recall trace smoke when I got this six months ago. I am pointing this out because I am surprised at the notes, I can’t really see where they are coming from to be frank.

This tea for me is all dessert. Starts with a very strong flavor of cherry, like what you would taste in high quality bourbon. It has a resounding aftertaste of overripe fruit and leaves the cheeks feeling tart. The texture is viscous. It moves into plum around steeps 3 or 4 and overtime becomes smooth, simple, sweet. The qi is there but discreet; only making events and feelings feel more natural and thus I am happier.

I’m sure to review this tea multiple times throughout the year. I wanted to begin my first session strong, with an added person to share with. Unfortunately, my wife isn’t much of a tea drinker unless it can be made Southern styled, or if it isn’t pu-erh. So, I invited our friend over to have some Repave; however, she’s new to pu-erh, so the session didn’t last long for her….

I must admit that I went above and beyond on this order from W2T. I have always wanted to try nearly everything on their site due to their creativity via tea and their wrappers. LP also guided me along, directing me to the teas in which I’d thoroughly enjoy. I wanted to try this first, though. Perhaps it was due to the description that “This will get you very, very tea drunk” that made me want to dig in greedily (after allowing it to breathe for a couple of days), and as soon as possible.

Now, to the tea. What can I say? Where shall start? At the beginning, of course!

I started this session with 10.6 g for 150ml. As I previously mentioned, I wanted this session to go on strong—really hit the palate hard—and last for ages. The first few sips were bitter, but thanks to the suggestion from a tea friend (oolongowl? t-ching? matu?) I was brewing it too long (15s intervals) for the leaf. Therefore, I cut back to 5s intervals throughout the night, waiting for the tea to tell me when to increase the steep time. It hadn’t told me to stop. Ever. I kept it at 5s throughout the three hours of drinking. And you know what happened? It never ever changed the color or depth of the tea! Repave kept going on, unchanging (with the exception of flavor) throughout the three hour session. I was baffled by the amount of depth remaining throughout that time.

However, the flavor did change entirely whilst the session went on. The first steep was bitter. The following two steeps remained slightly bitter, but had a honey note to it; which remained on the back of the throat/mouth. It had offered a gift to the tongue, as if breathing out from your mouth, left a sweet nectar on the tip of lips, like a kiss. And then, the tea danced upon the palate, with great satisfaction—musing about on the tip, back, and middle of the tongue—leaving such great flavors wherever it hit. I had vegetal notes, honey, sweet grass, peaches and/or pears, butterscotch (I had written it down, for whatever reason) and deep earth, but from the “lands of Narnia.”

I will note that I’m reading through the series, so my mind is ever on Narnia. Heh.

I want to drink more this morning, but I must move on to samples from friends. By which, I will enjoy those sessions too, because they are gifts of kindness. :) And joining a vast community of tea enthusiasts has really made me feel blessed to know that there are tremendous people out there…..

Anyway, I’ll leave this review here, at a good note.

The weighing of the tea.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BIyEsdoB7mE/

The 5th steep
https://www.instagram.com/p/BIyIx09BT0A/

The 10th steep (I went up to 15!)
https://www.instagram.com/p/BIyegutBz2D/

The order
https://www.instagram.com/p/BIvqFQyBVcV/?taken-by=s.g_sanders1

5g, 75-80ml, 185-200F
Wet leaf – smoke and campfire notes. Pale copper brew.
Tastes caramel, cedar, wood, bitter. Some astringency on some steeps, with mellow earthiness appearing later. Very nice.
Thank you for sharing mrmopar!

1:03 pm Sunday Indianapolis, IN

Yeah I’m going to keep doing the sunny setting at the beginning of my reviews.

Theoretically this is a good tea, right? It’s sweet and delicious. I get that. I didn’t like the smokey flavor and the burning feeling on my throat. It was a little rough. It almost felt like inhaling smoke. I would love this tea if there was a way I could filter this feeling from the tea.

There are plenty of positives though that outweigh the smidgen of negatives. Like I said it is tasty. I like the flavor. I like the qi. Good to good+ amount of qi. I’m feeling stimulated but mostly calm and relaxed. Similar to how the fade makes me feel, but a little more drunk. Several huigans, but nothing crazy. A little bitter but nothing crazy. Maybe that is why people have called it a ‘middle of the road’ puer.

It is cheap enough ($.18/gram) to consider picking up a cake or two and waiting a few years to see if it gets rid of the smokey, throat scratch/burn feeling. But since the tea is this old and still exhibits this, I probably won’t buy more to find out.

I had a small session of this last night with 5g/60ml, today I’m upping the ante at 10g/125ml

So far I’m really enjoying this tea. The smell I get from the dry (and a bit in the wet) leaf is one I really like but can’t quite put my finger on. Maybe an odd mix of minty licorice? That doesn’t sound right.. I hope the smell stays with time.

Anyways this tea only has a tiny bit of bitterness and has a lingering sweetness. I have to admit I needed a food break after the first 3 steeps, and I discovered that this isn’t a pleasant one to drink cold. So far I haven’t found it to have much in terms of what some people might call cha qi. The tea soup is a nice amber color.

I’m enjoying it and I’m glad I got a cake. I think it will be a nice borderline daily drinker tea.

I brew this up almost everyday. It’s extremely reliable and delicious!