Clover Patch

It’s thick. It’s sweet. It’s floral. All qualities I should like on paper.

But.

It’s soapy. It’s alkaline. It’s drying.

I tried. I really did. I made it 3 steeps before having to stop. I looked at the leaves drying in my gaiwan for 2 days after and couldn’t bring myself to try again. I can see why others enjoyed it, namely for its intensely forward sweetness and fragrance, but it’s simply not for me. I came into the session expecting a mineral Wuyi oolong but it’s instead like some kind of bastardized Dancong oolong, which I don’t much care for to begin with. Thanks anyway for the try, White Antlers :) Glad the majority of the bag went to people who can appreciate it.

Thanks to Derk and White Antlers for this big sample. I generally don’t get much out of Wuyi oolongs because they’re too roasted for me, but I’m hoping this floral one will be different. I steeped around 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml porcelain teapot at 195F for 7, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of perfumey dried flowers, honey, herbs, roast, and faint stonefruit. The first steep has lots of honey, heady orchid and violet florals, a noticeable roast, minerals, and wood. It comes off as a little soapy and has a nice, silky texture. The second steep presents even headier flowers, peach, minerals, herbs, honey, straw, wood, and roast, with a long floral/peachy/grassy aftertaste. It’s slightly drying in the mouth. In the next couple steeps, the aroma indeed reminds me of clover, with its over-the-top sweetness and florality. The fruit leans more toward lychee. On the fifth and sixth steeps, I get bee pollen, baked bread, and more grassy/green notes. Unfortunately, that perfumey thing is still going on. The intense red clover vibe continues to an amazing degree through the next four steeps, and then becomes attenuated into baked bread, honey, minerals, grass, and wood as the session ends.

The name of this tea is spot on, and I loved the feeling of being outside in a clover patch on a sunny summer afternoon. Another reviewer compared this tea to a cross between a Wuyi oolong and a Dancong, and I agree. However, it also has some of the flaws of these tea types, as it can at times be soapy, perfumey, too roasted, and drying. However, I’m willing to put up with these issues to enjoy such a unique tea.

3 grams, 125 ml vessel (gaiwan), and here we go.
Derk doesn’t like it, and I feel I am completely opposite. We agreed many times on teas, but when it comes to more complex tea, we disagree. That’s completely normal and it’s good.

No rinse, first steep 10 seconds long. Wet leaf aroma is very heavy, quite herbal, meadow flowers, but as well mineral and stonefruits are there.
The taste is thick, a bit cooling, smooth, mostly again meadow and a bit vegetal. Not much of fruitiness in tate but I am sure it will come in later steeps.
The second steep was 5 seconds longer; thus 15 seconds long. The meadow flowers, some say the clover (it’s meadow for me though), is there. Another thick session. Very fragrant and I think I start to understand derk why it’s not her jam. Yep, it’s quite strong in not common oolong notes. But I liked it. It was as well bit honey-ish, combined with herbals, which is quite a weird combo indeed.

3rd is again 5 seconds longer, it loses a bit of qualites, honestly faster than I thought! It’s still very aromatic, but the flavour lacks something a bit. I also got a something new, bit like a chesnut taste? Another reviewers were saying it’s very sweet, but I actually don’t think so.

4th, I let it steep for longer than usual, it could be around 40-50 seconds. Partially on purpose, partially accidentaly. There is still the clover present, but as Leafhopper notices, it becomes similar to green/grassy notes and I must say, I am sad about this. I liked the previous steeps being that unique and now it’s quite common. And those grassy notes are quite drying too.

5th, completely lost track. Somewhere between 30 seconds and 2 minutes.
Okay-ish steep. The clover is still there. But now it is as well quite simply grassy.

6th was the longest. I added the water just after I strained the fifth session and it took me maybe 3-4 minutes to drink it down. I have heard those longest steeps bring up some different notes and/or it could be the best/worst. Let’s see.

Oh my, it’s very drying actually. Maybe a bit soapy as Leafhopper wrote. Nope, it isn’t best. It’s somewhere as the average, maybe a bit worse steep.

But overall, I have liked it. I have 6 grams left, so I could do similar two sessions. We will see how I will spend it. Thank you White Antlers :) (92 is overrated; I think around 88 would be better)

Tea: Clover Patch. I think LiquidProust sent me this?

Prep: 60cc gaiwan, 3-5g. Flash steep x2, 10s, 10s, 20s, 30s, etc..
Sessions with this tea: 2

Once I accidentally microwaved honey for too long. It turned into burnt carbony sweetness, but still tasted unmistakably of honey, and it filled my kitchen with sweet smell. This is basically that. Early steeps are clean floral honey sweet, later steeps are cooked caramel-y honey sweet. Leaves honey sweet note in my mouth afterwards.

Body: thick tea, not a lot of body or energy-giving to me though. Aroma is good.

N
O
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Loving this tea. It’s definitely having me rethink my sheng only drinking habits. It has an intense fragrance that I would expect to find in tea from very old trees, and a much more hefty price tag.

I don’t have much to add to the notes that are already here except for the fact that no one has mentioned stonefruit, which seems quite obvious to me. I get about 8-10 good steeps with these brewing parameters and start adding more time toward the end to stretch it a bit further. Love this tea every time I drink it.

I’m brewing this tea in a small red clay pot from Taiwan that I’ve dedicated to Wuyi Oolong teas. It is very young in its use still despite the pot is almost as old as me, so there won’t be much altering of the tea’s flavor yet from the pot’s seasoning. The aroma of the wet leaves after the first infusion is perfumed and floral, like the smell of a flower shop. The scent of the tea liquid itself is utterly blissful. It’s difficult to describe, but notes I am getting are of a fresh honeyed pastry like baklava, lush beds of flowers in springtime, warm heavy cream, balsam.

The taste is very floral and smooth. Not as much roast as I was expecting. The leaves are not heavily roasted, but I was expecting to taste a bit more of it. I’m tasting notes of lychee and orchid, also quite perfumey. The second infusion is quite intense with similar flavors to the first, maybe a bit more fruity in this infusion. I’m still thinking lychee in that regard, maybe a hint of grape.

Did I mention how holy the smell of this tea is? I have to admit by my book this is an aromatic tea because I’m more impressed by the aroma than the taste. Both are impressive, but the aroma has more complexity and delicateness. The third infusion tastes more floral than the last and is also a bit tart in the finish. The flavor that lingers in your mouth after drinking this tea is phenomenal.

This tea is up there with my current favorite Wuyi oolong which is Yezi Tea’s Shui Xian Da Hong Pao. It holds its flavor well over many infusions.

Everyone should be very excited for my Betta, Jace Beleren…and his Otoclinus companion Sarkhan Vol, and all the invisible shrimp attendants, because they are getting an upgrade! I received my birthday present from Ben’s grandparents early and I am using part of it to get my fishies a better house, like a large part of it…they are getting a new house, new plants (I give up on live plants, they get soft silky ones) new filtration system…they are going to live like kings! I like to spoil my pets, get that tiny bit of maternal instinct I have satisfied with happy pets.

I think I shall make this Oolong week, and we are going to start with something a little unusual. White2Tea’s Clover Patch – Wuyi Oolong, yep it is Yancha time, time to break out the enjoyment of roasted teas, thoughts of campfires and coals…and wait a minute, this tea doesn’t smell like any Yancha I have ever had. Insert maniacal giggling as I realize it is time for an adventure. See, this is a Wuyi Oolong alright, but instead of the old fashion roasting, this is a modern take on it, and maybe I shouldn’t have brewed this in my Yancha teapot, oh well, YOLO. The aroma is best described as a flowery explosion, you open the bag and just go ‘whoa’ but not in a Keanu Reeves manner, more in a ‘I just did an epic game winning move’ way. Notes of honey, lychees, extremely faint pine smoke (like I mean REALLY distant) and the most epic flower aroma ever. Kudzu blossoms! Serious it is like a blend of grapes and pollen, it is heady and super sweet.

Brewing these colorful leaves (shades of late summer and autumn, so pretty!) the aroma of the soggy leaves is intense. I lifted the lid off my pot and it is a perfume blast, kudzu blossoms and honey with delicate notes of mineral and a delicate greenness like crushed leaves. It is so intensely heady, I feel like I could use it as a fainting remedy. The liquid is gentle in comparison to the wet leaves, it is super sweet with notes of lychees, honey, and kudzu flowers, like some sort of exotic fairy wine, if I drink this am I going to get drawn into dancing until I fall exhausted in a different time period? Ah, folklore.

Ok wow, just wow! The texture is buttery smooth, almost slippery and surprisingly cooling for an oolong. The taste, well, that is where the party is…if your party is a massive bouquet of kudzu flowers and lychees drenched in honey. The kudzu lingers, changing into an aftertaste of pollen heavy honey. I think I have turned into a butterfly!

I think I sound like a crackpot because this tea makes me feel like I am transcending reality, that one-two punch of narcotic headiness and nostalgia is making me light in a way that tea drunk only wishes it could make me feel. So yeah, the aroma is not really changed from the first steep, still kudzu and fairy wine sweetness. The mouthfeel is slippery smooth and creamy, it has a thickness to it this time, the taste is so intense, honestly I am not sure I have had a tea with a taste this intense, and that is due largely in part to how aromatic this tea is. It starts kudzu flowers and pollen, then it moves to the heady aroma of jimsonweed, and then onto mineral and a touch of baking bread. The arftertaste of flowers lingers for so long.

By this point in the tasting I have entered into a trance, yep, this stuff is definitely fairy wine, I clearly wandered into a fairy ring on a full moon and got sucked into a mound and I am partying with the sidhe. The only reason I have not gone mad is because I am a changeling or something, all I know is there are flowers and honey, and that I am sinking into them. I got lost in the flowers, eventually this tea does call it quits, but it takes a while…holds up longer than most Yanchas, but the most uncanny part is the aftertaste. It creeps up on you between sips and steeps, starting out as a mild flowery taste but growing into a lingering sweetness, it has you in its grips and refuses to let you free. Seriously, keep this stuff away from mushroom circles, old oaks, willow trees, and maybe avoid drinking it on full moons!

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/10/white2tea-clover-patch-wuyi-oolong-tea.html

I LOVE this tea. It’s the dancong of yanchas… which is like two really good things that don’t sound like they’d be great together… but they are. This tea is aromatic during it’s whole life span, but unlike most yanchas I don’t really start enjoying until later steeps cough cough roasty I love this one from the first glass. In fact the first few steeps are my favorite, but I am a fan of the whole journey.

This combines the mineral and fruity flavors of a yancha with the honey floral aroma of a dancong. I never knew yancha could be so overtly aromatic. I’ve honestly never tasted anything quite like this tea.

It’s giving me the yearning for EXCELLENT dancong though… hey maybe now that white 2 tea is based in Guangzhou… here is to hoping for a dancong of this callibre in a club shipment soon.

But yes folks… I’ve never tasted a tea like this before. Get your hands on some! It is really universally appealing and easy to love and would be a great tea to serve to family members and friends to get them coveting some less traditionally served teas in the west.

I haven’t had this tea in a few hours (haha yay tea drunk at home days) so might have to add in some more in depth tasting notes later. But for the 3 times I’ve had this tea so far… I haven’t had a session that wasn’t STELLAR and full of happy tea drunk Phi.

I hope this becomes a yearly offering at white 2 tea! Because I’m sure this stash isn’t going to hold up for long.