white2tea

I brewed this one up in the traditional two rinse format with about 6-7g of leaf in a 100ml gaiwan. I steeped this at about 205f. This is a pretty good tea. The wet leaf had a nice peachy and hay quality with a bit of slight tobacco. I did detect a slight smokiness but I wouldn’t say this is a smokey tea by any means. It had a nice aged taste but to me still seemed young. Mainly in the mouthfeel. It had some action going on. I felt a tingling numbness quality, but really hard to describe. Let’s just call it action. The liquor was a nice orange color showing a bit of its age. There were flavors of hay, tobacco and a bit of a peach fruitiness tucked away in there as well. Much like the smell. It had a nice qi as well. Calming but aware. I feel like this tea could still use some more age as there was some astringency that was ever present. Like I said it seemed a bit younger than it is but not in a bad way. It was definitely active in the mouth though I may use a bit more leaf next time as it was ever so light. I am sure if I mess with the brewing parameters a bit I will get more out of this tea but this was my first go at it. A decent price for a nice sheng with a bit of age on it already. Can’t beat that. I would recommend for sure. Play with the parameters and I’ll bet this one will shine even more.

4g in 100ml guywon. Brewing this tea gongfu (5s, 10s, 10s, 30s) works surprisingly well. Like the description on the site says this tea is rich and robust. I almost can’t even smell the gaiwan too close its so intense.

A lovely tea when puer is just not an option

I’ve been sipping this for awhile, and it’s one of my go-to daily drinkers. The cake is heavily dried and tightly compressed. I can spot some gold curls spread throughout the top. I take a whiff and inhale a dried earth and light fungal tone. I break off a hefty chunk and throw it into the warmed gaiwan. I opened the lid and take in a wonderful bunch of scents. I spot wet sage and clay right off the bat, slowly I begin to pick up some earth and a rising petrichor. I washed the leaves a few times due to its heavy compression and begin my brewing. The steeped chunk finally un-bunches and releases a sweet damp leaf and soil aroma. The scent is heavy and thick. The brew consists of a dense and dark soup. The taste begins light and sweet with a brief cocoa tone. This thick drink gives a heavy and full mouth-feel with nice lubrication. The tea expresses some distinct earth tones that move throughout the senses. This liqour is full of curbed tones. It’s a nice balanced drink with its smooth heavy tastes and a light finish. The qi is beautifully warming and begins low in the gut and slowly travels up to the mind. This offering is not overly complex, but it’s a reliable Shou. The brew is good, steady, warming, and rich. The cake is not something I’m crazy about, but I enjoy having it, and I drink it at night before bed to warm myself up.

I really like how this came out
https://www.instagram.com/p/8npRCHTGU9/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

This is one of the best ripe puers that I have ever tasted. (Although that isn’t saying much just look at my logged teas.) It has complexity and actually some huigan. I don’t drink ripe often, but when I do, I would like to drink something like this. With this kind of quality, its enough reason for me to stop supporting the larger factories. Sure the big names are reliable, but with my experience, white2tea is on another plane of reliability.

I’m super stoked that I’m the first to review!

I got this as my gift in the White2Tea Black Friday sale; because, I have no self control, haha. I’m so glad I got this freebie. First off, it’s really pretty and unique. I love how it looks, and it has a light yet sharp pipe tobacco scent. The “leaves” are incredibly compressed and require some heavy picking. I try my best to not obliterate the tuo into dust, but Pu happens. I break a chunk and fit it into the warmed Jianshui and give it a shake. The warmed leaf smells fantastic. The scent reminds me of that classic tobacco in a tin can that feels soft like moss. I can’t remember the name; it sounds like shag or something. It smells so freaking good! The tea carries that note, and it is lifted with some potent dark fruits. I washed the leaves once and prepared for brewing. The steeped leaves become heavier with notes of mahogany, leather, resin, and a sweet woody tobacco. The brew is a thick dark orange. The taste begins as a sugarcane sweet, and it moves into soft oak tones. The session progresses into a smooth dry brew with a sweet aftertaste. The later steeps become slightly astringent and thicker in the mouth. The brew is full bodied and rich with leather and drying mouth action. This is a fairly good tea, but the best characteristic is it’s qi. This small tuo gives some of my favorite sensations. The feeling begins as a spark ignites at heart center. This tea doesn’t have that slurred overheating feeling, but rather, it’s a pulsating electric vibration. The stimulation slowly overtakes the body and drives the spirit upwards. This brew gives you so much clean energy, it’s amazing. I love the nice clear headiness, the smooth blood flow, and the pulsating heart. I don’t experience slurred speech, sweats, heart throbs, or any other overwhelming qi. I just enjoy the intense focused atmosphere. It’s perfect to cleanse the mind.
My only complaint is due to the small broken leaves the teapot clogs very easily, but a small pick fixes that right quick. That’s my rant for this tea, and I’ll be trying my best to not drink the whole thing.

https://www.instagram.com/p/_zTrwAzGdW/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

Drank this tea today and I drank a lot of it. I used it to do a sis by side comparison of my electric kettle, and my Anta Pottery Clay Boiler. The goal was to see if I could tell a difference in the tea itself. The verdict is out. Without a doubt the clay boiler produced a smoother and even slightly sweeter cup of tea. I did six steeps with each kettle, so it was not just one or two steeps. I ended up doing eight steeps with the clay boiler. As to the tea itself. This is a very nice ripe. While it had a fair amount of fermentation flavor that flavor was not too potent and certainly was not fishy. I found some notes of chocolate in there and a fruity taste in latter steeps. This tea is quite the bargain price for what quality of tea you are getting in my opinion. I steeped the tea in two identical gaiwans each with exactly 8.2g of leaf so there was no one tea that got more or less leaf. This test was about as scientific as I could muster.

I steeped 8.2g leaf each in two identical 100ml gaiwans with boiling water. I can’t be sure that the holding temperature of the clay boiler was not a little cooler than the electric kettle. I gave each tea a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped each for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, and 20 sec. I kept going with the clay boiler for two more steeps at 25 sec, and 30 sec.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BBNuP67TDRyLyRFKsW8nFM_HkHHjsOfkYCAnxQ0/?taken-by=allanckeanepuerhtea

From the Jan 2016 White2tea club

This shou is a really nice daily drinker at an excellent price. It’s pretty friendly for a new pu’er person too. It’s a cedar wood flavor and later steepings getting really sweet. It’s clean tasting and absolutely no funky shou shenanigans going on. There’s some sour notes in the early infusions, but it fades fast.

Full review on Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/january-2016-white2tea-club-featuring-2015-old-reliable-ripe-puer/

This is excellent puerh tea with a fair amount of fermentation flavor. It is not for those with an extreme aversion to fermentation. That being said the fermentation was not as unpleasant as some ripes. It was sweet with little bitterness. It was thick and rich in the early infusions, and there were some chocolate notes too. It developed a nice sweetness in later steeps. I only gave this eight steeps when it would certainly go a lot more but I am at my caffeine limit for the day.

I steeped this eight times in a 120ml gaiwan with 10.1g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 seconds rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, and 30 sec. Overall this was excellent tea that needs another year or two to age in order to be a truly great tea.

Surprise review from someone in hiding for months…

Based on a true story
Why is Pretty Girls a motherfucker? Is it just because of the wrapper (https://www.instagram.com/p/BBAQWzIl_lQ/?taken-by=paxl13)? Let me tell you why.

Take a chunk off of your cake. Don’t even measure it, just eyeball it to about 10g or whatever suits you. Okay, yeah, it’s pricier than your “average” shou, but what is average when you’re only spending $2 for a session of tea? Anyway. it’s not too compressed, so just a quick rinse – or even drink it if you don’t like wasting tea.

Here we go, steeps 1-6 come on strong like a pretty girl. Taste all the rich depth of flavor from the gongting and highest grade leaves. So smooth and creamy at first – notes of earthy wood and hints of chocolate tips. Keep going to later steeps, transitioning to sweetness for the long haul. You think this relationship is meant to last forever, the taste lingering on your tongue.

And then it hits you.

The lower grade leaves try to carry the flavor for a little bit longer. Reminiscent of what once was.. you find yourself on steep 15, struggling to feel the same warmth of your first few steeps of exciting energy. It’s gone. Time to move on to another tea.

And that is why Pretty Girls is a motherfucker.

Another tea unlike anything I’ve had. The dry leaf smells like an aged raw with a little fresh gushu. The tea tastes like a ripe puer (nothing special, at first) then the huigan of a young gushu creeps up and thows me for a loop. I continue drinking, then the cha qi of a young gushu hits and I am floored. I have to take a break. Never have I had a tea with this qi be so drinkable. I would recommend anyone to try this that hasn’t drank a ripe gushu. For me it tastes too much like ripe for me to drop gushu money on a ripe cake. But that’s just what my budget allows me. I would still recommend anyone to at least sample it to see if it would be worth it to you.

Finishing up my sample from teaclub. This tea has a very forward peachy/ sweet note on the dry leaves. The brew is classic rougui, thick with notes of cinnamon bark spice and sweetness. Nice floral notes here and there with a good dry minerally finish. The best part about this tea is its long lasting saliva-inducing aftertaste. sweet and full. When I need to restock on oolongs this is going to be on my order list.

Beware – this is not an apple tea! Named for a George Harrison song, “apple scruffs” refers to a group of serious Beatles fans in the late 1960s. As for this puer cake, it is made with leaf from XiGui in the eastern Lincang Region. In my experience, XiGui tea is rather gentle and sometimes a bit finicky – this one is no exception. Note: over-brew or over-leaf this tea and you produce a less appealing bitter and astringent cup. Floral scent comes from the dry leaf of the cake which has lots of whole leaves. Bright clear yellow tea soup results from the leaf infusion – floral and sweet are the best taste descriptors for this tea liquor. Lingering mouth- and throat-feel. More fruity with sugarcane sweetness after the 4th infusions. I must say this really was a refreshing break from the older shengs I’ve been enjoying lately. Not terribly complex but a very nice tea if you do not care for the earthier puer so many of us drink regularly.

Breaking this out to compare to the ‘Classic Tuo’.
Got about 11 grams of this out as well. I gave a rinse and let it sit a while before brewing to absorb some of the water.
I did short steeps and compared the color of mine from the website. The one I have brews a bit darker that the picture. This one is softer and a bit silky in the mouth. There is a touch of minty cooling with this one and the sweet that lingers is more pronounced. It gives some hints of a touch of a bitter bite only briefly. The damp aroma led me to believe there was some smoke in it but it doesn’t come across the palate. There is another note I am trying to figure out. Maybe just a hint of wood in there. Solid to have and drink and I am going to be sure and save the wrapper and red ribbon inside.

Pulling this out tonight. I just remembered how hard these little tuos are compressed. I unwrapped it and put it in the breaking tray and attacked it with the big needle.
I managed to get 11 grams out, a little more than I usually brew , and got the gaiwan out.
I gave the tea a rinse that actually showed some color to it and went brewing.
I steeped about 5 seconds 3 times and went in a big cup.
The tea brews up with some hints of smoke and some greeness in the aroma. The brew is a nice surprise in the color department. It is a nice amber like a dark style honey. There may be a touch of cloudy in the brew but sometimes the tea has to settle a bit after pressing.
Sips on this give some smoke and some of the tobacco that many young shengs have.
The tea is active and getting to a thick state. It hits mainly the front tip and middle if the tongue. It has a full hit of the bitter that causes a minutes pucker and goes softer and making you salivate a bit.
Over all this is a good example of a well aged middle year sheng. Not being wet as some are with the mustiness but not super sharp like a dry stored product. Looking on the store site and this was stored loose which I am sure has helped it age a bit quicker than teas from this year.

This is a good but not in any way spectacular shou. It has no fermentation taste. It has a moderate amount of wet storage or wet wood taste. This was noticeable for the first four steeps and present to some degree in all eight steeps I gave this tea. This is a tea I will store for six months then try again. I suspect the wet storage taste will dissipate with six months of New York dry storage. This is exactly what happened with my 1998 White Tuo. The first time I drank it I got wet storage taste. Six months later virtually none.

I steeped this tea eight times in a 120ml gaiwan with 11.3g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, and 30 sec.

Puerh Tea TTB. This is another one I didn’t remember trying. I think I liked it a little less the second time around. There was a bit of a sour note that lasted about one steep. There were some minor bitter notes and some sweet notes too. Overall a nice tea but not a perfect tea.

I brewed this ten times in a 75ml teapot with 5g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 minute.

This tea is strong and somewhat bitter. It was quite tasty though. It stayed bitter throughout the first four or five steeps and then a sweet note emerged. This is an excellent tea for the price. At $18.50 it’s not a big risk in a tea. I think it’s got a lot of potential. If only my pumidor wasn’t full. I will have to dry store this one and see what happens. I’m not really sure how to describe the sweet note that emerged. There was still a bitter aftertaste even with this sweet note.

I brewed this tea eight times in a 120ml gaiwan with 9.3g leaf and 190 degree water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, and 30 sec.

This is an excellent tea. There was very little bitterness to this, just a little. While I won’t say it wasn’t sweet, the sweetness was subtle. It didn’t rush at you like some apricoty sheng. This is a tea I was supposed to get for free with my black Friday order. It was left out of that order along with a gaiwan. Paul sent the missing items and gave me three of this tea instead of one. It seems to have some qi, but not tea drunk kind of qi. This is a tea I wish I had picked up more of with my last order with White2Tea which is still inbound from China. This is the second rolled puer I have tried. And I have to say I like it as much or more than the Misty Peaks version. It is hard to say which is better from one session, but this is good. This has a strong, slightly bitter aftertaste.

I brewed this ten times in a 100ml gaiwan with one puer ball or 8g leaf and 200 degree water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. Didn’t give this one a rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 min.

So I broke out the jack hammer and managed to break off a 6g chunk with only destroying four hammer bits. Man this was compressed. I was a bit worried as it created lots of small particles, which for me, make for an unpleasant bitter sheng experience. This wasn’t the case luckily. So I gave two rinses and began the journey. This is my first taste of the much hyped white whale. The first couple of steeps were super light and it took a bit for the compression to let up on the leaves. This is an interesting tea. I love the wet leaf smell. Piney, hay, wood and a slight musty medicinal quality. It definitely has the aged flavor that I usually don’t have the money to partake in. There was a slight smokiness that I found pleasant on the nose but none really in the mouth. It is a very creamy mouthfeel tea. I do think that I should up the leaf to water to maybe 7 or 8g as I felt it was a little light. It has a nice old antique wood flavor with a lot of piney/menthol notes. I didn’t get a lot of sweetness on this one but like I said I think more leaf may be the answer to more flavor. It had a bit of astringency on the 3rd through 5th steeps though nothing that I would call unpleasant for me but I was trying to push the tea a bit to make up for less leaf. That could have brought out more of the bitterness. It gave many steeps. It gave maybe 10-15. I’m not sure as I usually don’t count. I ran out of water before it died off completely. I tend to like a nice returning sweetness in my sheng that this one didn’t have. But I feel this is a different kind of tea. A more woody/piney one which made it enjoyable in a different way. This one had a very mentholated cooling feel in the mouth which I liked. Overall it was a very enjoyable session but a bit hyped. This is a good tea but not an awe inspiring tea. Nonetheless I would recommend. I wish I would have gotten hold of this one when it was $15 as I feel $34 plus $15 in shipping is a bit overpriced for this tea, at least for me (Though its not too bad considering the age). That being said I am glad I picked a brick up and got to try it. I’ll try more leaf next time and see what I think.

Nice gold-orange liquer. Bitter with tobacco, piney, and apricot notes, camphor and sugarcane. I enjoy this one a lot and may have to pick up a cake! I could use some more aged/semi aged sheng in my collection and this is a pretty nice one

Packed my smallest gaiwan with about 6 grams of this tea as I always find white teas very forgiving. The smell on the heated leaves is, just as described by the vendor, packed with red dates as well as white peony, a hint of vanilla/cinnamon, and white flowers. This smell was present consistently throughout brewing – in the wet leaves, the tea liquor itself, the after taste, and even the smell in the cup after drinking the tea.
In addition to the flavors already mentioned, the tea tasted of honey and some other light/tart citrusy fruits, toasted oats, and a solid note that reminded me of a pile of dry autumn leaves. Quite full bodied, falls just short of malty. smooth with a nice cooling in the back of the throat and a sweet saliva-inducing buzzing in the cheeks. The tea endured 8 steepings packed with flavor before I decided to boil it. This tea was a welcome change of pace from oolongs and puerh, while still having a full enough body and flavor profile to satisfy me on a cold winter night, it honestly had some parallels to 10-20 year old oolongs.