white2tea

This arrived today, a whole 200g cake of W2T’s ‘House Blend’, as part of the W2T tea club package for January.

The cake is dark and inviting; it’s tightly compressed, and the scent is mild and pleasant aged-leather, forest, and wood.

I used about 10g in a 140ml Yixing teapot, boiling water – rinse 10s, then steep for 10s, increasing for each steep by a few seconds.

The wet leaves smell very clean and deep, like a forest in the rain, with an undertone of just-cut wood logs, and the scent left behind in a house with a wood fire. It’s smooth, with a sweetness balanced by a small hint of pleasant sourness. The sweetness gets a little sweeter with each steep, and the sourness fades, but the other scents and tastes were pretty consistent.

I didn’t find anything overpowering or really stand-out remarkable about this tea, but with a name like ‘Old Reliable’ I wouldn’t expect to – it’s a lovely ripe puerh, and (as promised by W2T on the cake wrapper) there are no funky or fishy smells, and nothing weird inside the cake* – it makes a lovely strong cup of ‘just right’ ripe puerh, with no big or strange surprises, and it’s very durable and reliable(!), with the same taste and scent profile through the (about) 12 steeps I had.

*which is remarkable and overpowering just by itself, considering the odd little ‘surprises’ I’ve found in some puerh cakes in the past.

Upon opening this bag of tea and sniffing it, I was greeted generously by a familiar aroma. I think it reminded me of a graham cracker crust or toasted coconut, like a coconut cream pie or coconut macaroon, and yet there’s more to it than that. Cocoa, wet rocks at the start of rain (petrichor), forest, basement. That’s a lot of complexity for the aroma of the dry leaf. After letting the dry leaves sit in a heated gongfu pot for a minute, I get heavy notes of hay.

After the first infusion the leaves smell pretty loamy with a definite grape aroma. The tea liquid smells fruity with camphor. The flavor of the first infusion is a subtle affair, with less flavor than I expected. It’s light and airy, delicate and floral and hinting at fruit (mostly grape). It pairs very nicely with the warmer, more resin-like scent. The end of the sip has a slightly metal taste, like sticking a stainless steel spoon on your tongue. The texture is light and smooth, quenching and silky.

The second infusion is even more fruity, mostly grape with a little hint of lychee, and maybe I’ve had one too many cups of tea at this wee hour of 3AM but if I’m not mistaken there’s a warming rush across the tongue and throat after the sip… which i could attribute to the camphor-like quality of the tea, but would almost compare to the lingering feeling after eating some Red Hots (the candy). Of course, not to that level of intensity, but more than I’ve ever noticed in a tea before.

Okay, maybe I’m not losing it, because the third infusion reminds me a lot in flavor and in heat-sensation to brewed ginger, with the fruit flavors now only sneaking up at the tail end of the sip. The texture is less slick than the first couple infusions, but not drying. For me this is definitely a warming tea and gives me a warming body sensation and qi. As the tea cools down it is more fruity overall with a lingering lychee taste.

What a great tea! I am on four infusions now and the flavor is consistent. I love how light it is, and yet juicy and a little sweet. It’s a very refreshing tea with layers of subtle complexity, still a mixture of fruity and floral flavors, with little hints of mineral and forest, and now I can’t make up my mind if it’s a warming or cooling sensation (which strengthens my camphor connotation).

I am gonna bow out on this review. I think this is a perfect tea. It reminds me of mist in a mountain valley. I love teas that can take me away. If I could change only one thing, it had just a bit of lingering dryness after the first couple infusions, despite the juicy feel during the sip. It leaves a bit of traction and grip on the tongue after a drink. I would love it if it was a bit more oily, but that’s just me. I really can’t complain because it isn’t enough to make me not love this tea. Really glad I bought this one!

This starts out a very moist dirt flavor with a little bitterness and seems to dry out with more steepings. Becomes more of a damp paper-y taste. It lightens after the 3rd steep and gets a little sweeter.

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.

Smokey – salty caramel

Several steeps in and it’s still too smokey to drink.

I don’t like this

The other day I decided that one of the hills in Ramble needed a small Victorian mansion, like the kinds I ogled a lot when I lived in Mechanicsburg. Somehow this turned from Victorian to an eight story sprawling Tudor Revival estate, not really sure how, but epic. This led me to think that I need to study architecture styles so I can incorporate more into my buildings, currently I am working on building the La Serena Lighthouse in Chile, my first Spanish Colonial Revival build, so far so good.

No tea gives me as many problems when it comes to reviewing like Sheng Puerh, you really can’t get a good feel for how the tea is going to evolve in the standard three steeps my blog has evolved into, and as much as I tempted to go back to my old ways of epic long 14 steeps worth of detailed notes, I will leave that nonsense to my personal tea notebooks. See, drinking a Sheng is not just a standard enjoying a tea session, it is an experience! From new to old, you don’t just drink this tea you FEEL IT! No tea has driven that home quite like White2Tea’s 2015 Bosch. From the first sniff I knew it was going to be trouble, it blended those seductive notes of camphor and cedar with hints of smoke and spinach, there is a subtle distant sweetness that is really hard to pin down…but sorry, I was lost in camphor and smoke. By the tea gods I love smoke in my shengs, it makes me feel rugged.

Giving the customary rinse and a flash steep, the aroma of the leaves now looses all the smoke, but what is left is strong camphor (well my sinuses are happy) and pungent wet hay, spinach, honey, and a complex juiciness that is damn hard to describe. It is dancing, there is a dancing teasing tea spirit that is luring me down into the cups. I think this sheng is a siren. Good heavens, I am just sniffing it and the tea drunk is starting.

In the beginning there was light, it was like drinking a firework, not in texture of course, that would be unpleasant, but the combination of taste, qi, and texture lights up my brain like a smack to the head. It starts with drool inducing slight sourness that makes my teeth sharp, it then brings out gentle sweetness that lingers in my throat and with each exhale I feel the sweetness. Camphor, spinach, wild roses, apples, yeasty bread, pine needles, rice cakes, and caramel. This tea is telling quite the story in its infancy.

Several steeps in and I am really feeling this one, it lights my belly on fire like what I would imagine eating icy-hot would feel like, it cools but it burns. My limbs feel like jelly and my brain feels like it is stuffed full of fluff, there is tea drunk and there is tea stoned. Later in the steeping I get a lot of subtle notes, it is a very nuanced tea, with notes of wildflowers, camphor, cedar, apricot, bitter melon, honey, pepper, and a killer pungent wet hay. Later in the steeps there is a mouth drying bitterness that causes a sweet salivary explosion, it coats the mouth, and as young shengs can go this is not terribly bitter.

In the later steeps, yeah I am beyond tea stoned, I am about to float off to another dimension, forget muscle relaxers and pain killers just give me this tea. Actually no, this baby did to my stomach what an Advil does, sure the rest of my body doesn’t hurt, but I am feeling a dull burning ache in my stomach that ended up lasting several days. So glad I ate before I started in on this! As the tea finished off it lost pretty much all its bitterness, I just had sweetness and camphor, cooling and burning, inducing a decent amount of drool in the process.

There is a lot going on, it is a beautiful tea whose memory will live large in my brain, and maybe when I am a little richer I can justify getting a cake, because Puerh is an employed person’s passion, though I will say, if you get the chance to try it, do it! Bosch outlasted me, I had to throw in the towel at steep 11 before I passed out. At the very finish notes of mineral and gentle distant (I might be hallucinating) smoke danced with honey and pepper. The aftertaste, qi, and oily thickness lasted for a long time after I finished…pretty sure I could still taste it the next morning, but it could be I was still tea stoned.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2016/01/white2tea-2015-bosch-tea-review.html

Has anyone else had this lately? I acquired 20 grams of this in a swap (thanks curlygc!), and this is tasting a lot different than when I last had it even 3-4 months ago. I am using more leaf and finally got a gaiwan, which I’m using for this session.

It tastes much more medicinal, bitter, mentholy, and green versus the light hay taste. Can sheng change that much in a few months? I’m very much a beginner when it comes to drinking pu-erh.

I leave for vacation very soon, and I had a six hour safety course to complete before hand. This was the perfect time for a looong session. I brought this out, and I was pretty excited to try it out. I opened the jar and took in a sweet woodsy aroma with some spice in the background. I warmed the Jianshui up and placed a decent amount inside. I lifted the lid and took in an amazing aroma! The scent began with a sweet aged profile. I then picked up the “oaky” whiskey barrel scent, and then a tasty finish of caramel and vanilla bean. I also noted an odd scent. I was in Oklahoma City once, and they had an orchid named the “Amazon Orchid” at their Botanical Gardens. This flower had such a peculiar scent that was both sweet and spiced. The warmed leaf took me back to the scent of that orchid. I returned back to my session and washed the leaves once. The steeped leaves are a dark crimson and carry such a scrumptious scent. I picked up most of the same tones as earlier except now I could take in some pipe tobacco and mulled cider. I was pretty excited to brew this up. The initial sip was a very full body. The flavor was thick and lasting. This tea brews up a rusted orange color. The session is relatively consistent with its flavor profile. I picked up a nice oak median with some drying sensations. The brew has sweet tones of sugarcane and sap, and spiced tones with a fibrous astringency. This brew keeps a steady wood taste with a nice pleasant huigan. The qi is deep and warming with nice chest compression. This is a slow building qi and just follows you throughout the session. The qi didn’t overwhelm nor take off; it was just kinda in the back of the head and at heart center. The session lasted two hours and forty minutes until it became flat (the timer of the course assisted with a reliable timeline). I really liked this tea, and it was a nice smooth session. However, this wasn’t spectacular. I believe this solely is a collector’s tea, and it’s price does not reflect the experience. I would not spend this much on this tea again. The tea is a very solid and reliable session, but it isn’t something memorable. I would only show this off because of its brand, year, and authenticity; not for the actual taste or qi. I liked this, and I’m glad I was able to try. This isn’t something I will seek out again.

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

I tried this tea several times and I noticed some sourness in the early steeps. Is it only me?

First I put ten grams and put it in a gaiwan and rinse it for 5 seconds . The first brew was for 5 seconds and sweet tangy flavor and dark amber color. The second brew was darker and had a nice new barn smell and was like a ruby color. The last brew was a darker color and had smelled stronger .

Got out ten grams to start with. Steeping in the gaiwan. Gave it a rinse to start with.The first brew, at 5 secs, brewed a light yellow color with a grass note.The next brew the tea was stronger with a dying grass note to it used a ten second brew. Next steep it was fifteen second brew and the tea was darker and stronger with a hay flavor that you can taste at the tip of your tongue and the middle of your tongue.

Does tea have Buddha nature? Enjoying Last Thoughts I venture to say yes. Opening the wrapper one can easily see the tree in the leaves. One handles it with care, as if it were the baby Buddha itself, mindful of the countless hours and tremendous effort that went into acquiring the material, pressing it and packaging it with care, the time, energy and resources needed to make the purchase and receive it half way around the world. At $439 a cake one handles it with mindfulness and attention to every leaf, measuring and preparing it with as much skillfulness as possible. The heartbeat accelerates and the spirits lift in anticipation as the water heats. As the gaiwan fills with water one senses great purity and is moved to drink the rinse in a rare moment of freedom from habitual behavior. Each drop a precious resource to be savored and protected.

Holding the warm cup one is already elevated and the nose drinks first, enjoying the smell. With each sip the warmth spreads, the senses focus in sharpened clarity – mind and body are one in the precious present moment. An elemental awareness arises: fire, water, earth and air, separate selves transcended in each drop of the soup.

In the half empty cup one discerns the arising and ceasing to be of all phenomena. The interconnectedness. As the cup empties the heart fills with warmth and gratitude for the effort of countless beings and generations of care that went into this. Notions of here and there, known or unknown are transcended; one feels a kinship and closeness with the hands that created this.

After a few steeps… the mind quieted in the rising tide of cha qi, a direct visceral experience. The cup, now empty of tea, perhaps full of my last thoughts?

Why did the Buddha continue to meditate after full and universal enlightenment? Maybe because it felt so good… time for another pour. Peace.

Enjoyed sipping this tea over the past three days and it seemed to become better with each infusion. The dry dark leaves were loosely pressed – a gentle nudge of the tea needle separated the fully intact leaves. They yielded a chestnut colored tea soup that is thick, sweet and lubricating. Camphor is noticeable in both aroma and taste. Smooth silky texture. Sweet broth is soft and gentle with a slight herbal taste but there is definitely a distinct nut-meat essence. Later cups were pure smooth sweetness. Definitely not a flimsy tea with its wonderful viscosity. Qi was not as apparent as I would have preferred but from what I could feel it was quite comfortable and relaxing. Overall, a very fine tea with durability and strength – several lovely sessions with an honest, straightforward tea.

What better tea could you want to go with the grand finale of The Princess Bride? Well, I don’t know but this is pretty darn good for it. It’s a thick dark soup with a strong woody smell. The liquor tastes woody and leathery with a hint of camphor and old books. The aftertaste is sweet and peppery on the edges of my tongue, although it also made my tongue go slightly numb along with my legs. “Hello, tea drunk.” This was a good choice for this evening’s tea and movies session and I look forward to finishing it off tomorrow.

Thank you TwoDog for this sample.

The waiting game begins!! I did it, today I ordered the Xbone and I am so full of excitement I can barely function. Really I don’t think I have been this kind of excited since I was a kid…I hearken back to Middle School where my dad pre-ordered a Playstation and I was just the hotness at school, of course I spent the entire day bouncing off the walls waiting to get home so I could play the pile of demos because I didn’t have money for the games yet. I could say I felt this kind of excitement when I got an Xbox360, but considering Ben just surprised me with it one day the excitement was a very short explosion…maybe I could compare it to being super excited about Mass Effect 3 where I went to the release party, that had a sad ending though so maybe not.

Guys, guys….guys…it is Dian Hong time!! I am addicted to Dian Hong, it is probably no secret at this point, I mean I love Hong Cha in general, but I go into full on twitchy addict mode around Dian Hong. So today why not look at White2Tea’s Bang Dong Hong Black Tea, made from big leaf Puerh varietal material but processed like a red tea, which means fun times for me! I have had other Dian Hongs that specifically are made from Puerh material and they have made me immensely happy, they have unique nuances. The aroma of the really quite enormous leaves is crisp and gently smoky, with sweet honey and cocoa undertones, a nice starchy yam note, and a slightly camphor finish. It is like sniffing a chocolate covered Sheng, and I hope everyone is as amused by that mental image as I am.

Into my red tea yixing teapot the leaves went for a water filled adventure! The aroma of the now soggy leaves is subtly sweet, with notes of malt and yams, pine resin and camphor, and a finish of honey and cocoa. It has a crispness despite the rich notes, and it is probably the camphor I have to thank for that. The liquid (or soup if you feel fancy) has a gentle and sweet aroma, blending molasses, burnt sugar, cocoa, yams, pine sap, and a tiny tiny hint of camphor at the finish. It smells more of a Dian Hong in the liquid and only has a hint of its puerh cousin.

The first steeping is smooth and sweet, starting with notes of honey and pine sap with a nice midtaste of cocoa that almost borders on chocolate, but not quite that milky sweet. Around the midtaste notes of yam and molasses appear, and the finish brings in a slightly cedar slightly camphor note. It is not cooling, more like the ghost of cedar and camphor, giving it, if anything, a bit of crispness.

Second steeping time, and the aroma is quite malty with notes of pine sap, starchy yams, and a touch of sweet cocoa. This steeping is mostly smooth, with a hint of dryness at the finish, it is not a strong unpleasant dryness, just slight. The taste is rich this steeping, strong notes of cocoa and malt mix with molasses and a slight pine wood note. It finishes with yams, honey, and molasses, the molasses taste lingers for a while after the sipping.

The aroma of the third steeping is still very malty and rich, with stronger yam notes and cocoa, the honey sweetness is not as strong, as it is more rich than sweet. Sipping the red gold (it is like gold to me!) it is all smoothness, no dryness what so ever, just smooth rich sweetness. The taste is sweet and malty, very rich with notes of yam and honey, with strong molasses and malt at the finish. I got several more steeps after this one, it is a Red Tea that keeps giving, getting sweeter after the richness,

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/12/white2tea-bang-dong-hong-black-tea-tea.html

Someone inspired me to pick some of this, and I decided to break it out. I can’t believe I am the first to review a tea from 14’.

The cake has some massive maocha that is loosely compressed. The leaves are light subtle colors of white, gold, platinum, and some autumn browns. This array of colors give off a nice dry grass, slight fruit, and a whiff of tang aromas. I carefully stuffed my warmed yixing full of these beautiful leaves. The warmed scent was very unique. I opened the lid and was greeted by a thick warm almost creamy scent. I was picking up nectar, honey, dew, and it was all wrapped up so syrupy it was almost milky. I washed the leaves once and prepared for brewing. The leaves became rugged and vegetal with tones of spinach, wet wood, grass, and juicy pear. The taste was a sharp clean flavor. First, I tasted greens and a vegetal tone. The flavor was so fresh and uplifting. This oddly reminded me of mountain air, and I’m unsure what that means, haha. The flavor progressed to keep clean green tastes, but I also picked up some astringency and a pleasant drying sensation. My throat was picking up a nice sweet huigan that was like thick nectar. The third and fourth steep yielded some peppery kuwei, and the huigan built up to a thickly sweet and smooth feeling. The really interesting part about this tea is the drying sensation. The fifth and further steepings gave an intense dry mouth. I was picking up such a variety of tones. I had cotton mouth, a thick lasting huigan, and a pinchy kuwei that kept prodding at my tongue. The drying sensation had a subtle pine wood taste. This was a refreshing and clean brew. The qi was odd, and body encompassing. It felt like a tonic for my body. I felt wiped clean and without any restraints. It was such a a strange yet good feeling. I felt like I had just experienced a cleanse honestly, hahah. I really like this tea. I have tasted more intense flavors in brews, but this is a great steady brew. This drink carries the drinker and slowly steers them throughout the session. I’m glad I have more of this, and I’m really happy this hidden gem was brought to my attention.

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

The infamous 05’ Naka! I decided that Christmas would be a wonderful time to remove this from storage and give it a steam. I’ve heard much murmuring and whispers about this “buzz” tea, so I needed to taste it for myself. I opened up the jar and grabbed a heavy chunk. The leaves are loosely pressed together, and they are a wild assortment of dark reddish brown tendrils. This cake gives off a nice deep scent of dark decayed wood, dried fruit sweetness, and some slight smoked tobacco. I broke some off and placed it inside my warmed jianshui. My brewing vessel exploded with intense aromas of pine resin, deep tobacco, and that same decayed wood. I washed the leaves once and prepared for brewing. The steeped leaves give off a deeper smokier scent with some sweet sap, saw wood, and more pine resin. This is a very deep and bold brew. The first sip was phenomenal with a clean dry taste mixed with a sweet plum aftertaste. The dry flavor resembled a light wood tone, such as oak. The brew was mostly soft tones with a pleasant and thick huigan. Also, I’d like to note that this session was taking place at a dining table during breakfast with many people around me (I was the only tea drinker). The brew grew pleasantly sour by the next two steeps and a mild eucalyptus flavor developed at the third steeping. The huigan grew more and more thick, as did the initial dry taste. At the fifth steeping, I began to look around the table, and I attempted to talk to someone sitting next to me. Again, I “attempted”. This session, mixed with being up late last night playing"Santa", and a busy morning left me feeling like I had been hit by a truck. The session continued, and I was picking up a beautifully sweet dried fruit flavor in later steeping sessions. Also, i carried a silly grin and muddled half opened eyes. I was having a good time, and this tea complimented that quite well. This brew gave me a deep calming feeling, as it states in the description. I felt as though my body was melting, and my muscles began to soothe. I couldn’t help but grin and laugh at my lazy posture. I was able to get quite a bit of steeps from my pot; however, at one point I had to get up and move around for fear I would pass out and bounce my head off the tea table. This is a peculiar and wonderful brew, and I am really happy to have some more of it. I do need to learn when and where to break it out though, ahaha.

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

I must confess to using very good tea as a respite during the hectic holiday family-time – sneak away and enjoy several quiet minutes with my tea. One of my favorites during this time was a generous sample of the 1996 CNNP Green in Orange from White2Tea. What a nice example of aged tea!! The color of the liquor is deep orange-red and the sip is smooth with a nice aged taste. Definite sense of a woody sweetness with every sip and an interesting tang of minerals or spice (I could not decide which). Vibrant texture in the mouth and throat. A very pleasant sweet aftertaste lingers nicely in the mouth and throat. The qi builds throughout the session (relaxing and warming). Overall, a delicious tea which I found quite comforting.

A light and friendly sheng with mineral, floral, and pine notes in the early steeps. Lingering sugarcane sweetness and maybe just a touch of smoke. Later steeps reveal a tart vegetal note like green olives that has me thinking of a dirty martini. It really excels in the later steeps, both flavor and buttery mouthfeel opening up.

This is a very tasty puerh stuffed mandarin. There is the earthy taste from the ripe puerh and the smoky taste from the mandarin. It is not quite as smoky as some I have tasted. The earthy flavor was clean and persisted for about four steeps. The smoky taste was present even in the tenth steep. Presumably because of it’s smoked nature this tea did not develop in my opinion a taste of chocolate. But it definitely developed a fruity taste as much from the mandarin as from the ripe puerh. This is a fairly expensive puerh at something like $9.50 per 30g mandarin but it is good. It has no wet storage taste to it at all.

I steeped this in a 120ml gaiwan with 9.3g 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, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 min. Judging by the color of the tea in the tenth steep I’d say this was nearly played out but I’m fairly certain I could get two more steeps out of it.

From the Pu TTB

Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to all!

Early steeps have notes of mineral, peat, citrus, pine and incense with a minty cooling finish. There’s some storage tastes which fades in the later steepings and reveals just a bit of vegetal/corn notes and a figgy sweetness. A nice aged sheng indeed!

Having a nice Christmas evening session with this. A good relaxing tea compared to the Last Thoughts this morning. Plenty of energy but not ass whooping energy. A perfect tea for a casual session with the family.

It’s odd that my mother can not stand this tea but was loving the 2005 Rocket Yiwu yesterday. I will admit the Gaoshan is a bit more earthy but I was still surprised to see such a night and day reaction. I have to admit, Rocket Yiwu is more up my alley, with the floral/fruity flavors and huigan, but the Gaoshan is considerably smoother and thicker in my opinion.

I think I experience more qi with the Gaoshan then with Rocket Yiwu. There’s a million variables to take into consideration when talking about qi so who really knows. But I think I’m getting more body effect from the Gaoshan, but more enjoyable flavor from Rocket Yiwu. So all in all I’m glad this tea fits my needs. But I may have to get the Rocket Yiwu as well. The two teas are surprisingly different from eachother.