2006 White2Tea Old Bear Fangcha

In a way, puer, people and animals are alike: every one is different, sometimes unpredictable, slowly fermenting away inside… A major attraction of puer is that its ‘alive.’ So why not anthropomorphise it? Hello, Old Bear!

This bear is up-tight and refuses at first to yield when asked to leap onto the scales. 6.5g in ~90ml yixing made for a potent trip down the forest trail. I ran through it quickly, as if being chased… Yes, there’s a bit of an animal in there. We know this tea is potent and smokey. But I’m a fan of lapsang, rauchbier and Islay whisky.

As much as smoke (more peat and oak than pine or beech – so I disagree with lapsang analogies), I perceive a decent rounding from age and storage, which makes the power of the tea and its latent, but potentially aggressive bush-like flavours quite manageable. Short, cautious steeps yield an enjoyable brew with a pleasantly smooth mouth-feel. The finish is a contest between drying smokiness that reminds me of Laphroaig (a bit like piss and tweed…) and a slight trickling sweetness consistent with the tea’s age and W2T-type storage. As with some comparable whiskies, this tea has the body to back up the smoke (unlike Laphroaig, imho), and I like it.

Pros: potent, enduring and interesting; almost balanced – provided you like a smokey kick. Uplifting.

Cons: heavy on the stomach, despite its 10yrs of age. Occasional flashes of huigan contend with a slight, unpleasant constriction of the throat that reminds me this is likely particularly cheap plantation material. Then again, I’m sure its tough to tame a bear. And really, would we want to?

Opening:

When I opened this tea I thought it was very beautiful! However, it’s incredibly compressed. I stabbed myself twice while picking away at it. My partner told me to get stitches even.
Anyways, I also gathered a lot of tea dust trying to pry the damned thing open.

The Infusions:

When I started this session I started a mustiness which only points to humid storage. The rustiness has dried out since the last time I tasted this tea (this is my 3rd session) and is starting to settle down more. I first noticed that this tea tasted like tobacco in its early infusions. The wet leaves smelled like a Cigar Lounge!

In it’s middle infusions, it started to get sweeter. The tobacco started to taste sweeter; even more sweeter than the last time I had a session with Old Bear. There was a lingering aftertaste of wet wood that stayed in my mouth long after sipping the tea.

It’s later infusions started to get a spice to them, and the aftertaste of wet wood started to linger out. In the end, I never tasted ‘bitter’ in this tea. I steeped it at the oolong temp – 176 degrees F. I also noticed that this tea got a strong punch if I over steeped it, so it’s definitely on the more sensitive side.

Conclusion:

Overall, this is a good brick and at a great price as well! I will buy this tea again and i’m really curious about how it’ll age!

*Note: Due to rough storage, some bricks may be 75g instead of the advertised 100g.

From Pu TTB
A nice somewhat smokey (not as smokey as I expected) sheng with pine, tobacco, peat, and sugarcane notes. Obviously not made with the highest quality base material, but a bit of age has made it quite nice. In later steeps the smoke fades and is replaced by more fruity sweetness. This is my first tea I’ve tried from W2T and it definitely exceeded my expectations!

Pu’erh TTB 2015 Tea #12

This had the most flavor out of all the W2T that I drank on Sunday. Rather nice taste, but it was a bit darker than I like my pu’erh. I think it’s the flavor that makes this special. It doesn’t seem that 9 years has really mellowed out all of the bitterness, but sometimes that’s okay because with a nice punch you want to feel it

The lapsang of puer

Tasted like a good Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong but unfortunately that was about it. It was a pleasant incense not to over powering that just faded with every brew. I don’t like the blanket descriptor of "smoke"for a group of people that a literal kaleidoscope of scents and flavors smoke seem fairly general anything that is combustible can produce smoke a few pleasant while most are not. This was actually a pleasant incense light silky type smoke. That was until I under poured the steeped it about 15 seconds too long then woooah it was like cheech and chongs van I immediately dumped the cup. Lesson learned do flash steepings and maybe even less leaf/water ratio than normal as this tea has quite the split personality. Sorry for the one dimensional review but I wasnt able to focus and enjoy this tea to discover the nuances of it. The leaf on the tail after the smoke had cleared tasted slightly bitter the kind you would get from a raw kale of other greeny or maybe a spice like fennel/anise/licorice.

This tea for me was too strong for me to enjoy casually by itself but I can see it pairing well with food as I have in the past drank lapsang after a meal with a creamy rich dessert and it really worked well. I enjoy whiskey and pipe tobacco but neither in the middle of the day so too this tea would be a maybe once or twice a year change of pace but I wont lose sleep over not buying a fangcha(as with some of pauls other teas).

Hate to be cliche but the similarities are too strong, if you like lapsang you will like this tea of not then don’t bother. I like a good mild lapsang from time to time but in a black tea not a puer and on very rare ocassions.

Temperature: Boiling (Subsequent infusions at 190oF)
Brewing Time: Fifteen seconds ( + five seconds for each subsequent infusion)
Aroma: Smoky
Flavor: Smoky, Malty, Toast, Tobacco and Damp Earth
Tasting Notes: I loved it. It has a nice staying power, according to my notes I got twenty-three infusions out it before I stopped taking notes. This is a tea that you shouldn’t drink if you have things to do, it just has so much to give. I didn’t finish this tea I had stuff to do and frankly it just lasts way to long for me. I have a little left over I might experiment brewing with for longer times. The Smoky tastes starts to disappear after the fifth infusion, but besides that it stays pretty constant. I didn’t notice the taste starting to thin out, which is ridiculous, generally I like to see teas change in later infusions, but I doubt I’d be able to distinguish the sixth infusion from the twentieth.

Definitely worth buying! $18 for 100g is nothing. I haven’t tried the other teas that TwoDog sent me yet, but I have a feeling this might be the one to beat. The bar is set pretty high with this Old Bear, while my only criticism of it is you might get bored since the tea doesn’t get better the more you drink. I am curious if this tea will age well, I generally like young Sheng Puerh, but I wonder if this is type of puerh you want to buy and forget about or the kind you drink immediately.

More at http://rah-tea.blogspot.com/2014/12/white2tea-2006-little-gold-melon-old.html

This tea isn’t bad. I am not that much into semi aged sheng but I enjoyed this tea. It has a heavy smoke flavor mixed with other aged flavor. I didn’t have that sweetness I like in certain young shengs. Still it was good.

I brewed this four times in a 220 ml gaiwan with 10g leaf and boiling water. I steeped it for 10 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, and 20 sec. There were a lot more steeps to this tea but I have to watch my caffeine.