White 2 Tea

Gongfu 1g tea / 15 g water

Sweet and easy drinking, and the little cakes are a lot of fun.

Sipdown

Sweet peachy/floral notes. Not bitter nor astringent. Lasted about 12 steeps. Pushed it at 1-2 minute steeping time on the last two or three infusions; full boil.

Thanks so much for a sample of this one a while ago, Meowster!  I’ve really let this sample linger with such high expectations.  :D  I took a break from my holiday teas today!  I used 4.9 grams for a mug (measured by Meowster- thanks!) which was probably a lot for a mug, but I really love my deep pu-erh anyway, so I went with the entire sample.  Sometimes I’d use an entire Teavivre sample for a pu-erh and those are 7grams… so 4.9 grams isn’t the most I’ve used before!  There is certainly a sweetness to this pu-erh and it’s certainly dark.  No noticeable negative fragrances or flavors.  I could swear it does have a note of brown sugar— sure I’m being convinced by the name, but it just is.  The second steep is starchier and biscuity but still sweet.  I could tell the third steep was losing much of its strength and the fourth steep was even weaker than that. So I’m glad I don’t regret using the entire sample. If it happens that the lower quality ripe pu-erh is the darkest, then consider me a fan of those. Not the most amazing pu-erh I’ve tried, but ALWAYS thankful for trying.
Steep #1 // 4.9grams for a full mug // 16 minutes after boiling // rinse // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 11 minutes after boiling  // 2 minute steep   
Steep #3 //  just boiled // 3 minute steep 
Steep #4 // just boiled // 10 min
2019 sipdowns: 83 (This + oldest Bird&Blend Snowball)

Bold sheng with both a good medium-full body and tastes that remain very consistent throughout the session. Balanced astringency and bitterness. Not sweet but I feel like this is going to develop a redfruit-caramel sweetness waaaay down the road (I’m probably way off haha!). Into the Mystic is currently bright, tart and herbaceous, to me an undeniable mix of cranberry and lemon thyme, with later infusions feeling more like sour orange and tobacco. Florals here and there. Old dark wood, too. Hints of unripe apricot and cream in the finish but the tea is lacking in aftertaste — at this point it’s just tart.

What starts as a whisper of pine forest crescendos soon into a full-blown clean peppermint/menthol cooling in the mouth and body. A very pleasant warm, numbing grip in throat, warm chest, sweating. I’m questioning everything, my notes trail off… restless, tracers, wanderings. Probably because I’m riddled with anxiety while withdrawing from snus. Spent leaf smells like white grapefruit and looks like a blend of two maocha — one of them showing oxidation mostly on the stems attached to thin olive leaf; the other a bolder, darker green.

The tea feels fairly clean and balanced but I am left perplexed? Because of its age? Nothing was off about it. Need more time exploring the Mystic to suss it out. Something about it makes me want to buy a cake and expose it to higher humidity buuut I’m not $150 rich.

Song pairing in my head: Primus — Too Many Puppies

Lincang?

2017 Milan Dancong
Pretty behind on these reviews from the tea club.

I think I had the water too hot for the beginning of this session. It was a much better tea at a cooler water temperature. Long lasting tea – I got 9 steeps from this.

200F, 100 ml shibo, time – 10, 10 , 20, 20, 30, 30
These steeps were much more mineral and woody. Kind of drying as well. Some fruitiness, raisin in aftertaste, and tangy.

Steeps 6-9 were with much cooler water 185F ish
These were fruitier with a thicker mouthfeel. It got much sweeter as the water cooled.

Of the two Milan Dancongs from this tea club (still have the 2018 to go), I liked the 2017 better.

Tried to do a few short steeps of 20 seconds but came out too light. Decided to just brew in-between western and gongfu. It was a dark brown/ almost black liquor. Very thick and savory tea.

Reminded me of woody mushrooms.

this tea when brewed gongfu style and with the water kept near boiling for brewing its very syrupy with slight dark chocolate bitterness and stewed fruit. i fash brew it to keep from getting too bitter. just long enough to put the filter on the gong dao bei and then decanting it quite good, the flavor is alright. not stellar not terrible. i somewhat recomend this

Gongfu Sipdown (684)!

I went through a stack of W2T’s Ripe Flap Jacks and I really enjoyed them, but I didn’t pick up any of the raw version in that initial order because I didn’t want to commit to that many of them – that’s what tea friends are for though! Thanks to TheWeekendSessions I was finally able to try one of them out, as I received it in a tea swap. I’m glad I just sampled one, because while it was nice it wasn’t the type of profile I’d want to have several coins on – just sort of a fine tea. The tea starts off sweet and fruity with stone fruit notes & finishes more bitter and aggressive.

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/B1Pun2lA-gc/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PXh_5zvVNU

Dry leaf aroma- sweet Welch’s grape juice, sweet tobacco hints, dust, floral, almost pollen? Very interesting…

Quick rinse…

1 steep- thicker body, smooth, round…it has a depth to it. The tea has a good body to it…almost a pulpiness to it…I’m getting citrus floral notes. Bitterness and astringency are way down on the charts.

2nd – not much of a difference from the 1st steep… slightly more prescience of bitterness and astringency, but still very smooth. Some hints of dank, catty notes. Maybe mezcal type notes on the aftertaste.

3rd – again, maybe another level ramp up of bitterness and astringency, but flavor profile is very much the same. Kinda disappointed.

4th – man, tea really seemed to give up…
I mean at this point it is a good straight forward sheng, which seemed to offer complexity at the start a d now is falling off… not doing the next steep.

All in all, I had high hopes.

It just ramped down instead of up…maybe results will vary…
Good approach-ability, and drink-ability… just not for the long haul. I’d definitely drink it, but not going to seek it out.

Smell – tobacco, menthol, snuff, pepper

1- steep: tea aroma is a muted of the dry leaf. Cooling, refreshing, crisp. Warm mint chocolate ice cream. Cream? Apple , and pear brightness. Smooth and round. Subtlety sweet…medium light in the mouth. Lingers in your mouth for awhile. Drying on the sides of the tongue, like tobacco.

2-5 steep: steps up, a little in the bitterness department. Tastes really pickup where the aromas left off, reinforcing them well. Watercress bitterness. Arugla pepper notes. Coats the tongue. Good body energy coming through. Relaxing, and calming. Not fruity or sweet for me yet. Leaves are taking there time to open. Bitterness , and astringency finally break to a smooth, medium body tea.

Overall, pleasantly surprised by the initial complexity of the tea, considering it being a budget friendly option. A good, down the middle sheng. However, not fruity, atleast not for me. I’ll more than likely pick up a cake my next order, just due to its value. Color me surprised.

I’m back!!
It’s been a long time since I’ve been on Steepster (since Dec 2017 to be exact), and I’ve been re-familiarizing myself with the discussion board and a stack of messages that I need to answer. I thought the best way to get back into the motions is to start drinking and reviewing!! Therefore, I began with some Grandpa Balls!
I picked these up quite a bit ago, for they are the perfect add-on to a free-shipping promo. I know that these “should” be brewed in the true Grandpa way, but I went for the Gongfu route. They are tightly rolled and give off a light aroma of dark fruit; however, these are not overly fragrant. I warmed up the Shibo and dropped the shu inside to settle in. Once I lifted the lid, I was greeted with typical Menghai tones of soil, sweet clay, wet wood. I washed the puerh and began my brewing. This lil dude is super smooth and hardy. I played with my parameters, and there really isn’t away to over-brew this. The tea kept its smooth pace with an easy-going sweetness. The qi was comforting and relaxing with heavy warm waves and a state of ease. I still have a ton of these on hand, so I think these will be my go-to car teas. I figure I’ll grab a couple of these and throw them in my big thermos during long drives!

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bf3ZRVrH4Ry/

Additional note:
Sipdown. Last time I tried it grandpa style (cause the name lol) and this time I’m taking it through the full gaiwan treatment hehe. I put the 8g ball in a 110ml gaiwan and doing short infusions with boiling water. Starting at 10s, adding 10s each time.

I wanted to make an additional note for myself (and others) that the aroma that I got after the rinse was soil, dirt (not sure if I smelled the wet leaves before) but the flavor of the first 10s infusion was so clean and it has such a pleasant smooth mouth-feeling.

It is so mellow and carefree. Savory, slightly sweet. Nice cha qi, somewhat stimulating, mood lifting but relaxing. I’m certainly going to enjoy this throughout the night. I think I’ll get a few more on my next order to bring on short trips.

Reading through all the notes, the taste is covered and I agree with most… To me, it’s not a remarkable taste but a pleasant taste nonetheless. As far as energy, it was a comforting tea. Made my hectic day more tranquil. I basically drank it all day. I followed white2tea’s instruction since I only have two of them. I just dropped it in a mug and filled it up over and over.

It’s clean, no strong fermentation notes, slightly earthy, a little fruity here and there but there were very odd but good aromas as well. I think the main reason I enjoyed this tea is the peculiar mouth action. It became smooth but didn’t start that way at all. It had slight drying effects towards the end. It’s really a hard one to describe but I only saw one other that mentioned it.

I’d drink it again :).

Had this yesterday and didn’t take notes (sorry >.<), busy day. I have more so I will probably add notes to this one. In a nutshell, it was a wonderful roasted Yancha but its quite expensive $22 for 25g and probably won’t get it again. There are some fine YS that I liked just as much.

As far as the tasting profile, there was a strong presence of dried cherries with wet wood notes. It was very fruity. As I progressed I got lots of minerals, some floral notes and roasted barley at the end. It’s very smooth, a good mouth and throat feel. The dark cherry and then stonefruit notes remained throughout all the infusions, although lighter towards the end. Has a strong and lingering fruity aftertaste. I “gaiwaned” it (starting at 20s) but after the 4th or 5th infusion, I didn’t time it anymore. It remained flavorful until about the 12th infusion. Towards the end, it did get astringent.

I’ve been trying a lot of gong ting in orange and tangerines lately. I bought one from White2Tea and wish I got more now. They are expensive. One is $4.00. I had so many infusions yesterday I lost count. It began as Yixing gaiwan, 110ml, rinse, 5s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 25s, 30s, 35s, 40s, 45s, 50s, 55s, 60s… And then I just kept filling my gaiwan up, used it all day.

The tea is meant to be drunk with the orange and all so I just put the little orange in without breaking it up as their site suggested. The fruit is tiny, young and unripe unlike the others I tried. It was so tiny and cute (yes, I went there lol. I love cute things.) and it did have a greenish hue. I especially loved the first 5 infusions because of the “fresh green bite”. Their site says you “can toss out the first 2-3 steeps, and drink the next 12 or so.” No way, I loved that part! :) It changed from a slightly astringent green taste to a very mellow mandarin and earthy ripe pu’erh taste. I broke the orange up towards the end of the day to get even more of that rind taste.

I think of all the Xinhui Green Mandarins I’ve tried so far, this was my favorite. I’ll have to do a comparison again if I can get another. I think they sold out… /cry. Note: I have two more to try: YS Tangerine Stuffed with 4 Years Aged Ripe Pu-erh Tea and YS Gong Ting Pu-erh in Tangerine “Golden Horse 8685” Ripe Tea. Maybe I’ll do those this week.

Too much going on these days to focus on sessions, so I’ve been going through the daily drinker stuff, but today I was like okay let’s revisit this sample. It is still relaxing, dirty, and nutty. Lost track of time on 8 and oversteeped. Wet leaves smell like a mud room at the sauna .

10g, split over two days, both done grandpa style in a 500mL tea thermos. A moderate shu, really heavy on a soapy, floral character that I’m not that into. It’s not particularly thick or sweet, but smooth and dry, like cocoa husks or french roast coffee. I guess for the cost, this is reasonable, but it’s not particularly remarkable. The second of the sessions, I steeped twice, and boiled for a third, but couldn’t squeeze that much out of. It’s fine, but there are better modern shus out there at this price point.

I just got a sample of this and brewed it in yixing. Smokey, astringent in early steeps, but good full mouthfeel and smooth. Colour of the liquor was a bit orangey yellow. Two quick rinses followed by two 30 sec steeps so far. With that small amount I already feel the expansive mind energy I get with a good chaqi (or maybe strong caffeine). I wouldn’t call this a calming evening tea. Would also not recommend on an empty stomach. I’d recommend for a sample, but probably not the whole shroom.

Thank you, Derk :D

Cute little compact square, ~8g. The dry square wasn’t too aromatic, a very light orange aroma, no barnyard aroma or any other fermentation aroma. The rinse liquor was light amber. The wet square had earth and citrus/orange aroma. It was still pretty much in square form after the first four infusions… And even though 3/4 of the brick was pretty much intact, the liquor had gone from light to dark orange amber color. The infusions from the beginning albeit light had really flavorful citrus notes, clean earth, some wood, and citrus rind. After my 7th infusion, it is still ~60% formed lol and this is when the earthy notes peaked. After that, the citrus flavors incrementally went to the forefront… The tangerine, mandarin orange, citrus notes. It was smooth, no astringency nor bitterness. The only changes were earthy notes versus the citrus notes and the orange notes became more distinct as I went.

While it wasn’t a complex tea, I really enjoyed it. I still prefer TeaVivre Aged Chenpi Ripened Tangerine Pu-erh but these would be great to put in my little tin can which consists of a variety of mini tuochas, and mini cakes when I want something convenient.

Porcelain gaiwan, 8g, 205°F to boiling, 110ml, rinse, 11 steeps: 5s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 25s, 35s, 45s, 55s, 65s, 75s, 120s.

Included as a sample with a larger White2Tea purchase.

Pre-Infusion: Incredible aroma. Predominant lychee & caramel notes. Quick inhale oddly reminds me of sweet chewing tobacco (Red Man Golden Blend) that instantly transports me back in time.

Post-Infusion: Did a quick 1 min steep at 200F (didn’t have time for the full gong fu style progression). Leaves lend a distinct sweet and smooth aroma, rounding out a bit from the strong pre-infusion scent. Liquor is light amber, sweet, floral, and smooth. Lychee, raisin, and chestnut. Sweetness and mouthfeel linger. Really delightful tea.

This is a nice Sheng, with bright taste and a decent brewing longevity.
It’s main problem is the tough competition at this price range..

Saturdays, ugh. I needed my ‘1990s pilled polyester bald-headed eagle blanket’ today. My first ever western steeping of this shou puerh and chenpi combo was the comfort I desired but it doesn’t offer the kick needed to prepare for the crappiest work day of the week, Saturday. At least it’s my Friday.

This tea is fantastic steeped western and grandpa. Both methods offer the full flavor and thickness that gongfu steeping can’t attain due to the high compaction of the material. Simply a solid drinking shou with no off flavors even when I manage to let time slip by.

Grandpa is my preferred brewing method for this shou since the compact square takes too damn long to break open gong fu.

Channel Orange is not a complicated tea but it’s rewarding on a cold and stormy February day. It reminds me of a fuzzy polyester blanket that features scenes of nature, or maybe a wolf or bald eagle, and becomes matted with years of use. That kind of blanket you’ve had since 1991 and never wash. Your smell and maybe your dog’s are embedded in it.

That’s not to say this tea is dirty or smells like a dog! — it’s a very clean shou. Clean earth, dark wood and minerals, cleansing citrus, a bit spicy. I get notes of pine and cedar here and there. Tingly, mouthwatering, oily, light to medium body. The chenpi is more evident on the sip and lingers lightly in the mouth. A bright, warm note for a dull day!