183 Tasting Notes
Pomegranate, cedar, and a faint whiff of smoke over an earthy/mulchy background. Hints of spice pop out mid sip and are gone just as fast leaving cedar as a lingering aftertaste. It’s a solid steep. My mini weighed in at 6.82 grams on the kitchen scale.
Preparation
Sandalwood, burnt toast, light smoke, and maybe a little “mulchy?” Not in a particularly bad way, but the more bitter aspect of this tea I would describe as mulchy. Not overly bitter, and overall seems balanced and smooth. A decent cup of shou but not a fave for me. My mini weighed in at 7.25 grams.
Preparation
Received this mini as a free sample with my order – I can agree with Roswell’s previous tasting note. Yes, all those notes are here. I would add that I get those nice cotton candy notes I love from this one. There is some bite, though. It’s not all sweet and happy, but that’s what I love about young shengs. That extra edginess can serve to elevate things. My mini weighed 7.66 grams on the kitchen scale.
Preparation
Artichoke, Starbucks Sumatra blend coffee, a touch of maple syrup but not too sweet, and a little bit of oakiness. Smooth and much more satisfying to me than yesterday’s Prosbloom. I like it. I could drink this one once in a while, and think this is definitely pretty good for a basic everyday shou. Don’t notice much in the way of wet pile taste or aroma. My mini weighed in at 6.95 grams on the kitchen scale.
Preparation
Charred wood, but not as woody as the Lumber Slut mini I tried yesterday. Brews darker than that one. Maybe some licorice. A little bit of dark chocolate. Some bitter edge, but not unpleasant. Some brown sugar sweetness. I find it most like a basic cup of coffee, flavor-wise. Reminds me of a Folgers brew or something like that. Nothing really pops. Smells like a pile of mildewed towels.
Shou is not my favorite type of tea, though, so don’t take my opinion too seriously on this. I do appreciate some of them. Sometimes a good change of pace for me.
This mini weighed in at 6.97 grams on my kitchen scale.
Preparation
Charred oak, cedar, faint hints of cinnamon, light smoke, and “medicinal” notes all packaged in a surprisingly smooth tea. Nice lingering aftertaste. This reminds me of the Scottish Breakfast Blend from English Tea Store which I tried years ago, which featured Chingwo County Orange Pekoe, a variety of tea renowned for its oaky notes. But this is much smoother than I remember the other tea being, even though I enjoyed that one quite a bit. Woody notes are definitely the name of the game here, but the tea is also so smooth and friendly I could imagine it would appeal to a wide variety of drinkers, even those who are not particularly crazy about wood. My mini weighed in at 6.00 grams on the kitchen scale.
Preparation
I hear lots of good thing about the Lumber Slut line!
Heya Keemunlover, I wanted to take a moment to thank you for your ongoing notes for some of the w2t products. I have no experience with them, and admit to being offput by the wrappers and names, which is totally stupid on my part. But I find the w2t site to also be overwhelming and yet less descriptive of what to expect from particular products. So I quietly watch comments on Steepster, and try to keep track of potentials to someday try, before they sell out. So yeah, thanks!
TeaEarlGreyHot – You’re welcome! I have truly enjoyed what I have tried from white2tea so far. Some things I definitely still find annoying about the brand, like almost none of the product descriptions disclose where a tea comes from, what season it was picked, etc. If I really really like a certain tea, it would be handy to know it origin. But white2tea for the most part doesn’t give you that information. I know there is a whole philosophy behind their reasoning for not doing this. And, yeah, with any Chinese tea, it is pretty difficult to know exactly what you are buying unless you were observing the whole production process from start to finish.
@TeaEarleGreyHot – their site can definitely be overwhelming! But you can hardly go wrong with just picking up a bunch of samples and/or minis that sound interesting to you. I’m not a pu head but I love their black and white teas!
I was amused when someone commented on the Gong Fu Tea Group page on Facebook years ago that they had tolerated all these teas with edgy names but the owner had gone too far finally when he started marketing Duck Sh*t Oolong. The next several comments were people gently advising that he didn’t name it that – it is literally a direct translation of the name of the tea in Chinese and is what it is widely called.
I for one, love the names and artwork :D
I wouldn’t be surprised if this tea comes from the same patch of leaves the Turtle Dove white tea comes from? I find a lot of similarity between these two teas.
This is a lovely winey black tea, not very malty at all, but with deep red wine flavors and wonderful perfumy rose-floral notes. Taste profile is very reminiscent to me of the 2018 Turtle Dove white tea I tried a few days ago, but this is maybe not as woody. Kind of like a Yunnan version of Keemun black tea, a favorite of mine.
My mini weighed in at 6.68 grams on my kitchen scale.
Preparation
I was skeptical at first, but White2Tea is definitely winning me over as a fan. There sure have been a lot of bangers amongst the teas I have chosen to sample from them. And there should be, as the pricing is higher than what I’m used to. I feared I’d be mostly paying for the cost of the fancy packaging and twist ties involved in selling the individual serving-sized teas, but I am happy to report that I think the pricing also reflects the quality of the tea selections overall. I do feel bad about all of the packaging waste, though – It would be better perhaps to sell the dragon balls in maybe bulk packages of 5 or 10 or 15 or something like that, without all of the individual packaging. For all of the 27 teas I ordered, they came not only in their individual twist-tied artwork packaging, but also each different variety of tea was packed in its own tiny ziplock for freshness and probably to keep flavors from mingling between different teas.
I agree, white2tea is delightful!
Keemunlover: I am so glad the teas have not been a disappointment for you! I need to check them out someday. I am trying hard to reach my cupboard goals right now but maybe early next year I will take a close look and try something!
Ha ha! “Cupboard goals” – I gather you must have a large tea stash?
It isn’t too bad right now but I would love to get it down to 65 teas by the end of this year. I feel a little overwhelmed and guilty when it hits 140 because it is very hard to drink things before their best by date, and that is even with me giving g samples away to friends and family!
I just dumped a good amount of “imperial gold oolong” from Mark T Wendell the other day. It wasn’t a bad tea in its prime, but definitely when stale and got a little nasty on me. Purchased at least 3 or 4 years ago.
This tea is indeed a lullaby. Sweet and soothing. This is the first Yunnan white tea I’ve had (not that I’ve had so many) with the bright and fruity notes more reminiscent of a Fujian bai mu dan tea. Maybe not quite as bright and fruity as can be, but definitely going in that direction.
Sweet notes of green grapes, cantaloupe, and honeydew melon. With delicious minty tingles. Very creamy, too. All over a background of the grassy haylike Yunnan character I am more familiar with from other Yunnan whites. Very smooth.
The mini weighed in at 7.64 grams on my kitchen scale.
