white2tea

For the moment, I’m drinking this tea Western-style in a large, oversized “camping” mug. The kind you cradle with both hands while sipping from it. This more experimental white tea is interesting because, though it is smoky throughout, the top of the sip is really sweet with notes of peach jam and just a little marmalade before those fruitier elements swap places with the undertones of petrichor and wet rocks; creating a clean, earthy and smoked tinged mineral finish. It’s still raining this afternoon, so something smooth and smoky with elements of petrichor (my fave smell) is right at home with the quiet, melancholic atmosphere brought on by the steady pitter-patter of rain outside my windows…

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DJzzFO2yvTl/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Y-PenHH71c&ab_channel=EverythingEverything-Topic

All the barbecue flavors with none of the calories! Initial steeps are dominated by complex smoky, sweet, bacon-y notes. There’s also a pleasant fruity aftertaste which complements the smoky flavors. The white tea is also a lot easier on the stomach compared to other smoky teas I’ve had from White2Tea, like 2022 Boat Captain and 2025 Northern Grown.

I very much enjoyed this tea! I agree with other reviewers that the taste reminds me of autumn leaves, however the smell is like a strong apple cider vinegar, which makes for a stimulating brew.

Has the usual shou qualities that I love — slick and oily texture, earthiness. Mild sweetness and has a great color, super dark red.

Smooth, bold, and fruity with hints of apricot and heat. The leaves smell sweet and earthy, and the tea pairs well with all sorts of food. I enjoy this tea very much and have purchased the full cake for everyday drinking. For me, the best flavor brews out in the gaiwan, but grandpa style or thermos brewing also yields good results.

Bright and sweet, with hints of hay and tobacco. The sweetness leads into a slightly bitter and complex earthy aftertaste. The mini is a bit compressed, but after two ~5min steeps it starts to open up.

Gongfu!

Enjoying this tea with some muscat grapes this morning and rereading some earlier volumes of Dandadan while I impatiently wait for the second season of the anime!! This is a really, really cozy and warming black tea with such a bold body and pleasantly light bite of astringency at the top of the sip. Very strong spice notes led by cinnamon and allspice, which lean in perfectly to the more starchy and grain-like mid sip notes of baked yams, baker’s chocolate, mugicha, and freshly baked rolls. The undertones are a bit fruity in a more dense, darkly sweet, or “brown tasting” way – think raisins or dates.

It’s absolutely pouring today with some seriously intense thunder, so this is tea so reminiscent of fresh raisin bread or hot cross buns straight out of the oven is absolutely the perfect tea to hunker down with while staying snuggly inside with something good to read!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DJwkpFstcrr/?img_index=1

And it really never stops being both challenging and hilarious to explain the plot of this manga/anime to other people, as evidenced by the last few slides here…

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVIWIbUG9Qw&ab_channel=B%C3%98RNS

April Backlog and sip down

My April stack has been sitting on my desk to review for a few weeks…I cannot believe we’re 17 days in May. Where the heck is 2025 going?

Aroma: Hay, melon rind, & cannabis

Texture: Oily

Tasting Notes: Melon, bitterness, & lingering sweetness.

Gongfu!

I love a bud heavy black and the bright, coppery liquor practically glows in the sunlight. It’s quite a sweet black tea, with a velvety smooth mouthfeel and more of a medium body. As expected, it tastes a lot like honey, with warm floral undertones that make me think of wildflowers. More unexpected are the sweet, airy, and creamy confection notes – like marshmallow fluff! They don’t eclipse the honeycomb that takes center stage, but they’re an undeniably present supporting role. It’s probably one of the more standout black teas I’ve brewed up as of late.

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DJmacE0Nja2/?img_index=1

This set looks right at home out here among the grass and stones; AKA my favourite spot for outdoor tea as of late.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRBa34X5Hwg&ab_channel=SayaGray-Topic

Wow! Love this one. Next to Yunnan Sourcing’s Green Dragon for my favorites. Strong and reminds me of fresh, healthy compost. Smells so good and woodsy out of the bag too.

Tea is delicate and sweet with an upfront honey taffy and earthy funkiness, which leads into a floral and fruity aftertaste. Honeysuckle and white peach notes lasted many steeps.

Good daily drinker. Sweet and light floral notes that last for many steeps.

Floral, clear, and refreshing. Slightly bitter, but in a pleasant way. In later steeps floral notes decline, but are still present.

Trying this Western style for the first time as that’s how I usually would drink a breakfast tea, but no milk or sugar for this first tasting. Part of me expected this to be brisker and more tannic, but I’m also delightfully surprised to be met with a very rich and full-bodied cup that is actually quite smooth and velvety. Though there is a woodiness and almost oak-like note, mostly I found this quite chocolate-y tasting. A less refined and more bittersweet cacao chocolate, sure, but chocolate forward nonetheless.

I have had other black teas from W2T steeped Western style that have left a more immediately striking first impression, but I thought this was solid and it’s something that I could see servicing that early morning breakfast cuppa role quite well.

Fresh sweet hay, leather, and apricot notes. Leaves are tightly compressed, but opens up after a short wash and two ~50sec steeps with boiling water. Brewing with Gaiwan, first steeps have clear notes of fresh hay, which settles into an apricot and leather aftertaste. In the later steeps, the fresh hay notes weaken and become sweeter.

Decent daily drinker, as expected and advertised. Tastes a lot like a red (aka black) tea, so not my favorite gong fu style but that’s alright.

Gongfu!

It was the description of cotton candy that attracted me to this tea, and I have to say that I think it’s pretty accurate! This a softness to the start of this session, and really to most of the infusions within it as well. With it comes a light, sugary sweetness than transitions into a mid-sip with more overall body and a slightly more vegetal and mineral undertone, like darker leafy greens. The finish is a little bitter before returning to that almost caramelized or spun sugar quality. Very interesting how each sip sort of “seesaws” between delicate, fluffy indulgence and snappy greens. Though I felt really engaged whilst steeping this raw pu’erh, I haven’t yet fully decided whether I’m into it or not. I love the sweetness, but those kale-like vegetal notes are definitely a lot less up my alley…

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DJNGu6JyByh/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCa2atlQtWk&ab_channel=WicWhitney

Captain’s Backlog 3 May 2025

What a doozy. Knocked me out cold for a 2-hour nap after only 2 pours. Whisper of smoke. Sandpaper tongue. Very drying; not a pleasant feeling when combined with dried-up mucous membranes from allergy medication.

Back into the crock.

$60 for a 200g cake in 2025. I think it was $18 or something when I bought it 9 years ago?

Gongfu!

Usually, I just blind cake all of the smoked black teas because at this point I’m just so confident I’ll enjoy each of them, but this one was a little bit more expensive so I decided to play it safe and start with a sample. And, well, let me tell you that I immediately regret that choice. Not only is this so smooth with such a rich, clean, and aromatic woody pine smoke flavour, but it’s also deeply chocolate tasting with a bit of caramelized sugar! A perfect cross between the sweetness of a milk chocolate and the pleasantly bitter bite of very high quality dark chocolate. And if you’ve ever had smoked chocolate before, you know it’s fantastically divine. If there were just a bit of a graham note, then I feel like this would be such a dead wringer for the straight/scented tea equivalent of a smoky campfire s’more. It’s pretty close, though!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DJH-JU3yEhc/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-nTEsxPlVY&ab_channel=Husbands-Topic

I recently received a small white2tea order with some of the latest smoked teas, something that I’ve come to deeply look forward to each year! Though I’m sure it won’t be long until I’ve tried each of them, but couldn’t resist brewing one up immediately. I’m starting with 2025 Northern Grown, the smoked sheng pu’erh. It’s bitey and abrasive with a lot of upfront pine smoke, tobacco and peat moss notes. However, it’s what follows after the initial wave of smoke that really makes it feel so compelling to me. Still smoky, but cushioned with the bitter sweetness of burnt sugar and a slightly tropical fruitiness like a greener, slightly underripe mango. So unique, even among the other different smoked raw pu’erh from W2T that I’ve gotten to try!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DIwat9QpgWb/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMtKc9eyMN0&ab_channel=PaulSpring-Topic

Strong lapsang-like smoke well-balanced with fruity sheng flavor. Compared to most smoky raws, this feels very “clean”, I guess because it’s a clean modern production that has been smoked, rather than a rustic factory production with smoky processing.

Quite nice.

Grandpa Style!

I only did half of a coin snapped, along with quite a lot of fresh basil leaves muddled up and steeped together in the liquor grandpa style, just to do something a little more fun and experimental. The result is still pretty delicious with a very, very bitter dark cocoa note swiftly followed up by a whole lot of fresh, savory herbaceousness. Even though this isn’t even close to being a sweet brew, there is something sorta indulgent about it. If you’ve never had dark chocolate dipped or coated basil before, I’d highly recommend. It’s a unique juxtaposition of flavours, but it works shockingly well and this is basil just the tea version of that!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DIHpb49yGcA/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7szEV16-wI&ab_channel=TheBrook%26TheBluff

I topped this off in the office on Monday, which means that the following notes were half- assed. Haha.

Aroma: Green peppers, honeydew rind, watermelon rind, rinds, rinds, rinds!
Tasting Notes: Peppery honeydew

It was a chaotic week at work, so I didn’t get much time to work on the sip down pile as much as I would’ve liked (here’s looking at you, coffee). Unfortunately, the W2T club – sometime last August – only had 15g of this red. As I’m both grateful to have had the opportunity to try this, I’m a touch sad that there was only so little. That’s life – never enough, but enough to be happy. Lol

Aroma: Black pepper, toast (not burnt but almost), & cocoa powder.

Tasting Notes: Citrus, grapefruit, zest