The first notes of this tea are wet wood and spice, indicative of wet storage. These notes were prominent for the first four steeps. Later steeps developed into something sweet, but with a wet wood aftertaste. Overall this tea is good but I think it needs to air out for six months. This had slightly less wet storage taste than the 1998 White Tuo had. That one improved with six months of storage in a drier climate I think this one will too. I won’t go as far as to say that I found notes of chocolate or fruity notes but it did get sweeter in later steeps.
I steeped this ten times in a 120ml gaiwan with 10.2g 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. This would definitely go a few more steeps if I wanted to continue but I am at my caffeine limit for the day.
Flavors: Spicy, Sweet, Wet Wood
Any preference between this and the white tuo?
The White Tuo I have have already aired out so at the moment I would say the white tuo, but the best aged shou I have tried was from Yunnan Sourcing, the 1996 CNNP “Green Mark Te Ji”. It is also more expensive at around $116 for a cake.
Thanks. Green Mark is still pretty reasonable considering the age.
I’m a big fan of Scott’s 1997 CNNP 7581 too.
Don’t think I’ve had that one.
Excellent review.
The product description says ‘The tuos have been stored in dry storage for the entirety of their lives’, yet you suggest wet storage. That’s interesting.
I’ve ordered a sample of the 1996 CNNP “Green Mark Te Ji” Ripe (twice by mistake!) so I’m really looking forward to it :)
I have learned the note of wet wood means wet storage.
I have yet to taste an older White2Tea production that doesn’t taste of wet storage.
Well, what we think of dry storage is a newer thing.. Good, dry-stored tea from the 1990s is $$$. W2T had a 1998 Yangpin Hao Yiwu that was dry-stored. Was a reasonable price but still >$1/g.