White Tea (2018)

You’re welcome :) I really enjoy this tea’s soft, smoked Lapsang-like character as a departure from pretty much all other white teas.

White paper is not such a weird flavor note for this tea. Wuyi white tea always has a chalky mineral note to me.

Oh, and your note made me recall that one of my best friends from college used to eat paper napkins when he got stressed. He also had a pet named Steven that was a moldy loaf of bread that he kept in a bag on his bookshelf. My friends are weird.

A moldy loaf of bread! Well, I guess the mold IS alive.

He doesn’t have Steven the Mold Loaf anymore, but he still eats paper. We’re still friends. He’s a doctor now. He’s also one of the more normal of my friends. My best friend from college exists in a towel, boxers, or a bathrobe when he is not at work. He’s very McPoyle-like in that respect. He has to be completely nude, or he can’t go to the bathroom. If he gets excited, he starts dancing and yelling. He does this everywhere. He’s never grown out of the toddler-like tendency to investigate the world with his hands and mouth either. He will put things in his mouth that I will not smell or even look at. I have literally stopped to look out the window to see this person with his arms out spinning around to make himself dizzy. Another of my friends runs a Neopagan and occult supply store and makes components for cosplay outfits. Her nickname is “Nerve Pills.” She’s married to another friend of mine who decided to take up leather tanning and blacksmithing as a hobby, enjoys drunkenly throwing axes at trees, and if what she says is true, has to be prevented from wearing a fursuit to work on his car, because that’s just what you do if you’re going to work on your car in the driveway at 2:00 pm on a Sunday. I have another friend who drinks ritualistically, chainsmokes like Bill Hicks, does everything in his power to avoid acknowledging that anything after 2005 has ever happened, frequently declares tequila to be the cure for the human body, and enjoys wallowing around in the snow in his underwear. My best friend is obsessed with horror films, heavy metal, and professional wrestling and decided to become a plumber’s helper at the age of 34. To say my friends are odd is an understatement.

Have you ever had to drop what you were doing because your boxer clad friend got his head stuck in a heating vent? Have you ever had to go looking for one of your friends at a ski resort in West Virginia and found him walking around barefoot in 18 degree weather wearing only jeans and a t-shirt eating handfuls of artifical snow? Because I have had both of these experiences.

Have you ever been taking a shower and turn around to see one of your friends watching you and eating popcorn? I have had that experience too. He wasn’t even trying to be creepy either. He was hungry and lonely, made popcorn, and thought I might want some, so he decided to bring popcorn to me in the shower. We had to have the boundaries talk after that.q

My eyes grabbed McPoyle and I laughed because I was just thinking of that show. Your buddies sure keep things interesting and unique. haha.

I guess that you can look at it that way, but if I can successfully manage to present myself as the most normal person in a group of people, that might be a problem. Okay, there is no might to be to it. That is a problem. I’m a very odd person. I should never be the most normal person in any group. I have been described as a more athletic combination of Frank Reynolds, Carl Brutananadilewski, every Christopher Walken character ever, and Will Ferrell’s take on Harry Caray with an occasional bit of Larry David thrown in. I have also been told that I’m like if Philadelphia were a person who bizarrely never lived in Philadelphia yet inexplicably just is that way.

@easyteaguy, Ok – I love your thorough, technical tea tasting notes but these personal stories & experiences are entertaining.

Maybe Steven would enjoy wuyi white teas?

Probably not. Steven’s favorite thing was lounging in the sun that came through the window while stinking horribly. It was alleged that he enjoyed peanut butter and pretzel sticks, but I never saw him eat any.

Steven deserves a book or tv series. I’d read it lol

Also, sorry for the name typo, eastkyteaguy!

I didn’t even notice the typo. Sadly, Steven is mo longer with us. We forgot to remove him from our dorm during a break, and cleaning staff threw him away. There were a couple of other Stevens, but they didn’t last as long.

I think we had one named Andrew as well.

Whoa, very specific comparisons for you, eastkyteaguy. haha.

tea-sipper, I have been meaning to ask you this for a bit, but you describe yourself as always being in search of teas from Hattialli. Why that estate in particular? I’ve had a couple Hattialli teas prior to the last one I reviewed, but so far, I’m having trouble getting into their products.

I think we all needed a laugh :) People are strange.

And yeah, I get limestone with this tea. That could come across as papery.

My roommate is one of those handsy-mouthy people. It makes her a good glass artist. Yes, she ate a piece glass a few days ago. A simple mistake, no?

Eastkyteaguy, your friends make me feel better about some of my stranger habits. :) I don’t have a mold loaf, but I’ve unintentionally cultivated mold in some of my teaware.

Derk, I hope your roommate is okay. I’m not sure glass is one of the food groups.

I don’t watch much TV but I binged hard on Curb Your Enthusiasm several years ago. This winter would a great time to wallow in It’s Always Sunny.

Leafhopper, I don’t know if she’ll ever recover. RIP Kiki.

Yes, I had a beautiful mold colony in one of my teapots during first year – it flourished unbeknownst to me for a few weeks on the dregs of Celestial Seasonings Bengal Spice Herbal. I felt bad ending so much life (which was green-grey but smelled of cinnamon). Never drank that brand again.

I hope it was a dull tiny glob of glass! :O

Eastkyteaguy – I just really loved the Hattialli from Butiki and haven’t really had many other Hattialli… I haven’t seen many available.

I’m halfway through It’s Always Sunny and I’m still wondering how I find these screamy people who work in a bar so endearing (everyone except Dennis anyway).

CrowKettle, mold grown from PG Tips doesn’t smell nearly as nice! :P I also recently dumped some almost spent leaves of a beautiful Shanlinxi oolong from Ethan into a mug, then forgot about them for two days and wondered why they smelled off. Into the garbage they went, along with the budding mold colony, and the mug got a good scrubbing.

Derk, I’m not sure whether “death by glass ingestion” would make a good epitaph, but I’d miss Kiki’s tasting notes!

I have had one or two teas from this comoany and remember they were impressive. Glad you enjoyed your tea today!

You’re welcome, Martin. It is very good prepared in a gaiwan if you haven’t already.

Now I am envious because the weather became hot here again ~30C.

I have to try it in gaiwan as well, I have something left. I bet it will be awesome then. Today morning was temperature just 1°C. Which is kind of cold. I took my winter jacket and in the afternoon it was completely useless, but rainproof. I hate this weather when you do not know what to wear.

I would love more 1C weather so I can drink all these comforting rock oolong and puerh teas in my closet! It will be cooling down a little over the next few days but we are under a high wildfire warning due to a combination of seasonal high winds and low relative humidity. To anticipate the possibility of wind-felled power lines sparking fires, the electric company might be cutting power to a very large region of northern California, effecting hundreds of thousands of people. According to the map, my house is one street outside the power outage zone, so I’m unsure if we’ll be without electricity for the next few days. My employer 2km up the road is in the zone but we have generators and due to the nature of our business, will be open to serve the community’s needs.

Todd’s new house was in the power outage zone. It was restored yesterday though.

He moved, too? I hope he wasn’t effected too severely by the power outage. Only a small portion of my town ended up having the power cut but I’d say half my coworkers were effected.

I wonder if Old Ways Tea was in the zone since they’re located I think in San Jose or Santa Clara.

I hope those temperatures would not make big troubles for anybody. Extremes are always bad.

Just read through the reviews on this, ran across yours from 4 years ago, and see you’re a Cali transplant from Ohio, too! I was just back in Cleveland and am coming to terms with the fact that I miss it a little more every time I leave. I truly never thought I’d say that.

If this tea is still available, I’ll pick it up and hope I can taste all that Ohio goodness you described.

(… as I pull up their website and educate myself for 0.2 minutes, I realize this is probably an impossible mission, lol!)

Oh well, so good memories!

beerandbeancurd, I’m from Dayton and went to school up your way. I understand what you mean. The nostalgia runs subtle and deep every time I visit but then I remind myself of why I left. Been out here for 12 years now.

I do miss the environment, my close friends and my brother, the only one of my family who still lives there.

Wish I still had this to share with you!

And Martin, I remember you appreciating this tea very much <3