2014 White2Tea Manzhuan

This Sunday afternoon is being spent with a sample that I received from TwoDog. Thank you, and sorry I have taken so long to get to it. I often find myself not trying new teas because I don’t feel I have the time to do justice to them, and this one has fallen into that category until now. I still don’t have time to focus solely on the tea but I am managing to enjoy it just the same.

The dry leaf is loose and easily taken apart. It smells warm and has an apricot-sweetness to the aroma. The liquor smells light, floral and fruity. It tastes smooth with a tiny hint of astringency at the back of the throat. There is honeysuckle sweetness that is pleasant and continues into the aftertaste with a spicy sparkle.

The way one enjoys tea seems to depend so much on one’s mood. This is just the right tea for this moment. At $122 per 200g beeng, I cannot afford to buy more of it, but I am really pleased to have had the chance to try it.

A sample from “Pug”. Very soft and gentle, not much in the flavor profile to exclaim. A starter sheng for sure for those not used to pu erh. The leaf material was of good quality and the spent leaves were still strong.

Quite soft, sweet, and floral, as far as young shengs go. But it is still a sheng, and thus carries the seemingly-obligatory taste of dirty work pants. The best sheng I’ve had to date, but still awful.

7g used.

Very loose compression.

3s – Strong. Bright flavour on a dark base, which isn’t green. The bright flavour is interesting in that it lingers on with a honey sweetness. Fruity, plums, hints of fresh basil. Faint smoke.

5s – Stronger. High mountain Oolong (Dayuling) in the background. Bitterness, astringent. Green flavour sweetness has honey and high mountain Oolong flavour.

7s – Pleasant, warming.

?s – No notes.

12s – Lost most of the flavour, milky, going bland. Just bitter, strong high mountain Oolong now.

This tea has disappointed me in only lasting four – five brews; it has done this twice.

Revisiting this “gentle” tea built upon Manzhuan material found in the broader YiWu area. Softer and definitely less aggressive taste with a pleasant rather sweet lingering aftertaste. I always enjoy drinking it on a low-key day. Nice big leaves which have remained in-tact in the loosely compressed cake. Golden yellow tea soup with a sip that is not at all bitter and tastes of light stonefruit. The tea becomes a little sweeter with successive brews but it is never “powerfully” sweet. Not an earthy tea but should be considered a sweet tea carefully processed with high quality whole tea leaves.

I really, really, really, really loved this sheng. I can’t EVEN believe this is 2014 tea. It does not taste like baby sheng at ALL (and I <3 baby sheng by the way). It is so smooth and so sweet – there is hardly any bitterness and a very nice mellow body feel. Warm and contented.

But HOLY SHITAKE!!! This bad boy costs over $120 for a small cake. Sobs. I had to decide between this and the Little Yellow Mark and the Little Yellow Mark won. But this is EXCELLENT and I wish I had more disposable income at the moment, or a cake of this would be mine.

Today is a Smokey Robinson kind of day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ly8G9Psdqxw

I was not gonna buy this cake, got a lovely sample with a recent, and obscenely large order. Really. I don’t need any more tea. Right??!!

Brewed up the sample. Talk about lovely leaves. I am assuming this is actual 2014 material, I am certain it is based on TwoDog’s blog. The good chunk of cake I got is gorgeous, and doesn’t disappoint in my Yixing, full of buds and also firm stems which is a sign of old tree. I brewed up about 7 grams, didn’t fill my pot but also used less water than my small pot holds since this is a sample. Two rinses, mainly to break up the leaves.

Spicy on the throat at the first 20 sec steep, but then, apricots in the smell and taste. Second steep I am feeling the heat in my back already. Fourth steep now I am getting a smoky leather taste, amazing since there is little to no age on this yet. I can taste the old tree difference, this doesn’t taste like green tea at all like another sheng would this young.

Astonishing tea…I mean it…say hello and good night to my wallet. The other reviewer is right, we only live once, and I am about 50. I need to drink my shengs now or never. My future unborn great grandchildren are screaming nooooo as my cash heads out the door, but I am in for a cake of this, small tho the cakes are at 250g. Bravo to White2tea…

It is no secret that I love young Sheng pu’er. This tea really intrigued me when I saw it on the White 2 Tea website, Sheng pu’er and honey are my two favorite things. However, at $122.50 for 200g the price was a little too steep (no pun intended) for me. Then that little voice in me started bugging me and told me you only live once. I will let Paul’s words describe this tea: “Pure ancient arbor Spring gushu tea from Manzhuan. One of the six famous tea mountains, Manzhuan has a long history of puer production. This raw puer is soft and supple with a taste of honey and sweetness.” You only live once and right now my taste buds are living very large on cloud nine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!