2017 Farmer Direct Tea (FDT)

Backlog – sorry.
Sipdown
I thought this was a black tea….oops.
5g 210F 2min
sweet, vegetal

5g 195F
greener, thick, coating, earthy citrus aftertaste
These notes make more sense it this is a pu-erh.
It’s not a tea for me – a little too green and earthy.

Lovely sticky, floral fruity aroma. Takes a bit to get going past bitter, but opens up to a kind of savory body and mildly sweet flavors in sip and aftertaste. Long lingering floral sweet aftertaste that just goes and goes paired with a quick throat coating in a mildly woolly scratchy, drying way. Strong feeling of uncomfortable jitters in stomach and chest for me mid way through the session, possibly due to current diet regimen/light breakfast? Did not finish session. 4g to 68ml porcelain gaiwan, 205F.

FDT is all about the texture! The broth is weighty and sticky, like drinking a bone dense stock, making for an interesting body feel of a tea session.

Flavor note wise, it is light. FDT leans on the savory side with sweet grass, vegetal, and sticky rice. It does get stewy tasting in the later infusions, but it very much drinkable. I think leafing harder than normal gives the best result, and I wouldn’t go under boiling as you’ll lose the texture and the flavor would be too weak.

Full review on Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/2017-farmer-direct-tea-sheng-puer-white2tea/

I didn’t know what to expect from this tea. Honestly, I don’t think Paul’s descriptions on the W2T website are very helpful, so I emailed him describing the teas I enjoyed most from his selection and he recommended the FDT. So I added it to my cart, taking advantage of the free shipping weekend.

This one fits the profile I was looking for. I somehow manage to be that guy who receives the center of the bing, which took some time to pry apart. I’m not a fan of tightly compressed cakes, but I do see some benefits to this if those living in tropical Asia that want to maintain the youth of their sheng. This one felt as if it was still freshly pressed. It had a juiciness and stickiness to it. The initial infusions are light, sweet, floral, and a bit fruity (kiwi/white grapes?)…suspiciously Hekai. The tight compression warranted for longer steeping times.

After the 3rd infusion, I tried to pry apart the chucks while minimizing the ripping of leaves. The tea suddenly becomes thick, a bit cloudy, enzyme-y (almost carbonated!), multi-layered, and nicely textured. Notes of lilies, green apple, cedar wood, white pine, and grape skins join in a chorus of flavors and textures.

The brew is almost singing in my mouth and I feel wonderful. This one lingers nicely after the tea goes down and has a good body feel. The tea keeps this up for the next 6 to 7 steeps until I loose count. Later steeps have a bitter zing that rings for a bit—reminding me of Bulang bitterness. There is good depth in this one all the way to the end.