white2tea

I purchased 25 grams of this, which for a cake is in the average price range for White2Tea of around $98. Because of the humid storage, and the age on it, I know the tea will be long brewing (lots of steeps) and a little goes a long way. 4 grams in my new 70 ml brown Yixing from Origin Tea. Gonna use this pot specifically for these really aged long soaker puerhs. Proceeded with my 15 sec steeps on forward mostly on a boil and then a little cooler 195-200.

Humid storage flavor and smell evident throughout, but eventually this integrates well into the tea producing a strong aged cigar tobacco smell and taste. A touch of camphor early in the first steep. No smoke in this despite the heavy tobacco smell. Even my strainer smells like cigars with just a few tiny bits of tea in it. Still a good astringency here and mildly bitter, the astringency is pleasant though. Fills the mouth and then turns into tongue buzzing, just like cigar smoke does, most noticeable in the first 5 steeps.

Pleasant qi, warming and relaxing, scalp buzzing around my ears but not highly caffeinated. I won’t need to follow this up with a shou. A drink straight out of the gentleman’ club, not a talker, think John Houseman in a leather chair in “Scrooged,” looking up from a newspaper.

This tea is incredibly clean, and red amber. Still got some years to go to mellow out completely. Almost a shame it got pulled out of the Guangdong humid storage, even 3 more years on this would be amazing.

This is a sample that Paul sent me. I was drinking it for two days, so it has legs and can go the distance. The dry leaf smells of a light, sweet tobacco. It was loose and easily pulled apart into whole leaves even by hand.

The soup is a strong amber colour and smells slightly smoky. The tea has a solid smoky hit to start with before mellowing to a mix of smoke and astringency that is really pleasant, rounded out by a hint of sweetness that brings the whole experience together. I could see buying a beeng or two of this.

Technically from the reddit traveling tea box.

So, this pu’er is all YOLO. Seriously. This raw pu’er packs a punch – it’s strong, sweet yet acidic bitter, tobacco notes, hay, gritty, floral, thick, and creamy. Amazing aftertaste. Emphasis on strong flavor – I did 10 second steeps with this pu’er and it only needed to go up in time around the 12th round. This tea cannot be stopped! I got 16 infusions, with the late infusions getting mineral ambery, smokey, honey and floral. New Amerykah 2 is hella strong, but the later steepings are worth it. Might not be for a new pu’er drinker, this one certainly tested me!

BTW, Cwyn did a crazy awesome review of this pu’er – best review on Steepster, IMO.

My blog review – http://oolongowl.com/2014-new-amerykah-raw-pu-er/ Owl mustache!

I was lucky enough to be sent a sample of this by Paul at White2tea. It reminds me of ‘American Flagg’, especially the later ‘Amerikan Flagg’ reboot. Hmm, how do I do reversed Rs on here. I need some cyrillic, stat. I’m sure it’s just the name, and I have no idea if Paul is a Howard Chaykin fan but I cannot get that eighties comic goodness out of my head while drinking this. In fact, this issue best sums it all up:
http://www.comicvine.com/howard-chaykins-american-flagg-9-loose-women-and-b/4000-383555/
Shame I can’t post images here. That would be proper cool and make the point better.

The tea itself smells floral when dry and fruity when wet, and it has a proper kick to it. Cwyn has given an awesome review of it, so I really don’t feel I can add much more to that. I can feel the energy of this tea giving me a kick in the seat of the pants. My mouth has gone dry and prickly, the bitterness lingers in my throat and the rounded, full-on flavour lasts for ages. I’m working on 10 second steeps at 95C (the slider says boiling but that is because Steepster is not communicating properly with Chrome once more) at the moment because I put a lot of leaf in the pot and I am feeling slightly incoherent from the onset of tea drunk. I guess that makes this a party in a teapot. Mmmm …

Oh my, this is a young chick of a tea with her thigh high boots and orange fur leopard trimmed midriff top on, popping apple gum to cover up the grilled burger she had for lunch. I bought this cake, I will admit it, primarily for the label. I am guessing Amerykah=America, but as it happens I was born and raised in a town called Amery. The label is pure video game except that the pixels also resemble cross stitch. This tea looks like home to me, and we had tacky chicks just like this! Except this chickitea is jailbait right now.

Having bought this cake, I happened to get a sample too in a recent order, so I am drinking the sample. Put all 10 g’s into the Yixing, water ranging from 100-115 ml (the max my cup holds). Sample I got is really tippy, lots of buds with some larger leaves, a couple leaf sets and some orange and red-brown leaves.

Two rinses and then first steep, and she kicked me into the row of lockers because I told her that her breath smelled like beef jerky. That first steep smelled like smoked meat. Liquor is dark tangerine. A few small burnt particles from the wok in my strainer. This smell was gone on subsequent steeps. Soup was cloudy until the fourth steep. Intensely bitter and astringent throughout, with cooling on the throat and down the hatch, or maybe I just opened the door to get some air from that hairspray.

Hints of floral and and sweet fruit want to come out of her young PMS, banging on the door saying “Let me out!” I don’t think so. Off to Lincoln Hills for this girl, the local population can’t handle this one. She can have a guitar…maybe in a few years she can play a few sweet notes for me. This definitely looks like a Menghai blend with far less smokiness than you normally get from plantation cakes or tuos. Good cake to age and get that Menghai flavor without the smoke. This is not a usual factory blend, so to me this seems far better than trying to buy a 7542.

Took her to six steeps, 10-15 seconds for all because I had so much leaf going. Still has further steeps to go, but I have had enough. This is an incredibly strong young Sheng, even my strong system is challenged with this one. Gonna need an old man shou later to balance this one out.

This tea will make a nice girlfriend for my son someday if he keeps on the monk track he is currently on. Not gonna rate this young gal yet, she is new with so much aging yet ahead.

OK, I guess I’m going to be the one to disagree with all the hype about this tea. It is smokey. Really smokey, and stays that way through at least several infusions, after that I couldn’t take anymore. It is certainly a hearty tea, but the smoke is overwhelming. I personally don’t consider this quality good for a Pu erh tea. I did not enjoy this at all. If you like smoke, I’m sure you will.

Oh boy, this is yummy! Huge roasted leaves, the roast is strong when I opened the pouch. It is definitely not machine roasted, at least not entirely if at all, because it doesn’t have that fake roasted taste I so despise in roasted oolong. I can taste a charcoal here.

The photo on White2Tea shows a yellow soup, but mine is reddish brown. But I brewed it in a zhu ni clay tea pot I use for oolong, maybe the pot added color. Deep spiced fruit, sort of like spiced red apples and nuts. The weather has been cool here so this is a pleasant cup. Or cups, if you will. Got a good six steeps out of 5 grams in 100 ml before the flavor started to fade. Giving it a little rest, might steep it once or twice more before I head off to bed.

Bought a cake of this with my recent White2tea order, based primarily on a very positive review from the half dipper. It is strong, indeed. Very astringent. Nice amber color, and very generous leaves – meaning it gives up lots and lots of infusions. It gets beautifully clear in later steeps. To the extent that bitterness transforms with aging, this seems like an excellent candidate for long term storage. And if you are a fan of bitter teas, like Lao Man E, you will probably like this one, selling for $40 currently.

Got this as a sample with my recent white2tea order and was so excited to find it in my parcel, it had piqued my interest in the website. I mean, who wouldn’t want to taste cakes specially ordered, to be created for a rich collector? This is my chance to taste vault tea, one wonders what happened to the poor guy. Did he need the money and decide to sell, or is he pushing up daisies and didn’t really get to taste his made-to-order? Either scenario could be me, soon enough, at my age. Another good reason to taste this is because I am finally trying an example of the type of tea leaves a person should look for when selecting to age, for this is a powerful tea leaf.

7 grams in the Yixing with 90 ml water, all of this is loose, and still dark green. Got a small 3 grams of intact cake so I decided to brew the loose and save the 3 g for a light session. One rinse. Tea liquor shows this one has aged! Nicely amber, juicy and thick. First three steeps are bitter and incredibly astringent, which indicates the amazing strength of this leaf. This is not one of those sheng teas which are smooth early on. Yep it is turning, all right, but this has got a good ways to go.

Fifth steep and the bitterness is wearing down somewhat to floral and wood, but still astringent, very dry tongue yet. My throat is nice and comfortable, however. Sixth steep and I need to brew longer than the 10 seconds I’ve been using so far. Tongue sticking to the roof of my mouth now. Not heavily smoked, just a touch of smoke in this tea.

This tea begs to be awakened and put up wet. A couple years of more humid storage would kick start this one and it will age into a tea that will likely put me on the floor. So much potential here! What this seems to be is about as close as I will ever get to a guaranteed stunning age-er. In fact I will bet that this will be amazing if treated with the respect it deserves. Kept very dry, this won’t budge. But it is ready to turn all that power into flavor.

Of course the price is already higher than most people would want to pay at $149.50. What this price buys, however, is a quality of leaf that westerners can’t get outside China or even inside China for that matter. The price buys a guaranteed successful aging project in a rather short term, if watched carefully. I am not going to rate this because it is like rating a girl on the strength of her womanhood. Okay, I need to pry my tongue off the roof of my mouth now and pray the phone doesn’t ring and nobody needs me to talk anytime soon.

A fairly smooth young sheng. It is soft and kind of floral, very nice flavor. Bitterness comes through after a few steepings. I think those that like young shengs will find this one very pleasing. I like more upfront punchiness, though this is a quality tea for sure.

From the reddit 2014 traveling tea box.

HOLY HOOTS this pu’er is goooooooooood! Nice thick texture, lots of nectar honey sweet and smooth with a light floral aftertaste that is absolute bliss. swoonswoooooon. Each steeping there’s a peep of astringency adding an accent to the floral aftertaste. Gosh this is smooth.

So, sorry reddit teabox, this one is might be staying with me. Rest assured, I’ll throw in a nice big pu’er sample in return. $79 for a cake? I actually am considering it.

edit: I hit and passed the 1000 tasting notes mark and didn’t even notice.

I received a very generous sample of this tea with a White2Tea order, my 10g sample would cost around $14 or so based on the cost of a 25 g sample. Piggy me stuffed 5 g of it into my 60 ml senchado pot. Two rinses to break up the cake. Storage taste of bamboo and paper was not unpleasant but I was eager to get down to the business of this tea. Leaves start out looking surprisingly dark green but quickly turn brown as the dark orange liquor emerges.

Steep 1 Storage. Sip and toss.
Steep 2 Storage. Sip and toss.
Steep 3 Storage, my teeny pot is now stuffed to the gills, leaves coming out the top, no room to spread.
Steep 4 Aged wood, spicy and warm. Description says to expect astringency in early steeps, I am not getting any of that aside from a little dryness on the tongue.
Steep 5 Warm brandy in wood, still a bit spicy. I am getting really warm now.
Steep 6 Relaxation, this tea has completely aged, at least my sample has. No top notes left, all bare bottom sticking out for me.

Steep 7 Son comes downstairs to cook ramen. “Actually I want tea,” he says. “I’ll have whatever you’re having.” Sure, of COURSE he does. Son decides on tea in one cup, if doesn’t like it, he’s done. If he likes it, he drinks several. Thus he consumes Steeps 7-9. I tell him this tea was put away when he was 7 years old. He likes it. Sigh.

Steep 10. These leaves are just getting started with the way I stuffed the pot. Still at no more than 40 seconds of steep time, cooler water. I got room for many more steeps, longer steep times and returning to boiling water at the end which could be a couple days from now.

This cake is $300+ but an excellent value brewed tight like I just did. Two days easy with two people here drinking just 5 g. Yiwu is known for its smoothness and this one is like silk and easy to take. Couldn’t make this bitter no matter what you do. Buy the cake, people, the sample is 1/10 of the way there cost-wise, and trust me you’ll be wanting more.

Edit: next day am still steeping the same 5 g. Emptied into a larger pot now that it is fully spread out. Past 15 steeps am only at 40 secs. The energizer bunny of teas, this just keeps going and going. Worked out that 5 g pot/20 steeps equal $.25 per cup. Take that to your local Starbucks.

Dry – Floral, Tobacco, hints of sweetness, bitter-woody and floral notes, faint fruit notes.
Wet – Bitter, Tobacco,Smoke, floral, some sweeter fruit hints.
Liquor – Gold-Amber

1st 4s – Tobacco, some smoke, bitter and bittersweet notes with hints of young harshness. As it goes down, it mellow a bit, but still wears smoke. It slowly builds a pleasant Huigan.

2nd 4s – Strong Tobacco, smoke, some deeper notes that remind me of Licorice/medicinal taste and bittersweet notes up front. As it goes down, it mellows considerably and wears sweeter notes that linger through the more apparent smoke and tobacco notes.

3rd 4secs Harsher, more assertive Tobacco with bitter-wood, medicinal/licorice notes and bittersweet notes up front. As it goes down, it mellows again, but wears some of the harshness, smoke and tobacco notes. It slowly develops sweeter notes that may slightly resemble fruit(apricot?)

4th 6 Strong tobacco with again assertive bitter-wood almost medicinal/licorice-like taste and bittersweet notes (somewhat floral) up front. As it goes down, it mellows considerably, but continues to stay mostly harsher; however it slowly develops sweeter notes at the end.

Final Notes
I had around seven steeps from this one. I feel like it would take another 3 easily, but only if you can deal with the cumulative harsher notes and also cumulative astringency. Even after all of that ‘harshness’ I can still respect this tea. I feel like Islay Whiskey fans will get a nice kick out of this one, even more for the price! Lagavulin anyone?

If you have some time visit my blog
http://thetinmycup.blogspot.com/

Thar she blows! Aharr, me hearties, today I laid into the White Whale that Paul of White2tea sent me. I fear the whale has harpooned me and now I be mixing up me sailing books. Should it be Treasure Whale or White Whale Island? Perhaps it’s just the tea drunk talking.

The dry leaf has an aroma of wood and camphor. Wet, the leaf adds smoky and pine resin notes. The liquor is orange. I can feel the kick as I drink it. It is powerful with strong wood and camphor notes, an element of smoke and pine resin, and a chilli bite in the aftertaste then a fine cooling on the tongue. I’m enjoying this tea a lot and finding that the aftertaste lasts nicely, unlike the aftertaste that Moby Dick left in Captain Ahab’s mouth. Let us hope that it has the legs of all those sailors it has encountered, because I hope to enjoy it for the rest of the day.
http://imgur.com/gallery/9izYW55
This is indeed a dancing white whale and at a great price too. I have to say that I really like the wrapper that White2tea has come up with for it. Minimalist but pleasing just the same.

Thank you White2tea. This is now on my want list. That’s like a wish list but I am more likely to pester my wife until she gives in and buys me a brick or two.

Intro Note I was having this tea in western style cups. I will update with Gong fu notes later (I already have them, but I will add them later, the score is overall).

Dry – Clean wood/earth note(no fermentation scent or musk), sweetness, cream/thickness.
Wet – Light earthy, tangy-tart notes, dark richness (faintly of dates, luo han guo fruit), hints of fruit/floral.
Liquor – Hues of Burgundy

1st 15secs – Light sweetness with medium ‘thickness’ or body and a kind of richness that reminds me of Luo Han Guo fruit up front. As it goes down, there’s a talc sensation on my tongue that reminds me of some Menghai ripes. Some more apparent but still mellow earth and wood notes are present with faint floral-fruit notes.

2nd 25secs – More forward sweetness with medium body and tart-bittersweet notes up front. As it goes down, the broth has a the same talc texture that is noticeable but in a smooth pleasant way. The faint floral-fruity notes appear at the end.

3rd 30secs – A little cleaner up front but maintains all the notes of sweetness with medium body and some tart up front. As is goes down, is is a bit weaker but very pleasant. It was mostly lack of adjusting steep from my part.

4th 45secs – Regained strength; Sweet with a medium body and some tart notes of front. As it goes down, it has the talc texture in the tongue and the sweetness is apparent with faint fruity/floral notes.

Final Notes
This is a very well balanced and mellow Shou. It is very pleasant to drink, it isn’t flashy in notes it is humble but assertive, maintaining its traits through out the steeps.

I went to the White2Tea page and read the description after finishing, I feel like I agree with the ‘Sticky rice’, to me is a combination of how mellow it is and the textural ‘talc’ that I described, which I guess starchy of the rice can accomplish too.

I see this as a very GOOD every day tea, as opposed to a ‘meh’ every day.

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…

A fine example of good YiWu tea leaves and another winning selection from White 2 Tea. Nice whole leaf; clear pale yellow tea liquor; very mellow and easy to drink. This is a gentle tea – nothing flashy or bold; no bitterness; no astringency. I think I prefer the 2011 Taochaju Yiwu Guyun (also offered by Paul at White 2 Tea) but this one is a bit cheaper and definitely a tea to purchase and enjoy.

This is another excellent sample from Paul at White 2 Tea. On his Misty Peak website, Nicholas Lozito says that some Chinese don’t drink pu’er until after the second, third or even fifth steepings. I beginning to believe lately that the fourth steeping is the place to start and this tea shows why. The soup has a nice light bronze color and it has a very nice smokey smell. Steeping one has a very strong smokey flavor. After steeping two, a light astringency makes itself present. Steeping threes finds a bit more astringency with a hint of kuwei. It is steeping four and later that the taste of this tea hits its stride. It has a great smokey flavor with an excellent balance between kuwei and astringency. This is another excellent sample that I will be definitely buying in the future!!!

A pleasant shu, I guess, as shu’s go. Although it has the obligatory boot-leather smell & taste, there is also a sweetness and lightness that is not unappealing. The website is correct when it says that “The taste is clean, smooth, and light.”

First infusion – 3 g. per 6 oz water, 90 deg., 2:00 min.

Second infusion – 3 g. per 6 oz. water, 90 deg., 4:00 min.

Third infusion – 3 g. per 6 oz. water, 90 deg., 7:00 min.

Fourth infusion – 3 g. per 6 oz. water, 90 deg., 10:00+ min.

This is another sample from Paul at White 2 Tea. All I have to say is, curse you Paul!!!!!! Now I have to break loose with $145 for a bing of this beauty!!! The soup to me is a lovely honey color. The taste is heaven in a cup. This Sheng is MELLOW and tastes, to me, like butter mixed with cut grass. Sounds weird, but it is mind blowing good, simply mind blowing. I am just finishing steeping five, my tastes buds are in Pu’er bliss and it is time to get cracking on steeping six.

This is another sample from Paul at White 2 Tea. The 2014 White2Tea Manzhuan that I reviewed is Dr. Jekyll and this tea is Mr. Hyde. White 2 Tea says it best “An old arbor Menghai blend. Thick body, lingering kuwei [pleasant bitterness], and plenty of oomph. This tea is a continuation of last year’s New Amerykah. The blend is slightly different, focusing more on sweetness and body than on bitterness.”. This is an excellent young Sheng for those, like me, who like strong in your face Sheng pu’ers and it is definitely not a tea for those who don’t.