2016 Trap Bird

A sweet, sweet tea. I liked it the moment I opened the pouch and inhaled a strong aroma of camphor, apricot and flowers. I had it gongfu style and it lasted a good amount of steeps. The aroma of the wet leaves was good and consistent: this bird is certainly an olfactory pleasure.

The taste was equally light and uplifting: camphor, peach, apricot, prunes,flowers… Just a touch of earthiness and dry wood. I initially did the steeps of 10-15 seconds and when I went a for a bit more it added some pleasant bitterness to the palette. In short, it is the tea that encourages you to play with time and temperature and the results are different but never bad. In the later steeps (6+) most of the complexity was gone and it started to taste like a good regular dianhong, which was FAR from being disappointing. Shou puerhs are often tend to be to gloomy,decay-ish and intense and this one is quite different, being lovely, light and uplifting.

Several previous reviewers called it a decent everyday drinker. I tend to drink the lower -priced puerhs, so quite possibly there are right and there are undiscovered wonders in pricier cakes but from the perspective of a puerh catfish like myself this tea amounts to something more than that.

Gongfu!

Late night 2016 Trap Bird session from yesterday, with a new teacup; caught a fun reflection in it during the session! Very smooth, clean shou with great overall sweetness and a warm and inviting quality – earthy, but fruity as well as a little syrupy; like brown sugar raisins or even a more cooked down and dense stone fruit like a nectarine?? No sharpness/tang, obvioisly – just the sweetness.

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/B-mcnV3AvtI/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtQYsQsf26g

(This is such a fun song; the kind of that creeps on you with how catchy/sticky the hook is)

This Trap Bird Shu Pu-erh by W2T is a wonderfully strange fellow. The scent as the taste are very similar – clean, thick, full mouth feel but not overpowering. Definitely a nice introducing Shu for some new devotee of the dark side ;) – It is really amazing how excellent this Pu-erh was composed. I never experience such a clean harmonious bouquet and such a mellow rounded flavor within a Shu. Within the second infusion those nearly pitch black cups are stunning – I’ve never seen such a deep darkness within a teacup. This isn’t by far the first Shu I enjoyed but definitely the one with the darkest soul. This little demon really seduces your senses with such a fine and elegant creaminess – Taste-wise this fellow seems to be in existence just to please every tasting buds your mouth might offer. Its taste is hard to describe because it is like an overall concept where every part and bit works perfectly together within this symbiosis. Although the texture of the liquor is a very creamy one the feeling within your throat tells a totally and quite dry different story – a really interesting unfolding. Beside this typical Autumn woodsiness there is a distinct bourbon vanilla note noticeable within its nicely crafted profile. BUT this fellow isn’t a Shu for long infinity hours – the strongest parts are definitely the 2nd and the 3rd infusions – it still got a lot of potential until the 6th but then the show is nearly over. Nonetheless this Trap Bird’s whistle will be remembered!

Smmmoooooooth

Definitely a keeper, but too bad the sample is depleted! :/ :)

Trap Bird is a good aroma focus shou, daily drinkery, and resteeps well. I had mine air out awhile, then forgotten in a shou pumidor. It smells really funky when I got it last year, and it still has some slight funk in the early infusions.

I got notes of wood, butterscotch and whiskey, though flavor wise is on the light moderate side – most of the flavor is the in smell as you drink it. A good shou if you love aroma.

Full review on Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/2016-trap-bird-shou-puer-white2tea/

Had a sample of this one from last Black Friday order. I found it to be a pretty nice shou. It steeps out a little bit quicker than some that I drink, but not as quickly as, say, a gongting shou blend. I did get a slight bitterness when I pushed it, but only slightly greater than most other ripes I’ve tried. In the early steeps, I sometimes picked up a bit of a raisin flavor. For the most part, this one was the sort of woody flavor you might expect from shou. Less sweet, more robust. A good shou, but I don’t think I’ll be caking it.

A funky earthy smell with a touch of brown sugar. Mellow, balanced taste with hints of coffee and wood. A lot of sweetness by the fourth brew.

The W2T description for this tea is right on, my sample held no surprises.

If I pushed the steep a slight bitterness crept in, otherwise it was fairly sweet.

The tea soup is dark but clean and left a nice cocoa taste, I think it is a good buy.

This is a very nice ripe but not quite spectacular. It is very good though. It started out with basically no bitterness and a lot of fermentation taste. The fermentation was done right on this one and it didn’t taste unpleasant or fishy. There was also a sweet note from the beginning. While this sweet note evolved overtime I really failed to pin them down. It did not seem chocolaty to me but was very dark in the early infusions. In fact it was still so dark in the tenth infusion that it looked like black coffee. While this tea probably won’t win any awards with what is out there it is a good solid tea that is basically lacking in negative notes overall. An excellent daily drinker if there ever was one. While I will not likely buy more of this I did really enjoy it. It was good.

I steeped this twelve times in a 160ml Solid Silver teapot with 13.6g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min. Judging by the color of the tea in the twelfth steep I’d say I could get another four steeps out of this tea. But twelve steeps from a 160ml teapot is a lot of tea.