2015 Channel Orange

My initial experience with this tea seems to deviate from other reviewers: when I opened the package and had my first gongfu session, I got a very strong shrimp/seaweed/brine smell that seemed to overpower even the ‘shou’-ness I expected, much less the supposed orange I was supposed to be tasting. But two things reduced this: (1) I waited a few weeks before opening it up again, which helped dramatically, so there must have been something in shipping or storage that gave it that smell; and (2) I also increased my rinsing time: this brick is very tightly packed, especially if you break off a piece along the lines, so the increased time and even a double rinse helped me out.

Tasting notes after these ‘fixes’: this was actually a bit less orange than I thought, to be honest. I did get that bitter mandarin taste which I loved, but was surprised at the medicinal notes I was getting (this wasn’t a turn off, just unexpected). I think I would have preferred something called ‘Channel Orange’ with a bit more orange flavor. Overall though, I was really happy to have tried this, and it’s great for cold days – it just needed some time to get right.

I almost don’t want to review this one because I don’t want to encourage anyone but me to buy it! But the spirit moves me to say this is the perfect tea, at least by my lights. It’s not the best at any one thing, neither the flavor nor the aroma nor the texture is perfect, but they all balance each other so well they combine into something perfect. It’s lightly sweet but also sour, it’s strong enough to keep me awake but doesn’t hurt my stomach, it’s easy to break into pieces and easy to brew, and it never disappoints. I’ve tried other shous with chenpi, including samples of other white2tea shous, and although I enjoyed them all none was as perfect as this.

My first chenpi tea was one of those stuffed whole tangerine peel ones and I bought it more as a novelty item than “serious” tea. I ended up absolutely loving it and I’ve been trying out every orangey tea I can get my paws on since then. This is the first of four from my White2Tea order (I also have a Mini O’Bitters, Big O V2 mini and Saturday Mass mini…I like minis, can you tell?).

I ended up using way more Channel Orange than I usually would (three squares!) because I got annoyed with the wrapper not having enough paper on the end to re-wrap the remaining squares very well. It worked out okay, though, because I wanted to use my “big” mug (Bodum The de Chine glass mug with glass filter) and I was able to slowly sip away at the tea all evening and not feel too over-caffeinated.

This tea doesn’t really taste like the other chenpi teas I’ve had but I like it. One of the other comments mentioned pine and cedar. I kind of get that but to me it’s more like freshly cut pinewood than pine needles…like firewood that’s been split while it’s still wet and pitchy inside. The orange doesn’t really overpower the tea flavor but the two have melded together in a way that makes it hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. It wasn’t really like other teas I’ve had where it seems like two separate flavors put together on your cup. I like that the peel is already broken up and mixed into the tea. I have a hard time figuring out the peel to tea ratio with the stuffed tangerines…I want lots of the orangey flavor but don’t want to run out of peel before I use up all the tea. There’s no guesswork with Channel Orange because it’s already combined and the chocobar style brick makes it easy to portion out the tea without weighing or picking it apart…perfect for my lazy little self! Smooth chenpi tea goodness with minimal effort. The flavor isn’t quite what I was expecting but different doesn’t mean bad. And it was still gave that comforting, cozy feeling I’ve come to expect from these citrus pu-erhs. The comment about fuzzy blankets is a great description…it’s relaxing, comforting, uncomplicated and just feels like home. It’s the tea equivalent of being wrapped up in your favorite blanket in a comfy chair with a good book on a rainy day. A perfect tea for the cold, wet weather we’ve been having. I’m not sure I’d say this is my new favorite chenpi tea but I like it quite a bit and I’m happy I bought a whole brick instead of just a sample.

Thank you, Derk :D

Cute little compact square, ~8g. The dry square wasn’t too aromatic, a very light orange aroma, no barnyard aroma or any other fermentation aroma. The rinse liquor was light amber. The wet square had earth and citrus/orange aroma. It was still pretty much in square form after the first four infusions… And even though 3/4 of the brick was pretty much intact, the liquor had gone from light to dark orange amber color. The infusions from the beginning albeit light had really flavorful citrus notes, clean earth, some wood, and citrus rind. After my 7th infusion, it is still ~60% formed lol and this is when the earthy notes peaked. After that, the citrus flavors incrementally went to the forefront… The tangerine, mandarin orange, citrus notes. It was smooth, no astringency nor bitterness. The only changes were earthy notes versus the citrus notes and the orange notes became more distinct as I went.

While it wasn’t a complex tea, I really enjoyed it. I still prefer TeaVivre Aged Chenpi Ripened Tangerine Pu-erh but these would be great to put in my little tin can which consists of a variety of mini tuochas, and mini cakes when I want something convenient.

Porcelain gaiwan, 8g, 205°F to boiling, 110ml, rinse, 11 steeps: 5s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 25s, 35s, 45s, 55s, 65s, 75s, 120s.

Grandpa is my preferred brewing method for this shou since the compact square takes too damn long to break open gong fu.

Channel Orange is not a complicated tea but it’s rewarding on a cold and stormy February day. It reminds me of a fuzzy polyester blanket that features scenes of nature, or maybe a wolf or bald eagle, and becomes matted with years of use. That kind of blanket you’ve had since 1991 and never wash. Your smell and maybe your dog’s are embedded in it.

That’s not to say this tea is dirty or smells like a dog! — it’s a very clean shou. Clean earth, dark wood and minerals, cleansing citrus, a bit spicy. I get notes of pine and cedar here and there. Tingly, mouthwatering, oily, light to medium body. The chenpi is more evident on the sip and lingers lightly in the mouth. A bright, warm note for a dull day!

Finally broke into my bar of this maybe a week ago, I think on my last day at the office before we went on our Christmas break?

It was a sort of cold, rainy/drizzly day and I woke up just kind of thinking “this is a shou kind of day” and that quickly evolved into a “actually, it’s a shou with chenpi kind of day”. Unlike doing what I normally do when I feel like that, I didn’t go for W2T’s Big O but instead decided that I would break into something I hadn’t yet tried before, and I’ve been sitting on this tea for a while…

I steeped it up Grandpa style because that’s simply what’s easiest for me to do at work while I’m running lab tests and such – but also because I find that generally shou works REALLY WELL steeped this way, and the addition of chenpi doesn’t change that. One of the squaeMy first impression was that there was less of that distinct mandarin orange note in this tea than in Big O, which is probably my favourite chenpi blend at the moment and the one I drink most often. I mean, it was still there but I felt like the profile was more so a sweeter shou pu’erh with date/fig, damp garden soil/petrichor, sweet and kind of cocoa-y notes and a very smooth, thick mouthfeel. I do feel like an hour or so later, after I had been drinking and rebrewing for a while, the orange notes were popping more for me as the flavor of the pu’erh declined a little bit. I think, though, that what is probably going on is not there there’s necessarily so much less chenpi in this blend but that it’s just more of a natural compliment to the pu’erh mix here, so it stands out a little less than the bright chenpi notes in Big O, which don’t meld together quite so seamlessly (though they’re still complimentary in that tea, don’t get me wrong). Is it necessarily better or worse that the chenpi doesn’t stand out as much here? I don’t think there is a correct answer, just a better fit depending on what you’re craving in that moment.

I’m happy to have both in my cupboard.

This is a very good ripe puerh with bits of dried orange peel in it. The taste of the orange peel was only present for maybe the first six steepings or so. It took a couple of steeps to open up and then I noticed the fermentation flavor. This lasted perhaps four or five steeps. And what was left was a nice semi sweet ripe puerh. It was vary good and not expensive as I recall.

I steeped this twelve times in a 160ml Solid Silver Teapot with 14.3g 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 minutes.

The cake is hard pressed and it really is chocolate-bar thin. it’s very easy to snap off an approximately 7.5g square, but if you want an amount of tea that isn’t a multiple of that, good luck.

The orange taste and aroma is subtler than I was expecting. I had never had these aged oranges before, and it is really nothing like fresh orange peel. Still, I might have preferred more orange in the mix. The good news is that the orange really incorporates into the flavor making it feel like one thing, not like just puerh and orange coexisting seperately in the cup, if you know what I mean. The orange really seems to want to be brewed hot and long for best aroma. There was only a slight pleasant bitterness present, even when brewed long. Texture wise, I prefer a thicker creamier shou then what this offered, but it was still quite smooth.

Overall I’m happy I bought it, but I don’t see myself buying more. That being said two caveats: I brewed this with a 7.5g square when I normally brew with 10g in an 150ml gaiwan because I prefer things on the stronger side. Also, it hadn’t rested at all before tasting. I’ll try it again in a smaller vessel in a week or two and see if my impression changes.