I finally got my hands on some OLD white tea. I’ve had a number of 2008 white teas, which is the more common older aged white tea you can find, especially for pressed whites. The Chinese Tea Shop in Vancouver, Canada has a 1990s and 1980s Shou Mei white tTea and I purchased both. Today I will be drinking the 1990s Shou Mei white tea.
White tea this old is expensive. I bought them to taste the potential of ageing a white tea. If I like how this tastes, I can hide kilos of young cheaper white tea for over 20 years. It is certainly easier said than done, but at least I am young enough with the space to do it. The other reason I shelled out this much cash on old white tea is so I know how old stuff tastes like so I won’t get duped. Aged white tea is trendy thus lots of junk out there claiming older than what it actually is. I have a couple aged white tea purchases off eBay that certainly taste younger than it claimed to be, and that’s from me knowing how something 2008-2012 generally tastes like.
Leaf and Steeping Instructions
The leaf smells dank and wet stored. Local tea friends said it smells like an old carpet. I could be blindfolded and think this is an 80-90s wet storage puer as it 100% smells that way.
I used 1 gram of leaf to 20ml of vessel size, steeped gongfu style with boiling water. One can easily leaf a bit lighter here as this tea is on the stronger side. The hot leaf smells even more dank, like a swampy basement with some decomposing leaves going off in it.
Tasting of Chinese Tea Shop’s 1990s Shou Mei White Tea
First and Second Infusion: I don’t normally rinse white teas, but since this one is so old and smelly, I gave it one. I did still taste the rinse, which was just dank tasting.
The first infusion certainly has the party started. The 1990s Shou Mei white tea is thick, honey, creamy like white tea, but with a funky dank dance going on in the background. Other notes are hazelnuts, decomposing leaf, and medicinal old. If you have had wet storage old puer you’ll know what I mean for the old danky funk notes.
Third and Fourth Infusion: The picture below is of the third infusion in the cup, and fourth infusion in the pitcher. That is hella dark for a white tea. I have no reference to how dark a white tea this old should get, but this certainly darker than any of my other old white teas.
The flavour is stronger. It is medicinal, soggy tree bark, west coast petrichor forest, and funky tasting. This bracket of infusions I strangely could mistake the 1990s Shou Mei white tea for an aged wet storage sheng puer in the later set of infusions. There is a touch of sticky dense honey and sugar rolling around making it a little sweeter than usual, but easily could be mistaken for sheng.
Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth Infusion: Our 1990s Shou Mei white tea got just a touch darker in colour, going a strong woodsy depth to it, but with an awesome clarity.
This steep also changed. It tastes of bright rock sugar, wet old wood, decomposing acorns, and earth floor. I’ve been focusing a lot on the dank flavour that I haven’t mentioned texture. The 90s white has an oily feeling on the lips. This is the best infusion so far as the sweetness is high and balanced with the old flavours and oily body.
Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, Twelfth, Thirteenth, Fourteenth Infusion: The 1990s Shou Mei white tea is getting super sweet. It is crisp and brightly sweet, with notes of dark german rock sugar and woody bark. I get a reminder I am drinking white tea again as there is a linen note. I must have gotten past the storage now, as I got a white tea that is clean, sparkling sweet but darkly woody. Each infusion gets sweeter and sweeter.
Fifteenth, Sixteenth, Seventeen, Eighteenth Infusion: The colour is starting to lighten. 1990s Shou Mei’s flavour is sweet sappy wet wood, amber mineral, linen. The texture is still slickly oily on the lips. Overall pretty consistent since the 9th infusion, but getting sweeter and sweeter. The 18th infusion is super light looking but still sweet and woodsy.
Nineteenth Infusion, stove boiled: So there was definitely more in this white tea for me to resteep at least another 4 or 5 times or more. However, it hit the end of the day for me at the 18th infusion so I stopped. The next day I boiled the rest of the leaf on the stove in 1 cup/250ml of water for 15 minutes.
The flavour is awesome! It is clean, woody, sappy amber sweet, creamy, with a thick oily texture. Dang, so good!
Comments
White tea this old is an experience. Compared to 2008 white tea, 1990s Shou Mei white tea is quite a jump in flavour. If you love aged puer you’ll likely enjoy old white tea. I purchased this tea from The Chinese Tea Shop locally, but at this time it isn’t listed online for sale, but the 1980s Shou Mei is (review coming eventually). Part of the experience is this being a glimpse what white tea can become with time.
I paid a pretty penny for this tea, this and 1980s Shou Mei are up there on the most I have paid per gram for a tea. It was completely worth it as white tea still doesn’t need that hard of leaf, and the resteep ability is crazy. I initially bought enough to have a number of fun sessions to share with local tea friends, however, I ended up buying more of the 1990s Shou Mei white tea, despite the over $1 a gram price tag, as I kept drinking it solo. I personally greatly enjoy this tea for the mega resteeps and the mix of dank and sweet flavour.
