I bought a sample of White2Tea’s 2013 Gongmei White around the time of its release, promptly lost the sample bag, then went on a 45 minute rampage through my tea space trying to find it. It should have been in my review basket, but it was shoved in a tin with black teas. White2tea’s 2013 Gongmei is a Fuding white tea, stored also in Fujian in natural/dry storage.
Researching white tea drives me crazy. The order of quality/grading of white tea goes Baihao Yinzhen aka Silver Needle (buds), Bai Mu Dan aka White Peony (buds and leaves), GongMei, and ShouMei, the last two are picked later with what is leftover from the first 2 pickings. Researching around, some places say ShouMei is a higher grade than GongMei, some stated by some legit tea people. But I’ve had other just as legit tea people say Gong Mei is the higher grade. I don’t know. It is back to who the hell cares other than your tongue opinion on it.
Leaf and Steeping Method
My sample was the shreds with one big lump. This cake doesn’t look too compressed so it shouldn’t be hard to rip pieces off with fingers.
The hot leaf smells like that forgotten vase of flowers that turned brown and mucky.
First and Second Infusion: White2Tea’s 2013 Gongmei starts off tasting of tulips, coconut cream, and is quite sweet. It is also a very clean and bright tasting tea, and yup, this is dry stored. The age of it tastes like my own white teas around this age.
The body is chunky thick, like coconut cream, with a slightly lingering aftertaste of brown sugar.
Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Infusion: Well, my tea got dark yellow all of a sudden. It has a thick milky vanilla taste up front, then finished with a bruised yet underripe pear snap to it, trying to be saved with a drizzle of honey. Each steeping gets thicker and darker, like adding a touch more molasses and bruised fruit.
The main highlight of this tea is the thickness and the chest punch feel to it. Take a gulp of this tea and it’ll knock you out.
Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh Infusion: The 2013 Gongmei is now thick and honey tasting. The mid infusions had that intensity of bruised fruit, which got lost in these infusions. I am impressed by how thick this tea still tastes, and it is still quite clean, creamy, fruity, vanilla, and sweet. The lingering aftertaste is of pear notes. This tea is so thick and body heavy, it is like each cup I’m trading in for a punch in the chest.
Twelfth and Thirteenth Infusion: This is as dark as I can get 2013 Gongmei gongfu style, despite steeping it for over 10 minutes. The flavor is creamy, sweet, and light. The thirteenth infusion I steeped for 20 minutes and this tea is just as light but has a softly fruity taste. Usually, I can tell a tea in the later infusions on how it might taste stove boiled, but this tea seems a mystery as it doesn’t get darker with each infusion.
Boiling on the stove: I used around 5 grams of new leaf in 2 cups of water and boiled on the stove for about 7 minutes. The colour came out a dark red and smells like cream.
I actually like this more boiled on the stove as I am craving darker teas. It is a sweet, milky vanilla taste with some background of wood. It has no fruity elements that I can find at first, but there is a sweet bruised pear aftertaste if I wait for it. The only drawback is there is astringency, but maybe I can use less leaf or reduce the stove boil time.
Comments
Gongfu style, the 2013 Gongmei White Tea is a super approachable white tea. It has pleasing tastes of honey, milk, and fruit, with an intense thickness. This tea has a decent sweet and honey profile if that’s what you chase in white teas. I found this tea also near damage proof gongfu style, it never got dry, bitter, and comes built-in with a clean storage taste. Though if you stove boil you will find the limit of this tea. Likely it can grandpa style well and potentially thermos fine.
My favorite is the thick texture, so even if you are more of a puer drinker but like thick teas, this Gongmei would be of interest. I’d also recommend this tea if you want something affordable for aging just a few more years. The price on White2tea’s 2013 Gongmei is pretty good, plus you are getting a Gongmei instead of a Shoumei, the latter more commonly found. However, I personally passed on a cake of this. The crazy new 2018 white teas captured my heart more and ate my tea budget.
