For April 2016’s White2Tea Club we had a pretty cool offering of a whole pu’er brick! The brand new 2016 Fade Sheng Puer!
The 2016 Fade Sheng Puer from 2015 Yiwu huangpian leaves that was pressed in March 2016. Apparently some of this material was in White2Tea’s Poundcake and Last Thoughts, so I’m expecting something sweet tasting!
My white2tea monthly tea subscription came the day before I moved to Seattle, excellent timing! What was also handy was the tea filter that was included, which is sold on Teaware.House.
Teaware.House Tea Filter
I have a pretty good stainless steel tea filter already, however I was impressed of the quality of this filter. First off, this is a fast tea filter – tea goes through it very quickly. This filter seems way more durable than my current ones since the filter part is solid stainless steel with fine holes drilled in, vs layers of thin mesh. Cleaning the Teaware.house filter is much easier and it has gone awhile without a deep cleaning. The mesh style tend to get gunky and gross looking fast, needing deep cleanings often.
Mesh comparison – Left is my old tea strainer (I believe ebay/aliexpress DragonTeaHouse) and Right is Teaware.house
The only con is this filter doesn’t catch fine particles of tea, so there is a little flecks of leaf debris. However the tea debris is too fine for you to notice while drinking.
The price on this filter is competitive, $4.99 for small, $5.99 for large. I will likely buy the large on my next Teaware.House order, you can never have too many filters!
White2Tea’s 2016 Fade Sheng Puer
The wrapper is super cool, love it!
After careful wrapper surgery, the tea is quite big and leafy. I found it easy to flake off pieces, you likely can take this tea apart with a butter knife without much trouble.
I steeped it with my usual young sheng method of 200F, 1 gram to 15ml, starting with a quick rinse.
2016 Fade steeps up a slight tint with a green grape scent.
First, Second, and Third Infusion: Light, sweet green grapes, and somewhat buttery. It is quite crisp tasting with a little bit of silky texture. Delicate and subtle in flavor.
Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Infusion: The flavor is building up, by light layers. It is still delicate and lightly sweet. There are hints of green grape skin and a bit of a floral finish. Overall very smooth sipping. Once the fifth infusion hit, the flavor level was very nice.
It is so far quite a cute tea, like it should be in a pretty shiny compact that I brush on to highlight my cheeks.
Eighth and Ninth Infusion: Starting on the longer steeps to get more flavor out. 5 and a 15 minute. The longer steeping also attracted a bit of a tart dryness, getting this tea to taste even more like green grape skin.
I pulled a fat leaf out of my finished gaiwan. I accidentally tore it up a bit to spread it across my hand but this leaf is fat!
Comments
It is always super cool to get a whole cake or brick in a tea club, and a tea accessory is always welcome! The 2016 Fade Sheng Puer is inexpensive at this time, $24.95 for a 200 gram brick.
Like when I drank White2Tea’s 2015 Pin, I feel my review of 2016 Fade is a little too early. I think some would love Fade right now as it is light and delicate, perfect for someone who usually drinks soft white teas. For a younger sheng, this pu’er is quite nice as it isn’t smokey or crazy bitter, making for some easy daily drinking. However, since it was newly pressed, I’m curious how this tea will be with some age on it. That said, I’m setting an alert to revisit this tea in a few months or a year later.
