Back in 2017 I did my first Essence of Tea order. I made a very calculated, review-read heavy buy as Essence of Tea is on the pricey side, and a bit more unexplored for me. I snagged 2017 Secret Forest sheng, but more so because I was buying the 2017 Secret Forest White, which is the same material processed differently. I sampled the 2017 Secret Forest White when I was over at a tea friends place and that tea sang to me.
What makes this post a bit odd is I first sampled and drafted the review back in February. I let it sit, as I needed to play with the white tea’s ratios as I wasn’t happy with the flavor. I revisited both teas in June and got the white tea to cooperate. Both teas sold out quite fast. I feel bad when I post about teas you readers can’t get, but at least for this, you get an interesting comparison. The 2018 teas are out, but both will have different profiles, especially the white tea as I found it is aging quickly.
2017 Secret Forest Ancient Wild Sheng Puer from Essence of Tea
Dry Leaf and Steeping Instructions: The sheng has an ultra fragrant sweet floral scent. Of all the 2017 teas I’ve had, this one smells the best as the scent is strong, mouth-watering sweetness. Also a beautiful leaf with fall colours.
I used 1 gram of leaf to 15ml of vessel size. It steeps up smelling of boiled plums.
First and Second Infusion: Secret Forest Puer is a clean tea. It has tastes of sweet mineral crystal, and golden raisins aftertaste, with a creamy thickness. The end of the sip is thick and dense tasting, cause a sinking feeling. The texture is dense, smooth, and oily feeling in the mouth. This is one of the thickest and oiliest teas I’ve had in a long time! Despite the light flavor to start, the texture is so dense it is like having a meal.
Third, Fourth, and Fifth Infusion: The notes are of golden raisins, stewed plums, and baby powder with the texture continuing to be ultra thick, making for a unique tea. At first, I was quite upset there is no aftertaste, but while I was checking my messages I finally noticed a sweet fruity flavor show up. There is this salivation that wants me to chug, so it is easy to miss the aftertaste as it isn’t in your face.
Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Infusion: Secret Forest is still thick. The aftertaste is finally coming through more prominently, tasting like dried peaches, which is the star of the show. The tea itself is quite simply mineral sweet, so this is like a simple syrup on dried peaches, with the weightiness of dense cream sinking into my stomach. This tea has the reverse gut rot, feeling like stomach bloating from a big tasty meal that you are still working on, but at a much slower pace. Once I slowed down, I had a softly boiled apple aftertaste show up too. Each steeping got sweeter and sweeter, like pouring simple syrup on top. There is also a bit of dryness, but it adds to the “CHUG CHUG CHUG” effect of this tea.
Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Infusion: Strangely, Secret Forest Puer is getting an autumn vibe to it and is at prime sweetness level. It is stale dried apple slice, bruised peach, with a dark woodsy honey crispness to it. There is a slight dryness on my teeth, making them feel clean. The aftertaste is this sticky floral peach. I feel like I ate an entire buffet. This tea kept going because of the aftertaste and denseness.
Fully steeped out, the leaf is still sporting an autumn rainbow.
Twelfth Infusion: I power steeped Secret Forest Puer for 15 minutes. It came out as sweet, slightly tart, fruity and dry texture to tickle the throat.
Comments
Essence of Tea’s 2017 Secret Forest is perfect for people who love a sweeter, fruity profile, clean teas, and thick texture, without too much floral. I enjoyed the strong fruit aroma. There is plenty of complexity for seasoned puer drinkers to enjoy, and if you love heavy dense oily teas this is a treat. I found this one quite unique in flavor, with a good amount of energy and body feel. It is also a tea I would love to share with a new puer drinker, but with great regret or has to be with someone I like, as this tea is good and on the expensive side for an introduction tea. I love the state this tea is in currently and would be more than happy to drink it than age.
2017 Secret Forest White tea from Essence of Tea
The 2017 Secret Forest White is the same material as the Puer but shade withered. I am a little worried I botched the storage. I ended up airing this cake longer as I plum forgot about it for a month when I should have transferred it to airtight storage. It did lose some aroma off the leaves.
The cake felt quite brittle and was easy to pry off pieces. the scent was strongly woodsy and honey.
White tea gongfu style always seems hit and miss for the brewing ratio. I tried Secret Forest White at 1 gram/18ml and it was too strong. 1 gram/20 ml seems to be the better spot here. I preferred boiling water to enhance the texture. The hot leaves smell like a less sweet Applejacks cereal, bringing all sorts of memories of buying it when I’d visit the US and bring it back home to Canada.
First and Second Infusion: The hot leaf smells like hot apple cider. I could huff this tea all day.
The white tea is light on flavor to start, but also similarly clean and mineral notes like the puer. It has a gala apple fruity snap to it, but also a warm woodsy depth and around light agave sweetness end of the sip. Similar to the puer, Secret Forest White has a sinking body feel. The aroma and aftertaste are fleeting. The fruity wood tastes slowly slip away, leaving a soft sweetness and the mouth salivating.
Third, Fourth, and Fifth Infusion: This doesn’t look like a white tea anymore and likely could fool people that it is a late infusion of black tea.
The flavor is strongly woodsy and apple and an unspicy cinnamon. When I went heavy on the leaf it had a tinge of medicinal wild to it on some sips, but with less leaf, the flavor leaned honey. The body is also oil slick feeling and dense, the whole experience just makes my body feel like I’m sinking and drowning in a bean bag chair. The aftertaste is starting to linger better, with an apple bruise note.
Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Infusion: What in the living hoot is going on? This white is crazy dark and it is a 2017 white tea! This got woodsy and as if I’m eating the apple stem and core as it has a slight bitter sharp bite to it. It is still honey sweet and strangely maple on some sips. If this was stronger, I could pour it on pancakes. It has a woodsy depth to it that I could be fooled I am drinking a black tea. Secret Forest White is actively reverting to black tea.
Eleventh and Twelfth Infusion: I power steeped Secret Forest White for 20 minutes. I got a honey apple stewed cinnamon woodsy tea that is nicely sweet. The leaves still smell like there’s more there! Another long steeping then.
Thirteenth Infusion: I steeped this for an hour. I wasn’t planning to go that long, but I got so impatient waiting for it, I started another tea. It is cold, but it tastes like a dry bruised apple cider juice with some apple stem in it.
Comments
When I sampled a fresher 2017 Secret Forest White before buying, I found it much sweeter and honey than what I got today. Then 4 months later for this review, I got a few more infusions and more woodsy taste, so it is aging away. As is, this is going to age like a champ as the notes are so pronounced and dark already. My only wish was more aroma when I drink, but that seems a norm of white teas. I honestly do not know how this tea aged so fast. Compression? My crappy forgetting it in open air for a month? Something with processing?
I am glad I caked this as it is sold out and quite a special white tea, unique compared to the other white teas I’ve had pressed into cakes. Essence of Tea did release a 2018 Secret Forest White, but loose form, which I did buy. Snag these teas fast as they sell out quickly.
Secret Forest Sheng VS White? Both teas leaned as fruity, sweet, and incredibly dense textures and feel. However, that is as far as the similarities went as the sheng went in the different direction, especially the white tea getting quite aged tasting.
Out of the two, as much as the Sheng being really good, I like the white more for a unique flavor and feel but I am splitting hairs. I took off points for the Sheng to make me feel like a beached whale.
