2019 Gore of the Forest is promised to be a complex and pithy sheng blend. I didn’t hesitate to purchase a sample of this tea with my last White2tea order as I tend to enjoy this price bracket.
Leaf and Steeping Method
The dry leaf has a powdery fruity sweet scent, like peachy fruit leather.
Nothing new, I used a gongfu ratio of 1 gram of leaf per 15ml of vessel size, steeped in quick boiling water infusions. After a rinse, the leaves smell like rice porridge.
Tasting of White2tea’s 2019 Gore of the Forest Sheng Puer
First and Second Infusion: Gore of the Forest sips in thick and sweet with sharply mineral, wet stone, and rock sugar sweet and crisp taste, all while having a rice pudding texture at the finish. There is an immediate aftertaste continuing on the mineral sweet flavor. The second infusion the finish gets stronger with a peppy leaf grass note. This young sheng reminds me of being in elementary school and taking those wide blades of grass, pulling them between your thumbs and blowing them to make a crappy flute sound and taste of that blade of grass.
Third and Fourth Infusion: As Gore of the Forest opens up, it got strong. It’s bittersweet, strong grass notes with a concentrated finish. The aftertaste is a long continuation of funky grass. The more I drink this, the more it reminds me of getting grass jelly at a boba shop. Some whisps of the aftertaste is a magnolia floral while others are wisps of zesty herbs.
White2tea’s Gore of the Forest made quick work of pumping me full of unforgiving tea energy. My ears started making a high pitched noise and my sinus is feeling pinched. I felt relentless and unhinged on telling people how I feel so this is a slightly dangerous tea.
Fifth and Sixth Infusion: I’ve noticed this tea brews up a touch cloudy. Either way, Gore of the Forest is still just as strong as the last bracket but has a perky zesty and white grapefruit pithy taste adding too much spring to my step. In the bowels of this tea are bitterness and a bit of funky grass. The aftertaste is magnolia floral and bitter, with a dry finish in the roof of my mouth.
Through this session, I kept tasting what I associate as Kunlu material, but don’t get me started on region flavor and it being nonsense half the time, so who knows if I am right.
Seventh and Eighth Infusion: Gore of the Forest is pretty zesty tasting – like parsley stems stewed but has a fresh aftertaste. It isn’t bitter now or I simply don’t care. It is astringent though, drying out my mouth completely.
Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Infusion: The final infusions of Gore of the Forest went back to mineral and sweet, with a gentle magnolia floral aftertaste. There is no bitterness still but lots of astringency drying down my throat.
Comments
White2tea’s 2019 Gore of the Forest sheng puer starts off pleasant and easy to drink with sweet notes but then ramps up to heavy bitterness and astringency later on. This young sheng is interestingly complex with a mix of notes that change heavily with each steeping. You gotta be the type that likes a tea that changes a lot as well as strong grassy tastes.
Mid-session Gore of the Forest has a strong tea drunk effect, going right in the middle compared to White2tea’s Swinedog (strong late session tea drunk) or We Go High (immediate tea drunk). It’ll be down to personal taste which one of the three $150-ish tea drunk shengs you like more, but I still lean on We Go High as my personal favorite.
