I love everything about White2tea’s 2019 Modern Witch on paper – the wrapper has cool skulls and the description of interesting bitterness and balanced flavors. I could not resist and blindly purchasing a whole cake without sampling.
Leaf and Steeping Method
2019 Modern Witch Shou has a cream funky caramel scent. The compression is quite tight on this shou cake, so you will need a good puer tea knife to get at it.
I went with 1 gram of leaf per 15ml of vessel size, gongfu (with 2 rinses) steeped in boiling water. Once the leaves are introduced to hot water, they smell sweet and earthy.
Tasting of White2tea’s 2019 Modern Witch Shou Puer
First, Second, and Third Infusion: Modern Witch Shou sips in dark and well balanced between earth, wood, sweetness. There is a softly sweet aroma that shows during the sips. The end of the sip has a touch of abrasive funk but isn’t distracting or bad from the experience. Rest assured, that funky note was only in the first infusion and after that, the tea put a spell on me. Modern Witch’s texture is smooth and creamy coating. The aftertaste is quite sweet, sometimes creamy, but mostly like sucking on birch and rice syrup candies.
Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Infusion: Modern Witch has gone quite sweet, tasting of muddy rock sugar. The aroma is quite high for a shou – I get an earth and wood flavor that glues to the top of my mouth. For some sips, Modern Witch is like drinking an ink bottle, a tasty ink bottle.
Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Infusion: Wow, this is sweet shou! Modern Witch shou is squeaky in texture, like sucking on a lollipop that cuts your cheek. The flavor is mineral rock sugar sweet with a dark background of rich earth and ink, the latter sticking up my nose. Some sips I have glimpses of pithy bitterness, but the other sweeter flavor dominates a lot.
Eleventh and Twelfth Infusion: In the final infusions, Modern Witch is just sweet tea drinking here. The shou is light and minerally, and drinks so fast I slam the tea down faster than I can think about it. I had another steep or two left if I wanted to go in with a stove boil.
Comments
White2tea’s 2019 Modern Witch is an excellent shou that is ready to drink now – perfect for those who love a sweet inky shou. I enjoyed the excellent earthy aroma and balance, so I am very happy to own a whole cake of this tea.
Modern Witch is a pricer shou at $49 for 200 grams (at this time of writing), but I feel the price is justified with the aroma, balance, and complexity of flavors. I love Modern Witch as I do love inky sweet shoes. If the pithy bitterness scares you, White2Tea’s 2019 Pretty Girls is just as inky and sweet, without the bitterness.
