It is 2020 October White2tea club time! This month has two teas available for purchase and two club exclusives.
I am skipping the 2020 Hot Brandy minis and squirreling them away for travel.
2020 Saturday Mass Chenpi Shou Puer
The 2020 October White2tea club has a single 7g mini of Saturday Mass. This tea is a shou blended with aged chenpi/orange, which is a part of their small-batch shou collection.
The tea mini has a gentle orange scent. I used the whole 7 gram mini in a ~100ml gaiwan, steeped with boiling water, gongfu style. Rinsed, Saturday Mass has an earth and orange candy scent.
First, Second, and Third Infusion: At first, the flavor of Saturday Mass is sweet mandarin orange. The tea then settles to earthy, medicinal, and slightly pithy, but dang this is thick in texture. Each steep gets richer in earth with the sweet mandarin flavor biting at the end.
Fourth and Fifth Infusion: I thought the orange was losing flavor, but in reality, it has permeated through the whole sip and less in your face. Saturday Mass is earthy dark ink and a buzzing sweet orange with some pith and medicinal. The orange aroma is still present like it was scented with orange flowers similar to how they do the expensive jasmine oolong.
Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Infusion: Saturday Mass Shou Puer is lighter and the flavor is still sweet orange with a medicinal buzz, over sweet earth. The seventh infusion has no shou flavor but just light orange, but the leaves were still strong in orange. That said, I went for a long infusion on the eighth infusion and it tasted similar to the 4th/5th infusion. Likely you can get more tea out with a hot plate under your teapot/gaiwan or go for a stove boil.
Dang, Saturday Mass Shou Puer is an awesome orange tea. I like it the best out of all the orange teas White2tea has done as it is expertly orange and thick in texture.
I spent the entire session debating whether to buy the 200gram cake of Saturday Mass, but then decided I needed to drink down my other chenpi cakes first.
Frosty Tips from 2020 October White2tea Club
Oooo this black tea has a chocolate malt and fruity scent!
I went with 1 gram of leaf per 15ml vessel size, gongfu style with boiling water. Steeped, Frosty Tips is more fruity and honey scented.
First, Second, and Third Infusion: Oh wow, that is good! Frosty Tips tastes like honey, blackberries, cake batter, and is sweet for a black tea without any additions added. Some sips got that sugary dried coconut aftertaste.
Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Infusion: Frosty Tips switched to bitter and astringent here – all these buds couldn’t handle the heat. Once you get past the bitter, it is still cake batter with a bit of malt in the flavor.
Frosty Tips starts off amazing for the first couple of infusions, then goes bitter. Excellent tea though as those early infusions are amazing! I found if you can drink it fast, it is not bad done grandpa style either.
2006 GZ Natural Raw Sheng Puer from 2020 October White2tea Club
The leaf smells a bit of menthol and sweet earth.
As usual, I used 1 gram of leaf per 15ml, gongfu style with boiling water. After a rinse, the leaves have a decomposed leaf and nutty scent.
First and Second Infusion: GZ Natural tastes warmed nuts, dried but squishy Turkish apricots, and wood bark. The aftertaste echos the fruity flavors. Some sips go more bruised peaches. The texture is balmy and smooth. My body immediately felt a bit warm and sweaty drinking this tea.
Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Infusion: At first, these infusions get a bit astringent to dry out the tip of my tongue and cheeks. 2006 GZ Natural tastes of dried dark apricots with a bit of a strong bitter intensity of flavor. After the fourth infusion, the sheng chills out to be bruised plums and apricots with a sappy lightly medicinal wood.
Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, and Seventh Infusion: These are my favorite infusions of a nutty apricot before settling to dryness. 2006 GZ Natural is sweeter and smoother here but contrasted with the dry texture finish. It goes lighter and dryer with each infusion until it slips.
This tea is a bit of a storage flex, showing off natural storage of GZ conditions. I enjoyed the strong lingering fruity flavors in this tea. It is personal taste if you enjoy this storage here as some would want more wet swamp basement. I feel the time is just slipping away, I remember when 2006 teas weren’t that aged.
