Better late than never, is Oolong Owl’s 2022 July White2tea Club tasting! This month has two teas – a 2016 Bulang 100gram sheng cake pressed exclusively for the White2tea Club and Chuan Zibai white tea.
Chuan Zibai from the 2022 July White2tea Club
Chuan Zibai is a purple leaf Sichuan white tea. The leaf has a sweet baby powder scent.
My gongfu ratio here is 1 gram of leaf per 17ml – a little more leaf than usual but that’s how it plopped onto the scale. I used a fearless boiling water temperature. After a steep, the leaves are fragrant of crisp pears.
First and Second Infusion: Oh wow this is lovely white tea! Chuan Zibai is sweetly fruity, cotton candy grapes, and bubble gum, with a cotton finish. The fruity sweet flavor lingers aggressively as an aftertaste.
I go crazy and buy all the themed grapes (cotton candy, bubble gum, gum drop), and this tea straight up tastes like them.
Third and Fourth Infusion: Chuan Zibai developed a wild wheaty flavor upfront, then it switches to that smooth sweet candy grapey flavor. I just have the urge to chew on this tea. The texture is oily, though it is already getting astringent, drying the sides of my tongue.
Fifth and Sixth Infusion: In the end, Chuan Zibai is fragrant still and fruity, but quite astringent to jam the throat. By the sixth infusion, it was bitter stewy but with a fruity sweet aroma still holding on for dear life.
In summary, Chuan Zibai is really dang good. I think I will drink this all now, it won’t last to get forgotten to get aged.
2016 Bulang Sheng Puer from 2022 July White2Tea Club
This special cake is for only those who were in the White2tea club. There’s a long description/rant about puer mountains that I feel similarly. Regions and seasons vary a lot, and people put too much stress on the regions. People easily put their judgments into the tea too, even if they are not there, as they expect those qualities.
For this 2016 Bulang, I smell pan char off the leaves here, like a hint of smoke. With a rinse, the leaves are peanut shell bitterness. This tea brews up cloudy.
First and Second Infusion: The flavor is soft and light with pleasant mineral sweetness at the end of the sip. Texture wise, it is thick and buttery with a bit of chew to it. As the tea slowly opens up, it has a spongey flavorless apple, but other sips are of wisps of frankincense.
Third and Fourth Infusion: 2016 Bulang has fully opened up here and it’s getting sweeter and a little bitter, as if I lit incense a while ago and the smokey dust remains. It has an astringent punch in the back of the throat. The aftertaste is more soft resin wood sweetness, but overall quite light and soft without being watery.
Fifth and Sixth Infusion: I decided to push this tea some, give it a nudge to slap me around. 2016 Bulang is sweet, concentrated resin minerals, wheat, and wood with a sharp bitterness and astringency obliterating my tongue and throat.
The White2tea Club 2016 Bulang starts off sweet, approachable, and light with some pleasantly simple and effective notes. Though it does loom over with some punchy bitterness and astringency. A good afternoon wake me up tea.
