Welcome back! This is part two of the 2023 February White2tea Club, but also a bunch of other teas thrown in. The 2023 February White2tea Club had a sample of 2023 Tianjian Fuzhuan. But also in my stash are the 2022 Tian Jian Mini, and 2023 Goldfu Fuzhuan. It seem more fitting to drink the confusing two Tianjians and also compare Goldfu, which was part of the same release of fu bricks.
2022 Tian Jian Mini
The 2022 Tian Jian Minis came first before the Fuzhuan. These Anhua heicha balls contain high grade young and bud material.
The compression on these minis is frightening, don’t even think about breaking these apart unless you have a hammer. I couldn’t get much of a scent from this tea, even off a hot teapot. What I do get is somewhat sweetly scented.
I steeped this tea with a 1gram per 15ml ratio, gongfu steeped in boiling water. I did a long half to one-minute rinse, followed by a steam in the hot teapot. After a rinse, I got a sweet tobacco scent… and the mini is barely opened. I stuck an oyster knife through it to break it in half followed by another rinse.
First, Second, and Third Infusion: 2022 Tian Jian Mini is a sweet honey biscuit at afternoon tea with some tobacco looming in the background. It has even a cream-filling flavor. As it steeps, it has a subtle cinnamon and caramel note. The texture is a little astringent to dry my teeth and the aftertaste is lightly sweet floral and peachy. My brain thinks I am drinking gentle spiced chai and cream cookies for some reason.
Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh Infusion: 2022 Tian Jian is astringent and aromatic, leaving this sweet floral aftertaste for a while. Though it is getting stewy bitter, the main flavor is biscuits and sweet tobacco. Each steeping gets more and more bitter and harder to drink. My head is making a whomp whomp feeling across the temples and I need to go log roll down the street.
Comments
The 2022 Tian Jian Mini is a green and young heicha with high-quality leaves. For heicha lovers, this is too green. But if you like young sheng, this is pretty dang good with interesting flavors, high aroma, and some body feels. I don’t mind it in this young state, but I’m probably going to leave this to age a bit more to get the green stew out.
2023 Tianjian Fuzhuan (As seen in the White2tea Club)
2023 Tianjian is a high-grade, bud heavy, anuha heicha processed into fu zhuan, containing the delicious gold mold. It confusingly has the same name as the Tian Jian mini. I asked White2tea and he said they are in, “Same area, two different productions.”
Unfortunately, it looks like I got the end piece so not much mold. I did my best to insert the most moldy section to drink. Fu bricks are difficult to sample. They are messy to tear apart into samples but also hard to give the full impression of the brick as the mold tends to be in the middle. A brick is truly a sample, I daresay more than puer cakes.
The moldy leaves have a warm citrus scent. I go higher on the leaf for fubricks, so this session clocked in at 1 gram of leaf per 13ml of vessel size, steeped at boiling water, with no rinse. After the first infusion, the leaves have a sourdough bread scent.
First Infusion: 2023 Tianjian Fuzhuan has a slick texture that coats the mouth immediately and I can feel the fu brick high immediately start buzzing my brain. I admit, I am a fu junkie that tea drunks easily on this stuff and I’m even worse now due to health changes.
This fu brick is sweet honey and bready with a glimmer of sweet rocks. But it went down the hatch so fast I didn’t have time to process this tea. I brewed in a tiny 60ml vessel, otherwise, I’m dead for the rest of the day.
Second, Third, and Fourth Infusion: Tianjian Fuzhuan is certainly sourdough bread wheaty with strings of honey. It has a rich background of almost being malty black tea. I’m finally noticing a citrus aroma after sipping. The tea energy is pinching the sides of my head. By the fourth infusion, the tea was potent sharp bready malt with some tartness and wisps of honey. I lost my brain between 4th and 5th infusion and went for a walk to sober up some.
Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Infusion: This fuzhuan eased up to a tart malt with an edge of bitterness in the back of the throat. It opens up to a floral citrus note that is refreshing. And right back into the Fu-hole again. The final infusion still has that honey flavor with tart minerals.
2023 Tianjian Fuzhuan is a high energy fubrick. It packs a caffeine punch along with a fu brick high. YMMV on the high, again, I’m super sensitive to it. But this tea is an excellent energetic alternative to black tea due to the malty notes. This is only a sample, the other sections of the brick will likely taste different.
Comments
Both Tian Jians have that bready note. That flavor was memorable enough for me to think, “Didn’t I drink this already?” to dig through my review drafts and find it was the Tian Jian mini, then get confused. However, that was the only similarity other than the same area. The mini is greener tasting, and the fuzhuan is more fermented and has honey mold flavor.
2023 GoldFu Fuzhuan
While I’m here, might as well drink the other fu brick, Goldfu, that came out at the same time as the Tianjian brick. I just sampled this one, both bricks are $$$ so I wanted to sample first. Many fubricks I blind buy because I’m crazy, but at $200 I need to sample. Note that I drank Tianjian Fu and Goldfu on the same day.
2023 Goldfu is a blend of high-end puer material huangpian. In contrast to the Tianjian Fu, I got a really nasty sample with a lot of mold. Excellent!
This material is more stemmy than the Tianjian and has an amber incense scent.
First, Second, and Third Infusion: I got maximum mold and this is ultra floral honey flavor. Goldfu has waves of jasmine, buttercups, and wildflowers. The more I sip, the more floral it is and the more layers of complexities.
Fubrick tea drunk level started at a normal moderate level. I can’t pour the shibo well as my hands are shaking. I’ve also spilled my cup but I have asbestos hands so it doesn’t bother me.
Then the Fu hole crept up on me and I ended up panic buying a brick and going on twitter to do my usual fu brick drunk ramblings.
Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Infusion: 2023 Goldfu has a tangy fruity flavor that’s starting to get bitter with an astringent tickle. It’s got that layered floral flavor laced heavily in the aftertaste. My scalp feels like I have bugs crawling all over it and I’m digging it.
As this tea slips in flavor, it’s a buzzy floral that is getting astringent, with the aroma holding on and the tea more minerals and streaky in texture. The astringency isn’t bad and quite drinkable. Goldfu has more infusions left, but my body is breaking from 2 fu bricks in a row and I need to step away from the computer otherwise I will be making more tea drunk purchases.
Comments
2023 Goldfu is an oolong and floral lovers fu brick. I haven’t had such an aromatic floral fubrick ever, which turns out to be a great combo of honey and floral. It isn’t overpoweringly perfumey and very approachable to those who love floral oolongs. You could certainly serve this to new tea people and have an unexpected tea drunk party.
Both 2023 Tianjian and Goldfu have high-quality material and good tea sessions, so it is up to personal taste between the two. The Tianjian packs are more aggressive punch with a darker flavor, whereas the Goldfu is an elegant floral. Again, I had two very different parts of the brick and these are 2023s, so there’s wiggle room on what you’ll experience when trying it.
For my taste, I could live without the Tianjian, but I cannot live without GoldFu for its interesting flavor and heavy aroma. But I can see myself owning both bricks.
