One of my favorite tea club months of the year! The 2023 January White2tea club is a 2022 Charlie shou cake! This is the last Charlie for the White2ea club. I am sad, but same time this tea has been great every year, it should be a staple for everyone.
The leaves smell a bit funky earth. This is a fresh press, so it is to be expected.
I used 1 gram of leaf per 15ml of vessel size, double rinsed, and gongfu steeped with boiling water. 2023 Charlie’s slight funk commanded an extra rinse to help it along. After the rinses, it’s sweet acorns in earth.
Tasting of 2022 January White2tea club Charlie Shou
First, Second, Third, and Fourth Infusion: The first infusion is a complex meld of India inky, dark caramel, and deep earth and nuts. Some sips have a bit of a fizzle tinny tart ferment funk, but bad. Charlie’s texture is thick and heavily coats the mouth, throwing off the tasting notes as it seems to be a blanket over the high notes. Finally, the aftertaste is more ink.
Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Infusion: Charlie Shou’s body is still heavy weight blanket coating in my mouth. The flavor is a tight weave of India ink, nut shells, bricks, and eventually dark chocolate with a few wisps of tart from the fermentation. Despite the dark flavors, the flavor hasn’t gotten richer since the early infusions, there’s a watery quality to it, which lines up to this being newly pressed. After drinking, there is a subtle sweet mineral aftertaste.
Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Infusion: 2022 Charlie is getting a sharp mineral sweetness and less young shou notes as it fades, but still locking into that blanket of thick texture. It never got more tart, dry, or bitter. It is good to the final infusion and I am impressed with how many infusions I got.
Comments
This 2023 January White2tea Club closes with the most complex Charlie shou to date! I have reviewed last year’s Charlie cake if you want to compare. It certainly needs more time due to some of the more funky India ink and tart notes, as well as the watery flavor not matching the dark notes. I drank this with a month of rest, then it has taken me a few months to get this review out. This shou cake will settle down more over the year. But already, the 2022 Charlie is dark tasting with a dense mouthfeel.
From the handout, it sounds like there’s more of this cake coming to purchase for all, so notes likely will change by the end of the year. Either way, I am happy to have this shou cake and see how it evolves.
