New year, new teas! The January White2Tea Club included samples of new teas available in their shop – 2008 Menghai Sheng Puer, 2013 Baimudan White Tea, and Little O Ripe Puer.
White2Tea 2008 Menghai Sheng
Dry leaf and Steeping Method: White2Tea was pretty generous to give us 50 grams. I had 2 big cake chunks and it was easy to flake the puer into individual leaves. Not too much scent from the dry leaf.
I used 1 gram of leaf to 15ml of vessel size, steeped in boiling water gongfu style. The 2008 Menghai’s hot leaf smells like sour plums and steeps up an undersaturated peach gold.
First, Second, and Third Infusion: The first noticeable feature of this tea is the creamy heavy body. It has a dry plywood wood taste with a sweet finish. Some sips have an incense-like quality to it reminding me of sandalwood.
Right away this tea is dry. My cheeks and back of tongue feel dry and coughy.
Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Infusion: The wood is warming up, tasting less like discarded plywood and more greener, wetter wood. It has more depth here with notes of green wood, stone fruit, sandalwood, with a touch of a floral aftertaste. The sweet flavor lingers after each sip. However, this tea is highly astringent – my cheeks are in threat of being bitten if I chew anything and my throat is dry. This tea will teach you the difference between bitter and astringent as it is sweet, not bitter, but astringently dry.
Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Infusion: The tea has gotten sweeter and has a note of drinking crusty fall leaves and wood. The sweetness is clean taste and a bit like agave. I quite like how the body is quite thick here still. This tea got way too dry for me to enjoy though, especially when I hit actively being able to feel each of my teeth in their sockets.
Comments: White2Tea’s 2008 Menghai sheng puer is a sweet, woody, and heavy body tea with interesting depth. You a certainly can taste a dry storage influence, so if you prefer drier storage this would be a great puer for you.
White2Tea 2013 Baimudan
I love all these white teas White2Tea has been coming out with! 2013 Baimudan is an aged Fujian white tea.
Dry leaf and Steeping Method: The dry leaf is still fuzzy! It smells very timothy hay-like, enough for me to itch my nose in the paired association of seasonal allergies.
For my steeping method, I used 1 gram of leaf to 20ml of vessel size, steeped in boiling water. The hot leaf smells like a sweet, but clean, horse stall with strong hay notes and a bit of fence post and clover.
First, Second, Third, and Fourth Infusion: The first sip is a flavorful, strong hay note with a crisp rock sugar sweetness. The Baimudan isn’t grassy but has that fuzzy dried weedy taste. The texture is creamy and slick, giving some good mouth lubrication. Each steeping got more hay and straw notes. It never got dry or bitter.
Fifth and Sixth Infusion: Huge flavor shift here, like night and day change. The colour got more orange, and the flavor now tastes more like an aged white. It is softer, straw notes, slight maltiness, and honeyed floral. Slightly dry here to add textured grit to the tip of the tongue.
Seventh and Eighth Infusion: 2013 Baimudan finished light and soft. The flavor is about gone, and getting a bit of a dried potpourri floral note, with some straw and honey. I did a power 15 minutes infusion and got an interesting tea of honey, straw, clover, and starting to get dried date notes. That final long infusion was the best.
Comments: White2Tea’s 2013 Baimudan certainly tastes like a textbook white peony, but concentrated at the start. Later sessions you get more of the aged characteristics, which tasted the best and more unique. This tea you gotta stick with and steep for the longer haul. I liked this tea, but I found myself more in love with White2Tea’s Nightlife or Turtle Dove for price point.
White2Tea 2017 Little O Shou Puer
The 2017 Little O (and 2017 Big O) is aged orange peels blended with shou puer. The Little O’s are around 8 grams (mine weighed in 7.7 grams), but if you want other sizes you are better off buying the full 200 gram Big O cake.
A lot of people seem to be enjoying these mini cakes. The small size makes them great for travel as an 8 gram disc accommodates up to a 120ml gaiwan/pot nicely. I personally don’t like the balls and discs due to storage. I have a pumidor, and these tiny cakes and balls like to fall between shelves or I have to put them in bowls, which always get knocked over or take up precious room. I have a few crocks, but it is just another thing to pay attention to, which was what I was trying to prevent going pumidor. If I enjoy this tea I will opt for the larger size.
Dry leaf and Steeping Method: I’m rolling with 100ml as I like shou stronger and I go heavy with orange shous due to the orange adding more weight than flavor. I drank last years White2Tea orange shou, 2015 Channel Orange, a few days ago in preparation.
First, Second, Third, and Fourth Infusion: I did a single rinse. Then I left the tea alone for a few minutes to type my rants about mini discs. Came back and the leaf has fallen apart. Awesome!
The flavor payoff was fast since it wasn’t compressed into a solid lump of leaf. Little O has a slight green rind mandarin orange kind of flavor. Orange here is the main flavor – you can’t escape it. I taste a bit of earth, but it is so high on orange, as the cup comes to your face you start to get the orange.
Fifth and Sixth Infusion: Astringency starting here, as I am getting a little dryness. It is still very green mandarin tasting, but more of the background of wood and earth is showing up. It has a brothy aspect to it.
Seventh and Eighth Infusion: This tea slipped fast. Little O is now soft sweet and orangey. A little earthy, but mostly orange with a dry feel in the mouth. I steeped the last infusion for 15 minutes and didn’t get much out of it.
Comments: 2017 Little O starts better than Channel Orange due to less compression but doesn’t last as long. Both teas are pretty orangey, and you can’t control it as it is a blend. If you are a fan and like strong orange teas, this is a good option. I don’t have a preference for Channel Orange or Little O, though Channel Orange did mellow out less orange when I tried it last. Little O will chill out probably in a year as well.
