I woke up one morning to watch my Instagram story feed to a long multi-piece video of White2Tea scaling a tea mountain with a chicken while telling us the secrets of the gushu.
Be sure to watch the playlist video so you got a primer as June 2018’s White2Tea Club is the tea from that mountain.
I’ve been with the White2Tea Club long enough to know these 50 gram cakes are the bomb in quality and tea drunk. Too many people pass on these 50 gram cake months as they see no bang for your buck (but then why are you doing a tea club?)
Leaf and Steeping Method
I left my little cake to air out for a few weeks. I swear, I get sweaty tea in the spring/summer months in Seattle, so they need to air a bit longer.
In the hot gaiwan, this puer has a bit of a pineapple scent to it. Whereas steeped up, the hot wet leaf smells like steamed sticky rice in banana leaf.
Tasting of 2018 June White2Tea Club The Thing Is Sheng Puer
First and Second Infusion: The Thing Is starts off soft and thick. This is drinking your pudding without eating your meat. With each sip, I get some complexity of mystery fruit and crisp herbs, though the flavor is too early to tell at this point. Right away this tea has a sinking ship feeling. Oh boy, I’m feeling like that chicken, as there was a hint of doom.
Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Infusion: Finally, I got this tea to open up and it strangely has a tropical vibe.
The liquor is thick, dense cream with some loosely watery flying fresh minty herbs and sweet fruit notes, but the aftertaste locks onto a pineapple. Did the chicken think she was going on a tropical vacation? But the more I drink, the stronger the aftertaste gets, with a pineapple-peach-apricot jasmine floral. I also got suddenly punched in the sternum from the tea energy.
Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Infusion: Somewhere the chicken finally RIP’d. We got a full-blown party funeral for the chicken to have our last drink. Our chicken is on a pool table and we are drinking, smashing teacups, puking in the ladies room, and playing The Pogues full blast. Oh chicken, you took a lot of hot corners and cooled them. I am full blown gone. I got a dizzying giat, and I feel like my temples are being massaged as I hiccup from the tea.
Oh, right the tea. The Thing Is has a bitterness going, having a mouth twisting pungency to it. More I sip the more it cheese grates my face. The flavor is bitter, stewed herbs have gone to mush but with a sweet refreshing aftertaste feel.
Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Sixteenth Infusion: I am sure these steep counts are wrong, I lost track at the wake, so it is 16 +/-3. These last infusions are wispy bittersweet honey and dry. I got a headache.
Comments
That was good tea and chicken. Now to lock it into the Pumidor for a year.
