2019 White Tea from Denong Tea

I was incredibly excited to see Denong come out with white tea. This tea is from their own tea gardens, I’m assuming puer material. At the 2019 PDX Tea Festival, I purchased a box of the 2019 White Tea without any hesitation. Leaf and Steeping Method Hands down, this Denong White tea is gorgeous looking with lots of fuzzy buds, looking moonlight white in style. Strangely, this tea smells just like my bunny Benson’s fur. When I got this tea it smelled strongly floral. I went with my usual white tea gongfu ratio of 1 gram of leaf per 20ml… Continue reading, hoot!

Drinking ALL My White Teas at Once

Ever looked at your tea stash and didn’t know what to drink? Uninspired with your tea collection? Well, one piece of advice I have said to others is to “Take a leaf from each of your teas and drink it!” Today, I will be following my advice and drinking ALL* my white teas! Purple Tea Owl and I went through all my tins, white tea pumidor, and sample buckets to pluck a single leaf or pinch off a piece of white tea cake then placed it in a tin. Why white teas, Oolong Owl, when you are in fact the… Continue reading, hoot!

Rehoot Review – 2016 Menghai Golden Fruit Shou Puer

Back in 2017, I purchased and reviewed the 2016 Menghai Golden Fruit Shou Puer off Yunnan Sourcing. The description of this tea sucked me in promising a fruity peachy shou flavor experience. However, when I drank it in 2017 is was thin and funky, giving me stomach cramps. I’ve been in a shou mood recently, so I dug out this fruity shou from the back of my shou pumidor to give it a try. As I said above, I’ve had the 2016 Menghai Golden Fruit Shou since 2017. My shous are kept in an unplugged fridge with natural, but slightly… Continue reading, hoot!

2019 Low Rider Sheng Puer from Crimson Lotus Tea

2019 Low Rider is a Crimson Lotus Tea custom blend of 2019 Spring material. Back at the 2019 NW Tea Festival, I tried Low Rider sheng puer and blurred in the background vs the heavy hitters of Altered State and Dangerzone. I felt Low Rider needed a test drive away from all the other flashy teas, so I was happy I was given a 200 gram cake to play with. Leaf and Steeping Method The dry leaf has a soft and gentle floral scent. As usual, I went with a gongfu ratio of 1 gram of leaf per 15ml vessel… Continue reading, hoot!

2019 Dripd O’Bitters Shou Puer from White2tea

I always have to have a chenpi orange shou in my collection. When I am sick, I chain drink chenpi teas in heavy quantities as they make me feel better. I had the hankering for chenpi as I am worried about the virus after braving a busy and panicked Costco. With my last order, I purchased a cake of White2Tea’s Dripd O’Bitters. Leaf and Steeping Method The cake has a faint orange scent. When added to a warm gaiwan, the sweet orange chenpi orange scent comes off strongly. By the way, Dripd O’Bitters has quite a tight compression. I had… Continue reading, hoot!

2019 November White2tea Club feat. 2019 B_S_ Sheng Puer

My recent White2tea club reviews are out of order due to wanting to drink the December’s XXXmas tea near Christmas. Backtracking, today is the 2019 November White2tea club’s 2019 B_S_, a 50 gram high-end mini cake of 4 different regions with a mix of spring and fall. I love these 50 gram club months as they tend to be quality tea and with month, in particular, promising to be complex. Leaf and Steeping Method The leaves smell like crusted sweet tree syrup. As usual, I used 1 gram of leaf per 15ml of vessel size gongfu ratio, steeped in boiling… Continue reading, hoot!

2008 Da Hong Pao Aged Oolong from Old Ways Tea

Today’s tea is an aged oolong – 2008 Da Hong Pao (aka Big Red Robe) from Old Ways Tea. This tea was stored in Wuyishan for 8 years, then reroasted. I say this every time with Old Ways Teas, but I have a hard time drinking them as they are so good I want to save them as rewards to myself. When I get vendor samples I fly off with the box like I got away with murder. Many thanks, Old Ways Tea. Leaf and Steeping Method The leaves of the 2008 Da Hong Pao have a dry-aged scent to… Continue reading, hoot!

Bitterleaf Tea’s 2019 Monsieur Lafleur Jingmai and Year of the Pig Yiwu Sheng Puer

On the tea table is a pair of affordable sheng puers from Bitterleaf Tea – 2019 Monsieur Lafleur Jingmai and 2019 Year of the Pig Yiwu. Bitterleaf teas have quite a few inexpensive young sheng options, with the “Year of the Yiwu” an ongoing series. This slow owl took so long that both teas are sold out, but I’ll be referring back when the 2020 teas roll in. Bitterleaf Tea’s 2019 Monsieur Lafleur Jingmai Sheng Puer The dry leaf smells like stale dried cherries. Gorgeous looking leaf with the long silver buds. Both teas I did my usual gongfu steeping… Continue reading, hoot!

2019 Tiltshift White Tea from White2tea

Sadly, there weren’t many 2019 Tiltshift cakes to go around. I waited until White2Tea’s Black Friday sale to snag one. My interest in Tiltshift is that it is a Yueguangbai /moonlight white tea that is made with a high concentration of buds. If I recall correctly, White2tea said they simply didn’t have much of this tea to press. Leaf and Steeping Method I was not prepared for the WOW factor on this white tea cake. All these huge buds give Tiltshift a fuzzy silver appearance with traces of black. The compression on the cake wasn’t too bad as it has… Continue reading, hoot!

2019 White Crow Lincang White Tea from Bitterleaf Tea

Bitterleaf Tea’s 2019 White Crow is a shou mei grade white tea cake from Lincang Yunnan. I own the previous year’s 2018 White Crow and I was impressed with the value it offered, so I didn’t hesitate to order the newest cake. Leaf and Steeping Method The leaf has a strong weedy and honey scent. As with most of my white teas, I steeped White Crow with a ratio of 1 gram of leaf per 20 ml of vessel size, gongfu style. Steeped up, the leaf smells like honey and laundry drying outside on the clothesline. Tasting of Bitterleaf Tea’s… Continue reading, hoot!