I cannot resist white tea cakes, so I purchased Bitterleaf Tea’s White Crow 2018 Lincang Shoumei White Tea. The wrapper art is super cool!
The tea smells like sweet straw hay. Cake feels firm and is on the thick side. It is easy to pry off pieces thankfully, but you do need a pick or knife.
I used 1 gram of leaf per 20ml of vessel used, gongfu steeped in boiling water. The hot leaf smells like straw and cactus.
Tasting of Bitterleaf Tea’s White Crow 2018 Lincang Shoumei White Tea
First and Second Infusion: White Crow 2018 Lincang Shoumei White has a crisp sweet mineral crystal sip but quickly slips to thick and mellow. It has notes of cotton fluff, honey, and straw.
Third, Fourth, and Fifth Infusion: There is a little bit of astringency starting here, making the tip of my tongue dry but also salivate. It is interesting how thick White Crow 2018 Lincang Shoumei is, it sips in dense like I need a gulp of air after each cup. I could almost chew on this tea instead of drink it, yet it is in reality thin liquid. The texture is slick in the mouth and has a mineral and nectar note.
Sixth and Seventh Infusion: White Crow got darker orange coppery colour.
I hit that wall of the youth of this tea due to the bitter and astringency. The dryness hits my cheeks making everything feel gritty. The flavour is stronger too – it has a distinct tree sap note, blurring green and woody like a birch tree scent. White Crow 2018 Lincang Shoumei White Tea also got pretty sweet here but I think most would quit here as it is pretty dry.
Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Infusion: The bitter was a false alarm. White Crow is not bitter since the flavour went down in intensity, however, it is quite dry to feel tooth gaps. But dang, this got sweet, tasting like sweet nectar, wood, and cotton candy fluff. Some sips are quite rocky tasting too. Each steeping lost more and more flavour and really frickin dry. It is worth it though as the sweetness here is nice. I likely could have milked another steeping with a stove boil, but it’s just too dry to attempt it.
There is a bit of energy from the energy of this tea, enough to get the blood pumping caffeine hit. As you can see there are some large buds.
Comments
I am very impressed with the quality of Bitterleaf teas entrance into White tea cakes. White Crow 2018 Lincang Shoumei White Tea is thick and the flavour is excellent.
If you like thick textures and white teas, White Crow 2018 Lincang Shoumei is a good white for the price. I look forward to ageing this one as starting with something good quality is a recipe for awesome. White Crow 2018 Lincang Shoumei White Tea goes pretty dark and already has the sweet notes, so there is promise.
There isn’t much of this tea left, so get a move on!
