#apoostrotea4

[apoostrotea]

They Mad!!! | White2Tea | Raw Puerh

I am very silly, and bought this mini because the reference on the wrapper made me laugh. I love Documentary Now. Maybe I’ll ramble about it over on instagram later, but for now I will talk about the tea itself. The description of this tea that W2T gives is interesting; they note the tea is made of some older material they were waiting to press. Once again, we are all left to ponder what this material exactly “is”, which W2T always leaves a mystery. Aroma hit me as punchy, at first. I was worried about the bitterness as the aroma seemed young and green. But, it also smells sweet, sugary, and fruity. It smells a lot like Yiwu, but I’m uncertain as W2T is a strange mysterious wizard with its sources. Liquor is gold, crisp, soft. Cloudier and thicker than some young sheng I’ve had recently. This tea is a treat for sweeter young puerh drinkers. It’s quite a special tea. Notes of jasmine, wood, and fresh fruit. Leaning a tad on the floral side rather than the fruity. Give this mini a try if it sounds good for you. Maybe snag a cake if you’re feeling ballsy. It’s a good one.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

[apoostrotea]

2021 Chapo | White2Tea | Heicha

This tea is a bit different from my current drinking habits. The hay aroma and flavor is at the forefront of this one with a hint of smoke. Like you’re visiting an old barn full of golden bales of hay. A distant campfire elsewhere at the farm adds a touch of smoke. A very familiar and intriguing tea. Cozy and comforting with good caffeine and qi. I was expecting this one to be darker! But it’s light like a sheng. I’m almost left wishing it was a bit smokier. The price on this one is great for those looking for this flavor profile.

★ ★ ★ .5 ☆ ☆

[apoostrotea]

1994 Xiaguan Tuo | Yeeontea | Ripe Puerh

Let me say, I love aged ripe puerh. Especially stuff like this from Yeeon. I don’t know if it’s the way they used to prepare and store shou back in the day, or if it’s simply the age. This tea is incredibly smooth and clean. Nice oily mouth feel, it’s a very easy tea. A lot of Yeeon’s aged ripes have this same quality — the leaves can take a good beating. Liquor color is nice, dark, and red with a very wet, woody, herbal aroma. The tea smells like the wet pile taste would be too much, but that flavor is nonexistent especially at this age. This leaf soup is an incredibly easy drink, bound to be enjoyed by most shou lovers. I do almost wish the flavor had been stronger, but you are always free to overleaf.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

[apoostrotea]

2021 Long Tang Old Tree | Raw Puerh | Yunnan Sourcing

This sheng greets you with a surprising smoky camphor note for its young age. The aroma is sweet, with a touch of beets and plums. The flavor profile is herbaceous, sweet, and fruity, with a hint of hay. There’s almost a sugary quality to it. These unexpected flavors continue to unfold each sip with little bitterness despite its youth.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

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2011 70th Anniversary Xiaguan | Liquid Proust | Raw Puerh

This tea is coming off of an iron pressed cake with Taiwanese storage. I haven’t had much experience with Taiwanese storage except for some of the teas I’ve tried from LP. So, which one of these flavors is reminiscent of Taiwanese storage? I’m unsure! Immediately, the ripe fruit aroma coming off the wet leaves is very apparent. It smells like over ripened bananas. To me, this scent-note is important for the sweetest sheng. The tea brews clean, a nice clear gold soup. Later brews steep deeper into that gold. Flavor-wise is very smooth and sweet. The fruit flavors are all there, with some hints of honey. Fresh sweet leaves. Some good energy too with longevity. This tea lasted me many more steeps than just the first session. If you enjoy your sweet and fruity sheng puerh, you might enjoy this one. Steep it harder if you crave a bit more bitterness, but it’s a perfect sheng otherwise.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

[apoostrotea]

Best Taste | Ripe Puerh | Yee on Tea

Finally sipping on Yeeon’s number one seller. This tea lives up to its name and description. Definitely cost efficient and great taste; it gets you that traditional stored ripe flavor without hurting your wallet. Comes as a loose leaf, and you can smell the cellar on it even before steeping. Yeeon states it’s a blend of tea cakes and loose maocha. The flavor is deep and complex, lots of basement and smooth dankness. Some menthol notes but it’s very light. Mostly just damp wood and cellar. This is one of those ripes that I go and grab after a meal or with a meal to help with digestion. At this price, it’s certainly a tea worth trying. Although, it’s nothing crazy complex or super interesting. Just a lovely daily drinker.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

[apoostrotea]

2022 Strawberry Lapsang | White2tea

This is the last of the Lapsang samples I have from White2tea! It’s also the last of the new teas I have to try for a while. I’m going to try posting some of my extra pics here on tumblr as I already do to Instagram. I was a fan of this one, but the strawberry is quite subtle. Aroma is like a wet pine forest floor and ripe fruit. Flavor has very minimal strawberry notes, but the fruit and berry notes are there. Mostly a lot of pine resin and deep wet wood. I think these Lapsangs are worth trying out, if that type of tea interests you. They definitely changed my opinion on Lapsang for the better. But, I think I’ll still stick mostly to puerh and oolong.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

[apoostrotea]

2021 Chapo | Heicha | White2tea

Have had this sample sitting in my stash for too long! This tea is interesting to me, especially as a tea noob. The leaves look a lot like white tea to me, but much greener and smaller. Rustic is a good word for the look and aroma of this one. Lots of hay smell and some of the aroma from golden flowers is there too. A bit bread-like. Gives off a lot of feelings of playing outside in the spring weather. Once hitting this tea with hot water I found all kinds of things in it… Sticks, nuts, seeds, what else? A little piece of plastic too. The liquor has a nice mouth feel, very smooth and light. Bits of the nut have broken off and into the leaf so any flavors I might be getting are probably from that too! Out of all the things I’ve found in my teas, this is probably the biggest seed/nut. I was surprised how much I like this tea, the golden flower flavor is really nice with the much lighter — almost yellow tea liquor. Chapo is a liubao heicha, but it’s not very dark at all. Very nice golden liquor color that’s lightly fogged up by the rustic blend of leaf. The flavors are very reminiscent of hay and autumn leaves. This tea made me quite a bit tea high too. Hit me pretty hard and fast. A brick of this doesn’t go for a lot, so I recommend snagging a sample and giving it a try. It’s definitely worth it for the price if this is something up your alley.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

[apoostrotea]

2022 Pine Sap Lapsang | White2tea

This tea being called “pine sap” isn’t a joke. I’m a bit boggled on how this tea gets it’s flavor! The sappy pine notes really are there, with some nice smoke and whiskey flavors. The aroma is powerful on this one too — which is expected from Lapsang. Half the enjoyment of Lapsang comes from the smell, and this tea fills up the room with its tree sap and smoke aroma very easily. Flavor profile for this one is strong. Possibly, the strongest of all the Lapsang I’ve tried from W2T so far. It starts out heavy with that campfire smoke and toasted food flavors. It reminds me a lot of sitting in the quiet wet pine forests of New York cooking fruit over a campfire. Later steeps become sweeter and weaker on the smoke. You can begin to taste the much fruitier flavors of black tea, but that pine flavor is still there too. It’s an enjoyable tea if you’re looking for the expensive Lapsang to fit your whiskey-like tastes.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

[apoostrotea]

2022 Double Smoke Anhua Fuzhuan | White2tea

This time I remembered to take a picture of the golden flowers! I was excited to try this tea; smoke, campfire, and tobacco are all notes that I typically enjoy. According to W2T, this tea has been smoked twice. That sweet tobacco flavor is shining through here. This is a good one for people who also enjoy that profile. Wet leaves smell like smoke, wet wood, and an old garage used for woodworking. This is a bit of a burly brew, I’m sure a big bearded hipster lumberjack dude is happily drinking this right now somewhere in the world. At this price point, it would make a fantastic smoke-y daily drinker. I wouldn’t mind dropping the ~$100 on a kilo of this, but I still want to try the other fu W2T is offering. Sweet, tobacco, smoke, and wet wood.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

[apoostrotea]

Traditional Lapsang | Lapsang Souchong | White2tea

Lapsang is a type of tea I don’t know anything about. I’ve had one really bad Lapsang years ago that almost turned me off from ever trying it again. W2T has done Lapsang prior to high praise. When I heard about their tea club featuring all their Lapsang samples — I jumped on it. The first one I went for was the traditional Lapsang, and I was immediately pleasantly surprised. Feels like a very fruity and candied black tea, with a bit of that campfire flavor. Aroma has some smokey-ness with a lot of that sweet smelling fruit note. Campfire banana is a word I’d use to describe this one. Very aromatic tea, and I’m learning now that most Lapsang is infamous for being aromatic. All in all, very enjoyable. Excited to try the other Lapsangs too.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

[apoostrotea]

Roam | Black Tea | Crimson Lotus Tea

Started out thinking I’d brew this Gongfu style, but ended up using it for milk tea. It was a good decision!

Enjoying a sample of Roam CLT sent me with my recent order. I’m not a big fan of black tea, but after making it in the way they recommended, I thoroughly enjoyed it. CLT recommends milk and honey over the stove, boiled for 10 mins. This makes for a very sweet and delicious milk tea. No bitterness or tannin in sight, especially when prepared this way. Light fruity herbal notes. I can see myself getting a cake of this for folks that come over and want milk tea. Although I prefer gongfu tea, o’m going to be drinking cups of this all day today.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

[apoostrotea]

2004 Yiwu | Changtai Tea Factory | Raw Puerh

It’s blazing hot here but I’m still sipping tea. This tea was pressed by Changtai Tea Factory using Yiwu mountain arbor tree material. I’m starting to get familiar with that Yiwu flavor that everyone talks about. Wet leaf aroma has vegetal, hay, and barn notes attached. When the leaf cools down I can smell some vanilla. Initial steeps are woody with flavor of sour fruits while later steeps really even out and become sweet. Getting some of that vanilla flavor to come through later on. This tea is smooth, and a good representation for what Yiwu teas are like.

I might start crossposting some of my tea pics and videos to Instagram! My tea reviews and in depth stuff will stay here, but I’ll be using Instagram to dump my extra footage LOL. I always have a billion pictures and videos that don’t get posted here. I can be found there with the same username.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

[apoostrotea]

2007 Thick Zen | Puerh Junky | Raw Puerh

Had this one sitting in drafts forever.. whoops.

Rich honey aroma from this one. Smells nicely aged with that clean amber liquor color. Flavor is strongly fruity with some of the honey coming through. Bit of camphor as well. Camphor and any astringency steep out fairly quickly leaving this as a mostly “thick” syrupy drink. Very enjoyable! I think I have a few more teas sitting around from Puerh Junky I forgot to review. I’d say there’s certainly a flavor profile and area of puerh he tends to stick with, and this sheng fits in there nicely.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

[apoostrotea]

2007 Auspicious Dragon | Puerh Junky | Raw Puerh

I’ve had this review sitting in drafts for too long!

Puerh Junky describes this sheng as “aggressive”. I think I disagree with that. Getting more a smooth fruity citrus flavor, some petrol in there as described. Nice deep color to match with the strong taste. This tea has been an easy drink for me such far, just finishing up the stock I have of it. Fits nicely into that middle aged puerh category without being overwhelming.

How many teas left until I’m out of teas to review? 🤔

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

[apoostrotea]

Fruit Bomb Lapsang | Lapsang Souchong | White2tea

Sorry about my inky hands in the photo!

If the last Lapsang I had was fruity, then this one takes it to the extreme. This tea feels like the clear successor and upgrade to the traditional Lapsang. I’m immediately liking this one, but not too much more than I liked the traditional. I believe this Lapsang is unsmoked. Getting a lot of malt notes, cherry, and brown sugar. A bunch of different fruit flavors coming up from peaches to oranges. The name is quite accurate. Stretching out this tea session leads to different flavors and aromas coming up; it’s an interesting tea. The one ounce sample goes a long way.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆