2022 Modern Witch

Brewing gongfu in a glaized 110ml gaiwan at boiling.

Steam: Smells like Shou Spirit.

Rinse (15s): Liquor a little darker than pumpkin orange. Sip: Watery shou – wood note sticks out, and an assortment of complex warm tones.

Steep 1 (15s): Lid aroma: wow! I’m not sure how to describe it. In the background is typical shou, but something different is really there. Like graham cracker and dough, and something else I cant put my finger on. Never had a lid aroma like that before. The tea in the gaiwan is still loosely compressed, so sitll opening up. Liquor is opaque brown with a hint of orange. Taste is dominated by a fresh dough note, with a cherry wood in the mid field, and molasses in the background.

Steep 2 (16s): Lid aroma: Bread and a hint of chocolate. Liquor: Stale blood brown-crimson, almost opaque. The tea is thick and soupy. The fresh dough steps back to level with some of the other midtone shou notes. Earthy, hint of wet soil, molasses, maybe a hidden cacao.

Steep 3 (20s): Lid aroma: Same. Liquor: Same, shade darker. Taste is similar, dough going further back, dark warm notes coming further up front, molasses and caco. My fiance, coming in blind, said it reminded her of the beach, like the aftertaste of a shimp tempura. I don’t eat that, so I wouldnt know what that means :P

Steep 4 (23s): Liquor: almost black. Slight astringency on the back of the throat. The notes have generally kept similar but on an evolving trajectory.

Steep 5 (35s): Liquor: blood black. Similar notes, Theres maybe abit more sweetness. The mouthfeel is still thick. warm dark notes, earth, bit of cherry wood, molasses

Steep 6 (50s): Liquor – dark brown-crimson – basically lightened up a tad. Similar notes though they have shifted and evolved a bit in this steep. Wood and leather is a bit more noticable. Still slightly sweet and thick,

Steep 7 (1:10), Steep 8 (1:40): Brew is slowly lightening, but mostly containing a simlar tasteprofile – I can tell its starting to go on its way out

going to do a 9-10 bute I think the tasting notes are over :)

Overall: a really enjoyable shou at the low-mid price range from w2t ($50/200g cake). Very dark, good fall winter tea. Mild sweetness, even more mild bitterness. Its just an overall solid shou with great base flavor and reasonable complexity.

I’ve been on the shou train for a few days now. I finished off TWO samples from The Steeping Room, where I had purchased 3 samples, after which drinking them too quickly, I decided to go for a cake. White2Tea didn’t have any on their site, so it was nice to see that it could be found elsewhere.

This is one of those cakes that wouldn’t, and likely won’t, last long in my possession. During the winter months, I’m typically obsessively sipping on shou, Lapsang, roasted oolongs, and aged sheng. However, the obsession has been more shou heavy thus far, and this one is easily one of the best shou puerh teas I’ve sampled. The tea soup is thick (motor oil thick), oily, cocoa heavy, earthy, and molasses sweet. I’m sure I’ll be back in a few weeks, or months, with the final thoughts.

Gongfu!

Broke into this sample from a recent order. I’ll write a better tasting note for it in the future, but for the moment I just want to capture the very quick session that I crammed into the morning before leaving to meet up with Marika. So thick, warming and rich with strong notes of molasses, brandied plums, and heavy forest undergrowth! Divinely earthy!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CjdeghOOOci/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g31x-Bw4qrQ