Hello hello! This past week I got into a car accident and was rear-ended by a truck going 45mph and consequently thrown into oncoming traffic. If I could take anything remotely hilarious from this experience I’d say that it’s gotta be that a local school’s security truck was the one that rear-ended me. I kept asking myself, “do I feel safe now?” No. Not when security was going 10 miles over the speed limit and ended up messing up my neck. Thankfully I’m not more injured than what I already am because it could have gone much worse. I would like to thank pain killers for helping me cope with the damaged muscles in my neck, because without them I’d be feeling like shit. To be fair, I already do feel like shit. So with all of these shitty feelings we’ll be going over the shittiest tea in all of China - Dan Cong “King of Duck Shit Aroma” Oolong. For this review, we’ll be going over two different varieties of shitty tea, which can be found on YunnanSourcing’s website. First we have a version of this tea that’s lightly oxidized (the traditional way of making this tea) and put through a ‘kill green process’ (where tea is lightly roasted to stop oxidization) and a new variety of this tea thats not oxidized. Chou Shi, which means dehydrate, is a new way of processing this tea where this tea is quickly dehydrated before the tea has a chance to oxidize. However, you may be asking yourself why this tea has such a grotesque name. Well, this tea is an uncommon oolong which is grown in the Phoenix Mountains in the Guangdong Province of China. The soil that this tea is grown is very unusual because it has a yellow-brown color to it, and the villagers that guard this tea claim that large amounts of duck shit was added to the soil. Now we have a tea called “Duck Shit Aroma”. Regardless if this tale is true or not it still creates an interesting tale. Oxidized Shit First off, I’m going to start with the traditional “King of Duck Shit Aroma” Dan Cong Oolong. When opening this tea, the first thing I noticed was how fragile the leaf was. I was also overtaken by a powerful yet rich aroma of sweet caramel. The aroma really took me by surprised because due to the name of the tea, I was expecting something more pungent and vile. Anyways, I measured out 5g of this tea for a100ml vessel and started off this oolong with a thirty second steeping time. At first this tea came off mellow and warm. The hints of sweet caramel was exquisite and made a lasting impression as it trickled down the back of my throat. The more steeping times that I had with this tea, the more savory it became. Around the fifth steeping of this oolong the notes of sweet oolong started to feel a bit rough, and left an aftertaste of black liquorish that was so light that you almost couldn’t detect it. Although it was still pleasant it was now more savory than sweet. Towards the end, around the tenth steep when this tea started to lose its flavor, it left a diminutive bitter bite that was hiding behind this tea’s smoothness. Dehydrated Shit After my session with the oxidized version of this tea, I grew very curious how it would taste green. When I first opened my package of Chou Shi “King of Duck Shit” Dan Cong Oolong, I was surprised to see how green the dry leaf looked. It still radiated a deep lime-green appearance that almost reminded me of dry seaweed. Another aspect of this tea that I noticed was that it emanated the odor of milky sweet-peas with a magnolia flower undertone. Just like the previous session with this tea’s relative, I used 5g of it in a 100ml vessel and started off the session with a thirty second steeping time. At first, the taste of cream glided past my tongue as it left a sweet aftertaste of sugar-snap peas and magnolia flowers. I was a little surprised by this because it strongly resembled an Anxi Tie Guan Yin - a variety of green oolongs. As I continued to steep this tea it got stronger and stronger. One thing I liked about this tea was its clarity. Although it was exploding flavors in my mouth right and left, it was still clear and easy to detect everything that was coming out of the cup. Another aspect of this tea that I liked was the fact that it left a gentle and sweet aftertaste of cream that filled the space in my mouth. Even long after I had taken a sip, these notes kept lingering and refused to leave. I kept pushing steeping times and it seemed to keep going and going. I eventually put an end to my session with this tea at the twelfth infusion time, mainly because I was way beyond tea drunk. Green Shit or Brown Shit? There we’re a lot of similarities in these teas. One thing that I saw in both of these teas is that they were both temperature sensitive and didn’t respond well to being prematurely pushed into a longer infusion time. These teas also had a pronounced tasting note that lingered in the mouth long after I had taken a sip. Another side of these teas that I liked is that for an oolong, and for the fact I only used 5g of tea in each session I got a substantial amount of tea. Now that I’ve gone over the similarities of these teas, let’s go over the differences. First, I got (a longer steeping time out of the green version of this tea compared to the traditional version of this tea, it phased out a lot sooner. Second, the green version was smooth as the oxidized version had a more bitter aftertaste in the final steepings. Even though the bitterness was minimal, it was still present. Lastly, there are other oolongs out in the market that has a similar palate of flavors and steeping times as the oxidized version. Although the green version of this oolong had a similar taste to an Anxi Tie Guan Yin, its quality and flavor was as high as competition grades of other Tie Guan Yins that are on the market, but substantially more cost efficient. Overall, the experience I’ve had with these teas wasn't a shitty one, it was a golden one. I think that these oolongs are some of the best you can find on the market as far as taste and quality goes, but in the end the Chou Shi (unoxidized) King of Duck Shit Aroma Dan Cong Oolong is the winner between the two. Oh, one more thing. I wanted to thank you for reading this shit post ;) Rating Green - 9.4 Brown - 9.1

Hello hello! One of the most anticipated events in the tea industry this year was the release of White2Tea’s 2016 productions. Other tea companies announcing their pressed early in the year, such as Bitter Leaf Teas with Crimson Lotus trailing right behind them with their shou puers. However, White2Tea waited for the perfect moment once all of the other tea companies momentum died down and made a statement too big to ignore: They shut down their website. Yes, White2Tea closed down the site and replaced it with an image of a caterpillar. When the site was half way done with it’s make over, the caterpillar turned into a cocoon waiting to evolve. On the third day the butterfly emerged on the site, which meant that there was only one thing left to come from this caterpillars artistic transformation… the tea. With great marketing comes great patience as I stayed awake all night after the butterfly’s transformation was complete - and anxiously awaited for the tea with debit card in hand. Refresh after refresh, the webpage only displayed a butterfly as the clock roamed past the night. My mind filled with excitement as I awaited the upcoming teas that I was so eager to drink, much less get a glimpse at. Eventually, I rested my head on my pillow as my eyes grew weak, a result of staying up so late that the morning sun broke through the window. Suddenly, my eyes opened and the clock only ticked by two hours in my short and restless slumber. I drug my lazy self over to my computer and refreshed the webpage one last time—and viola! The online shop was now ready and open! I browsed through the beautiful selection as I read through other’s excitement on various websites on a separate window, only to learn that the tea released five more minutes after my eyes sealed shut for its short recharge. Nonetheless, I was too exited to be irritated that I barely missed the live reveal of the teas their self. The teas were (and still are) so beautiful that it took my brain a few minutes to comprehend what I was looking at. I gawked at the new selections, breathless at what I was witnessing for the very first time. After admiring the beautiful brand on their webpage I made a few selections to review for you, the reader. Out of the ones that I selected, I’m starting this new 2016 production obsession with the extravagant, 2016 Tyler. Opening The wrapper depicts a collage of various photos that give off the vibe of 60’s nostalgia; a photo that were found while the paper’s artist was in Prague. According to White2Tea this is the only beeng wrapper this year that they didn't design, instead they collaborated with New York native artist Joe Librandi-Cowan. When speaking to Joe, I asked him who Tyler is. Tyler isn’t a person, Tyler is loosely based on music that him and Paul from W2T are fans of. It’s more of a feeling - the feeling of something that sparks inspiration and something that makes you feel good. In my opinion, this is one of White2Tea’s most elegant wrappers to date. Anyhow, this beeng had a second inner wrapper that was more cloth-like than the outer wrapper. The leaf’s compression was absolutely stunning and possessed a steamy green aroma. Steeps 1 - 4 Before I began my session with 2016 Tyler, I gave it a quick rinse and let the tea sit in the vessel to let the leaf open up. After ten minutes I proceeded with my first infusion. My first initial findings were that this tea had a very soft sweet bee pollen body with a floral infused creamy finish.You could almost say that this tea was trying to reach a honey-like tasting note, but something was holding it back. Until the fourth infusion, the taste was growing stronger and stronger with the taste of bee pollen drowning the inner walls of my cheeks. Steeps 5 - 10 On the fifth infusion this tea took a pleasant turn. The floral notes quickly became prominent and became as noticeable as the bee pollen notes. Unexpectedly though the creamy notes vanished to make room for a sweet undertone of sugary sage. This undertone was very unexpected because of how quickly it stepped into the tea’s overall flavor. As the infusions kept getting longer, this tea left a room-filling aftertaste of sweet floral sage that coated the whole mouth like an oil, and stayed there for a considerable amount of time. However, bitterness hid in the shadows of the unique aftertaste, which slowly creeped up on this teas overall palate as the steeping times got longer and longer. Steeps 11-14 Eventually, 2016 Tyler started to pack it’s bags and was ready to move on. Around the eleventh infusion, this beeng’s sweetness had completely ran away and the taste of green took its place. The floral notes were barely noticeable at this point, and left a note of bee pollen along with a sweet undertone of sage. As this tea was playing out its final steeps, the bitterness kept growing stronger and stronger - something that White2Tea claims will go down over time as this tea is freshly pressed. I pushed this tea to its 14th final steep, and eventually parted ways with the first taste of White2Tea’s new 2016 productions… Wet Leaf Now that the session has ended, I’m looking into this tea’s wet leaf to find out why it was so flavorful. First, I want to point out that some of the flavor that contributed to this tea is due to the fact that some of this tea’s leafs were already starting to turn red. This half-beat up red tea leaf was blended with a two-to-one ratio of young tea leafs with the occasional tea bud. Overall, just by dissecting the wet leaf itself you can see the amount of thought and experimentation that went into blending this tea. Conclusion 2016 Tyler is an amazing place to start off with White2Tea’s 2016 productions. I ended up liking this tea because it’s accessible for tea drinkers that are new to puer, but complex enough that it can help a tea drinker appreciate a tea that’s complex and high in quality. The same could be said for experienced tea drinkers in the way that it’s a complex tea at an affordable price. I think this tea has great balance and a great tasting profile. I also like that this tea has a unique taste thats not only has a great flavor, but a leaf quality to back it up. However, I still believe that this tea needs time to rest from pressing (as does any new tea) and is something that I’m looking forward to drinking again in the future. If you find yourself browsing White2Tea’s new 2016 releases and you’re questioning whether you should place an order or not, I recommend a sample of 2016 Tyler to your cart. When you get your tea, try playing a good record to drink your tea to and when you drink it see if you can feel Tyler inside of you. Play music that engulfs your soul in a fiery blaze of emotions and let those emotions consume you for the time being. Once you feel Tyler’s warm liquid making its way through your system, I hope that you come to the conclusion that this tea is just as exciting as you could have hoped for. If this is the first tea I tried on the 2016 line up, then I can tell you that we’re in for a real treat for the rest of the releases… This is something I don't usually do, but I wanted to give a shout out to Matt. Safe travels buddy! Rating 9.5

Hello hello This week has been a wild ride mainly because of the season six finale of Game of Thrones. I didn’t think this show could get any better, but it did. Without getting to much into to it, I’ll just say that my elevated levels of ‘hype’ raised my blood pressure higher than Snoop Dog on any given Tuesday. I’m glad that we have to wait another year for the next season because it’ll take that long just to calm down from all of what went on. So what do I do to lower my heart rate? Caffeine, in the form of tea of course. I decided that I’d put in a different address in the GPS for this review and go into uncharted territory. Before I go into this, I have a question to ask. When you think of tea, what places of origin do you think of first? Do you think of England? Do you think of China? What about Japan? Why yes, those are the most well known places of origin. But did you think of Russia? You heard me correctly — Russia. Tea culture in Russia is just as large as it is to anyone else of the world. They drink it and seem to be obsessed with it. However, due to politics in the current state of world affairs, the West doesn’t get to experience the greater-aspect of Russian culture. However, thanks to the internet, we can enjoy a piece of their every day life. There’s also a tea company that caught my eye while scrolling the endless seas of web pages, and that company happened to be Moychay. They seem to have a larger following in Russia, and some Russian tea drinkers rate them as one of Russia’s best tea companies. So whats the hype about? I’ll be reviewing three tea’s from out tea brothers of the far far East within the next few months. Opening I’m starting my line of reviews with Moychay’s 100g bing made of 2011 Menghai Jin Shu. As I open this wrapper, which represents a sleepy cozy fox on the front, I noticed that this cake has a beautiful compression. As well as the compression, this has a great visual of golden ripe puer that smells like musky earth. Steeps 1-6 As always, I start my session of 6.5g of tea with a quick rinse. The first thing I noticed upon my first infusion is how foggy the liquor is, and I thought it was rather interesting because I’ve never experienced this before. Anyways, my first impression of this tea was that it held a light sweet wood note with a bit of a rough finish. It had an earthy undertone that was slightly bitter. As I continued on my steeps, the teas bitterness kept coming out more and more, along with the stand-out flavor of earthy wood. Up to the 6th infusion, this tea kept growing stronger and stronger. The bitterness kept building up and almost became unpleasant. The unpleasantness, or the pleasantness of this tea if you prefer, is debatable as I’m sensitive to the taste bitter. Steeps 7-12 Notably, the flavors of earthy wood continued to keep growing. Around steep 7, when I usually draw the steeps for the longer infusion times, the bing took a Game of Thrones type plot twist. When I was starting to grow bored of this tea, the bitterness disappeared and a strong velvety huigan (which means sweetness in the mouth) emerged. Out of nowhere the bitterness completely disappeared at the ninth infusion, and the taste of sweet cherry wood overtook this tea. The way these flavors erratically change caught me completely by surprise, as I was previously assuming this tea was going to take a gritty mouth-feel at any moment. However, it defied my expectation as it transitioned to a silky smooth texture as it made it’s sugary broth known. Up until the 12th infusion, which is when the tea started to phase out, I thought I was drinking something completely different than what I started out with. Conclusion All in all, I was pleasantly surprised at Fox Trot. As I was growing tired of this tea and thought it would only stay at the consistent one demential state, it took a completely different turn and turned out to be an excellent shou. Further, Im glad this tea proved me wrong in the idea that it was flat, because I had high expectations for it. It’s not overly complex as far as flavors go, but it does have a strong body that grew sweet and strong that was saved by the longer infusion times. Considering that this tea has a price tag of around $10.00, it took me by surprise that its as good as it was. I want to compliment this tea on is it’s wide range of accessibility. Fox Trot is something that I can imagine being enjoyed by beginners and experienced drinkers alike. Lastly, I’m happy that Fox Trot is the first tea I’ve ever tried from Moychay because it really does set up a good expectation for the rest of their teas. If any of their other teas are as good as this one, I can see why they’re so popular with Russian tea drinkers. If you believe that Fox Trot is really from 2011 to not, I’d still snag a bing of it if I we’re you. For a shou to be this good at that priced, well, just try it for yourself… Rating 7.9 "Blissfully Tea Drunk"

Hello hello! This past week has been a rather crazy ride and great test on my patience. As strong willed and as patient as I am, you wouldn’t think that a silly illness would break my mental sanity down to the lowest depths of the ocean, right? I think George R. R. Martin personally concocted this down-spiral of bullshit for me. It started out as a throat infection and ended up as an allergic reaction to the steroid that was supposed to cure said throat infection. The main course - a dish of dry heaving with a side dish of coughing up stomach bile. Disorientation and vertigo being the cherry on top of this torturous pie. Now that I have a barely-passing graded bill of health, it’s safe to say I can resume life back to normal. But first, let’s define normal. I feel thankful for the online community, along with a boyfriend that went to the store for me through out the night, for keeping my spirits high. I have to give a shout out to Reddit’s tea community along with various friends on instagram for their best wishes and support. Since I’m able to drink tea again, I’m going to resume my obsession with Bitter Leaf Tea’s 2016 Secret Garden! Secret Garden is a very unique tea as its grown along side with wild banana trees. The description of this tea was enough to add it to my cart, and review it. Opening - Bitter Leaf Tea’s set another high standard for puer packing, as this tea was double-wrapped and presented in it’s own custom packed box. The photo on the cake resembles fruit on a banana tree (I assume), and has a medium to tight compression . Unlike Honeycomb, which was fairly easy to pry apart, Secret Garden was rather tight, It didn’t stop me.This was the freshest-pressed puer I’ve had to date, and it made me as excited as a kid on Christmas morning. Steeps 1 - 8 According to Bitter Leaf Tea’s website, they recommend using spring water as water from the tap might be too hard, which could negatively affect the taste of a bing. I gathered 7g of this tea for my 100ml vessel, did a quick rinse, and waited ten minutes for the tea to open up. In the first three steeps, this tea is noticeably smooth and clear. As a coating of sweet-green tea washes over your tongue, you’re left with the after taste of stone fruit. Around steep 5 this tea started to taste more and more humid which is probably the result of its recent pressing. Even lasting up until its 8th steep, it still had a strong sweetness that seemed to hit you in the face like a brick. Steeps 9 - 14 Secret Garden sharply lost its fruity sweetness and transformed into a sweet grass, with a faint floral aftertaste. As I push this tea’s boundaries with longer steeps, a bitterness is detectable underneath the freshness that refuses to go silent. I continue to push this tea to longer and longer steeps, and the harder I push it the more bitter it becomes. When I reached steep 14, the tea’s energy was still very noticeable, but all of the sweetness was gone; the only evidence of sweetness was the lasting roughness that was only brought out by these later steeps. After steep 14, which still had a noticeable humid note, it didn’t seem like there was much left for this tea to go on. It was time to hang it up for this session. Conclusion - 2016 Secret Garden is the freshest sheng puer that I’ve had to date. I was happy to drink a tea so fresh because this tea’s clarity was something that I was excited to add to my palate. However, this tea was still too freshly pressed. After already having a good handful of sessions with it, it’s still hard to pinpoint exactly that notes we’re trying to come out of this sheng. It’s recent pressing still left this bing really humid, and is something that I can’t give a fair rating on. However, the intense sweetness that was present in this bing made sure to make its own strong voice heard. To input, I think that Secret Garden is an amazing offering from Bitter Leaf Tea’s 2016 line-up. I like the way that the flavors played out in this bing because it really told me that this tea was more than two demential; its complex. However, it didn’t seem to hold up very well in the later steeps as it was easy to go bitter. I think that this tea’s potential would really come out more once it has a chance to settle down from pressing. But overall, this is just another gold star in the Book of Good Bings, currently being illustrated for your tastebuds by Bitter Leaf Teas... Rating - 9.0

Hello hello! For the past few months I’ve been observing and tasting my various sheng from the Tea Urchin. Granted, I only have three cakes and a sample from them but I haven’t been too focused on them because of my obsession with White2Tea. The Tea Urchin is a mom-and-pop online tea shop ran by a husband and wife team, Eugene and Belle. They’ve been running the Tea Urchin since 2011 and have had an extraordinary journey since then. Upon reading their blog, which is really informal about puer, you’d see that their journey goes from meeting the worlds oldest wild tea tree to starting a family with the introduction of their son Miles! Rather if you’re new or old to Puer, The Tea Urchin is an online shop that is great to familiarize yourself with. If you’ve been reading my past few reviews, you’d know that White2Tea has been an obsession of mine and I’ve been slowly exploring out into other vendors of tea - like BitterLeafTeas for example. The Tea Urchin is a name that has been thrown around on the tea community on Reddit and Steepster. However, I think its time to review one of their most well-known Yiwu teas, the 2013 Yiwu Snake Blend! Opening Look at that paper! This paper is depicts a snake about to make a meal of a hare. The paper presented loosely-compressed cake. I personally like this because lose compression makes it really easy to get the tea that you need for your session. I just really like being able to pick out whole tea leafs without damaging them. Steeps 1-3 I started this session with a quick rinse to wash away the past three years of dust collecting, but after ten minutes I jumped right in! When taking my first sips of this tea, I immediately noticed a light warmness followed by a sweet sour note - a sour note that could be interrupted as a sweet lemon peel. Along with the mix of lemony tartness and warmness, an undertone of melon was trying to make itself known. Steeps 4-6 On my fourth steep, a smokiness emerged from the warmness that originally hit my tongue. This is the moment when this tea started to reveal how complex it was, because before this point I wouldn’t have expected anything more to come from this tea. Although the lemony tartness followed the smokiness, it left a lasting sweet warmness at the back of my throat - which was very pleasant. Steeps 6 - 12 This tea started to turn bitter and was leaving a greener taste on the sides of my tongue. The smokiness was still present, but the tartness started to taste a lot sharper around steep eight. The tartness transformed from a lemon zest to a hibiscus-like sourness. At the same time, the sweet warmness started to disappear. Around the tenth steep, this tea was losing all of its flavors all together, and only left a green note that resembled grass. However, this didn't last long because by the eleventh and twelfth steep the flavor was fading away. It seems that as soon as this teas flavors changed, it was gone. Conclusion On the Tea Urchin’s site, there was a review that said this tea tasted like creme burlee. I wanted to correct that statement by saying that there’s nothing about this tea that pointed to creme burlee. However, it would be easy to mistake this tea for a pastry because of the mixture of light tartness and warm smokiness. The 2013 Yiwu Blend didn’t hold out long as far as flavor goes, but that could be a result of the larger Yiwu leaves thats in this blend. Upon dissecting this tea’s wet leaf, I was surprised to find that many of the leaves were bruised - which would probably be the cause for this tea’s sour punch. A plus to this tea is the bitterness which points to the fact that this sheng has a lot of aging potential. Overall, the 2013 Yiwu Snake Blend is a puer tea that I wouldn’t recommend for beginners. I think that many of these flavors would hit a beginner over the head, and this puer wouldn’t be appreciated as much. Despite that this puer has exceptional leaf quality, I’m not a huge fan of the flavors that arose from this blend its-self. For the larger selection of teas on the Tea Urchin’s site, there’s far more that I would rather purchase instead of the 2013 Yiwu Snake Blend. Rating 7.9 Shout-Out! I wanted to give a shout-out to Totem Tea Co. for their oolongs! They’re a tea company based in Portland Oregon that has a wide-range of different teas. They say that they try at least twenty different teas for one tea that they sell. I highly recommend their Wen Shan Bao Zhong Oolong. This oolong has a beautiful taste that is worth an order.

Hello hello! I’m digging deeper into the world of tea and keep finding new vendors that I want to explore. There’s so many out there that it’s hard to choose sometimes, so I just usually browse around and don’t order anything. Since my mini-obsession with White2Tea, nothing has really jumped out at me and screams “order me!” However, that all changed when I stumbled across Bitter Leaf Teas. Bitter Leaf Teas is a tea company based out of China that started in fall of 2015. They’re a small operation that tries to focus on quality, and the owners spend lots of personal time getting to know each tea one-on-one. One thing about Bitter Leaf Teas that gave me a WOW factor was the design. The design and layout of this tea companies website and tea productions was enough to make me thirst — for tea of course. After browsing around for a while I added something to my cart that looked interesting; I ordered the 2015 Honey Comb. After having multiple sessions of it, I think it’s time to finally give it a review. Opening - Wow. This teas presentation is phenomenal. It arrived in its own air-tight metal tin stuffed with hay. The presentation of opening this tea was visually pleasing, as it made it unboxing Honeycomb its own experience. I unwrapped two laters of paper and was greeted with a beautiful bing. I pried out 6.5g of tea for my session in a vessel that has a volume of 105ml. I must compliment this tea on its compression. This bing isn’t too tight nor too lose. Overall It’s one of the most workable 100g cakes I’ve ever stumbled across. Steeps 1-4 I gave this bing a quick rinse before my session. After waiting ten minutes I gave it my first go! My first initial thought about this tea was that it had a gentle honeydew melon note with a light cooling sensation that trailed right behind it. This could be easily misinterpreted as a light flora note, but its sweetness made it taste a little fruity. As I made my way to the fourth steep, this tea became more and more mouth watering. Around the fourth steep it left a malty warmness that brushed against the tastebuds, thus making me drool for more. I want to note that according to Bitter Leaf Tea’s site, they recommend to use boiling water to use for this particular tea. I experimented different water temperatures with this tea before this review and I noticed that boiling water made this tea taste bitter. I found that it was best to use around 180ºf for brewing Honeycomb. Steeps 5-9 Around the fifth steep the sheng started to become more pronounced in its thickness. Although it still left cooling that coated my mouth, it was more noticeable on how thick it was in the back of my throat. The combination of cooling and sweet warm thickness reminded me of honey itself. However, this feeling didn’t last because on the sixth steeping of this tea it started to progressively get more and more bitter. The notes were light, but it progressively got stronger. The bitter took away the warm and cooling notes that I previously tasted, and started to leave a thick-floral taste that lingered in my mouth. To explain further I must ask, have you ever eaten a jasmine flower by its-self before? If do, do you remember how pungent and strong it was, but also left a nice sweetness as it dissipated? Well that’s exactly what this tea was reminding me of. Steeps 10-12 The floral notes became more and more pronounced as the brews continued. Honeycomb was standing on its last leg as it’s final form was making itself known. The bitterness started to fade out, and unfortunately so did the floral notes. By the twelfth steep this tea was completely gone and became an echo of what it once was. Honeycomb moved on without ever looking back. My life was different now. Conclusion - Honeycomb is a very complex bing, and is the best 100g bing that i’ve yet to come across. This Bing Dao was beautifully crafted, and the evidence was the wide array of tasting notes that this bing brushed against. This tea, composed of ancient tree leafs, is one that I wouldn’t recommend for beginners. I mainly say this because Honeycomb needs to be heavily focused to be completely appreciated. Due to the hight level of delicateness, it would be easy to overlook some of the greater aspects of it’s body and background notes. One thing that adds more points to the high-scoring tea is its potential to age. The way it’s bitterness presented itself through out my session only pointed to excellent future development. I cant wait to see what Honeycomb holds for the future, and I cant wait to keep exploring Bitter Leaf Teas. Rating - 9.3 Tea Drunk - This tea’s energy made me calm —Too calm. There’s gotta be something wrong with a tea that made me wake up in a good mood the next morning.

Hello hello! I recently started working at a tea shop and nearly everyone working there doesn’t know a lick about the vast world of puer and oolongs. I’m also having a field day educating everyone about why these types of teas are my obsession. One thing that nearly sent me over the edge was when one of my co-workers stated that the only puers she’s tasted, tasted like fish so she doest like them! Um, what??! Not all puers taste like fish and not all puers are gross. The puer that sparked this discussion was a photo of White2Tea’s Brown Sugar. My co-workers have no idea what White2Tea is, much less what Brown Sugar taste like. To be fair, not too many people know what to expect when they get the brick. So guess what that means? Today we’re going over Brown Sugar! Opening: The wrapper is beautifully designed, but one drawback is how fragile the paper is. After opening, I had a hard time trying to re-cover the tea with the wrapper, and almost decided to store it without it. In my opinion this is a turn off because if I plan to keep Brown Sugar for storing, how well will it be protected over the years? I would expect a paper to be in this condition after years of aging; not something i’d expect from a new production. On another note, I must compliment this brick on how easy it was to break it apart. It’s compression was light enough that I could easily pick away the right amount of tea needed. Steeps 1-3: Like always, I started this tea off with a quick rinse to get rid of any dust and debris, and decided to steep it with boiling water. My first impression of this tea is how damp and woodsy it tasted. It tasted a bit light and also a bit smooth, but needed a few more steeps to really open up. One thing I want to point out is that right off the bat, I noticed there’s something that’s hiding behind the woodsy notes but I couldn’t really point it out. Steeps 4-8: After this tea opened up a bit more the damp wood notes were much stronger. There was also a light bitterness that lingered on my tongue after drinking this tea. The bitterness wasn’t noticeable at first, but after a bit of concentration it’s something that you can pinpoint. Another thing I noticed was that this tea kept getting smoother and smother - It felt like a nice cozy blanket going down the throat. However, the taste of wet wood stated to develop into a strong punch around the sixth steep. On the other hand, a light sweetness that brushed against my cheeks, but this could easily be overlooked due to the teas heavy punch. Steeps 9-12: Around the ninth steep, the woodsy started to mellow out and the grittiness quickly disappeared. Unfortunately though, the faint sweetness that I noticed towards the beginning also faded away with it. By steep twelve this tea was finished. If I'm being honest, the way this tea lost its flavors was a bit underwhelming and made me wish there was more. I took my vessel and dumped the wet leaf. After dissecting the leaves I was surprised to find that the leaves were huge! I was taken aback by this because shou puers usually have leaves that are either too small or too mingled to pick apart. This just goes to show the quality of tea that you’re really getting from White2Tea. Five points for Gryffindor! Conclusion: Overall, I Think that Brown Sugar wouldn't be a tea I’d re-order. Because Brown Sugar is relatively new, I think it has a long way to go before it develops into something wonderful. I believe this tea has potential to age into something great for two reasons. For one, it still had a light bitter undertone which means it has a lot more aging to go. Second, there was a light sweetness that tried to break its way thought the woody punch, which tells me that once this tea calms down it’ll be substantially more noticeable and hopefully tasty. I have three bricks of Brown Sugar and I plan on aging them to see where their flavors go. According to White2Tea’s master curator Paul, he said he’s keeping his fingers crossed that it’ll taste like plums in ten years. Rating: 6.9/10 Tea Drunk Level: This tea punched me in the gut when I least expected it! It was like ‘wham bam, thank you ma’am!’

Hello hello! It’s been a crazy month this month so apologies for the delay on this review. Luckily there was enough time to drink tea, especially White2Tea’s Fade! Fade is a new sheng brick released by master tea curator Paul in his monthly tea club! I got mine in the month of April, but he soon released it for purchase in his site a few weeks later. Paul teased us with pictures and delicious descriptions of this tea previous to its release on his Instagram account. Usually I’m patient when it comes to most things but damn, it was really making me anxious to try it. I don’t know if I should call this good marketing or good torture. Opening: Upon opening this brick I was really cautious as to not tear apart the paper. I usually don’t care if I save tea wrappers or not but this was just too beautiful to preserve. The cover features Abraham Lincoln and a design scheme that was inspired by Kayne West’s latest album, ‘The Life of Pablo’. Actually, according to Paul, the tea itself was inspired by Kayne’s new album. Paul said he made a blend that reflected the inspiration that ‘The Life of Pablo’ gave him, and the brick is named after ‘Fade’, a track on the album. Steeps 1-3: According to Paul, he recommended listening to ‘The Life of Pablo’ while trying out his new sheng. I’m not a crazy fan of rap, or narcissists, so I decided to listen to M83’s new album ‘Junk’ instead. I’m a huge fan of M83 and after seeing they released something nearly a half decade later, I couldn't resist. I opened up this tea with a rinse and waited a few minutes for the leaf to open up. Upon the first steep I first noticed a fragrant smell of cucumber radiating from the tea. It was very refreshing to smell this in a sheng because its something I’ve never smelled in one before. On my first tasting of Fade I noticed a pleasant warmness was hitting the sides of my tongue. I was left with a faint aftertaste of sugar and mushrooms. Steeps 4-10: After the fourth steep Fade started to really open up. As the steeps continued the taste of warm kitchen spices became more prominent in the mouth. The more steeps I got out of this tea the stronger the sugary notes became. Even after a few minutes of drinking this tea I could still feel the aftertaste of sugary spice filling every square inch of my mouth. One thing I distinctly noticed was how thick this tea was, and overall felt like a broth more than anything. One thing I have to point out was the light background notes of mushrooms and moss. This is something that isn’t out of the ordinary because of how fresh this sheng was. According to Paul, Fade was recently pressed so its very humid to start off with. Don't worry though, after this tea has more time to settle the mushroom notes should go away. Steeps 11-14: I was nearing the end of my session around the fourteenth steep. One thing I have to point out is that this teas flavor quickly dissipated, and it’s flavors don’t seem to ‘fade’ whatsoever. I was surprised at how quickly it went from strong and flavorful, to dead and flavorless. This might just be my experience, but I felt like this tea took an exit too quickly considering how robust it was a few steeps ago. Maybe its because it’s so new? Only aging will tell. Conclusion: Overall Fade was a great experience and it’s easy to see why White2Tea’s Paul went on a binge with it. Fade definitely stands out by how powerfully warm and sweet it was, but it’s only draw back would be how quickly it lost its flavor. I think Fade definitely needs more time to air out from pressing, but only one can hope that aging this brick will help it be a hidden gem. Rating: 8.8/10 Tea Drunk Level: I got so tea drunk that I ended up listening to The Life of Pablo. However, I got bored and ended up listening to Drake instead...

Hello hello! The other day I went to What-Cha’s site to re-order some of his teas that I’ve ran out of. I noticed that on his site he’s sold out of a lot of yummy tea. Don’t fret though, many of them are making comebacks! I often see threads posted on Reddit that ask, “What are some good what-cha recommendations?” I’ve replied to a few of them but I thought it would be a great idea to compile a small list of What-Cha’s best teas that are making comebacks in 2016! So here we are. The following are some of the yummiest teas that what-cha carries, and although they’re sold out now they’re all making comebacks later in the year. Here’s what to look out for: 1. Kenya Steamed Purple Varietal Green Tea I ordered this tea back in October 2015 and Alistair sold out shortly after. I nearly had a fit when I found out he was sold out, so I messaged him and he said it would be another six months before it would be re-released… Well the wait is nearing an end. According to Alistair, this tea will finally be coming back in the next 2-6 weeks. However, it’ll be slightly different. Thank God it’s coming back because I’ve been hoarding the remainder of my 25g of this tea in fear of running out. Why is this tea so special you ask? There are many different reasons why this tea is worth an order, but mainly It’s one of the most extraordinary green teas i’ve ever had. When you first sip this tea you first notice how smooth it is. It’s got a very warming/laid back feel in the mouth that reminds me of a malt. To clarify, it’s not malty but its so warm/smooth that that’s the best way I can describe it. The taste of stone fruits faintly paint across your tongue as the aftertaste of sugar and grass dance around your cheeks. Believe me when I say that this tea is worth an order. 2. Taiwan 'Jin Xuan' Milk Oolong Tea I’ve reviewed this tea in a previous blog post [click here to read]. To recap, this is the best milk oolong i’ve ever had. It’s incredibly creamy and taste like milk/butter that lasted me nearly a dozen steeps. One thing that stood out to me about this oolong was it’s incredible aroma that could make your tastebuds melt. Another aspect about this tea is its temperature sensitivity. Its something that you have to really focus your attention on, but it’s definitely worth the buy. Sadly thought, I only have a few sessions worth left of it. Thankfully according to Alistair, this tea should definitely be back mid to-late April. 3. Vietnam 'Red Buffalo' Oolong Tea I’m drinking this tea with my non dominate hand, so is someone gonna call buffalo on me? Anywayyyyy. Red Buffalo is one of my favorite Vietnam Oolongs to date, primarily because of how smooth and sweet it is. Red Buffalo is the only tea I’ve binge ordered on. And when I say binge order, I mean 400g worth of binge ordering… I don’t have a problem. This oolong starts off very light and sweet. As you continue to steep it, the smooth molasses texture of warm honey slowly glides to the back of your throat. As you get to the middle of your session with this tea you sit and wonder, “is this a dessert I'm eating?” By the time the session is done and over with, the only thing I could think of is how much of a sweet presence it had. The perfect session with this tea would be by a fireplace while snuggling up with a warm blanket. Fortunately, Alistair says this tea will return later on this week but the 2016 harvest will be released towards the end of May. This isn't the first time this tea has been sold out of What-Cha, and if you ever get the chance to try it then it will make sense on why this is one of Alistair’s best sellers. Conclusion: What-Cha currently several teas out of stock and honestly it’s easy to see why. After drinking a recap of a very small amount of tea sold on What-Cha, its easy to understand why tea drinkers alike go overboard ordering his tea. Now that 2016 is gaining momentum in the tea world, I hope you keep an eye out for these teas when they release - and hopefully see what makes them sell out as fast as they do…

“Girl I don’t mean any harm all I wanted to do is just say HELLO!” I’m late to the party reviewing this one, but at least I brought a pound cake. It’s not just any pound cake; today I brought White2Tea’s 2015 Poundcake! This tea has been reviewed so many times that you can get a general idea of what this tea is about. The most notable that comes to mind is when Cwyn brewed her whole damn gourd at once. There are two reasons why I must review Poundcake - My first reason is that it’s such a popular tea that is widely praised. My second reason is that it’s my absolute favorite sheng and it so delicious that I just have to take my own spin at it. Background: Poundcake is a tea produced by White2Tea’s very own puer master, Paul. If you’re a diehard fan of his work then you’d know that Paul is a hip-hop head. The clearest evidence of this is the name of his tea cake ‘Too Late’ which is based off of Drake’s 2015 album. Pound Cake is actually inspired by the song ‘Pound Cake’ featured on Drakes album ‘Nothing Was the Same’. Wrapper & Opening: The rapper made me hungry looking at it. When I first opened this cake the first thing that I noticed was how large the compressed lose leaf was. It was awfully beautiful, especially the fact that it’s such a rich dark green color; It even radiated a note of sugar infused milk. Steeps 1-5: I did a quick rinse of this tea to start off with. My initial reaction first came off as light/sweet and around the 3rd steep I started to get a mouth watering feeling in my throat. You know that feeling in your mouth you get when you walk by a bakery and you can smell the aromas of baked sweet goods? That was the feeling my tastebuds were experiencing. At steep 5 I was at 30 seconds and the taste of butter was very strong and present. Steeps 6-10: I hit the 1 minute mark on the 7th steep. I was surprised at how long it took to get to 1 minute because I usually make it there on my 5th steep. I could of drug the tea out a lot more if I wanted to, but I was enjoying the buttery smoothness too much to care. Halfway through my session all I could think about is how close this tea resembled milk oolong with a green tea undertone, except Pound Cake was more mellow. To add, something I didn’t expect was the smell of this tea’s wet leaf; its aroma was very green and resembled a bitter sencha. Steeps 11-14: This tea started to fade off on the11th steep. I ended this tea at its 14th steep because I got all I could out of it. The buttery taste ended up disappearing and the green undertone got more and more prominent. I was very surprised at how many steeps this tea lasted for, which is just proof that this cake was very high in quality. I guess this tea isn't just who it became dog. Nothing was the same dog… Conclusion: Since I bought this cake I’ve had 8 sessions with it and plan on having many more in the near future. I’ve always been a fan of the milky/buttery oolongs, so tasting a similar taste in a sheng was a pleasant find. I think you get more than your monies worth for this tea. For a $50 sheng you definitely get more than what you bargain for. The quality was extraordinary and the leaf was in exceptional condition, which is a sign that Paul got this from a very well kept and clean tea grower. On a side note, I rummaged through the remains of this brew and my god the leaves were huge! After a previous session of Poundcake I found a leaf that was as long as the length of my hand. I ended up drying it out and framing it as the largest sheng leaf I’ve ever found in a puer. Rating: 9.7/10 Drunk Level: I was so tea drunk that I couldn't remember last night. I live for the nights that I can’t remember with the people that I won’t forget… [I used a lot of direct quotes from Drake’s lyrics though out this post . I don’t claim copyright or ownership and only incorporated his lyrics as a way to pay tribute to the greatest rapper of the 21st century]

Hello! It’s been a while since the last post and I think it’s time to turn things up a bit! I had a tiffany while lying in bed one night watching Breakfast at Tiffany’s and thought, “I write a blog called The Oolong Drunk and i’ve only reviewed puer. Damn,am I the only one who sees a problem with this?” Well the wait is over. To start, I have too many oolongs to chose from but I recently ordered a Taiwanese Oolong that blew me completely away. For today’s review i’m going to explore What-Cha’s Taiwanese Milk Oolong. Opening - Today I'm reviewing ‘Taiwan Jin Xuan Milk Oolong’. When I first opened a package of this tea I was completely blown away by the strength of it’s thick cream odor. I weighed 6.5g for my vessel and used 170º-180ºf for brewing this. I would have photos to show you what my package looked like, but I opened my package and placed the contents inside of a mason jar… That’s what he said. Infusions 1-4 I didn’t do a rinse of this tea because i’m rinse-OCD when it comes to puer. When I first sipped it, I immediately noticed the taste of warm butter but after a few more infusions it started to taste like cream. It was such a strong taste of it that when my boyfriend walked in the room he even could smell it. Like, out of boredom have you ever took cream shots while waiting for your food? As in taking the creamers and drinking them straight? Well no matter how many people think this is gross, I’ve been doing this since I was a little kid and its delicious! This tea reminded me of doing creamer shots while waiting for pancakes. Infusions 5-12 In the beginning of the 5th steep the tea started to taste like strong sweet milk and also noticed sugar-snap peas. But this only lasted for three infusions before it started to mellow out all together. One thing stood out about this oolong is it’s temperature sensitivity. If you let the water get too hot it turns sour. Conclusion - All in all this was a great experience! I got 12 infusions and used 2 liters of water doing so but for an oolong I was very surprised at how long this tea went on for. One thing I didn’t like was how temperature sensitive it was. It didn’t taste very strong when I brewed this western style. Overall, I would only recommend drinking this tea gong-fu style to get the most out of it. I am definitely going to place another order of this when I run out. Rating: 8.2/10 Drunk Level - I was at the same level of tea drunk as Mary-Kate Olson was alcohol drunk in the mid 00’s

Hello!! Is it me you're looking for? In today’s blog post I’ll be reviewing the new What-Cha Sheng! This is What-Cha's new house sheng whose full title is '2015 What-Cha 'Lao Shu Bai Cha' Raw Puerh Cake' and was produced by Yunnan Sourcing's Scott Wilson! First, I’m going to tell you about why this tea is a must-buy for all pu-erh drinkers alike… Opening: Woah - back up like 10 feet! Before opening this tea I must point out the odor radiating from this tea is something worth mentioning. When I say odor, I don’t mean it in the same sense that the guy sitting next to you on the subway smells homeless - no. I mean that the smell of sweet/sugary tea leaf knocked me down when I opened the shipping box!! Mmmmm, yummy! The first thing I noticed when opening this cake is that, in my gayest accent possible, its beaUtifulllll!!!!!! Seriously, look at that compacted leafy crack-cocaine! Move out of the way Colorado, because this is something worthy of being legalized! Rihanna was clearly singing about this tea in ‘Diamond’ on her last album. Do double-g Dog! Snoop, tell’it! No, it’s not the year of the dragon. This paper is a clear representation of What-Cha’s logo. Its simplistic yet beautiful. Infusions 1-3 - Before I started my session with this tea, I washed it with a quick rinse. My first infusion game me that sugary-globby feeling in the back of my throat. After my second and third infusion, I got a warm-whisky taste my mouth along with notes of air infused fruits that gave a lingering sweetness. Of course with a new sheng comes with bitterness, however the other flavors were too strong for the bitterness to be a problem Infusions 4-6 - I’m now up to 20 second infusions and the flavor was really strong! I was surprised at the strong full bodied flavor of mixed fruit and bourbon I was tasting. I was experimented with different water temps and found that this tea was best at 175º - the oolong temp. Anyways, when I say there was a whisky taste I mean it as a good thing. The note of bourbon was very pleasant as in, an acute warmness in the throat with an amber punch that was just like a good bourbon! Infusions 7-10 - The bitterness subsided and my infusions got longer. There was still a warmness in the back of the throat, but around infusion 8 it was gone. All that was left was the taste of warm fruits. At this point however, it was hard to pinpoint what the flavor exactly was because of how full bodied it was. After about infusion 12, I put this tea up and finished my session. It started to get watery and the taste of liquid happiness was disappearing, leaving me with a cloud of great sorrow hanging over my head…. Conclusion - What? The conclusion already? Wow. I need to praise this tea on the fact I got so much out of it in such a short period of time. The fact that the bourbon/bitterness is already subsiding this early in a sheng is something that really stood out to me. Rarely do I enjoy a sheng that is this fresh, but the potential it has is completely mind blowing. Ned Stark raised from the dead to reclaim the throne!!! ...if Caitlin can come back alive as Lady Stoneheart than goddamnit, so can Ned! The flavor was something completely unexpected and gave me an experience I’ll never forget… Well, until I drink it again ;) I bought two of these cakes and I can guarantee you that i’m going to buy more from Alistair. Ranking: 9.6/10 Drunk Level: "You know that special kind of drunk, that you're a better driver because you know you're drunk. You know the kinda drunk that you probably shouldn't drive but you do anyway, because... come on, you gotta get a car home, right, I mean what do they expect me to do? Take a bus? Is that what they want? For me to take a bus? Well screw that! You take a bus!" - I'm that kind of tea drunk.... [Props to anyone who knows that quote]