2017 Manichee by White2Tea

Hello hello!

Manichee is one of White2Tea’s new 2017 Teas. Manichee was released along with Pussy, which I reviewed last week. In case you didn’t read that review, Pussy was savory, sweet, and had a great profile… heh. Anyways, Manichee is one of White2Tea's new teas that’s described to have a Yiwu character. It’s also described to be sweet and calming. However, this tea sits at a whopping $79.00 a beeng. So for the price, is Manichee as sweet and as calming as White2Tea describes? Lets find out.

Steeps 1 - 4

For this session, I used 6.6g of tea for a 100ml vessel, and water at a temp of 185ºf. Anyways, Manichee started out by having a soft body of freshly cut grass, and a light medicinal undertone. After a few more steeps, a sweetness came out from the depths of this tea, and worked its way to the sides of the cheeks. After a fourth steep, the medicinal undertone became more prominent as the tasting notes of strawberries/green grapes pushed it forward.

Steeps 5 - 8

Manichee’s body became thick as its sweet green grass tasting notes transformed into hay. This tea got progressively sweeter as its sugary fruity notes became louder and louder. After an eighth steep, the fruity notes seemed to take a back seat as a light woody tasting note made itself known. At this point, Manichee was less sweet and became more brassy, almost like something out of the Jingmai region.

Steeps 9 - 12

Manichee continued to transform as its texture turned more into a broth than it did a tea. Its soup was deep yellow in color, and almost appeared to be a light orange. Anyways, the medicinal forefront of this tea was smoother than before. However, the light fruity undertones made their self known again as they bled blissfully together with the soft brassy notes. After a fourteenth steep, this tea was done and it was time to say goodbye to Manichee….

Overview

Manichee is a 2017 tea by White2Tea that first came off with a strong Yiwu character, but later, gave off suggestive hints of having some Jingmai origins. The fruitiness was an instant standout in this sheng, and gave it more of an edge as far as sweetness goes. One thing I liked about this tea is that its fruitiness mixed beautifully with the medicinal body, and blended harmoniously to give it a balanced blend. Manichee’s sweetness wasn't too sweet, which is a plus in my book.

Overall, I think that Manichee is a solid tea but as far as the price point goes, its really hard to tell if tea is worth the price. You see, this tea is still very humid and it’s hard to tell where its character will go in the next few months. It will need more time to settle form pressing before knowing for sure. However, its a good tea now and I would definitely drink it as it is. So while Manichee is no ‘Pussy’, it still holds up as one of the standouts in White2Tea’s 2017 productions…

Would I Beeng This Tea? I would wait a few months for the humidity to go down, but yes, I would beeng this tea.