The Shou/Ripened/Cooked Puerh process was originally created as an attempt to imitate the effect of long aging on Raw Puerh tea cakes. While, instead, they mostly created the new class of Puerh, Ripe.
With Riparian White2Tea has returned to those roots of attempting to imitate the character of long aged Puerh with an experimental blend of semi-aged raw puerh and lighter ferment ripe puerh. Still very freshly pressed, it's already almost convincing in the color and early steeps. Later steeps are a bit thin, but It will be interesting to see what shape Riparian settles into in a year or two.
Alas, this really is the last dose of Astro Red Yunnan black tea from White2Tea. Gonna be some hard choices next "Red Saturday". Until then, I will savor this today.
Gold Magnolia Dancong from White2Tea is a Lighter roast, lighter oxidation oolong. Varietal is "jin yu lan". I should maybe have drunk it sooner, it is a little shy about its flavor.
Down to a couple doses of Astro Red Yunnan black tea from White2Tea. This one was mostly dust and broken leaves. Keeping the steeps very short, basically water in, pour it out. Should probably have used tea strainer.
Prosbloom is one of my favorite White2Tea skull themed labels. The tea itself is high quality, reasonable price, fresh shou puerh tea. 2021, just getting better with age.
Honeyed Pomelo Dancong from White2Tea. Good, but not my favorite Dancong. I like the smell when brewing but something in the flavor balance that is not quite there for me.
Honeyed Pomelo Dancong Oolong is pretty weird to drink. It does in fact pretty closely mimic the flavors/scents of citrus flowers and wildflower honey. Who can complain about that?
One More Red Saturday, cue the King Crimson, Astro Red black tea from White2Tea. (Gotta spend some time in the stash today and locate the Astro Kittens cake for comparison.)
Emerald buds green tea has a nut or grain like scent, a bit similar to longjing dragonwell. It is from Guizhou Province and the name is translated from "cui ya".
I really hate waiting for parcels from Royal Mail. They text me over the weekend to say my parcel was due today between 8:50 - 12:50.
It is now nearly 6pm and no sign of the parcel. Their tracking just says it is "In transit" on its way to me.
I had given up, but then saw a Royal Mail van delivering parcels on the opposite side of the green just after 5pm. I need to go out now, and still no idea what is going on. #stress
Hurrah, my parcel has arrived (despite the Royal Mail tracking system having no idea that it ever left the Midlands Mail centre).
Even better news, it contains my latest batch of #tea from #white2tea - mainly raw Puerh, but a couple of the latest green harvest, some oolongs, and a ripe and white hidden in there too. @tea
Last of the (mostly) One River Tea Osmanthus scented black tea "Gui Hua Hong". (Technically, a blend of One River and MyTeaPal osmanthus scented black teas filled out with some "Fujian Breakfast" black tea from White2Tea.)