Bad Girls 1997 7582

Some days I wander around the house wondering what to drink. That's the downside of having so much tea. Once the tea collection gets large enough, choosing a tea is like finding a snack, opening the refrigerator for something to eat and then shutting the door again. Especially if the tea is also in a refrigerator, the lines between eating and drinking begin to blur, plugged or unplugged, tea or sausage. I keep tea samples in a 1970s record case and my vinyl records in a milk crate. Anyway I dug up a sample of white2tea's 1997 7582 that I've been hoarding since last year.

1997 Light Green Private Order White2Tea 

Lately I'm not in much of a hurry to drink up aged tea samples when they arrive. Most of them need significant airing and this 7582 is no exception. I've had the envelope open during the past months and this amount of time wasn't long enough. Honestly I should have put this in some sort of crock situation or a clay pot rather than leaving it in the envelope. I got a bit of the center hole of the beeng with this sample, and stabbed my finger with the puerh pick trying to pry off 5 grams, drawing a tiny drop of blood from my ring finger. This tea is something bad, New Orleans bloodsucking vampire bad out of an Anne Rice novel. She's a Private Order to be sure and someone naughty had her made up special.

The tea retains significant storage odors and tastes despite my half-hearted efforts to air it. Not the most humid tea I've ever had, but there is a dusty/dirty humid dry-sticks-in-the-mausoleum taste in the initial steeps that I'm certain I could air out given enough time and attention on my part. This tea clearly passed out during all that humid storage and isn't in any rush to wake up. My Yixing worked it and worked it and all the tea gave up for NINE steeps was storage and a yawn. Clearly the Yixing was a mistake on my part, the tea is mineral enough already, I got triple minerals by using the pot. However, the tight fit of the leaves in my tiny 60 ml steeper seemed to squeeze out the wheezy storage without giving the old girl much of a kick in the behind, but rather like pulling the strings on a vintage corset, giving one last tug before finally letting go. Ten steeps in I am getting sweet honey nectar which fills my mouth and clings to my lips. She's a bad one all right and I roll her over into the gaiwan now that the party is getting started.

Sixth steep or so.

Two more steeps of honey nectar and the leaves are fully opened, and they are definitely plushy and big just as the description on white2tea says. Unfortunately my photo of the steep is taken from my bedside because I've gone all day long and now well into the night with this one. Instead of the coffee colored soup, all the brown storage is out by steep 12 and the tea is more orange-y amber which is the true color.

It's not very often I get a tea that seems older than I am. And boiling water isn't enough for her. I have to let the tea actually steep for a minute or so to get all that sweet thickness going, she likes it long and slow and hot to be sure. She needs to be rolled over several times in the gaiwan to change her position occasionally. It's clear she hasn't stepped out in a very, very long time, and I'm really with her instead of feeling sorry for myself for a change. I don't care about the bad photo you're getting, because the party is at the hazy stage now where I've had too much to drink and can't move.

12th steep, yeah it's my bedside table. Feelin' foggy.

This seductive old temptress costs $225 if you want all of her and she's worth it. Why can't I just throw hot water on myself and look this good? Plushy leaves like fat lips so unfair, but if I can't look this good at least I can drink Miss Pretty and pretend I'm her. Make sure you say nothing while she is waking up: if you try this tea right out of the wrapper wait 10 steeps before beginning your assessment.

If I had a whole cake of this I would break it up and crock it. Then I would add more humidity to wake up the entire cake again and let her soak it in for awhile before beginning the airing out process. Might take me a year, but I feel fairly certain I can work out these stale bed odors with enough time so that I can get the storage out by steeps 7-8, a more normal amount, rather than steeps 9-10 that it took me today. This would give me an additional two steeps to enjoy the promise of a stronger nectar buried within, as yet unappreciated. I definitely recommend an attentive airing of this cake, 'twould be a waste to just drink it up without paying the proper amount of respect for what this is. I'm not sure she's too terribly deep, but sometimes a old sweetheart for the night is all anyone needs. 1:00 a.m. and the moon is full and high in the sky, she's near 20 now and not done yet, and neither am I.

Requiestcat in Pace