2018 (It is Damn) Splendid

2018 Splendid by white2tea

When I first started writing this blog back in 2014, I knew very few people aside from myself drinking puerh tea. Of course, many people drink puerh, but at that time I drank my tea mostly in isolation. I had maybe two or three friends online I chatted with about puerh. We had one rather huge thing in common, which is that we had the money to buy any tea we wanted. Even as my online tea buddies expanded, along with a few I met in real life, I existed in a tea bubble of sorts. Sure, we could gripe about the money we spent, how expensive good tea is, but for the most part purchase prices were a matter of choice.

Just over a year ago I wrote a post called “How Can I Afford this Hobby?” out of my growing awareness that not only were prices of tea going up, but a significant group of tea buyers wanted to purchase puerh tea and really needed budget options. Over the past year since writing that post, I watched week after week as it got more page views than any other non-current post on my blog. The number of page views on “How Can I Afford this Hobby?” now dwarfs all of my past posts except for those on storage (after all, everyone into puerh needs to think about storage). Thousands and thousands of page views speak for themselves. We have a significant group of tea shoppers who need budget puerh tea options.

I have to show off the new gooseneck water boiler I will use
for my tiny gaiwan here. This is actually meant for
single-cup drip coffee water, but who cares?
"Miyacoffee" Natural Wood 400 ml kettle.
Made in Japan. About $44, ships free, eBay

The oft-repeated sage advice from bloggers, I among them, is to save money toward better teas rather than loading up on drinkers. But what if one’s savings do not add up to a “better” tea over the course of a year? What if you have $5 a month to put toward tea? That’s $60. Does $60 buy a markedly better tea than $50 (my budget challenge in the aforementioned post)? Honestly, the answer probably is that we need to compare specific teas rather than draw a general conclusion, because comparing two teas might indeed stand out with one better than the other. At the same time, in the budget tea category, one can bide time to compare samples and wait for word of mouth, while the choices sell out before deciding. After all, the decision between two budget teas is not as stark as a budget tea compared with a pricey tea.

Miyaco uses 18/8 Stainless steel for the interior.
You can get a Miyaco tea kettle which is larger, but costs much more.

Yet I believe tea vendors are paying attention. I can still find teas under $0.40/g that I feel are worth a try. Many of the teas I suggested in that past blog post are still available. As for this year, I decided to order a few budget options from vendors rather than starting out with the pricey stuff. I did not order anything from white2tea’s 2017 line-up, aside from the excellent We Go High, which is actually an autumn 2016 tea. I sort of took a pass on last year’s lineup, so this year I bought two budget options straight out of the gate.

The 2018 Splendid gets me excited because of the price, $28/200g. That’s $0.14/g. Along with that, the old lady on the wrapper might resemble me, except she actually resembles Abe Lincoln in the face. Probably the suggestion here is a stingy old biddy. I actually like this tea.

I brewed a small amount of this because I know it’s still wettish, using 3g/30 ml (filled gaiwan less than half full). Why waste tea on a session when the tea will tighten up and change a bit over the next year? I can see the greenish cast to the brew, although it’s surprisingly yellow already. The leaves are smallish in this, including some small huang pian leaves. The description promises some decent huigan and delivers this in spades on the first five brews.

Second steep, still has greenish cast of fresh tea.

Initial aroma going in is vanilla caramel in aged oak, followed up with a daisy stem/tomato vine greenish weedy flavor, common to puerh teas when this green and wet. The first steepings coat the mouth, tongue, throat and I feel it in the stomach. Steeps 3 and 4 pour thicker and the thickness continues until I stop at steep 10. Heavy bitter tongue and mouth coating, throat vapor. Some mild face-numbing and munchies after four steepings.

The remarkable aspect of this tea is the lingering mouth coating, especially as the tea gets more oily in the pour on steeps 3-6. Alas, this slowly dissipates after steep 6 or so, but the tea still retains some bitterness and caramel huigan. The caramel seems to wind around my teeth that have gaps in between, the tea is a bit chewy. While this isn’t super premium gushu (did you expect that for the price??), this is quite nice for a super-budget tea. I can find plenty of super budget teas, but I don’t remember any with this kind of mouth coating bitter vine and chewy caramel. It’s ridiculous.

Steep 10, the greenish cast brewed out.

I definitely feel this tea in my stomach, but for me it’s soft and leads to munchies, but I am not sure about those who have stomach issues with fresh tea. I am fairly confident in my 10 steepings on just 3g wet so far. Yet I have some concern that the leaves are smallish and thin. Will this tea hold up to hard aging? Unless I plan to drink this now… if I live in hot hurricane Florida, I am thinking this tea will get overwhelmed fairly quickly. Of course I’m drinking this wet already, maybe it will tighten up some. If I live in Florida, I’d look elsewhere for something bitter, smoky and Menghai-ish plantation for the price.

But I don’t live in Florida, and Splendid might be good for pumidor type storage where tea ages slowly and doesn’t lose the top notes. Maybe this is a tea for more temperate climates. TwoDog is crazy. What is he thinking selling such a nice tea for $28? This is Chawangshop pricing, not white2tea pricing.

“Glad you like it. I feel the same, was just aiming to make a few decent teas that don’t break the bank.”

Thank you, this is a vendor paying attention. I know other vendors are paying attention, too. I see budget choices everywhere this year, and rumors are that some vendors are pressing more ripe as a way to counter the high prices of premium raw. More than anything I would like to punish this tea with some aging, and so I plan to buy more for aging and comparison with a control. I need a couple more of these for sure. Or maybe a tong. A tong gives me five potential experiments.

If I have to recommend budget teas, right now I’d suggest this Splendid for fresh, and the 2005 CNNP Big Yellow Mark at Yunnan Sourcing for a more aged choice.

Just because I’m cheeky, I had to ask TwoDog about that $200 Dancong Oolong beeng. What the hell is up with that tea? Carbolic Soap...I have that in my cupboard and use it to poison my neighbors.

“It’s sort of just what that level of Dancong costs. I think Puer is still a better deal than most high end teas. I mean compared to the high quality oolongs out there, Puer is still sort of a bargain somehow.”