Old Whitey (2016)
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Ratings & Reviews
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70 Aroma: 7/10 Flavor: 3/5 Value: 2/5Whiskey (45 reviews) on Nov. 4th, 2020
I haven't had a lot of positive experiences with White2Tea brand tea, so far. I really didn't like their Hot Brandy mix of white and black teas (it seemed like a bad idea after thinking about it because of the very different way the two age and the fact that they often use different temperatures for brewing). The Nightlife white tea was sometimes great. But, notice the word "sometimes." I had the same issue with this tea. Some brewing sessions were fantastic. Others weren't even par. They were less than mediocre. They weren't even remotely worth the cost of $21/100g of tea (and that's not factoring in $9.99 for shipping).
I really don't get what the issue is with these teas. I've started to genuinely wonder if they didn't mix in lower-quality leaves with higher-quality ones. I mean, I've never had this much variation from one single cake of tea before. Some variation is normal. But, going from a 3/10 rating to a 9/10, from one brewing session to the next. I really don't like unreliable teas.
When it brews well, it has a great mouthfeel. It's fruity like stewed fruit and it feels like it's just living in your breath, the scent of that stewed fruit. It's a wonderful experience. It's not particularly strong in its caffeine anymore (likely a result of aging, as when it was young it was like drinking liquid caffeine).
When it doesn't brew well, it is borderline tasteless water that's burnt amber in color, with not much of any mouthfeel at all.
I'm baffled as to how I can get such different results from the same tiny 100g tea cake.
I brew it at 95ºC, with 5g of tea, and after a 5s rinse, I'm variable in my brews. I adjust it to whether it's a strong set of leaves or not. I typically start out with 20s and see how it goes.
This tea does get astringent if you brew it too long. It also may or may not do anything to increase the flavor or mouthfeel depending upon how the dice happened to roll in your choice of leaves.
Conclusion: It's like drinking a roulette wheel. When you win, it's great. When you don't? You drank a roulette wheel.
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