Tea: 2013 Shoumei (寿眉)
Type: Shoumei, Autumn Harvested Fuding White Tea
Harvest: Autumn 2013
Press Date: September 2013
Region: Diantou, Fuding, China
Producer: Unknown, Curated by Mr. Qiu
Tasting Notes: old books, vanilla, cream, dried dates, leather
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This aged white tea is loosely pressed in 350 gram cakes, and is in its final stage of aging, with the silver tea buds beginning to turn a golden brown. In accordance with the old white tea adage: 1 year tea, 3 years medicine, 7 years treasure, this tea is a clear example of the endgame one has in mind when they begin to age white teas.
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The wet leaves, when allowed to cool, exude a rich and velvety vanilla aroma perfectly backed by hidden floral notes, like a bouquet of dried flowers in an old library. The brews themselves are thick in the mouth and mineral rich, while the empty cup is long lingering like leftover honey.
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Aged white tea tends to follow one of two tracks. Sometimes the aromas of the leaves rise and rise in fragrance until the tea almost entirely drifts away. These teas are all about the nose and the upper palate and pass through the body like water.
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The 2013 Shoumei takes another track. This tea sinks down into its mineral roots as it ages, all sweetness is locked tight, but still present, under the oily coils of earthy notes. As the session lengthens, the root coils give up their sweet prize and after every sip is the dried date and flower fragrance one would expect in an aged white peony. This tea sits heavy on the tongue and delivers a profound huigan. The qi of this properly made and aged shoumei hits us like a tidal wave, and is warm and soothing in our stomach. We don't often talk about the qi of a tea, but when brewing this tea, we find ourselves sitting longer and longer before infusions at rest, our thoughts drifting this way and that like Lu Tong by the end of his poem "7 Bowls of Tea."
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As many know by now, we have a healthy mistrust of aged white tea cakes. After living in China for so many years and frequenting the Fuding fresh leaf and processed tea wholesale markets, we have seen too many fake aged white teas. This tea however, while the origin is unverified by us, has been curated by Mr. Qiu who has exquisite taste and skill in identifying picking grades, tea types, and general quality of Fuding White Tea. There are a few tell-tale signs that this tea is indeed as old as it claims: First and most apparent is the amount of orange and brown tea buds. These silver buds are the slowest to transform with time, and only begin to change their color after 7-9 years of age. The second defining feature is the actual texture of the leaves, as they are handled, they begin to fall apart into powder, this is one of the main virtues of pressing teas like this, for a loose tea of this same age would be all broken bits of leaf and a lot of tea dust.
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As with all our white teas, we brew 6 grams in a 100-120ml gaiwan with water right off the boil. You can experiment with different water temperatures, cooler temps give the tea a little more floral nots, higher temps bring our more umami.
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