Saving For a Rainy Day, Tasting White2Tea’s Umbrella Pu Er Tea
2020 has been a strange year. With so much going on with the global pandemic. There’s been so much uncertainty.
In response to this, White2Tea (which is one of my favorite tea producers) decided to pull something special out of their reserves to help make things a little better for everyone. I just got my cake of Umbrella Pu Er in the mail, which they’d been saving for a rainy day.
White2Tea graciously gave 100 cakes of this away for FREE, and sold the rest for $15 bucks each. Beyond this amazing gesture, the tea itself is awesome. And I’m excited to let you know what I think of it.
By the way, if you are not sure what is a tea cake, I invite you to read my previous article What is a Pu Er Tea Cake? here. It will give you a good overview of Chinese Tea cakes, what they are, how they are made, their history, and more.
For a Rainy Day
A few months ago, right when it became clear that the coronavirus pandemic was already overwhelming the world and people started losing their jobs… The uncertainty of it all finally hit. And I woke up to an Instagram post from White2Tea:
Note: By the way, there were rumors cirulating at some point about tea and the coronavirus. They suggested that tea could help prevent, or even cure COVID-19. While tea had indeed a lot of health benefits, it can’t magically cure viral infections…For more information, have a look at our dedicated article Does Drinking Tea Help With the Coronavirus? here.
Tea for Tough Times
White2Tea isn’t exactly known for doing anything expected...
From barely including any information about a tea on their website.
To designing Pu Er tea cake wrappers that border on fine art.
Their teas are a bit unpredictable and focus on experience, and this White2Tea umbrella cake is no different. The act of giving this tea away is just another interesting anecdote of the white2tea project.
About the Umbrella cakes, White2Tea wrote:
“The world is shaken up right now. Life in China for us has been touch and go for months. For many people throughout the rest of the world, the struggles continue or the real impact is just beginning to hit.
What does this have to do with white2tea? Well, we had 100 kilograms of loose raw Puer from 2015 that was being saved for a rainy day and this seems like as rainy a string of days as any, so last week we pressed it into cakes to give some away...We hope that this tea can offer a little solace to people who are having a tough time financially or emotionally right now.”
Graciously, they gave away 100 cakes of this tea, and even offered free shipping. They then sold the remaining 400 for $15 each - about $50 cheaper than they probably should have gone for. I love this kind of thing.
Honestly, it’s why tea is so important to me. Of course, people need to make money doing what they’re doing. But it’s really cool to see a company step up to do something out of kindness for a community that sustains them.
Connection
I don’t know about you, but I find that kind of action to be really amazing.It reminded me so much of why I love the kind of connection that tea can bring. And of how powerful these simple acts of care can be.
It was amazing to see how many people were so honest about their life circumstances. And to see how grateful they were for the tea. The cakes sold out in a matter of hours.
The Oncoming Storm
As expected, it took quite a while for the tea to arrive at my door. But by the time it did, the storm had only gotten worse globally.
Sitting down to have this tea, I was finally able to reflect on a lot of what has happened in 2020. And I felt even more grateful for the kind gesture of tea.
Opening My White2Tea Umbrella
As I sat down I tried to work through a lot of my feelings about the year. The tea offered a nice break within the chaos to sit. But still allowed me to think through so much. It even had me thinking about the whole idea of the rainy day, and why I turn to tea.
The tea itself was made in 2015, which was probably the ‘rainiest’ year of my life. And while reflecting on all of this, I tried to really focus on the tea, its taste, and the entire experience.
I was honestly just so grateful for the moments, connections, and education. I’m excited and grateful to have this tea in my collection to share with others, especially during the tougher times.
Tea Recap
Tea Recap
Tea Name: Umbrella
Producer: White2Tea
Price: $15.00/ 200g cake or Free if you grabbed one in time ($0.08 / gram or about $0.56 / standard session of 7g)
Year: Mao Cha (loose puer) from 2015, pressed in 2020
Growing Location: Yunnan, China
Tasting Parameters:
Gong Fu Brewing Method
7 grams of tea
110ml Gaiwan
Flash Steeps – 2-5 seconds
Dry Leaf Aroma:
Sweet
Hay-like
Light tobacco
Wet Leaf Aroma:
Floral
Dried stone fruit (apricots or plums)
Sweet
Herbal
Tasting Notes
Early steeps 1-5:
Light, but full
Starts a tiny bit floral, like summer grasses
Sweet middle, finishing into a tannic (astringent and drying) note
A light chalky feeling from the tannins in the tea
Beautiful lingering Hua Gan (returning sweetness/ flavor)
Later Steeps 5-10:
The bitterness and tannins are more present
Light floral blooms into deep sweetness.
Definitely on the sweeter side of raw Pu Er, no sneaky flavor changes
Very calming energy
The tea is starting to age, making the flavors and liquid much deeper
I got close to 15+ steeps out of this
Extra info: Pu Er tea can be re-brewed multiple times (at least 5 to 10 steeps), though the number of steeps will vary depending on the quality of the tea leaves. Some Pu Er leaves can even go through up to 20 steepings.
Overall Thoughts
This tea is great, nothing to complain about. Overall it’s fairly simple and easy to understand as a tea. But the sweetness in this tea lingers, and it just keeps brewing.
Even at 3 times the price I paid, this would have been worth it. It’s a solid tea with so much more aging potential, and it pairs well with any rainy day… Figuratively or literally.
Would I repurchase it?
If I could, I think I would. But these White2tea Umbrella cakes sold out in a few hours… So there’s no way to get more.
Anyway, it’s a really solid daily drinker and is worth way more than it was sold for. Great quality, great taste, great value, great experience.
No Rainy Days Here - Come Brew With Us
If you found this review helpful, we’d love to hear from you. Join our Steepers Union Facebook group to connect with like-minded tea people. We’d love for you to join the conversation and tell us all about your favorite teas you like to sip on on rainy days.
Also, leave a comment if you’ve tried this tea or other samples from White2tea. And if you’re into their Pu Er teas, you might want to take a look at my other reviews:
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