Blog Post Two: A study on White2Tea Yan Cha Part 2

Another week has begun and that means it’s time to continue our foray into the newly released White2Teta Yan Cha. This week I wanted to dive into a single tea as opposed to giving my thoughts on two separate teas at once as I think it gives a fairer assessment on the individual tea, free of direct comparisons to teas in the same category. The single tea I will be having a look at is (drum roll please…) “Cockscomb”: perhaps the tea I was most excited to try (bar maybe the OBSX).

So, first some background information. “Cockscomb” is a Yan Cha produced from the “Bai Ji Guan” (literally translated as “White Cockscomb”) cultivar. This cultivar is seen as one of the quintessential cultivars used for Rock Oolong production. It is named as such due to the bright green-yellow appearance of the fresh leaves and buds in the spring, which in strong sunlight may appear almost white. Alongside the cultivar itself, this variety of Yan Cha is usually only lightly roasted in comparison to it’s more charcoal-heavy siblings. This leaves more of the bright aroma and flavor of the original material showing through the roast, often described as fruity or floral, with many drawing comparisons to Green Teas such as Lu’an Gua Pian etc.

When I brewed up the tea, it was indeed unlike any other Yan Cha I had tasted to date, with the aroma offering up notes of; charred lime rind, sweet potato, cinnamon, rice crackers, baked kale, almond, walnut, vanilla and shortbread.

The Taste followed with a delightful sweet and juicy quality, underpinned by walnut, raw peanut, white chocolate and a pleasing, gentle acidity.

The body of the tea is thick, oily and soft and the finish vaporous and sweet with a definite tingly mineral presence characteristic of this particular class of Oolong.

The price is fairly similar to most of the other teas in this category, at £0.60/gram it’s not cheap, but is a price to be expected of high-quality Oolong.

So then: my overall thoughts. First of all, I found that this tea had a very interesting “movement” within the experience. It started out with a filling, slight bitterness, before moving to sweet and savory, and then finishing on a juicy, vaporous note. It is an attention-grabbing, engaging and grounding experience to drink this tea, however I did find that the endurance of the leaves wasn’t what I have come to expect from my Yan Cha. I got 4 excellent infusions from it before the flavor started to seriously dip. Overall, I got 6 infusions, which is by no means bad, just lower that your average heavily-roasted tea. I don’t count this as a negative though, as I think most teas with “brighter” flavor profiles tend to suffer from this very same issue.

The important question: would I buy this tea again? The answer is yes. Although it shares a lot of similarities in character (at least in my opinion) with Lu’an Gua Pian and some Lu’an basket teas, as well as obviously other Yan Cha, I think this tea really does have a character of it’s own and I think is worth the investment for a unique, satisfying tea-drinking experience.

Well, that about wraps up my thoughts on “Cockscomb” from White2Tea. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my second blog post and I hope that you try this tea at some point. As always, if you’d like to ask any questions, please feel free to submit a form here on the website or indeed head over to my Instagram and message me!

Thank you to everyone who has read the blog so far and let me know, it’s exciting to know there are fellow tea nerds out there willing to spend time reading my ramblings!

I’ll be back next week with another blog post, with a theme as of yet undecided.

Until then, I hope you have something lovely in your cup.

Peter.