Hello hello!

In my last review I wrote about Old Reliable by White2Tea. This is White2Tea’s first year to release their own house-blended shou puers, and since I already went over Brown Sugar I thought I’d give Pretty Girls a go! Pretty Girls was the most expensive shou puer pressing in White2Tea’s release, and at $40.00 a beeng I had to find out what made this tea so special — and since it’s described as ‘our best blended shou’ on their site I had to get my hands on this beeng. I was incredibly impressed with Old Reliable, but will Pretty Girls hold up? Lets find out!

Opening

When opening this 200g beeng I could smell the light scent of a forest floor. When opening the wrapper, it even looked like a forest floor was thrown into a blender and pressed into a disk. It’s appearance was rich in color, and more so than other ripe teas that I’ve looked at. I took my puer pick and went on to break apart 6.5g of tea for my 100ml vessel. One thing I noticed was that this cake felt drier than Old Reliable, and was packed tighter as well. Even when breaking it up, I created more tea dust than I’d like to admit.

Steeps 1-4

Before I started my session with this tea, I did a quick rinse to wash away any impurities that could be resting on this cake. After that, I proceeded to my first infusion. The first tasting note I picked up on was the notes of cedar wood as well as a soft sensation of wet leaf pile. As I continued my steeps, these notes progressed into something creamier and smoother. I was surprised by this because along with the creaminess, came sweetness with trails of bitterness. I’ve barely started my session with this tea and I was already impressed.

Steeps 5-8

As I continued my sessions with this tea, so did its appearance. At the fifth steeping, this tea’s soup became noticeably darker. This is something that also caught my attention because other shou puers by White2Tea didn’t brew up as somber. As well as this teas warm colored soup, the creaminess that I noted earlier sharply turned into the notes of caramel. This was the exact moment that this tea’s body peaked as its body continued to fill the room. Pretty Girls notably left a candied-caramel aftertaste that lingered on my teeth, and seemed to stick around in the deep corners of my mouth. Even after letting my mouth rest for ten minutes, I could still taste lasting sweetness that stay glued to my teeth.

Steeps 9-14

Pretty Girls was in it for the long haul as I pushed its infusion times past the minute mark. This tea’s powerful body started to calm down as my soup started to turn from a black-brown into a golden brown color. It still had notes of an autumn leaf pile, and the after sweetness of candied caramel. But on this tea’s fourteenth steep, it was done. Pretty Girls packed up its bags, hauled a cab over, and left the scene of the crime.

Overview

Pretty Girls is arguably White2Tea’s best house blended shou puer. It’s transformation was incredible, and left me wondering why I haven’t ordered a beeng of this tea earlier than I did. Something that stood out to me about Pretty Girls was the fact that it was denser and had a more profound sweetness, something that was completely unexpected. However, picking apart this tea was rather difficult and created a lot of tea dust. Besides that, this tea is one that I’m considering to re-order for the long haul and is one thats greatly under appreciated. I hope that this is a tea that you get the chance to brew for yourself, and see why Pretty Girls is a mother f*cker….

Rating - 9.7