In This Economy‽
My brother is notorious for finding the coupon, the rebate, the little song and dance that gets you a few bucks off whatever purchase you’re planning to make. It brings him genuine joy to save a couple dollars or to get a little extra for free. He’s a generous man, tender hearted, and unendingly kind, but faceless companies can be wrung out for all they’re worth as far as he’s concerned.
My husband has a similar hobby but it takes on the flavor of the credit industry. Since his early adulthood he’s treated his credit score like a game and currently has it north of 800 — but no, he will not rest until it’s a perfect 850. When we married it caused him quite a bit of consternation to learn that I didn’t even have a credit score. Not bad credit, not good credit, just none whatsoever. I was as a newborn babe as far as Experian was concerned, and my squeaky clean record of using debit cards had no impact. Le sigh. (Imagine the living hell we had to endure trying to find our first apartment together in the middle of a Pandemic-driven moratorium on evictions when properties were shy about trusting anyone, much less someone with no credit history). Mr. Baicha Bitch has since taken my credit on as a new challenge and is managing beautifully. I’m currently knocking on the door of 800 myself, all thanks to him. Add to this the fact that he’s been maximizing the points we get from the host of credit cards that now thicken my wallet and we will soon have enough for roundtrip tickets to Europe to visit friends and do some much needed vacationing. Not bad for a hobby.
My economizing hobbies are of the tactile variety. Cooking, mending, building, fixing. Numbers on a screen mean nothing to me; I need something in my hands; I need to see, hear, touch, taste, feel. I’m currently reviving my love of baking bread, something I did regularly in 2019 until I lost the thread in 2020 when I could no longer find flour. A new sourdough starter is coming to life in an old jam jar and I’m getting excited for the first loaf to come out of the oven this weekend. I’m often amazed at how much better the food I make can be than what we pay twice as much for at a restaurant. I hate, hate, HATE throwing out old clothes and would much rather patch them up and keep wearing my favorite jeans into eternity — bury me in mom jeans and my softest Iron & Wine t-shirt. I save jars, takeout containers, gift bags, even wood shavings from my work bench to use as kindling when we go camping. My hobbies may not pay for airfare to Europe, but I like to think it helps us save some money for souvenirs.
Ha, souvenirs! Let’s be honest; all the extra cash lying around (from a distance you hear Mr.BB calling out, “what extra cash?”) is going towards tea and teaware. Bitterleaf Teas has this moon teapot that makes my eyes go all swirly and I’m not confident in my power to resist if/when it comes back in stock. Same goes for White2Tea’s skull teapot. Yeti has me dreaming of long sessions outside with their gallon jug that must double as weight training on the trails (just gotta have a plan for a good place to pee three or four times throughout).
In my mind I’ve constructed a whole room in an imaginary house dedicated to tea, meditation, and yoga, sometimes with the addition of a library and places to nap as well. The room is somehow both peacefully spare and dazzlingly full of teaware. Dear reader, why is spending so much easier than saving? Maybe it’s because I’m American and must struggle with a consumerist soul, doomed to forever endure the itch of wanting more. It’s so hard to feel like what I have is enough, even when it absolutely is. If I really want to save money the quickest thing to do is not spend it. But that only works until Paul drops more tea...
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This morning I finished my second roll of White2Tea’s White Tea Basics sample set. I’ve started adding them to every order to shave off the shipping cost. Oh yeah, and it’s some damn fine tea. I’ve been walking on clouds with this aged baicha qi in my body for what feels like weeks now. I highly recommend it. This second roll actually swapped out the 2017 Baimudan for another 2018 Censers but you won’t hear me complaining. No less love for the baimudan, but Censers is in a league of its own.
Okay, I won’t pretend to do justice to each tea in the set, in fact I won’t even try. Today you’ll have to settle for some broad comparisons, but know that this won’t be the last time I’ll be talking about these teas. Another roll just arrived on my doorstep today and my note taking is getting better all the time. Without further ado, here are the teas:
- 2016 Shoumei Fuding Fujian White Tea
- 2017 Shoumei Fuding Fujian White Tea
- 2017 Baimudan Fuding Fujian White Tea
- 2017 Gongmei Fuding Fujian White Tea
- 2017 Turtle Dove Yunnan White Tea
- 2018 Turtle Dove Yunnan White Tea
- 2018 Censers Guizhou Baimudan White Tea
- 2018 Lullaby Yunnan Baimudan White Tea
- Comparison #1: Yunnan vs. Fujian baicha
Yunnan baicha strikes me as more vegetal, more grassy and hanging out in the middle of the spectrum, sweet but not overly so. Fujian baicha hits all the floral, fruity, and candy notes, sweet as can be and all the better for it. The Fujian sessions were more exciting, the Yunnan sessions more thoughtful.
- Comparison #2: Baimudan vs. Gongmei vs. Shoumei
If I’m not mistaken, and please correct me if I am, silver needle season comes before Baimudan which is followed by Gongmei and then Shoumei comes last. Baimudan seemed the buddiest of the lot, followed by Gongmei, with Shoumei having the fewest buds and biggest leaves. I’d say it generally follows that same order when it comes to sweetness as well. Earlier pickings seem sweeter, lighter, brighter, and fruitier, with the later Shoumei giving more of the darker fruits with some grasses and sugarcane.
- Comparison #3: Baimudan from Yunnan, Fujian, and Guizhou
As previously noted I put the baimudan as the brightest of the white teas in the group, and Fujian as the fruitiest and sweetest of the regions. Yunnan baimudan is still light and bright but with more weight in the middle notes. That leaves Guizhou which lands nicely between the other two regions. You can get this in a full on cake called Censers, and I’d highly recommend that you do. It seems to me like the pinnacle of the sample set, the perfect balance of strengths.
So there you have it, a largely unhelpful review based on hazy impressions and spotty information. But hey, that’s about the most you can ask for from a tea blog, right? If you want to know what it really tastes like, drink it yourself! If you’re ordering from White2Tea you might as well add this set to the cart anyways and save on shipping. It’s the only reasonable thing to do.
