Pomeranians. Evening. by Nicholas Roerich (1907)
This is my first blog post. I have no exact vision for what this blog will be like. I will just write about what I am thinking about, and probably about what tea I am drinking. Maybe I will reflect on something I have read or listened to, but regardless, I want to connect these experiences to the simple pleasure of drinking tea and review some teas along the way. For my first blog post, I want to discuss the 2023 Stubb Mini from White2tea.
I am surviving a busy semester at university. Over the last summer, I realized I would need to be employable soon, so I have spent the last year pursuing new research and university opportunities, to the detriment of my schedule. It is during this slog that every Friday, I bring some friends together to drink some tea. To not talk about academics or the world. To just sit down and sip a cup of tea under the sun.
In every tea session, I have two teas, always starting with a lighter one. Today I started with a 2021 Sunskate Mini from White2tea. I've had this tea before as a free sample, and it was as floral and honey-sweet as I remembered. The second tea was new to me and is the focus of this post, the 2023 Stubb Mini. Since the weather where I live is still too cold for outdoor tea sessions, I hosted this tea session in a classroom at my university.
Now, I should preface this review and say that I'm not a big fan of Ripe Puerh teas, probably an unpopular opinion on the tea internet, but I found the Stubb tea to be better than the teas I've had in the past. The tea started with hints of mushroom and a smoky aroma. This aroma would not change as I steeped the tea again and again. As the tea darkened after the 2nd and 3rd steeps, the smoky yet sweet notes came through. The tea reminded me of the Catholic mass I used to go to when I was younger, of incense smoke and solemn meditation. Or, in other words, like licking burnt incense.
Some of my poor photography at display. This is a later steep of the 2023 Stubb
As the steeps went on, the smoky notes came to dominate. The tea was like a warm campfire. We all had studies and life to chill and sober us outside that space. As the blizzard of books to read, essays to write, and life choices to make went on outside that space, we comforted ourselves with the warming 2023 Stubb and our company. We discussed presentation nights and made banter. While this metaphor might be a stretch, the tea session reminded me of Bridge Four’s soup dinners in Brandon Sanderson’s Way of Kings. It was a moment to come together and enjoy life, before returning to the battles of the next day. It was the light and warmth at the end of a long week of work.
The set up
The tea liqueur
The tea survived multiple steeps and carried its flavour until the end of my 1-liter flask (using a 150 ml pot, I had approximately 7 steeps). All in all, a good tea made better by good conversation and great company. So if you are in need of a warm escape from your cold adventures, the smoky 2023 Stubb is a good tea. Now I must return to the cold, and actually do my work. I wish you warmth, and good travels.
Flavour notes of the 2023 Stubb in no particular order or structure:
Mushroom, burnt incense, very smoked salmon, what a campfire smells like, iron, ash.
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