Black Friday Pre-View: 2018 white2tea Snoozefest Re-Review

Thought it might be fun to pull out one of my 2018 white2tea Snoozefest cakes and re-taste it after being in sealed storage for almost a year.  Thought it might be useful to those thinking of attempting to nab one if white2tea even releases one this year (I think they won’t).  Looks like they will be giving away a few giant puerh cakes again, Tunji looks like it will make a comeback, maybe they will do this cake again afterall… This year's white2tea black Friday sale is looking unusually predictable.   I guess it must have worked well last year?  I'm hoping for a few crazy surprises just to humor myself... If you want to get a rich history about this puerh please read my previous here.

Turns out Mica of The Weekend Sessions had the same idea as me.  Check out his initial impressions of this cake and then his review a week ago.  Think his storage might be a bit more humid and he definitely leafs this one lighter than me but great notes.  An interesting thing about this Snoozefest, which keeps it really interesting is how much it changes with different leaf ratios, different pots, and steeping times.  This one is interesting in this way…

It occurred to me when meditating on Paul’s diss-cakes that the whole concept of Snoozefest was based on refuting the critique by tinkle4 on a $22 2015 white2tea Little Walk.  He said white2tea’s puerh is a snoozefest.  I think that probably calling white2tea’s offerings boring was probably the worst criticism that could be leaved on a brand that tries to be everything but.  So the whole concept of Snoozefest was challenge this by offering a cake at an even cheaper price but make that cake very engaging and interesting.  I would say they accomplish just that…

The dry leaves have a pungent almost funky fruity smell.  There is candy and tropical odours underneath.

The first infusion presents with a banana tropical onset with a vegetal base taste the mouthfeel is flat and full with a full chalky almost sandy consistency.  There is a mild expansive sweetness in the aftertaste and a low lying bitterness throughout.  There is a floral and almost melon nuance to the aftertaste.  The throat is nicely stimulated.

The second infusion presents with tropical banana fruits over a vegetal almost vegetable tasting base with a long note of mild bitteness.  The mouthfeel is really full and paints the mouth, tongue and throat in a tight sandy coating. 

The third seems to have even more fruity tropical nuances which become pronounced as the cup cools.  There is a candy like quality to the sweetness now.  The mouthfeeling is sandy, flat, and full coating in the mouth and touches the throat a bit too.  The Qi is a mild relaxing vibe.

The fourth infusion has a nice tropical fruity onset with a deeper emerging pungent floral quality.  The vegetalness is still there but much less than the tropical and florals.  The mouthfeeling is this coating sandiness.  The throat opens at the top over a mild fine sandy and almost chalky feeling.  The aftertaste goes for a bit then drops off.

The fifth infusion has a soapy perfume tropical floral taste that has almost grapefrutiy-orange almost orange rind taste to it.  The mouthfeel is full and flat fine sandy almost dry simulation to it that is real nice for this price of this cake.  The Qi is a mild relaxing feeling.  I can feel it a bit on the face, like a relaxing face drooping thing.

The sixth flattens out a bit as it gets more bitter here but still nice tropical onset with floral but more flattened out by the bitter.  It starts to punch away at my stomach which is pretty normal for young sheng.  The Qi relaxes nicely with a touch of a stimulating push.

The seventh is a nice tropical, with vegetal sweetness. The sweetness has a floral perfume quality to it.  There is a moderate bitterness underneath along with a full sandy mouthfeeling.

The eighth infusion has a thick fruity tropical taste with a moderate base of bitterness and a under base taste of some vegitalness.  There is a thick painting of fine sandy almost chalky mouthcoating.  Faint candy and floral finish.

The ninth infusion is full of fruity nuances tropical fruity tastes that stretch into a soapy perfume taste.  The mouthfeeling is this sandy almost chalky slippery feeling and the throat is stimulated at the surface.  The aftertaste is a bit bland floral sweentness some candy appears.

The tenth is much the same with a deeper and thicker fruity feeling at times.  The mouthfeeling is almost slippery stone feeling and less sandy.  There is a flat blandness that comes off the initial taste.

The eleventh infusion has a thicker fruity taste with an undercurrent of bitterness.  The mouthfeeling is thick and slippery feeling and a perfume floral sometimes candy sweet taste emerges.  The bland stone like mouthfeeling with moderate bitterness and fruity floral taste is interesting and engaging.  The Qi is a mild relaxing thing, not very strong.

The 12^th infusion starts with a thicker fruity perfume taste.  The bitterness is building and is a moderate-stronger in the mouth.

The 13^th has a pronounced bitter fruit almost grapefruit and tropical underneath with a chalky almost dry mouthfeeling.  The top of the throat is nicely stimulated.  The bitterness aftertaste the fruity perfume aspects of the profile here.

The 14^th has a fruity vibe sweet almost tropical and slightly bitter the vegitalness has disappeared and the two polarities of taste are bitter and sweet fruit and perfume.  There is a flat stone feeling in the mouth along with a dry slipperiness that offers a full coating in the mouth.

The 15^th has a perfume fruity onset with a bitter base taste.  There is a stewed fruity taste that is coming out in there over the last handful of infusions.  The bitter stone like full mouthfeel gives this tea a nice counterbalance. 

16^th is more fruity still initially with a moderate bitter base and stone like mouthfeeling.  There is a breath coolness that is starting to work itself out.

The 17^th has a bitter stewed fruit taste.  The taste this late in the session is still clear with fruity sweetness, perfume florals, and moderate bitterness.  The mouthfeeling remains a full coating sandy flat stone almost but not dryiness.

This puerh has nice stamina from the very tight pressing’s slow release.  Could have easily steeped this a handful more times as the flavor is still there.

Overall there is some good sweet taste, very good stamina, nice mouthfeeling, still weak on the Qi though.  This is a nice tea for 15$ worth at least double if not triple the price. The above session was a particularly good one with this puerh.  I really stuffed a small pot and it made a big difference.  I find when I use large pots or less aggressive ratios with this one I don’t get as nice of a result but then you have to be able to tolerate the bitter.  Even when you push it, the Qi seems a bit lacking but for the price it’s a good one!

I compared this one the next day to 2017 Yunnan Sourcing Impression.  Impression had a much thicker mouthfeeling and more oily presentation.  Snoozefest still had a full and very simulating mouthfeeling but Impression felt more dense and full where Snoozefest was more active but not as thick.  The Impression had less stamina but much more strong Qi presented in the session of Impression.  I would say the 2018 Snoozefest weakness was its lack of Qi whereas the 2017 Impression’s weakness was its average or even below average stamina.  These two are really very different.  The Impression is mainly blended from areas North of Xishuangbanna and Snoozefest mainly Southern, I think.  Comparing the Impression to the Snoozefest is analogous to comparing Yunnan Sourcing to white2tea.

Peace