I got a Teawarehouse order in the mail today with a couple pretty new teacups, so I figured I’d pick something to Gong Fu today and test out one of my pretty nice pieces of teaware. I didn’t have to do much thinking about which tea to choose though; I actually got a coin of this tea as a freebie with my order so I just went for that.
I actually have a sample of this that I bought from W2T but I haven’t tried it yet, so this gives me a way to without cracking into that sample! Oh, and this is the cup that I’m ‘breaking in’ today:
It’s a nice size/shape to hold in my hand, and appearance wise it’s even prettier in person than it was on the site. Perhaps the best thing about it though, and the most pleasantly surprising, is the texture of the glaze on the cup. It’s satisfying/kind of stimulating to touch, especially on the inner lip where there are so many nerve endings. It’s just making me really happy to drink out of…
I’m initially a lot less impressed by this tea though – I broke the coin in half and gave it a rinse to try and open it up a little bit but I’m three steeps in now and I’m finding it pretty bland tasting/unexciting. It has very basic hay/straw notes a the tiniest hints of cream and floral finishing notes but I have to really push myself and focus to get them. I’m doubtful this is going to be a great session, but I’ll keep going for a little while and see if anything changes for me. I’ll just update the rest of this note steep by steep with any in the moment thoughts and we’ll see where that gets me…
Steep Four/Five
- These ones have a little more body to them; a mix of floral, straw, hay and honey
- I don’t know why I’m so surprised this tastes so generic white tea to me
- I mean, it is white tea; I guess I’ve just come to expect a little more from W2T?
Steep Six/Seven
- More of the same, hints of autumn leaf though
- And like a wood chip-y sort of finish
- Still blannnddddd
Yeah, I’m bored with this one to be honest. Kind of surprised I even gave it seven steeps if I’m really laying it all out there. Maybe part of it is that it was a coin? I find coin teas are sometimes a bad representation of a tea’s flavour. Thankfully, I do have a regular sample of this one so I can revisit it again and see if the different pretty style does anything to improve the experience for me – as well as try it Grandpa/Western.
Song Pairing: https://youtu.be/Gcu-fOQ7iDg
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Aha, another reviewer of this tea that wasn’t too charmed. I thought maybe I was losing my touch, or my taste buds. Haha. Yeah, I’m with you on your impressions. As a white tea, this didn’t really do much for me. It’s not bad but those hay/straw notes and this dry bitterness just didn’t do it for me. Maybe give these bricks 10 years and this stuff’ll be delicious. I have an aged white tea brick from another company that just turned 10 and it is wine-like in complexity, but then again maybe they started with better materials.
Aha, another reviewer of this tea that wasn’t too charmed. I thought maybe I was losing my touch, or my taste buds. Haha. Yeah, I’m with you on your impressions. As a white tea, this didn’t really do much for me. It’s not bad but those hay/straw notes and this dry bitterness just didn’t do it for me. Maybe give these bricks 10 years and this stuff’ll be delicious. I have an aged white tea brick from another company that just turned 10 and it is wine-like in complexity, but then again maybe they started with better materials.