Gongfu!
As I’ve shared previously, I’ve been having tea outside lately either on a hill a few blocks from my house or in this construction-ish area with a bunch of overgrowth; but yesterday I decided to venture further out to one of the two parks that I live near. The one I went to is the slightly father one, but it’s significantly smaller and less crowded than the other – which is actually the biggest park in the city.
I was shocked that it was practically abandoned, aside from a few people jogging laps around the track field and what looked like a couple having a picnic on the top of the large hill in the center of the park. So, I situated myself in the dugout of the baseball field, where there was some shade and a bunch of pea plants growing on the mesh on the back of the seats…
I was so excited when I saw that W2T was doing a compressed white tea version of their Waffles series; Waffles is one of the most approachable shou that I’ve come across – and obviously the tea is gonna be quite different because it’s a different type of tea altogether, but it still has the unique waffle cut compression shape that makes portioning it out a breeze.
The dry leaf smells great; macerated strawberries and brown sugar!! Sweet and fruity even through both layers of wrapping, but so much more intense when you unwrap it. It’s also just a beautiful cake in general; lots of contrast visually between the leaves and the buds and you can clearly see many much larger leaves pressed into the cake.
Steeped I’m getting hints of brown sugar and molasses but the taste is primarily creamy lemon and soft florals. It does still have a brightness to it, especially from those more lemony fruity notes – but it delicately weaves the line between a light bodied tea and something more medium bodied and rich. The mouthfeel is very smooth. It’s pretty strong and possibly over leafed, but I did snap as small a piece off the edge as possible because I was using a 50ml gaiwan. In a way you could say I “ordered off the kids menu” for this one!!
Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CCPOMWFArNs/
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bt2HXrj0oc
So pretty!
Definitely getting myself a cake. Too pretty not to