Skinny Dip 2024 Spring Jinggu White Tea

Gongfu!

Usually I blind cake Skinny Dip as, even though the source of the material changes frequently, it’s my favorite white tea that Bitterleaf releases. The crisp, cooling vegetal notes are a sweet spot for me when it comes to white tea. But, I have so much white tea I need to sipdown right now that I opted for just a sample this year. I will say, the compressed leaf is beautiful and bud heavy which did make me question my decision just a bit even before my first steep. Once steeped, this tea is sweet and smooth and fully equipped to handle a bit of beating in terms of steeping. I fully let some of the infusions in this session go for close to a minute because I kept getting distracted, and this tea didn’t even bat an eye. There are some vegetal abd grassy notes but mostly I found this session channeling a brown sugar sort of sweetness that is very different from previous years of Skinny Dip. Less pulpy and cooling. It was a very good session, but so much more different that the tasting notes I personally have resonated with in previous years of this tea – so I think, ultimately, I’m happy in my choice to just sample. This will still be very easy to drink through, though!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DCcUWDkSwxF/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3B_7xUJUzw&ab_channel=almostmondayVEVO

This white tea has an interesting mix of tangy, tannic, savoury, and foresty flavours, as well as a hint of pastries. The aftertaste is also a bit sour, and the aroma reminds me of sawdust, apricots, sugarcane, and allspice.