Hawaii Forest White

I’m starting my morning by backlogging my Canton Tea Club tea’s on my lazy Sunday morning.

About this tea: Forest White is grown by well known husband and wife tea growers Eva lee and Chiu Leong in the forest around the Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii. From each plant the top bud and first two leaves are picked, withered on a traditional bamboo mat and solar dried.

will be using my gaiwan with the following steeping instructions: Wash the 5g of tea before the first infusion for 3 seconds and discard the liquid. Start with a 15 second infusion and add 5-10 seconds on for each subsequent steep.

The leaves before their rinse are dry and crisp in a multitude of brown, green and silver colours that smell slightly woody.

After the rinse the leaves smell sweetly green and floral.

Steep 1 – 15 seconds
The liquid is pale honey coloured with a sweet woody fragrance. The first few sips are crisp and fresh with sweet floral tones. It’s light and delicate with an edge of earthiness.

Steep 2 – 25 seconds
Still nice and smooth with a sweet pea finish. Also becoming slightly perfumey.

Steep 3 – 35 seconds
The liquid has darkened in colour slightly to a toasty gold. Slightly woodsy with fermented fruit tones still with crisp freshness.

Steep 4 – 45 seconds
Picking up on the fruit tones but losing some of the sweetness and become woodier and stronger.

Steep 5 – 55 seconds
Now it’s almost vegetal and edging back to sweet pea toned sweetness.

Steep 6 – 65 seconds
Now the liquid is pale yellow/gold. I can’t detect much other than pure sweet pea tones with a smooth floral finish. Jasmine like but sweeter in taste.

Overall this is a very nice white tea and excellent quality. It was tasty, fresh, and fulfilled everything that it promises. I have tried a few different tea’s from Eva lee and Chiu Leong and each time I have been impressed, I would recommend this tea and any other tea from them. Thank you Canton Tea.

Canton Tea Club Week…oh, heck, I’ve lost track.

The full story on this stuff can be found here: http://www.cantonteaco.com/blog/2012/11/canton-tea-club-week-7-hawaii-forest-white/

Jane Pettigrew waxes all Voltaire-like over the stuff – far better than I ever could.

I did, however, do a write-up of last year’s batch, which can be found here: http://steepstories.com/2011/09/09/missing-the-forest-for-the-teas/

But enough linkies, my take.

I’ve had a s**t day. (See, nowhere near as poetic as Pettigrew.)

Between work and last-minute dashes to pick up a far-flung paycheck, and another dash to a far-flung bank – followed by grocery shopping – I was exhausted. Top that off, and I still had a NaNoWriMo project to contend with when I got home. Oh yeah, and a screamingly hungry cat.

When I saw this in the mail, my beaten brow beamed. Half-hour later, I brewed 8oz. of it up – boiled to perfection. It differed from last year – less butter, more grape, and all-around tropical. I also prefer it to last year’s crop, which was already near perfect in my eyes.

As I write this, I’m currently on steep…uh…three? Four is currently brewing. Just the fuel this writery-type needed.