Abandoned Garden White

Rainy March Saturday. Rain rain rain. It’s been a wet winter.

Spring 2021 harvest.

Mild and soft aroma with fuzzy peach skin. Silky, rounded body; nectarous, springwater sweet tastes gives way to a stiff, dry finish. Transforms to a more astringent character after the second steep. Lots of hot and spicy summer meadow and sun-dried linen aromatics, herbal undertone. Summer meadow being the takeaway here— dried wildflowers, golden dry grass, with boulders studding the landscape, a small marshy stream running through. Aftertaste builds and leans fruity, almost like lychee with custard apple. Cooling in the mouth by the end of the second steep but holy moly is my head hot after finishing the fourth pour from the gaiwan. Ears on fire but oozing cool. The heat moves down, decreasing in intensity through the chest, arms and stomach. By the time I get to my toes, they’re warm, too.

I guess I still don’t fully grok Spirit Tea’s notes of fennel, tangerine skin and cinnamon. Those might be non-dominant tonal aromatics to my olfactories. It’s a tea to be had gongfu; western steepings just felt different, maybe too stiff or stark. It needs attention. Decent tea but not sure I’d purchase it again.