Very nostalgic to order from Whispering Pines again, and it was the main thing which made me feel justified in the absurdity of ordering tea which went from China to the U.S. to Australia where I live. Mostly I’d just order direct from China.
But the ethos of Whispering Pines is very beautiful to me and I like supporting that.
How lovely to be able to take my time and enjoy this tea properly on a day off. I had previously pounded this down in a rush for work and did I notice much about it? No, because tea appreciation is so often about presence of mind and it just hadn’t been there.
I’m not sure if I oversteep my teas in comparison to the average Western-style brewer, but I always have to use a solid heaped tablespoon of leaves per 200mL to get the strength and depth I like from a tea. It’s contrary to the half a tablespoon suggested, but I’m getting rather good at brewing intuitively.
Would love to have presence of mind to gongfu this one day.