After multiple requests and a free shipping sale, I made my first order with Kuura. I’ve been wanting to try Kuura for a while, and a sale gave me a good opportunity to try them out.
I am starting off with Kuura’s 2017 Ghost White Tea, a 200 gram cake. I blind caked it because I don’t mind try buying white tea in volume and Kuura does awesome wrappers.
Leaf and Steeping Method
Ghost is pretty with a rainbow of leaves and fuzzy grey buds. Sadly once steeped white tea gets ugly.
I went with my usual white tea steeping method of 1 gram of leaf per 20ml of vessel size. After the rinse, the leaves smell like honey.
Tasting of Kuura’s 2017 Ghost White Tea
First, Second, Third, and Fourth Infusion: Ghost white tea’s first infusion is sweet and light. It has a milky linen taste with a dash of honey. The second steeping gets more into the business side of things as right away the texture kicks into thick, sipping cotton batting. The flavors deepen to driftwood and honey.
Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Infusion: At max flavor intensity, Ghost taste is of driftwood, sunflowers and bit of honey. Each infusion gets a bit sweeter leaning towards sugar cane. The texture is thick but also slightly dry, but the dryness doesn’t take away from the experience just yet.
Eleventh and Twelfth Infusion: Ghost is just a whisper of sweet sugar cane. It hasn’t gotten any drier. Unfortunately, I just can’t resteep this hard enough. If I used a clay teapot I’d probably get another infusion or two, or go in for the stove boil.
Comments
Not the most exciting of white tea cakes in terms of complexity and aroma, but Kuura’s 2017 Ghost White tea has excellent longevity and thick texture. Ghost is an all-day daily drinker white that won’t quit. If you love thick mouthfeel and honey profile white teas, this is a nice pick.
I keep drinking Ghost for it is a solid gongfu video gaming binge tea, so I am happy about this purchase. For reviews, I prefer to use a gaiwan as it is neutral and most likely what you will have at home vs a well-seasoned clay teapot. I run Ghost in my clay teapot for white teas and the honey comes out more and it resteeps a bit more.
