Kuura white tea cakes – names of party drugs or Shojo Anime Magical Girl power? Let’s drink Kuura’s 2020 Electroflowercandy and 2020 Lovebeamcake white tea! I purchased both teas blind as I have no willpower against fairly priced white tea cakes, but also Kuura loves their thick textures.
2020 Electroflowercandy White tea
Electroflowercandy is Yunnan material, picked as intended for puer, then sun dried white tea. The dry leaves smell like floral pencil erasers.
For both white teas, I used a gongfu ratio of 1 gram of leaf per 20ml of vessel size, steeped with boiling water. After a steep, the leaves smell of hot dates and green maple leaves.
First, Second, and Third Infusion: As per all the Kuura teas I’ve had, Electroflowercandy is thicccc like drinking silky cotton batting. The flavor starts off light mellow honey that gets snappy bright at the end of the sip, then has a strong finish of buttercup floral.
Fourth and Fifth Infusion: Electroflowercandy reached peak flavor here, tasting like bendy twigs, paperback books, cantaloupe pith, buttercup floral, and honey.
Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Infusion: As the white tea steeps on, the later infusions got dark amber in colour, with strong notes of honey and dark wood, all while holding onto the thick marshmallow texture. Electroflowercandy is a little bitter from the intensity but drinkable. In later infusions, the overall wood profile fades.
Comments
Kuura’s 2020 Electroflowercandy white tea is a magnificent gongfu’er that has a lovely honey profile that goes dark and woodsy. On top of that, this tea is easy to drink and approachable with great thick quality.
The pricing on this white tea is pretty good – at this time and money conversion of $30ish USD for 200 grams. Electroflowercandy also comes in 7 gram balls for travel and gift tea.
2020 Lovebeamcake White Tea from Kuura
2020 Lovebeamcake is shade dried (vs. sun dried job of Electroflowercandy), so a Moonlight White / Yueguangbai white tea.
The cake has a faint scent, smelling a bit like a ream of printer paper. After steep, the tea smells like autumn leaves.
First, Second, and Third Infusion: 2020 Lovebeamcake starts off light tasting, but develops notes of honey butter, with some sips of quinoa and sandalwood. The texture is thick but also a bit sticky feeling.
Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Infusion: Here the tea got dark, tasting closer to a golden tipped black tea with rich dark wood, sandalwood, honey, boiled cinnamon apples, and malty notes. By the final infusions, Lovebeamcake is a bit astringent tickling the back of the throat as it fades in flavor.
Lazy / Grandpa style: Moonlight whites tend to do awesome just sipping away in a glass. Lovebeamcake is no exception, going immediately towards the darker wood profile but also cinnamon. As it steeps, the white tea gets richly malty and maintains honey flavor without the astringency. Lovebeamcake got a bit bitey dry after two water refills, but overall stayed dark and honey.
Comments
Kuura’s 2020 Lovebeamcake is an easy going, honey leaning white tea that goes rich and black tea like by the end of the session. This tea focus is on thick textures and honey profiles. I prefer Lovebeamcake done lazy style as it enhances the honey and darker notes.
Both white teas are different enough styles to justify owning both, though my pick is Electroflowercandy for interesting notes and complexity. Though if you love moonlight whites and darker profiles, the other is probably more your speed.
