How to vertically center text at its line-height?

Question

css

I know how to basically align text.
But here's something dumb.
Here's an example https://codepen.io/anon/pen/yKvZML
(there "y" almost pops out, and there is still a lot of space from "T")
By default, the text is pressed to the bottom within its line-height.
And this is somehow very noticeable in my block.
Can this be neatly compensated for without padding and positions?

Answer 1

Just two links "to read":
https://stackoverflow.com/a/28370374/1185107
https://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/visudet.html#line-height
Compensate with padding.