Wholemeal Crank
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Posts posted by Wholemeal Crank
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Some of the differences, are related to the thickness of the vessel--how fast does it cool off? Some differences will be in vessel sizes--does it encourage you to pack it and make very concentrated infusions briefly, or to lightly fill it for more dilute and fewer infusions? Some will be related to how fast and facile the vessel empties--can you really pour an infusion before the tea steeps more than 10 seconds? And then you get into complexities of the mineral content of clays--how does that impact the water and the tea? How porous is the clay? Does it absorb some of the tea elements exposing other elements of the flavor?
It's a huge topic, and I've had just a few experiences where I am pretty sure I noted a difference between a tea brewed in two different vessels. It's definitely happened a few times.
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Last night I tried both Kamairichas brewed in parallel in small gaiwans with about 75mL water, 2 grams of tea.
The teas are curly, very different from the needle-like bits of senchas, but a nice deep green appropriate to sencha. The leaves smell sweet and rich.
First infusions about 30 seconds because I checked the water temp just after I poured it, and it was hotter than expected--150 degrees. They're both warm, rich, vegetal (peas and corn and asparagus), but also a little lightly floral. Delicate yellow-green liquors.
2nd infusions about 30 seconds, temp about 150 degrees. A little more bite or astringency in the Sakimidori, a little smoother in the Okumidori. I wasn't sure at first if it might have been because the infusion times were a little off, but the differences were consistent through the next infusions. It's not anything unpleasant in the Sakimidori, more noticing an exceptional smoothness in the Okumidori.
3rd infusion, 45 seconds, 155 degrees: still seeing that same difference, more sharpness in the Sakimidori, more smoothness in the Okumidori.
4th infusion, 1 minute, 160 degrees: these are really, really nice teas. They are not senchas, but feel closer to a sencha in flavor than to a pan-fired chinese green tea: I'm imagining a line from Long Jing/Dragon Well to sencha, and these are probably 3/4 of the way from Long Jing towards sencha, and clearly distinct from both.
5th infusion, 160 degrees, 90 seconds: the differences are lessened again. Still both are sweet and vegetal.
6th infusion, still 160 degrees (got careless with this one and forgot to up the temp; the time also is unclear, but I was aiming for about 2 minutes). They're entirely delicious, and just the most subtle difference between them.
7th infusion: spilled the Sakimidori. Enjoying the 170 degree, 2 minute infusion of the Okumidori a lot. Would have liked to try for another infusion, but I need to let things dry after the spill that splashed lovely green leaves and tea all over the base of the electric kettle.
The leaves remain bright grassy green at the end of the infusions, obviously broken pieces but as I suspected when viewing the curly dried leaves, a bit larger on average than the fragments I find in senchas.
First impression is that these are really lovely teas, and quite worth seeking out in future orders.
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I keep my kettle at the right heat until I'm done with the tea session, and for most of my infusions that means it reboils a bit every few minutes, as the kettle keeps the temperature up around 205 or so. I've never considered dumping the water during a session.
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Never learned to enjoy anything about coffee besides the smell, so it's all tea, all the time, and no coffee to drink, no coffee desserts, no coffee in my cooking.
I like lots of different teas.
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Some not-too-demanding of attention old favorites today, after the lovely start with the new Warashina Supreme sencha from O-Cha: Bai Yun Oriental beauty-style Yunnan oolong from Norbu, and the 2007 Menghai Golden Needle White Lotus from Yunnan sourcing. The Menghai is a seriously tightly compressed brick, which is probably the only reason I haven't finished it off yet. I get discouraged and then wait a long time to regain enough strength to wrench off another chunk (only a slight exaggeration, really!).
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Another new sencha to me today: Organic Sencha "Warashina Supreme" by O-Cha.com
Opening the pouch, first notice a sweet rich scent, with hints of cherries & chocolate.
Preheated the kyusu (iron-rich clay, unglazed interior) for the 4 grams of leaf, typical sencha appearance of the dark thin pieces of leaf.
First infusion 160 degrees, about 30 seconds, pouring into my big chawan, lots of leaf bits come too—probably will strain the next infusion. Thick, silky, rich mouthfeel with sweet, delicate vegetal flavor, oh my. It is a little less leaf than I usually use in this 160mL kyusu, so the richness of the mouthfeel is surprising.
Really enjoying this one a LOT, now about the 5th infusion, and temp upped to 180 degrees for this infusion: it’s still sweet, light, rich. A bit of astringency has crept in, and I probably should have kept this one a bit shorter.
One more infusion, 180 degree water, and about 1 minute infusion, and we’re back to sweet, light, rich, with astringency retreating again into the background. I agree that this one is ‘Supremely’ good.
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(Envy of your explorations in Taiwan!)
Aged Fo Shou Oolong – 2001 Fujian Oolong Tea from Norbu
3 grams of plummy, chocolate-scented dark twisted and compacted leaves in a small unglazed porcelain pot; flash rinse; about 120 mL water 205 degrees, first infusion 20 seconds
strongly earthy, but also fruity and tart—not in the sweet dark almost prune notes I usually think of as plummy, but more like a tart, barely ripe plum, yet very mellow—needed to steep longer, despite sitting a few minutes after the flash rinse—seems like it wasn’t yet releasing as much flavor as it was absorbing water for this infusion
(this tartness seems to distinguish it from an aged puerh)
But there seems to be a char or bitterness from fresh roasting….so I’m putting it in one of the yixings to air out a bit.
[i suddenly have a reason to buy a couple of nice loosely sealed ceramic tea caddies, just for times like this, when I want the tea to air out just a bit, but not really to sit open on the counter.]
And a week or so later, I’m drinking it again, and less of the bitterness is there—it DID need to air out a bit, and Greg had told me the sample he sent had been just re-roasted the day before. It is still fruity and tart and dark but the bitter is muted, and I’m enjoying it more. This is not a mellow, sip-while-working-on-something-else tea: a little slip with the infusion time and I’m back to bitter char.
It’s very interesting stuff, and I’ll enjoy working with the rest of this sample, but it’s not going to make it into my regular rotation, because there are too many teas I like better, that are not so demanding. But given how dilute I’m preparing it, I anticipate many, many more infusions before I’m done.
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Let us know how you like the teas you get.
Yesterday I wanted to brew up a thermos full of tea but the 2010 Fall Shade-grown TGY was running low, so I added a bit of the 2011 Dong Ding (green version), and it was a delicious mix. Even the dregs made for a great cuppa!
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It certainly sound like it was anything but "bland" with those spices.
I would certainly agree that ginger would give it more of a "spark" or lift.
Ginger is one of my favorite ways to make dishes that are a bit on the blah more emphatic.
As I always have some growing, or simply "stored" in sandy soil in pots, I don't have to run out to buy it.
I also always have a goodly supply of candied ginger that can work in a pinch.
I was generous with the spices, but after cooking up those pumpkins, and having to thin them with some stock, and adding the other ingredients, the final volume was about 10 quarts of soup--and the spices got streeeetched a long way.
Forgot about candied ginger--that might have been just right. I was sure that powdered ginger would not be the right thing, though I had that in abundance. I should finally fill a pot with sand & plug some ginger into it. Have pots, have sand, could probably get a little growth from it, even.
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Ok, 'finished' the soup last night. I sauteed up the leeks in olive oil and butter, then added the puree. But the squash/pepper puree was so thick that it was very difficult to reheat, and eventually I caved in by adding some chicken stock and water--but I boiled them first for a few minutes with some dried lemongrass, dried galangal, and mace. I also added several bunches of basil, dry jack cheese more or less per the recipe, a bunch of toasted pine nuts, a couple of lemons' worth of juice, and a large handful of hot New Mexico chili powder.
I forgot to get more fresh ginger, which in retrospect would probably have been the perfect lift to the finished soup, not enough to conflict with the umami-rich cheese, but just enough to highlight the other flavors.
Still, all in all a very tasty product, with remarkably high heat capacity--scorched the heck out of my tongue while tasting it at the end.
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A little of this, a little of that. Finished off the Sayamakaori sencha at home over the weekend, and today did not have time for a sencha start at home, but did have some of the Honyama sencha from Yuuki-cha at work--seemed quite odd to drink my 'morning tea' at midday in the office. But delicious, and fun to share something different with my tea buddies.
Later, finished off the Wuliang Shan loose sheng from Norbu, one of several young shengs that taught me how fun aggressive young sheng can be.
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Thanks for all the thoughtful responses.
So far, the blended squash/pepper puree (while I had the oven on, I did the peppers at the same time too) is a bit tastier than I'd feared, but not quite as rich as I'd hoped. Yes, it is a lot of peppers, because that was what I was fantasizing about this week--ripe, roasted peppers. So they were roasted then peeled and added to the puree. When I pull out the puree tomorrow to finish the soup, I'll try some of the suggestions in this thread on small quantities to see where I want to go to deepen the flavor. I'm quite intrigued by the idea of ginger/lemon/curry/fish sauce because I was thinking this time I'd finish the soup with basil rather than sage.
And need to get some fresh ginger on the way home from work.
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I bought a pair of large inexpensive squash at a mexican grocery
yesterday, being well aware that jack o' lanterns make lousy eating.
These were similarly sized, but had deep orange skin, and had a curious little
circle around the stem end, a bit like those turban-squash but not
raised up, just a circular line of obviously differently textured skin.
So was quite surprised to cut into these and find very similar
appearing/smelling flesh--very stringy, pale creamy yellow--to a jack
o'lantern. They're in the oven baking now, and I planned to use them
to make my squash soup where squash is the body of the soup, but am
afraid these are going to need a lot of doctoring to punch up the
flavor. Anyone have any experience with this type of squash?
And assuming the flavor is as bland as first nibble suggests--how would you work with it to make the final soup worth eating?
(this is the recipe I was going to use it in)
I'm already planning on long baking to try to concentrate flavor.
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Yesterday was a quiet tea day: one tea, all day: 2006 Haiwan purple bud sheng puerh, mellower and mellower as the day went on, infusion after infusion, requiring a bit of attention to avoid bitterness, but only a little. Today, started with Jin Guan Yin from Norbu, rich green oolong, and moved on to the Lao Cong Quin Ti dan cong again. Mmm. Like the purple bud Haiwan, this is a tea that is likely sufficient for the rest of the evening, infusion after infusion.
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After several years of regularly drinking tea from a thermos, which was brewed several hours ahead of use, I've realized that some teas actually seem to mellow in a very pleasant way after brewing, especially the deeply roasted oolongs and shu puerhs. Other teas, like whites and greens and lighter oolongs, may both lose the elements that are so pleasing and actively develop bitter and unpleasant flavors. I have to imagine tea selection is critical for his type of 'concentrated' brewing. Have you ever heard of anyone using other than a black tea this way?
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I recently enjoyed my sample of that Da Wu Ye enough to have ordered more, some for me, and some for a tea-friend who was quite delighted when I first introduced her to a Tea Habitat Dan Cong.
In the last few days, there has also been some 2009 Lao Cong Quin Ti - Osmanthus Fragrance Phoenix Oolong from Tea Habitat--another fruity and spicy and lovely Dan Cong; Bai Yun Yunnan oolong from Norbu and a last bit of Mu Zha Ti Guan Yin from Dragon Tea House; Lao Cha Tou ripe puerh and 2007 White Bud Sheng, both Norbu teas, and some spicy sweet Dong Ding green oolong; and a little Tai Ping Hou Kui from Jing Tea Shop. Green, green oolong, dark oolong, puerh......
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I have a sample of that one too. I haven't broken into it yet but probably will soon. This weekend, when I'm all ready to try new teas, the sun came back out and I am craving greener oolongs and green teas.
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Thank you for the link to that very interesting database. It does give data for potatoes with and without skins, but several other fruits & vegetables I checked (grapes, carrots, beets) don't have the same data. I can easily imagine that very little study has ever been done on this, and the source I'm seeking might not exist.
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A new green tea today: Zhu Ye Qing green tea from Emeishan, Lishan Prefecture, Sichuan--from Norbu.
Sweet vegetal scent of flat light green leaves, peas and grass. Long thin young leaves, one or two in a paired bunch, rather flat like a Long Jing, leaves that swell up to light asparagus green.
Flash rinse with 185 degree water--drank rinse, sweet and tasty and light.
1st infusión, 160 degrees, about 20 seconds--delicious honeydew melon, cucumber, hints of peas, but more sweet floral notes. Very nice.
2nd infusion, 160 degrees, 30 seconds, but realized afterwards I used more water, more dilute, oops--sweet, peas coming up stronger now, touch of floral, but a little light on the flavor, should have lengthened the infusion.
3rd infusion, 160 degrees, 1 minute, sweet, light, flowers/grass/cucumber/melon. Mmm.
4th infusion, another 160 degrees, 1 minute, delicious sweet, light, floral, melon, wonderful.
5th infusion, another 160 degrees, forgot it for almost 10 minutes (oops), still sweet, floral, delicious, but quite mild despite the overly long infusion--really this should count as about 3!
6th infusion, 180 degrees, 5 minutes, and delicately sweet and floral, but really done now.
I prepared a second series of infusions, and again it is delicious, sweet, vegetal, grassy, a little floral, and highly tasty. I started again with a hotter rinse, then moved up in temps from 150s to 190s, probably 9 or 10 infusions, and the infusions have been good all the way through.
This is another lovely green tea from Norbu. I am getting more of the qualities that I enjoy in a chinese-style green tea from these than from most of the others I've had from other sources, and don't yet know how much is simply better tea, and how much is better brewing--I think the tea itself is the most important thing, but I am so happy with these that I'll stick to them for the moment.
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While I am sure that my diet is more than adequate in calories and macronutrients, I know the micronutrients are often lacking due to my over-reliance on grain-based foods. And I'm a lazy cook who appreciates any excuse to avoid the peeler.
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A couple of cloudy and cooler days prompted afternoons with Da Hong Pao, Yi Wu Bamboo aged puerh, and Lao Cha Tou shu puerh (all from Norbu), along with more Sayamakaori mornings (Yuuki-cha) and an evening variety of Xi Hu Long Jing (Norbu), Osmanthus-fragrance Dan Cong (Tea habitat) and Tai Ping Hou Kui (Jing).
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Agreed about potato skins. I rarely mash potatoes, but when I do, it's whole skins and mash to lumpiness with scallions and butter.
Tastes better that way.
But how much nutrition is there in those apple peels, pepper skins, sweet potato trimmings, lotus root skins, grape peels, etc?
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While cogitating on the idea of a pepper & squash soup, I have reluctantly concluded that I will have to peel the peppers for the smooth puree I'm imagining. While gnashing my teeth in irritation, I wonder again about peeling vegetables and fruits before cooking--when do issues of nutrition and fiber support the never-peel platform, and when do issues of bitterness, texture, waxing and pesticides outweigh the hassle of peeling?
I recall vaguely that a lot of nutrition is supposed to be concentrated in potato skins, but this wikipedia entry suggests little difference except in fiber content (how the heck can nutrients decrease when the skin is removed?). I found one source stating that pepper peels have a lot of insoluble fiber (d'oh), and another noting that the nutrition facts quoted were for unpeeled apples.
I'm looking for a more comprehensive source describing what nutrients or desirable fibers are concentrated (or not) in the outer layers of a wide variety of vegetables and fruits. It's a lot easier to find discussions of nasty stuff that sits on the surface of conventional produce.
Anyone have any pointers to solid info on how much good stuff is lost when we peel?
And what are your own preferences on what to peel, when it's something you have to do yourself?
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More Sayamakaori sencha this am from Yuiki-cha. Mmm. So nice with jam and toast.
Different results from different brewing vessels?
in Coffee & Tea
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I don't know if the sencha will show much difference--I love my kyusu because it's easier than a gaiwan and handles the fines of the leaves better than my chinese teapots. The first pot I used for sencha was a glass pot with a wire mesh strainer, and it worked OK, but a kyusu is simply a better design for sencha, easier to use, and the one I have is so beautiful it makes me happy every time I use it.