Wholemeal Crank

(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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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? Squash by debunix, on Flickr 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.

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.

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?

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......

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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?

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?

More Sayamakaori sencha this am from Yuiki-cha. Mmm. So nice with jam and toast.

I've been having a lot of connection issues to egullet lately, so my tea reporting has been much less than my tea drinking. Today, I'm having Sayamakaori sencha from Yuuki-cha to start the day, my first time back with this tea in a couple of weeks due to travel and limitations of tea making equipment on the road. Mmm, sweet and light and grassy and delicious. One of the teas I brought with me on a trip was San Nen Bancha from Norbu, a delicious toasty warm tea that I shared with several other tea fans in the evening. I love how japanese tea makers turned stems plus a few leaves into something so lovely. It also further piques my interest in the new TT&D of pan-fired japanese teas from Yuuki-Cha--what other interesting flavors will be coaxed out of the leaves? There has also been a lot of White Oolong from Norbu (finished off my second package of this now-favorite tea already); some pleasant shu puerh from a super-densely compacted smaller Tuo, that required a chocolate pick to remove enough leaf for a brewing; and several sessions of Huang Jin Gui from Norbu, brewed at room temp in the big thermos. Still lots of greener oolongs but today it's distinctly gray outside and I am craving Yancha and puerh. One unpleasant episode recently started with the HJG room temp brewings: after doing this four or five days in a row, keeping the thermos almost constantly filled with room-temperature leaves and water, I thought I smelled something a bit off before I filled it for the next batch, and decided to wash the thermos out with soap. In a great hurry to prepare a day's worth of tea on my way out the door a few days later, I turned to cold-brewing--dropped in some leaf, added tap water, and left the house. Later that day, I discovered that even fine tea leaves cannot overcome the vileness of residual soap flavor.....oh, the horror of wasted tea!

Darn. Did you have to do more cleaning besides the baking soda, or is this loss from baking soda alone?

A black tea that needs a long steep to draw out some balancing astringency sounds like it might be my kind of tea--minus the balancing steep. I've been away from my usual tea setups, making cold-brewed Huang Jin Gui in my thermos, and using a Kamjove device to brew other teas, including the marvelous White Oolong from Norbu to which I am fast becoming.....not addicted, that's too strong a term, but perhaps immoderately fond of the its sweet, subtle spiciness. I've also been playing with a 'hot start' to brewing the Norbu Xi Hu Long Jing, starting with a 180 degree flash infusion to 'wake up the leaves', then brewing the rest of it cooler, 160-170 degrees, and it really is coming out nicely with the melon and pea and floral notes dominating, almost no toasty or cooked asparagus notes. It's a bit tricky controlling those temps with a tea kettle and a thermometer, after so much time with my electric set-the-temp-and-forget-it Pinos, but so worth it for the wonderful infusions I'm getting. I am a convert to this apparently quite traditional technique now--at least, I'll be trying it for just about all of my green teas for a while. I'm looking forward to getting back to my main tea stash and trying this 'hot start' with the fantastic Gu Zhu Zi Sun green.

Frozen butter + coarse box grater = nice, uniform bits of butter for flaky pie crust or biscuits. Whisking dry ingredients together for baking works as well or better than sifting for many things, and you probably already have a whisk even if you don't have a sifter. The metal blade of the food processor works great for kneading bread dough described in more detail on my web site (here) (lesson learned from The Best Bread Ever by Charles Van Over). And a touch of rice flour makes for crisper cookies (tip originally from Marion Cunningham in the Fannie Farmer Baking Book). The internal temperature of a loaf of bread should be 195-210 degrees (195 for soft rolls, 210 for a baguette)--so much easier than 'tap on the bottom' and more accurate for those of us who don't bake daily (don't remember which book this came from, but I'd read dozens of bread books by then, without ever encountering this tip).

I've been drinking plenty of tea lately, but having trouble getting on egullet to report. Today, started with some White Dragon white tea from Norbu--an inexpensive white tea that can give a few very nice infusions when I brew it right, though it does not have the stamina of a fine Yin Zhen silver needle. This afternoon, enjoying some very pleasant and rich shu puerh, 2006 Haiwan 'Peacock Quest'. Good to remember how nice shu can be.

Quite a variety of tea today: the end of a sample of white tea from Norbu (Fuding Ye Fang Bai Cha) filled out with some Yunnan Silver Needles (also from Norbu), which made a lovely mellow morning mix. Later, Yi Wu sheng puerh (from Norbu), two brewings sandwiching some Huang Shan Mao Feng from Jing Tea Shop. Shockingly, no oolong.

I ignore the scale in my kettles until I start getting lots of white flakes left in the bottom of my teacups. Then I treat with vinegar, rinse a bunch of times to get the vinegar out, and brew on. It's aesthetically unpleasing but harmless.