Wholemeal Crank

Does local oxidation/reduction 'microclimate' in the kiln also explain the variation in color between the more orange parts of the Kyusu and cup's glazes? It looks like a uniform glaze up close by texture, but the color differences are signficant.

Thanks for the great tips. As it turns out, she's a bit more conservative on the subject than I suspected, and already complained the the small bodum I suggested doesn't look like the chrome and glass french press she used to have. I like the mug top aeropress, looks a lot like some of the wonderfully clever and handy gadgets coming out now for preparing tea on the go, but I don't think she'll go for it. I think she will be happiest if we just replace the traditional style french press, so it looks the same as what she's used to. The time isn't really an issue, as I think this was requested by guests who prepare the coffee themselves when they're over (my sibling and mom's best friend, IIRC), who remember the one that got cleared out with the overwhelming accumulation of my father's kitchenwares. We got a bit too enthusiastic, it seems, in our Mom-friendly kitchen makeover.

For a non-coffee drinker who wants to offer guests an option of something a step up from a drip filter and a mug, any specific recommendations for a small volume (single serving) french press? I don't drink coffee either so I can't advise my mother on what to get, but it apparently has been requested by a couple of visitors.

Now the hard part is stopping the parade of teaware purchases.....because I've got a pretty nice collection of some pots of different sizes and materials for use at home, a couple of different options for brewing at work, some inexpensive mass produced matched pieces that are very practical for tastings, a few extra special cups that have found regular use at home and at the office....and the cupboard is full. It's time for a thinning of the less-used pieces for goodwill or gifts--the ones that sometimes burn my fingers, or that just aren't the right size for the volumes I usually brew. I've already gone through some of the obvious culls over the past year, and now some of the nicer but neglected pieces need to go. Not looking forward to this part.

I first discovered Norbu Teas through a tea tasting here on eGullet. The Alishan oolong was so fantastic that I immediately placed a larger order, and tried a variety of different teas. I've now ordered from Greg every few months, white teas, green teas, oolongs and puerhs, teas from Taiwan, China, and Japan. There is enough of a selection that I nearly always start with one or two things on my wish list, and after several iterations of saved carts, I and up ordering many different things besides. The best thing about ordering from his shop is that I've now got enough experience with Greg's detailed descriptions of things to be able to predict whether or not I'll like a tea from his prediction, and he knows enough about my palate to pick a couple of samples to include with the order that I am usually going to really like. I also like that he has found some really lovely teas that are quite bargain priced along with the pricier ones, like the wonderful Huang Jin Gui oolong I enjoyed last year--not as long lasting as his Diamond TGYs, but a quarter of the price, and quite lovely for my 'bulk brewing' to share at work. I've had good experiences--good service, good teas--from most of the other merchants I've tried. I have had several lovely teas via eGullet tastings from The Cultured Cup, but their online site is apparently not a patch on the variety and selection of their store. I've had very good results from e-mail and telephone inquiries when I wanted a particular tea I already knew about from a tasting, however--their Pai Mu Dan was particularly impressive after a couple of other experiences that were 'meh'. And the Lemon Myrtle Rooibos continues to impress those I share it with who prefer herbal to C sinensis teas. It was tasting their sencha that finally opened the world of japanese green teas to me. Most of the other sources I've dealt with have had something available that I'd heard about and put on my list of 'must try' teas, and once I am placing an order, a few extra things usually come along too. I enjoyed some very nice green teas from Denstea.com in their sampler, placed an order, decided I prefered light sencha to gyokuro, and then explored a little more last year with a first order from Yuuki-cha. I explained to Dan in an e-mail what my taste preferences were (less umami-sweet, more sugar-sweet) and he picked a group of four teas for me, two of which I liked, and two of which I loved and have reordered a couple of times. I think I tried Yunnan Sourcing simply because it sounded interesting after many mentions here and in other forums. I found some neat teas there--like the Yunnan 'Oriental Beauty' that has been such a delight. I have been working slowly through most of the puerhs I bought there, some because they seem to need more aging, and some--Menghai Golden Needles White Lotus--because the brick is just so firmly compressed that it's hard to break bits off of it. I found HouDe because I was looking for Rou Gui, the 'cinnamon' oolong, but while I enjoyed that tea, I preferred some of the other teas I added just because, like the winter wood-roasted Shui-Xian. The prices seemed in line with the quality of the tea, so I wouldn't expect to find bargains, but definitely good tea. I tried Jing Tea Shop because I wanted to try a few high quality green teas, because I was not sure whether what I was buying from my local tea shop, often at quite high prices, represented the best I could expect to find. And I was not surprised to find that the teas from Jing were much better, while not that much more expensive. I've written elsewhere here that when I first ordered from them, I did not receive a package delivery notice from my local post office, so the package sat at the PO for several weeks. It was about to be returned to China and Sebastien was notified, sent me an e-mail, and I promptly picked it up. That was nice service. While I was aware of Essence of Tea from several sources, it was a plan to finally try some high quality aged puerhs that prompted my first order. I'm still working my way through those samples, and waiting for my 2nd order from them. I love that I can order a small sample of some very pricey aged teas, making it affordable to see what I'm missing in the really aged stuff. I was quite surprised today to get a personal reply when I noted elsewhere that my current order still hadn't arrived--I hadn't contacted them to inquire or complain yet, because it hasn't been that long, and I was the one who didn't pony up for registered/EMS service. That was an unexpectedly friendly touch. It really seems like the online tea business is still small enough that there is a lot of personal touch involved, much more than with most of the other online business I do (and I do a lot of online purchasing). I've been equally happy with the service I've gotten ordering teaware online, direct from the artisans or one via a retailer one step removed from the artist, but just as with the tea, I'm not buying a lot of the really high priced stuff where people may be more highly motivated to commit fraud.

I have found that 'Old Plantation' to be forgiving of just about anything, and it's not just that it doesn't develop unpleasant flavors when brewed in bulk, but the complexity of it is retained much better than many other deeply roasted oolongs brewed the same way. Yesterday I was trying some new teaware, so started the day with Norbu's Zairai sencha in my new kyusu, and later baptized another new teapot with some Diamond TGY. I'm sharing some pictures in the teaware topic.

This week I received two orders of teawares--I think my sales resistance was down after the first order! I have been looking for an especially fine handmade kyusu with more personality than my Tokoname pots for more than a year, and this one by Petr Novak spoke to me: Beautiful inside and out And for the first time, I did a comparative tasting of plain hot water in several of my teapots, to see whether there was any effect of the clay on the water in the absence of tea. I was pleased to note some slight sweetening of the water from this pot's iron-rich clay. I also ordered some cups and a pitcher (a ridiculous number of additional photos of all of these pieces, and links to more info about the artist, are here on my flickr) And shortly after I ordered those, I saw the first really small pots by another artist whose work I'd been admiring, and I picked this bouncy little pot (holds just 60mL), which has a little more neutral impact on the water, and already seems perfect for green oolongs. Even being so tiny, it still has nice details A few more pictures and links to more info about the artist are in my flickr set here. I still haven't figured out how to capture the sparkle of the subtle and complex glaze.

Then this morning I infused a batch of the Muzha Tie Guan Yin from Dragon Tea House, my second time drinking this tea, combining infusions in the thermos. The first time I brewed this, I only noticed a basic deep roast oolong-ness, also during a bulk brewing session. This time, despite being bulk brewed, it was much more interesting--a surprising blend of the spiciness I've associated with new-style green TGY and rich deep roasted flavor. I get hints of this in my inexpensive SeaDyke TGY, but this takes it to another level. I bet this is why it's so popular. Delicious stuff. I'm finishing off the thermos now, 12+ hours later, and it's barely lukewarm but the spicy and the toasty are still hanging on. Nice! Then this afternoon, between the early and late sessions with the Muzha, I finished off the last of my 'High Mountain Beauty' summer 2009 Alishan Oolong from Norbu--the 'bitten' tea. It was an exceptionally nice session, enjoyed by several colleagues. Here's hoping the jassid bugs are getting ready to bite again!

Today I started with the same Zairai sencha, moved on to some fall TGY from Jingteashop, then some 2007 white bud sheng puerh from Norbu, and finally I'm enjoying some spring 2010 TGY from Norbu in a beautiful new cup from Petr Novak (a catalog of his wares is here--linking to that because I don't yet have a proper photo of this cup or the other goodies I got together with it).

I missed making a note first time I drank my 2010 Banpen puerh from Essence of Tea. I think I started a note and then may have lost it someplace on my computer along with some photos of the tea. This time, no photos, but a review.... I broke off a small quantity of this one to enjoy now, although I intend to let most of it age a while. For this infusion series, I used just 1.8 grams of tea in a very small gaiwan, which holds 50-60mL, and tap water at 205 degrees. The dry leaf is quite dark, with some paler leaves twisted in with the rest. The scent is light, herbaceous, soil-like. First a flash rinse, wait a minute or two, then a first flash infusion. Strongly herbaceous, some bitterness waiting in the wings, hint of sweet but only a hint. Leather, fresh-cut wood, umami noticeable after cooling, sipping more slowly. 2nd infusion was similar. 3rd infusion, still flash infusions, more sweetness starting to come to the fore, although the leather/earthy/umami is still dominant. 4th infusion, waited 5 seconds before starting to pour: sweet, anise/herb notes are stronger again. The leather/umami is still there but lightening, less overwhelming but still stronger than anything else. 5th, 10 seconds before pour: more sweet. 6th, similar, the long sweet finish starting to really take over. Yes, there is some bitter in there too, but my taste buds are doing a happy dance now. Nice nice nice. One more and I’ll be done for the evening [nope, make that 3, we’re up to 9 before retiring for the evening]. This is definitely one to continue tomorrow—want to see how far it can go. 10 and 11 down before I had this note open to edit: sweet, delicious, holding up well to some strong onion flavor in what I was eating before starting back with the tea. 12 was too short, about 5 seconds, just sweet water. 13, was barely patient enough to go 20 seconds (I am thirsty)—more flavor of herbs to back up the sweet—14, 15, 16, similar, beautifully balanced between sweet and herbaceous and sweet forest duff, tastebuds doing happy dance again. Then a horrible moment—I looked over for infusion 17 and the gaiwan was EMPTY. Filled, infused again, world righted itself on its axis. Whew. 18, 19, 20 still delicious, but starting to lighten up. Need to lengthen the infusions again. 21 to 2 minutes….still needs more. #22 will be 3 minutes, and was a little better. Going to push #23 for 5 minutes…..and it is again very nice. 10 minutes on #24, and it is nice, but back to nearly sweet water. Time to add water and go do some chores for an hour or two, maybe. #25 lost something to cooling down; #26 suggests the leaves are finally done. Overall, an excellent experience, and this is while it is still only an infant tea.

I've ordered from most of those on your list, except teasource, and this year I've also ordered a couple of puerh cakes from Essence of Tea, ordered some sencha from Dens, and had a first order from Dragon Tea House. I've been generally quite satisfied with most of my online orders, and mostly have branched out and tried different sources because they had a particular tea that I very much wanted to try, like when I wanted to try Rou Gui and HouDe was about the only place that had any left of that year's harvest; or trying Essence of Tea because they had both a good reputation and a good selection of affordably small samples of fine aged puerh teas. And of course it's silly to pay for international shipping for just one tea.... But now there aren't many teas left that are on my 'must try' list, and I've got a better idea of what I really like and want to focus on for the future. I anticipate fewer orders for the rest of 2011, because I ordered and have been enjoying so much tea from 2010 or earlier.

Hadn't really thought of using my pineapple sage leaves for tea.....but it's a great flavor and now seems so obviously perfect for pairing with a light green or white tea. Will try it shortly.

Today started with some Anji white tea (really a green tea, but it says white tea on the jar) from Wing Hop Fung, then moved on to some SeaDyke Ti Kuan Yin. When the Anji loses it (still going strong because I used a LOT of leaf and total infusion time is still not very long), I expect to sneak in a puerh of some kind. A little of this, a little of that, something light and floral, something deep and earthy....

So far no 2011 teas for me. I have lots of 2010 to drink still! But I do have some 2011 in the house and on the way--some senchas from O-Cha and puerhs from Essence of Tea. And I need to get hold of some of that shade-grown TGY before it's all snapped up. I hope to drink down the present inventory so that I'll be better able to take advantage of spring teas next year.

It's been a quiet tea weekend--had to work in the mornings so not as much time for tea as I'd have liked. Yesterday, I got in a morning sencha (Zairai Honyama from Norbu), a midday oolong (spring Alishan from Norbu) and an evening puerh that I kept drinking through today--2010 Banpen from Essence of Tea. Review to come in the puerh topic.

Mostly hot teas, although once or twice some teas cooled to room temp before drinking recently, and once a pot of sencha was left with cold water for the day after only drinking 2 infusions. It's been a bit of sencha, green oolong, dark roast oolong, a bit of puerh, and reload, no particular rhyme or reason except travel limiting choices on several recent days. Now working on some Rou Gui oolong from HouDe, towards the end of a bag that seems to have lost of bit of zip since opening a few months ago. Still a mellow pleasant tea--it's oolong, after all. Earlier, had some Bamboo-aged YiWu puerh from Norbu, and started the day with Yunnan Mao Feng. I also have discovered a new employee in this office is a tea drinker--have to see if I can tempt her from a steady regimen of British teas (spouse is from England). She surprised me by mentioning she bought a new tea-brewing device based on a great review on America's Test Kitchen. I was pleased to hear of a mainstream venue like that focusing on tea.

Today was a travel day with limited access to tea. I started with some still hot 2007 white bud sheng puerh from norbu, and just now am finishing a thermos of spring Alishan oolong. I'm feeling a lot less zombie-like now that I'm no longer sitting inside a moving object, hydrated, and modestly caffeinated. Ahhhh.

I happen to have 'inherited' an office with one very large and one medium file cabinet in addition to the desk drawers. So at the tea overflowed the middle desk drawers, I had an inspiration about a better use for that desk file drawer. No regrets. I keep a lot of tea on hand but also go through it pretty quickly there because I prepare some several times a day and share quite a lot of it with colleagues who mostly use tea bags for their own occasional brewing, but are very happy to enjoy my loose teas too. Most seem quite content with the occasional cuppa of the good stuff, with no burning desire to care more about it, and that's ok with me. Sharing means I do get to enjoy more variety of tea than I could otherwise if buying strictly for me.

Had completely missed the release of that, looks terrific. Putting it on the shopping list.

Found the 'Aqualife' version at a shop with a good selection of candies recently. They were pretty good, but the color/flavor combos weren't quite the same as what I remembered from the original fish in the bulk boxes. I didn't care so much for the purple ones.

Same here. I've been alternating white teas with sencha for morning tea since shortly after that time. Today, a very pleasant day with sencha to start, then moved on to Lao Ban Pen loose Mao Cha, a 2010 offering from Norbu, which just kept going and going in a small yixing pot. I am ending with some Song Zhong dan cong from Tea Habitat, and occasionally alternating with a few last infusions of the Lao Ban Pen.

My kitchenaid primarily is used for cakes and cookies--baked goods that require a lot of beating. I do breads in the food processor, and haven't generally been impressed by the functionality of the various attachments, although I recently pulled out the slicer to cut some vegetables for making stock--the food processor is a better cutter, but needs frequent emptying. If I gave up cookies tomorrow (hell will freeze over first), I'd have very little use for mine.

It's been a couple of pleasant days with tea. Yesterday's highlight was a beautiful session with my 2006 Purple Bud Haiwan puerh from Norbu, where I suddenly noted a very tasty resemblance to the lovely aged shengs I've been tasting from Essence of Tea. I am torn between wanting to drink it faster now, and wondering what might happen if I wait longer and let it age more. Today, a very sweet session with spring Alishan oolong from Norbu, and a pleasing session with Dragon Well.

Today I've only had two teas, a start of Tai Ping Hou Kui from Jingteashop, and the rest of the day working on a series of infusions from some of the 2007 Menghai Golden Needles White Lotus Shu puerh from Yunnan Sourcing. The leaves just keep giving and giving, so I haven't had a chance/need to start a third tea.

I did start small, mostly 2 oz/50g or less of each tea at a time, and sometimes up to 4 oz/100g of teas I especially liked, participated in lots of tastings, and still rarely buy larger quantities except for the occasional full-sized cake of puerh, which are usually 300-400g apiece. I don't have very many of those--still well under a dozen. I do have a lot of teas around, because through reading, tasting, and brewing lots of teas, I've discovered that I like so many of them.