Wholemeal Crank

Drinking the Bang Wai today, brewed in a satellite office in a larger gaiwan with less precision than with scales & pino kettle at home, primarily from the crumbled bits at the bottom of the pouch: the smoky/earthy/umami is predominant, and the sweet herbaceous flavors have taken a back seat. Quite a different flavor profile, but I am not sure what direction I've changed the leaf-to-water ratio, but hard to see where this smoky/umami predominance comes from when there is no noticeable bitterness. Very interesting to have such different results, and now wish I'd checked the weight of leaf--I do have a scale with me.

Why did I see this topic 48 hours after I just juiced a dozen pomegranates with my citrus juicer????!!! (banging head on wall)

Aroma tends to come out best with very hot water. An aroma cup set can also help concentrate it for you--they're weird and wonderful little things. I have a cute one in celadon....but the pics I have are of a previous incarnation.... Mini aroma cup set by debunix, on Flickr Mini aroma cup set by debunix, on Flickr

Today is more of an oolong day--started with the giant green leaves of the Tai Ping Hou Kui I reviewed here in the Chinese green tea topic--and moved on to an autumn Tie Guan Yin from Jing tea shop, now working on 2009 winter Shui Xian from HouDe.

2009 Old Plantation Qing Xin from Norbu--that's what I was enjoying earlier. Just lovely lovely stuff.

I Don't think "jade" has any standardized significance here. It could refer to this being an especially high quality oolong, eg, one of my favorite oolongs from norbu is labeled "diamond grade", or simply be a clue to it being a lightly roasted, green-colored oolong. Today enjoying a lovely sweet mellow medium roast Taiwanese Oolong from norbu, but forgot exactly which one. Will have to update this later, because this tea is so lovely that I want to give it a lot of credit.

It took me a while to get the bitterness and steep time correlation thoroughly understood, intuititively. It was another tasting here, of a puerh that was reputed to be quite bitter, but that when brewed really short was marvelously sweet and flavorful. So the timing has become less a matter of 'how long should it go' and more 'how long can I let it go, to maximize the flavor, before the bitterness gets to me?' With that guiding principle, I've been able to find a sweet spot for nearly every puerh I've tried--although some of them, like these lovely teas of Nada's, have more natural sweetness to give.

For round 2, did about the same thing, 1.2 grams of tea to 1 oz mini gaiwans, but water 170 degrees to start. Started with a flash rinse, then infused at 10" to start. First infusion--impression of smoky sweetness from the Bang Wai, sweet mellowness from the Man Mai, and spicy sweet from the Man Sai. The Bang Wai definitely packs more punch with herbaceous/atringent notes even in this barely-there first infusion. Second infusion was longer, 25"--I needed to stir something else--still the same general impression, the deep smoky mushroomy umami is strong in the Bang Wai, and there is some actual bitterness coming out, just a hint, and a background of pleasing sweetness. The Man Mai has the sweetness, but lacks the smokiness and umami and the bitterness, so there is sweet and a bit of spicy background. The Man Sai has sweetness, a bit more herby spiciness. 3rd, 4th at 15-20 seconds, really lovely, enjoying them all, light, sweet, anise-herbs, still lightly smoky Bang Wai , but really only the Bang Wai is smoky; the Man Mai and Man Sai are closer to each other than the Bang Wai. I forgot a 5th or 6th infusion for several minutes, and even at that low temperature, all of them were undrinkably bitter. The next infusion, not forgotten, they were back to all lovely and welcoming, with the strong difference between Bang Wai and the others, and milder difference between the Man Mai and Man Sai still discernible. I am running out of time to take good leaf pictures, but they all look very similar piled on the side of the gaiwans: olive greens, small leaves, some broken, some stems. There may be minor differences visible on more careful examination that I have missed. I'm done with tea for the night, as I'm already all but swimming full of tea, but will try for some more infusions tomorrow. I think these can easily do 15-20 of my short infusions, although that one very long forgetful one has surely taken half a dozen infusions' worth of flavor out of them.

Interesting that I just came here to post about a lovely set of flatware that is the first one I've seen that combines the roundedness I love in my ex-housemate's soup spoons and the full-length squareness I want in a fork, and wonderfully solid feel in the hand, and it's also by Robert Welch: Flute from Williams-Sonoma Very tempting, less expensive per place setting, but also not apparently available as extra individual pieces for replacements.

A pleasant start to the day today.... Sencha morning by debunix, on Flickr

As far as I know, the 30-second steep to decaffeinate is a myth, and does not truly decaffeinate the tea. The later cups may have less caffeine than the first one, but still have amounts noticeable to anyone who's really sensitive to caffeine.

Two Tai Ping Hou Kui green teas Head to head comparison of an inexpensive version from Wing Hop Fung, and a fancier grade from Jing Tea Shop. 2 grams of leaf: Wing Hop Fung on the left, and Jing Tea Shop on the right Jing's version has larger, more intact leaves, and the color is brighter and fresher I used 2 grams of tea in gaiwans with about two and half ounces (75mL) of water at 160-165 degrees per infusion, and infusions times of 45 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute, and 90 seconds. Even though the leaves are quite long, they soften enough to fit in the gaiwans. The Jing tea is not only lighter in color of liquor and leaf, but cleaner and lighter in flavor, with lemon notes amid the sweet pea vegetal flavors. There is a bit more spiciness in the WHF version, probably a bit of astringency coming out. This was consistent through all of the infusions, the greater refinement and higher quality of the Jing tea being obvious. Leaves after infusions

This was my first go with these teas, last weekend. Caveat: I have enjoyed this same combination of samples in a tasting sponsored by a different forum, but since I didn't reread my reviews, and have mostly forgotten the details other than that I really liked all the teas, I don't think that much influenced what I wrote here. About 1.2 grams of tea in the smallest gaiwans (about 1 ounce of water per infusion) Water just off the boil (about 205F/96C) flash rinse, 30 seconds wait, first infusion 10 seconds: not a lot of difference between them: sweet anise/herbs, earthy tones behind it, tasty stuff. 2nd infusion, 15 seconds: Bang Wai a bit more herbaceous than the rest. 3rd infusion, 15 seconds: can't tell any difference between them, all pleasant sweet young shengs 4th infusion, 20 seconds: Still not a lot of difference. This one is hard. Somewhere 6th infusion or so….gradual, strengthening impression of difference between the different teas: the Bang Wai has a stronger, more bitter flavor than the others, although all have strong herbaceous qualities, anise-rich and sweet. The other two are harder to separate out. Let another infusion--7th or 8th--let it go quite long, too long, really, so that it started got quite bitter, to try to push out the differences between them. The Bang Wai was a bit aggressively bitter, hard to find the sweet and anise in the bitter. The Man Mai is also bitter, but easier to find the sweeter flavors around it: I think this is why Nada says it is the most approachable of these for someone new to puerh. The Man Sai is in between the other two. Next infusion, about 1 minute or so, and they're back to harder to distinguish, deliciously sweet, anise, notes of chocolate, earthy, herbaceous and tasty; not getting the smokiness that was mentioned for the Man Sai, or really any extra bitter in the Bang Wai. Somewhere about 11 or 12 now, and it's time to stop. I suspect the leaves have another infusion or two in them, but I've run out of teatime, and won't be able to get back to them for a few days. So. goodnight, lovely teas! Later today or tomorrow I hope to get back to these teas again, for round 2, this time brewing them cooler like green teas.

Started the day backwards, with a fancy taiwanese oolong from Wing Hop Fung (a nice tea but for that price I could be drinking more of norbu's Diamond TGY); and now on green tea with Jin Xuan from Norbu, almost the end of the spring 2010 harvest.

I hated my misto, but love this sprayer, easy to use, doesn't clog, no idea why so different and better-behaved: Olive Oil Mister by debunix, on Flickr 2 left on Amazon....

FYI, a nice tasting set of smaller matched gaiwans can be purchased here, on Ebay, from Dragon Tea House, a seller with a pretty good reputation AFAIK.

While on the phone with Mom last night, I browsed Ebay, and described that one to her. It was definitely a smaller booklet that she remembered--no spiral or hard covers, about 20-30 pages. But I'd bet that one is more inclusive and has the recipe she wants. I'll probably buy one of those for her if we can't find her original with some more digging around.

The first infusion has to hydrate the leaves, and if it is a tightly curled leaf, it will need extra time to expand the leaves a little before much flavor comes out. Here is a series of photos of some tightly rolled green tea between infusions, showing what I mean. And haven't yet picked the first tea of the morning.

Very helpful, thanks! Looks like 1 cup bisquick to 1/4 to 1/3 cup of milk and a bit of butter for the 8x8 pan is going to be the starting point.

Looking for a recipe for my mom: as we have readjusted the kitchen from my Dad's custody for 20 years, back to hers, she is now cooking again, and looking here and there for some of those favorite recipes. Today's request is for a recipe from a lost Bisquick recipe pamphlet, which vintage circa 1960-1970, perhaps 20-30 pages--not a large hardback book--with a lot of yellow and red on the cover, for Peach Crisp. I've been browsing on Ebay and not finding anything that sounds quite right, although I really need her to be looking over my shoulder instead of on the phone, so she can try to recognize the cover....or better yet, a gulleteer can come through, so we can just get the recipe we need--the only one she made from that booklet. I want the recipe too because I tried off & on for a few years to recreate that particular texture of topping--a little bit biscuity/cakey but not too sweet or too fluffy, but couldn't do it. With the original in hand, I'd like to try again. Help?!

Welcome! Good to see you posting here. To strengthen the flavor, try increasing the amount of leaf (perhaps double it to start); lengthening infusion time; or using hotter water. Even the fanciest grade Dragon Well that I've had has had the potential for being a strong, even aggressively bitter tea if I do not treat it with attention and respect, so I'm sure you can get a stronger flavor from it--whether or not that will be the kind of flavor you're seeking is another question. And those suggestions--more leaf, more time, hotter water--to strengthen the tea results are applicable across different types of tea.

Tea wimp that I am, I started these out with about 1 gram of tea per ounce water in small gaiwans, with water just off the boil, but very short infusion times--10 seconds to start, after the flash rinse. And after several infusions, I had to go to a significantly longer one to bring out some differences. That wasn't a pleasant infusion to drink, but was important to confirm what I was tasting in less concentrated form before and after. I've also enjoyed brewing young sheng like this quite cool, like a green tea. Fortunately, we have enough of these samples for me to brew several ways, and next time I may do them cooler/longer.

I've been using that site for ten years, and it has been frequently updated and expanded. My biggest worry has been that it would someday vanish, because I've come to depend on it for introductions to ever-more obscure seasonings. It's clearly a personal work, and not perfect, but far more comprehensive in scope than what I've encountered in print.

Not a lot of dumb stuff left in the kitchen, as it gets winnowed through pretty regularly. Lots of trips to goodwill recently. There was the electric donut 'baker' which actually did get used a couple of times to entertain nieces and nephews, but made an odd little cakey thing not remotely like a proper yeast donut; or the dinky ice cream maker that promised to chill and freeze a cup of iced treat with just a bit of stirring, but was utterly useless without a deep freeze to chill things enough; but they're gone now. Nothing quite that dumb left. Probably the current champ for dumbest would be a small set of 'collapsable' bowls I bought for a travel kitchen set, but which fit more neatly in the travel bag open and nested than collapsed and stacked.

Aha.....I have a refrigerator covered in magnets that get too little use as it is.....d'Oh!