Wholemeal Crank

I find it pretty trivial to take a pomegranate, slice it in half, and put it in my citrus juicer. I have a reasonably heavy duty versionlike this, and it makes the juicing easy. I don't try for every last bit of juice. I have an acquaintance who brings me fabulous pomegranates every year, and I juice them and make curd, jam, or simply drink the juice. Well worth a little trouble, although I probably wouldn't do it if they weren't free, or nearly free.

Drinking a richer than usual mix of sayamakaori sencha from Yuuki-cha, almost 6grams in my little 5 oz kyusu, brewing a little cooler than usual, 145 degrees, and oh my, rich, sweet, deep, lovely. As usual, a wide variety of teas over the last couple of weeks, and some of the highlights were a nice herbal tisane last night, a mix of chamomile, hibiscus, citrus zest, and tulsi; some sessions with the 2009 Norbu charcoal-roasted Tie Guan Yin from Taiwan, a sneaky-good tea that just gets better and better the more I drink it, and the longer it sits in my thermos when bulk-brewed; a couple of lovely dan cong sessions with the Wu Ye dark leaf from Tea Habitat; some very pleasing puerh sessions, mostly with young loose mao chas from Norbu; and one horrid session with a jasmine/silver needle mix that reminded me why I have stopped buying and drinking jasmine pretty much completely--it was at the request of a colleague, and I had only a little of it left, and the soap-like taste was memorable for all the wrong reasons.

After that very nice session with the Norbu Zairai sencha two days ago, today I tried my Sayamakaori cooler than usual--starting at 145 degrees, ending up at 160, instead of starting first infusions 160 and gradually increasing to 180 degrees. It was lovely--a little sweeter, mellower, but still rich and vegetal. Very nice.

Have never had to clean oven racks. I keep both racks in my oven with bricks on them at all times, unless I have a specific reason to not want the bricks there: I regularly bake two sheets of stuff at once and shift them top/bottom and flip front/back once during baking.

Today's tea day has been shifted towards the lighter side of things: more of the Zairai sencha from norbu, lower temp and sweeter results; Hankook 'oolong' or Hwang Cha; Ya Bao wild white camellia buds from norbu; and Anji 'white' tea from Wing Hop Fung. Now feeling a bit tea drunk this evening.

Another brewing of the Zairai sencha this morning, and at Greg's suggestion, I tried a lower temperature: 145 degrees, and it is quite entirely lovely. This is the sweet spot. 30", 10", 30". Upped temp to 155 for the 4th infusion. Sweet and nutty and lovely. The nutty was decreased in the first infusion vs the last time when I started 160 degrees, but came back in the 2nd and third infusion; the fourth, with hotter water, brought back the sweetness over the nutty. Still, the nuttiness reminds me a lot of Long Jing.

Spring 2010 Hon Yama Zairai Sencha from Norbu Tea This is a sweet, nutty, vegetal sencha without the strong briny umami that I so often find offputting in more heavily steamed senchas and gyokuro. The leaf is deep rich green, medium long fragments--not quite as long as the Sayamakaori from Yuuki-cha, but longer than my average Asamushi sencha, very sweet smelling, even a bit nutty. 2.5 grams of leaf in a small gaiwan, about 2.5 oz or 75 mL of tap water per infusion 1st infusion, 30 seconds sweet, vegetal, nutty, very nice 2nd infusion, 10 seconds vegetal, sweet, nutty--the nutty is a hint of astringency, I think, but not bitterness, and a hint of toasted/roasted flavor 3rd infusion, 45 seconds again, the toasty, vegetal nuttiness, astringency, but light a 4th infusion, 1 minute still nutty, vegetal, now fairly astringent The finished leaves are bright green, and moderately broken up, although I did fine one or two small whole leaves I think part of the astringency is the brewing, here, because just for accuracy's sake, not really for comparison, I'm brewing up some of the Yuuki-Cha Sayamakaori sencha at the same time, and finding some of the same elements in it--not the roastedness, but more astringency than I'm used to. I think my leaf-to-water ratio is really not quite the same as in the kyusu. But I've got a pretty good idea that this is going to be a very nice sencha, and am looking forward to first proper session with the Tokoname kyusu. Both with this and with another new green tea I tried this weekend, it's quite clear that despite attempts to control conditions, changes in brewing conditions for the purpose of doing these comparisons--brewing sencha in my gaiwans instead of my kyusu--sometimes distorts the results, because I'm moving outside my usual comfort zone. A 2nd set of infusions, in the 5 oz kyusu with 4 grams of leaf, tap water 160 degrees at first, infusions 30", 15", 30"; raised temp to 170 degrees for 45 seconds and 1 minute infusions, worked out better, still some astringency but not as much. This is a nice, vegetal nutty sencha.

1997 Heng Li Chang Bu Lang Sheng Puerh Aged sheng puerh tea from Essence of Tea, First try with this aged puerh. Using tap water, small porcelain gaiwan, 2 grams of tea, and 60-75mL water with each infusion. Water is just off the boil. Dry leaves smell of sweet rich soil. First a flash rinse, then 20 second first infusion: sweet, earthy, anise, a hint of herby/spicy but no bitterness. The liquor turns my golden shino cup to deep red-orange. 30 seconds 2nd: sweet, earthy, thick, liquor and a little bitter 30 seconds 3rd: sweet, earthy, little bitter 30 seconds 4th: still sweet, earthy, no bitter, bit of fruity 45 seconds 4th: sweet, earthy, little spiciness/resinous but not bitter 60", 60", 60", 90"—color lightening, still sweet, mellow, earthy, bits of caramel and raisin or plum 2’, 2’, 3’—starting to lose it, heading towards sweet water. Going to try one more at 5 minutes—and there is still something there, even earthy and sweet coming forward despite having just eaten a mint. It’s not strong, but not quite just sweet water yet. Nice pu! The big question I was trying to answer with this order from Nada was how much better aged puerhs are than my current young shengs and shus. While this is a very smooth and pleasant tea, I can’t say that I love it 5 to 10 times more than some of the lovely but quite inexpensive young pus I’ve gotten from other sources. It’s definitely smooth and mellow in a way that has no parallel in my young shengs, but it is approached by the better of my young shus, and the young shengs have other attractions like smokiness and umami that are absent in teas like this.

I had a pleasant sencha morning with a tasting of a group of sencha samples from another online forum. The Shin-ryoku from Den's was part of it, and it was a nice reminder of what a lovely tea it is. There was a kabusecha that was part of it, and it reminded me very much of the Korean greens I tried earlier this year--very grassy-sweet and pleasant, and quite different in character from what I remember of the Kabusecha that was part of our recent tasting here. The Yuuki-cha Kabusecha had much deeper umami, and this one is very light and delicate: really umami-free. Then moved on to one of my new green teas, a Yunnan green that I first got as a free sample with a recent Norbu order, and liked enough to order more. Greg now has a good enough bead on my taste buds that this seems to happen more often than not! I started out with the idea of doing larger western-style infusions and using my large sansai Hagi cup, but ended up with a very pleasant but overly dilute tea; then overcompensated by putting in so much tea into a larger teapot that I ran out of capacity to drink it before the leaves were done. I do have enough left that I will not try to save these leaves, and will go back to it again later to try for a proper tasting on a scale I'm used to, with the small gaiwans in which I do most of my green tea brewing.

Today has been a very nice teaful day. No sencha to start, but midday drank a lot of Anji white tea, and was pointed to a very interesting article about the origins of this tea by someone on another forum even while I was in the midst of drinking some. And got a chance to use some of my new cups to share the tea at lunch today. With supper, some 2007 Rui Cao Xiang 'Wu Liang Wild Arbor' Sheng from Yunnan Sourcing, brewed a little cooler than usual at first (180 degrees), smooth but complex, with some elements of umami, smoky, herbaceous, sweet, and earthy. Then finished off with a sneak peek at Norbu's new Japanese teas with a sample of Sunpu Boucha, reviewed in the Japanese tea topic.

Not sure where to put this review, because this is such an in-between-y tea: Sunpu Boucha - 2010 1st Harvest Hon Yama Kuki-Hojicha Got a little sample of this free with my latest Norbu order, and because I want to get to sleep early tonight, I figured a low-caffeine tea was just the ticket for my first taste of the new stuff. I very much enjoy a roasted toasted flavor in my teas, but the first genmaicha I tried was overwhelmingly toasty and not at all to my taste. I think this tea must be what genmaicha wishes it could be: warm toasty but also sweet and surprisingly, fruity! I started with 2.4 grams of tea in my small gaiwans (about 75mL or 2.5 oz water per infusion), with water at 150 degrees. I used shorter infusion times than Greg recommends just because I’m a tea wimp and like most of my teas a little more dilute than average, and for the same reason I started on the lower end of his suggested temp range. I started 30 seconds, then 15, 30, 45, 45. All infusions were warmly toasty, but not so toasted as to be bitter (in this very different than that genmaicha that I couldn’t really enjoy at all). They were also sweet, and where I was expecting some vegetal flavors from the green leaf, something alchemical happened with the toasted stems transmuting it into fruitiness. Wonderful, odd, but wonderful. Very very nice. The sweet n’ fruity faded with later infusions, but even at my fifth it was delicious (probably lasting so long because of my short infusion times). This is a very nice tea.

I've come up with a few nice cracker recipes--saltines, corny crackers. Honey corn muffins keep well room temp or frozen, easier for the recipient than a whole pan of cornbread. Oatmeal raisin cookies keep better than anything and travel pretty well, although if the weather is hot they sometimes congeal a bit into a large cookie mass (but are still delicious when crumbled apart!). They also seem more nourishing with the nuts and raisins and oats than just a basic butter cookie. Poppyseed shortbreads are also long keepers and very sturdy. I've never tried to ship soup--it would just make me nervous--but I can imagine few things nicer than thawing out a bowl of split pea wonderfulness on a cold dreary fall day. Lots of great ideas here.

Today, shared some Bi Luo green tea in the office, and this afternoon, a wonderful infusion of Wuliang Shan Mao Cha, Loose Sheng Puerh Tea, Spring 2009 Harvest by Norbu. Today I bulk brewed up a thermos of it, starting with cooler water, because I was simultaneously working with the Bi Lo Chun, and then ramping up the temp for the last few infusions to nearly boiling. As always, this is a lovely tea, but what was a little unusual and different is that somehow the flavor has a very strong sweet/caramel/woody note that was so strongly reminiscent of the 2008 Yi Wu bamboo aged puerh I’ve been drinking that I could have sworn it was the same tea. And since I love that Yi Wu, this was a pleasant surprise. Now drinking some more of it--refreshed the leaves with hot water and going for more. Love these long-lasting young shengs.

Hot chocolate mix, nicely spiced/seasoned. I start with good chocolate (my preferred is 70% Sharffenberger, but what matters most is a chocolate calibrated to their taste preferences re: how dark it is/cacao percentage), chop it coarsely, whirl it with an appropriate amount of nonfat dried milk in the food processor, and add some of my favorite chocolate seasonings like chili-cinnamon or long pepper & lime. I start with about 1 ounce of chocolate per 8 oz of milk for non-choco-fiends, so 1 oz chocolate to 1/4 cup of powdered milk. Then they just scoop out some of the mix, stir in a bit of cold water first (to be sure the powdered milk doesn't clump--you're not putting in anti-caking stuff like you'd find in foil pouches of the stuff), and then hot water to taste.

Still haven't opened my black or oolong from Yuuki-cha yet. Working on too many others at this time..... After lonely drinking yesterday--a quart of lovely 2007 white bud sheng puerh from norbu all to myself--today has been a sharing day. Started with sencha with breakfast, a particularly nice rich brewing of the Yuuki-cha sayamakaori, and then on to share some of Norbu's Huang Jin Gui at work with a candidate interviewing for a position with us, and while that particular batch might have been losing a bit of it's freshest bloom after being opened for more than a month now, I think it still helped to leave a good impression on her. Then....well....a mistake. I was slow getting the afternoon thermos prepped, and after some good results with quite a few oolongs and puerhs recently from setting the tea to hot water in the Kamjove while I go down to lunch--ending up with mostly one very concentrated brewing, and pouring enough additional water through the leaves afterwards to get most of the residual flavor, generally with good results, I tried it with the wrong candidate. My Phoenix Honey Iris oolong from Wing Hop Fung turned rather unpleasantly bitter. Sigh. It wasn't horrible so it was still traded around a bit in the afternoon clinic, but people weren't clamoring for seconds, and much was mercifully dispatched before the evening session with Precious Rare [Anji] White Tea from WHF. Sweet, spicy, vegetal, rich, washed the sadness of the Phoenix honey iris right away. I love this stuff.

He also added several Japanese teas to his lineup. I'm eagerly awaiting my latest box with them. I've only got another month's worth of sencha left in the cupboard....

That charcoal roasted TGY is almost too roasty-toasty for my everyday drinking--I prefer the Dong Ding overall--but that high-roast TGY holds marvelously in the thermos for a long day or a long drive. I've enjoyed some of it my last couple of drives to Las Vegas.

I regularly shave off a bit of black here and there on cauliflower, and it seems just fine.

Another day, another oolong.... Dayu Shan 2010 Taiwanese spring oolong tea from Wing Hop Fung, A very nice oolong, quite pricey, actually, and I'm not sure yet if it's worth the price. I'm trying to understand the buttery flavor other people have reported in Taiwanese mountain oolongs, like Da Yu Ling. Making this one in a small clay pot, about 5 grams of tea in about 100 mL of water. The water is near boiling--the Pino is keeping it between 198 and 212 degrees throughout. First infusion was 30 seconds, not too sweet, but rich, floral, warm, a little spicy, and yes, a little buttery....I think that what I have been thinking of as a sun-warmed hay could be interpreted as buttery. A little longer 2nd infusion is spicier, vegetal, still a little of the 'buttery', but the floral/sweet elements are a bit overwhelmed because of the overlong infusion. Third infusion, down again to about 40", better, the buttery is more prominent, but the sweet/floral is not as strong as the first infusion. 4th at 45 seconds is spicy, sweet, floral, but the buttery has receded this time. By the 8th infusion it's getting pretty much to slightly sweet or spicy water. In the end, this one presently lacks the very strong sweet and floral notes I expect in the best Alishan oolongs, and I suspect the difference is not the nature of the tea, but the storage conditions with the tea in a large jar instead of tiny vacuum sealed bags.

Yesterday I finally brewed up a couple of free samples included in a recent order from Norbu, two loose young sheng puerhs: 2007 Spring Yong De Mao Cha and 2010 Spring Lao Ban Pen Mao Cha. Both of these have long intact-appearing leaves and a fair bit of stem. The leaves smell sweet and earthy, a stronger mushroom odor to the Lao Ban Pen than the 2007 Yong De. Yong De on left, Lao Ban Pen on right I put 2 grams of each into my tiniest gaiwans, with 1.5 ounces near boiling water. After a flash rinse, both smell even stronger and more delicious. First infusion, 205°F/96°C, 10": YD--sweet anise LBP--smoky, earthy, sweet Second infusion, 205°F/96°C, 15": YD--sweet anise, woody/earthy starting up LBP--sweet and earthy, woody, bit of anise and smokiness lighter already Yong De on left, Lao Ban Pen on right Third infusion, 205°F/96°C, 20": YD--sweet anise, woody/earthy LBP--sweet and earthy, woody, bit of anise, smokiness almost gone Fourth infusion, 205°F/96°C, 20": YD--sweet anise, woody/earthy, still the anise is very strong, bit of bitter aftertaste LBP--earthy, sweet, smoky Fifth infusion, 205°F/96°C, 35": YD--sweet anise, earthy has retreated now, bitter/sweet aftertaste LBP--sweet and earthy, bit of herbaceous flavor Sixth infusion, 205°F/96°C, 60" (stopped to take a picture of the leaves): YD--sweet anise and earthy, rich and strong LBP--sweet and earthy, deep, warm, rich Seventh infusion, 205°F/96°C, 1': both a little dilute, should have let them go longer, more sweet water with hints of anise (YD) or earthy (LBP) Eighth infusion, 205°F/96°C, 3': oh, this is much better, my anise and earthy flavors are back. Still delicious, yum. Young sheng stars. Losing count--10? 11? still wonderful, both of them. Troubling fact: I want to shoot the spent leaves, lay them out to show the size and pluck, but they're just not quitting, now 15, 16 infusions in. It will be a long night. 1.5 liter later (the kettle was filled completely when I started), they're not as rich, but still, a little better than just sweet water. Wet leaves are are mix of light brown and green, but the LBP is more uniformly light green, and the leaves are a bit smaller than the YD. Yong De on left, Lao Ban Pen on right

As a card-carrying wholemeal crank, I believe you should stop trying to compromise and just use whole wheat flour (the proper pastry or all-purpose or bread versions, naturally) for everything. But since most of the world is crazy enough to disagree with me, I'll try to answer the question you asked, instead of the question you should have been asking. Really it all depends on what you're looking for with the whole wheat. If it's just a theoretically extra bit of healthfulness in a mostly white flour recipe, you can generally substitute 100% all purpose flour and your recipe will be fine. You'll lose the taste boost--the nuttiness of the whole grain--but poorly treated and rancid whole wheat flour that sits in the back of the cupboard doesn't boost things in a good way anyway. And unless the recipe is VERY plain--simple breads with flour, water, yeast, salt; crackers without oils or spices; you're probably not going to miss the whole wheat that much, especially if it's making up 1/3 or less of the flour total for the recipe.

Just saw this topic in the banner this morning. I like fruit, and I like cake, but the technicolor bits of candied citrus pith in liquor drenched bricks in the cakes my grandmother and then my father used to make were the stuff of nightmares. I have since realized that I can make delicious cakes with dried fruit (stuff good enough to eat plain), sans the liquor, and they can be delightful. It's fruit, and cake, and actually tastes good.

White chocolate is just sugared grease, and though the grease may be cacao butter, it's still just sugared grease. Vile stuff.

I remember reading about his chocolate in somebody's book a while back.....blanking on the name of the book and the author, but the author actually travelled to Corallo's plantation and made me very excited to watch for when the chocolates became commercially available. Thank you for the heads up! on this one. Yay! Off to order some. Only google checkout. Order FAIL.

Don't know from sweatiness, but I have enjoyed chocolate plus lime plus long pepper (gives pepper plus some extra fruitiness that plays well off the citrus), or cardamom (similar but not peppery), or basil (adds peppery without the fruity).