Wholemeal Crank

Another try with the Jade dragon, attempting to find the tropical notes, and using quite different brewing parameters: 2.5g, small clay pot (a thin-walled one previously used primarily for green oolongs, but not enough to have any significant seasoning, and preheated with a volume check), about 100mL water, temp 180 degrees: trying to find the tropical fruits noted by cdh in his posts. 1 minute first infusion, and set some to the aroma cup. Getting no astringency whatsoever, and lovely vegetal sweetness, with a little floral character that might be part of the 'tropical' notes cdh notes. This is a wonderful, rich infusion. 2nd infusion, 90 seconds, still quite hot for a green tea, 176 degrees: hints of astringency now, but still a mix of vegetal and floral, very rich and sweet, perhaps traces of scent reminiscent of my pineapple sage plant, and there is a wonderful sweet, fruity aftertaste that is lasting a long time. 3rd infusion, 2 minutes, again about 178 degrees, still with floral, vegetal, astringent, liking this better than the first infusions I did in the gaiwan, not sure if the difference is temperature, balance of leaf to water (this was a bit lower leaf/water ratio), or the clay. 4th infusion, 3 minutes, 178 degrees, still giving some sweetness, but the depth of flavor is going now. And hints of astringency in my mouth between sips belied by the sweet aftertaste in the back of my throat. Definitely a more attractive tea this time round.

Forgot to add that those teas were part of a free tasting organized by another tea forum. There was also a fifth tea, but I did not have enough gaiwans to feature the Mandarin Tea Room's YiWu, which was also very nice in an earlier solo tasting. I have a full cake of a different EoT young sheng, and am looking forward to that one too, since these were so delicious. But first, tonight, I have a date with another tea from the current TT&D to see if I can find some tropical flavors in it.

A taste comparison of 4 loose young sheng puerhs: Essence of Tea 2010 Bangwai Village http://www.essenceoftea.co.uk/2010-Bangwai.html 2010 Manmai Village http://www.essenceoftea.co.uk/2010-Manmai.html 2010 Mansai Village http://www.essenceoftea.co.uk/2010-Mansai.html The Mandarins Tearoom 2005 Nannuo Mt. http://themandarinstea.blogspot.com/2006/05/kunming-yiwu-nannou-2005-pre-ming.html Conditions: 1.5 grams each tea, 30mL per infusion in tiny gaiwans, boiling water flash rinse, and water set to 205 degrees in the Pino so it would hold it quite hot for the multiple infusions. Infusion timing was 10", 15", 15", added some cooler infusions just to see what difference it might make, 20" at 170 degrees, 30", 30"; and a few more infusions done the next day, at hotter temps, still nice but flavor fading. The Manmai and Nannuo were more immediately approachable, sweet and light and a bit spicy without astringency or bitterness; the Mansai and Bangwai both had a stronger smokiness and bitterness especially at the beginning. Most interestingly, the Mansai and Bangwai also kept more complex flavors into the infusions, even the next day, with less bitterness but earthy/sweet/spicy there, while the Manmai and the Nannuo were close to hot water by that time. No photos of the actual teas, because I drank them from some darkly colored cups, hiding the color of the teas.

Winter harvest 2009 Jin Xuan 1.9 grams of tea (was aiming for 2.0, but got tired of adding & subtracting little bits) in small gaiwans, about 60-75mL water And I took photos this time, watching the unfurling infusion by infusion: flash rinse barely started to unfurl anything Started timidly, 30" at 160 degrees: warm, vegetal, sweet but the infusion is a little too short/dilute 1 minutes at same temp: vegetal flavors of peas, grass, lightly floral background, no hint of bitterness, much better match of infusion time and tea. Used the aroma cup set for this, and it was fun, sweet fresh mown grass odors. 90" third infusion, sweet, vegetal, delicate, love it love it, the best yet 2' a little hotter, 170 degrees, slight astringency but still mostly vegetal 3' 180 degrees, and better than the previous, sweet, vegetal, such a nice tea 5' 190 degrees, and the tea is done: barely more flavor than hot water. Large lovely leaves are now mostly unfurled, but I couldn't get them to completely flatten long enough to shoot the picture Next time, 1 min, 90", 2 min, 3 min, 8 min? I was lucky enough to get some of the spring version of this tea, and quite sad when I went to reorder it and found it was sold out. This is an entirely worthy successor.

Had a particularly nice sencha this morning--the Honyama from Yuuki-cha--in my Sansai Hagi cup. It is quite large--holding easily 2 infusions from my small kyusu--really too large for my everyday use, but still feels very good in my hands, and looks even lovelier full of sencha.

I like to use spelt--a type of wheat--in lentil soup; here's a soup with chickpeas and a flavor more asian than european; I sometimes add it to vegetable soups, precooked or at least cooked in the stock first, because it takes such a long time to get to that tender/chewy texture; but mostly I mill my wheat, with a mill that makes properly fine flours for breads or pastries or whatever I want:

I like to saute sweet potato cubes in my wok, toss in some pecans, toast them nicely, finish with some sherry, toss with pasta, and grate some dry jack or parmesan or pecorino over all. Mmmm. Have all the ingredients for that at home right now, as a matter of fact.....and some squid ink pasta, should look brilliant!

The same two teas from the tasting this weekend; also some young sheng mao cha from a tasting from another forum, more on those in the puerh topic after I get my notes transcribed; yesterday discovered that one of the 'commercial' dan congs I bought from Tea Habitat is not happy in the thermos--it acquired an unpleasant taste I attribute to the long holding, but could also have been due to overly careless brewing. Today has been some more loose sheng mao cha from Norbu, the 2010 Spring Nan Nuo - Shi Tou Xin Zhai. Lovely and did very well in the thermos for clinic. This evening, Dragon Well, a couple of brewings.

Today I drank the Jin Xuan, but due to some computer problems, will have a delay in posting my notes & pics. It is very different than the Jade Dragon, mellower, and also without clear tropical notes. I will try to get another session in with the Jade Dragon tomorrow evening, when I can give it some concentrated attention to try to find those.

Previous post refers to the Jade Dragon Yunnan Green Tea. Oops!

As promised, more and better pics... Today, I took out my Seigan hagi and started shooting. It was hard to stop, as they are so amazing, closer and closer with the camera, playing with flash, window light, and filtered sunlight. Eventually I ended up with two sets of images on my flickr, one for the Seigan blue and one for the Sansai terbineri. The Seigan blue is very dramatic and the glaze has translucency in areas almost as ethereal as the 'Spirit' cups and I'm just a sucker for swirly gorgeous variegated colors and the clay foot just feels powerful with the embedded larger gravels . The Sansai is more subtle with different moods on different sides A vast white interior, with abundant crackles Clay peeking through at the rim And again, that very powerful-looking clay at the foot

I took the warning about temperature and bitterness seriously and started very cautiously, using my usual small gaiwans: 2 grams of tea, 2 oz water 160 degrees, 20 second first infusion: probably went to low/short, was quite dilute, barely sweet 2nd infusion, 160 degrees, 45 seconds: very vegetal, rounded, sweet and deep flavor--reminds me a lot of dragon well in combination of roasted and vegetal flavors 3rd infusion, forgot I had added the water to it so it steeped too long (2 minutes?), and got a little bitter, but the sweet and vegetal flavors were also richer. 176 degrees 30 seconds (upped the temp to bring out more flavor) too short, infusion is light, but interesting nonetheless--vegetal/sweet/rich flavors are right there. left the leaves to sit while I was at work, and infused a couple more times with water 170 degrees, and it was light, but tasty. 2nd set of infusion, again 2 oz tea, 60mL in gaiwan, trying a little cooler start this time. Trying it like a sencha, 45 seconds start: sweet, vegetal, and yes, some astringent flavors in the background (and the shino doesn't really show off the delicate shade of the liquor, does it?) 20 second 2nd infusion, because the bitterness often concentrates when the tea leaves first sit wet: too dilute, just hints of sweet cooked peas. Should have given it a little longer. 3rd infusion: 160 degrees, 60 seconds, warm, mellow, peas again, but stronger; clear long aftertaste is more atringent/bitter than sweet 4th infusion, 90 seconds, 160 degrees, vegetal, astringent, with warm rich sweetness rounding out the flavor. Next try, I will trust it a little more and start with some longer infusions.

Need to get the Jade Dragon pics off the camera first.... Started the day with it again. Then on to some chamomile hibiscus; Wuliang Shan loose sheng puerh from Norbu, and some of the spring 2010 Jin Xuan green tea (warming up the 'brewing muscles' for working with the winter version from the TT&D next); then some Hankook 'oolong' aka Hwang Cha, which I seem to enjoy more and more the more I drink of it. It just has such a long finish, and the finish doesn't just shade into a dilute sweetness, but retains an earthy fruity depth even as it fades. Unique.

Today I couldn't wait and dove right into the Yunnan Jade Dragon tea from the TT&D, but ended up doing a rather fractured brewing, because I didn't really have enough time--first infusions before work, last infusions after. More in the TT&D soon after I treat it a little better. This afternoon, a thermos of the 2009 Lao Cha Tou, also from Norbu, a 'dump & add hot water' thermos full for a meeting. Such a forgiving tea on these occasions!

I haven't tried any greener-style oolong from Chado, but have enjoyed their online order service at times when even the pasadena store seemed to hard to get to, for reasons of limited shop hours and difficult parking. But as for spring vs fall teas, all of Norbu's green Tie Guan Yins and Ali Shan high mountain oolongs have been in small vacuum sealed pouches, and I've been quite pleased with recently opened packages from last spring's harvest. No worries about ordering spring vs fall from his site. Also, the spring oolongs I ordered as samples from Jing Tea Shop in the fall, though not vacuum packed, were very fresh when newly opened.

Got them. I've had some very nice infusions recently of teas from Yunnan--teas made with Yunnan leaves in the style of other traditional teas from across China and Taiwan, that I'm particularly looking forward to this tasting of a more traditionally yunnanese Yunnan green. Since I've been drinking the delightful spring version of the Jin Xuan, I am already quite confident that this winter version will be lovely, considering how well the fall and winter Alishan oolongs compare to their spring counterparts. But tonight I had a long meeting, and am very sleepy. Have to wait until tomorrow to start, sigh.

A quiet tea day here: Red label SeaDyke Ti Kuan Yin (a thermos full) and then some Camellia Sinensis Da Wu Ye (gongfu cha, quite nice), and some Tai Ping Hou Kui from Wing Hop Fung. A nice mix of teas, but I need to get started earlier tomorrow so I can have some SENCHA to start the day.

That reminds me that I had a lovely tea in a Russian restaurant a few years ago--don't remember enough about it to be sure what was so special, but I recall it seeming like a black tea, with a little spice, and that even though it seemed like a black tea, I liked it. Today was jade pole green tea from Yunnan Sourcing, a surprisingly delicious brewing, probably improved due to the better temperature control I have with the pino kettle, and a thermos of white bud sheng puerh. Not too much tea because I need to get to bed early for an early start tomorrow. I don't have any more white bud sheng here with me, so will have to do something different for the long drive ahead.

It's a good reminder to go through the pu stock and check things from time to time, to see how they're developing. Too easy to get in to a rut, and miss the excellence on all sides. But today, back into the 'rut' with my 2007 White Bud Sheng from Norbu. One of my very first infusions was an 80 second shocker with a densely packed yixing, but it's been all good ever since, and that would have been fine too if I'd known to just dilute the overly strong infusion to taste. I like this tea packed densely and packed light; brewed hotter and cooler; and even after it cools. One of these days I'll have to try a smidgen cold-brewed overnight--bet I'll like it that way too.

Interesting. I have to admit I did enjoy the garlic ice cream in Gilroy. Stranger things have happened.

I do have a hard time with the idea of puerh and strawberries. I have enjoyed my puerh earthy, smoky, sweet, fruity, sharp, herbaceous, but ..... strawberries? What is the background type of puerh that is flavored with strawberries, and does it still taste like puerh, or just like strawberry flavor with hint of tea?

I'm having an oolong day too--the end of the Yunnan Sourcing Oriental Beauty that was so lovely, and now finishing a sample of Tie Guan Yin from Jing Tea Shop, and excellent tea that sadly faded a little as the sample drifted to the bottom of the tea box. Still nice, however, just not as brilliant as it was when freshly opened.

Looking behind me to see if there are any real tea-geeks nearby.....no one there..... Uh oh. Have I become a real tea geek?

Since I don't eat the leaves, I've never been concerned with their actual tenderness, but I can easily imagine such young leaves being very tender. Just haven't seen any oolong leaves unrolling or untwisting to such a tiny size. Wonder if that was a special private offering or one of those teas that is so good it never makes it past the producer and a handful of powerful officials? I can vouch for this in the teas I suggested, definitely.

I think both of these teas--at least the 2009 spring versions, which I looked at most carefully--were well-developed leaves, nothing like like silver needle or long jing buds. I've not seen a premium spring oolong with unusually small leaves before, but I'm still pretty new to this type of tea. Still, I've not read of anyone classifying them by such a leaf-size standard. Most of the descriptions I've read refer to intactness or brokenness of the leaves.