Wholemeal Crank

Daily chocolate for me is the 70% Scharffenberger. Occasional rivals would have to include some from Domori (as noted above, hard to find, and super expensive), some of the single-bean selections from Michel Cluizel in his mini-squares tasting sets (ditto), but day in, day out, its the 70% SB.

Yesterday I made some fall 2009 Taiwanese Tie Guan Yin, a heavy roasted version from Norbu, for my long drive. It's a bit more roasted than I prefer for daily drinking, but that heavy roast is reliable and stable when held for many hours on the road. Today, the 2007 White Bud Sheng Puerh from Norbu, an old favorite that continues to make friends and influence people. Today, Lisa said, "this is the first time I haven't added anything--no honey or lemon or sugar--to my tea!" And this was a cup from an admittedly inferior brewing--fit in around some crazy fast-paced work that went right through lunch--a 30 minute first infusion (not a typo, yes, 30 MINUTES!), several more almost as insane infusions, mixed in the thermos, and the end result was not only drinkable, but charmed someone new to my teas. Good job, dear puerh!

Took a little detour on the way to the sheng puerhs, when the 2006 Menghai tribute brick shu puerh from Norbu caught my eye. More in the puerh topic, but long story short, it was very pleasingly fruity/sweet/earthy/spicy. Fun to go treasure hunting in the puerh collection, and find them!

2006 Ripe Puerh Tea Tribute Brick by Haiwan Tea Factory, from Norbu First time drinking this tea in a while. Like most bricks, it is challengingly compressed, and one of the teas that inspired me to buy some particularly pointed letter openers. Success! several grams of tea have just soaked up their ‘flash’ rinse quickly in my gaiwan. Earthy, sweet, fruity, plummy scents arise—makes me want to eat it as much as drink it. Greg warns about overly long steeps at first—suggesting a possibility of off flavors. I find nothing like, but perhaps this is in part due to letting it ‘air out’ loosely wrapped in my puerh drawer. The first two steeps—no more than 30 seconds between the—are combined in my small yunomi, and deep red-brown liquor, and I want to drink fast but am waiting….tap, tap, tapping impatient feet—for it to cool. And the first sip is rewarding—deep, sweet, lovely, all the things promised in the smell of the wet leaf. And nothing whatsoever ‘off’ about it. The leaves are still swelling and will eventually fill a good part of the gaiwan, so this should have a lot of steeps in it. 10 or so steeps in, the gaiwan is at least 1/3 full with very broken up leaves. It still requires a bit of care to avoid oversteeping—and responds well to a little dilution if I overdo it. Earthy, sweet, fruity, plummy. Rich body. Compared to the Norbu private label Lao Tou Cha nugget brick, this is an earthier tea, but equally delicious in a different way. And like that tea, it is very potent due to the density—a little goes long way. I really thought it was such a thin little sliver when I dropped it in the cup…. Many infusions later—certainly more than 20, maybe closer to 30—it is getting on towards sweet water, that gentle ending, but this with what are still very short infusions. Will give it longer to see if I can coax more out of it before we’re done. …… 1.5 L into it, the kettle is empty, but the tea leaves still have some sweet & spicy scent left.

Some typically variable tea days this weekend: Honyama sencha to start both days, and afterwards, some Hawaiian oolong, yunnan silver needle, Jade dragon green tea, and....horrible to contemplate....no puerh! Today started with some 2010 spring TGY from norbu, but now will have to make up for lost opportunity with some puerh. The puerh tasting posted today reminds me of the excellent young loose puerh I have sitting in the drawer. Mmmmm.

The usual things lately....a little oolong, something green, oolong, morning sencha, and a new tea yesterday that is unidentified, a gift from a friend of a friend who visited China, and said to be very high quality. It is a bright green rolled tea, with a grassier than floral scent to the dried leaf, and a sweet oolong flavor in the first brewing--although since I was distracted, did not time it carefully enough, and was eating salsa-flavored chips before & after--so can't really report in detail on the flavors. Interestingly, the mystery teas leaves were quite broken up at the edges, but none of the edges were reddish.

Another tasting of the Jade Dragon last night, went back to gongfu cha with lower temperature conditions and I think cdh's brewing parameters made a much more interesting brew. This tea doesn't give its best easily, but the best is pretty nice. Fortunately, I have some more to finish wih a hotter brewing.

Aside from the obvious--a young smoky puerh doing wonders with a pot of beans in a rich meaty sauce, and white teas that can be so lovely with fruit--I've never really tried hard to match tea and food. Mostly I drink the tea I want to drink, eat what I want to eat, and if the tea isn't working so well with the food, drink some water until I'm done eating and continue with the tea. So this is a hard question for me. And interesting that you're finding more oolong than green tea character in the Jin Xuan--I'm involved in a running debate in another forum with people who think that, as a rolled tea from Taiwan, this MUST be an oolong and not a green tea. I found some definite green tea character along with some oolong-spectrum flavors in the spring version, but haven't pushed the winter green enough yet to find the green character.

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.