Wholemeal Crank

Today, I had a long meeting, and no time to prepare tea beforehand. I filled the thermos with hot water from the water cooler, couldn't find my thermometer that belongs at work, and used my finger to test the water--hot, but not immediately painful--so figured it was green tea time, grabbed some Jade Pole Yunnan green tea from Yunnan Sourcing, my korean 'travel set' and ran to the meeting. It was quite lovely infusing cup after cup of pleasant green tea during the two and a half hour meeting. Then some Spring Tie Guan Yin from norbu for the afternoon clinic, lovely as always.

I've bought several cheap digital thermometers on amazon. I have now three from polder, one of which died a strange loss-of-calibration death that I can't fix by recalibrating (because it reads so far out of the range where the calibration feature works even if I stick it in ice water); one is a 'meat' thermometer that beeps annoyingly because it wants temps to be 170 or 180 or 190 degrees, one of several fixed presets, and I have relegated that to the less-used satellite office; another works fine but has small difficult to use switches instead of buttons. The best seems to be the last bought, a taylor 'professional' model from amazon. The big problem I have iwth all of these is that they don't balance well in a short teacup or teapot. But using the pino kettles they have become less of an issue anyway.

Today I was wandering around Wikipedia while a phone call was on hold, and found this gem of a chart on wikipedia, that diagrams the different tea processing steps and what type of tea results from them. Brilliant and clear. In the last week, I think I've had tea processed every which way except fully oxidized black tea; I think it has been at least two weeks since my last pot of Yunnan gold. Today started with a shincha medley--mixed ends of some samples from a tasting swap, tea that was steamed, rolled, dried; and then moved on to some of the white bud sheng puerh from Norbu, perfect for a gray damp day, tea that was probably panned, rolled, formed, dried, and aged; and finished with another green tea, a rolled Jin Xuan varietal from Norbu, that was likely panned, rolled, formed, dried. All so nice!

Most Americans have heard of black tea, and green tea, but not oolong, or puerh, but I find I have no trouble making fans of oolongs after one or two tries of a nice mellow green-style or a rich Wuyi. I was lucky to focus on oolongs right away because my father learned about tea from chinese friends who were fairly knowledgeable about tea. Neat article, and hope it brings more attention to the best of teas, although not so much that they get more expensive/harder to find!

Today did a more formal gongfu cha session with the Hou De 2009 Winter harvest wood-roasted Shui Xian oolong. This is a very interesting tea. It is tightly rolled, unusual vs the other wuyi oolongs I’ve had, and looks fairly green in the rolled state, and unrolls to a deep green leaf. But the tea liquor reminds me more of a Dan Cong style of oolong—astringent, complex, toasted, sweet, spicy. And it has the ability to last through a dozen infusions easily, getting lighter at the end, but even the light infusions are still fruity/sweet/spicy. I started this brewing with 3 grams of leaf in a 100mL red clay pot, water about 185 degrees, and infused at first for 30 seconds, and extended as long as 2 seconds by the end of the session. Very very nice.

Iced tea experiment with Bai Mu Dan from Wing Hop Fung: used 10g tea per 12 oz infuser mug, one started with 160 degree water, the other with chilled water, both refrigerated for about 12 hours. The cold brewed tea was a bit lighter in color than the other, but both were a rich amber, and both tasted....rather vile. Astringent, a little bitter, just not good. I'll be sticking to cold water & hot tea again after the annual failure of the cold tea experiment!

Nominal capacity was 60mL, but actually it holds 80mL by my tests.

A new teapot, a Chao Zhou sandy red clay pot from Tea Habitat:

Saturday started with Shincha (Sayamakaori) from Yuuki-Cha, and there was the white tea tasting session, and that was it for the day. Today started with a couple of tea projects: a tasting comparison of the four shinchas from Yuuki-Cha, where the comparison part suffered a bit from the photography--the teas got a bit too cool and the flavor differences were evened out by that--but still, fun to have finally done it. And after deciding from yesterday's white tea tasting that Bai Mu Dan should make interesting iced tea, I tried it: two infuser mugs are sitting in the fridge with about 10 grams of tea and 10 ounces on water, one started at 160 degrees and left too cool to room temp before putting in the fridge, and one started cold. I'll be checking on those later tonight or tomorrow, and will report back. Lunch is up next, and after all that sencha, I'm ready for some nice toasty roasty oolong, maybe a Wuyi, or one of the new samples from my last Norbu order.

A shincha tasting July 2010 Four teas from Yuuki-Cha.com: Tenryu Misakubo Honoyama Okuyutaka Sayamakaori This was less straightforward than most of my recent tastings, because the four teas are so similar in character. And the delay in drinking the infusions due to finding and setting up the camera obscured some of the finer points of the varied flavors of the teas. I am less fond of umami and more fond of a sugary sweetness, so tend to prefer my japanese teas on the lighter side. Also, must note in fairness that these teas were not opened at the same time: the Tenryu Misakubo was open for several weeks, the Sayamakaori only a week. Setup: 2 grams of tea in 75 mL gaiwan, water 160 degrees, 1st infusion 30 seconds; 2nd infusion 165 degrees 15 seconds*; 3rd infusion 170 degrees 1 minute, 4th infusions 170 degrees 90 seconds. Tenryu Misakubo Dry Leaves: green, needle-like, smaller fragments than the others, sweet and mild vegetal scent Liquor has stronger first hit of umami in the 2nd infusion, brinier than the others especially in the first couple of infusions, but mellower and more similar as the infusions progress as the sweetness comes a bit more to the fore Wet Leaves: smaller pieces of bright green leaves, green vegetal aroma, like cooked peas or asparagus Honoyama Dry Leaves: green, needle-like, fragment, slightly deeper vegetal scent Liquor is sweeter and lighter from the start, lightly vegetal--sweet spring peas, freshly cut grass in spring Wet Leaves: pieces of bright green leaves, similar vegetal aroma Okuyutaka Dry Leaves: green, needle-like, leaf fragments, sweet deep vegetal scent Probably in between the Honoyama and the Tenryu Misakubo, sweet with moderate umami, delicious Wet Leaves: pieces of bright green leaves, similar vegetal aroma Sayamakaori Dry Leaves: green, needle-like, longer and more intact fragments than the others, deep sweet scent full of umami Also sweet start to the liquor, mild umami, bright and lovely Wet Leaves: larger pieces of bright green leaves, similar vegetal aroma Final impression? I like the Honoyama best, I think, but how to order the middle two is very hard: Sayamakaori then Okuyutaka or Okuyutaka then Sayamakaori, either works for me, and the Tenryu Misakubo is my least favorite, but still a lovely lovely tea. If you prefer more umami--deeper, brinier flavors, and like gyokuro over sencha, you probably should reverse the order of my preferences, and grab the Tenryu Misakubo first, leaving more Honoyama for me! All of these are very good teas: none have anything bitter or harsh or otherwise off to make them less than highly recommended. Dry leaves upper left is Tenryu Misakubo; upper right is Honoyama; lower left Okuyutaka; lower right is Sayamakaori Infused liquor & wet leaves: Left to Right Tenryu Misakubo; Honoyama; Okuyutaka; Sayamakaori

I now freely go back and forth between the plus-saucer or without-saucer on my gaiwans without thinking much about it. If the tea is very hot, like a puerh, I'm more likely to use the saucer to better insulate my fingers from the scorch, but if for some other reason I happen be paying attention, sometimes I'm using the saucer, sometimes not. Today I'm also using more of the matched gaiwans as tasting cups. Works great. Since this is a chronic annoyance when doing these comparison brewings--the cups not matching well the size of the gaiwans, western style mugs being too large, the 'tasting cups' being too small, buying a bunch of extra gaiwans just for that might be the way to go. They're cheap enough, and then I'd have an extra supply of lids and saucers, which seem to be what breaks first.

First try, attempting about a 0.4:1 ratio with 1.3 grams in my 75mL gaiwans, brewed 7 min (goofed and didn't set timer to sound so they went a tad long), water 175 degrees: first impression is that the silver needle smells and tastes just like the Pai Mu Tan--just a little milder, but similar peachy fruity sweet aroma and taste. It's also a paler liquor, light yellow-green, and the Pai Mu Tan is a golden color. I've never brewed either type of tea for so long before, and really expected the Pai Mu Tan to have a little bitterness, there was absolutely NONE. 2nd infusion, water started a little hotter, 180 degrees, 6 minutes, again, the same result: the silver needle is fruity & sweet, notes of melon and white peaches, but where the silver needle might be honeydew, the Pai Mu Tan is cantaloupe and tart orange clings. I really should try these iced, but I think these samples are all that I have here at home, not really enough for a great big pitcher of iced Pai Mu Tan. Giving them 10 minutes for a 3rd infusion: still a fair bit of flavor, but the roundness and depth are going. I've not drunk that much of either silver needle or Bai Mu Dan, but have had some of each from several sources, and never had the impression that they were as similar as they are seeming today. I even did a comparative tasting that included silver needle and Bai Mu Dan, and found them quite different. Now wondering if that was just poorly store or overly old silver needle that had lost the bright fruitiness that this one so clearly has? Next time, higher leaf-to-water ratios and shorter infusions.

None needed, thank you!

I prefer most any rice with bran on it to rice without, and these days I buy probably about twice as much Thai sticky black rice to brown basmati, and except for a few dishes like Mujadarrah (just wouldn't look right with a black or medium grain rice), I tend to interchange rices depending on my whim that day: wehani, japonica, Thai red rice, short grain Chinese black 'forbidden' rice....

Those are looooonnnnggggg steeps! I'll start with that a little later today. What leaf to water ratio? I'm presuming that's for a low western style single infusion.

Thursday was a very green tea day: started with Zhan Shu Lake oolong from wing hop fung, then on to a shincha tasting from a tea trade (Dens Kunpu), and ended with the green Taiwanese Jin Xuan spring tea from Norbu. Sweet, mellow, delicate, all were lovely, with just enough astringency to remind me to brew them with respect. And yesterday, an antidote to all the greenery: started with Haiwan 2006 Purple Bud Sheng Puerh from Norbu, smoky and deep and strong--stronger than I was used to, as I was clearing out the 'fines' from the bottom of the bag around the beeng and ended up filling the kamjove more than I expected when they all hydrated, plus the fines were so broken up that it did get a bit bitter. Still, delicious. And then mellowed a little with a proper gongfu cha session with the Phoenix Honey Iris Oolong from Wing Hop Fung, a lovely tea that is cheaper than most of TeaHabitat's offerings, and but performed quite well. I bought this one mostly to see if it would work well for thermos bulk brewings, and will probably stick to using it for that, and keep the 'single bush' for gongfu cha. Happily, the new fellow who joined us this year says she is 'way into tea'. With luck we can do some gongfu of the better teas on occasion.

(run away! run away!) Started today with Honoyama shincha from Yuuki-Cha, and this afternoon will be sharing a thermos full of a Phoenix oolong from Wing Hop Fung. No ice tea, because the AC inside the ofice always makes hot tea welcome.

An oddly green tea day: started with 2010 Spring Meng Ding Huang Ya - Sichuan Yellow Tea from Norbu, an almost green tea, then on to some Xiang Bi Luo (a Bi Luo Chun-type green tea, and finished rather than started with another shincha. The lovely Sichuan Yellow is almost green, but also a bit oolong-like in mellow warm wonderfulness.

Another lovely new tea today: from Wing Hop Fung, a Xiang Bi Luo, which looks like a Bi Lo Chun, curly and delicate leaves, and was from a new supplier so was quite attractively priced. Very nice, not quite up to the standard of the BLC I got from Jingteashop last year, but still, inexpensive and available locally, two pluses.

Today I tried a new tea from my latest order from Norbu: 2010 Spring Meng Ding Huang Ya - Sichuan Yellow Tea. What a lovely tea! I started out with what looked like a small volume of green leaves in my kamjove, which had little scent, then added water and there was a strong scent of green peas as soon as the water hit them. The leaves expanded to fill their chamber almost entirely. The first steep was a little long and ended up overconcentrated, and I did find a little bitterness in it; but when I finished up a thermos full from these leaves, as I intended, it ended up as essence of summer hay, warm and mellow, just lovely. I can see this will be a keeper. I think it will be particularly nice of an evening, to keep infusing while doing paperwork, semi-gongfu cha, but also is going to be lovely for a thermos full when I have to be away from my desk for half a day or more. But I will watch that first steep. I was particularly pleased with this one because I recently tried some "silver needle yellow tea" from Hunan which was just unbearably bitter for me, very unlike the couple of wonderful yellow teas I've had from other sources.

Samples are here!

Trying the Sakaya....ummm....Sakayamakaori shincha from Yuuki-Cha this morning. A little flat this morning, not living up to the fabulously promising scent of the leaves. Will have to redo this one. And prepped a thermos of Da Hong Pao for the long day in the satellite office. So nice to be back home with the Pino kettle taking care of the temperature chores for me.

Stunningly delicious too?

Just started with some Anji white tea today, because I again have dropped a gaiwan and don't have a complete set for the shincha comparison I want to do. It was a more than acceptable stand-in for the shincha. And finally opened some Bao Zhong from the Cultured Cup I got in a tea swap with Richard. It is light, sweet, mellow, and probably not at its best after prolonged storage in the back of the oolong box. I'm always amused by how unexceptional Bao Zhong looks--twisted leaves, mostly black or so dark green as to appear black, and usually very little aroma from a tin of the leaf--compared to how nice the tea is that is brewed from it.

Another shincha start, then on to a long drive home with the last of the Fall 2009 Alishan oolong from Norbu. Just love the staying power of this tea: I was able to make an entire quart thermos of tea from a tiny quantity of leaf, that I was sure would not stretch so far. But I had not cosidered this possibility when I was allocating teas for the morning, tried it, and was stunned to find it DID stretch. A quart of happiness & delight.