Wholemeal Crank

Your local grocery store has a tea bar? Where is this amazing place located?

Ended the tea portion of my tea day with some yellow tea from jingteashop.com--Huo Shan Huang Ya, always nice. Also today, fall Alishan Oolong from Norbu; gyokuro suimei from Den's; and finishing off with some Lemon Myrtle Rooibos from the cultured cup, because my order came in, yay!

Sounds more shu-like. But sheng is earthy too, but more earthy like ripe cheese rather than earthy like damp fresh compost.

Shu puerh is also aged: while shu is considered 'artificially aged' by processing so it seems older than sheng of the same harvest year(s), it still is considered to improve with age, although probably it reaches its 'peak' sooner than sheng. I drank a very nice shu a few days ago, and a very mellow sheng last night (2008 Yi Wu bamboo aged sheng from Norbu).

Welcome to the tea forum! When I first started drinking tea, I would go to San Francisco's chinatown, but the tea I bought came from the grocery stores--not the cheapest stuff there, but not too fancy either. I knew just enough to know I had no idea what differentiated what I drank from the stuff at Imperial Tea Court, and never actually tasted or bought any tea from them. Returning to San Francisco just a month or so ago, I actually did step into their 2nd store at the Ferry Plaza, but had no time to actually try/shop/buy tea. They do have a reputation for selling quite good tea, but that's about all I know about them. I do not like that they don't tell you if that tea is sheng (raw) or shu (cooked/ripe), however. That is not good policy when selling puerh! That SOTE looks and sounds delicious. I am enjoying some Yi Wu bamboo-aged puerh right now, lovely stuff with simple dinner. And earlier today I had some fall Alishan oolong and then some yunnan Mao Feng green tea, all three from norbu. A very norbu day.

Today started with Sencha, taking some precious morning minutes; then midday some Yunnan wild arbor 'Oriental Beauty' oolong added pleasure to a rather dull meeting; a bit of my favorite Diamond Tie Guan Yin from Norbu got the evening off to a good start; and a Menghai 2005 'early spring' puerh tuo accompanied a long baking session (three kinds of bread and cookies, almost finished washing up). I had a real craving for puerh and this sweet, spicy, earthy, delicous tuo just fit the bill perfectly.

Another tea day without a theme: started sweet with another infusion of the hydrangea leaf; went sweet again with some Gyokuro Suimei from Den's, infused shorter, hotter, more like my sencha, with a nice sweet result; then the need for a prop for photography led to a white tea interlude with some silver dragon from Wing Hop Fung--very like a Bi Lo Chun in appearance, and like the grand total of (1) Bi Lo Chun I have tried (a sample from Jingteashop); and then back to the deeper spicy side with some Po Tou ginger fragrance dan cong oolong from Tea Habitat. A few grams of leaf in my small oolong pot have now flavored nearly two quarts of tea, judging from the water level in my kettle after refilling again. Much tea happiness from Korea, Japan and China. Just couldn't fit in a puerh because the Po Tou keeps going and going.

I'm refusing to imagine not hot tea. I think it will just have to be less tea and more water as it gets hot enough to be uncomfortable without AC. A few better shots of the 'seafoam' yunomi pictured a few posts ago, in a not very flattering phone shot. It's already getting 'broken in' with the glaze crackles now emphasized by the stain of the tea It looks good with tea in it too and when you get to the bottom of your cup, you get this little detail to brighten up a sad situation (the empty cup is a little sad, when the tea was good) This one is like seafoam--white with bits of blue breaking through

A miscellaneous tea day today--started with a not very good attempt at making my own moroccan mint tea with cardamom, starting with a decent but unexciting green tea (a random gift, no brand I can identify in english, just says 'green tea'), peppermint leaf, and cardamom seeds. Overwhelming peppermint did not help the cause. Moved on to some Big Red Robe from WHF, usually such a reliable tea for me, and forget what I was doing, started the first infusion too hot (water straight off the boil), tried to make up for it with a very short infusion, but just ended up with several unsatisfying steeps. Also it was not the right thing for a warm afternoon after some exercise. Then got back on track with some Ya Bao spring wild camellia buds from Norbu, mixed with a bit of Silver Dragon from WHF, a white tea to add a little more depth, and the combination was excellent and just what I wanted. Now finishing the evening with a bit of korean gamro tea (hydrangea leaf) from Hankook.

Another shout out for stainless steel sinks! Had them for years in several apartments, and hating the standard porcelain over whatever kind of metal it is that I have now: it stains, I worry about chips, and things falling into it are more likely to break than with stainless. I do LOVE the divided sink arrangement I have now--a two parter with a smaller and a larger compartment. But I'd rather have the garbage disposal in the bigger than the smaller compartment. Much nicer than the 50:50 divided ones that were too small for my baking sheets. Have a delta spray-head-extending faucet, and LOVE IT. It is many years old, and without a manual I have managed to take various bits off and clean it when scale builds up from the old pipes and hard water, and once I replaced a gasket, easy. I have never lived with a granite counter, but have visited/rented places with them, and find them closer to tile than formica when it comes to breaking things. Being clumsy, this is very important to me. I dislike tile even more, because pretty grouted lines require a lot of maintenance to stay pretty grouted lines. I have mostly lived with cheap plastic countertops and vastly prefer them to either tile or granite, although the aesthetics suck. I'd love to be able to get some of the stuff that is used for laboratory benches. It's tough, durable, not very likely to shatter stuff, and rather heat tolerant too. Wonder if it comes in anything but basic black? Forgot to add, hate tile floors too. Not only does everything breakable mostly shatter on it, but it can break too. A few years ago while I was gone for a couple of days something happened and a shelf gave way--that's another point to consider, the sturdiness and ease of finding replacement parts for your cabinetry--and several dozen pint and half pint canning jars full of jams, jellies, apple and tomato sauces fell onto a tile floor. Most (suprisingly not all) of the jars shattered, and when I cleaned up the mess, here were some impressive chips and cracks in the tile, some of which were clearly fresh. Cabinetry sturdiness: the cabinets in this same house have shelves held up by plastic fittings that sit in holes drilled in some kind of composite laminated verticals. These fittings are fragile, the holes wear at the edges, and I've not yet found the correct brand replacement parts for the plastic fittings while scouting local big box and smaller hardware stores. Not so user-friendly. Be sure you get some with sturdy fittings that are easy to find and replace.

When I have been interviewing for training positions and jobs, I spent more time checking out the local groceries, bookstores and libraries than museums and other local sights. If I couldn't find good stuff, I just wouldn't be willing to live there. End of story. With the internet making it so easy to get specialty books and those foods that travel well--dried, canned, spiced--and having made liberal use of it even though I live in LA, where nearly every possible thing is available someplace--but actually getting to it is not always trivial--I would be more flexible than at one time. But still, it's as important to me as the climate and whether I know anyone there.

I'm suffering decision paralysis as I consider my first order of japanese tea directly from Japan. I'm not sure how to parse the desciptions to figure out which teas will best fit my taste. I'm getting better at that with the chinese teas I've been drinking for a while, but this is a whole new realm. Shincha on top of that is extremely confusing. I've been reading contradictory information on whether it is mroe umami than regular sencha, or more delicately spring-sweet.

That was all the tea I got through yesterday, a very late day at work. Today I'm doing better: Sencha start with the Shin-ryoku again, starting to run a little low, looking at the sencha Zuiko, and the gyokuro, and trying to figure out the optimum moment to order more direct from Japan, considering shipping times & not wanting to run out while I wait.... Then on to orchid oolong afternoon (a green oolong with osmanthus, a nice enough tea for busy work; then some quieter Dragon WEll and a small gong fu session with one of the last packets of the spring 2009 Diamond Tie Guan Yin from norbu. So fresh, so sweet, so floral, and somewhere about 8 or so infusions in, so spicy! before more floral and sweet again. Where did that amazing blast of spice hide before and after those middle few infusions? And I think I'm doing ok with this one, have a bit of fall TGY and winter Alishan plus an unusual green oolong from WHF to get me through to the next spring oolong season. Doing ok, except, of course, for running out of water before I ran out of goodness from the leaves!

I don't have anymore left to try with different water.....

I too find this so strange, because I am experiencing a very intense sweetness that does seem inseparable from an astringent aftertaste, but not the kind of shocking bitterness I find in black assams. I wonder if it could be affecting my taste buds differently? My water is LA city tap water, generally medium hard, quite chlorinated.

Yesterday was another too long day at the office catching up on paperwork, so many small infusions of different teas....Began with An Ji white tea from wing hop fung, moved on to a A-Gu Zhai Wild Arbor Pu-erh tea from Yunnan sourcing, then to some of his Yunnan Wild Arbor Oriental Beauty, next a little some Shui Jin Gui from norbu (really goofed and forgot the first steeping until it was unbearably bitter, very sad to lose several steepings' of that very good tea), and finished with some Bai Mu Dan from wing hop fung. Today is another satellite office day, limited tea opportunities, but I do now have a kamjove stashed there....and will take a thermos filled with 2007 Rui Cao Xiang 'Wu Liang Wild Arbor' Sheng puerh from Yunnan Sourcing, to start after my daily sencha (shin-ryoku again) and chocolate are done.

A very miscellaneous tea afternoon: a bit of Menghai golden needles shu puerh, a bit of a Jeong Seon from hankook, a little Organic Dragon Well from Wing Hop Fung, and now some Chado Pouchong--all small brewings, not many infusions, to help with the massive procrastination required to avoid doing masses of paperwork....

Reminds me I have some amazing winter BaoZhong from HouDe at home. So nice. But today started with some Sencha, but still I'm not entirely consistent with the stuff--the water had cooled to about 155 by the time I started, one infusion was perfect, one very briny and umami, not so nice, and the third came out just right again. It's only been about six months since I started drinking them, way too early to get discouraged, but it's a good reminder that they're not as forgiving as oolongs. But then, what is? So now drinking a solid but not spectacular 3rd grade pouchong from TenRen. A very unfussy and dependable tea.

Flash rinsed to wake up last night's leaves, a quick infusion went overlong as I got distracted, so I diluted it a bit. The earlier experiment with keemun this evening had primed and reminded my tastebuds about serious bitter: this has definite astringency but nothing like the keemun when it was overinfused. This tea is not in that class for bitter. Then I drank a bit of hot water from the kettle to be sure, and no, my tongue is not so scorched from a day of drinking hot tea as to think plain water is sweet. This tea is sweet. It's a delightful thought experiment to contemplate this tea pressed into beengs and aged.

Finishing the last batch of leaves, left in the gaiwan overnight, and after a flash rinse, the liquor is still gentle, pleasing, sweet. Drank a little keemun earlier tonight as part of a palate reality check: this is much less bitter. Also compared to hot water from the kettle without tea: not sweet. Fun as this stuff is, imagining it pressed into puerh, aged to mellow the bitter so I wouldn't have to lose so much with those first rinses, wow....

Today has been a good tea day. Sencha shin-ryoku from Den's to start, then a long long long afternoon in clinic with some of my very first puerh beeng, a very mellow tea, which I again shared with my colleague who is coming to realized that not all tea is going to give him a caffeine rush or acid stomach. Finished off the entire thermos before the last long discussion, which was painful without enough tea on board. Now making up for that with some Shui Jin Gui oolong from Norbu, nearing the end of a sample I ordered a while back. It starts out spicy/sweet and ends fruity/toasty. Unfortunately, the day is playing out such that I need a little more before I get to go home. I'm staring at a bag of "Premium Keemon Black Tea" from Wing Hop Fung, and wondering if I am brave enough to try it again. I survived (adored!) the supposedly very bitter young Lao Ban Zhang puerh from the current TT&D, so maybe I can be open to a bit of keemun. And if it doesn't go down well, I have plenty of other wonderful stuff to rinse the taste from my mouth. Decisions, decisions. Tried the keemun, a miniscule quantity brewed quite hot, briefly, and it's kind of nice. Won't compost this one. (not sure why, but I'm having a lot of trouble consistently spelling Shui Jin Gui)

This was the first Yunomi of Ginkgo's that reached out and said "you need me." I love hiking in California's Sierra Nevada mountains: the granite itself is beautiful, shiny, a sparkling kaleidoscope of color that merges to gray at the scale of a landscape photo. This cup reminds me of granite up close, sparkly with colorful inclusions and fine crystalline appearance, but unlike granite, it is softly rounded and feels wonderfully gentle in my hand. Today it was baptized with Den's Sencha Shin-ryoku and then helped with a tasting of Lao Ban Zhang this evening. I did gain some new insight today into the value of handles, when I filled the green/white yunomi at work with freshly infused Tie Guan Yin brewed at about 185 degrees. I had better results iwth the Lao Ban Zhang puerh, despite infusing it hotter, by the simple expedient of not filling the cup. No more burning fingers! different side, different lighting, still beautiful It is a bit larger than the blue/green/white yunomi, probably large enough to serve as chawan for matcha, if and when I'm ready to try that again. I will continue to enjoy some teas in my glass cups especially to enjoy the color of the tea, and the small matched cups for comparative tasting sessions, but expect these to be my best companions on many tea drinking adventures from now on.

Today started with sencha in my new yunomi! Pics in the teaware topic. Then on to a light infusion of yunnan mao feng, getting a white-tea like feel to it; finished off another packet of spring Diamond Tie Guan Yin, and finally home to work on the Lao Ban Zhang from the tasting topic, these last three all from norbu.

Still sweet. This one had a rocky start: the last 2 g of leaf, in a gaiwan, and at the point of the 2nd 20 second rinse with water just off the boil, I bumped the gaiwanm, spilled leaf all over the counter, but I'd been doing dishes and just wiped the counter, so scooped it up, gave it one more flash rinse, and have drunk a couple of infusions. The taste is sweet up front as I slurp/inhale/sip, and rich with depth that is astringent, and probably a bit bitter, that starts to take over afterwards, but the sweet is so good that I am not wanting to spit it out like I did the nilgiri teas I tried some time ago (I was just reviewing that topic earlier today, and remember vividly the strength of the bitterness that was just intolerable to me). I like this one enough to shepherd it off of the counter and back into the gaiwan; a lesser tea would have been consigned to the compost heap at that point! It's as if something about the combination of the heat and the sweet keeps my tongue so busy that I miss the bitter until after the sip is swallowed, and by then I am already more focused on getting that sweet heat back with the next infusion and next sip. Does that help?

Apropos of nothing here, someone just posted a recipe that I must go right home and try NOW so I will be able to give the Lao Ban Zhang another spin shortly.