Wholemeal Crank

I've been looking and looking, checking out local shops and online catalogs and forums, seeing many lovely things, and waiting for some to 'speak' to me. I can't actually say I dreamed about these, but it was close. It was 2nd cup in this blog post that finally got me hooked, but this less dramatic little blue/green and white said, "I'd like to be a soothing presence in your office, buy me too." So I did.

I still have a an unopened packet of the spring Diamond Tie Guan Yin, and just finished off one that had been opened for probably a couple of months. The tea that had been opened still had wonderful scent and flavor, but just didn't last as many infusions as the freshly opened tea has. Fortunately, the unopened packages seem to be holding their flavor very well, at least the one I opened most recently at work did, so I have more of this gorgeous tea to look forward to, and to tide me over to the spring 2010 harvest. BTW, I was surprised (and a little bit horrified) to see one of the tea sellers at Wing Hop Fung busily cutting open a quite large box full of little vacuum-sealed bags of tea, apparently getting ready to dump it into one of the big glass jars they sell from. I would so much prefer to buy it little bag by little bag, fresher and no risk of light damage, but oh well.

I enjoyed the pattern of those water marks for about a week before a swipe! with the dishtowel and the kettle was shiny as new. Today I am celebrating the arrival of my first Yunomis, two pieces made by a Swiss potter whose work I discovered in another forum. So far just a cellphone snap to give the general picture of the first one, already hard at work in the office, holding the An Ji white tea: It is small, about 5 cm x 7 cm with a little raised foot, feels solid with comfortable heft in the hand, yet looks delicate and sparkling. I will have to work with the lighting a lot to capture the true beauty of this one.

Today I got in my morning sencha (Shin-Ryoku from Den's), then was onto the lovely An Ji White tea from Wing Hop Fung, to celebrate my new Yunomis (more about them in the show-off topic!), and now am relaxing at the end of the day my earthy-smoky/grounding white bud sheng puerh from Norbu. This will see me through as much paperwork as I can stand tonight. A good tea day.

Behind in the updates. Sunday finished off with a lovely Bi-Lo-Chun-like Silver Dragon white tea reviewed in the green tea topic. Yesterday started with the odd mixed-flower puerh I wrote about a few months back, and it was still disappointing due to sheer blandness. Moved on to some Chado Pouchong (T-103), sweet and spicy--almost rou-gui like, but like the one and only rou gui I've tried, that special spiciness was transient, not holding on for many infusions, then on to some mellower Oriental Beauty from Yunnan Sourcing. Today, big thermos of Shui Jin Gui from norbu, then went mellower with nice organic Dragon's Well from Wing Hop Fung. Going to need a big earthy smoky puerh soon, after all this green and white sweetness and spicy oolongness.

Even my cookie press has in fact been used to make eclairs as well as cookies. Cookie cutters have made biscuits. Citrus juicer has done a bang up job with pomegranates. Pressure canner has sterilized driftwood and river rocks for the fish tanks. Pizza cutter has trimmed pie crusts. Waffle iron is reversible and does pancakes too. Poppy seed grinder does spices and makes a bit of flour in a pinch. The rolling docker has really only docked crackers and breads. It does an excellent job and does it better than a fork. And the toaster only makes toast. Cherry pitter only pits cherries. Hmmm....if the metal jelly bag holder-opener-thingie has been used for holding open jelly bags both juicing fruit for jellies and straining stock for soups, is that multi-tasking or unitasking? I do try to avoid unitaskers unless I do enough of that one thing to really want the right tool for the job. I had a series of very small kitchens before my present spacious culinary nirvana.

A new-to-me white tea today: Supreme Silver Dragon White Tea from Wing Hop Fung Not too expensive ($48/lb), this tea is curled and delicate, leaves smell vegetal but not strong. 5 grams tea, 5 oz/150mL water 165 degrees, infused about 30 seconds in a glass teapot, then mixed the first two infusions together as I am drinking them. The liquor is pale golden, sweet, very delicate floral flavor, with a nice thick body, hints of sweet peas, no hint of astringency or bitterness. A 3rd and 4th infusion are losing body and sweetness, some astringency coming through. The damp leaves smelled like asparagus after the 2nd infusion, but can’t distinguish much after the 4th. Overall, this is a nice, mellow, sweet white tea, and not too pricey as white teas go.

Um, d'oh! 1 g tea per ounce water in a small gaiwan.

Today has been a busy tea day, and there will be at least one more. Started with Sencha Zuiko from Den's, then on to finishing off a bag of the spring 2009 Diamond Tie Guan Yin from norbu. It was opened quite a while ago, and the fines and bits at the end of the bag didn't have as many steeps in there as usual (although of course it was delicious as far as I went), so I moved on to a formal tasting with photos of the oolong I bought from Hankook. That's described in the Korean Tea topic. Then I had a cup of chocolate milk to fuel the end of a good afternoon session in the yard--weeding, but most importantly pulling out the roots of a particularly invasive plant growing between the curb and the street, hand work with small tools. Now that's done, and I deserve a nice dinner and some good tea. No idea what it will be. I'd like to wait a little longer before returning to the Lao Ban Zhang for the tasting, to not push my taste buds too hard with it. Green, white, pu?

Preconditioning of the taste buds could be a big part of my taste experience with this one too. When I first tried some more formal tea tastings I would eat bits of plain crackers between sips and between teas; I've gotten more precise about my temps, mLs and brewing vessels but a lot more carefree about what I may have eaten before/during tastings. But the first time I drank this and was overwhelmed my umami, I was using cooler water, and longer infusions, without the longer hotter rinses, don't think I was eating anything with it; the second time, when I was discovering the sweetness, I was eating some mints in between infusions; the 3rd time, I was eating some quinoa with pinenuts and cheese, and apples for dessert. No mints, but both times when I was eating other stuff I got the sweetness. The sweetness, BTW, is most apparent with slurping sips of still quite hot tea: could it go away with cooling/sitting or be renewed with the extra aeration/mixing from slurping?

Put together a review of the Hankook Oolong tea today. This is fairly pricey like most Korean teas, apparently due to rarity with most being consumed inside Korea. The leaves are dark, small, twisted, with toasty and fruity odors. When added to the prewarmed gaiwan, the odor is stronger, mostly fruity and tart. The first 30 second infusion with water several minutes off the boil (probably about 180 degrees) yields an amber infusion, tasted like dilute black tea--touch of fruit, bit of toasty, but very little of the floral and earthy notes I expect from my chinese oolongs. 2nd infusion at 170 degrees (thought it was a bit warmer, surprised when it was so cool in the cup), also about 30 seconds, again tastes strongly of....well...black tea. A little fruity, very tea-like, a little hint of caramel. For the 4th infusion, I put water just off the boil for 20 seconds, and a little more sweetness comes out. It reminds me a bit of the Yunnan Oriental Beauty I got from Yunnan Sourcing: tastes strongly oxidized, like a black tea, but without any of the bitterness that makes most of them intolerable to me. The leaves are broken, curled, dark after infusion, and again, has a strong tea scent. ('Tea scent' here is code for smells like lipton, but that seems like a bad word to use describing a pleasant mild tea.) It is easy and pleasant, but not that special for the price.

Hmmm. My first infusion was dominated by that umami without much sweet, probably closer to what you're describing, when I infused at very low temps. Then the hot rinses and flash infusions brought sweet out so strongly that it's hard for me to understand how you're not missing it, because you started out with that infusion pattern. Fortunately, I've been brewing miniscule amounts, so I've got a couple more grams to play with to try to figure this out.

After some more steeps of the Lao Ban Zhang, noticed and for the first time opened the Tencha-Kuki Houjicha from Den's tea. It was part of my first order from Den’s Tea. I was shy of bitterness in green teas, hadn’t yet figured out how to steep them, and Richard suggested I try this as an entry to Japanese tea, knowing my fondness for dark roasted oolongs. I ordered a little of this, and a little gyokuro, because that wasn't supposed to be bitter, and a green tea sampler. I figured out how to enjoy the senchas and the gyokuro, and now am drinking one of them nearly every morning, and then this tea got left in the back of the cupboard. But tonight I opened it up, and I am enjoying the toastiness. It is a little more one-note than a serious oolong, with the toasted note over a mild herbaceousness, but still entirely pleasant, easy, mellow. I will doubtless pick up a little of this from time to time. And thank you, Richard, for suggesting this one. It is still a very good fit for me.

Started with some dens sencha zuiko, then on to the Lao Ban Zhang Mao Cha Sheng Pu-erh from the tasting. Going to steep it some more, but I feel a need for some oolong after this.

This is my first time checking yixing vs gaiwan, after seasoning, as closely as I can control the conditions--so really more of a test of infusion vessels rather than a tea tasting, but still, since it was with this tea, it goes here.... 1.6 grams leaf (did trade a few straight overly long leaves for some slightly curled ones to get all to fit without breaking leaves) 50 mL water close to boiling One very small gaiwan One very small, newly seasoned, 'yixing' pot 2 20-second rinses first 5-second infusions thereafter (wait 5 seconds, start pouring, takes about 10 seconds to get all out) Liquor is yellow, sweet, delicious. Leaves are variable sizes, mostly intact, twisted and curled but not rolled tightly. As for the gaiwan vs yixing, I found the sweetness and liquor seemed slightly stronger from the gaiwan, as though the yixing clay is keeping some sweet for itself. Just a tiny difference, not so obvious in every infusion, but each time I could detect a difference, it was the gaiwan-brewed that was sweeter. This tea is amazing.

Today overslept, no sencha, but despite great hurry had a lovely brewing of yunnan mao feng from norbu this afternoon--lots of leaf, low water temps (didn't have time to get it those extra few degrees, to the 175 or so I usually use), and basically poured a quart plus of hot water through 10g or so of leaves, hardly two minutes total contact time of leaf and water: it came out so delicate it was like a white tea, very lovely, and quite popular with several people lucky enough to share this afternoon. Now working on the Rou Gui 2009 Oolong from Houde; will hold off on the next amazing infusion of Lao Ban Zhang Mao Cha from the tasting until tomorrow when I can shoot some pictures. The Rou Gui is spicy, sweet, so very very nice, on the 4th infusion now. Mmm. Interesting aside: the Rou Gui does not have long legs: the special spiciness is noticeably weaker already after just four infusions. Can't have everything, I guess!

I consider the lids that fail to seal when canning to be the ideal lids for long-term storage of my dry goods. They're not dented or lifted on one side. Since I do a lot of canning (stock, stock, stock, jam, applesauce, stock), I do turn over my stock of ready-for-dry-goods lids. I have found some nice jars with one piece metal lids with a plastic seal that are great for storage, but I've never seen the plastic lids mentioned above.

I just reread Greg's description of the bittersweet taste, and find I am tasting more sweet with a whisper of bitter, with my short wonderful infusions. And like the Lao Mansa last year, I would love to fast forward 5 years to know what this leaf could do with aging. Will the sweet flavors stay? Will the bitter mellow? Are the starting elements for the smoky earthy wonderful puerhness here, in this, or do they need to be started by further compressed fermentation? Wishlist for puerh tea-mastery: Stasis chamber, to put samples of tea in at set intervals, so I can then follow the evolution of tea by a comparative tasting at one time, with samples removed from stasis together but different 'aging' times.

Yes, that first long hot rinse made all the dilution unnecessary. While doubtless I was pouring off some of the good sweet too, this tea has so much to give that I don't miss those early infusions. Tonight, sweet and lovely with a bittersweet edge, very short infusion after very short infusion--about 5 seconds with water 195-200 degrees, in porcelain gaiwan, a bit less leaf than last night and using a little less water per infusion, I think the proportions are close to 1g/1oz. The leaves are in very good shape, whole or torn in just a couple of large pieces, not very small, or particularly delicate, just pretty entire green leaves. About 25 leaves are filling my cups tonight.

Baptized a 2nd kyusu today with sencha zuiko this morning--more in the teaware topic. Then midday shared a batch of silver needle with some jasmine, and overdid the jasmine despite trying for a 3:1 ratio. I will swear off jasmine for a good while when this batch is done. Shared a lot of that combo with others who are more enamored of the floral teas. Now working with one of my last packets of Norbu spring 2009 Diamond Tie Guan Yin. I am sharing this tea less and less as it runs out, hoarding the last bits a little. Next up, and from here it looks like there is need for a next up, another infusion of the loose sheng puerh from norbu in the current tasting.

The 2nd tokoname kyusu from the same order got baptized today with some sencha from denstea. Here's the pot itself: I was a bit confused, thought it was plainer from from the picture in the catalog, and would prefer less frilly decoration. Still, it brews a sweet cup of sencha, stands on the handle, pours briskly and neatly. And both this one and the one I posted yesterday catch less of the leaf between the lid and the rim of the pot, probably some neater fitting there.

I know that my cast iron dutch oven is older than I am: my mother bought it shortly after her marriage, before my oldest brother was born. I have several other cast iron items purchased used of unknown age, almost certainly older than me. Also have a few oddball items like my nut & poppy seed grinders , a small Revere ware pressure cooker, and an odd tong/grabber device that may be quite old as well. Some of the pyrex similarly could be 15 or 50 years old, and a mixing bowl and baking pan or two, and a paring knife. Except for the dutch oven, none are known family heirlooms. Just working stuff bought used and still functional.

I didn't need the dilutions after the 3rd infusion, total infusion time to that point was about 40 seconds or so, so I suspect you are exactly right. Will try that next time, because the later infusions are so good that just using less leaf doesn't seem like a good idea. For now, I am still finding some sweetness at 12 or 13 infusions--getting careless now and have lost count.

Forgot the 11th infusion, it went long enough to cool to just mildly warm....and there was astringency and bitterness, but it was tolerable.

2nd tasting: enough leaf to fill the 75mL gaiwan 1/3 full when wetted (guestimated 2g, but scale malfunctioning), water to about 200 degrees, and filling to about 60 mL, so a typical 1g/oz ratio). First infusion 10 seconds after flash rinse, too soon after eating a strong mint: pale liquor, ordinary puerh flavor, nothing standing out. Second infusion, 10-15 seconds, minty flavor long gone: bitter, wow. Emergency dilution about 1:3 with same temp water: sweet, vegetal, spicy, that bitter is gone. Another sip of the undiluted from fair cup: yikes. Diluting remainder from fair cup: delicious. Diluting seems to eliminate the bitter rather than to just lessen the concentration of bitterness. Wild. Third infusion, 15 seconds: straight up: bitter city! diluted 1:2--there is the sweet spot again. When I sip with a slurpy noisy inhalation, it feels sweet/spicy all over my tongue--no bitter. There is a slightly bitter aftertaste, maybe, but nothing like the straight up stuff. Where does the bitter go? Fourth infusion, about 8 seconds (started trying to pour from the gaiwan at 5 seconds, took a few more to get it pouring quickly out): straight up, sipping gives that brilliant sweet taste, and a bit more of the slightly bitter aftertaste. But the sweet is so good, that I slurp-sip fast-fast-fast, it is sweet/spicy delicious, and now all gone! Must infuse more. Fifth infusion, again about 8 seconds (start pouring at 5 seconds, done by 10 seconds), getting this one down: sweet/spicy, sip/slurp/sip, doesn't get time to cool much, all gone again, mouth feels a bit scorched, but aftertaste is mostly sweet, yum. Sixth, same thing: the sweet is there, but so is the bitter, somehow lurking just behind the sweet, as though it is part of what makes it seems so sweet. I see what cdh meant when he said you wouldn't want to get rid of the bitterness. No change with 7th infusion, and the 8th, and the 9th, and my cup is EMPTY again. I have definitely found some kind of 'sweet spot' for this tea: sweet like green tea/sencha/dragon well/mao feng. Today I am getting none of that silky umami I was noticing so strongly last night, likely due to the very different infusion conditions--water kept to near 200 degrees in the electric kettle and shorter infusions. Last night was at home, today at work, but AFAIK same city tap water both places, using twin porcelain gaiwans. This is *very* interesting. (Before 10th infusion: checked a bit of plain water from kettle in same cup: not sweet. So it's not just that my mouth is burnt and thinks everything is sweet. 10th infusion: still sweet.)