Wholemeal Crank

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.)

Even without using the pressure canner, I sometimes hear pinging when the temperature changes and the seals pop on my jars. I am quite careful to re-use lids with the best-looking seals for the most delicate things--and have had barley malt powder and powdered sugar stay light and fluffy through midwest humidity for several years. My sleepy error on the pint conversion. I have a few of the 1/4 pint/1/2 cup jars, that I will use for my next fruit jam prep. They're not available in wide mouth but should stack fine on top of the other jars.

Got 2 new kyusus from tokoname.jp, and am currently enjoying my first morning sencha in the leaf pot: It holds 5 oz water, stands on one handle, has a nice sasame screen, is shapely and pretty, and pours well. And BTW, my simplex is so pretty that even the water drops that condensed on the edge of it form a beautiful pattern

The sweetness was not caramel-like; I'm trying to find a word to describe the silky-smooth-umami-which did have some caramelized overtones. The sweetness was associated with some sharp astringency; and the sweetness and the umami were not perceived together.

After the warnings about bitterness, and late hour caffeine/sleep concerns, I started off very cautiously. First try in small (75mL) gaiwan (no leaves were broken in the making of this tasting, honest!): 1 gram leaf, water fresh off the boil, rinsed x 10 seconds, let hydrate briefly, then infused 10 seconds first time in about 40mL water--very dilute, interesting potential--smoky, earthy--but much too weak. Using less water for the later infusions, to try to strengthen the flavor. Water temp dropped much more than I expected by the 2nd infusion--about 170 degrees, surprise--and let it infuse longer, 30 seconds--very umami, earthy, almost salty but not the briny taste of a japanese green. Reheated the water a bit, started to hear what I thought was a boil, but it was only 185 degrees, and after 30 seconds, that same flavor is back and intense. Some astringency is also there, but it serves well here, is not bitter and unpleasant, but wow, the other flavor is strong but smooth, like silky-caramelicious-umami. Quite interesting. There is a neat sweet aftertaste too--I totally get the bitter and sweet that Greg mentions. Fourth infusion: drinking sips straight from the gaiwan (!), got a fair bit of astringency at the last drops, but several sips over a minute were remarkably consistent until that last drop: the strong caramel-silky-umami predominates. Gaiwan and all to fridge overnight. Will play more with this tomorrow, to see how long the leaves can go, but also will be less anxious and try the next round with more leaf, full gaiwan, and a full kettle keeping near-boiling temps longer.

Canning jars, come in sizes down to 1/2 cup now (1/2 pint). I use the wide mouth sizes exclusively, they stack nicely and are more stable than stacks of the regular mouth jars. Use lids that have not been used for canning yet or that were removed gently without leaving a palpable rise in the lid and with intact-looking rubber seal and you get a nice, airtight seal (albeit not vacuum tight as if you really used them for canning). Then write on the side of the jars with a regular Sharpie pen. The Sharpie is permanent but will easily come off of a glass surface with a little application of a green scrubbie pad and water--once part of the writing starts to peel off, it will all come off quite easily. No sticky paper labels required. It's a little harder to see when you're labeling something very dark, but very easy for sugar vs cornstarch vs powdered sugar vs salt etc. And best of all, entirely critter proof--any moths that hatch in your buckwheat stay in the buckwheat, and any mouse in your house goes hungry b/c he can't get into the jars. (spiced gravenstein applesauce from '08, a good year; don't have a good shot of the white stuffs all lined up and already on the flickr, sorry)

Excellent step to prevent oolong deficiency. I took care of that today with some pouchong. Now pondering a first infusion of the puerh from our current tasting--cooler? warmer? Will start with a small quantity in a gaiwan to get a sense of the tea.

Did the bitter lessen in the later infusions? Still pondering whether I should try hot/short or cool/short first time. Have some errands to do but then home tonight for long paperwork/reviewing session, perfect to sit with the tea for gong fu cha.

I think a dose a couple of times a week is probably sufficient to keep clinical deficiency at bay, but would suggest closer to every-other-day dosing for optimum satisfaction. After all, with oolong you're dealing with dark and light, floral and toasty, so much encompassed in one simple phrase.

Backing up a step: after the pots were dried, there was a white, waxy coating on some of them. I think letting them cool in the water was a mistake, and will reheat, remove and rinse them while hot.

Sencha, matcha, puerh; sencha, matcha, oolong; sencha, matcha, rooibos; sleep, eat, repeat: I see no rut and no problem aside from possiblity of oolong deficiency arising. Yunnan gd with osmanthus in the thermos today, yum.

Long time quiet topic. So....I bought one more of the little 60mL size yixing pots this weekend from Wing Hop Fung, and decided I should season them properly, since I'd done very little with them before besides pouring boiling water in and over them. I put them all in a large stock pot, two layers with a couple of trivets to separate the layers, lids and pots; filled the the pot to cover with tap water, and brought it to a boil, dropped the heat to lowest I could keep the gas on for an hour or two, then turned off the heat and let them soak overnight. The next day, there was a little scum visible on the surface of the water, not sure if it was from wax on the pots or something else. A couple of the pots still feel relatively slick on the surface compared to the rest; all are relatively rough inside. The rinse water was a little orangey at first--?clay colored?--but quickly became clear. They've all but the one been rinsed with boiling water before, and they're drying now, and later this week I was planning to start with tea soaks. Eventually I want to do a couple of comparison tastings of the same tea brewed in my glass teapot, the dedicated newly seasoned yixing, and a gaiwan.

Do you have a fine strainer to help with the dust?

Hainan purple bud Puerh from norbu this afternoon and evening, a nice companion for a moderate drive today. Nicely infused, smoky, earthy, sweet--just how I like my puerh. I just bought a new yixing pot at Wing Hop Fung yesterday, and used the occasion as an excuse to try to start over a bit with all of my 'yixings', letting them just barely simmer along for a while and soak, and next will come some tea-specific steep & soaks. Because they were mid-soak, the puerh was made in the basic glass teapot, functional if not particularly special.

Seems like the stairs may be the best explanation, put more clearly in a blog posting here: "the term "flight" in the French language is"escale". Like a flight of stairs, wine Judges use this phrase in reference to the arrangements in coordinating a tasting, predicated on the Bordeaux classification of 1865. As it would be "unfair" to compare a "lesser" properties' Claret to a "Superiore" First Growth, the tastings would start with the lighter wines and escalate to the rankings of each level or "growth"."

After my mildly disappointing session with the gyokuro vs sencha yesterday, tried a head-to-head tasting of the two Dens senchas I have right now, and I can't tell the difference between the Sencha Zuiko and Sencha Shin-ryoku. Infused 2 grams in the 75mL gaiwans with water at 160 to 170 degrees, infusions about 30 seconds to a bit longer, was being a bit sloppy without timer or counting off precisely, but the end result after 4 infusions is that both are sweet and taste brighter than the gyokuro did, and will bring much morning happiness over the next couple of months.

I don't have access to the OED until I go back to work tomorrow: do you happen to remember what the earlier citations were referring to, before the flights of wine entry?

Finished my tea day with the last of the imperial shih feng long jing from jingteashop.com, and then a new taiwanese oolong I discussed in the oolong topic.