Wholemeal Crank

I would love to be able to taste a single batch of tea leaf, oxidized to different degrees, and then roasted to different degrees. With TGY, I have really only seen the dark roasted version like my Sea-Dyke brand stalwart, and the new style very floral and lightly oxidized and barely if at all roasted green version. I do not know how much of the difference between the two styles is oxidation vs roasting. I've had more variety of Bao Zhong or Pouchongs, from Taiwan: light delicate near-greens, darker versions that taste a bit more oxidized but still less toasty than the TGYs, and perhaps oriental beauty could be shoehorned into that group. Hmmm.....seems like this would be a great thing for a tea-maker to take on: provide matched batches of teas with different oxidation and different roasting, which could be quite a unique offering for tasting classes, tea-master training, and exploration by tea-o-philes like us. I probably will have to grow my own to ever really experience this, however. While I would not expect to ever grow great tea of my own, I can imagine getting sufficient quality and quantity of leaf to make some drinkable teas processed several different ways to see these effects. With my micro-gaiwans, I'd only need a half-dozen leaves per batch....

Now drinking more of the 'Oriental Beauty' style oolong from Yunnan sourcing. This is so nice, each time I pour a new cup and am reminded that this is what black tea wishes it could be--fruity and sweet but not at all bitter. Mmmm. And started the day with gyokuro, discussed in the Japanese green tea topic.

I am not sure what to make of this. Several possibilities come to mind: am I making it a bit too concentrated? I am using a kyusu with a nominal capacity of 6 oz and filled it nearly to the brim this morning, and measured 6g of tea, so kept the 2g/2oz ratio they suggested. But my actual volume in the kyusu was under 6 oz, then I may be overdoing the leaf to water ratio. Also, it may be past its prime, but I've come across suggestions in a few places that gyokuro tends to improve with a short aging, so one should concentrate on sencha in the spring and summer, when it is freshest, and gyokuro in the fall and winter. By that calculation, the gyokuro should be better than the (last year's) sencha right now. There's also a question of water to investigate: I have been using my LA city tap water for all of my teas, and this might be one more sensitive to that than my usual oolongs and puerhs. I am tempted also to conclude that the ratings of the teas are more consistent with their umami than their sweetness, and that I may be happiest with a good but not best quality gyokuro or sencha, those with a bit less umami to overwhelm the sweetness. This would be consistent with my experience to date, but I am so new at these Japanese green that I'm just not sure. I'm a little hesitant to make my first forays into ordering straight from Japan before I figure this out. I'm planning another couple of sessions with shorter infusions, more dilute, and perhaps starting with the water temps in 160s, to get a better idea.

Whew! I really, really, love this tea.

Today I am trying the gyokuro suimei from Dens tea again. This time I am measuring per their instructions: 6 g tea for my 6 oz pot, water 140 degrees for 150s first infusion, 160 degrees 60s second infusion, with the timer. I think I am getting what I am supposed to get: a strongly vegetal, briny, deep green flavor, no hint of bitterness. But not a lot of sweet. A lot of vegetal, briny, deep green. And when I set it down for 10 minutes to go out and shoot my blooming protea when the morning light hit it at the most flattering angle, coming back, the sweet was less and the briny overwhelming. I will have to try more of this brewed closer to my earlier parameters--a little hotter, a little shorter, to see if I can bring out more sweet. But I suspect that what this really means is that I do prefer the brighter flavor of sencha, in general.

Got my sample of this tea last night, brewed it, loved it, and went to order some on the web site, and didn't see it listed. Is it a new tea that hasn't yet arrived, or one that has already sold out? Will post more proper tasting notes with my next brewing, but can already say that I LOVE this combination of the lemon myrtle and the rooibos, they really complement one another brilliantly.

Today, one quart of the ever-dependable norbu white-bud sheng puerh. Left a beeng at the satellite office, no fears it will go off before next month when I return.

Today I started with sencha, one utterly perfect infusion, sweet, light, delicious, then forgot it for about three minutes with the water in for the 2nd infusion....much sadness. Then shared my 'gateway drug'--the red-label "Sea Dyke Brand" Ti Kuan Yin--with some of my newly outed tea-drinking colleagues. They confessed yesterday to being at the same point where I was when I only drank that tea--happy with one or two specific brands & types of teas, but afraid to branch out. I have them now..... Tonight I have to figure out what to bring with me to inaugurate a new satellite clinic, working out of an office where they're drinking Teavana. Should I dazzle them with a rich spring oolong? or go for the ever-mellow golden needle menghai brick?

Here's one source: Sugimoto has it for $15/10g, but you must order by 4/15/10. Tempting, but I'll wait for next year.

I've seen quotes of something like $2-3 per gram, but when sold in 10 gram lots, that's suddenly a somewhat affordable luxury, like a decent but not fancy bottle of wine.

I have no worries about not getting it right the first couple of times--when I'm using 4-5 grams of the 56 grams in a 2 oz bag. But if I were using half of a 10g order of a master's handmade tea? The same degree of experimentation would be a criminal waste. Hence, decided not to seek such tea until I have a higher likelihood of really enjoying it. After all, it's been only a year since my first order from dens, which convinced me I do have a future with sencha and gyokuro.

Besides Hankook, so far the only Korean teas I have tried have been a fairly random one from a Korean supermarket, which was pretty nice (and not cheap, at about $24/80 grams). This blogger often writes about korean teas, mostly seemingly from random gifts, and likes the teas from Dao Teain Vancouver.

Haven't found a source yet for the hand made stuff, but have decided I need more time and experience just with the senchas and gyokuro. It took me two infusions to start to 'get' the Yuuki-Cha Kumamato Sencha Yabe from the tasting, and due to spillage I only got two infusions from that; and then I tried the highest grade of Sencha Zuiko and Gyokuro Suimei from denstea, and have tried each of them a couple of times, and still haven't gotten the best of them yet. It still takes me at least 2 infusions to 'get' a new tea, and it would be horrible to buy a super-fantastic hand-made sencha and not be able to do it justice from the get go.

No sencha this AM, because need to sleep in won out over need for green, but then osmanthus oolong, and some fun on-the-spot brewing of Dragon well during a meeting this afternoon. Now onto a bit of Bai Mu Dan, sharing with some other colleagues who I didn't really realize before are into tea.

Some good tea the last few days, but not much posting because I was outside of good wifi range this weekend. I went to camp, and took a small quantity of tried and true teas: a thermos of the 2007 white bud sheng from norbu to get me there, and worked on finishing the last of my spring Ali Shan oolong from Norbu, the one from last year's tasting that was such a revelation for me--oolongs can be green?! Gotta finish that one off before I start the winter harvest 2009 that just arrived. About one more gaiwan's worth left. And also back to old reliable, my traditional dark roasted "Sea Dyke" brand red tin Ti Kuan Yin. A small amount of Jade Pole green tea from Yunnan Sourcing capped off the weekend. The only thing that would have been nicer would be to have had some more of the white bud puerh to drink today in place of the Ali Shan, because the temps were in the 40s with strong winds and eventually rain up at the camp, and the smokier tea would have felt better. Ah well, these are the compromises required by travel. At least I had my tea with me, to the continuing wonder of many people who commented on the big thermos that I carried everywhere. Seriously craving some sencha now, but will try to hold out for tomorrow morning.

Midday, got through a loooonnnnggg meeting with my favorite Diamond Tie Guan Yin from norbu. Running low on supplies of this one. Then on to some of the "not fermented" Korean Green tea. I used a lot of tea and brewed up a thermos full, starting with a few very concentrated infusions, diluted iwth plenty of hot water as I was in quite a hurry. The concentrated tea tasted very briny, not bitter, but the diluted version ended up caramelicious and mellow. Not a nice thing to do to nice tea, but still very tasty.

Mint tea is wonderful stuff indeed. I often like mine with chamomile, sore throat or not. I finished off that last bit of fukamushi sencha yesterday morning, and it was sweet and lovely, and moved on to the Shui jin gui wuyi oolong from Norbu, which started spicy and sweet, and even after prolonged thermos abuse remained mellow, warm, sweet, as the spicy highlights diminished. Today I broke into the gyokuro suimei from denstea, and infused it longer first time per their recommendations, and it was quite briny, deep, vegetal, not very sweet, but not the slightest bit astringent or bitter. Very umami.

After a weekend of excellent tea despite limitations imposed by traveling--brewing in the morning for thermos full for the day, with the white bud puerh starting out, some fall AliShan oolong holding up the middle, and some green Jade Pole starting out strong, but ending a little off--will note that this is not a tea to hold longer than a few hours in the thermos--today was a more conventional tea day. Started with a cup of dens fukamushi sencha--when putting away a few new purchases I discovered the tail end of this one, which I thought was already gone; moved on to more of the fall AliShan; and now am enjoying some Ba Xian Dan Cong. Tea happiness.

really surprised my "tea phobic" colleague today with the norbu white bud sheng puerh. He got quite apprehensive when I told him it was a puerh, but there was a big smile when he drank some and he followed me back to my desk asking questions....

Sencha Zuiko from denstea.com this morning. I had a not-so-good first infusion yesterday (fair bit of bitterness), and had to back up today to weighing out the tea, checking temps, carefully counting the infusions out, shortening, and getting a much nicer cup today. Looking forward to another sharing of tea with my skeptical colleague who complained about the harsh puerh his in-laws make, and thinking today, after a white tea and an oolong in the last two weeks, he is ready for some eye opening puerh. Debating between the white bud sheng from norbu and the menghai golden needles shu from yunnan sourcing: should I go with the caramelicious mellowness of the golden needles, or the smoky sweetness of the white bud?

Finally following up: my last planned infusion with this sencha was derailed by a spill of most of the remaining leaf, so I ended up combining it with another tea to fill a morning pot. Ooops. Final impression, then, is that this is a deep, rich, and mildly briny tea. Beautiful stuff.

Today continued as a green tea day: prepared a thermos full of a particularly strong jasmine cut with silver needle, but still it came out a bit soapy. That particular jasmine probably needs a 2:1 dilution to be really pleasant. And then some Dragon Well to set things back on the right track again.

Just received a new order of sencha & gyokuro from denstea, and threw caution to the wind and brewed up the last two pots' worth of the Cultured Cup sencha select in one very sencha-dense infusion. Brewed the infusions a little shorter than usual, and what a delicious cup to finish it off with.....

That's quite a bit of Rooibos lately, isn't it?

I recently bought some linden flowers from an international grocery store, and haven't yet tried to make tea with them. How do you like to prepare it?