Wholemeal Crank

Today had some Lao Cha Tuo Shu Puerh from Norbu this afternoon, and then had an excellent gong fu session with his Diamond Tie Guan Yin. Hard to get enough of that stuff.

Yesterday finished the tea day with a small brewing of Bi Lo Chun from Jing Tea, and then started a gongfu session with a sample of a Menghai sheng puerh received in a tea swap with LuckyGirl. I'm not certain but I think this may be my first taste of a puerh from this famous factory (I have one sheng and one shu on order from Yunnan Sourcing). I did not get through many infusions so don't have a strong impression of this one yet. I'll probably brew a few more infusions before bedtime, hoping that there won't be much caffeine left to extract..... Today started with more Sencha Select, drank the osmanthus oolong whose origin I can't recall during clinic, and am now finishing the evening paperwork with Yunnan Mao Feng.

Another Sencha start, but also continued a gongfu session with the Honey Orchid Phoenix Oolong. And now enjoying Ali Shan summer High Mountain Beauty. A sweet and oolong day.

Sencha Select for breakfast; then on to a mellow and sweet puerch with clinic; and finally a gongfu session with the 2008 Honey Orchid Phoenix Oolong from Tea Habitat. Have to stay up late finishing some (surprise!) paperwork.

Today started with Sencha select, then moved on to Yunnan Mao Feng, there was a small brewing of some Dragon Well (which was not felicitiously paired with the aftertaste of a burrito with a strong chipotle salsa), and finished with a chamomile/mint. Is the Monkey pick you're drinking a lightly oxidized or darker roasted oolong?

Actually, the temperature was the 180 degrees recommended in their chart halfway down this page on the web site.

Finished the day with some Mao Xie, Hairy Crab oolong, from Jing Tea. Quite nice, but missing that unusual fruity note we enjoyed in the tasting of the samples from Norbu a while ago.

As I posted elsewhere, I procrastinated with other things yesterday long enough to prepare this demo of why I think as scale is so valuable--comparing 1 gram samples of various teas, weighed on my little electronic scale to about 0.1 g accuracy. You can see it larger here if you want. The very dense Lao Cha is less than half a teaspoon, and you'd need a tablespoon to hold the mao feng and silver needle.

Started with more Sencha select today, getting fairly monotonous in the morning. Just feels like a nice start to the day. Then a bulk-brewed shu puerh, Mangyan Guoyan Golden Peacock from Norbu, with lunch. Held up pretty well to chocolate/cherry cookies for dessert. And I have been browsing the new Yunnan Sourcing website.....a very dangerous pastime. After enjoying the Yunnan Mao Feng from Norbu so much, I'm going to try a couple more yunnan green teas, and probably a puerh or two....

I generally have to set my meter to +1 or more. Since I now have a perfectly functional through not particularly lovely kyusu, I can take my time now waiting to find the perfect one that speaks to me like that one did to you.

After yet another attempt to photograph tea, I really appreciate the hard work it took to shoot those all of those teas. The dark on light background, trying to give the nearly black ones some good definition without making them appear faded and washed out, all adds up to a high level of technical difficulty. And that is one heck of a gorgeous kyusu. Does it have a strainer built in?

After my tea overdose afternoon, brewed up a pint of relatively dilute Ban Tian Yao, using the dinky yixing with many infusions to fill up the pint. The spicy flavor has come up wonderfully. I think something about this one prefers the yixing to the gaiwan. This was a rather quick & careless brewing, not at all gongfu, but the end result is delicious.

Thanks. I may not have done enough whisking first time around. I did soak the chasen in the pitcher I poured the boiling water into; otherwise it was per the Dens web site.

After my morning reading about making matcha, including quite a few references to teaspoons and scoops in regards to the quantities of tea, I was inspired to waste some time making up this little demonstration, showing the difference in volume of the same weight of different teas: And of course afterwards it was easier to brew them up, rather than to return them to their various tins, bags, and pouches..... I think I gave myself a significant headache by drinking so much tea over the course of a relatively short period of time. But it was delicious up until the headache started.

Started the day with my first attempt at Matcha, which was not a rousing success, nor total failure. Then went back to some Sencha Select with more pleasing results.

Tried my first matcha this morning. Reviewed instructions on Dens and Yukki-Cha sites, watched to prepare. Used 1 gram sifted Dens organic matcha in a plain porcelain bowl, 3 oz water, water started at about 180 degrees in the first bowl before adding to the matcha in the mixing bowl, whisked well with the chasen, got to a nice foam. I did not preheat the pseudo-chawan, per dens direction, so the water hitting the tea was starting at about 180 but should have cooled to about 160 pretty quickly, although I didn't remeasure the temp as I whisked it. The foam was thick and pleasant. Just didn't care so much for the flavor. It was not particularly bitter, but very strongly umami and not very sweet. So....a few questions: the youtube video suggests more whisking will sweeten the tea. But whisking should be oxidizing things, and extra rest time does not seem to sweeten my senchas or dragon wells. Is whisking sweetening or just for foam/texturizing? And what should I try first to maximize the sweetness--change temps, proportions, whisk more/less?

Wow, sounds delicious. 400 varieties of tea??!!! Even if half of those are flavored herbals, wow. What's the store?

Another day, another Sencha--Fukamushi Sencha Maki from denstea.

Brewed up a bit of all three again tonight, and it's so very hard to decide. I think the Da Hong Pao is probably my favorite, being the smoothest combination of toasty and fruity, and the Shan Jui Gui next. Still, it's hard to be sure which of the differences I'm tasting are due to the intrinsic properties of the teas, and which to a few seconds longer infusion or few degrees cooler water when doing the comparative tasting; I can clearly say that all of them are quite delicious one by one.

Mine is still unopened in the cupboard; I have the whisk, and a reasonably sized and shaped bowl, and just need a quiet weekend day to make my first attempt. Probably will break into it within a week or so.

Started today with green, but dragon well, not sencha. Came out very nice in a gaiwan. I'm getting more comfortable with the Kamjove after just a few brewing sessions, but it does have some limitations that make it less than desirable for most of my brewing. You can't brew very small quantitites, because the leaves are raised up off the bottom of the cup, and it needs a bit of care to rinse out the leaves after. But for brewing the afternoon thermos full of tea, it seems just right.

Five infusions from a gyokuro? Do tell more!

Three tea day: sencha select, summer Ali Shan oolong, and now smoky white bud puerh.

I doubt I'd use it for this particular tea again, because I feel like I have better control in the gaiwan, and the gaiwan works well with smaller quantifies of this very pricey tea, and I fumbled with it enough to come quite close to seriously messing up the tea. But with practice, it should be ok for my bulk brewing to fill my thermos.

Actually, was going to do the usual gaiwan, but instead tried it in the new office gadget--a Kamjove plastic infusion pitcher thingy (brought as a travel kit, but pressed into service in the office after shattering the 3rd or 4th small glass teapot I've used here....). My tea came out a bit more dilute than perhaps would have been perfect, because I was trying to get used to the mechanics of the pitcher, but the mix of sweetness, vegetal elements, and nuttiness was the best I've gotten from this tea.