Wholemeal Crank

Started with the genmaicha from the current tasting, then prepped with some Diamond Tie Guan Yin from norbutea for my long drive to visit family this weekend. Glad I'm driving and can take my tea with me.

Today brewing Huo Shan Huang Ya, yellow tea from jingteashop.com. It's a twisted slender green leaf making a delicate sweet yellow liquor that reminds me of nothing so much as the new style green oolongs and pouchong, but less intense. Brewed 1.5 grams in a 100mL gaiwan with 170 degree water--starting at 30 seconds, increasing to 45 seconds, last infusion 2 minutes. A final infusion at 5 minutes was probably too much to ask, but still had a nice delicate flavor.

Today had a thermos full of the first unnamed puerh beeng I bought from Wing Hop Fung. Tonight hardly can choose what to try first from a small order from Jingteashop.com, but the interesting yellow tea won out. More in the green tea topic, because it seems like a better fit there than anywhere else...

I cull by whether I think I will use the book in the future: I keep some for reference, some for recipes I already love, some for recipes that look like I will love them, or recipes that will inspire me to cook, even if not a recipe from that book. I've quite likely culled at least as many as I now keep (about 120 or 130), over the years, and probably about half of those were books that I really did like and use at one time. I culled them for having recipes that were not right for me (I found the lack of onions and garlic kept me from appreciating Lord Krishna's Cuisine as much as those who gave it major awards); for being replaced by a different book that is more in tune with my current cooking/eating habits (Marcella Hazan made way for Giuliano Bugialli); or because what I learned from it has been so ingrained in my present cooking that it seems superfluous (after adapting the food processor kneading technique from the Best Bread Ever to my favorite recipes, I didn't keep the book, because the recipes otherwise were not particularly unique); or for having too much space devoted to stuff I will never make (meat-heavy books from various cuisines with very short chapters on vegetables or desserts).

Yesterday, Big Red Robe Wuyi, followed by Yunnan Mao Feng.

To figure out what my new tea discoveries were for 2009, I read back through my posts in another forum, and realized that some stuff I'd thought was 2009 discovered was actually discovered in 2007 and 2008. The few things that were truly new for 2009 are the new style oolongs, rich and floral, that have captured my taste buds entirely (without supplanting the old style versions), which was facilitated by an egullet tasting (although in truth I'd been drinking some of this lighter style oolong since 2007, I hadn't connected it with the green looking oolong teas in the jars at Wing Hop Fung until the tasting; finally understanding how multiple infusions gongfu style can reveal the layers of flavor in a fine tea; and discovering that I can, after all, sometimes brew a very pleasant cup of green tea--even japanese teas, working using the jasmine safety net.

That's what I suspected. I posted here right after I first opened it, so it's been two months. I bought two ounces, the smallest size Denstea.com offers, and it's hard to see myself using it up a whole lot faster than this. Now wondering if there is anything else I can do to preserve it--wondering if the putting half in the freezer as soon as the pouch is opened would help....hmmmm....maybe a vacuum seal-a-meal thingie? Or just need to find a merchant who will sell it to me by the well-sealed ounce. And I will not buy it from Wing Hop Fung where they put all the tea in the bulk glass jars or cases, quite the wrong approach for this tea.

For those of you who have more experience with these things....when a vacuum-sealed package of japanese Sencha or gyokuro is opened, how long before you start to see a drop off in quality of the brewed tea, assuming you keep it well sealed afterwards, with the dessicant inside if such is provided? And what elements seem to go first? I am trying to figure out whether the less satifsying results I've been getting with the gyokuro in the last couple of weeks are more due to my infusion technique or the tea going off. It's been noticeably less sweet.

In the thermos, keeping wonderfully, black yunnan with osmanthus blossoms, fruity and delicious, although the actual caffeine content was not enough to prevent a significant attack of post-lunch drowsiness. Tonight, enjoying some of the green yunnan Mao Feng, very pleased that my most recent order arrived today, so that instead of needing to hoard it, I can continue to drink it freely. I may even give some away as part of a holiday gift.

Started with some gyokuro, and now am brewing some purple bud sheng puerh. Puerh is simply good stuff.

I've been mostly using parsnips in soups, sometimes stir fries, and have enjoyed them when other people roast them. Oddly enough, my favorite recipe featuring parsnips is one that combines them with carrots, and I really appreciate the zip that the parsnips add to the proceedings: Curried carrot & parsnip soup.

Except for bitterness, I usually find all of the elements of the green teas present in white tea, but in more dilute or delicate versions that are harder to tease apart and give a name to: Sweetness? Camphor? Vanilla? Perfumey or flowery? Delicate flavors of sweet vegetables or nutty asparagus? Tart or fruity? The Yunnan Mao Feng I've been enjoying so much is a little like a white tea in almost completely lacking bitterness--at least, as I've brewed it so far--but it has more robust flavor than my silver needles. Probably that's why I adore it.

A couple of nice tea-and-dessert combinations. Yesterday, some Peach Blossom tea from Rishi with mochi and berries for dessert (I had given the tea as a christmas gift), and well brewed at that. Today, drinking some Eight Immortals Dan Cong Oolong with poached quince. Superbly brings out the fruitiness of the tea.

Now working on some Pouchong from TenRen. The grade I've been drinking is not at all sweet, but still manages to taste like summer sunshine distilled into a cup--that golden hay vegetal caramelly warm quality.

Started the day with the genmaicha from Yukki-cha for the tasting topic, alternating sips with my gyokuro kin from denstea. I bought the smallest quantity of the gyokuro that they offered--2 ounces--but still have quite a bit left, because it takes only a little tea per cup.

2nd infusion, 8 grams tea to 150 grams water at 170 degrees, brewed one minute in a glass teapot: still quite strong with the toasted flavor, and a little bitterness with a little sweet. I diluted it further with just a little more water--probably a quarter more--to get what seems like a very nice cup, at a point where it tastes more toasted than scorched, and the sweetness is still there. It's interesting to compare it to the darkly roasted oolongs: those also have a roasted-toasted flavor component, but this is much stronger. I don't drink coffee so can't be sure that is what it tastes like, but wonder if this tradition of stretching tea with roasted rice began before or after coffee was known in japan?

Warmed tart applesauce and vanilla ice cream for gingerbread a al mode.

Been trying to take that lesson to heart, even if the cupboard is overfilled with other teas, especially if they never give that same intense joy of one that is so perfectly suited to your taste buds. Just ordered some more of the Yunnan Mao Feng from Norbutea that I've been enjoying so much, and if the Yunnan gold I just got from a new source doesn't measure up to the Chado Yunnan Xtra Fancy I am now out of--having used it for a christmas gift, mixed with osmanthus blossoms, I will get more of that as well.

STarted the day with Genmaicha with matcha in two versions, and then badly mauled the last of some ginseng oolong with careless brewing--was ok but watery in the end, and finished with a mellow pot of dragonwell. I think I just am not the target audience for dragonwell, despite its superb reputation.

Interesting stuff. Started out trying to compare it to the denstea sample I had, a single tea bag of their Genmaicha extra green, which weighed 2.8 grams, bag and all. I guessed the tea was about 2 grams, so brewed up 2 grams of the yukki-cha tea at the same time, both with about 50mL water, water at 80 degrees in preheated gaiwans for 1 minute. There is no comparison: the denstea was paler, lighter, sweeter, a lot less roasty. The Yukki-cha tea is rich green, strongly toasty/roasty, richer, fuller bodied, but also not sweet and hinting at bitter. Quite surprisingly strong with the roasted taste of the grain. A 2nd infusion was even more dominated by the roasted grain flavor. Will do the next infusion with the proportions recommended by yukki-cha.

Not all the sodium in packaged foods comes from salt aka sodium chloride, cf monosodium glutamate. Also, I suspect a lot of baked goods use more sodium-rich leavenings than home versions. There are also many preservatives that are sodium this and sodium that, although most of those are used in tiny quantities. And lots of packaged foods are oversweetened, with lots more sugars than homemade equivalents, and that makes the oversalting more "tolerable".

I have quite a few cookbooks that I bought used that and which have varying amounts of damage. Among those that I bought new, the one hardback with a spine broken into several chunks is Flatbreads and Flavors. It's also probably the most unique and diverse book I've got, with Sundays at the Moosewood (softcover, and also a bit worn) a close second. They're both books that have a lot of recipes I use repeatedly and haven't memorized and would have a hard time reproducing without the text in front of me. There are others that I also use a lot, and still others that I am itching to get into more, but for the desert island, I want a book that covers a lot of ground--no single subject or single cuisine (and the flatbreads and flavors is not just about bread!), that has a sense of taste that I trust (ok, for the moosewood I always need to double or triple the spices, but that's easy enough to factor into my preparations), and yet still has more recipes that I haven't yet explored.

First time making the Yunnan Mao Feng from norbutea by the thermos-full, and it worked great. I was running very late, had to make do with water from the water cooler tap which is not hot enough for the oolongs, used a higher than usual leaf to water ratio and one long infusion, and diluted it to a thermos full of very nice tea, still holding up well at the end of the afternoon. It is doing much better in this role than the more delicate dragonwell or gyokuros did.

Got mine today. Too late for tea now, will have to wait until tomorrow evening to take it for a spin.

Drinking my original favorite red-label ti kuan yin today--very earthy, dark, and perfectly in tune with the short winter day.