Wholemeal Crank

Bought a small sample of TenRen's first quality Pouchong today, and while it does have a bit more body and sweetness than the 3rd grade, it is still a lighter tea than the alishan oolong and spring tie guan yin's I've been drinking. That part is a bit disappointing; but on the other hand, it means I can keep on buying the much cheaper 3rd grade and still have a nice, reliable cup of tea.

What's in that?

I've had my dough stick to a well-seasoned cast iron dutch oven thoroughly preheated and measured by my infrared temp gun to 450 degrees.

More herb tea this morning, prompted by how nice it was a couple of days ago. Hibiscus, chamomile, tulsi, orange zest, rosehips, licorice root.

Could you just fold the parchment carefully into the pot shape *before* you put the pot into the oven and heat it up, then remove it while you heat up the pot, slip the now more or less shaped parchment back into the pot, and pour inthe dough like always?

Dragonwell this morning, and the Lao Mansa puerh this afternoon and evening.

Didn't take very long to see a difference!

Two accidental tests of what happens to tea after brewing this week: made a thermos of very nice sweet gyokuro, that over the course of four hours both turned from green to gold and lost virtually all of its sweetness, although the liquor body remained thick and silky; and last night, had to abandon a portion of a cup of Tie Guan Yin, the very sweet and lovely spring diamond grade 2009 from norbu, and it had not changed its golden color noticeably, but did lose the sweetness entirely. Now setting up a more proper experiment.

I am enjoying some Tie Guan Yin in the overeating aftermath. It's like a post-dessert dessert tea.

Today, anticipating a nice afternoon nap, felt like a change of pace, and brewed up some herbal tea--hibiscus, orange peel, licorice root, rose hips, and chamomile. I think the makings will yield at least one more brewing later.

Due to inability to concentrate adequately on work, needed one more brewing to get me through to the end of the workday. Drinking some more of the Alishan High Mountain spring Oolong from norbutea. Mmmm. I need a new word for the golden silky warm flavor that is so deep and persistent in this tea--I keep saying haylike, but although it reminds me of the smell of a freshly opened bale of high-quality hay on a warm sunny day in the barn, I've never even nibbled on the stuff I helped feed to horses, so I really don't know what that hay tasted like. It's a little vegetal and a little caramel but not really sweet, and a little umami too. Although the tea is sweet, the flavor I'm trying to describe is not especially so. Sun on field Wind ripples grass Spring tea gives best of summer

Made a pot of some summer harvest wild camellia from yunnan (from norbutea) and this is my 2nd or 3rd time with these wild tea leaves, and I haven't yet achieved a brewing that is quite as nice as the small sample of the spring version I got in a tea trade from Richard. Not sure if this is a spring-to-fall difference, or just not getting the brewing parameters right. At the end of the workday, a cup of Podrea, a jasmine/vanilla/mandarin flavored black tea from Chado, from a colleague who has gotten a teapot of her own to brew at work. It was nice, but not as nice as the straight black tea I had a couple of days ago.

Gyokuro kin this morning, with toast. It was sweet and green, but probably is not the best choice for eating with honey-on-toast--the honey sweetness overpowers it a bit.

D'Oh! Forgot the link in my post above Hot Cocoa discussion

2007 White Bud Sheng Puerh from norbutea. Mmmm....hit the spot just right after an epidemic of overeating at the office pre-thanksgiving potluck today.

One possibility, I posted in another topic: the problem with this is that powdered milk can get lumpy if not treated carefully. But using the food processor to cut up the chocolate and mix with flavorings could allow for a nice uniform mixture to pour hot milk over....

Sencha and gyokuro will fit better into my life as breakfast teas, because their flavors are gentle and subtle, and they give up their best quicker than the oolongs and puerhs and even the chinese green teas--meaning they're easier to fit in before work. As for the question of how often they're drunk, I can't say that there was really anything better about this gyokuro vs the sencha we tasted from the cultured cup. This was denstea.com's 2nd quality gyokuo, and a select quality sencha, and they were really quite comparable. The sencha may have had a slightly thinner body but also lasted for more infusions. At some point I will try a really top gyokuro, because I'm curious how it would compare to these, but I think I will be content with a nicer sencha for most drinking.

I no longer keep wooden spoons on my gadget board--just never reach for them anymore. I do keep a couple of olivewood spatulas for sauteeing and stirring, which are my favorite utensils, but these silicone spoonula/spatulas have taken over some of the olivewood spatulas's chores in addition to the work of the bamboo rice spoons (but I'll keep them for use on the table when serving), and eliminated the position of rubber scraper entirely.

Probably this is something for the "holding tea before drinking" topic: the color of the tea has changed over an hour in the thermos from green to yellow liquor.

A bit of a breakthrough today: I did a 'bulk' brewing of gyokuro to fill my thermos today, a proof of principle that it can work. Used 8 grams of tea, my 6 ounce teapot (not filled to the brim each time), and water at 160 degrees. Brewed 30", 10", 30", one last rinse at 10", and then filled the rest of the thermos with hot water. I usually enjoy three infusions of this tea brewed a small cup at a time, and this is quite comparable in quality. It also looks like a way to churn through this quite pricey tea very quickly.... Addendum: after holding for 30 minutes, the sweetness is diminished, and the bitterness is amplified. Will continue to brew and drink on the spot.

Just found copies of the cat merchant print online. Seems like a perfect fit--a cup of tea goes down better when there's a cat on my lap.

Finally got to the exhibit today. It starts out with samples of a large variety of different teas, including several beautiful puerh disks or bricks and a brick of compressed black tea. Then through the rooms you see artifacts associated with tea in china, starting with the emperor credited with discovering it, in a 19th century scroll painting; a variety of tea implements and teapots including one of the pewter covered ones similar to that recently posted in the teaware thread, and some paintings of tea production in china--one very dark nineteenth century oil painting from china was distinctly grim compared to the more cheerful and idyllic prints painted for export to the west with the tea; moves on to the japanese tea ceremony with a replica of a part of a tea house, several scrolls with poems about tea, and tea cups, and a group of portrayals of daruma, the bodhisattva who cut off his eyelids when he fell asleep during a long meditation (what a great symbol of the effects of caffeine!); and then moves on to both teawares produced in the east for export to the west and western wares locally produced. Among this last group of artifacts, one of the most interesting was a tapestry from 17th century france purporting to show a chinese empress taking tea with her retinue, where the people producing the tapestry had almost certainly never been anywhere close to either china or to someone who'd actually been there--rather surreal. And for unrelated reasons, my favorite single artifact was the small print of a tea merchant in a market in japan selling his teas right next to a cat merchant, with large basket full of cats, who was stuffing one of them into a sack for a purchaser. I find the idea of the cat merchant utterly charming--I'm presuming he was selling them as mousers. It was not a very large exhibit, but quite nice, and worth more than the hour we were able to devote to it today.

Started with some "small bud gold" yunnan black tea from tea habitat today. Unfortunately I let this one get a little too cool before I drank it. It was nice enough, but I didn't get a good chance to judge it properly. This evening, finishing off some of the spring floral ti quan yin sampler from Harney & Sons. It is an amazing golden liquor that is quite beautiful in the glass mug.

Interesting to see jasmine in a black japanese tea. I've only seen in combined with green teas. How strong is the jasmine, and how does it complement the tea?

Just some hainan purple bud puerh (from norbutea) today. First time in a while with this one, and good to remember how sweet it is.