Wholemeal Crank

These are my two umbellularia, from two different native plant nurseries. Their leaf shape is not quite the same, but they do have the same characteristic odor. and Not sure either of these photos are clear enough at this scale to demonstrate that the young leaves can be quite small; and the leaf shape is also pretty variable between the very elongated potted plant and the less elongate one planted in the yard.

I do drink tea into the evening, finishing off my daily afternoon brewing, but less often start brewing. When I do, it is usually in very small quantities, starting with 1 or 2 g leaf in a small pot; or I drink an herbal tea, such as chamomile and peppermint or chamomile hibiscus. I could use some with a little caffeine in it right now, as it happens.

I tried sprouting some seeds I found on a sidewalk from a tree in someone's yard (not from the parks), but didn't succeed. I've only seen the plants twice since I moved to LA, both from specialty native plant nurseries.

Drinking the gyokuro kin after a couple of days with the sencha from our teaching, and today I tried the same infusion timings I've been using for the sencha--30", 10", 30", 30". On the 4th infusion it was distinctly less losing power, whereas the sencha lasted another 2 infusions. I guess the gyokuro just extracts faster.

Starting with gyokuro today, plus apple tart with pineapple sage. A sweet start for the week.

Is it a separate part that comes off, or permanently attached? I've been trying to figure that out since I first looked at these images.

Ooops, just rereading and realized I assumed LuckyGirl was referring to M&B, my mistake. I do recall seeing leaves from them that reminded me of the california laurel, but was conflating two posts when assuming they were who she had written to.

I didn't find anything about umbellularia on the MB& site either, but LuckyGirl referenced an e-mail from the company here. I don't know if their California Bay is labelled differently or not. But I thought I had seen the darker green and more elongate leaf appearance that I associate with the California Bay in their jars. I have never *bought* their leaves, however, and they may simply have fresher L nobilis leaves that are not as sad and washed out as what we usually find in the supermarket. Horticulturally, U. californica is now in the news as a major natural host for the cause of sudden oak death, Phytophthora ramorum. It gets infected but not usually sickened by the pathogen. Probably not a good idea to plant one, if you can find it, if you have oaks around.

Looking at two pots now--the 1.7L chrome beehive pot and the 1L mini chrome pot. I rarely need more than a quart at a time, but the extra capacity might be nice at times, plus help the water hold its heat longer when I get it up to temperature for a longer gongfu session. Also, I remember reading someplace as I was looking these up previously that the beehive pot was faster to the boil because of the shape or something. Looking at these, the spout of the beehive pot looks different, with the black piece at the tip. What is it? Is that going to be hard to clean/easy to break?

An update just FYI: RIP Adagio kettle, time in use, approximately 6 weeks. Cracked it on the porcelain sink divider while washing it out. It was too cute to last. Now will get a simplex, and never buy another.

Not clear how Morton & Bassett gets around this, as their e-mail referenced above suggests they use both interchangeably. Good point about being sure of your plants and leaves: where I go hiking in the California coastal ranges, the California Bay is very common, and I know the tree well. I just finished reading Wicked Plants and am freshly versed in the possibilities of problems with the wrong plants, and would not recommend anyone sample unfamiliar plants! I was not aware of the headache connection with umbellularia: I found it difficult to find any references to it when I was first learning about it, long before wikipedia, but I learned about it's culinary uses here before I ever tried the leaves. I also once collected a few nuts and tried to process and roast them per the instructions in that book (they were eaten by native americans), but found them quite unpalatable.

Yesterday, just the two teas from the current tastings, the lao mansa puerh, the best infusions yet, and the sencha select. Both wonderful teas. Today, started with the sencha select again, and am following up with the Diamond Tie Guan Yin. It was an interesting contrast to the sencha--not as overwhelmingly sweet, but more of a hay/caramel/honey note.

1.4 grams to 2 ounces of 160 degree water* today, and the result was excellent, but not so different from the one gram per 2 ounces version as to really justify the extra quantity of tea. The best part of this tasting for me is that it confirms that senchas can be pretty amazing without going all the way to the gyokuros. Again this time, the 2nd infusion, very short, but after a break of 2 minutes or so to prep some toast, seemed to pull out most of the bitterness, but still just a little, and the first and remaining were nearly all bitter-free. Now suspecting it is a timing thing--the sweet elements are drawn out first at these temps, and the bitter starts to come out a little later, and a short infusion captures a lot of that but the sweet is coming out at a steady rate and so the short infusion gets a lot of the bitter (again, not that there is much there) and less of the sweet, so is relatively less sweet, but the remaining infusions are again dominated by the slower, steadier release of the sweet. At any rate, a delightful tea, and a marvelous companion to my brother's honey on sourdough toast. *had meant to try hotter but the water had cooled to this by the time I started brewing and the toast was ready. Oops.

Fresh California Bay leaves are do make a difference most anyone can notice; I can imagine not missing the typical old, crumbly, dry laurus nobilis. Because they're so strong, they're used in even smaller quantities than the laurus, so small that it's hard to imagine a seriously toxic consequence of the occasional wild-grown leaf. I really got interested in them when I was trying to make an unusual bread from one of Paula Wolfert's books that starts out with a tea made with bay and cinnamon, and was amazed by the difference between two batches made in short succession--one with regular dried laurus nobilis, and one made with fresh umbellularia leaves. The latter was so fragrant as to be intoxicating, the former was interesting but bland. The starter never worked properly, so I can't say anything for sure about the bread. But it got me paying attention to the bay leaves.

Laurus nobilis are pretty easy to find plant nurseries and online. The umbellularia is quite a bit harder to find, so you're not likely to end up with the wrong plant.

Today after such good experience with the senchas, I tried a new strategy with the lao mansa: I 'woke it up' with a 20" rinse in boiling water in a preheated yixing, then let the leaves sit in the hot pot while the water cooled to 160-170 degrees for the infusions. The leaves opened beautifully during the first infusion of cooler water, and the fruity and sweet flavors are really strong now. Also used a little more leaf to water than I normally do--about 2 grams for the 60mL pot. Next time I'll probably do this again, and use a bit more leaf for the same size pot.

Been trying to rustle up an old newspaper article I read about someone who had agreements with various landowners to go pick their California Bay leaves for their spice company, but can't find the reference. I think Morton & Bassett may use them, based on the images on their site and recollections of unusually long, dark leaves in the jars on the shelves in stores. They don't fess up to theis on their web site, however--it says not a peep of umbellularia or laurus nobilis.

Sounds like you may have gotten leaves from the California Bay, Umbellularia californica. It's a fairly distant relation to the true mediterranean bay laurel. I started grabbing a few leaves here and there when hiking, and really like the stronger flavor of these vs the mediterranean laurel leaves. I like them so much I have two of them in my yard right now, one potted, and one in the ground (and I certify their leaves are organically produced). But I can completely understand how you the difference might be rather shocking if you weren't expecting it!

I did not give this tea enough credit--did only three infusions the first time. After reading the other notes, started over with smaller quantities--1 gram in about 2 ounces of water in a small gaiwan--and still 160 degree water, and did 30, 10, 45, and then another 4 or so 30-40 second infusions, good to the last one. The shorter 2nd infusion did cut down on the bit of bitterness I noted the first time around. Gorgeous stuff.

A few smoothies I liked enough to record so I could repeat them: Raspberry-Orange-Banana-Apple concocted to match a favorite raspberry blend from Odwalla, which I couldn't get when I moved to Missouri Blend together: one medium-sized ripe banana about 1/2 C raspberries, fresh or frozen juice of 2 valencia oranges (about 2/3 C) 2/3 C apple juice Mango-Blood Orange Blend together: 1 part blood orange juice 1 part ripe mango, peeled, cubed, and preferably frozen Raspberry-Lime the martinelli's was the perfect fizzy finishing touch; made a nice party drink instead of punch Blend together, in batches as needed, then mix together in a large bowl: Flesh of 1 large very ripe honeydew melon "Pint" raspberries, fresh or frozen juice of 4 limes one tablespoon sugar 1 bottle Martinelli's sparkling cider But the last couple of posts about squashes and starches got me wondering: would flavor combos like I used in this Sweet Potato Cranberry Tart or the Squash Mock Apple Tarts with Cardamom and Ginger translate well to a smoothie? I bet they would, although I think you'd need to cook the sweet potatoes or squash first to get the texture right.

I've only resorted to microwaving a couple of times; usually if the tea gets cold I just drink it veryveryfast or dump it. And of course I will now make some of the less-fabulous green tea in the back of the cabinet and let it sit out overnight. Probably should also set out some black tea, and photograph the befores and afters, in little white cups.

This is so difficult because I swing back and forth between which ones I'll be craving from time to time. I always am happy to find these, a list heavily weighted towards the non-chocolate because I spent decades allergic to it, so had to make do.... Snickers Sweet Tarts Spree Lemon Heads Mini M&Ms (the perfect proportion of candy shell to cheap chocolate, at this lower concentration the cheap chocolate matters less) Reeses (mini are the best) Other than snickers, I do love some nut-containing items like m&m peanuts and the payday bar, but they're often disappointingly stale.

[cat-ectomy completed] 2 grams in 6 ounce glass pot, preheated, water 160 degrees*, 30 seconds first infusion sweet, just hints of asparagus/vegetal, trace astringent; delicate yellow green liquor with silky body 45 second second infusion, more astringency/vegetal and some slight bitterness, but still immensely sweet 30 second third infusion, sweet still there, astringency milder, aftertaste of sweet grass LOVE this tea! *will try warmer next time, but the denstea site recommends 160-180, and I'm a bitter wimp, so started low, and so rewarding

Got mine last night, intend to start the day with it shortly, after I evict the cat from my lap so I can get to the kitchen.

Today I'm drinking the Rishi Tuo Cha Puerh. Reliably mellow, earthy, hints of sweet. I was having trouble finding it for a while and bought several tins at once, so have a lot to drink my way through. I haven't ever tried it gongfu style, hmmmm.....