Wholemeal Crank

Got the porcelain tasting cups, and as I reported in the Lao Mansa tasting topic, they did distract my tongue less, although I didn't notice any different flavor of the tea. So a good thing overall, but not strictly necessary. The joy of Wing Hop Fung being so easy for me to get to is that even though I picked some of the fancier porcelain cups, they were still only $1.79 apiece, so not a large investment. I also replaced yet another teapot whose lid broke, but before this one was put in the cupboard it and all the rest got restrung to keep their lids from meeting a similar fate. Again, that was a $5.99 mini yixing pot. I figure I need to go at least a few months without breaking anything before I dare consider investing in a higher quality of teapot or drinking cup. I also bought a bamboo tea tray with a drip drawer, and it worked beautifully. The counter required a lot less cleanup after my session, because the tray did indeed catch the majority of the drips. There were beautiful ones in porcelain and hand carved wood, but again, I need to figure out what I'm doing here before considering anything special or fancy. Shockingly, no actual tea came home with me, in a most uncharacteristic display of restraint. And I found a small basket with a handle at another store that I can use to carry a small teacup with me even down to clinic, so I don't have to drink the more delicate teas from the plastic thermos lid. My teaware shelf is not yet anything like the retail displays at wing hop fung, but some of the missteps along the way will soon head off to goodwill, leaving the rest a bit less crowded. This includes a couple of overly large teapots with glass infuser inserts whose tiny slits are essentially uncleanable, clogging very quickly with even a single batch of tea that has any quantity of fine particles, and are simply hopeless with chamomile; or the deep and thick tasting cups that don't let tea cool quickly when tasting many short infusions of hot-brewed puerh; or the glass gaiwan lets you watch the color of the tea liquor but has a little rim that the lid settles on that makes it awkward to tilt the lid the tiny bit needed to pour the tea out but retain the leaves.

1.2 grams tea to 60mL yixing pot; four wide porcelain bowls for tasting. Boiling water used to preheat the pot and to rinse the leaves and then steeping water was 180-190 degrees. Infusions ranged from 10 seconds to 1 minute. 10" smoky, sweet, bit of fruity, no hint of bitterness 10" sweet, fruity, lost the smoky, and some astringency but still no bitterness 15", 15" same as 10" 20" didn't rinse leaves after a short break to briefly cool and drink the first four infusions, so this one has a bit of odd taste, and some of the smokiness is back 20" smokiness is gone, so is the odd flavor that was not simple bitter, but pronounce in the earlier cup; now the sweetness is stronger 30", 30" both very similar, sweet, floral, fruity brief break 45", 45" --stronger impression of sweetness, and that fruity other flavor still there 1', 1'--lovely, with bit of astringent aftertaste lingering And that's all the tea I can drink at one setting... The cooler temps were a good thing for me, although I think hotter water would have brought out that smoky flavor more. Again, I think this tea will age beautifully, and next time I'm ready to order from Norbutea, I'll get one of these to let sit for a while, now that I've figured out a way to keep them. And the porcelain bowls didn't alter the taste, but the simpler texture vs the slightly rough unglazed surface of the other tasting bowls does make a difference. I suspect that it's simply a matter of less stimuli to distract from what the taste buds are experiencing.

Today started with the gyokuro kin again but this time a longer first infusion of 2 minutes. There was a little more of the astringency coming through with the longer infusion. I prefer the shorter first infusions I used before.

Tried the tea again as LuckyGirl did it: 1.5 grams to about 6 oz boiling water, brewed 3 minutes, and all the things I like about it are there--fruitiness, floral aromas, sweetness, but also some unpleasant bitterness--I think here more bitterness than astringency--that interferes with my enjoyment of the other aspects of the tea. The leaves are quite green, and that led me to wonder how this would do brewed cooler, like one of the lightly oxidized oolongs. A second cup brewed with the same water that had been allowed to cool in the teapot, and brewed shorter, about 1 minute, was much nicer, with all the fruitiness, sweetness, and hint of vegetal flavors, but the bitterness now is reduced to a very acceptable hint in the background. I'll try gong fu style this afternoon, with water on the cooler side.

started the day with some more gyokuro kin, very nice with honey-on-poilane-toast. mmmm.

If I understand your post correctly, the tea mate brings the water to your desired temperature, dumps it on the tea, holds it there for the programmed time, and then decants it? That's pretty cool. How short can you set the brewing to be? And today, my thermos was filled with my first puerh from wing hop fung--probably a shu, but don't really know. The earthiness was a nice grounding during a goofy giddy costume day at work.

This is what I am loving about the really nice oolong and puerhs: a little goes a deliciously long way. While I am also very much enjoying my first foray into japanese sencha and gyokuro, once I get past the tasting sampler, I can see that these will be more costly teas, because of fewer infusions per gram of tea, and their shorter shelf life.

Lower lip and a small portion of the tongue. It has a noticeable texture and maybe a flavor although I'm not sure what I'm really sensing here. But it does seem a bit distracting.

starting with the last of a sample of wild puerh white bud tea from norbutea.com. This was the spring pluck, and I'll definitely add some of this type of tea to my next order. It's delicate but still has a distinctive flavor. Very nice.

Gyokuro nitecap. Very nice. Need to keep going a while longer to get my costello ready for tomorrow.

Today at work, 2009 Spring Tie Guan Yin from norbutea.

Over the last couple of weeks I've had a useful realization: the little strings that tied the lids of my little yixing pots to the handle may not simply be to keep the lid and pot together while being handled by customers in the store: that neat little string will keep the lid from falling off when pouring out the last drops, even if you forget to keep a fingertip on the lid as you pour. It only took several broken lids before I realized this was a pattern I might be able to fix by leaving those little strings in place. And on a different note: The gongfu set I posted a picture of here has one other problem besides the stringless lid that is free to fall off and shatter: the tasting cups' unglazed outer surface may be interfering a bit with the flavor of especially delicate infusions. Yesterday I noticed that the gyokuro kin I brewed at work for the first time, drinking from the lid of my stanley thermos with its plastic rim, was just not as interesting as the same tea brewed a few days before at home, despite best attempts to duplicate brewing conditions and a liquor and aroma that appeared quite similar. I had pretty much finished the batch off but had a little bit left to pour into a porcelain cup and suddenly the subtle vegetal sweetness was more prominent. So I paid attention during the gongfu session last night with the Lao Mansa Puerh, and suspect that the unglazed surface is indeed distracting. I'll head to Wing Hop Fung again this weekend, and along with replacing some little teapots whose lids are broken (wish I could buy just lids!), and setting those up with little retainer strings, I will get some bowl-shaped porcelain cups for tasting and see how those affect the next brewing of the Lao Mansa Puerh. I'll also have to figure out some carrier arrangement for a porcelain tea cup to carry with my thermos, because I usually am carrying way too many files and other things when I take it to clinic, and will surely shatter an unprotected cup.

Last night, first brewing of the Lao Mansa Puerh (see tasting topic). This morning, starting the day with Honey Orchid Phoenix Oolong from teahabitat.com. Marvelous stuff. 1 gram in a yixing pot, gongfu style, 8 infusions, mmmm.

2 grams to 60mL yixing pot; water just off the boil The leaves give off a very smoky, earthy scent just after being warmed in the preheated gaiwan 10" sweet, smoky, astringency detectable but not to the point of bitterness 10" very similar 15" more astringency/bitterness this time 15" ditto break, rinse (after sitting 5 or 10 minutes, leaves are given a very brief swirl and rinse to avoid the bitterness of leaves that have sat wet for a few minutes) 15" fruitiness coming out, bitterness gone again 30" fruitier 30" similar break, rinse 60" not bitter, but fruity, bit of earthiness 60" almost winey, hint of bitter, little of the earthy flavor I'm expecting to show up sometime 90" more edges of bitter around the winey flavor 90" similar break, no rinse, water not reheated, so cooler 120" very light, mild and still that hint of astringency/bitterness, but nice This is my second infusion of this tea; the first time I did it with several other teas at the same time, and didn't give it the individual attention and adjustment it needed. There is a sweetness and fruitiness that should help it age very well; right now it takes very careful handling to avoid the bitterness that I really dislike. An interesting point that came up in this tasting: I had bought a group of tasting cups that are thin walled porcelain with a wide bowl shape to facilitate quick cooling especially of pu-erh teas brewed with boiling water. But the cups I picked were unglazed on the outside. I think the unglazed surface is interfering with the tasting by giving a bit of flavor/texture sensation of its own. Will do the next tasting differently, with a porcelain gaiwan and porcelain tasting cups.

So glad to see this thread pop up today at the top of the list....was given four very large, gorgeous pomegranates as a gift yesterday, now I know what to do with them. And I have pH paper and a lemon tree, I think we can work this out. Heh!

After my lovely experience with the gyokuro kin over the weekend, I tried it at work today. Based on 1 grams of tea for my six ounce pot over the weekend, getting 3 nice infusions out of that, I tried 2 grams with several infusions to net 1 quart for the thermos. It looked lovely--pale green liquor in the glass pot before pouring into the thermos--and with nice aroma holding through the multiple infusions. But the tea was less than satisfying despite having that lovely scent. I think it really may be all about the teacup, because I mostly drink from the plastic thermos cup during the day; and this evening I drank the last bit from the thermos in a small porcelain cup, and the delicate vegetal flavor came through much better.

Tried to 'bulk brew' the gyokuro kin today at work, and it didn't come out so well--too delicate, if anything. More in the japanese green tea topic.

Today I brought some Bird Pick Dragonwell (the good but not highest grade stuff from wing hop fung) to work, and brewed up a thermos full. I was so concerned about bitterness and the first infusion smelled a little bitter; I was worried that the water might be too hot and have pulled out a lot of bitterness, so I next did a series of very short infusions to fill up the thermos. It ended up being too dilute even for tea-wimp me. Have now ordered a duplicate thermometer for work to help with getting green teas right: my fun this weekend with the sencha and gyokuro has convinced me I need to work on them as well as the oolongs and puerhs.

Only problem with one that large is that for teas that really give you a lot of infusions, multiples of 200mL may be too much to drink at one time. OTOH, I love my 200mL teapot for bulk brewing when speed is the more important.

>I wonder if disappointment is sometimes just because we came to a cookbook at the wrong time in our cooking careers This surely is true. I've looked at a number of books that other people raved about, and been able to recognize that yes, this looks like an excellent book, but doesn't offer anything I don't already have on my shelves in other books. So if it were my first ever bread/italian/chinese book I would have gotten a lot out of it. But now, it was too late for it to find a home on my shelves. Unfortunately, a couple of those were purchased on someone else's recommendations before I had a good chance to look at them.

Actually, it looks like oil, trans fats, and cocoa: Cocoa, Partially Hydrogenated Cottonseed and/Or Soybean Oils, Coconut Oil, Tbhq and Citric Acid (to Preserve Freshness). is the ingredient list as posted here at walmart.com. Not chocolate at all.

Blue people gingseng oolong from vitaltleaf.com: sweet & pleasant; nice toasty background to the sweetness.

After starting the day with gyokuro, and doing a little gongfu puerh, I'm finishing with a thermos full of pouchong, probably made a little light on the tea leaf, because it's more dilute than it usually comes out. It's not as nuanced as the diamond tie guan yin or as sweet as the gyokuro, but it is undemanding, pleasing, and enough for a busy session of baking to come (two kinds of flatbreads, one batch of cookies, and walnut dip/sauce are on the agenda for the evening).

My original wok spatula had a wooden handle that was simply hammered into the metal part as per your picture--no pin, no glue. Worked fine, but once in a while I'd have to bang it against the counter when it got loose. Eventually I replace it due to rust problems damaging the edge, rather than handle problem. The one I have now has a handle pinned in place and is solidly connected enough to hang by the handle.

I think of it a little differently: Western style uses a lower leaf to water ratio with one longer infusion to get everything out of them; gongfu style uses more leaf to water but you extract the tea flavors in multiple shorter infusions, which allows the variety of flavors in the tea to express themselves individually as they are extracted at different rates.