Wholemeal Crank

Precious Xihu Dragon's Well Green Tea this morning from Wing Hop Fung, their best grade of dragon well tea. 2 grams of tea, 2 oz water starting out at 165 degrees, and steeping 1 minute in gaiwan: delicate sweet vegetal stuff, some astringency, barely any bitterness. Reinfused now about 5 times with the same water from the teapot, brewing a little longer each time as the water cools, now down to about 140 degrees. It still has nice body and sweetness even at this many infusions. It is very pricey, but even at $15/oz, that's still only $1 for the 2 grams I am enjoying this morning. I will keep a little on hand all the time.

I just found out that I will be there solo for the last 2 or 3 days of my trip. Are there any particular types of places where I am likely to be more or less welcomed as someone dining alone?

BTW, that was not a felicitious transition from the Tie Guan Yin to the jasmine--2.5g of jasmine infused twice at 200mL per infusion was quite thin and weak by comparison, plus had a bitter undertone that threatened to dominate if I simply increased the leaf to water ratio. It's not really fair to the jasmine, which was a nice enough tea, to put it in such close proximity to the splendid Tie Guan Yin. Should have gone with a solid puerh.

More of the '09 spring Tie Guan Yin from norbu. Love love this tea. 5g to one quart of water; came back three hours later, rinsed the leaves, got another (somewhat weaker) pint out of them. Still an hour plus to go of paperwork, next up, some medium grade jasmine from wing hop fung.

Today we're sharing a thermos full of My linkPurple Bud Sheng Pu-Erh 2006 from Norbutea.com. This is only the 2nd time I've brewed this tea; the first time was gongfu style. This time was about 2.5 grams of tea to eventually yield one quart of tea, with the water just off the boil. Total brewing time was probably only 5 minutes divided among 6 or 7 infusions. It's standing up the the abusive brewing conditions just fine, a little sweet, a little fruity, and just hints of smoky and earthy. Very nice. And it's getting raves from the other two sharing it. Will have to see if I can get more from these leaves later on, because at this rate I'll run out before the end of my evening.

Today I had just looked at the clock,seen it was nearly lunch, and was about to grab my tea kettle and start up on the afternoon thermos of tea when a colleague knocked on the door and came in with her teacup, looking for tea. It is a nice social thing to share with my fellow tea fanciers.

That sounds fabulous. I'd try a bit in my morning hot chocolate--the curry version--and consider how to use it with caramels; a dal curry; how about topping a simple pizza with onions, garlic, and some smoked coconut powder in place of pecorino or parmesan, perhaps with a bit of grated squash and some hot peppers? I do have coconut powder, but no smoker, sigh.

This is all so interesting to know! I will continue to treasure my older pyrex, and be glad that I got a lot of my casseroles through thrift shops rather than new.

Brought my thermometer today and determined that the hot water from the bottled water dispenser down the hall comes out at about 165°F, just right for green teas, so I made some snow buds with peach blossom tea--worked beautifully.

On KCRW's Good Food podcast for 8/22/09, a guest was discussing pies with the Evan Kleinman, and mentioned an episode of 'exploding pie' because her pyrex pie plate 'lost its temper' and exploded. She said pyrex expires! I've never heard of this phenomenon. Anyone know what she is referring to?

One additional benefit of my tea at work: my office does have an individual thermostat, but the temperature seems to vary from too hot to too cold with almost no just right in between. It is most often too cold. Plenty of hot tea helps keep me warm!

Yes, I addressed that very question over in the Let's See Your Teaware topic. Hadn't realized the capresso was a glass kettle. I was imagining a more formidable metal box designed for making expressos, just from the name, and hadn't googled to see what it looks like. Today's teas were a Pouchong from Chado, brewed in a bit of a hurry with water from the hot water tap of the water cooler; and then later some keemun Mao Feng, also from Chado. Still can't find the chocolate notes that are reputed to be there in the Keemun.

Thanks for the heads up.

And that is a good point about a glass kettle. As I wrote in another topic, I'd like to get a new teakettle that would pour more neatly than my basic revere. Do you know what brand/model your glass kettle is?

Hmmmm....probably should play with the spare/travel kettle at home and my thermometer to calibrate my bubble-ology. I have seen some pretty elaborate bubble/temperature schemes on more than one tea web site, but it's hard to know what they mean without actually standing next to an expert looking over the same pot of bubbling/boiling water.

As usual at work, the parameters were loose. Probably two or three teaspoons of very loose tea needles--they didn't expand much and there are probably two tablespoons of wet leaves in the pot now. The pot is about 200mL. I turned off the kettle when I started to hear sounds I associate with lots of fine bubbles--in my thermometer-less office that passes for between 170 and 180 degrees. I did not time the several infusions--the first one I did look at the color of the infusion, but after that, it was add water, do a brief task, pour it off, but overall the leaves probably infused a total of 6 to 8 minutes to yield a quart of tea.

A very interesting tea from Chado today Tian Mu Qing Ding [T-65] about which their site says it is: "The finest green tea from the top of Mt. Tianmu. This tea is mainly from the cloud and mist zone. Relaxing, pleasant and sweet. A tea for calming moments." It is a tea of fine buds or needles, more a brownish shade than green, with a smoky earthy slightly sweet taste, not very vegetal, and not a bit bitter. Delightful, but surprisingly un-green-tea like.

I work long days, too long, really, and I need a pick-me-up in the afternoon and something nice to help make the evening until I can go home more pleasant. I get some caffeine effect, I suppose, but I think my brews are fairly weak, and depending on how much sharing I do with colleagues, some days I can nurse one quart thermos' worth for the entire afternoon and evening, some days I end up making a second, usually smaller batch, drinking less than 5 grams of tea leaves' worth for the whole day. I use a plastic electric kettle, a small glass teapot, heat the water at my desk, and fill my stanley quart vacuum bottle up with multiple infusions of that day's tea. I also have a few mugs that I have been given as gifts (including one that is on permanent loan to my nextdoor neighbor who loves my teas). Mostly, I just drink from the lid of my thermos, and save the mugs for guests. And when I go down to my clinic, take the thermos with me to the workroom, and I sip tea between patients while I'm writing notes. I think it's more about having an opportunity to enjoy tea than the caffeine lift. When I worked in a lab, I couldn't have any food or drink at my desk, and the only space I could call my own was a locker outside the lab. It was not convenient to brew or drink tea through the day. Now, since I spend more time at one desk or another, I can do it, and so I do.

This is quite an odyssey. The water temps are so low that I'm surprised any bitterness comes through that.

After a lot of neglect, today I went back to my first favorite tea, the red label Ti Kuan Yin, darkly roasted, and brewed it more carefully, 2.5 grams in the 200mL glass pot, three infusions with water in the 190s, and remembered just how lovely it is, roasty, earthy, fruity, yum. When I recently found it, for the first time in more than a year, I'd brewed it with too much leaf, and it came out too strong, with the roastedness overwhelming the fruitiness that should be there. Done like this, it can hold its own with the Big Red Robe Wuyi.

Curious here too. I am not a vegetarian, but sitting down to a hunk o'meat and side dishes has never been my thing, and I'll be in Paris in a few weeks.

Finding a lot of rave reviews for the simplex. I'd never keep the copper shiny, but the spout does look a lot more controllable than my little Revere. But while reading reviews about it I slopped a bunch more water on the counter....so it's looking pretty reasonable at Amazon's price.

Interesting. Maybe they have more competition in Tokyo, where there is already such a strong and distinct tradition of tea.

The lack of graceful pouring from the teakettle is not only an issue with the yixing pots, although this did finally inspire me to consider replacing the kettle. I'm not the most naturally coordinated person and have splashed and occasionally burned myself while pouring water into measuring cups for non-tea-related recipes too.

Another issue that has come up in recent brewings: I would like a neater teapot. My little revere whistling kettle slops and splashes as I try to pour one ounce of boiling or near boiling water into a small opening in the neat little pots and gaiwans I have for brewing the tea, especially gongfu style. It is otherwise perfectly functional. Are there any whistling kettles that have neater pouring spouts? I will eventually break down and buy a nice tray for the tea service that includes a catch tray for drips, but at the rate I'm splashing now, anything smaller than a dishpan would fill up too fast.