Wholemeal Crank

The smallest of my current gaiwans is 80mL. I'll keep my eye out for smaller ones. With a 60mL micro-yixing pot tonight, the limiting factor in how fast I could brew and enjoy the changing infusions of the puerh was not the volume of tea I was drinking, but how fast it cools down to drinkable without scorching my tongue. Suddenly the legions of little shallow cups that look more like bowls, which were next to the legions of more conventional looking cups on the displays at Wing Hop Fung, make more sense. This was not as much of an issue when trying the lighter oolongs where I was brewing them cooler. And I can see where a more accurate pouring teapot--as in, the pot that actually gets heated on the stove--would also be very handy, along with the fancy drainboards that are set off to one side and below the gaiwan display. Many small infusions in a tiny teapot or small gaiwan with water poured from the basic revere ware teapot means many larger spills of water on the counter. A good part about all this teaware experimentation now is that I do have this lovely tea shop nearby where I can experiment with different bits of teaware and equipment very inexpensively--2.99 gaiwans and .79 drinking cups and 6.99 teapots.

Today, a thermos full of Rishi Pu-Erh Tuo Cha, one tablet to one quart of water just off the boil. Just so calming, earthy, and a sweetness that comes out to surprise you at various moments. And last night, a bit more of the diamond tie guan yin from norbutea, brewed gongfu style in a gaiwan, as a treat before bedtime. I ordered a bunch of that a few days ago, in the midst of a tasting session where it was so good to the 10th infusion plus. I'll be giving that one out for holiday gifts to a few of my tea-drinking buddies. And since my tastebuds are now craving something smoky, tonight I'll try to see if I can get to the bottom of the 2007 norbu white buds sheng pu-erh tea, working my way through the 25g sample still while waiting for my full cake to arrive in the mail. I'm betting I'll get at least 12 infusions, if not 20....

As it turns out, the person who asked me this question says that it is not a question of anaphylaxis, but gut upset, and that the level of contamination produced by shared equipment lines, as long as they're not deliberately adding more soy lecithin to that particular batch of chocolate, should not be too much of a risk.

cool! And somehow I think that my next batch of cookies now will be chocolate chip.

yes, although chocate 4 chips is designed to stand up to baking better and not melt into the batter. But since most chocolate has lecithin, as discussed above, 'pure' chocolate may not be too easy to come by.

As I understand it, if you have an unglazed clay teapot, that will inevitably develop a patina because it can't be fully cleaned, you are supposed to reserve that for only one kind of tea--oolongs or pu-erhs but not both. So if you use the teapot for one kind of tea, 'seasoning' may be ok, otherwise, not so much.

I don't know how bad the soy allergy is for the person in question, so will pass this thought on to them as well.

I may be lucky enough to be in France in a few weeks, and if there, will try to pick up some proper rose petal from this sort of rose, if they're an agricultural product I can bring back to California.....do dried rose petals carry any pathogens, and are customs people going to yank them away if I buy them? And another most unrelated post, from a series of pent-up tea musings from when the forums were down.... A few days ago, I made a pot of a fine jasmine tea, which reminded me of how lovely the good jasmine can be. I've been so much preocuppied with the lighter oolongs and puerhs recently that I neglected this former favorite. There remained a mild astringence underneath the jasmine flavor, and I found myself trying to figure out if the jasmine actively counteracts that in some way, or just covers it over.

After several more bouts of brewing with gaiwans, I am now reasonably proficient in getting water in and tea out of the gaiwan with little spillage and in a very short time. Tilt lid, then pour, all is well.

To really work with a tea that permits 8, 12, or more infusions, when brewing and drinking by myself, I need a very large bladder or a very small teapot or gaiwan. The smaller teapot or gaiwan seems like it should be easier to obtain than a bladder augmentation. So far, my smallest brewing vessels are a set of 60mL yixing pots. My smallest gaiwans hold more like 100mL. What do you prefer for smaller volumes of tea--smaller gaiwans, smaller pots, or to not fill the gaiwan or pot for each infusion?

A coffee machine cleaner sounds like a good idea. I heard about a product called dip it, but really don't know where to go to find this kind of stuff--target doesn't carry it, nor do my local grocers (x3 so far) or the local hardware store (x2). May have to order it.

I have a variation on this question: at work, I routinely brew up a quart thermos full of tea, and carry that with me for the afternoon, or through the evening. I then rinse it several times at the end of the day, and set it upside down on a mini-dish-drainer overnight to drain and dry. Needless to say, it has built up a patina. Recently I brewed up a very nice silver needle tea that started out nice and delicately flavored, but as the afternoon wore on, it got a little 'earthy' tasting--a bit more like the pu-erhs and oolongs I more often drink. So I wanted to get it sparkling clean. I have two of these stanley stainless vacuum bottles, the narrow-necked 1 quart size, deeper than any of my bottle brushes, basically impossible to get anything in there you could manually scrub with. I first tried a bit of dilute bleach--something between 1:5 and 1:10 bleach:hot water, soaked it for an hour, and rinsed well. I saw some gray/black color towards the bottom of the inside, decided this was not a good thing to have done, and resolved to try something else. Reading elsewhere and talking in another online forum and much googling later, I tried a couple of efferdent tablets in warm water for the other thermos, which was also a bit brown inside. After an hour, I rinsed it, and found a much larger black discoloration inside, that looked like some coating was eaten away. It was fairly clean, however. But later some efferdent tablets did nothing for a small glass teapot (wasn't worried the tablets could *eat* that), and wasn't impressed by the performance--not as good as the dishwasher usually is. Baking soda in hot water overnight also did nothing--tried that before I ran errands and got the efferdent. I'm feeling a bit wary of the other things I've seen suggested--soaking with hand dishwashing liquid; just dumping in vinegar (might eat the steel if soaked in it); shaking it with salt and ice (scratchy, but effect?); or citrus oil (would take a lot of expensive oil to really do the inside of these things, and might eat the plastic fittings, plus flavor the tea for a while). So....what do you all suggest for tea stains on 'stainless' [hah!] steel that you can't reach to scrub off or put in the dishwasher? I'm going to replace at least the 2nd Stanley thermos and want to keep that one in good shape.

great suggestion, thanks!

So far I can find Michel Cluizel chocolates use no lecithin, but don't know if they make chips. What would you use for chocolate chip cookies for someone with a severe soy allergy?

A little more gong fu last night 2006 Hainan "Purple Bud" Sheng Pu-Erh Tea Cake from norbutea.com label warned that purple anthocyanins can be bitter, so I used a quite low leaf to water ratio per their suggestion 1 gram in 100mL yixing pot, preheated rinsed 20 seconds waited 2 minutes or so first steeping boiling water 15 seconds--fruity, tart, smoky, thick body, wow 2nd steeping, 20 seconds--similar 3rd steeping, 20 seconds--still incredibly fruity, bit of earthiness coming on 5th at 30 30 seconds--more earthy, less fruity, decreasing body a bit A very interesting tea. I think this is going to continue to age well. And I have made a temporary inroad on the aging tea problem--put the larger portion of my pu cakes in envelopes in a file drawer of my desk at work. It's a bit more climate-controlled than my house, at least.

This weekend also brewed a little more of the keemun Mao Feng black tea from Chado, and it was quite lovely this time. Brewed with a lower leaf/water ratio (about 1 teaspoon of loose tea leaves to 6 ounces of water) and a little more brewing time, and it was lovely, fruity, with some mild astringency but almost no bitterness. I am still not finding those chocolate notes that are supposed to be there in this one, but even without that, it is a lovely tea.

Did a more formal tasting of some high-quality green oolongs this weekend, comparing 3 Ti Kuan Yins with the Alishan Oolong we tasted here recently. All were brewed in gaiwans with 2.5g tea to 2 oz water at about 195 degrees, with preheated gaiwans and leaves rinsed once before brewing. I started out with infusions at about 1 minute, and gradually increased to 2, 3 and even 4 for the one that I kept on with the longest, but didn't keep detailed enough notes to know at which infusion the times changed. I also worked with an interesting aged version from norbutea.com, which was entirely unlike the others. Harney & Sons Spring Floral Ti Quan Yin after rinse, leave smell like a green tea--vegetal, a bit astringent 1-flavor like the scent--not very rich, very green, barely oolong-ish 2-less flavor 2nd time around....set leaves aside and continued with some others came back to this 30 min or more later, reinfused, and oh wow, sweetness and floral restored and better than at first, so different, now really showing itself as a lovely floral oolong tea. Chado Champagne Ti Kuan Yin not a strongly scented leaf after rinse delicious mild liquor, softly floral still good at 2nd but not nearly as good at this point as those from norbuteas came back to this also 30 min or more later, reinfused, and was amazed at how much it had opened up and become an interesting tea several more infusions were also very nice Norbu Diamond Tie Guan Yin, spring 2009 harvest leaves--most floral of all, strongly scented, sweet, I'm in love sweet, rich body, same for several more infusions, gradually less floral, still delicious (just ordered more) still sweet 6 infusions how can it be so sweet after 8 infusions? unbelievable kept on to a 4 or 5 minute 11th infusion, at which point it was pretty much done. Norbu Alishan High Mountain Oolong spring 2009 harvest leaves--sweet, hay, floral closer to the Diamond Tie Guan Yin in flavor than in scent--the scent is less overwhelming a bit fruity in later infusions amazing stuff, ditto vs the diamond tie guan yin--losing scent a bit, but still huge flavor somewhere around 6th insfusion in--still fruitier than the tie guan yin stopped infusing at 8th or so And the aged stuff: Norbutea 1990s aged tie guan yin 1g/1 oz water, in smallest yixing pot: 1st infusion is sweet, fruity, winey, something else I can't define. similar 2nd infusion; tastes a bit like brandy, maybe? As I don't drink much alcohol, can't define it better than that, but it's a bit of a fermented taste, and not really a selling point for me. 4 or 5 infusions in--still hint of brandy, but now starting to show fruity, floral more; and a little earthiness opening up. Interesting stuff.

Went back later on a Saturday afternoon, and asked to taste the best dragon well tea, and which grade was the closest to the one in the tin that I'd bought. The first one I'd bought was about $10/oz in bulk, and the one I tasted was $15/oz in bulk. It was notably much nuttier, tasting strongly of vegetables like a sweet young asparagus, and fairly astringent although not strongly bitter, and that was probably in part because it was brewed with quite hot water (they use one urn of hot water for all the sample teas). I bought a small quantity and will play with it more at home.

This evening, yet another thermos full of tea--lots of dictations to be edited, sigh--and am immensely enjoying some 'Big Red Robe' Oolong from Chado. It has been a while since I last brewed some, and it is a delightful rediscovery. Earthy, darkly roasted, complex with sweetness and some fruity, floral, and vegetal notes. I had a surprising experience this evening: my 'supertaster' kit arrived--an envelope with a tiny ziploc bag and two strips of paper inside that are supposed to be impregnated with a bitter chemical, likely propylthiouracil (although they actually do not say in the brief letter that came with the kit) and was shocked that I did not taste much, if any, bitterness. Given how much aversion I still have to bitter flavors, I was sure that I would at least be a 'taster' who would taste something mildly bitter if not pucker inducing. Now wondering if there was a problem with the test kit, or if there really is some hope of me learning to cope with more bitter teas. Until I figure this out, though, I won't go out of my way to stock up on any japanese teas, particularly given your experience with the gyokuro.

Today, the first thermos-full for a long meeting was the Alishan mountain oolong from norbutea. The only problem with this and the diamond tie guan yin I made yesterday is that they are so delicious they encourage excess rates of consumption, which can have slighty uncomfortable consequences when the meeting is a long one..... And then, a bulk brewing of the 2007 norbu white buds sheng pu erh from yunnan, which was entirely tolerant of this treatment, remaining a little sweet, earthy, and deliciously smoky.

Yesterday I started with a a piece of my Palace Seven Sons Puerh Cake from Nannuo Mountain Plantation in Yunnan, brewed to yield a quart and a half of tea, more impressed as I drank my way to the end of all that by the smoothness and sweetness of this tea. Then last evening, a pot of Pouchong from Ten Ren, a delightful tea despite being only 'third grade'. Today, had a less than perfect brewing of some Rishi Golden Yunnan black tea, which just was a little off from what I was hoping for today--a little black tea bitterness crept through despite some care in the brewing. And this evening, to make up for that, some Diamond Grade Tie Guan Yin from Norbu tea, which makes an interesting pair with the Pouchong. It has more in common with that than with the dark roast Ti Kuan Yin I grew up drinking. But it is a silkier, smoother, sweeter tea, with richer body than the Pouchong 3rd grade. Need to reserve some of this Tie Guan Yin from Norbu and compare it to a top-quality Pouchong for a more interesting brew-off.

Today I've been drinking the Palace Seven Sons Cake from Nannuo Mountain Plantation in Yunnan, the cake that seemed quite 'muddy' the first time I drank it. I suspect that the fines I was brewing were very dusty, and I did not rinse them, and being from the outside of the cake, they were differently aged and worse for wear. This is the fourth or fifth brewing of this pu, and today my impression is still one of earthy and sweetness, but a mellowed earthiness, and a sweetness that is not fruity or cloying but just there, and very nice.

I noticed after posting that that my pu cake fragment (just an edge of the cake, broken off by hand) opened up noticeably and was pretty much loose leaves by the 2nd infusion.

A different pu question, and maybe a new one: I understand the rationale for rinsing a pu tea before the first infusion proper begins. But when working with a chunk of very dense, compressed pu, how do you balance the need to let it soak long enough to soften and open the inner bits with wanting to not actually draw all the good stuff out of the outer leaves? Should I be breaking up the denser chunks a bit? Swirling the leaves the pot with the rinse water for the whole 20 seconds? Doing a 2nd or third rinse until the force of the water on it opens it up? I didn't have much issue with this on Saturday, when I was mostly working with samples, but now I've got a larger chunk of a regular cake facing me, and would like to do it justice.

Case in point, the 2nd pu-erh cake I bought from Ten Ren: the first brewing tasted just like mud. Not bitter, not horrible, but just like mud--while basically trying to duplicate the brewing conditions I typically used for my first pu cake, with no major deviations that I could think of. The 2nd & subsequent brewings were delicious, very nice pu.