LuckyGirl

The 2009 Spring Norbu - Lao Mansa Sheng Pu-Erh Tea that we are tasting hereis the fist tea I've had that begs to be enjoyed with food. I have enjoyed it with buttered toast with jam and today I had it with a little bit of crab with butter that I had for lunch. I like this tea very much on its own but with food it is even more enjoyable. There is one Chinese restaurant that I frequent in Cleveland and I have taken to drinking their "flower tea" (chrysanthimum) with my meals there. They usually serve a low grade jasmine tea but I don't care for that with food. Some how I stumbled across the fact that they serve chrysanthemum tea and I'm glad I did.

Today I brewed the last of my chunk of this tea. It measured (I got my new scale) 6.3 grams. I brewed it gong fu style in my make shift gaiwan with 10 ounces of water at about 190F. 1st Infusion, 15 seconds- smokey, sweet, tobacco, roasted vegetables. 2nd Infusion, 25 seconds- a little less smokey, sweet, taste of caramel, lighter on the roasted vegetables 3rd Infusion, 40 seconds- less smokey yet, sweet, roasty vegetal notes as before but more relaxed, caramel still there but a little lighter than before. I really, really like this tea. Today I had my second cup with lunch. This tea drinks most enjoyably with food to me and it is the first tea I've had that I've felt this way about. I don't get the fruitiness that Richard and Wholemeal Crank have described. I will rinse the leaves in the morning then steep for 60 seconds and report back.

These were my faves "praires" The next two pics are two other types of clams. I think we saw 5 or 6 different clams or clam-like things These "bigorneaux" are I believe also known as "periwinkles" though the periwinkles that I was served a few years ago were a good bit smaller than these. This was one of the best plates we had. This plate had 3 or 4 varieties of clams on the half shell.

Never heard of bulot, what are they like? I looked them up, sounds like Prosobranchia -- the group including conch, cowries, limpets, periwinkles, etc. Google translates bulot as whelk. Does bulot refer to any sea snail? From what I can tell bulots are the same thing as whelks though I am not 100% sure of that. The reason I am not certain is that often, in Paris, when my husband and I have had fruit de mer plates there have sometimes been two different sea snail looking things that look similar but not identical and do not taste the same. The ones I know I like are always the ones called bulots. They have a lovely nuttiness to them. The others I was never exactly sure what they were and in fact, at one place I thought the server tried to explain that they were whelks. Then there are periwinkles which are a whole nother thing, I think, or are they the same as whelks? I don't know but I know I had periwinkles long before I had bulots and I did not care for the periwinkles. Then there were many different clams that we were served on the half shell. My favorite of the four or so different ones we've had at various times or even once four on the same platter, were the "praires". As far as comparing sea snails to land snails, they are very different to me. I have an extreme dislike for land snails. I have tried them many times from those that were thought to be mediocre to those that were thought to be very good, they always taste intensely like dirt to me. They also just plain gross me out. I suppose sea snails should gross me out too but for some reason so far they haven't. Maybe if I saw one uncooked it would gross me out so here's a place where I don't mind being a little disconnected from the natural state of my food I love oysters on the half shell and I will eat them cooked though I don't particularly enjoy them cooked. Mussels I am not very fond of unless they are the little PEI farmed mussels. Even those I do not like as much as I used to. They are not as little and mild and tender as they used to be. The last two years I have found them much bigger than they once were and not as enjoyable. I guess I'm just not much in to mussels.

This year I discovered the "bulot" or sea snail. LOVE them.

I'm on my 5th or 6th infusion of the pouchong I started yesterday. Trying to decide what's next...

Does this tea drink really smokey? The description of it on another website described it as "mesquite" tasting.

Gah! I just placed a small order from Norbu and I thought about trying the winter, medium roast Alishan but didn't. I ordered a few different pu erh samples.

Ten Ren's, King's Dark Superfine. Of all the teas I ordered to try this has been one of my favorites.

So, based on the few pics I have looked at on the 'net it does seem like what I have are the umbellularia, or California bay leaves. They seem to be slightly narrow while the laurus nobilis look a little wider and more like those I'm used to.

O.K. I think I may give a plant a try, larus nobilis. I keep orchids and manage not to harm them too much but when I tried to keep a kaffir lime tree, indoors so I could have fresh leaves on hand, that didn't go so well. This is from the response I received from the company (how's about that for a quick response, Saturday evening no less)- "We have a couple of different varieties that we supply. We use real Bay Laurel grown in Colombia. We also have available California Bay, grown in the States. Based on the description you give of the product, I’d be inclined to say you got the Bay Laurel." This seems to be the opposite of what you are saying doesn't it Wholemeal Crank? The leaves that I have are very small compared to any other bay leaf I've ever seen. I am so bummed about this. I have a whole pot of soup that I can't eat. I even added a whole head of roasted garlic hoping that might mask some of the perfume but in a weird way it sort of intensified it. Fortunately, my husband says he doesn't find it too bad. He doesn't seem to be anywhere near as bothered by the perfuminess as I am. He says he thinks he tastes what I am talking about but for him, on a scale of 1-10 it is maybe a three while for me it is like an 8 or 9. Weird. I hope I never come across this particular bay leaf again. Wholemeal Crank, I would be curious to try what you have in your yard if you wouldn't mind sending it. I'll trade you for some nice Dragonwell

I hate to break the news to the folks who like TJ's puff pastry but I was told by my local store that TJ's has discontinued it. My girlfriend has told me how much she liked the product and a while back I had some hors d'oeuvres that she put together using it and was impressed. I walked up and down the frozen food aisle yesterday at TJ's looking for it to no avail. When I asked about it the store manager looked in his order book and told me it had been discontinued. Boo. As far as the topic goes- I keep TJ's mac & cheese in the freezer for when my nieces and nephews are here. They all love it and say that it's "the best". I like it too once in a while. I rarely (like 3 or 4 times a year) eat frozen meals but I occasionally have a taste for TJ's eggplant parm. They sell two different ones. Both are good but the one in the non-clear packaging is super good, like almost as good as my M-I-L's, like so good that I wouldn't go to the trouble of making it from scratch for myself I would buy theirs. I have a weird "thing" for frozen mixed vegetables and TJ's are the best. The corn in their mixed veggies is crazy sweet white corn. I wish they included lima beans in the mix but, such is life. I've had a few of their pizzas over the years and the one that stands out as worthwhile is the Alsacian pizza that's been mentioned on this thread.

For years I used bay leaves that a neighbor would bring back to the states from her travels to Lebanon. Prior to that I would use whatever bay leaves were available from the regular or Mexican grocery store. A while back (like a year or two ago), knowing that my stash was running low, I bought a package of bay leaves from Whole Foods (I think). I just used these bay leaves today in a bean soup and they are SO perfumey and floral that I can not eat the soup. It is not a matter of over using the bay leaves, I put three very small ones in for the whole pot, but rather that these are the most perfumey bay leaves I've ever used. The perfume and flavor from these bay leaves is significantly different from any I've used before and not in a way that I care for. I've written to the company that packaged the bay leaves to ask where they may be from as I would like to steer clear of them in the future. This whole episode has me wondering if folks are partial to bay leaves from any place in particular or to a particular species.

I just tried it shorter and cooler, 45 sec. at 170 F- 3 g to 8 oz, and I feel like only half of the goodness has come out of the leaves.

Wow, I brewed at a much higher temp (around 180-185) and for much longer (3 min.). I liked the tea the way I brewed it. It seems like it would not give me all that I want at such cool, short steepings. I will nevertheless try cooler and short next.

Well, I took note of the amount of tea and water to use up thread but did not note a suggested time. I steeped 3 grams of tea in a make shift gaiwan with 8 oz water (approx 185 F)for 3 minutes. The color of the liquor is a beautiful yellow/green, almost chartreuse. The aroma is very green and vegetal. It struck me as smelling like raw pumpkin. The taste is lightly sweet and green. It is green and vegetal but in a tender, fine, not robust way. I kept trying to put my finger on the flavor I was getting and all of the sudden it hit me, it tastes like spaghetti squash. At the moment I am drinking a second steeping, 8 oz- 4 minutes. The leaves gave most of their glory to the first cup; this one is pretty thin.

Right now I am enjoying Ten Ren's First Grade Pouchong brewed gong fu style in a makeshift gaiwan. Later today I will try the Sencha Select that I received yesterday for the tasting.

I often toast nuts and add them to our salads. Toasted pine nuts, particularly when tossed with romaine, lots of basil chiffonade, grape tomatoes, lemon juice and olive oil. One of my favorite salads is any kind of lettuce tossed with pomagranite seeds and toasted, chopped walnuts. I usually toss this salad with a lighter olive oil and a really nice fig vinegar that I try to keep on hand. Also, I love my own lightly pickled beets with a salad dressed in blue cheese dressing. I par-boil the beets but leave them fairly crisp before I pickle them.

My sister also went to OU. She graduated around '94, '95. She rented a cabin in the Athens area last month for our whole family to get together. We discovered an Athens tea company. Their tea was being sold at the major grocery store (Kroger?). I don't recall the name of the tea company but she bought lots of their tea to take with her back to Switzerland for gifts. I thought that was funny since I often purchase packets of tea at Palias de The in Paris to bring back to the states as gifts for friends.

I did a quick web search for sources for locally raised turkey in the Seattle area. I didn't find as many sources as I expected to but here is one I came across- http://www.thunderinghooves.net/

There have been several occasions in the short time I've participated on the coffee & tea forum where you and I have been drinking the same tea. Enough times that I made a mental note of it. From now on I will post when that happens.

Ten Ren's Organic Superfine Dragonwell.

JM Gore, Beautiful pots and great story. Welcome to the forum from another newbie. Diane

Tuesday and yesterday I spent the day drinking Ten Ren's Dark Oolong, First Grade. I think I steeped the same leaves 6 or 7 times and they still have a good amount to give. Today I am enjoying the Norbu Lao Mansa Sheng Pu-erh.

I just had this lovely tea again. I used 3.5 grams to 8 oz. water, brewed western style with leaves floating in the pot as opposed to in the strainer basket. The first steep at 3 minutes was a little thin/week but still enjoyable. The second steep was 4 min 15 sec. and was just right. Third steep I went to 5 minutes and it was lovely. I still don't get any bitterness or astringancy but the smoke was more pronounced to me today than it had been when I first tried this tea. I had the tea after having bacon that had a particularly strong smokey flavor so I actually was thinking that I would be less inclined to taste the smokiness of this tea but the opposite ws true. I still like this tea today though not as much on its own as I did a few days ago when I had it with toast and jam. Next time I will brew it gung fu style in my make-shift gaiwan.