Jump to content

cdh

eGullet Society staff emeritus
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    3,027

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by cdh

    Group tea tasting: Fuding BaiMudan White Tea

    in Coffee & Tea

    Posted · Edited by cdh (log)

    I'm starting a session today.  5.7g of the little bits that have collected on the wrapper when I dug chunks out of the cake went into my good-enough gaiwan which is around 100ml. Water is at 185F.   Did an initial rinse.  20 second initial steep.  Slightly floral aromatics, rich woodsy flavor, long aftertaste. Some dried fruit is coming out after infusion 2, also about 20 seconds.  Infusions 3 and 4 were 30ish seconds.  Body is filling out and it is getting a nice thick mouthfeel and long aftertaste.  Woodsiness is abating and fruitiness is coming out more.

    Group tea tasting: Fuding BaiMudan White Tea

    in Coffee & Tea

    Posted

    Here's my good-enough gaiwan setup. A corelle coffee cup and a strainer basket that just about takes up all the space in it.   That's an oolong I've been brewing again and again for the past few days... interesting tea in that the early infusions are close to tasteless, but now that I'm 3 days and 8 or 9 infusions in it is getting very flavorful.  No idea why that is, but it is.  

    IMG_20200212_124206636.jpg

    IMG_20200212_123910510.jpg

    • Like 2
    • Thanks 1

    Group tea tasting: Fuding BaiMudan White Tea

    in Coffee & Tea

    Posted

    11 hours ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

    Please!    You had me Googling the Gongfu ceremony.    I am entranced by the tray.     THAT is the definition of purpose-designed!  

     

    Gongfu  isn't so much a ceremony as a procedure... six of one, half a dozen of the other, I guess. It's about higher leaf to water ratios and shorter steeping times, and repetitive steepings. 

    Group tea tasting: Fuding BaiMudan White Tea

    in Coffee & Tea

    Posted

    Since I don't read Chinese, I don't see what you saw, Liuzhou.  The folks I bought it from sold it as BaiMuDan, and to look at it, it looks about like the picking style defined as baimudan... As I understand white tea nomenclature, there is yin zhen, which is just unopened buds, baimudan, which is upper leaves and a late  bud or two, and shou mei, which is bigger leaves from further down the stem.  

    Group tea tasting: Fuding BaiMudan White Tea

    in Coffee & Tea

    Posted

    So we've reached a quorum and samples have been dispatched.  The tea is from a cake I ordered from one of the alibaba-ish direct-from-China sites, DHGate.com.  Here are photos of the wrapper and the cake.  This tea has been very forgiving in my attempts to brew it... 180F works, 195F works.  Gongfu works, more western ratios work.  I generally use about 5g, whether doing gongfu or western.  But I also use the same tea basket for both styles of brewing.  This tea will keep giving tasty reinfusions all day.  When you get it, give t a brew and let us know what you find.

    IMG_20200211_111503141.jpg

    IMG_20200211_111529513.jpg

    • Like 2

    I miss the old group tea tastings

    in Coffee & Tea

    Posted

    Wow... go away for a weekend and now it looks like we might have a quorum.  

     

    I've got a cake of aged white tea that is an interesting experience.  First 3 PMs to me with a mailing address will find a few grams of it in your mailbox sometime not too far away.  Brew it as you see fit, and report back. 

    I miss the old group tea tastings

    in Coffee & Tea

    Posted

    Where to buy from really depends on what you like and what you know.  In Indian tea, knowing a plantation you like makes it easy to google for someplace that has the current crop from there... If you are limited to knowing and preferring particular limited availability blends from a known brand, you know where you're shopping.  There are merchants that specialize in, say Japanese greens, or Taiwan oolongs, or Yunnan puerhs, so if you want a deep dive into one of those, there is the opportunity to jump into the deep end. There are also merchants that do tea-of-the-month club sort of experiences, where they'll send you 3 or 4 varieties with enough to have a few good sessions with something new and different... so I have no idea where your taste buds and sense of adventure are at right now... Are you a black tea drinker, or a green tea aficionado, or an oolong appreciator or something else?  I don't want to flood you with stuff not relevant to your interests.

    I miss the old group tea tastings

    in Coffee & Tea

    Posted · Edited by cdh (log)

    Are there enough people around here who drink tea and might want to revive the practice?  I've got a few teas interesting enough to discuss sitting around that I'd happily send 5 or 10 grams of to a couple of people who would participate in a tasting thread... chime in if you're interested.  Probably best to keep it within the USA, as sending baggies of vegetable matter through international mail is likely to result in delays and headaches. 

     

    And for those who haven't been here long enough to remember this far back, here is an example of what I'm talking about. 

     

    Resources at Harvard for history & food

    in Food Media & Arts

    Posted · Edited by cdh (log)

    Another angle of approach might be to think of special collections in the library, e.g. when somebody's estate gives all their papers to Harvard.  Perhaps there are food people in that mix.  Julia Child lived down the street for a good while, did her estate drop her stuff on Harvard or someplace else?  Going through my own attic turned up food stuff from my grandparents and great grandparents...  menus, promotional postcards for restaurants in the 1920s, matchbooks, etc.  People not in the food biz kept that kind of stuff...  Does the Harvard library have a special annex for that stuff (like the Harry Ransom Center at UT Austin), or is it all under one roof and administration there?

     

    So it does look like some Julia Child stuff landed at Harvard: https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/schlesinger-library/collection/julia-child

    • Like 1

    Resources at Harvard for history & food

    in Food Media & Arts

    Posted · Edited by cdh (log)

    Didn't Harvard do a food science MOOC?  I recall some eG people mentioning it a few years back. Was through one of of the MOOC clearinghouses that wasn't Coursera... EDX or something like that. Don't remember exactly.  But it was Harvard faculty doing sciency stuff centered on food.  Figuring who was behind that would be a good lead  to send an inquiry about what faculty have a academic/culinary bent... 

     

    edited to add link to the old eG thread: 

     

    another edit to add that I recalled someplace had a food/anthropology grad program... but it was NYU, not Harvard... NYC isn't exactly convenient to Boston for a daytrip unless you're well motivated and well funded. . 

    • Like 3

    Silly Beer

    in Beer

    Posted · Edited by cdh (log)

    And the orange zest and coriander are very traditional in the Belgian white beer recipe... the only off the wall addition is the grapefruit juice, and that is following the trend of bottled radler coming out of Germany.  

     

    • Like 1

    Food of Appalachia

    in Food Traditions & Culture

    Posted

    2 hours ago, gfweb said:

     

    Fels-naptha. A brick of toxic waste, basically. We always had that around the house too

    I use it still to wash when I get into poison ivy... Fels Naptha washes away the irritant resin pretty effectively.  Never understood how it got used as a laundry soap.

    • Thanks 1
×
×
  • Create New...