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Richard Kilgore

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Posts posted by Richard Kilgore

    What Tea Are You Drinking Today? (Part 2)

    in Coffee & Tea

    Posted

    Started the day off as always, Temple of heaven gunpowder green. It's among the cheaper teas I have but I just love it.

    Then for the first time ever I tried some Puerh I just got. I got the aged puerh tea brick from Numi. Wow! I'm craving another cup but I need to sleep so it'll wait until the morning. I was blown away.

    Welcome to the eGullet Society, WAZ. Please do tell us more about your pu-erh in the Pu-erh topic.

    Tea Tasting: 2009 Japanese Organic Matcha Iri Genmaicha

    in Coffee & Tea

    Posted

    It really is interesting to see the wide range of experiences with this tea. Partly due, I think, to different brewing parameters and partly due to differing taste buds.

    Thanks again to Dan at yuuki-cha.com for supplying the samples, and thanks to cdh, Wholemeal Crank, baroness and LuckyGirl for participating.

    More teas from yuuki-cha.com this year for future Tea Tasting & Discussions. If you subscribe to the Coffee & Tea forum, you'll be among the first to know.

    What Tea Are You Drinking Today? (Part 2)

    in Coffee & Tea

    Posted

    I really have not cared for any Jasmine tea I have tried, few though that may be. So I am not one to say. Perhaps I simply have not met the right one yet. But I can say that if I make a tea and really blow the brewing, or it is unpleasant for any reason, I have no qualms about dumping it and starting fresh. Hope your cold improves soon - hate to have all that Wuyi Oolong tasting like soap...or worse.

    Whisked two bowls, rather than one, of my daily yuuki-cha matcha for the first time today. My head, I am pleased to report, is still attached.

    Now brewing a medium size (7.5 ounce/225 ml) pot of Organic Uji Tokusen Sencha, also from yuuki-cha.com, in a Nasu Banko Yaki Kyusu, and sipped from a rough sand Hagi teacup. The interaction between the leaf and the two clays makes for an interesting cup.

    How about the rest of you tea drinker's out there? What's in your cup today?

    Tea Tasting: Three Wuyi Rock Oolong Teas

    in Coffee & Tea

    Posted · Edited by Richard Kilgore
    correction (log)

    Here's more information from the norbutea.com site on the first of the three Wuyi teas included in this Tea Tasting and Discussion. Used with permission.

    Da Hong Pao (English: Big Red Robe) is by far and away the most famous and revered varietal from the great category of oolongs known as "Wu Yi Yen Cha," or Wu Yi Rock Teas. It was hand harvested and processed during the Spring season of 2009 in the Wu Yi Shan National Scenic Area of Northwest Fujian Province.

    Cultivar History:

    The name of this tea cultivar comes from a legend with many different variations. The main drift of these legends is that someone in the royal family, usually the Emperor, fell ill with a deep chest cough which was potentially fatal. To cure this illness, the Emperor was served a brew made from the leaves of a particular group of tea plants from the Wu Yi mountains in modern Fujian. The Emperor was so moved by the mystical life-giving powers of these unique tea plants that he had fine Royal Red silk robes, a sign of their divine status, made for the trees to keep them warm and protected during the cold mountain winters.

    Three of the original Da Hong Pao trees are still alive in the Wu Yi mountains today, and they are a huge tourist draw for the region. Leaves are still harvested from these trees on an extremely limited basis, and are by far the most precious teas in the world. These rare productions from the original Da Hong Pao trees are considered Chinese national treasures and are reserved exclusively for the highest Government officials and visiting dignitaries. In 2004, 20 grams of tea produced from the original trees were sold at auction in Hong Kong. The selling price for this 20 grams was approximately US $21,000, or well over $1,000 US Dollars per Gram!

    Cuttings from the original Da Hong Pao trees have been taken and grafted onto existing rootstock, creating exact copies/clones of the original plants that could be grown and harvested in more accessible parts of the the Wuyishan area. This is a very popular cultivar, and demand for Da Hong Pao is huge both inside and outside of China. This means that Da Hong Pao of varying qualities and price points is widely commercially available, and not all of it is produced by recent generation cuttings from the original Da Hong Pao trees grown inside the Wuyi National Scenic Area. This particular Da Hong Pao represents a moderately priced, but high quality offering from plants grown inside the Wuyi scenic area.

    Dry Leaf:

    This tea's dry leaves are the long and twisting shape and dark greenish red-brown color characteristic of traditional Wu Yi Yen Cha. The fragrance of the dry leaves is predominantly of dried fruit and roasted nuts...gentle but rich and intriguing.

    Roast:

    This is a traditionally roasted or "fully" roasted Oolong, which serves the practical purpose of killing or deactivating any remaining oxidizing enzymes left in the leaves after they have been bruised and allowed to partially oxidize, creating the basis for the complex flavors in the finished tea. This roasting process traditionally happens using glowing (not flaming) charcoal covered with rice ash to prevent flame ups, but larger/more modern/less traditional factories use electric ovens for consistency and to prevent the accidental introduction of smoky tastes into the leaves. To use an example from western cooking, much in the same way as searing a piece of meat prior to cooking "browns" or caramelizes the proteins on the surface of the meat (the Maillard reaction) and creates complexities of flavor in the finished dish, this traditional roasting process caramelizes or "browns" the proteins in the surface of the tea leaves, creating an amazing layer of roasted/toasted richness & complexity in the flavor of the final product.

    Flavor & Aroma:

    The flavor of the deep red-amber tea liquor has sweet woodsy elements that are balanced out nicely with interesting fruity flavors...not exactly dried peaches or plums, but not exactly the rich perfume of pears, either. The caramelized/roasted elements of the overall flavor nicely balance out the sweet fruitiness that could have otherwise dominated the many layers of flavor that are present. The aftertaste is lingering and profoundly woodsy-sweet. This tea is good for at least 5 distinctive infusions when steeped gong-fu style before it starts to fade.

    Tea Tasting: Three Wuyi Rock Oolong Teas

    in Coffee & Tea

    Posted

    I have known Greg for several years since a presentation he once gave on a trip through the tea markets and farms of China fed my growing interest in learning more about fine teas. Since then he has become a tea friend and we drink tea together and trade teas and tea stories from time to time. Greg and I spent most of a Saturday recently drinking tea and selecting these three Wuyi Oolongs from his Wuyi offerings on norbutea.com. We picked them because we think there are interesting, if subtle, differences among the three: Da Hong Pao, Shui Jin Gui and Ban Tian Yao.

    Steel-cut Oats

    in Cooking

    Posted

    Interesting topic. I have been eating steel-cut oats as oatmeal for about 30 years, but it never occurred to me to use chicken broth or to treat them like risotto.

    Any more ideas or favorite recipes members have tried?

    Vita-Mix Blenders & Mixers

    in Kitchen Consumer

    Posted

    That's a 20% difference only if you are not counting state and local sales taxes. As I noted up-topic, my Vita-Prep 3 cost only $45 more than the 5200 when you account for taxes. Worth it to me.

    I'm not particularly concerned about BPA when I have ingredients in the machine for only a very few minutes. Is there research that shows I should be?

    That said, I am sure many people will be satisfied with the 5200.

    What Tea Are You Drinking Today? (Part 2)

    in Coffee & Tea

    Posted

    So far today - a Ceylon Lumbini Estate, FBOP from Tea Source that the baroness first reported on in a Tea Tasting & Discussion last year.

    Followed by my daily bowl of matcha from yuuki-cha.com. And now an Organic Uji Tokusen Sencha, also from yuuki-cha, brewed in an older Hagi hobin. This Hagi clay seems to make for a smoother tea than a newer clay I have experience with in a Hagi tea cup. I should do a more rigorous comparison sometime.

    So what teas are you all brewing this day?

    Matcha

    in Coffee & Tea

    Posted

    Today, WC, my two scoops of matcha weighed in at 1.1 g. combined. But it all depends on how much you load into the scoop. I fill it almost as full as possible.

    Tea Tasting: 2009 Japanese Organic Matcha Iri Genmaicha

    in Coffee & Tea

    Posted

    You raise an important point. There are three basic variables we can adjust to brew any tea: leaf:water ratio, temperature and length of the infusion. But lower leaf:water ratio for a longer time does not necessarily produce the same outcome. Your first larger cup, the 12 ounce one, was also at half the suggested ratio and 15 F higher than the suggested temp. So there may be more to see.

    While I think it's fine to play with all parameters as I get to know a tea, I have found I am usually best served by starting at the suggested brewing parameters and then adjusting from there. It's most often infusion time that I adjust first to tweek my brewing. It's the easiest and usually most effective thing to adjust, since most teas have a fairly narrow temp range (sencha and matcha being particularly sensitive to brewing too hot), and I can easily adjust timing from infusion to infusion within a brewing session.

    Tea Tasting: 2009 Japanese Organic Matcha Iri Genmaicha

    in Coffee & Tea

    Posted

    This evening I brewed 10g tea to about a 11 oz of 180 degree water.

    The toasted rice still overwhelms the tea for me. What I do get from the tea is a green squash thing. Think zucchini and raw spaghetti squash. Those elements are fine but what I do not like, which I noticed today but not when I tried this tea last week, is the slight fishiness I get on the end. I just read baroness' descriptor "seaweed" and that is very accurate. The tea has a light sweetness to it.

    I really wanted to see what the green tea itself was like on its own so I grabbed some tweezers and plucked out all of the grains of rice...no I didn't, just kidding.

    I can't say that I enjoy the rice/tea thing but that doesn't mean that I wouldn't drink a tea like this again on occasion. I didn't have a strong dislike of it. I did not care for the fishiness but even that wasn't offensive.

    Thank you Dan at yuuki-cha dot com for supplying us with this tea to taste. I look forward to trying more of your tea.

    LuckyGirl, I just noticed that on your second brewing you also brewed very thinly - 10 g to 11 ounces (about 330 ml), rather than the 8 - 10 g to 150 ml yuuki-cha.com recommends. That's less than half the leaf. It would be interesting to see what you think if you have the opportunity to brew a matcha genmaicha again sometime. My guess is that your second brewing was so weak that the sencha leaf and matcha powder were not able to come through very much at all.

    Matcha

    in Coffee & Tea

    Posted

    Nick is correct in pointing out that there is usacha (thin matcha), which is what you would be starting with, and koicha (thick matcha). It's not only the amount of matcha powder used, but different matcha is used for thick and thin. I think most matcha powder for koicha may be used for thin matcha, but not vice versa.

    Here's a link to the brewing instructions for matcha on yuuki-cha.com, which may interest you.

    I think the only crucial equipment is a chawan (tea bowl) and a chasen (whisk). Different whisks are used for usacha and koicha. In a pinch you could try using a bowl you already have, although I think the texture of the surface of a good chawan makes the whisking more effective, but you really, really need a bamboo chasen. Sifting is important for the matcha not to clump when you whisk it; you can try using some other kind of tea strainer or kitchen sifter, but I ended up with the dedicated matcha sifter from yuuki-cha.

    I have been using a chasaku rather than measuring weight, but I'll weigh it today to find out. Some matchas are best with a little more powder than others in the powder to water ratio.

    Tea Tasting: Three Wuyi Rock Oolong Teas

    in Coffee & Tea

    Posted

    For our first comparative Tea Tasting & Discussion, eG Society member Greg Glancy at http://www.norbutea.com is contributing samples of three Wuyi Oolong teas. I will mail three of the sets of three 7 gram samples to the eG Society members participating in this Tea Tasting and Discussion.

    Here are the three featured Oolongs from the Wuyi Mountain area of the Fujian province. Please follow the links for more information on each of these teas and for brewing suggestions.

    Da Hong Pao - Wu Yi Oolong Tea - Spring 09

    Shui Jin Gui - Wu Yi Oolong Tea - Spring 09

    Ban Tian Yao - Wu Yi Oolong Tea - Spring 09

    The sets of three free samples are available to members who 1) will do at least one gong fu cha style brewing session with multiple infusions from each sample, 2) will report on their experience and participate actively in the discussion within ten days of receiving the samples, and 3) who have previously posted at least twenty-five (25) substantive posts (questions, answers, comments that add to discussions) in the Coffee and Tea forum.

    While the tasting is open to all members who have posted at least twenty-five (25) substantive posts in the eG Coffee and Tea forum, preference will be given until midnight (EDST) Monday, January 18th, to those who have not participated in the last two tastings.

    As always, everyone who does not receive the free samples is welcome and encouraged to participate in the discussion.

    So, please PM me now for details if you would like to receive one of the the free samples and participate in this Tea Tasting and Discussion.

    What Tea Are You Drinking Today? (Part 2)

    in Coffee & Tea

    Posted

    I have been on the road this week and drinking less tea, though I took a houbin and sencha with me. We did stop in at the Steeping Room in Austin, Texas, where they have a light menu as well as tea by the pot and bulk tea to take home. We had a Ceylon, which they brewed in the kitchen and brought in a pot ready to drink. Also a Da Hong Pao (Big Red Robe) served gong fu cha at the table.

    Starting the day with an Assam Kongea Estate, Golden Bud from Tea Source. Rich, malty and fruity.

    So what teas are you all drinking in your part of the world this weekend?

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