Richard Kilgore
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Posts posted by Richard Kilgore
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Two gyokuros and a Banko houhin arrived from Japan today, all from yuuki-cha.com. My first gyokuros. I'll post more in the Japanese Green Tea topic after having a chance to brew these a time or two more, but at first meeting they are easy to brew and I am enjoying them a good deal. 100 g each is a lot of tea to drink in a short amount of time, so I'm splitting these with a tea friend. This works out great, because we'll be able to try several gyokuros this year, rather than just one or two.
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I almost decided on genmaicha last night, Erin, but ended up with one of the hojichas from kuuki-cha.com. Today started with an Assam Napuk from TCC.
How about you all? What's in your tea cup/bowl/mug/thermos today?
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Today it was a 2003 Mengku Gong Ting Ripe Pu-erh from Yunnan Sourcing. It is pleasant enough, but seems to run out of steam after five or six infusions. May be my brewing technique, of course, so I'll give it another try sometime.
It was 95 F here today, so I also made some first class grocery store tea bag decafe iced tea.
And I am about to brew something in the way of Japanese green tea. Just have not decided yet.
How about you?
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At the most basic you will need a gaiwan, a strainer...and a small measuring cup would help with the water quantities, but it's not necessary. No need for a scale to get started, and you can count out the seconds if you don't have a digital timer of some sort.
A porcelain gaiwan of about 100 - 150 ml will be fine. Plain, white ceramic. Inexpensive and it will be good for all Chinese teas. A bowl to put the gaiwan in, to catch the splash and spill over. (Don't worry about a Yixing pot. Lots of fakes and hard to tell what's what. I have seen many hundreds and handled dozens - at least - in person, been given knowledgeable guidance and have about 20 of them of varying quality and qualities, and it's still difficult. Complexities upon complexities. And porcelain is neutral and the best way to initially evaluate a tea any way.)
A small metal tea strainer should be easy to find there and dirt cheap. One with a little handle attached to a round frame with a screen in the middle.
Small cheap white cups - about 150 ml if you are drinking alone, maybe 40 ml if sharing, is good. Or you could use your white coffee cup if drinking alone or your little bowls if sharing. If sharing, you need a "fair cup" of about 200 ml, which is like a little creamer or syrup pitcher; glass or ceramic is okay, but I like to see the tea liquor in glass. You pour the tea liquor out of the gaiwan into the fair cup so that the tea liquor mixes thoroughly and everyone gets the same solution. You should have no trouble finding a fair cup, or you could use a cup or small glass you have on hand - the little fair cup just pours better and is less messy in my experience, but messy is part of gong fu cha.
As an alternative to a fair cup - but I don't recommend this as a way to start out - is to put your little cups in a bowl and then pour out of the gaiwan into the cups, running back and forth so that everyone gets a fair amount from every layer of the infusion. The bowl catches your misses. Like I said, not an easy way to start out.
Water quality is very important, but start with what you have - spring water, which may or may not be optimal. How does it taste to you? If you like the taste, it may be fine. If it tastes off or flat, then that's what your tea will get. The temp coming out of the hot water spigot may give your kettle a head start, but you may want to taste check it against the cold water to see if there is a taste difference. If you have an instant read thermometer, good; if not there are other ways to estimate the temp once the water is boiled.
Does this give you enough for a start? Once you have your basic equipment and some tea we can do a walk through.
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I can't supply the tones. I'm still learning English tones. But maybe Greg can.
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Erin,
My understanding is that many if not most teashops in China will let you try a tea before buying. Cool! Because buying sight unseen is not what works out well most of the time. If you'll let me know what part of China you are in it may help in several ways.
For the toastier Oolongs, I think you would like not only the more oxidized TGYs, but also the Wu Yi Rock or Cliff Oolongs from Fujian Province such as Big Red Robe (Da Hong Pao) or Bai Ji Guan. That said, many Oolongs have versions that are more and less roasted. The roastier versions are usually considered traditional. You may also want to try some Feng Huang Dancongs from Guang Dong province. To complicate things and make them more interesting, there are many versions of all these teas and also aged versions of teas from Anxi, Guang Dong and Fujian.
So drink samples at your local shops and then buy a little of what you like - 25 g - 50 g each. There are a couple thousand Chinese teas and you can sample many that never or rarely get to the West. You lucky person.
Hope this helps a little. Maybe someone [pssst, Greg] who has traveled in China could expand upon this.
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Hoping that someone here can direct me.
I was visiting a tea factory once and in their lab/tasting room they had these very specialized cups. The cups were porcelain with lids but had comb-like tines on the rim - allowing one to steep the tea then pour it out using the lid and the tines to strain the leaves from the liquid.
I'd like to order a bunch for myself but don't know how or where to source them. Any leads?
Thanks!
Please do tell what you ended up getting, from which merchant and how you like them.
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Interesting, Richard. Can you walk us through the basic steps of brewing a cup gong fu style? Right now I'm using a western-style coffee mug and a glass jug for brewing my teas, as I've been holding off buying any special equipment until I know more about what teas I enjoy drinking. Can you gong fu brew any type of tea? If so, could you walk us through a few examples?
I'll try to answer this and do a walk through based on the least you'll need to add to your current set up for brewing. Later we can get into upgrades, but I wanted to reduce this to the easiest and least expensive way to get started, and your situation is a great example. As we go along, I'll also provide some links to related posts in the Coffee & Tea forum that may be helpful.
So let me ask a few of questions first.
Do you strain your tea when pouring it from your glass jug into your mug? If not, how are you keeping the leaves from flowing into your mug?
What teas do you enjoy so far?
Do you have any very small bowls or a traditional western 6 ounce tea cup?
Do you have a French Press for making coffee?
What's your tap water like? Does it taste great straight from the tap? Do you filter it?
As far as what kinds of teas can be brewed gong fu cha style - it is primarily done with Oolongs and Pu-erhs, but I do it with Chinese green teas and even Chinese red teas. One gong fu red tea I had been brewing western style with a low leaf to water ration was a revelation brewed in a gaiwan with a high leaf to water ratio and very short infusion times. I have never tried it with Indian teas or those from Sri Lanka, but will get around to experimenting with those, too. It does not work well with Japanese green teas; while you can brew them western style, a traditional Japanese kyusu is the brewing instrument of choice, with which you can usually get 3 - 5 infusions.
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It's good to have more tea drinkers posting today. I guess the cooling weather has something to do with it. I'll be announcing new Tea Tasting & Discussions soon and throughout the rest of the year- some really interesting teas from jingteashop.com in China, pu-erhs and other teas from norbutea.com and a fine sencha from The Cultured Cup...and more. If you subscribe to the Coffee & Tea forum, you'll be among the first to know.
Early today it was the Assam Panitola from teasource.com for me. It's a delicious, well-priced Assam. I'm running low and this is one I'll re-order.
Then I had a little of the Diamond Grade TGY Oolong, Spring Harvest 2009 leftover from yesterday. After a good hot rinse. Still good today, very good. Very amazingly good.
Now it's the 2007 Guoyan 'Golden Peacock' from norbutea.com. It's been relaxing here for months and now tastes even better than it did when I first got it. Gong fu cha brewing, but no measuring today. More intuitive brewing with a little over 1/4 of the Yixing pot filled with the compressed leaf. More on this later in the Pu-erh topic.
Any more tea drinkers out there today? What's in your cup?
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What's the very least you need to try gong fu cha brewing with a gaiwan?
Not very much.
A gaiwan of about 100 - 150 ml is good. Smaller is okay, but hard to find. Larger becomes difficult to handle.
A bowl large enough to accommodate the gaiwan and the tea and water over flow.
Something to strain the tea poured from the gaiwan into a cup. This could be an infuser used otherwise in a cup.
A cup (or cups if you are sharing)large enough to hold the tea liquor from the gaiwan.
A way to heat water. Water kettle. Sauce pan in a pinch.
Same if you are using a Yixing clay teapot instead of a gaiwan.
At any rate, that's how I started doing it.
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It's interesting that cdh finds an Assam-like malty note and Yajna Patni does not. Yixing retains flavors so I wonder if you have brewed any Assams or malty Chinese red teas in yours, Chris?
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A break from the Japanese green teas while I am waiting for more gyokuro to arrive from Japan. Started out the day with the wonderful handmade Nilgiri from teasource.com that was featured in a Tea Tasting & Discussion this year. And this evening it's a gongfu cha brewing of the Diamond Grade TGY Oolong, Spring Harvest 2009 from norbutea.com. Two incredible teas today. The Nilgiri will be good with good storage, but I need to finish up the little bit of this Taiwanese TGY soon. Only 5 grams left.
So, what teas are you all drinking today?
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That's an unusual and interesting tea isn't it, WmC? I have had the same thing happen before when I delayed on a limited availability special tea.
Tonight I have been continuing my Japanese Green Tea explorations, brewing the yuuki-cha.com organic sencha from yesterday in a different kyusu. Interesting differences - more about all this later in both the Japanese Green Tea topic and the Japanese Teapot topic.
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Today I opened a bag of Organic Kumamoto Sencha Yabe Supreme from kuuki-cha.com. Brewed in a Banko kyusu, this is a very nice sencha. More on this in the Japanese Green Tea topic after I have had a chance to brew it another time or two.
I have brewed this a second time tonight following the kuukicha.com directions explicitly. All I can say is, "Wow!" Okay, that's not all I can say, but I'll do that later in the Japanese Green Tea topic.
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Right, even three minutes is too long.
My suggestion would be to try it for 2 minutes at 175, 195 and 205 first infusions and see what it's like at different temps. In a Tea Tasting & Discussion of a very fine and complex houjicha we found that it brewed well at a wide range of temps, displaying different interesting taste profiles. I have brewed another houjicha and it also works well at a wide range of temps.
So 2 minutes at 195 F is fine for a first infusion. You should be able to get a second and third infusion, too. You'll need to play with those a bit, but you could try 2: 195 F, 1 min; and 3: 195 F, 2 min.
Let us know the results of trying different brewing parameters, if you choose to experiment a little, and what works best for you.
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fooey brought up an interesting green tea brewing issue in another topic, and I have copied the post below.
I have not had this houjicha, but I looked at the link to the Republic of Tea page for it and don't know what they are thinking when they recommend up to 4 minutes steeping. Houjicha is one of the easiest Japanese green teas to brew with regard to temperature, but anything over 2 minutes for the first infusion is likely to produce a bitter cup. Anything from 175 F to 195 F or so usually will make for a good cup, so your 203 F was not the problem.
The Republic of Tea's Big Green Hojicha.
The Tea Companion recommends a 20-second steep at 203F, but instructions on the package say 2-4 minutes at that temp, so who knows?!
I did 170 F for 3 minutes and it was great bitter, so maybe I'll risk the off boil.
It's quite wonderful, very low in caffeine/theophylline (5mg/cup), and is relaxing and enjoyable. If it didn't say green tea on the label, I'd think it an oolong.
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Today I opened a bag of Organic Kumamoto Sencha Yabe Supreme from kuuki-cha.com. Brewed in a Banko kyusu, this is a very nice sencha. More on this in the Japanese Green Tea topic after I have had a chance to brew it another time or two.
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Here's another yunomi by Virginia Marsh. It is roundly square in the shape of the body below the rim, which the photos don't show well, making it a pleasure in the hand.
Japanese green tea usually looks best to me in a white or very light green cup, or a cup that at least has a white or light green interior. This yunomi seemed too dark for sencha and I was about to make it a cup for orange juice when it occured to me that the brown accents were similar to the tone of brewed houjicha. So I brewed some and yes, now it's a houjicha yunomi. (I should note that in the exterior photo the color of this yunomi is a little off, making it appear a darker than it is.)
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This evening I am drinking a Kagoshima Sencha Yutaka Midori from o-cha.com. Delicious and my best brewing of it so far.
Brewing tea today in your part of the world?
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Congratulations on your teapot, David. I'm always interested in seeing pics of Yixings and will look forward to seeing them.
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This morning it's a hearty, malty, fruity Yunnan Imperial from TCC.
So what's in your cup teacup (mug, thermos, whatever) today?
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Late brewing of a MF Genmaicha from TCC. Aromatic and toasty.
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I have had very good results with a Banko kyusu from yuukicha.com, so I am ordering a Banko houhin from the site soon, along with some organic gyokuro, and I'll post about this after they arrive and I have had a chance to brew a couple of times.
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I'll look forward to reading about your Tea Habitat Dan Cong adventure, WmC.
Today I started with the Assam Napuk from TCC - one of several regular morning Assam for me. This has been an eclectic tea drinking day: the Assam was followed by an Anxi Ba Xian from jingteashop.com, a matcha smoothie and the Cultured Cup's Kukicha Fukamushi that was featured in a Tea Tasting and Discussion in this forum.
I used the Kukicha as part of my evaluation of the brewing effects of two Japanese kyusu with different clay composition. More on this later in the week.
Japanese Green Teas - Sencha, Gyokuro...and more,
in Coffee & Tea
Posted
Erin - it sounds like you prefer the roasted rice to dominate the green tea in a genmaicha. While I like that, I really enjoy a matcha genmaicha. Have you tried that?