Richard Kilgore

Right, the usual for most average size leaf black teas is about 2.0 g per ounce, so your first brewing was 3X that strong. Good quality leaves should give you two to three good infusions western style. I have brewed some Chinese red teas gong fu style with good results, but don't think that is going to work with most Indian teas, especially most Assams. Edited to say: Uh, may I plead short sleep and too little caffeine? How about 2 g to 6 ounces of water as the standard for brewing tea with a western style leaf:water ratio.

Sounds like a fun tea weekend! This morning I am starting off with one of my favorite Chinese red teas - the Dian Hong Imperial from norbutea.com. Brewed western style in a Yixing teapot.

I winged it on my first brewing of this blend for iced tea, using about three almost level teaspoons to 7 - 8 ounces of just off-boil water in an infuser basket in a mug for 5 minutes. Let it cool almost to room temp and poured it over a glass half filled with ice. The pineapple note dominated the aroma and flavor, so it may benefit from a more concentrated brewing. I'll give it another try.

During this summer heat, I became curious about matcha and chai iced lattes and smoothies. I ordered iced chai lattes at three places and liked some quite a bit better than others, and a matcha latte at one place that I liked much more than I expected to. It turns out that they make these cold drinks from commercial powdered mixes or liquid concentrates. I liked the ones made from the powdered mixes better, so I prevailed up one place to sell me some of their matcha latte mix and another is looking into selling me some of their chai latte mix. Has anyone else tried making these drinks at home from mixes or concentrates? Anyone made them from scratch instead?

Yesterday I brewed a raw pu-erh, a 2008 Hai Lan Hao Lao Ban Zhang & Man 'E Cake sample from Yunnan Sourcing. Yikes! So bitter! Curiously puzzling, I found it interesting - in a good way - the first time I brewed it. I'll post more on this in the Pu-erh topic soon.

Very interesting, YP. Any photos of these teas?

Started the day with a MF Russian Breakfast Tea from TCC, a Sri Lanka black with a little bergamont...with milk, both of which are unusual for me. Good for what it is, but just not my cup of tea.

I had the Spring 2009 Diamond Grade (AAA) Tie Guan Yin from norbutea.com today. 6.5 g leaf in a 110 ml Yixing at 195 for all infusions. Rinse: 20; 1: 20; 2: 20; 3: 30; 4: 45; 5: 75; 6: 105; 7: 135; 8: 195 This leaf is not nearly washed out at this point and has at least 3 - 5 more infusions left in it. The floral aroma is not as strong in the dry leaf, the wet leaf or the tea liquor as it was when I first opened the bag a few weeks ago, but it's still quite present and pleasant and well balanced with the floral, almost creamy taste. The lingering mildly bitter-sweet after taste is still here, too. I like this tea fine at this point, but if the overwhelming floral aroma is important to anyone drinking this TGY, I suggest drinking it sooner after opening the vacuum sealed bag.

That's a beautiful pot, but why do you prefer cast iron to porcelain and clay pots and what is it about these cast iron pots that you would want to dedicate several of them to various teas?

Started the day with a MF Assam Napuk from The Cultured Cup. Then the Diamond Grade Tie Guan Yin Oolong, Spring Harvest 2009 from norbutea.com. A lovely TGY. More on this tea in the Oolong topic.

Those appear to be serious Dan Congs. I have not gotten any from her, but perhaps they are similar to the ones at jingteashop.com. I use a 50 ml gaiwan for such precious leaves. A small Yixing is a good idea, but also check out her pots that are about $39. She is sold out of the smaller ones, but I assume will be getting more in. 100 ml or smaller. It will be interesting to see how your 60 ml Yixing does. It is certainly a low quality clay at that price, so check to see if you can smell any dirt, clay, mud, chemical or other off odors in it. It may be okay, but if it smells of anything but hot rocks when you pour hot water in it, let us know. There are ways to try to clear that.

I think the brewing instructions are for hot tea, so use your own best iced tea judgement. I'll brew a test glass myself today.

Thanks. Curiously the article says a little about types of tea produced and consumed worldwide, how tea is processed and how to make a pot of tea, but little to say about the art and artifacts in the exhibit. Have you been to the exhibit? Can you tell us any more about it?

If I was making Matcha in a chawan (Matcha bowl), yes I would drink the powdered leaf, but this is Matcha powder mixed in with the toasted rice and then brewed in a kyusu and poured into a cup. It makes a murky olive green tea liquor and some powder gets through of course.

I picked up an ounce of Matcha Genmaicha (toasted brown rice and powdered green tea), Shizuoka Japan, from The Cultured Cup last week. With the addition of Matcha powder, this version of Genmaicha is richer and green teaier than a Mariage Frères Genmaicha I got at the same time. In the latter, the toasty aroma and flavor dominates. The directions on the zip package suggest "2g/1 tsp, 175 F, 1 - 2 minutes" and these directions are based on 6 ounces of water. But 1 measuring teaspoon of this tea weighs about 3g, so I decided to try 6g with 6 ounces 175 F water in a pre-warmed open kyusu for 2 minutes. Then a second infusion for 40 seconds. In the first the Matcha was primary and on the second infusion the roasted rice flavor became primary. Next time I'll consider cutting the first infusion back to one minute to see if the second infusions will have more green tea flavor without holding it back too much on the first infusion..

This morning it was a 2003 Mengku * Mengku Gong Ting * Ripe Tea Cake. A little more on this smooth cooked pu-erh in the Pu-erh topic.

2003 Mengku * Mengku Gong Ting * Ripe Tea Cake 25 grams Shuangjiang Mengku Tea Factory Source: Yunnan Sourcing on eBay My first experience with this ripe pu-erh brewed gong fu style is similar to the Yunnan Sourcing description. It is smooth with very mild camphor notes and increasing sweetness after the first infusion.

A cautionary note: Hatch chilies come hot and mild here. THe mild ones are indeed rather mild and are great for stuffing or simply if your heat tolerance is low, since the hot ones are more seriously hot. Hot or mild, they have great flavor. And they are great in bread.

Yikes! They are 99 cents/lb here green and $2.79/lb roasted at Central Market in the Dallas - Ft. Worth area. You might be able to get them to ship it to you for less than that bargain $18.99/lb. Hatch Mac n' Cheese Green Salsa Red Salsa Hatch Chile Jam Hatch Dip for chips or veggies Hatch Chilies Stuffed with Chicken and Cheese Whatever you can do with other chilies, you can do it with Hatch chilies Have fun!

The three free samples of Okayato Estate 1st Flush Darjeeling contributed by Bill Waddington at teasource.com go to --- * baroness * Yajna Patni * cdh

Right, but molecules are small and the exterior clay may absorb aromas. too. One time may not be a problem, so I'll cross my fingers, too.

One sample left of this Okayato Estate 1st Flush Darjeeling from teasource.com. Please review the first post and PM me if you are interested.

WmC - Apologies for not catching this sooner. I just re-read your last post above and noticed you were putting the pot in the fridge. Clay absorbs aromas and it will absorb whatever aromas are floating around behind that door, so it's important to remove the leaves and put them in a small odor-proof container. I use the smallest size canning jars.

Gong fu style brewing of a 2007 Haiwan Lao Cha Tou Brick that I commented on previously in the Pu-erh topic. Really like the leather and wood notes.

Started the day with the fine Assam Sree Sibari Estate from teasource.com featured in this Tea Tasting Discussion. How about you?