Richard Kilgore
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Posts posted by Richard Kilgore
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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.
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FInished the last of some orchid oolong today....and now, am drinking some of my traditionally dark roasted ti kuan yin.
So amazing that such variety is coaxed from a single plant.
And looking forward to tomorrow and sunday, when I will be trying out my new scale with many new teas from recent orders including oolongs, puerhs, white teas, and keemun black tea, to see if the much-discussed chocolate notes resemble actual chocolate in any way.
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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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Very interesting, YP. Any photos of these teas?
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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.
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Enjoying my first brewing of "Diamond grade Tie Guan Yin" from norbutea.com and loving it. It is an interesting tea that is between my usual dark roasted & earthy Anxi Ti Kuan Yin and the Taiwan Alishan Oolong we were just tasting. It is less floral and a little more roasted than the latter, not nearly as dark and earthy as my usual tea, but still has a delightful sweet undertone. Loving it.
I will continue to explore these green Ti Guan Yins with more interest and confidence, while hoping that my traditional dark roast Ti Kuan Yin won't ever vanish.
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.
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I don't have any Chinese teapots. Instead, I prefer the tetsubin:
The Le Creuset of teapots -- almost literally. Enamelled cast iron, and will still be around long after I'm gone. Their main drawback is Le Creuset-like prices; they're not cheap.
The one pictured is the one I use for most everything, with the major exception of Lapsang Souchong; I have a cheap Chinese knock-off tetsubin for that. The capacity is about 16 ounces (475 ml). It's a quite nice dark blue color that wears to reveal the black enamel underneath -- the color isn't quite done justice by the photo.
Someday, I'll have another to dedicate specifically for green tea, and maybe another for whites. I'm not that fussy at the moment.
BTW, pictured next to the tetsubin are (on the left), a silver tip white tea (fluffy and actually somewhat fuzzy leaves), and on the right, some jasmine silver pearls.
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?
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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.
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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.
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I received my sample, and was both surprised and pleased that I could smell sweet fruit through the packaging before I took the packet out of the envelope. (It was a hot day). I'll follow the brewing instructions on the packet and report back.
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.
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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?
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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.
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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..
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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The three free samples of Okayato Estate 1st Flush Darjeeling contributed by Bill Waddington at teasource.com go to ---
* baroness
* Yajna Patni
* cdh
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Un-Flavored Black Teas - India, China, Ceylon....
in Coffee & Tea
Posted
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. I'll edit the post.