What Tea Are You Drinking Today? (Part 2)

[Wholemeal Crank]

Relatively quiet tea day: started with hot chocolate instead of sencha, but midday worked on my last bag of the spring 2009 Ali Shan oolong from norbu, and now am drinking the Rou Gui from Houde.

An all-oolong day.

But while the tea was all oolong, I just was pointed to this website selling japanese tokoname pots, and have sent an inquiry about ordering one of their lovely Kyusus for my almost-daily morning sencha.

Edited March 28, 2010 by Wholemeal Crank (log)

[Wholemeal Crank]

A sweet and light start to the tea day: select sencha first, then on to some of the pomelo-scented Anji white tea, and now enjoying again the winter Bao Zhong from Houde. I will need to make some nice earthy puerh later before all this delicate floral light stuff floats me away.

[Richard Kilgore]

Started out with a smooth Lumbini Estate Ceylon from Tea Source, followed by the Organic Kumamoto Sencha Yabe Supreme from yuuki-cha.com featured in the current Tea Tasting & Discussion .

[Richard Kilgore]

Finished the day yesterday with the Sunset Orange Rooibos from The Cultured Cup.

Today began with a Keemun Hao Ya B from Tea Source, brewed in a Yixing. Not sure what it will be next. Probably a green tea.

So, what's in your tea cup/mug/thermos today?

[Wholemeal Crank]

That's quite a bit of Rooibos lately, isn't it?

[Wholemeal Crank]

Just received a new order of sencha & gyokuro from denstea, and threw caution to the wind and brewed up the last two pots' worth of the Cultured Cup sencha select in one very sencha-dense infusion. Brewed the infusions a little shorter than usual, and what a delicious cup to finish it off with.....

[Richard Kilgore]

Yesterday also had the Organic Uji Gyokuro Gokou from yuukicha.com.

Started the morning with the tasty Ceylon Vitahanakanda Estate, FOP from teasource.com. Later today the Organic Kumamoto Sencha Yabe Supreme from yuuki-cha.com featured in the current Tea Tasting & Discussion. Brewed in an old Bizen Japanese teapot - and delicious.

[Richard Kilgore]

That's quite a bit of Rooibos lately, isn't it?

Actually, I have a cup of rooibos or chamomile on many evenings. They are pleasant and relaxing before sleep, but I am not "interested" in tisanes the way I am teas.

[Wholemeal Crank]

Today continued as a green tea day: prepared a thermos full of a particularly strong jasmine cut with silver needle, but still it came out a bit soapy. That particular jasmine probably needs a 2:1 dilution to be really pleasant. And then some Dragon Well to set things back on the right track again.

[Richard Kilgore]

First in my cup today was a MF Queen Victoria (second flush) Darjeeling from The Cultured Cup. Now sipping the delicious Organic Kumamoto Sencha Yabe Supreme from yuuki-cha.com featured in the current Tea Tasting & Discussion.

What teas are you brewing in your part of the world today?

[Wholemeal Crank]

Sencha Zuiko from denstea.com this morning. I had a not-so-good first infusion yesterday (fair bit of bitterness), and had to back up today to weighing out the tea, checking temps, carefully counting the infusions out, shortening, and getting a much nicer cup today.

Looking forward to another sharing of tea with my skeptical colleague who complained about the harsh puerh his in-laws make, and thinking today, after a white tea and an oolong in the last two weeks, he is ready for some eye opening puerh. Debating between the white bud sheng from norbu and the menghai golden needles shu from yunnan sourcing: should I go with the caramelicious mellowness of the golden needles, or the smoky sweetness of the white bud?

[Richard Kilgore]

First today, the Nilgiri Glendare Estates, Handmade from teasource.com that was featured in a Tea Tasting & Discussion last year. This was the last of the first bag I bought, but fortunately I have another unopened one. Great stuff.

[Richard Kilgore]

Now it's the Lao Ban Zhang Mao Cha Sheng Pu-erh from norbutea.com featured in the current Tea Tasting & Discussion. Wow!

So what teas are you all drinking today?

[Wholemeal Crank]

really surprised my "tea phobic" colleague today with the norbu white bud sheng puerh. He got quite apprehensive when I told him it was a puerh, but there was a big smile when he drank some and he followed me back to my desk asking questions....

[LuckyGirl]

really surprised my "tea phobic" colleague today with the norbu white bud sheng puerh. He got quite apprehensive when I told him it was a puerh, but there was a big smile when he drank some and he followed me back to my desk asking questions....

Isn't it the best when you turn someone onto something and they really like it?

Right now I am loving my cup of Yuuki-cha's Kumamoto Sencha. My order from them arrived yesterday. I restrained myself from brewing a cup right away rather I saved it for this morning as a reward for getting a fair amount of Easter prep done yesterday.

I don't know if it's this particular tea itself or the newness of senchas to me but this tea is almost magical to me.

[Wholemeal Crank]

After a weekend of excellent tea despite limitations imposed by traveling--brewing in the morning for thermos full for the day, with the white bud puerh starting out, some fall AliShan oolong holding up the middle, and some green Jade Pole starting out strong, but ending a little off--will note that this is not a tea to hold longer than a few hours in the thermos--today was a more conventional tea day.

Started with a cup of dens fukamushi sencha--when putting away a few new purchases I discovered the tail end of this one, which I thought was already gone; moved on to more of the fall AliShan; and now am enjoying some Ba Xian Dan Cong.

Tea happiness.

[Richard Kilgore]

The past few days it has been the Ceylon Vitahanakanda, Special Estate and one of two Japanese green teas: the Organic Kumamoto Sencha Yabe Supreme featured in the current Tea Tasting & Discussion or the Organic Uji Tokusen Sencha, both from yuuki-cha.com. All good. More Japanese teas on the way.

[DanM]

I'm drinking Green Tea Mint from Rishi. It really helps with my sore throat.

Edited April 7, 2010 by DanM (log)

[Wholemeal Crank]

Mint tea is wonderful stuff indeed. I often like mine with chamomile, sore throat or not.

I finished off that last bit of fukamushi sencha yesterday morning, and it was sweet and lovely, and moved on to the Shui jin gui wuyi oolong from Norbu, which started spicy and sweet, and even after prolonged thermos abuse remained mellow, warm, sweet, as the spicy highlights diminished.

Today I broke into the gyokuro suimei from denstea, and infused it longer first time per their recommendations, and it was quite briny, deep, vegetal, not very sweet, but not the slightest bit astringent or bitter. Very umami.

[Richard Kilgore]

Two infusions of the fine Keemun Hoa Ya A from teasource.com to start the day. Malty and sweet.

Later the Organic Kumamoto Sencha Yabe Supreme featured in the current Tea Tasting & Discussion. An easy to like sencha: grassy, briny, asparagus, sweet. Then an Organic Uji Gyokuro Gokou - down to the bottom of the bag, only one more session left. Both from yuuki-cha.com.

So what teas have you all been drinking?

[Wholemeal Crank]

Midday, got through a loooonnnnggg meeting with my favorite Diamond Tie Guan Yin from norbu. Running low on supplies of this one. Then on to some of the "not fermented" Korean Green tea. I used a lot of tea and brewed up a thermos full, starting with a few very concentrated infusions, diluted iwth plenty of hot water as I was in quite a hurry. The concentrated tea tasted very briny, not bitter, but the diluted version ended up caramelicious and mellow. Not a nice thing to do to nice tea, but still very tasty.

Edited April 8, 2010 by Wholemeal Crank (log)

[Richard Kilgore]

Started the day with the smooth Vithanakanda Estate, FOP. Later the Organic Kumamoto Sencha Yabe Supreme featured in the current Tea Tasting & Discussion - this time in a tiny 2 ounce Japanese Hagi teapot. And then this evening one of the organic houjichas from yuuki-cha - the Kumamoto Yabe Houjicha.

BTW, one more free pu-erh sample available for the new Tea Tasting & Discussion in this eG Coffee & Tea forum.

[Richard Kilgore]

This morning it was the smooth, delicious Lumbini Estate Ceylon from teasource.com. Tonight is T-Bar Club at The Cultured Cup. I'll look forward to sampling several teas, as usual.

[nakji]

I picked up some Big Red Robe oolong on my most recent trip to Shanghai. I have it at work, and I'm not in love with it as much as my tie guan yin. The first cup has a pleasant roasted flavour that I enjoy, but subsequent cups take on a strong celery taste. I hate celery. It also doesn't seem to last as long as my tie guan yin leaves, with which I get a good solid cup of tea all day out of. I'm thinking I couldn't have gotten as nice leaves as I usually do from my local teashop, as I bought them at a touristy shop in Xintiandi. I'll try again, because I do like the roasty taste.

[Richard Kilgore]

Yes, Erin, a lot of things that are not very close to Big Red Robe are sold as it. But I have not run into a celery taste before. The good versions are expensive, but worth it. With pretty much all teas, the better the grade, the more infusions you can get.