Cup of Tea and a Blog

Melting Teapot

2010-07-04T16:02:00.001-07:00

I no longer maintain this blog, but if you're interested in reading more from me please check out my Melting Teapot blog at http://www.meltingteapot.com. It has many posts about adventures of the tastebuds, and you'll find much to read about tea, wine, and food.

Tea Poetry

2006-05-20T07:16:00.000-07:00

I've been reading Drifting, a book of poetry by Dominic Cheung (Chang Ts'o). The book was awarded with Taiwan's prestigious literary award, the National Literature and Arts Prize in 1989. The poems have been translated to English by the author. The work is accessible, beautiful, and and filled with vivid imagery.

Tea is an important image in this book, and I'd like to share one of the more sensual poems with my fellow tea geeks.

**********

Love Poems of Tea

1
If I, the boiling water,
And you, the tea;
Then your fragrance
Has to depend solely upon my plainness.

2
Let your dryness inside me
Softly uncoil and stretch;
Let me dissolve
Imperceptibly, your tension.

3
I have to be hot, even boiled
Before we consume each other;
We have to hide, see and hold
each other in water
to decide
a tea color.

4
No matter how capriciously
you drift;
Gradually and slowly
(O' gently)
You will into me submerge--
Deep.

5
by that moment
the most bitter tear of yours
will become a best sip
of my fragrance.

Cheung, Dominic. Drifting. Green Integer: Los Angelos. 2000. p. 18.

Recently Clicked, April 19, 2006

2006-04-19T14:05:00.000-07:00

I’ve organized this post into three categories: photos, articles, and fun stuff. Enjoy clicking your way through!

Photos & Art

Wellcome Library, out of the UK, “provides insight and information to anyone seeking to understand medicine and its role in society, past and present.” They have some nice photos and art available online, including these images of tea preparation from an Asian exhibit:

The New York Public Library Digital Gallery was “developed to provide free and open online access to thousands of images from the original and rare holdings of The Library.” I did a quick search for “tea” and was given a list of 47 images. You can enjoy these images online, or you can purchase prints. Here are a few of my favorite images:

Having A Rest (Smoking and Serving Tea), Japanese women, photo from the late 1800s.
Afternoon Tea, Royal Poinciana, Palm Beach, Fla.
Tea : plants, making and vessels, 1858.

I’ve posted links to tea photos from TrekEarth before, but here are a few new ones I’ve enjoyed:

Preparing Green Tea, Myanmar (Burma)
Tea Shop Along Road, Tamil (India)
Teatime in Peshawar, Pakistan (birthplace of one of my favorite actors, bollywood icon Shah Rukh Khan – more on him and Bollywood in a future post)
Tea Place, fields in Hangzhou, where Longjing (Dragon Well) tea is grown.
On the Tea Bed, evidently a popular way of passing time in Uzbekistan. I want one of these in my backyard!

Articles & Resources

Tea Glossary, by allfoodbusiness.com. Most of the tea terms were already familiar, but I did learn at least one new slang term – a “billy.” Click through to the web site to see what it is, if you don’t already know. You can also check out this TrekEarth photo: Billy Tea.

I sampled some Korean tea for the first time at the Tea Expo, and hopefully there will be more in my future. Here’s a nice informational web site for anyone else who’s interested in Korean tea culture: Korean Tea Pages.

The China Window web site has several articles on the culture of tea in China:

Chinese Tea, an overall history and look at the culture of tea.
Teahouse In Sichuan Province, a brief but interesting description.
Chinese Tea Culture, basic information on categories, regions, and cultivation.
Drinking Gongfu Tea, with photos.
Huangmei Opera, “Bordering on Anhui Province, Huangmei in Hubei is a count famous for its tea and tea-picking songs, from which Huangmei Opera got its original name, "tea-picking tunes" or "tea-picking opera".”

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration web site has an article (previously published in their 1996 consumer magazine) called, “Tea: A Story of Serendipity," by Marian Segal. I’m sure that the percentage of green and oolong tea-drinking has changed somewhat in the last decade, but I was interested to find out about the historical shift described here:

” Tea tastes vary, and one aficionado who squirts lemon in his cup may cringe at the sight of another pouring milk or honey. But no matter how the tea may be doctored, in the United States the odds are overwhelming that it starts out black. Nearly 95 percent of all tea consumed here is black, according to the New York City-based Tea Council of the U.S.A.; 4 percent is green, 1 percent oolong, and 1 percent flavored.

That wasn't always the case, and our proclivity for drinking black tea over green or oolong may have been influenced by events in history. Sixty years ago and more, the amount of black and green tea Americans drank was split fairly evenly--each accounting for about 40 percent of the market--with oolong constituting the rest. During World War II, however, the major sources of green tea--China and Japan--were cut off from the United States, leaving us with tea almost exclusively from British-controlled India, which produces black tea. Americans came out of the war drinking nearly 99 percent black tea.”

I’ve also added a few blogs to my weekly reading list:

Floating Clouds, Gliding Eagle. I believe that he also is the owner of an informational web site called the Dao of Tea.
Tea Guy Speaks, very active blog
My Darjeeling Cuppa
Tea Files, the most current posts contain quite useful information on cleaning Yixing pots.

Fun Stuff

If you’re a Mac user like me, you may be interested in this free downloadable software: Cuppa, a brewing timer for your computer. It lets you keep track of different times for different teas. I’ve downloaded it to use in hotel rooms when traveling.

I have a great fondness for the claymation antics of tea-and-cheese-loving duoWallace and Gromit.

Tea lovers will especially enjoy all of the teapots and tea-sipping that goes on in their feature film, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, which was recently released on DVD. It’s a family-friendly, affectionately funny look at British culture. Crackin’ Good!
Nicecupofteaandasitdown.com has a post that shows W&G-inspired tea inventions by PGTips. PGTips evidently sponsored several giveaways and featured W&G collectibles throughout England (although not in Scotland, which caused a bit of a fuss).
You can still find a silly tea-brewing mini-game in the the archives ofnthe PGTips web site (click on “play with ERN”).

Orisinal Games are cute, sweet, mini-games that you can play online. One of their most recent is A Daily Cup of Tea, where you control two mice who are stealing sugar cubes.

I’m ending this post with a link to “The evils of tea (and the virtues of beer),” excerpts from William Cobbett's Cottage Economy, published in 1822. It’s a hoot to look back at his arguments, especially now that we know so much about the healthy properties of tea.

Expo Seminar: Ancient Tea Forests

2006-03-30T18:51:00.000-08:00

I’m back home now, writing up the last of my notes from the Tea Expo. Just before catching my flight, I attended:

“A Journey into the Ancient Tea Forests of Xishuangbanna, China”
By Sean O’Leary, photojournalist, Rishi Tea

Wednesday morning’s seminar speaker was a photojournalist who travels with Joshua Kaiser to document Rishi’s organic tea trade and sources. Again, a booklet with small images of the presented slides was provided with plenty of space for notes. This was good because I was writing whenever not looking at the fascinating images. What’s below is an attempt to make sense of the scrawled notes that fill my booklet.

O’Leary started with maps of China’s tea regions, focusing our attention on the Yunnan district. In particular, we were seeing images from old growth tea forests in a mountainous region of Yunnan. I loved seeing the photos of the “King Tea Tree,” a 2700-year-old tree that is protected as a national treasure in China. Lest you think this is a drive-by tourist exhibit, know that it is a four-hour trek up a mountain with no roads and barely visible trails. I was reminded of some trails I’ve been on while geocaching in the Pacific Northwest, but our climate is much cooler making bushwhacking/hiking a bit easier. Of course, tea plants flourish in humid, hot, monsoonal climates.

I don’t want to give away all of the information that was presented in this seminar, but the speaker had an important message that bears repeating.

Old growth tea forests differ from “mono-cultural” gardens in several ways. They have a naturally biodiverse ecosystem, which means more exposure to other pollens and animals/insects. The trees vary in size and age. The younger, shorter tea trees are often shaded by larger trees – anyone who drinks Japanese green tea probably knows that shade-grown tea has a different flavor from tea in the full sun. The varying sizes also provides a natural misting, the bud is supposedly more tender, and all of things combine to make for a different flavor to the tea grown and processed in this region. The forests also do not suffer from the severe erosion problems that many of the monocultural gardens are fighting.

Not all of the old-growth forests are strictly “wild” – they can be cultivated or semi-cultivated. They are in difficult to access regions with village living conditions that are less than ideal. Child labor, inadequate processing, difficult travel, and lack of quality control are problems that need to be overcome before these forests are a viable source of tea for international trade. Longterm investments in sustainable development are needed. It is a lengthy process to build trust and develop new standards and techniques – it’s not a situation that can be improved by simply throwing money at it. However, there are several movements getting underway to create better conditions, a viable business environment, and standards of cleanliness (no animals in the processing rooms, for instance).

O’Leary then went on to show a wonderful series of slides featuring traditional processing of puerh cakes. He gave much information on terminology and talked about issues with aged puerh. One thing I had not considered is that some of the aged tea from the 60s might contain DDT (it has an extremely long shelf-life).

Many of the slides and much of the information from the seminar can be found by clicking through to the first installment of Rishi’s new Travelogue: Jingmai-Mangjing.

Live from the Expo: Tuesday

2006-03-28T23:08:00.000-08:00

Editing note, 3/30/06: I now know that "the korean dress is called a han bok (pronounced with
a long o), kimono is Japanese." I've corrected the information below. Many thanks to my friend Jan for emailing the information! :)

My taste buds were happy when I sampled some Korean tea from Hankook Tea USA, Inc. This was my first time trying Korean tea, and it was quite pleasant. I tried a green and a heavily oxidized oolong that had just been prepared. My experience with greens is limited, but the delicate airy feeling of this was wonderful. The oolong was different from the Taiwanese and Chinese oolongs (for that matter, it was different than Indian oolongs). It’s hard to describe without having a cup in front of me, but it was slightly floral with a very smooth character. The women working at the booth were charming and full of great information. Their manager and resident tea expert was wearing a beautiful han bok. She and another woman explained the different characteristics of the teas they had along, which were displayed in rough-hewn ceramic bowls. They aren’t set up yet for online ordering, but hope to be soon. Korean tea can be tough to find in the U.S., but anyone who is interested can check out their website and order via phone or email.

I picked up a few free copies of the Country Register. This is a free newspaper that is available in regional editions throughout the U.S. and Canada. I wasn’t familiar before with this publication, but my friend Marilyn (aka Marmalady) has an article in the April-May 06 Annual Tea and Food issue of the Arizona edition. If any Arizona readers pick up this issue, look for Marilyn Miller on page 6.

I never was able to get to a Chado Chef demonstration (other than eavesdropping a bit on the outskirts for a few minutes). The recipes were available in a handout, though, and here’s the one I want to try:

Yunnan Dip for Vegetable Crudités
(chef Wm. Jarvie of Johnson & Wales University)

2 cups mayonnaise
1/4 cup buttermilk/sour cream
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp Yunnan tea leaves

It doesn’t say how long to let it sit, or if the leaves need to be chopped/ground (I’m assuming not), just to whisk it all together. I’ll make an attempt soon and report back.

The winners of the iced tea competition were announced, and I noticed that Adagio, Cha Dao, and Rishi Teas all did very well. ITO EN also had quite a presence. If I read the winner’s label correctly, they took overall and won a couple of other categories. I posted about the Adagio bottled tea yesterday, and today I tried the Cha Dao bottled tea – the oolong and sencha teas were my favorite (very pure and clean) but it was their jasmine green tea that took 2nd place. Never got a chance to sample ITO EN’s teas, unfortunately.

I visited another acronym company’s booth, INT Co. Ltd., and was able to watch the Japanese tea master do his thing today, and it was quite interesting. There was a flat heated surface (about 3 or 4 feet across) with a large pile of fresh green leaves that he was gently lifting and sifting through his fingers. I heard someone nearby refer to this loose shaking as the drying and evaporating process.

The Tea & Coffee Trade Journal had a booth reserved that was just for attendees to sit and read (they had free copies of their journal available). I really appreciated having a place to sit, since finding a chair was difficult. It isn’t just the Tea Expo, it’s Las Vegas – if you’re not in front of a slot machine, it can be tough to find a place to rest your tired feet.

Something very new to me was finding out more about packaging and containers. There are companies that specialize in machines to boil large amounts of water, bag teas, or create boxes and tins that are personalized to one’s tea business. I stopped by the FUSO/NASA booth this morning to watch a spiffy tea packaging machine. They asked if I wanted a bag of tea, and I said “sure” thinking that they were going to give me one bag of tea. To my surprise, they handed me a sackful (big bag!) of bagged tea.

For those who’ve asked, I finally figured out a shortcut between my room and the Expo that takes me outside, so I can avoid the smoky casino stroll – yay! Still tough to find food, but I scoped out where the bagels are (breakfast tomorrow) and then had a nice veggie Sulu Stirfry at the Star Trek Experience.

I’ll post more either Wednesday or Thursday about my two favorite events of the day: one tea tasting with the Tea Board of India (a wonderful treat!) and another tea tasting with James Norwood Pratt. My schedule tomorrow is a seminar on Ancient tea forests in China -- then quickly checking out and catching my flight home.

Live from the Expo: “Is There a Book in You?”

2006-03-28T11:24:00.000-08:00

This morning I attended a seminar by Elizabeth Knight, tea sommelier at the St. Regis Hotel in NYC and author of three books. She was a well-prepared and thoughtful speaker. A booklet with small images of her slides (and plenty of room for notes) was handed out at the beginning of the session. Knight's talk went through several points, from the demand for tea books to researching competition to writing proposals for publishers.

My own experience with publishing has been mostly in the academic world, and much of my actual writing has been multimedia and/or online, so it was interesting to get a more traditional approach to publishing. Some of what Knight had to say was similar to academic publishing:

Locate your niche
Research previous texts
Define your potential audience
Write a proposal

One large difference that I hadn’t thought about, though, is finding agents. That’s definitely a new slant for me.

I didn’t really need any of the writing tips she presented, since I’ve taught writing classes for nearly 20 years, but it was good to view the writing process from a new perspective. Most helpful for me was a series of questions designed to help focus, plan, and to define one’s personal goals. She also gave insights into marketing and promoting both books and yourself.

This was exclusively about the U.S. publishing market, and much of it was focused on very localized or regional marketing. If you are writing a book in the U.S., or even considering writing a book, I’d recommend taking this seminar if she offers it at next year's Tea Expo (in Atlanta instead of Las Vegas). In addition to the great information she provides, you’ll have a chance to meet many business owners who just may be the ones selling your book in their stores.

That’s all for now. If I get a chance tonight, I’ll post a few more notes from the tea tastings I’ll be attending. However, if my exhaustion level isn’t too high, I may just spend the evening at the Star Trek Experience.

Live Long and Prosper (and drink lots of tea!) :)

Live from the World Tea Expo, Monday

2006-03-27T20:31:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, March 28, 11:26: just realized that at some point this post disappeared from my blog. I guess there must have been some weird glitch in the system. Luckily, it was still in my dashboard, so I'm reposting. Apologies to anyone using newsreaders -- sorry you're getting this twice.

I’m in Las Vegas for my first visit to the Tea Expo. My goal here is to find out more about the business of tea as a way to round out my own knowledge. I don’t plan to own a tea business – just want to learn, write, and enjoy.

The Journey

On the plane I met Elizabeth Knottingham, owner of The Teacup in Seattle. I’ve been to the shop many times but hadn’t met Elizabeth before – what a fun and interesting person she is. I’m not sure where she gets so much energy, but I’m jealous! She’s also a vast well of great information about finding, buying, and selling tea, so I’m hoping to spend more time talking with her.

Then, on the shuttle to the hotel I met two more people on their way to the Expo. One was a young woman who worked for a scent/flavoring company and the other a man who managed/owned some sort of supply company.

The Hilton Hotel

I’m up on the 27th floor, which makes for a long elevator ride when people are getting on and off every few floors. On the other hand, I have a pretty incredible view of the Strip and the mountains framing the city.

One of the first things I do in a hotel room is set up my "travel tea set," and this room has the perfect spot:

There are tea people everywhere in the hotel, and it’s fun to find out how far they’ve come for the Expo. There are attendees from China, Taiwan, Japan, India, Kenya, and more. Part of what I love about exploring tea is that it provides a chance to explore a culture and to meet new people from places I may never be able to visit myself.

One thing that’s missing is the bright desert sunshine. It’s been sort of sunny, but mostly overcast, and rain showers are expected for the next 2 days. Darn – I could have used a sun fix after the rainy Seattle winter. Maybe there will be a sunbreak tomorrow, so I can go outside and roast myself just a bit.

As always, it is exceptionally difficult to be vegetarian in Las Vegas. Even getting a salad without meat is tough. I do eat seafood occasionally, but even that isn’t very safe for me here (there’s often broth or gelatin in the sauces and side dishes). Today, I had carrot sticks for lunch and really bad buffet/salad bar food for dinner.

Cough cough cough – I hate having to walk through smoky casinos to get to the expo. At least the Hilton isn’t one of the major strip casinos, so there’s not quite as much of it as you find in some of them.

Exhibit Hall: my first thoughts

Because this is a trade show, no cameras are allowed in the exhibit area. Instead of photos I’ll try to provide links to company web sites. Any images below are things I purchased and photographed in my hotel room.

Attendees get a free gift – I chose the small glass teapot with filter (that's the t-shirt behind it):

Many vendors have samples of tea, tea drinks, and tea snacks. There’s also a small gift shop with t-shirts and signed copies of James Norwood Pratt’s new Tea Dictionary.

I’m hoping to catch a Chado food demonstration tomorrow. These are quite interesting, with celebrity chefs preparing foods made with tea. Recipes are given in the conference program, so I’ll have to try some when I get home.

Most of the vendors are really nice – excited about tea and their products, and eager to talk. Only one snubbed me when she saw I wasn’t a teashop owner (rolled her eyes, sniffed, and turned away). Eh, it wasn’t a real tea product anyway.

Speaking of “real tea” – I think that more than half of the tea companies were selling flavored teas or herbal blends. Even companies that are known for their high quality blacks and oolongs were featuring herbal blends in the booths. I’m not sure if they’re catering to the desires of Expo attendees or if it’s just easier to prepare these in a booth situation.

I tried several samples of different tea-flavored candies and goodies, but none of them actually tasted of tea to me. I’ll have to try a few more tomorrow and will let you know if anything stands out.

The Tiny Tea Pots jewelry booth was a MADHOUSE. They need more space! The jewelry sure is popular – bought myself a necklace, and watched while others loaded up trays with bracelets, watches, beads, and more.

There are many teapot and ceramic companies here. I enjoyed seeing the Bodum exhibit, since my first looseleaf teapot was the Bodum Assam (it’s still the same, but with a metal filter instead of plastic now).

One of my favorite stops was Blue Calico, Ltd., which is owned by two very nice people with a really interesting product. Make sure you click through to the "About" page on their web site to see the historic aspect to the British ceramics, Burleighware, they sell. It was fascinating to see photos and a video of the old 1800s process that is still used today (on the same equipment!). I also spent some time being computer-geeky with one of the owners who has developed an interesting software product for internet tea businesses.

Oolong Tea Square had amazingly beautiful tea sets on display, including one covered with ornate gold.

I was happy to meet the owner of SpecialTeas, Juergen Link, a super nice man. I’ve been ordering from SpecialTeas for. . . gosh. . . maybe 15 years? This is our favorite vendor for assams (we go through a lot of HazelbankFTGFOP1 in our house).

Stopped by the Adagio booth but it was pretty busy, so I didn’t introduce myself. I did try some of their new bottled tea -- the jasmine was very aromatic, and the black was good.

I’m also going to try to get in on the Nilgiri tea tasting area with James Norwood Pratt.

I signed up for a tea tasting tomorrow afternoon with the Tea Board of India. Nearby, an exhibit featured a Japanese tea master doing some interesting leaf roasting. He was taking a break (or perhaps waiting for something?), so I didn’t get to see much. It’s right next to the tea tasting room and I plan to check it out more tomorrow.

Discovered a couple of new online tea vendors, but most of the ones here are known to me (or they’re wholesalers who sell to tea rooms/vendors). I’m beginning to get a sense of how purchasing works, and what tea suppliers and store owners are up against when it comes to providing consistency in tea for their customers.

I have asked everyone possible about golden yunnan and was surprised at how many of them turned faces filled with dread to me. Figures that my favorite tea is one of the most finicky and hard-to-stock teas around. I sampled a few but didn’t find anything in the cocoa-pepper realm.

I’ll post again tomorrow afternoon or evening and let you know how the tea tasting goes, plus I’m actually going to a seminar by Elizabeth Knight in the morning. It should be fun!

Thai Tea Commercial

2006-03-23T17:34:00.000-08:00

I stumbled upon this today while searching for something else. It features a couple of darn cute caterpillars trying to reach the top of a branch. Click the image below to view the free video on YouTube.

Hope you enjoy this as much as I did! :)

Grand Reopening :)

2006-03-23T12:37:00.000-08:00

When last you read fresh blog posts here, they were about traveling in Wyoming and Utah, where I:

Saw antelope cavorting in the snow . . .

Was a guest at an extra special tea party . . .

Carefully packed up my grandmother’s chintz china teacup collection and shipped it to myself. . .

Then, took in one last wonderful Wyoming vista before flying home. . .

Since that time much has been going on, and some of it was even tea-related. For instance, I put together an IKEA sideboard to hold my grandmother’s cups (plus all of my own pots and cups and tea).

In one afternoon, it went from this:

To this:

Tea had been spilling out of my kitchen cabinets on to countertop baskets, and with the addition of 25 cups and saucers things had gotten out of control. The new tea cabinet is now in a central living area, and there’s almost always a pot or cup or thermos of tea perched on it. It’s not elegant, but the simplicity and function of the tea cabinet make it a fitting place to keep grandma’s teacups. My mother saved these cups for me after my grandmother’s death a few years ago, and I was excited to finally have them in my own home.

Grandma W. spent most of her life on a farm in southern Minnesota. She didn’t have many fancy or dainty things – a few pieces of crystal, some depression-era glassware, and a bunch of individual cup and saucer sets. Many of these were gifts from her daughter-in-law, my mother, and they rarely came out of that cabinet. However, they did come out during my visits to see her. I was one of the few tea drinkers on my father’s side of the family, so my grandma loved to make a pot of tea for us to share. Bagged Lipton tea was placed in a brown betty pot, covered with cold water, and heated in the microwave until it boiled. Not a great cup of tea, but I’d still give just about anything to be back with Grandma W. in her farm kitchen again.

Later this spring, though, I will get a chance to sip tea with my other grandmother at her 90th birthday party! She is matriarch of the British side of my family and a devout tea drinker (bagged Red Rose from Canada is her favorite). Grandma G. is probably most responsible for my tea-geekiness. I lived with her for a few months as a young adult and soon fell into the habit of brewing tea each morning and afternoon.

Early next week I’ll be heading to Las Vegas for the World Tea Expo. I’ve signed up for a couple of seminars and will be attending the keynote, as well as spending time in the vendor’s area. I’m looking forward to learning more about the business of tea. Check here next week while I post live from the Tea Expo.

Also coming soon: a few thoughts on the perfect tea cup, this year’s search for a cocoa-mocha golden yunnan, tea in Bollywood, and quite a number of links I’ve saved up the past few months.

Hiatus

2006-01-03T11:48:00.000-08:00

Many apologies to all of my tea-drinking friends out there. I've had a series of family health emergencies and needed to take "leave of absence" from blogging for a bit.

I'll be back as soon as I'm able to take a deep breath. Thanks for your email messages and notes -- nice to know you haven't forgotten me. :)

Cindy

Traveling with Tea

2005-10-24T08:30:00.000-07:00

I've been traveling quite a bit the last few weeks: flying to Utah, driving into Wyoming, back to Utah, then returning home to Washington just in time for a a quick trip to Portland, Oregon. I'm home again, but one of my best friends is in Seattle for a conference, and I'm happily spending lots of time with her for the next couple of days. (I'm trying to get her to move here, so she's getting a tour of all of the fun sites in and around Seattle -- ferry rides, walks in the rain, the Pike Place Market, and more).

I'll post some fun photos of my trips soon, and I'll also be catching up on some tea tasting notes. For today, though, here are a few thoughts on traveling with tea.

It really isn't hard to pack up small bags/canisters of tea. I prefer bags because they're lighter, but canisters are good to protect fragile leaves. When I'm staying at hotels, I bring my own kettle for heating water (most U.S. hotels provide coffeemakers in rooms, but these always taste of coffee). When I'm going to homes of family and friends, I just bring tea and a small chatsford filter (you can stick the filter directly in a cup to brew the tea).
I'm very glad that I saved the small box that my glass gaiwan (from Teaspring.com) was shipped in. It protected the cup, which I kept in my carry-on bag. I then used it for an oolong tasting session with my brother and sister.
Water changes everything. I've used city water, well water, bottled water, and filtered water on my trip. There is an amazing difference in how this affects the flavor of tea. In Wyoming, the water has much calcium and is very "hard." My parents have well water, naturally filtered through the underground limestone aquifers beneath, and the water has a wonderfully clear, mountain flavor. The mineral content, however, can really flatten some teas. This same water makes an incredible cup of smokey tea -- russian caravan or lapsang souchongs do really well with hard water.
Some teas are just sturdier than others, and they stand up to variations in water, boiling temperatures, and less than perfect brewing conditions. I had great luck with a medium-roast dong ding oolong, but some of the more floral oolongs were likely to go astringent or lose their floral essence. The golden yunnan that is spicy and wonderful here in Seattle just didn't take to the water in some of the places I've been. On the other hand, the Golden Yunnan from Floating Leaves was consistent and stood up to a wide range of brewing conditions.
Japanese pottery cups are really great for sipping tea outdoors, whether you brew it outside yourself or you're just carrying a thermos. The cups are sturdy, easy to hold, warm your hands just a bit, and don't have handles that are likely to break when transported (or dropped, as I occasionally do). They also pack up in bags and are easy to stuff in a cooler.

I'll post more in a few days, after I've had a chance to catch up to things here. :)

Tea in Salt Lake City

2005-10-07T22:20:00.000-07:00

I’m in Salt Lake City, Utah, for a quick visit with my sister. Last night she brewed up a pot of an oolong that smelled like melted butter! Wow, very different. I don’t have the bag available to give the name or the vendor (in San Francisco), but I’ll try to post that later. Maybe I’ll grab a few leaves to take home and try it gong fu style.

Today, while she was at work, I went off in search of a good cup of morning tea. She’d given me a tip on a nearby place, the Tea Grotto.

The Tea Grotto shares the building with a Feng Shui store, so there is quite a bit of Asian influence in the décor (including a “zen room,” with low tables, mats, and cushions). The Asian influence carries over to the tea and accessories, with yixings, gaiwans, and other ceramics for sale. I was able to order a pot of golden yunnan, which made me happy. They also carry a variety of assams, oolongs, whites, and greens. There are several flavored teas, including chai and tea lattes, listed on the board.

There are more teas than you see here. I couldn't fit the whole list in the picture.

It’s a clean, open, and airy environment. The tea is brewed for you, so it was pretty much a hands-off experience. That’s okay -- the sun was shining in on the café tables, I wasn’t awake yet anyway, and the tea was brewed carefully and tasted great. I grabbed a free newspaper and sat at a table.

After visiting a few shops to pick up some gifts for my nieces and nephew (next stop on the trip to visit family), I had lunch at a Tibetan restaurant.

They have a small buffet with plenty of vegetarian food. They also carry three types of tea. I have tried the Tibetan buttered-salted tea before, and (much as I want to) I just can’t get past the texture of it. This time, I went with a sweetened tea, which was quite a bit like a milky chai (but not as spicy).

It’s been a wonderfully warm and sunny day, with the mountains in full view and the honeybees drifting in the wind. It still feels like summer here, although it does get a bit chilly after dark. The only sad part of the visit is that I wasn’t able to meet up with fellow blogger Tea Posur, who lives in the area, since her work schedule didn’t mesh up with mine. On the next visit here I’ll leave more time for tea buddies. :)

Salt Lake City has a desert geography, and it lies between the Salt Lake and a mountain range (is that the Uintas?). Park City and Sundance are in those mountains, along with many other picturesque towns and ski areas. We’ll be driving over the pass tomorrow, and heading across to the east side of Wyoming (my hometown -- Laramie) to see the rest of my family. Tomorrow I’ll be at 7,500 feet, looking at vast blue skies, wind-swept plains, and the Rocky Mountains. I packed a lapsang souchong, which I always feel is best sipped at high altitudes. I’ll report soon on how it brews up and how well it tastes in the mountains themselves (around 11,000 feet elevation).

Blackberries & Tea

2005-10-07T14:38:00.000-07:00

One of the places I walk my dog is a large open meadow that sits to the side of soccer fields and a radio-controlled plane area. This means that things are open and clear and sometimes even quite sunny – a bit of a rarity in the Seattle area, where big open spaces are mostly found on the water instead of what is usually an intensely forested geography. I believe that the meadow and soccer fields used to be farmland, which means it was cleared quite a while back. Like all cleared areas here, the “weed” that takes over is the blackberry bush. Blackberries grow wherever humans have taken away the natural vegetation. You’ll see them along railroad tracks, by roads, and even trying to take over my back yard. They can really be a hassle, but in late summer and into the fall, they provide tasty treats while you hike and walk.

Here's a photo of a stretch of blackberry bushes that rim the fields. They're the large bushes to the left:

As you can see from the photo above and below, the berry bushes are huge. To get some perspective, Aurie is a medium-sized sled dog.

The meadow is one of my dogs favorite places, mostly because she can run and explore off-leash. Lately it's been one of my favorite places because I can stuff myself full of blackberries while we're walking.

I carefully avoid the long thorns and try to find a nicely loaded branch, then pick until my fingers are purple. Usually I’ve got a thermos of tea with me, and I’ve found that a nice medium-roast dong-ding oolong goes very well with fresh berries. Once I had a lighter, sweeter oolong, but the blackberries just didn’t compliment the flavor – too much sourness interfering with the tea. A more roasted oolong somehow fits the outdoors, and the touch of smoky sweetness enhances the natural musky, hefty flavor of a blackberry.

Once I’ve finished my tea, the thermos also serves as a good vessel to bring some home.

All-in-all, a nice start to any morning, whether sunny or rainy.

Coming Shortly: I’ve been traveling again and posted this a few days later than intended. Check back soon for a post on tea in Salt Lake City.

Kali Cha: Darjeeling or Oolong?

2005-09-23T11:10:00.000-07:00

(cross-posted to Cha Dao)

The Teamail list has been buzzing with members' impressions of a unique Darjeeling that has been roasted and prepared with oolong techniques. The tea has been described as having chocolate tones, which immediately intrigued me. Even more interesting, though, is considering whether this is “darjeeling” or “oolong” tea. It was grown in the Darjeeling region, but the tea doesn’t have the usual traits associated with those teas.

Before you read my tasting notes, let me start with a shameful disclaimer: I have not yet met a Darjeeling I like. I’d mostly given up on them, in fact, but couldn’t resist sampling it after such reading such interesting descriptions from fellow tea-philes. My tea senses were tingling! :)

I ordered mine from Tao of Tea (listed under oolongs, not darjeelings). I received the Kali Cha earlier this week and have sampled it twice now. Both times I’ve brewed the tea gong fu style in a gaiwan, heaping a spoonful (good-sized pinch) of leaves, rinsed then steeped in water brought to a boil.

Dry Leaves – quick sniff is all it takes to smell the chocolate that others have noticed. It’s not cocoa, like I get from golden yunnans, but a chocolate. There’s also just a hint of berry or perhaps grape. Is this that “wine” aroma/flavor that is often used to describe darjeelings? The leaves are long, thin, wiry, almost like an Oriental Beauty (but not quite as long and without the OB’s tri-color). The Kali Cha leaves are mostly a reddish-chocolatey-brown, with a few gold tips.

As I poured off the water from rinsing, the steam rose into my face and I said “wow!” There’s definitely quite a bit of aroma, almost coffee-like, perhaps because of the roasting process? I wouldn’t describe this as a true coffee, or even chocolate, but the aroma shares a familiar trait with both of those.

When I sniff the leaves, a hint of the toasted coconut scent that I equate with medium to dark-roast oolongs is present. There’s a definite sweetness coming through. The color of the tea is lighter than I thought it might be, but there’s quite a red tinge to the liquid. The color reminds me of red-velvet cake.

First steep: Very nice, but not really chocolate in flavor. Roasted. Smokey.

Second steep: still holding its flavor quite nicely.

Third steep: the leaves are unfurling more and the liquid is taking on more of a green cast. I finally get a sense of what another Teamailer referred to as “pencil shavings.” It’s not as off-putting as you might think, but I preferred the first two steepings.

Overall: I do like the roasted notes and appreciate the sweet nature of this tea. Most darjeelings I’ve tried have been too citric for my taste, but this one isn’t. Quite nice. I’m surprised to find myself liking a Darjeeling.

Which brings me to the big question: is a darjeeling tea really a darjeeling without any standard darjeeling characteristics?

I do find this to be more similar to oolongs, mostly because it’s sweeter and less fruity than I expect from a Darjeeling (which may be incorrect expectation on my part). It is worth noting, however, that Tao of Tea lists this in their oolongs but not in the darjeeling teas.

The Kali Cha especially brings to mind more heavily roasted and aged oolongs, but it has some notable differences that make it unique. First, the aroma rises off in the steam instead of staying in the cup. When I used the aroma-tasting cup combo, there was no lingering scent in the cup. However, the whole upstairs of my house was beautifully fragrant from this tea. Second, this seems to want a longer brewing time than most of the oolongs I’ve tried. It is a robust tea, but it doesn’t go bitter – quite forgiving, actually.

Is the sweet and gentle side to this tea evident in other Darjeelings? I prefer this to the more astringent notes of wine or the ripening peach flavor that had been my previous experience with Darjeeling.

Let me end by saying that I am happily surprised to have found a Darjeeling (even if it is an oolong) that I really like. :)

Recently Clicked, September 18, 2005

2005-09-20T11:04:00.000-07:00

Cha Dao, a blog of tea notes. I think of it as sort of a “panel of tea tasters” who provide detailed tasting notes on teas from China and Taiwan. I was pleased to be asked to join this morning and am looking forward to learning from the other participants. I'll cross-post my tasting notes here (probably written up a bit differently), so it shouldn't impact my own Cup of Tea and a Blog. :)

Tamaryo, a tea blog. I can sort of wiggle my way through French, getting a sense for what is written and grabbing a French-English dictionary (or Alta Vista’s Babelfish translator) when I get stuck. Even if you don’t read French, this is an interesting blog to view because of the really nice photos.

Teasire, a relatively new tea blog. I appreciate the sense of humor that is evident in each post.

Wu-Wo Tea Ceremony. One of my weekly stops, the Tea Arts Blog, has some interesting information on the wu-wo ceremony, which strives for stillness and transcending prejudices to create a group based on equality (if I understand correctly).

The Tea Page, Birger Nielsen,’s personal web site. There are many resources, including an extensive page of links to tea related web resources.

Gotheborg.com: Antique Chinese Porcelain Collector's Help and Info Page. You’ll find a good amount of information, a glossary, and even a discussion board. The site also has antique pottery & porcelain for sale, so the information isn’t disinterested, but it still seems to be worthwhile for anyone collecting antiques.

"West Bengal taps Colonial heritage for tea tourism," Hindustan Times, August 22, 2005. The state government is working to develop a new concept of "Tea Tourism" to help boost their tourist industry.

"Beijing calling, a street art striving for survival," China Daily, 2005-09-09 06:10. The article focuses on a man who is preserving the folk art involved with the hawking of street wares (including bowls of hot tea). He is recording the forms of street yelling art that declined in China after 1949.

International Tea Convention. This is where I wish I could be at the end of the month.

Request a free issue of Tea Experience Digest. I know nothing about this magazine, but figured a free issue couldn’t hurt.

Tasting Notes: Teas from Hou de Fine

2005-09-13T13:36:00.000-07:00

One of the boxes of tea that arrived on my birthday was from Hou De Fine Asian Art. In addition to the teas I had ordered, some very nice samples were tucked inside. They even included a slice of soap made from soapberry oil (and an actual soapberry!). Kudos to the careful shipping on their part (not all vendors are as good with packaging). The teas are sealed in airtight bags, then packed in thin cardboard to better protect them. The leaves all are beautiful, in good condition, and obviously well stored. Labels on the teas include a brief description, which I always appreciate.

As always, Guang is helpful and friendly in email exchanges. I have also learned much from Guang’s posts to Teamail, and from the extensive information you can find on the Hou de Fine web site. Tea lovers out there should definitely explore the site – videos, a newsletter, photos, beautiful antiques, and excellent information on puerh. I think you’ll get a sense of the care and pride that is taken with their tea.

So far, I’ve tasted three of the teas in my box from Hou de Fine. All three were excellent, but the one that blew my socks off was the Li-Shan.

2005 Spring Yunnan "Jin-Si" Golden Tips: good and solid. Earthy, and textured. This is a quality tea that is decently priced.

Not as sweet or with as many cocoa notes as some, but there’s a nice peppery bite to the tea. I need to try this again and will post more extensive notes in an upcoming golden yunnan comparison (have a few more to review now, as I continue my quest for the perfect cocoa-pepper taste).

2005 Spring “Green-Leaf Red-Rim” Formosa Hand-Harvested Oolong: I read the description of this tea earlier in the year, and it’s been bookmarked in my “tea want list” since then.

The leaves are beautiful, unfurling to show off the the leaf in its entirety, and they cast a reddish tint to the liquid. Because of this, the tea is more amber than green.

I quite enjoyed this tea. It is intricate, smooth, and just a bit sweet. I sniffed the aroma cup (is that the correct term?) and found a deep sweetness with just a touch of roasting. As the tea cools, the floral taste strengthens. The smooth quality of the tea coats the tongue and throat, and there is just a hit of citrus/lime in the aftertaste.

2005 Spring Li-Shan “Ma-Le-Pa” Tribe Premium Oolong: This was included as a sample in a recent order, and my taste buds are deeply grateful.

The color is a beautiful gold that glows in the sunlight. The aroma is not the sugary sweet smell (which I think is the natural plant sugars coming to the forefront when they’re roasted). Instead, there is a natural, lighter, barely-there sweetness, dominated by a milky texture that coats the tongue. I want to compare this to butterscotch, but it’s not sweet enough for that. More sweet notes do come through with the second steep.

For some reason I kept finding myself slurping this tea. That’s right – no dainty sipping this time around. I’m sure this has something to do with positioning the tea on the tongue; perhaps the tea wants to be shoved to the far backsides of the mouth? Definitely this is a "back of the tongue and into the throat" tea, which means the aroma goes up into the nose quite nicely as its sipped. The slurping might also be my wanting to fizz it up a bit, to create more oxygen against the tea in the mouth, or to let the fragrance move into my nose. (or, maybe I was just being a pig and guzzling the wonderful liquid) :)

The flavor of this tea is very comforting to me. It is sweet but not too sweet, with just a hint of green. The floral element comes through more as I sip, but mostly I note the soft silk that is left coating my throat. Quite intriguing. The tea held up well through multiple steepings. Even the third and fourth steep had the buttery coating effect.

Durable, tasty, with a lingering aftertaste. I’ll remember this tea.

Cindy’s Stack of Books, Sept. 2005

2005-09-12T15:50:00.000-07:00

At any given time, there are several books lying around my house in various stages of being read. Some are waiting on the front stairs for return to the library, some I’m just starting, and others I read in small bits with chunks of time between chapters to think about things. Almost always, at least one book is from the mystery genre. There is also always a book near bed for me to read before falling asleep. Other than that book for bedtime, I usually read with a pot of tea close at hand.

Here is my current stack of books. I’ve linked to the Amazon.com page for each one, so you can read excerpts and see the cover on their web site (if you’re interested).

The Jane Austen Book Club, by Karen Joy Fowler. This was a quick supermarket grab before traveling to New Mexico – picked up granola bars, bottled water, and a book for the plane trip. Because it was sold next to a bunch of cheesy romance novels, I had relatively low expectations for this book. I was instead quite happy to have found a pleasant novel. Fowler is obviously well-versed in the lore and literature of Austen, and she winds her own narratives in and out of the themes of Austen’s novels. The book opens with the line, “Each of us has a private Austen, “ then goes on to tell the story of an interesting group of readers.

Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir, by Azar Nafisi, which is my one-chapter-then-a-break-for-thinking book. This was recommended by a good friend who teaches it in her Women’s Literature class. I’m just starting and already know this is going to be a good one. It is more lighthearted and hopeful than you might expect, and it has many thought-provoking descriptions and stories in just the first chapter. Description from the backcover:

Every Thursday morning for two years in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a bold and inspired teacher. . . secretly gathered seven of her most committed female students to read forbidden Western classics. As Islamic morality squads staged arbitrary raids in Tehran, fundamentalists seized hold of the universities, and a blind censor stifled artistic expression, the girls in Azar Nafisi’s living room risked removing their veils and immersed themselves in the worlds of Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, and Vladimir Nabokov.

As I write this, it occurs to me that I’ve seen some Austen movies and read a few Austen-themed books lately, but it’s been a couple of years since reading an actual Jane Austen novel. Time for me to dig out my dog-eared copies of Pride & Prejudice, Persuasion, and Emma. It must be Autumn, if my mind is turning toward 18th Century British writers (Austen, Bronte, and Gaskell, here I come!).

The Sunday Philosophy Club, the first book in Alexander McCall Smith’s new series about Isabel Dalhousie, editor of an Ethics journal and an occasional sleuth. This is by my bed, since McCall Smith's books are often a string of shorter stories and events (although the new series doesn’t seem to do this quite as much as his No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books). I’m just beginning, so no real thoughts on the new series other than looking forward to reading the books. You can read a bit more about the book in this article: Tea and Philosophy. Among other quotes from the author: "Readers are always asking if I can write more about tea, more about cake. I think it's because the scenes with food are really about fellowship, and we can all relate to that."

Anne Perry’s Shoulder the Sky, book 2 of her WWI series. I love Perry’s Victorian mysteries and was happy to find her new mystery series that is set just before and during WWI. I found the first book to be an edge-of-your-seat mystery with a strong sense of history, and I’m looking forward to losing myself in this one. Tea makes its appearance early on, this time against the bleak setting of Flanders Field:

Sam had brewed tea in his Dixie can, which was carefully propped over a lighted candle. He had a packet of chocolate biscuits that had come out of a parcel from home. He poured the tea, half for Joseph, and divided the biscuits.
“Thanks.” Joseph took it and bit into one of the biscuits. It was crisp and sweet. It almost made up for the taste of the tea made with brackish water and cooked in an all-purpose can. At least it was hot.

I can never read Perry without remembering one of my favorite films, Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures. The young Kate Winslet plays Anne Perry (then Juliet Hulme) as a teenage girl. There is a bit of guilty pleasure involved when reading a murder whodunit written by a woman who was once convicted of murder herself (certainly she has insights that most authors don’t have), but mostly I read her books because she’s a darn good writer of historical mystery novels. It wasn’t until years after I’d seen the movie (and was already reading Perry’s books), that I found out about the Parker-Hulme murder case. It certainly adds a new dimension to things.

That’s all for this time. Let me know your thoughts on any of these books, and please do feel free to recommend others to add to my stack! :)

Tea at 44

2005-09-12T13:19:00.000-07:00

My birthday was this past weekend, and in spite of turning yet another year older I had a wonderful time.

Things began well on Friday, when I went to my favorite teahouse in Seattle – Floating Leaves. I had the silky smooth Alishan oolong, and then tried a new puerh they’re carrying. Of course, the best part was getting to chat with (owner) Shiuwen. I always learn quite a bit from her, and that afternoon she answered many questions about which oolongs are from “high mountains.” Exploring oolong teas has required a bit of a Taiwan geography lesson, but I’m starting to get a sense of how the different teas match up to different mountains and regions.

I also picked up my birthday present to myself, a new Yixing pot. I'd asked Shiuwen to look for one with a tiny, short snout. I always grin when I see short snouts on a pot -- there's something very cheerful about them. This one is for green puerhs, and I’m looking forward to trying it out this week.

Saturday morning, I brewed a pot of my favorite golden yunnan (only a few treasured spoonfuls left), then did one of my favorite things – went to the farmer’s market in the rain. Usually the Saturday Market in Redmond is sunny and warm, and I have to elbow through to get to my favorite things (extra-hot pepper jam, baked goods, tuna from a local boat, artisan cheeses, organic tomatoes and herbs and lettuces). However, when the rain is coming down the crowds are thinner, and I get to actually talk with the vendors. It makes for a fun morning, talking with the artisans and farmers, learning which veggies are just about to be harvested, and finding out how they started working with food and agriculture.

I came back to find birthday presents waiting to be opened over a pot of tea. I got out the apple tartlets from the farmer’s market to go with a second pot of my favorite tea, and after a few cups I was ripping paper from boxes. What a wonderful set of gifts from my husband, a perfect trio for someone who writes, travels, and sips tea.

That’s a laptop table for my laptop computer (perfect when I want to blog from a comfy chair), a bodum mini ibis (to make tea when I travel), and (the best of all) an antique gaiwan from the Desaru shipwreck.

I believe it was Tea Masters blog where I first read about the pots and cups/bowls from the Chinese shipwreck. I’ve been looking at them with longing for several months, and I’m incredibly excited to have my own piece of history. It’s also interesting to see the accompanying video of the history and archaeological techniques used in excavating the shipwreck. I love that this isn’t a piece of fancy pottery; instead, it was a regular everyday trade item.

Indeed, one of my favorite parts of writing and reading about tea has to do with discovering the everyday tea cultures from around the world. In many ways, tea introduces me to the flavors, the agricultural products, the heritage, and the “comfort foods” of cultures. That is something I’ve been thinking about quite often lately, which means I’ll ponder it a while and then probably blog some more on the subject in a month or two. :)

Not long after opening presents, my postal carrier knocked on the door and handed off three boxes of tea and samples – yay! More tea! I haven’t ordered any in a couple of months, so I needed to restock favorites and (of course) try a few new teas. I’ve sipped a couple of the oolongs, and I can’t wait to try some of the puerh samples I’d ordered. I’ll write some reviews soon.

The day ended with a trip to one of my favorite sushi places for dinner – Sushiman, in Issaquah, WA. No tea, only sake, great food, and a sweet husband who made sure my birthday was relaxed and filled special moments.

Recently Clicked: September 8, 2005

2005-09-08T19:39:00.000-07:00

Alishan Delivers Cool Tea Taste, CNN World article from Aug. 11. A nice look at the parks, tourist industry, and premium tea of Alishan, Taiwan.

AIDS Sows Ruin of Malawian Tea Industry, China Daily article, July 20. The sad news of an African tea industry in decline because of the HIV/AIDs pandemic. The country has grown tea for more than a century and is Africa’s second largest producer behind Kenya.

Chinese Tea, photos, history, and general information from TravelChinaGuide.com.

Travel Along the Ancient Tea Horse Path—Changdu, from China Daily, traveling to and drinking Tea in Changdu, a pass which is a gateway to Tibet.

World Tea Expo. I’m thinking about going to this annual conference next spring. I don’t have my own tea business, but it still seems like a great time. Plus, Las Vegas is a sunny antidote to the rainy winter of Seattle.

Tea Time at Madame C.J. Walker’s Beauty Salon, a wonderful photo from the 1920s.

English Tea Can Painting, a tutorial will show you how to use Photoshop make a photo look like the painting on old English tea cans.

Arranging The Tea Table, a 1940s video from the Internet Archive that “explains the reasoning behind attractive and correct tea-table arranging.” It is kind of interesting to see the table setting skills, but be prepared for a 1950s-era-how-to-be-the-perfect-housewife film.

Comparison: Tie Kuan Yin Oolongs

2005-09-08T15:22:00.000-07:00

Through a happy set of circumstances, I have three samples of Tie Kuan Yin sitting in my oolong tea chest. I’ve been wanting to have a nice comparison-tasting session, so I got out my camera, the teas, and my glass gaiwan, then started the water boiling.

All three oolongs were prepared gongfu style (or at least my homestyle version of gongfu). I used brita-filtered tap water brought just to a boil. This was poured over about one teaspoon of leaves steeped in a gaiwan for 1 minute (the first steeping). The tea was then poured into a cup for tasting.

Tasting Notes and overall comments follow.

Gourmet Tea Company’s Tie Kuan Yin, sent to me as one of several introductory samples.

This has quite a roasted aroma. The liquid is very light green with a hint of copper. The flavor is fuller than the color of the liquid would indicate (once again, I learn that color doesn’t always correlate with flavor).

Both the aroma and flavor have that roasted coconut overtone that I associate with aged oolongs. I’ve only tried two aged oolongs, so perhaps the flavor I thought to be characteristic of aging is actually characteristic of a type of roasting?

Second steep: more than a minute later, and I’m not noticing as much aroma. Should I have put more leaves in? I’m going to let this sit for another minute, to see if it just needs more time. 60 seconds later, and yes, I can smell that toasted coconut again. I poured the tea into a cup, and am enjoying the sweetness of this second steeping. It leaves a buttery, sugary coating on my tongue – quite an interesting aftertaste. As it cools, it gets even more sweet. It could make an interesting iced tea.

Third steep; very subtle flavor, more like a good cup of fresh spring water than a cup of tea. I actually like ending with this, a quiet finish that reminds me of the nature of water and leaves.

Tea Masters’ Tie Guan Yin, one of several samples Stephane included with some wonderful puerh he purchased for me. Place:An Xi, Fu Jian. Harvest: Spring 2005.

Color is a bit darker, but still with a rusty or coppery overcast. The Flavor is quite robust, and it brewed up more quickly than the previous. Again, this is a naturally sweet tea – very pleasing, and with a lingering, buttery aftertaste. This tie guan yin is a sharper-edged tea. It’s not bitter, but perhaps “stouter.” The aroma is that toasted/roasted scent, but it’s not quite what I think of as coconut.

Hmmmm…perhaps I’m equating some oolongs with toasted coconut because of the sweetness? That aroma of roasting sugars could be what I’m associating with coconut. Does roasting (and re-roasting, in the case of aged oolongs) bring out more of the natural plant sugars in a tea leaf?

Second steep: This tea brews up much faster. I increased the time only by 30 seconds instead of 90. The color is more green, less red than the first steep. Where the Gourmet Tea oolong had many interesting notes as it cooled, I prefer sipping Tea Masters’ Tie Guan Yin when it is fresh and hot. It is perfectly fine as it cools, but there is a very satisfying element to the steam as it rises from the cup – the aroma lingers and adds to the overall taste of the tea. There are nice floral elements to the tea, and their fragrance also adds quite a bit to the experience.

Third steep: Still holding well, but I’m stopping after a couple of sips in order to move on to the next tea. My eyes are spinning a bit from all of this tea, but I am still going to try one more. :)

TenFu’s Tieh Kwan Yin, purchased at a nearby Asian grocery for $4.50US. Yes, it’s a cheap bulk-produced box of tea, but I am interested in how this holds up to the higher quality tea samples.

The furled leaves are less uniform in color – some are green while others are browner. Does this indicate less consistency in roasting or oxidizing? Or, is it a sign that the leaves came from multiple sources?

Aroma & Color: no toasted coconut or sense of sweetness, although it doesn’t smell bitter either. There is a heavier floral fragrance to this tea. The color is very green, without much of a rust or red tone.

The tea also tastes much greener to me. There’s even a hint of that vegetable or brothy flavor that comes across in many greens. The buttery nature that was so prevalent in the previous two is still here, but it doesn’t coat the tongue or leave an aftertaste. Floral notes dominate this tea, which isn’t a bad thing, but it does mean that other notes are subdued.

As the tea cools in the cup, the floral turns just a tad astringent, but the buttery notes come through more.

Second steep; it held up to rebrewing, still quite floral, this time with more of the broth characteristic. I like the second steeping better, since the astringency disappeared.

Overall: The buttery, silky nature of Tie Kuan Yin is fabulous. I think this will be a favorite oolong for me. I’m looking forward to trying more, and to seeing how these vary from one season to the next.

So, which of the above three oolongs did I like best? The first two were both wonderful, and I can see myself sipping either one in the future. The sugary elements to Gourmet Tea’s oolong were intriguing, and I want to experiment with that a bit. Tea Masters’ oolong was also a treat to sip – it’s one of those “ahhhhhhhhhhh” teas that warm you to the tips of your toes.

The cheaper tea from the grocery store doesn’t stand up to the complexity found in other two, but I must say that it was still darn good. At less than a dollar an ounce, that comes out to a pretty cheap cup of good oolong. I’ll probably use this as a carry-along tea, for hikes and trips where I want a thermos of oolong.

Chile & Tea in Las Cruces, NM, USA

2005-09-03T16:43:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week, I returned from a quick trip to southern New Mexico. I'd spent a few days visiting a good friend in Alamogordo, then drove to the other side of the Organ Mountains for a day in my old home town of Las Cruces.

The city of Las Cruces spreads from the mesas to the low-lying fields of Mesilla Valley, about 40 miles north of the Mexican border. The mesas are cactus-filled, sandy desert; creosote bush, mesquite, and huge yucca dot the landscape. In the lower valley, which lines either side of the Rio Grande, the fertile soil supports miles of chile and cotton fields, as well as the second largest expanse of pecan orchards in the world.

The food of New Mexico is amazing – hot, spicy, flavorful, and hearty. Southern New Mexico is especially known for chile rellenos (chile peppers stuffed with cheese, dipped in a light batter, and fried). One of my major goals was to buy fresh green chiles and pecans to take home, but I also wanted to visit the place where I first learned how to brew loose leaf tea.

That place was Spirit Winds, a coffee and tea café. In addition to good food and drink, there’s also an attached gift shop full of funny cards and southwestern-themed gifts. Spirit Winds is just a couple of blocks from New Mexico State University, so it has a funky college student vibe. I spent many evenings there, studying and sipping tea while listening to someone strum a guitar or read poetry out on the patio.

The tea served is all Republic of Tea, so much of it is flavored, herbal, or a blend. Back when they first opened (mid-90s), they served the tea in small bodum pots. After a year, they decided to go to plastic brewing pots instead (too much breakage). It was an easy introduction to loose-leaf tea, and I quickly moved on to find online discussion groups and tea vendors.

This week, a decade later (and 5 years since I’ve been in Cruces), I was happy to see that Spirit Winds still exists. It looks much as it used to, with a bright purple exterior and a funky décor. There are small café seats inside, and larger tables outside. When it gets too hot, they turn on the outdoor misters for cooling.

It had been a long night, and I was in dire need of a stout cup of tea. After checking out from my hotel, I drove uphill to Spirit Winds. A few minutes later, for $3 plus some change, I carried a pot of Assam and a piece of streudel out to the patio.

Much refreshed, I headed back downhill toward the chile fields and the town of Old Mesilla, where I picked up a 30-pound sack of Hatch Green Chiles and some fabulous Stahmann pecans. The chiles arrived a day after me, and they are now roasted (to blister the skin), tucked in bags, and stacked in my freezer. I’m set all year for chile rellenos, green chile stew, and breakfast burritos. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. :)

If you’re in Las Cruces, there are still only a few places to find a decent cup of tea. Spirit Winds is my favorite because of its character, and I’d recommend a stop there (the food is always great, and vegetarian options available). Make sure you drive downhill into Old Mesilla as well – one of the oldest towns in the U.S., and you’ll get a great fix of wonderful old adobe dwellings as well as incredible food.

Help Victims of Hurricane Katrina

2005-08-30T17:43:00.000-07:00

The gulf coast of the U.S. has been ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, and the now Tropical Depression Katrina continues to cause problems to the north. Hundreds are feared dead, and the devastation is staggering. Rescue and evacuation efforts are underway, but getting assistance to people who are still stranded is crucial for their survival. Please help those who are saving lives; make a donation to the American Red Cross.

I'm putting on a CD of good ol' delta blues in honor of my neighbors to the southeast, making a cup of tea, and loading up the American Red Cross Online Donation Form.

I encourge you to do the same, or to make a donation by calling toll free 1-800-HELP NOW (1-800-257-7575 for Spanish speakers). Even $5 can help!

7:48pm Update: I'm turning off comments on this post because of too much spam

Visiting New Mexico

2005-08-28T21:12:00.000-07:00

Yay! I've finally got a computer connection. I've been visiting a friend in southern New Mexico -- a trip that was happily planned to coincide with the green chile harvest. No, it's not tea, but green chiles are another necessity of life. Tomorrow I plan to go find somewhere that I can moan over the smell of roasting chiles (those of you who have lived in New Mexico will understand), then I'm buying a big sack and shipping them home before catching my plane.

Oh, and in the morning I'm going to try to get to one of the first places I ever had loose tea -- Spirit Winds, near the NMSU campus in Las Cruces. It is the place where I first tried different types of teas and learned how to brew instead of just dunking a bag. I'll be home in a few days and will let you know how the tea is at Spirit Winds. :)

In the meantime, here are a few photos from my trip. They have nothing to do with tea, other than having been taken by a tea lover. Click each image to see a larger, more detailed picture.

A roadrunner came running up to me while I was watching birds in my friend's back yard.

The anvil-shaped thunderheads were building at sunset, and later that night a strong monsoon rain blew through Alamogordo.

I took this photo of the Organ Mountains today in Las Cruces. There wasn't a cloud to be seen, but within two hours another monsoon thunderstorm blew through.

Seattle-Bremerton Ferry (with tea)

2005-08-24T10:09:00.000-07:00

The Puget Sound is that part of the Pacific Ocean that pushes its way through the straits and narrows of western Washington, winding around islands, streaming into inlets, and creating a watery wedge between the peninsula and the rest of the state.

The Sound provides sheltered ocean waters for pods of Orcas, migrating whales, shellfish, salmon, and a huge variety of birds. It is ringed by mountains, with the Olympic range on the peninsula to the west and the Cascade range inland to the east. As you drive along the Cascades from north to south, it is easy to spot three volcanoes: Mt. Baker, Mt. Rainier, and Mt. St. Helens (which is the only one currently smoking). Most of the mountains in the Cascades are around 4,000-6,000 ft tall with a few shooting up higher, but Mt. Rainier towers above the others at 14,000+ feet. When fog or low clouds roll in, Rainier visually disconnects from the earth and seems to float in the sky. Often, though, it and most of the other peaks are hidden behind the clouds that catch in them. This is the first mountainous place I’ve lived where people refer to “the mountains being out today.”

On those days when the mountains are “out,” the sun is blazing, and high pressure offshore keeps the mist away, there is nowhere better to see the view than from a ferry crossing the waters of the Puget Sound.

It was with those views in mind that I headed for the waterfront on a very sunny and warm day a few weeks ago. There are many state ferry routes leaving from the Seattle area, but on this day I decided to take a ferry to check out a tea shop in Bremerton, a cute town on the inner side of the peninsula. The boat ride across the water is about 1 hour each way, so there is plenty of scenic viewing time. I filled a thermos with iced oolong, grabbed my camera, smeared on some sun screen, then headed for the ferry terminal.

After parking the car below deck, I went topside and found a sunny spot to watch as we left Seattle:

I sat back and enjoyed the view while sipping my iced tea (Nantou oolong from IPOT):

Can you see Mt. Rainier floating over the morning mist in the background of the picture below? Click the photo for a larger version, and you'll get a sense of the ethereal quality to the mountains here. They're watery and misty, not at all like the rugged and dramatically defined Rocky Mountains where I've lived in the past. Of course, once you get closer and start hiking or driving in the mountains, the clarity and depth change (but that's for a future post).

I forgot to take a picture of the town of Bremerton on my recent trip, so I'm including one from this past Spring. You can see the Olympic range peeking out from behind the clouds in the distance.

After docking in Bremerton, it was just a quick 5 minute drive to SpecialTea Pots.

It’s a small, cozy shop, with herbal tisanes and select teas, as well as a wide range of Yixing-style clay pots. The prices are quite reasonable, and the shop owner is a warm and friendly woman who poured me a very nice cup of iced herbal tea to try while I shopped. I spent some time looking at different pots and cup sets before deciding on a few items.

One of my goals with this trip was to find another yixing pot for puerh. Instead, I found a larger clay pot that I now use for golden yunnans. I wanted a chocolately-looking pot for the cocoa-mocha tones of my favorite yunnans, and this one suited me. It is larger than my Yixing pot, and it has a brewing basket which works well for a black tea. It was a relatively inexpensive teapot, and that’s what I wanted for my first attempt at seasoning a clay pot. All went well, and I’ve been using it for my first cup of tea each morning.

The shop owner has a Chinese speaking person come in to do translations of pots with text, and she had a few notes about the text and images on this one. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the specific meaning, but it had to do with purity or essence of water. That seemed quite fitting for my trip across the Sound.

A few last thoughts:

I missed one spot with the sunscreen, and oooooooooooooooh what a 5-inch sunburn that was!
Shiuwen of Floating Leaves found me the perfect little Yixing with the snubby-nose that I love. I’ll be using it for puerh (Shiuwen is seasoning it for me now).
My next ferry adventures will be Seattle – Bainbridge and Mukilteo – Whidbey Island. Both of these destinations have places for taking tea, so I can combine a boat ride with tea and sightseeing (or, in the case of Whidbey Island, some really fabulous hiking). More on those in the months to come.

Note: click any of the above photos to see larger versions.

Me and My Teeth

2005-08-24T08:04:00.000-07:00

Thanks for all of the commiseration about dental work. I must admit that this particular procedure was actually painless –- my dentist gave me a free teeth whitening as a thank you for all the work I and my husband have had recently.

After years of sipping tea, I figured that getting rid of the staining and having a whiter smile might be a good thing. I just didn’t realize (until I had a mouthful of clay for molding the teeth guard) that it meant two weeks sans tea. The problem is that the whitening gel makes teeth more porous, so tea and coffee (or other staining foods) need to be avoided.

If any of you are considering a teeth whitening process, here are a few thoughts from a tea drinkers’ perspective:

If it’s free, take it! What you get from the dentist is much better than products you find at the grocery or drugstore, but it’s also quite a bit more expensive.
If you’re paying anyway, you might want to choose one of the shorter teeth whitening procedures. Some are only 3 or 4 days long, and some are done in-office.
Iced tea with a straw is only semi-effective. It’s still really tough to drink without getting any on your teeth, and it just doesn’t taste as good. I tried it once or twice, but in the end it was more frustrating than rewarding.

Now, back to getting a batch of photos ready for my next blog post. . .

She's Ba-ack :)

2005-08-22T08:30:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone -- sorry to have disappeared for a few weeks. There were a few unforeseen complications (including our family's bout with the stomach flu) that kept me from writing, but I’m working on some blog entries today and will post more soon.

This also marks the end of two terrible weeks of no-tea-for-Cindy. It was tough, but I had to forego drinking any tea while I was having some dental work done that made my teeth susceptible to staining. That’s part of why I didn’t post anything to the blog – just didn’t have the heart to face writing about tea when I couldn’t actually sip it!

Recently Clicked: July 26, 2005

2005-07-26T21:26:00.000-07:00

Do you have problems coordinating tea breaks and the making of tea at work? Stop your fretting now! An enterprising Brit has created Teabuddy,“ a tool for keeping-up with the making of tea in the office, at home, or, just about anywhere.” Also see this fun Wired article that gives some of the background behind the web site.

Hacking the Wolfgang Puck Self-Heating Can. A blogger takes one of these cans apart to see how it works. It’s an interesting bit of reverse engineering, even if it is a can of coffee instead of tea (I’ve heard these self-heating cans are used for tea and soups in other countries).

Tea & Coffee Trade Online. This magazine is for professionals in the tea and coffee trade, but there are some articles that appeal to plain ol’ tea lovers like me. There is an extensive archive of back issues to search or read through, and the most recent issue (June 2005) has: “Recent Tea Travels: An Introduction to Chinese Tea.”

TrekEarth Photo Galleries. I found this web site when looking for something else, and just for fun I typed “tea” into their search form. The search turned up 36 pages of wonderful photos from around the world, although they become less and less tea-related as you click through. The first 8 or 9 pages are the most relevant for tea lovers. One of the things I really like about the images from this web site is that I get such a sense of the universality of tea. Here are a few photos that caught my imagination:

Tea Picker, Sri Lanka
Tea Plucking in Tamil Nadu, India
Courageous Gatherers on a steep slope in Sri Lanka
Tea Plantation, India
Tea Seller, India
Steamy Chai, street stall, India
Desert Tea, Chad, Africa
Tea Time, café in Morocco
Tree and Tea Vendor, Vietnam

Iced Oolong Tea

2005-07-26T11:32:00.000-07:00

Much of the U.S. has been blanketed in an oppressive heat wave, but in Seattle the weather has been mild and pleasant. July and August are generally the only months of the year when our daytime temperatures occasionally go above 80 degrees. Today, it is sunny with highs expected to climb into the mid-80s. There are no clouds on the horizon, which means the mountains are out.

(click image to see larger photo)

In preparation for the hot afternoon, I brewed another pitcher of iced oolong tea. This is just my second batch of refrigerator-brewed oolong, and I continue to be surprised by the knock-out flavor of these teas. There is an incredibly refreshing quality to oolong when brewed cold, and it is a very satisfying way to combat the heat.

Oh, iced oolong, why didn’t I know about you when I lived in the hot desert of southern New Mexico? I could have really used you back then!! :)

The process for this couldn't be simpler-- put oolong leaves in a pitcher, fill with room temperature water, then place in the refrigerator overnight. I used 2-3 spoonfuls of tea in the 1.5 quart pitcher. (my thanks to Shiuwen of Floating Leaves for her tips)

Many years ago I bought an iced tea pitcher with a strainer basket that makes removing the leaves a breeze. Mine came from Republic of Tea, but I’ve seen these elsewhere. I like the convenience of the brew pitcher. However, I'm sure that just pouring the tea through a strainer would work as well, and some might prefer a ceramic or glass pitcher for brewing.

Tasting Notes of Two Iced Oolongs

Nantou oolong, from In Pursuit of Tea: The tea is quite nice and rather dramatically floral when iced. I was surprised at how strongly the various aromas and flavors come through when it is cold-brewed. The liquid is the color of white grape juice or a white wine. There's no bitterness at all, and the floral aspect is stronger than when I made a hot cup of the tea yesterday. There's still a reminder of the brothier, greener taste, which creates a buttery and smooth sensation on the tongue.

Dong Ding oolong (shown above), a gift: This is what I’m sipping today. The liquid itself is darker and a tiny bit greener than the Nantou. There is definitely a more roasted note to this tea, and it is much less floral. I actually brewed this up yesterday afternoon and had some last night, but the tea tastes better today. I’m not sure if it needed to sit and relax a bit, or my taste buds are just more receptive in the morning.

Between the two iced versions, I think the Nantou oolong is better. The flavor of the tea retains its complexities (and its characteristic lilac aroma) even cold. I'll probably brew another pitcher of the Nantou, since we have a warm week predicted. Tomorrow I'll take some along with me on a ferry ride to Bremerton. I'm looking forward to many incredible views of mountains and the Puget Sound, as well as a tea shop purported to carry many yixing pots.

Time Off for Tea with Harry, Hermione, & Ron

2005-07-22T11:28:00.000-07:00

I'm determined to finish this book before stumbling across any more plot twists on well-meaning blogs and news sites. I'll be back and typing away in a day or two.

What am I sipping? IPOT's Royal Yunnan with just a splash of milk

What am I reading? Just starting chapter 13 of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Wild Pu er from Yi Wu, 2001

2005-07-21T15:37:00.000-07:00

My new tea for the day is a very special puerh that Stéphane of TeaMasters’ blog sent me: 2001 Yi Wu Zheng Shan Ye Sheng Cha. His description of this tea (scroll down to Saturday, June 25, 2005) having hints of orchids and sweet corn appealed to me, the granddaughter of a Minnesota corn farmer. Stéphane purchased this for me from a wonderful puerh shop in Taiwan, and then he packed it in a box with samples of some of his favorite oolongs and other puerhs tucked around the edges, adding a fabulous CD of classical Chinese music and a really fun letter. He created a wonderful tea experience for me, one that I’ll be revisiting every time I sip one of these teas. Many thanks, Stéphane, for such treasure.

(click either image to see a larger, more detailed photo)

Here are my own tasting notes:

I carefully peeled away whole leaves from the cake. This was easier than expected; it wasn’t hard to separate the individual leaves. They are larger than those in the tou cha I’d tried previously, and not much crumbling or dust happened with this cake. I brewed this in my yixing pot, poured, then sipped.

What is that flavor? It’s musty and floral and a memory is kicking at me but isn’t getting through.

Intriguingly, this tea tastes like it is "aging" rather than aged. There’s a sense that the tea is in progress -- it's got that musty old character, but the strong aged flavor isn't there yet. However, it's young enough that there's still a sweetness and a floral taste.

Why can’t I pin down that musty floral sensation?

There is a lingering aftertaste, a smooth mustiness coating my tongue. I’m still contemplating the floral note, but there’s also an underlying woodiness that makes me think of late summer when the heat starts drying out the grass and flowers.

Marigolds! That’s it – marigolds! This tea reminds me of marigolds – great big streaming garlands of marigolds that make me think of Bollywood films (another thing I'm crazy for).

It does seem almost ironic, though, to be drinking a Chinese tea and start thinking about India. :) I went out to my deck and took some photos:

Still Life with Tea and Marigolds

(click image to see a larger, more detailed photo)

Restarted the process and brewed another batch, this time with only a few leaves, to see if I could coax out the sweet corn flavor that Stéphane described. With just a few leaves, the color of the liquid is very light, but the flavor is still quite powerful. This time, though, no marigolds -- instead, I taste the sweet corn now. Wow, really a different tea taste for me.

I will make some more of this tonight for my husband to get his reaction, and then I’ll probably tuck it away for a few years. Maybe once a year we’ll taste it to see how it’s aging, but this was a purchase for the future. Check back here in, oh, I dunno. . . 2008 for an update!

Tea & TV: Palin's Himalaya

2005-07-21T11:41:00.000-07:00

This summer, the Travel Channel (on cable and satellite in the U.S.) has been showing Michael Palin's Himalaya. Yes, this is the Michael Palin of the infamous British comedy troupe, Monty Python. For several years, he's devoted quite a bit of time to travel documentaries and books done for the BBC.

I really enjoyed watching the Himalaya series over the past few weeks. There are six 1-hour episodes, as he winds through passes and canyons in and around the Himalayan range. While the scenery is stunning, this is a not so much a nature documentary as it is a look at the cultures and the individuals Palin meets along the way in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Tibet, China, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and Burma.

Palin is always entertaining, and he adds a gentle charm to the show. But the real stars of Himalaya are the people he meets, from rulers to shopkeepers, from the extremely wealthy to the extremely poor, from polo stars to headhunters, and from isolated villagers to crowded city dwellers.

There are also occasional glimpses of tea drinking or production. The final episode is centered around the Bay of Bengal, including a tea plantation in Assam. Occasionally I spied tea vendors or people serving tea in other episodes, as well as other tea plantations along the route. At one point (episode 5, I think), he was traveling along an ancient tea trade route. Discussions of tea are minimal, but if you're at all interested in finding out more about the culture and setting for some of the places where tea is produced, then this is a great documentary series.

The Travel Channel is replaying all six episodes this Sunday (July 24, 2005). You might not want to sit inside for 6 hours on a summer afternoon (or maybe you do, if you live where it’s been swelteringly hot this week). However, it’s definitely worth recording to watch later.

Just for kicks, I pulled up a couple of classic Monty Python tea bits:

Four Yorkshiremen Sketch

Lumberjack Song (by the way, Palin does a quick few lines of this in the fifth episode), click to listen

Taking Kids to Tea, Seattle & Elsewhere

2005-07-20T10:48:00.000-07:00

These questions were also sent to the TeaMail group, so some of you might see this twice.

Julie, from Seattle, emailed me asking about places to take her well-behaved nieces/nephews to tea. She'd found my Spots for Tea in Seattle web site and was hoping for suggestions. I was a bit embarrassed to admit that I really hadn't considered it before, but still gave her a few suggestions for places that had kids pricing on their menus or that offered tea parties for children. I'm not sure how helpful that was, though, and I'm hoping to develop more information to post to my web site.

I don't have children of my own but do know the joys of taking my own nieces and nephew to special places, and it would be fun to take them out for tea when they visit me (or I go visit them). I'm also realizing that when people visit Seattle, they often have family with them and want to find a tearoom that welcomes their kids.

Now I'm wondering how to find out if a a tea room is child-friendly, and I turn to all of you experts out there -- the tea-loving moms, dads, uncles, aunts, grandparents -- for some good advice. Where do you take children to tea? What does one need to consider when finding the right place? Are there tricks to finding out whether a tearoom will be friendly (or snooty) to you when you've got children along?

Also, a few questions for tearoom owners: Is there a place for children in an adult tearoom? Are there special considerations that sippers with kids need to be aware of? Do you have any tips for those who bring kids along for tea?

I'd also be interested to hear from some international readers, to learn about cultures/customs for kids and tea.

For those of you in the Seattle area (and I know there are several of you out there!): do you know of tearooms that are kid-friendly? I'll pass any suggestions on Julie, and I'll add the tearoom to my web site.

Please feel free to add a comment to this post, or to contact me via e-mail: cindy at wambeam.net

ooops!

2005-07-19T14:09:00.000-07:00

Quick apology to those of you with RSS feed. I edited my last post to add a link, and for some reason it decided to publish multiple versions. If you received 4 or 5 of the same post, that's why!

Special Day of Tea With Friends

2005-07-19T12:40:00.000-07:00

On Friday, I was lucky enough to be joined for tea by two friends from Portland, Jan and Marilyn. We first met at a northwest Teamailers' get-together in Portland in April, and it was great to visit with them again during their trip to Seattle.

We spent quite a bit of time at the new Floating Leaves Tea House, where each of us took turns preparing the tea gongfu style. We were joined by two other sippers, including a man from Vancouver, B.C., who is in the planning stages of opening a tea shop. We had fun conversations and tried 4 teas: a bao zhong, ali shan, the house black, and a very special Oriental Beauty oolong that Shiuwen shared from her personal collection. Shiuwen said this tea makes her smile just to smell it, and I can understand why. I was blown away by the flavor of this special oolong. Each of us could strongly identify a slightly different fruit flavor – for me, it was like sipping a light and sweet grapefruit juice. Others suggested it tasted a bit like lychee fruit, although I found it more tart (but not bitter) than sweet.

I’m going to write a more complete review of the tea house soon, but now I turn back to my visit with Jan & Marilyn.

In addition to having tea at Floating Leaves, we visited the Artful Teapot Exhibit at the just re-opened Bellevue Arts Museum. If you are a tea lover who lives in (or will be visiting) the Pacific Northwest, I urge you to visit this exhibit before it leaves in October. The teapots are quite simply amazing. There are teapots from 20th Century artists and artisans around the world, in every color and theme imaginable. Some are huge and oddly shaped, while others look quite rugged and usable. Some are reinterpretations of traditional shapes by well-known designers (like Michael Graves), and some are beautiful art projects that stir one’s imagination. There is high art on display, as well as cultural collectibles (like the cute children’s pink plastic Shirley Temple tea set). I am always drawn to those with writing on them and was especially fond of an “old maid” pot with a rather funny verse.

Marilyn, also known as Marmalady, brought me an order of my favorite Darjeeling-Apricot jelly as well as a beautiful celadon Chinese teacup.

When I was in Portland this spring, she showed me one of these cups and told me she’d be stocking them soon. I was happy that she got some in before coming up to Seattle for the visit, and after using the cup today for the first time, I’m even more happy! It’s a beautiful cup, with a saucer, lid, and infuser. It is not fragile porcelain but a heavier ceramic – quite solid and sturdy in the hand, plus it keeps the tea warm (which is good, since it’s mug-sized and designed for longer sipping time). I think that this might make a good cup for the workplace, since it has a self-contained brewing system. It also might be a nice choice for men (I know that sometimes guys like chunkier things that fit large hands better).

This cup helped me unlock the flavors in a tea that has eluded me for a while – Black Piluochun from Teaspring.com. I’ve had a small amount of this tea for a few months, after it was recommended to me. The fragrance of the dry leaves is wonderfully complex, but every time I brewed it the flavor just didn’t come through. The tea obviously had more to offer, but my techniques weren’t working. Today, I put a teaspoon of the leaves in my new celadon cup, brewed it for a minute. . . didn’t seem dark or fragrant enough. . . continued brewing for another minute. . . PERFECT! The tea is really wonderfully complex, with some flavors that remind me of a good single-estate Assam. However, this is still distinctly a Chinese Black tea. It comes with a recommendation from me, but do be prepared to play with it a bit – it’s worth it!

After a wonderful Friday filled with tea-tasting and museum-visiting, I returned home with my bag of Marmalady’s goodies. My husband greeted me at the door with a big smile and a surprise – my tea from Stephane in Taiwan had arrived! That was a wonderful end to a very special day, and his box of goodies will get its own post shortly.

Some Catching Up To Do

2005-07-19T10:18:00.000-07:00

Ack! I’ve fallen way behind on my blog, but I’ve had several distractions this past week. I have a bunch to share, though, so please check back later today and tomorrow for new posts. Among other things, I’ll be writing about:

a fun visit from some Portland Teamailers
a review of the new Floating Leaves Tea House
photos of a beautiful new celadon cup from Marmalady’s Tea
a review of the art teapot exhibit at the Bellevue Art Museum
comments on some new teas I’ve tried recently

I’m also reallyreallyreally excited about a special box of puerh and tea samples that I received from Stephane over at Tea Masters blog. I’ll be sampling and writing about these for quite a while.

Now it’s time to turn my attention to writing some of these reviews, so I’ll have something to post this afternoon. More soon!

Poem: Drink Your Tea

2005-07-13T12:59:00.000-07:00

(this one's for Stephanie)

Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis

on which the world earth revolves - slowly, evenly, without

rushing toward the future. Live the actual moment.

Only this moment is life.

by Thich Nhat Hahn

Recently Clicked: July 8, 2005

2005-07-08T19:05:00.000-07:00

Thinking of London

Yesterday I woke to radio news of the terrorist attacks, grabbed for the TV remote and turned to BBC-America for live coverage from England. One of the first images I saw was of folks on the street with thermoses, passing out steaming cups of tea and comfort.

Tonight I raise my cup of tea to London, toasting the British sense of resolve and determination.

Londoner’s Take Pride in ‘Blitz Spirit': "It's amazing how people have stuck together. I've seen total strangers hugging each other and people coming out into the street with free cups of tea."
We're Not Afraid! with photos submitted by many readers (there are a few middle fingers and you'll see the F*** word)
London Mayor Ken Livingstone’s rousing speech: "Whatever you do, however many you kill, you will fail."

Puerhs

I’ve been learning quite a bit about puerhs lately, and as always much of my learning comes via the Internet.

What is the best way to break up my puerh cake? from Teaspring.com
How do I store Puerh? a newsgroup response by Mike Petro of pu-erh.net
Tea Masters Blog is always a vast resource. Lately he’s been posting wonderful photos of tea shops, comparisons between types of puerh leaves, and even notes on how the age of puerh is faked.

Three Articles from The China Daily

Unearthing Treasures of Clay, July 1, 2005, a travel article describing several parts of the city of Chaozhou, including one area noted for its tea shops and porcelain products.

“Small, well-decorated shops are scattered along the street, mainly selling tea and popular porcelain products. Crossing the old street, we caught the sound of a guzheng, zither-like 21-stringed or 25-stringed plucked musical instrument, and following it, found ourselves in a small shop stuffed with teapots, jars and other knick-knacks.”

Let's drink to rising tea prices, July 1, 2005, looks at the rising prices and hoarding of pu’er.

Hot commodity, May 30, 2005, Puerh is not the only tea commanding high prices at auction.

Odds & Ends

Tea Icons (beanlovers might like the coffee icons), available about halfway down the page. There's also this page, with Coffee and Tea icons.

The July Newsletter from Hou De Fine Asian Art has an interesting comparison between hand-harvested and machine-harvested tea. (please note: this is an Adobe Acrobat file, so you’ll need to download a free copy of Adobe Reader if you don’t already have one)

Tea Arts Photo Blog: I don’t know anything about the blogger (icetea), and there isn’t much text explaining things, but the photos here are wonderful. You’ll see Yixing pots in the park, pictures from a tea seminar, and more. Have fun looking through them -- I did!

Puerh & Margaritas

2005-07-08T15:31:00.000-07:00

Tea Posur asked if I’d tried one of my found-in-the-cupboard puerhs yet, and that made me decide to brew some up before forgetting for the next 5 years. I'm typing this while sipping, so you’ll get the live play-by-play account. :)

(click image above for larger, more detailed photo)

This is really my first attempt on my own with a toucha, but I did try to follow the advice of fellow bloggers and teamailers. I attempted to gently peel and separate, but the toucha is pretty dry and the leaves fairly small, so mostly it crumbled away (into thin and rather delicate leaves, gold and brown with a hint of green).

FIRST ATTEMPT: I boiled the water, warmed the Yixing pot, added leaves, rinsed the leaves, then steeped for a few seconds. The tea that poured into the pitcher was lighter than expected, with a definite green tone to the tan (a khaki color).

First sip – ewwwww, yuck, bitter bitter bitter. But then, I often find a sharpness in the first brew and prefer the second (see below for a question about this). Resteeped again for a few seconds – not quite as bitter, and more palatable. The tea tastes like water with a wedge of lime in it, even with a sort of bitter peel flavor. Third steep produced not much flavor at all.

Is it bad puerh, puerh that needs more aging, or just my own mis-brewing? Probably the latter, so I’ll give it another try.

SECOND ATTEMPT: I brewed for only 2 or 3 seconds, out of concern that I had overbrewed last time. This did seem to make a difference. Either that, or as I pulled off more from the toucha, a different layer of leaf kicked in.

First steeping: Good -- I’ve erased that bitter flavor and it tastes much better now. There is still a definite flavor of fresh lime juice, perhaps even a lemongrass sensation, but now that is mediated by a muskiness that is quite pleasant. I suspect this hints at what the toucha can become in another 5 years.

Second brewing: darn, left it in the water for too long, and now it’s got that bitter lime peel flavor. Okay, so timing is indeed important.This is quite a finicky puerh, which I am going to attribute to its teenage years. :)

note the sediment left at the bottom of the pitcher

Question 1: is this amount of sediment normal?After pouring, the tea is initially quite cloudy, but it almost immediately settles down into a sediment at the bottom. I can tell that some of this is just the dust and broken leaves from crumbling. Does this mean I need to pull the leaves off more carefully?

OVERALL: At this point in time, the puerh is delicate and finicky. It tends toward a bitter, sour end, but there is a nice mustiness that promises of a deeper flavor in the future. I have a second toucha, which is tucked away for at least another 5 years. I'm not sure if I'll tuck this back in the cabinet or experiement further.

I do think it might be best paired with food. Saltiness would tame the sour a bit – like the salt on the rim of a margarita glass can control the musk of tequila and the sourness of lime juice. In fact, that was the one of the first similar flavors that came to mind for me, a margarita. I bet this would be good with some hot green chile salsa and tortilla chips!

This is the second time that I’ve thought about pairing puerh with hot and spicy food, in particular with chiles from New Mexico. Perhaps that’s because I’ve been missing the incredible chile rellenos and enchiladas of my grad student days. I’d like to think, though, that this could be an ultimate international fusion – who wouldn’t like sipping puerh while munching chips with super hot salsa, a perhaps pairing a nice musty 15-year-old puerh with posole and tortillas? Maybe I could start a new fad??? :)

(getting sidetracked. Back to tea . . . )

Question 2: Why don't I like the first steep of most puerhs? Even with the deep and musky and relatively easy loose leaf puerhs, I often reject the first steeping. I’m wondering if this is because of something incorrect in my brewing process, or if it is just a taste that rinses away. Are there any other puerh drinkers out there who have a similar reaction?

INCOMING! I am incredibly excited about some new puerh headed my way soon. Thanks to Stephane of Tea Masters blog, I’ll be soon be sipping some mighty fine teas. Sebastien of Jing Teas recently sent me samples also, and I’ll be posting notes and photos of those soon.

(July 9, edited to addlinks in the last two paragraphs)

Floating Leaves Tea House, Seattle

2005-07-06T08:30:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite online vendors is opening a local tea house. I have a feeling this will become a destination for regional tea lovers and out-of-town visitors, and I'm thrilled to have it close to home. The tea room is in a colorful and fun neighborhood, near several sightseeing stops (have to update my Tea in Seattle page with a new sightseeing-tea tour!).

I was lucky enough to attend a preview two weeks ago, where I spent a couple of hours happily sipping various oolongs and puerhs prepared gongfu style. I'll post a full review here next week, once I've visited again. For now, here's the information for their Grand Opening:

Floating Leaves Tea House
Seattle's Premier Source for Gourmet Chinese Tea
Saturday, July 9
2213 NW Market (in the Ballard area)

1/2 price drinks all day
Tea Tastings and Tea Talks
Live Music @ 7pm -- Koto, Shakuhachi & Songs by: Elizabeth Falconer, John Falconer, Aiko Shimada

http://floatingleaves.com/

Cindy's Sipping Recommendations, based on the recent tasting session and my own orders:

Bao Zhong, they have two and both are quite nice

Ali Shan & Li Shan Oolongs, with their rich and buttery aftertaste

House Black Tea (decent price and quite a nice, sturdy tea from yunnan -- holds up to milk well)

Forest Floor Puerh, my husband's favorite, is a wonderful loose leaf puerh from China that tastes as if it were specifically made for sipping in the Pacific Northwest

Standard Disclaimer: no affiliation other than being a happily satisfied customer.

Tea & Independence

2005-07-04T09:31:00.000-07:00

I suppose it is impossible to sip tea on Independence Day in the U.S. without thinking of the Boston Tea Party. That’s certainly what I found myself doing this morning.

What am I currently sipping, on this sunny morning of July 4, 2005? Imported tea from China, brewed up British style. Specifically, I chose the lightly smoky (thinking of tonight’s fireworks) Wuyi Shan China Lapsang from Perennial Tea Room.

It has been a while since my last American history class, so I decided to spend a quiet morning browsing Wikipedia and a few other online resources. As always, one web page led to another, and soon I was finding a wealth of information on the importance of tea protests to the American Revolution. I hope you enjoy these fun links as much as I did!

Two Tea Parties

England’s taxes on stamps, sugar, molasses, and especially the taxes on tea were meeting with waves of protest from the colonists. “Hancock organized a boycott of tea from China sold by the British East India Company, whose sales in the colonies then fell from 320,000 pounds to 520 pounds" (Wikipedia entry). Women were exchanging recipes for herbal infusions to substitute for tea, magazines and newspapers published poems and essays on boycotting tea, and merchants were refusing to purchase tea from the East India Company.

Tea was not directly responsible for the American Revolution, of course. However, there is no mistaking the importance of the colonists’ symbolic acts of protest over tea, from drinking herbs or coffees instead, to participating in the more aggressive Boston Tea Party. An Eyewitness Account by a Participant gives a fascinating (and fairly brief) look at the planning and execution of the Boston Tea Party. My favorite bit of the eyewitness tale is this,

“During the time we were throwing the tea overboard, there were several attempts made by some of the citizens of Boston and its vicinity to carry off small quantities of it for their family use. To effect that object, they would watch their opportunity to snatch up a handful from the deck, where it became plentifully scattered, and put it into their pockets.”

Obviously, many colonists were missing their tea! However, not all of them got away unscathed (read the full eyewitness account to find out more). Not much tea survived those costumed patriots who smashed the tea chests to pieces then flung them overboard. There are only two known surviving tea chests, one of which was grabbed from the shore by a 15-year-old, then passed down from generation to generation. The Boston Tea Party Ship & Museum has quite a few photos and a news article about the Robinson Half Chest.

The Boston Tea Party has become a patriotic symbol for the U.S., but did you know about the Edenton Tea Party? I didn't before today!

"Like their male counterparts, women held protests against British goods. The Edenton Tea Party is one example. On one October day in 1774, fifty-one women signed Penelope Baker's declaration to ban English imports. They renounced drinking British tea and wearing clothes made of British cloth. However, unlike the Boston Tea Party, the signers did not attempt to hide their identities, and boldly signed their true names."

(from a highly recommended essay titled American Athenas: Women in the Revolution, by Tina Ann Nguyen)

The site of the Edenton Tea Party is marked by a Colonial teapot mounted on a Revolutionary cannon. There’s also an Edenton Tea Party Chapter of the D.A.R.

The Declaration of Independence

Of course, all of these protests led to the writing of one of the most rhetorically stirring documents of all time. If for no other reason, it is worth reading the Declaration of Independence for the brilliance of the written argument (this is the writing teacher side of me showing through). Jefferson skillfully moved from establishing inalienable rights, to declaring philosophical truths, to leveling specific accusations that go against these truths, to declaring the separation of the colonies and the creation of the United States of America. It is a brilliant piece of persuasive writing, and it was a stirring document for all who read and signed it.

The British Are Coming!

"Paul Revere was not the only one who announced the British's arrival. Sybil Ludington rode through Connecticut on a chilly April night and yelled that the British were burning Danbury and warned soldiers to prepare for a raid. Thanks to her daring actions, the British were halted at Ridgefield, Connecticut on April 27, 1777 and were forced to retreat to Long Island Sound5."

(also from American Athenas: Women in the Revolution, by Tina Ann Nguyen)

I brewed my tea today in a brown betty, which can’t approach the beauty of this silver teapot by Paul Revere. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has two wonderful web sites that feature silver teapots and accessories: Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate in Early America, and Paul Revere, Jr., 1734 – 1818. Take some time to look at the gorgeous silver and reflect on how important tea really was for the colonists. Also note that Revere, like others in his time, took a few years off from teapot-making while that pesky revolution was happening.

After the Revolution

What was George Washington doing on July 4, 1787 (the anniversary of independence)? Why, sipping tea, of course!

"Wednesday 4th. Visited Doctr. Shovats Anatomical figures and (the Convention having adjourned for the purpose) went to hear an Oration on the anniversary of independence delivered by a Mr. Mitchell, a student of Law--After which I dined with the State Society of the Cincinnati at Epplees Tavern and drank Tea at Mr. Powells."

Tea seemed to be quite important to the orginal George W. Indeed, if you read through some of his diaries, you'll find that he meticulously records the taking of tea.

I greatly enjoyed this account of Tea with Martha Washington, 1790 (from a letter written by Judith Sargent Murray). Definitely read this for more of her rather breathless description of President George Washington:

“. . . his figure is elegant beyond what I have ever seen, that his countenance is benignly good, and that there is a kind of venerable gravity inscribed upon every feature -- as I sat by his side, Homer's Nestor frequently occurred to my imagination, and, of this I am certain, no Grecian Dame, could have beheld the hoary sage, with greater admiration”

It goes on like this for several more gloriously fawning lines – wonderful stuff! :)

Lest we forget the charm of that Washington countenance, I direct your attention to perhaps his most ostentatious profile, that is the one at Mount Rushmore National Monument. I’ve been to Rushmore and the Black Hills many times (my family lives a few hours away, in Wyoming). The best time to visit, in my opinion, is at night in the October or November– take a blanket and thermos of tea at dusk, then sit on a bench and wait for the lights to be switched on. You’re almost always alone, although you’ll see the ranger who opens the gate and turns on the floodlights. (those wonderful clicks through to photos are from Stephanie Sheldon's After Dark Photo Gallery)

Happy 229th Birthday, U.S.A! :)

Hot Jam & Puerh

2005-07-01T13:02:00.000-07:00

Found myself sipping absent-mindedly at a nice and earthy loose pu-erh (Meng Hai 1994 from Jing Tea) around noon today, and I realized that my stomach was growling for some lunch. So, I grabbed a packet of crackers, some cream cheese, and a small jar of extra hot pepper jam (purchased at a local farmer's market).

I smeared some cream cheese on the cracker, topped it with a dollop of jam, and popped it in my mouth. Ooof -- the jam packs quite a punch! I love spicy food and have a high threshold for heat (my years in New Mexico toughened me up), but the jam made my whole mouth tingle. Finding myself in need of a beverage after a few spicy mouthfuls, I resteeped my puerh (third time) and poured a cup.

What a surprise to find that this tea has a very soothing, cooling effect on a burning tongue! Is this generally the case, or is it a trait of this particular puerh? Has anyone else out there paired a puerh with hot and spicy food, the kind that lights your mouth on fire and makes your ears itch?

Next time I make up a batch of extra-hot chile verde or enchilada sauce, I'll definitely have some puerhs lined up, ready to compare tongue-cooling ability. :)

Note for any Seattle-area readers: the jam is "Guadalupe Pepper Jam, extra hot," by Hermitage Pantry of Duvall, WA. I get mine at the Redmond Saturday Market.

Music Mix??

2005-06-30T11:38:00.000-07:00

Christine, of the Morning Coffee & Afternoon Tea blog, recently posted about Tea Tunes. I was glad to find some more music featuring tea because I've been trying to collect songs to create a "tea mix" for myself. Here's what I have, so far:

Tea For One, Led Zeppelin, Presence,1976

Baby Beautiful, Aiha Higurashi, Japan For Sale: Volume 4

Scottish Tea, The Amboy Dukes, The Golden Age Of Underground Radio (all instrumental)

Beautiful World, Colin Hay

I'm still looking for songs that have a title or at least one line about tea. Any suggestions are welcome. :)

Poetry With My Tea

2005-06-30T10:27:00.000-07:00

My apologies for not posting here in a while. Blame it on lazy summer days, when 2 weeks seem to go by in a blink of the eye. I also have to say that my taste buds have just been “off.” Nothing has been tasting right lately, tea included. That means I won’t be posting any detailed tea notes for a bit. Instead, I turn your attention to some poetry. Don’t worry; there is a connection to tea at the end.

Delights & Shadows, a book of poetry by Ted Kooser, current Poet Laureate of the United States

Curious after it won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, I went to my local library and checked out Delights & Shadows. Kooser’s poetry is deceptively sentimental, but as you read through this slim volume you find an unexpected depth to his work. Taken as a whole, the poems aren't as safe or naive as they first seem. In some ways, the book is a eulogy for the twentieth century's passing, and in other ways there's a sense of “innocence and experience” to it. Even in the wordplay of his title, Kooser is making some obvious overtures to Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience. Kooser is not as great a poet as William Blake, but the alignment and content of his poetry uses similar twists in perception to make sometimes-wry and often-wistful observations about life. Both poets also use puns and other wordplay to strengthen metaphors, and both manipulate poetic structure as they move between topics.

It has been a while since a poet’s words have spoken deeply to me, so I was surprised by my immediate and very personal response to the poems in Delights & Shadows. I laughed and cried, wondered if we shared the same relatives, got excited when I recognized a river’s name, and mostly just couldn’t believe how familiar it all seemed. The poems are set in the landscape of my childhood. No, that’s not quite right. Perhaps more accurately, they are set in the landscape of my parents’ childhood and are a part of my roots. They are the memories of my recent ancestors, the families who settled in southern Minnesota and northern Iowa.

The poems are staunchly Midwest America, shamelessly sentimental, delightfully playful, and actually good poetry. And yes, I do know good poetry – am still paying off my student loans for a master’s degree in literature. Head to a library, borrow the book from a friend, or buy a copy of your own. Even if you don’t usually like poetry, give this book a try, then let me know what you think of it.

Oh, I promised there would be something about tea, didn’t I? This is one of my favorite poems from the book. I hope you enjoy it, too!

The China Painters

They have set aside their black tin boxes
scratched and dented,
spattered with drops of pink and blue;
and their dried-up, rolled-up tubes
of alizarin crimson, chrome green,
zinc white, and ultramarine;
their vials half full of gold powder;
stubs of wax pencils;
frayed brushes with tooth-bitten shafts;
and have gone in fashion and with grace
into the clouds of loose, lush roses
narcissus, pansies, columbine,
on teapots, chocolate pots,
saucers and cups, the good Haviland dishes
spread like a garden
on the white lace Sunday cloth,
as if their souls were bees
and the world had been nothing but flowers.

Kooser, Ted. Delights & Shadows. Copper Canyon Press, 2004. p. 21.

Recently Clicked: June 19, 2005

2005-06-19T00:17:00.000-07:00

The Artful Teapot, a museum exhibit in Bellevue, Washington, June 18 - October 2, 2005. If you live near Seattle, or if you'll be visiting this summer, you might want to check out the exhibit in the newly re-opened Bellevue Art Museum. "The Artful Teapot examines the teapot as an inventive vehicle for artistic expression in the twentieth century. The 250 objects on exhibit include teapots by painters Roy Lichtenstein and David Hockney, sculptors Arman and Michael Lucero, ceramists Betty Woodman and Adrian Saxe, as well as works by more than 100 other artists."

I've been wanting to put together some samples of tea for friends, and Mountain Rose Herbs was recommended to me as a good resource for small tins. Nice tins, good price, quick shipping.

Yesterday's tradition becomes today's cup of cha, an article from China Daily, looking at the revitalization of the teahouse tradition.

Tea made with skill, patience, an article on the gongfu method of tea preparation for Chaozhou natives.

Oolong, the pancake rabbit. Oolong is a mellow bunny named after tea, with an owner who liked to take photos of pancakes (and other objects) balanced on his head. No tea involved, just rampant silliness.

Searching for Hints of Cocoa, part 2

2005-06-18T23:31:00.000-07:00

As whined about previously, Floating Leaves has run out of last year’s supply of (sob!) my favorite tea. This, of course, was not unexpected. Tea is produced from an annual harvest, and tea purveyors purchase limited amounts each year. We want fresh, flavorful leaves, and part of the wonderful experience of tea drinking comes from the changes in leaf from region to region and harvest to harvest. Still, my favorite tea had a particular aroma that I continue to crave, a flavor that woke me up in the mornings, that held steadfast through my sleepy bumbling fingers and tendency toward oversteeping, and that always elicited an “ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh” with the first sip.

Floating Leaves has replenished their stock with a new Yunnan Gold after an annual buying trip. While excellent, the new tea doesn’t have the deep cocoa character that I so loved. I have enough left of last year’s yunnan gold for about two small potfuls, but those are being saved for some day that needs a special boost.

I fully intend to replace my old favorite with a new one. To that end, I’ve been ordering small amounts (and occasionally not-so-small amounts) of golden yunnan teas. A side benefit to all of this tasting is that I’ve learned quite a bit about the overall characteristics and the range of golden yunnans. Perhaps most importantly, I’m coming to recognize the two different ends to the flavor spectrum – my terms for these are “vegetable” and “cocoa.” Both can have an earthy foundation with a fern/moss underlying the tea, and often there's a good bite of pepper in the aftertaste, but an overtone pulls them in one distinct direction or the other.

Vegetable: The “vegetable” taste is not usually to my liking, although I suspect it is desirable to others. There’s a sort of cabbage or asparagus flavor that comes through, both in aroma and flavor. Those are favorite foods of mine, so it’s a bit surprising that I don’t like that taste in the tea. It’s possible this flavor just combines in a bad way with the water here in the verdant Pacific Northwest. I’ve noticed that the flavor diminishes when using a brita filter rather than straight tap water, and that certain times of the year tend to bring (what is to me) undesirable flavor to the forefront. However, it’s not just the water, for I can usually smell the vegetable aroma on the dry leaves before brewing.

Cocoa: The other end is what I identify as having notes of unsweetened cocoa (like the powdered cocoa used in baking). The height of perfection is when this cocoa combines with pepper. It produces what others refer to as a smoky maple flavor, but for me it is more familiar as the smooth sauce of a Mexican mole. The cocoa-pepper-mole is the special flavor that wakes me up and gets me going in the morning.

Comparison of 7 Golden Yunnans

This comparison only includes teas newly sampled in the past month, so there are a few good golden yunnans not listed here (most notably those from TeaSpring and TeaSource). There are also many good tea shops I have yet to try. If you have a suggestion for a wonderful golden yunnan with cocoa-maple-mole overtones, please post a comment!

My criteria: The leaf should be thin, strong, with a quick twist that gives it a needle-like appearance. Leaves are gold, not just black with a few gold tips. The teas I most often prefer have leaves that are quite long. They fluff together with other leaves, and there's an airy, spongy feeling in the fingers when holding a pinch of them together. Often, the leaf is downey and accompanied by a dust or powder that coats the inside of the tea container. This powder is what I think of as “cocoa,” and it produces a wonderful aroma when first opening a packet or canister. The liquid should be a clear, strong gold (with just a hint of verdigris when milk is added). And, yes, I personally want the tea to hold up to a splash of milk, since I like milk in my morning cuppa. Occasionally, however, this a late night comfort drink for me, which means that my perfect golden yunnan should also hold up to the 30-second decaffeinating process.

Preparation: boiling water, one big heaping tablespoon of tea brewed for 3 minutes in a small Chatsford. Each tea was sampled on at least two different occasions.

In Pursuit of Tea's Royal Yunnan, new batch, and it seems to be just a bit different from what I purchased in Febuary. So far, this is the one with the best dusting of cocoa, although it’s not quite as nice as last year’s Floating Leaves’. I do like the sweet tones to this tea, sort of a honey or maybe maple flavor that is very appealing. This is great with milk.

Floating Leaves’ Yunnan Gold, now that I’m not all disappointed in the lack of heavy “cocoa powder” dusting the leaves, I'm finding this is a very good tea, with many of the elements I seek in a golden yunnan. There’s just a tiny hint of pepper, it’s got the sweet quality that I expect, and it has an almost smoky aroma that sortofkindofalmostbutnotquite fools me into thinking of the cocoa powder of the previous batch. As it cools in the cup, the pepper aftertaste really strengthens. This and the IPOT tea are the ones I'm most likely to grab in the morning.

Adagio, Yunnan Gold, on the earthy end – no cocoa or peppery tones really (just a really subtle hint in the aftertaste). This tea needs more leaf in the pot than I gave the first time around. Once I got the amount right, I found that it’s good basic tea that holds up very well to de-caffing. A side note about Adagio – amazingly fast shipment, less than 48 hours from order to being at my door!

Jing Tea, Yunnan Gold, the fragrance is of late summer, indeed it reminds me of the smell of a mowed hayfield drying in the sun. After the first time, I increased the steeping time to 4 minutes and added a pinch more leaves to the pot. I wanted it to be stronger, but perhaps that isn't really what it needs. I'm still experimenting because the secret to this tea isn't unlocked for me yet, but so far my impressions are of drying grass and meadows and hay. No cocoa in evidence, but no vegetable hints either. Oh, and there's a pronounced peppery finish.

Te Tea, Yunnan Golden Supreme: smaller leaf, cocoa aroma in the dust but the notes don’t come through with brewing. There is a solid earthiness that develops more strongly as the tea cools. There’s just a hint of pepper. I prefer this to their Golden Needle Supreme.

Te Tea, Golden Needle Supreme, There's a nice hint of cocoa powder with the dry leaf, but oddly, this one ends up with a vegetable taste. It brewed up much differently than I expected. As it cools, a peppery aftertaste emerges quite strongly. I find it to have a very delicate flavor, and it’s perhaps a bit lackluster for me. Better without milk. Not good decaffed.

Imperial Tea Court, Yunnan Gold, I really want to like this tea; in fact, I fully expected to love it. Unfortunately, although I’ve tried it several times, it is just not my preferred aroma and flavor. This is a vegetable-tasting tea – could smell that strong asparagus scent as soon as opening the bag, and I actually cussed in frustration. So, now I have some really expensive tea that someone else is sure to love. Time for me to find a friend with oppposite tastes, so we can hand-off teas to each other!

Standard Disclaimer: Just a customer, not employed by any of these companies.

Cleaning out the Cupboards

2005-06-13T12:59:00.000-07:00

This morning I realized that there’s a reason all of my envelopes and canisters of wonderful tea are overflowing my kitchen countertops. It is because above those countertops are two cupboards full of tea I never use. Most of it is tea that was given to me (tons of little sample packets), some is tea I ordered but didn’t like, some can be attributed to changing tastes, and all of it is really too old to enjoy. However, among all the odds-and-ends were a few fun surprises, including a couple of puerhs (see below) and a sealed tin of a breakfast blend I love from a company that no longer exists.

Two quick asides: (1) My tastes in tea seem to have shifted this year, and now I almost always drink Chinese/Taiwanese teas instead of Indian assams. This is an interesting development to be pondered over my next cup of oolong. (2) Does anyone else get tired of tea companies including sample packets of tea that you would never drink? It always surprises me, for instance, when my box of pricey loose leaf comes with sample tea bags, or if the latest rooibos-cardamom-ginger-peppermint-ginseng-lemongrass-chamomile blend is included when all I have ever ordered from the company is unscented and non-herbal.

Back to the surprises in my tea cupboards. . .

Rose Pu Erh, Ten Lee brand tea with a Ten Ren price sticker (quarter used to indicate size of rose bud)

This must have been given to me because I haven’t ever purchased anything from Ten Ren. Perhaps it came with a batch of teas handed off to me by a friend? I’ve checked the Ten Ren Tea web site, but they don’t seem to carry this puerh any longer. The tea itself looks to be a fairly standard loose puerh with full rose buds mixed in. I brewed it to see how it tastes – it’s okay, but nothing remarkable in this first try. The puerh is lighter in taste than I’d assumed from the color of the liquor. I don’t really taste the rose, although with the third brewing there’s just a hint in the aroma. Perhaps rose buds need to steep longer than tea leaves? The leaves themselves don’t seem to have taken on any rose characteristics.

Also Found: tucked way in the back corner of a cupboard were three round boxes of 100g Yunnan Pu-erh Tuo Cha (bird’s nest shape). I vaguely remember purchasing these at an Asian grocery or mall, either in Colorado or Alberta. It’s been at least 5 years (probably more like 8 or 9), and they’ve moved with me a few times, getting stuck in some back nook and eventually forgotten. My taste in tea back then was primarily Indian assams, but somewhere I’d read about buying aged yunnan tea and saving it for many years.

I have no idea if the puerh tuo cha is any good, or if it’s worth keeping around. Certainly these boxes were cheap when purchased (probably just $2-3 each), since that was back in starving graduate student days. Anyone have suggestions about whether I should continue to store them? They are at least 5 years old, probably more, and they’ve sat in a dark and dry cupboard the entire time. Are they ready for me to try now? I’ll post a question to Teamail and continue to browse the web to see what I find, but any readers of this blog should feel free to post a suggestion.

Recently Clicked: June 12, 2005

2005-06-12T21:11:00.000-07:00

Summer Reading 2005, a blogger links to about 40 summer (and other) reading lists. It's a bit silly to start my own list with a link to another list, especially one that's not about tea. However, I'm pretty sure I'm not the only tea-sipping book lover out there, and this is a great resource for those of us who love the smell of a library or used bookstore. :) These lists range from best spy fiction to syllabi from college literature courses.

An Oolong Quest in Taiwan, a travel essay with some nice photos. Here’s a quote, to give you an idea of the content:

“Two-thirds of Taiwan is mountain-covered. With fifty peaks over 3000 meters, this wet green island sitting off China’s coast provided the perfect home for the fabled tea. My destination was a teahouse run by a family that had grown specialty Oolongs for 200 years, after emigrating from the Wuyi region of Fujian province in China (the ‘birthplace’ of tea).”

Emagein Tea has a couple of fun pages for tea lovers. If you like word games, give the Tea Word Search puzzle a try. If you’d like to keep your own tea-tasting notes, you can print (or cut & paste into a document) their Tea Tasting Form.

Traditional Chinese tea ceremony from Wuyi - the art of tea in 27 moves, on the Jing Tea Shop web site. My favorite description is #15, “three dragons guard the vessel.” This was how I naturally held the cup, but I like the way the metaphor gets at controlling the fragile cups (at least they’re fragile to me, since I have this tendency toward clutziness). By the way, I recently received my first order from Jing Tea and am quite pleased. I’ll be posting more about the puerh soon.

Adagio Tea Timer, which looks really cool but (alas!) I can’t use because there is no mac version. :(

A Canadian Folk-song that features tea -- “While on the hob the kettle sings | Margery, Margery, make the tea”

Tea Video

2005-06-10T08:36:00.000-07:00

I found this while looking through an Internet video archive. You need Quicktime to play the 12-minute video. The opening and ending are kind of silly, but the focus of the show is tea and most of it takes place in a Taiwanese tea shop. I think you'll enjoy it. :)

Gone Learnin' Episode 3: What is tea? (2004)

If the above link doesn't open up a quicktime movie, go to the archive page and click through to the movie.

Review: Perennial Tea Room, Seattle

2005-06-05T18:42:00.000-07:00

Here’s my second review after spending the afternoon in downtown Seattle.

The Perennial Tea Room is located in the picturesque Post Alley area of Pike Place Market. They carry a nice selection of teas along with a wide range of teapots, tea accessories, and selected teatime goodies.

The entryway is open and welcoming, and the atmosphere inside is quite friendly, cheerful even. :) I never felt crowded or rushed, and when the shop emptied out a bit we had a pleasant time chatting with the woman in charge (Sue?).

I’d gone with a mission: go get some of that excellent lapsang souchong that had been recommended to me. I am currently sipping said tea (Wuyi Shan China Lapsang), which is indeed quite nice and rather unusual -- look for a review here soon. My husband prefers the deeper smokiness of the more traditional Lapsang Souchong that we bought at the same time. So, two teas purchased, and two happy sippers.

The tea room serves a rotating selection of teas that are pre-brewed (brown betty pots in the back room). You can get cups of tea – no food or milk or sugar, just good tea. Both teas we sampled were quite nice. Even though I rarely drink flavored teas, I decided to try an interesting combination: the Harney & Sons coconut-ginger-lemongrass green tea. It was very aromatic with an unusual flavor reminiscent of Thai food.

I was glad to sign up for notification of special events, and I’ll definitely stop by next time I’m in downtown Seattle.

Review: Crumpet Shop, Seattle

2005-06-05T16:55:00.000-07:00

The Crumpet Shop is quite popular with downtown Seattle-ites. I love crumpets and have been wanting to stop by there, so. . . using the excuse of updating my guide to tea spots in Seattle. . . today I grabbed my husband and we headed to Pike Place Market.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but what I got was great food at a fun and casual order-at-the-counter cafe. The area is always filled with the energy of the market, and the Crumpet Shop has the characteristic friendly bustle of the city.

The Tea: You can choose from a selection of loose leaf teas, or get one of about six all-you-can-drink “fast teas” that are pre-made, sitting in carafes on the counter. For less than $1.50, you’ll be given a mug to use while you’re there, and then you can get a to-go cup to take more with you. On a cold and drizzly day, when you need to warm yourself up and keep the damp away, you can’t get much better than this. We went with the quick tea today, but next time I’ll give one of their other prepared-to-order teas a try.

THE CRUMPETS!: The fast-tea is just an okay cup of tea, but the crumpets (ooooooooh, the crumpets) are really why you're there. These particular crumpets are made on-site, and you can buy packages to take home or get one with toppings to eat there. Now, recognize that I haven’t been to England (yet), but these are the best crumpets I’ve ever had. They are nearly an inch high, and somehow light yet substantial at the same time. If you have time for a quick bite to eat, then by all means get one of their specialty crumpets – they’re topped with everything from bacon and eggs to more traditional jams and nutella. The smoked salmon spread, with sliced cucumber on top, is fabulous.

I can’t wait to go back for a visit, and I suspect that this may become a regular trek into the city for me.

Tea in International News

2005-06-04T15:05:00.000-07:00

I've been following links to various stories and articles about tea this past week. I've tried to give a quick synopsis, so you'll know if you're interested before you click.

From Reuters, Cloud of Fear Hangs Over India's Ailing Tea Gardens: I've seen a few headlines in the past week or two, but this is the first time I actually followed through and read more. Evidently, several managers/owners of tea plantations in Assam have been murdered by workers. There is quite a bit of disrest and fear in the region. Some link this to failing sales of Assam, stating that Darjeeling is more popular in the west, and that the lack of money is keeping workers from being paid as well (or even paid at all). The bottom of the article presents more of the worker's side of the problem, pointing at the great disparity in living conditions.

A Teamailer posted the URL for an interesting article from the China Daily (this link goes to articles written in English). I did a search on "tea" in the China Daily and found several interesting articles and photos. I'm posting some of those I found below. All are from the past month, so they should be fairly recent.

Tea Street: This is the place to go when you're in Beijing because "with a big shining logo 'Beijing No 1 Tea Street' and a teapot sculpture at one end, the 1500-metre-long street is lined with numerous teashops and colourful signs." I've added this street to my travel wishlist. :)

Oh, and the city of Hongzhu (famed for longjing tea) would be nice to visit as well. Click through to this photo of a longjing tea processing contest.

For more on Hangzhou, here's an article on the Growing Problem of Top Green Tea. What's the problem? At the same time that longjing tea is more popular and pricey than ever, it "is facing a challenge because of the lack of professional tea farmers, said Wu Guowei, deputy head of Longwu Town in Xihu District in Hangzhou. The young generation of tea farmers refuse to learn traditional tea processing skills because the processing is considered drudgery, Wu said." Contrast this to the next article that argues for modernization . . .

Still Steeping in Time: this looks at changing times for tea farmers and workers, at government initiatives for co-operatives, and at the need for the general modernization of technology and management in the tea industry.

New Criteria Set for Food Safety: "China is working on a series of technical standards to minimize pesticide residues and other hazards in food and fabrics."

Kong Fu Tea Photo: black and white of a Chinese tea ceremony performer.

A second photo: Plantation Owners Examining Recently-harvested Tea Leaves.

Gift of Oolong

2005-06-02T11:08:00.000-07:00

One of my students is from Taiwan, and yesterday (our last class meeting) she brought me a wonderful gift of oolong tea.

click photo to view larger image

As you can see from the box, the text is Chinese (which I can’t read). The inside packaging, however, does have a few words in English, so I know this is a Formosa Oolong. It didn’t take long before I was heating up water and pouring it over the leaves in my glass gaiwan.

click photo to view larger image

Tasting notes:

Water: filtered in brita pitcher, temp = around 170F
Brewed and sipped: in gaiwan cup, first steeping about 2 minutes (I preferred a longer brewing time than for many oolongs, since it takes a bit for those leaves to go through the agony of unfurling and producing the liquor)

The aroma that rises from the freshly rinsed leaves has a very toasty or roasted characteristic. This is the scent that I often equate with toasted coconut. I’ve run into it before in an aged oolong that I like quite a bit. This Formosa oolong, however, produces a much lighter brew, with just a hint of green. It is not as dark as I expected from the fragrance of the leaves.

The distinctive toastiness holds up through the second cup, but there are only traces of it in the third and fourth brewing. The flavor instead drifts to a fresher, more floral sensation. I found myself brewing a fifth cup, so it is a long-lasting leaf.

This tea is very “comfortable” and balanced. It is not aggressive or uniquely flavored; instead, it has a broad range or crossover (between roasted and floral tones) that draws me in. I think this is a tea to be enjoyed routinely, as a good foundation against which to understand others.

Searching for Hints of Cocoa

2005-06-02T11:03:00.000-07:00

Oh no, my favorite tea is sold out! :( Now what do I do? I guess that a new search for that perfect cocoa headiness in a yunnan gold begins.

The owners of Floating Leaves (who carried my favorite) just returned from their buying trip to Taiwan, and they’ve brought back a new yunnan gold and are mailing me a sample today. I’ve also just ordered samples and small amounts of various golden yunnans from three different vendors. The month of June is going to be a grand tasting and comparison experience for me – seems like a good kickoff for summertime!

I will, of course, post tea-tasting notes here.

In the meantime, I’ll enjoy the other golden yunnans in my collection. I really like the peppery notes in many of them, and they all have a naturally sweet flavor that appeals to me, but none have the heavy cocoa fragrance that I really loved in the Floating Leaves Yunnan Gold.

As always, I’m open for suggestions. Please post here if you know of a golden yunnan with lots of cocoa overtones. :)

Visiting Seattle?

2005-05-31T23:33:00.000-07:00

I sometimes hear from fellow tea lovers who are planning trips to Seattle and want to know where to find a good cup of tea in such a coffee-laden land. To help, I've put together a list of suggestions called Spots for Tea in Seattle and the Puget Sound

Included: guide to tourist spots, best places to take a thermos, tearooms & shops. I'll be updating the list regularly as I explore more.

2 Tea Journals

2005-05-31T20:07:00.000-07:00

I've been visiting these this week:

Puerh, A Westerner's Quest: a web site devoted to a man's pursuit of tea. Tons of great links, and quite a few photos of his personal collection.

Tea Posur: another blogger like myself, posting her thoughts on (and reviews of) various teas. Lots of fun!

Chinese Garden Planned for Seattle

2005-05-31T19:22:00.000-07:00

The Seattle Times reports that construction begins in July for a new Chinese Garden in Seattle: Elaborate 4.5-acre Chinese garden planned.

"The 4.5-acre garden, with a view of downtown, the mountains and Elliott Bay, will include a lake the size of Husky Field and an 85-foot tower visible from Interstate 5. Its master plan also calls for a 200-seat banquet hall, an education center, a teahouse, exhibition building and other pavilions, along with covered walkways, calligraphy art and sculpture."
(emphasis mine)

It will be interesting to see how the teahouse will be used. Demonstrations only, like the teahouse at the Japanese Gardens?

Also of note, the Chinese Garden in Seattle will be different from the (few) others in North America because it will be built in the style of the Sichuan province in honor of its sister city, Chongqing. I wonder if that will have any influence on the teahouse?

Review: Teapot Vegetarian House

2005-05-21T19:02:00.000-07:00

The Teapot on Capitol Hill (Seattle, Washington) is a well-known vegan restaurant. It’s often included in votes for Seattle’s Best, and I’ve been curious but rarely get to that neighborhood. Recently, I was excited to notice a new Teapot Vegetarian House on the east side of Lake Washington. It’s even quite close to home, located on NE 24th Street in Redmond.

The tea there is of a decent quality, served loose leaf in a tsetsubin pot. There are two sizes of pots, and about 12 teas from which to choose. The Teapot really is more about food and less about tea, but it is wonderful to have a restaurant which offers fine tea while you dine. Tea is also featured in a few menu items, like one of my favorites, the popular Rose Chicken (it comes with sauce made from rose tea).

It may sound odd to have a “chicken” dish at a vegan restaurant, but this is a Chinese/Pan-Asian restaurant that uses mock meats in several dishes. For some vegetarians, this can be a bit off-putting. I find it that way sometimes, but at The Teapot I didn’t mind at all. The spices permeate the food, meals are filled with fresh vegetables, portions are large enough to be shared, mock meats aren’t in every dish, and there is a full menu from appetizer to dessert.

There were roses and rose petals scattered throughout recipes and the restaurant. There were even roses in the women’s restroom, which was, by the way, very clean and spacious (always important to have a good restroom when you’re sipping tea).

This is close enough for me to become a regular, and I’m thrilled!

Tea in Vegas

2005-05-21T18:22:00.000-07:00

I didn’t go to Las Vegas for the tea, and I didn’t even go for the gambling. I went to have fun in the great hot beaming sunshine of the desert southwest.

Being of firm conviction that a nice tea service makes pleasant visits even better, I tried to make reservations at the Bellagio -- struck out (should have made reservations a week ago). I called around to several other places, working from tips and reviews. Most hotel-casino operators didn’t know where to direct me, and it usually took 3 or 4 forwardings before finding which restaurant had the tea service. In person at the brand new Wynn Hotel, it only took two people and one phone call before we found out that tea will be served (near the garden area) starting in a few weeks. I imagine it will be very special and very expensive.

Not all was amiss, since I’d brought tea and tea-making supplies along. Which teas? I brought Teaspring’s Bao Zhong Classic and Floating Leaves’ Yunnan Gold. We could brew these any time in our hotel room, but we only had Triscuits and sliced cheese for snacks. :)

Next time, I’ll plan ahead and contact some of the Teamailing locals down there (Lady Patricia, I’m sorry we missed each other – you were in my neighborhood while I was in yours!).

Yixing, Puerh, and Dental Work

2005-05-21T17:27:00.000-07:00

My New Yixing Pot

As some of you know from a previous post, I’ve just begun my exploration of puerh teas. I’ve now sampled a few more at tea shops, and I’ve been paying special attention to preparation methods. Finally, it was time to revisit puerh, and I wanted a special pot for this. There are many web sites that sell Yixing ware, from cheaper mass market produced pots to hand-crafted artware, to expensive antique pieces. However, for this first one I wanted to touch before buying, to see what it looked like and feel how fragile it was. Fragility scares me, since I tend towards clumsiness.

My first attempt to get to a teashop with a nice selection was a bust. Unfortunately, our trip to to Bremerton, WA didn't go well when we found the shop closed (time to update the web site information!). I’ll go back across the Puget Sound to Bremerton sometime soon, since I’m always looking for an excuse to take that gorgeous ferry ride. I’ll remember to call first, though.

Afterward, I continued to surf web sites and learned to recognize recurring patterns and themes. I tend to like the simple squat fat pots, but I also enjoy the stark geometric shapes of some. The pots with figures or fake wood gnarls seem too child-like to me, but I must admit that I want one with a lizard/salamander on the lid. If I ever find the perfect tea for that tiger-stripe salamander pot, I’ll buy one. Please post if you have any suggestions for teas that might match!

My next attempt to get my hands on some tiny pots was at the tea tasting by the owners of Floating Leaves. Luckily, they had some wonderful yixings, and I learned about subtle differences in weight and the type of filter to the spout. I was happy to purchase a small-but-stately pot that seemed to be just the right color for puerhs.

Forest Floor, a loose puerh
During the tea tasting, several attendees mentioned a favorite: Forest Floor Puerh. One person said that often when she brews it at work, someone will ask "is it raining outside?" That description made me smile, and it made me take some home. I waited a few days while Shiuwen seasoned the pot with the Forest Floor puerh (see the Teamaster's excellent blog on preparing new yixing teapots). Once my pot had arrived, I was ready to go. I have a makeshift gongfu setup, and I prepared water then began the brewings of this tea.

leaves before brewing

yes, that's my mac laptop behind it (needed something white)

As you can see, a very nice reddish-brown liquor is produced from this brewing. The tea is not aggressively fermented, but it has that characteristic flavor I’m beginning to appreciate. The flavor holds true even after several brewings. There are quiet notes that make me think of walking off the path and into the depth of a natural, untended forest floor. I like how this goes into the pleasant side of decay; the expanded brewed tea leaves are lacey and look like those you’d find months after the autumn fall. I suppose that’s how I think of this tea – like a winter forest.

What does this have to do with dental work?

The thing that has surprised me most about the Forest Floor puerh is that my husband loves it. Right now, he is especially fond of the comforting aspect to this tea. He’s in the middle of some tough dental work, taking lots of antibiotics and pain killers, and the puerh is calming his stomach and soothing his nerves. I don’t drink tea for the health benefits, but you can’t get any better than tea that tastes good while being good for you.

So, Floating Leaves’ Forest Floor puerh comes fully endorsed by my husband with his swollen cheek, antibiotic-gauze-stuffed tooth, and numbed-but-still-just-a-bit-painful jaw.

Back in Town

2005-05-16T12:01:00.000-07:00

I've been out of town since last Wednesday and have fallen behind in updating my blog. Thank you for the several posts and email messages that have come in the past few days. I appreciate your taking the time to comment and ask questions (and provide some great information). I'll respond soon -- promise I'm not ignoring you, just need a few days to catch up to things! :)

Check back Tuesday and Wednesday for new posts.

Coming soon: reviews of a few teas, photos of my brand-new-beautiful-little-yixing, comments on tea in Las Vegas, a review of tea and food at a fun Chinese-vegan restaurant.

Links of the Day, 5/10/05

2005-05-10T16:07:00.000-07:00

I don't know much about Panyaro, the Korean Way of Tea, but now I want to know more. The web site also has wonderful photos of Tea Making (preparing the leaves).

It's always good to learn more about the techniques for brewing tea. Bruce Richardson wrote a nice article about Making Good Tea Time after Time (check out his other articles while you're at the web site). Tea Time World Wide has a good resource for beginners: Tea Tasting 101.

This week I've been browsing web sites that look at tea history and tea culture.I started my search by looking at the entry for Tea in Wikipedia. There's a ton of stuff there, so for contrast here's a quick and simple look at the history of tea. For a nice chronology, click through to Important Events in the History of Tea.

I haven't read the entire thing yet, but I found really interesting excerpts from a graduate thesis on Tea and Sri Lanka. The work focuses on "the culture surrounding tea, and the different meanings affixed to the commodity by different cultures."

I've been drawn to sites that look at tea philosophy. There are several extensive resources, both online and in print. The Book of Tea is available from The Cat-Tea Corner. I've got a few books to check out of the local library, and I'll review those as I read them.

Tech Note: Commenting

2005-05-06T12:35:00.000-07:00

I've changed the settings on this blog, so now anyone (not just registered users of blogger.com) should be able to comment on posts. If I start having problems with spam, I'll set things back.

Dorothy Parker & Tea

2005-05-05T17:51:00.000-07:00

Penelope

In the pathway of the sun,
In the footsteps of the breeze,
Where the world and sky are one,
He shall ride the silver seas,
He shall cut the glittering wave.
I shall sit at home, and rock;
Rise, to heed a neighbor's knock;
Brew my tea, and snip my thread;
Bleach the linen for my bed.
They will call him brave.

(make sure you add a wry little twist of sarcasm to that last line)

Other Works Featuring Tea
Afternoon: It reveals my middle-aged-ness, but I like this voice of a person on the verge of aging. It's a bit more reassuring than the Prufrock take on the process; perhaps that's the wry nature of Parker's poetry. It is interesting to note that each of these poems relate tea with aging (now that's something to ponder as my roots turn grey).

The Last Tea: a short story.

This excerpt from Bobbed Hair and Bathtub Gin, by Marion Mead, tells a great story about Parker being fired over tea and scones at the Plaza Hotel Tea Court.

Floating Leaves Tea Gathering

2005-05-05T11:42:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, I was lucky to be able to attend a tea gathering that turned into a wonderfully relaxed tea-tasting event. The owners of Floating Leaves tea (Rob and Shiuwen) were gracious and opened their home to a nice group of tea-lovers. We shared tea stories, learned about culture and language, and watched while tea was prepared with the formal Gongfu method.

I sipped many teas, including a special Baozhong (fabulous!) and a nice Puerh. I also bought a small, black Yixing pot. Shiuwen is seasoning the pot for me, but once it’s in my hands I’ll post photos. She’s also going to keep her eyes open for a somewhat larger pot for my golden yunnans. Rob and Shiuwen are heading to Taiwan in a few days, and I’m excited to see what new teas (and pots) return with them.

Things I absorbed while sipping:

I still need to lower the temp of my water just a bit, especially for oolongs.
I definitely need to get that Chef’s Choice teapot that I’ve been drooling over (and yes, I did get it – see below).
Pronunciation: I’ve been slaughtering the pronunciation of tea names and terms. It was good to actually hear the words instead of just reading them.
I’m starting to lust after Yixing teapots
Gongfu Method: this is really beautiful and the result is a tribute to tea. I’m going to start working my way toward this method (lots of utensils and trays and cups to buy). It's definitely a great way to enjoy oolongs with other people.

NEWS FLASH! Floating Leaves will be opening a new shop this summer. Look for it coming to the Ballard neighborhood soon.

My New Teakettle

2005-05-05T11:02:00.000-07:00

I’ve been wanting an electronic kettle, particularly one that turns off when it boils, for a while now. The good ones can be expensive ($70-125US), and I had been feeling guilty for wanting something that seemed excessive when compared to a stovetop kettle.

This past year, several things happened that made me change my mind. First, my neighbor’s house caught fire.

My brother and I spotted the smoke and my husband called the fire department within seconds, but the house was still severely damaged (luckily, no one was inside). The neighbor told us later that she’d left her teakettle on the stove and that is what started the fire.

Hmmmmmmm, maybe there's a good reason for that automatic shut-off. I started looking at Russell Hobbs kettles, but they weren’t appealing to me. So, I did some research on what people really liked in a good kettle:

cordless kettle that removes from a base
heating element that does not come in contact with the water (these tend to rust and suffer from chemical build-up)
automatic shut-off when water boils
good ergonomic shape, preferably with a handle that sits to the side of the lid (rather than above it)

This spring, I kept running into tea lovers who use the Chef’s Choice electric kettle. Even a hotel I stayed at had the kettles in their rooms (and I greatly appreciated it!). Finally, last weekend, the wonderful owners of Floating Leaves used just this kettle to brew up a variety of fabulous teas. Time for me to stop putting it off and finally buy the darned thing. Here’s my pot:

Chef'sChoice®-International, Deluxe Cordless Teakettle #685. Click to see photo and information.

It’s only been a few days, but I really like this kettle. The water brews in about half (or even a third) of the time it took on the stovetop, the heating element shuts down when the water boils, and it removes from the base effortlessly (becoming a cordless kettle). It comes with a strong recommendation from me.

Review: Teavana Store

2005-05-05T10:44:00.000-07:00

It takes a lot to get me to big indoor shopping malls, since they’re just about my least favorite of all public spaces. So, when I read that a new tea store had opened in a nearby shopping mall, I groaned a bit but still decided to head over and check it out. Teavana, was. . . well I’m not going to say it wasn’t worth my visit, but it certainly didn’t do anything to make me want to return to the mall. The shop, one of a chain of stores, really is geared toward people who are just starting to try loose teas, especially those who are interested in the health benefits (aside: why is it that so many teashops are touting health benefits first and taste/comfort second?).

The quality of the tea leaves was just okay, and it was not even close to the quality I get from online vendors and other smaller local tea shops. Employees wore lab coats (?!?) and seemed to have a passing knowledge of tea, or at least of what they’ve been told about tea – again, all great for a new loose tea person, but not for someone who’s already a tea-phile. For example, when I asked to look at the puerh, their eyes went big and in hushed tones they said, “this has been aged for 15 years” and “people drink this for weight-loss.” Sheesh, is that really all they’ve been taught about what some think is the most royal of all teas?

Teavana does have a large selection of pots -- actually more pots than tea. The yixing are about what you’d find in online stores like yixing.com: decent quality for being mass-produced, and in an interesting variety of shapes. They also carry tetsubin and other Japanese pots, along with a few electric kettles.

In the end, that is what made my trip to Teaveana worthwhile – I bought a new electric teakettle (see related post). I’d been pricing them online and in other shops, and Teavana’s cost was as low as any I found online (minus the shipping).

Would I recommend Teavana? I think it is probably a nice place for those who are just starting out. The staff is pleasant, and the store is very open and clean (even hygienic). The store is obviously geared toward high-end mall shoppers, and it’s an appropriate target consumer. However, for those living in the Seattle area, local tea shops stock MUCH MUCH MUCH better quality tea and are owned and staffed by very knowledgeable and friendly tea lovers.

Here are my favorite places in or near Seattle:

The Tea Cup (on Queen Anne hill just north of Seattle Center): assams, oolongs, greens, darjeelings, and a few flavored teas. Saturdays at 1 there are usually informal tea tasting and learning opportunities.

Floating Leaves (currently only online, but coming soon to the Ballard neighborhood, Seattle): oolongs, golden yunnan, puerhs, greens. They’ll have Asian-styled tea service as well as selling their gorgeous leaves. I attended a tea gathering at the owner's house this past weekend and am really looking forward to becoming a regular at their tearoom. :)

Everything Tea (north of Seattle, in Snohomish): quite a large stock of many types of tea, plus a good selection of tea paraphernalia. Snohomish is a tea and antique lover’s paradise. There are about 450 antique vendors, 2 tearooms, and 1 tea shop all in a 3 or 4 block stretch along the riverfront. It’s a great place to spend a Saturday or Sunday!

Links of the Day, 4/29/05

2005-04-29T14:57:00.000-07:00

Women's Place in Tea History, written Eve Hill for Tea Muse, a monthly newsletter for Tea Aficionados.

1001 Plateaus has two very interesting videos on their web site. One features tea being pan toasted on the street in Shanghai, while the other shows Long Jing tea buds being handpicked.

Tea Masters Blog, with many great posts, about half of which are in English.

Shanghai Online's Tea Site, a great reference tool for information about tea (including pages on tea pots, cooking with tea, and tea production).

Imperial Tea Court's Classroom, with lessons on Tea Leaf Varieties, Gongfu and Gaiwan Tea Preparation methods, Yixing Teapots, and a China Tea Tour.

Another site for learning about tea is Chinese Tea 101.

I used to drink Red Rose tea with my grandmother (still do when I visit), and she always had a small collection on her counter of the animal figures that came in the box. It was fun to see this web site that offers the Wade Red Rose Tea Figurines for sale. I think I still have a few animal figures in a drawer somewhere.

Tasting Natural Tea Flavors

2005-04-27T10:20:00.000-07:00

A Teamailer, Winnie, asked a really interesting question about how to taste the natural flavors in a tea. I spent a bit of time responding on the e-list, so I thought it would be good to post part of my response to her in this blog.

WATER BOILING TEMPERATURE: This was a stumbling block for me until recently, I think because for so long I lived at quite high altitudes in Rocky Mountain states. I'd try the trick of grabbing the kettle just before the water boiled, but it just never worked correctly. The temperature of boiling water is too different at those altitudes. It wasn't until I (a) moved to sea level, and (b) finally started using a thermometer, that I was able to get the water to match the tea's needs. I still play around with the temperature a bit, but now I have a mark -- this has been especially important with oolongs. It continues to surprise me when a big dose of extra flavor sometimes comes through after the water has cooled even a few degrees in a cup I've been sipping.

THE FLAVOR OF WATER: The taste in water can be dramatically different from one town to the next. I'm just now (after 3 years!) getting used to the vegetative nature of the water here in the Pacific Northwest. I can't use the tap water for white teas (filtered or bottled for that) because the natural water flavor competes too strongly (for me, anyway). The water usually has a very nice flavor that matches up to most teas quite well, but I'd been used to the salt & peppery flavors of water in arid climates (caused by high saline from evaporation, and by lots of natural minerals filtering the underground aquifers -- like limestone and calcium). I wonder if I'd be able to taste the peppery bite of a yunnan with that salt&pepper water? I'll have to bring some along when I visit my family this summer. :)

BE WILLING TO DISCARD A BAD POT OR CUP: This past weekend, I actually tossed an entire pots' worth of freshly-brewed batch of tea (one of my husband's breakfast blends) because it tasted so strongly of asparagus that we couldn't drink it (this was black, not green, tea). We used the same blend, but shifted over to filtered water, and that asparagus flavor went away. There was just something in the water that day that interacted with and changed the nature of the tea. It's easier to toss the water and leaves with gaiwans, since you're using less and don't feel so guilty.

THE SERVING VESSEL: The gaiwan cup really helped me understand the power of oolongs. I don't know if it is having such close contact with leaves, or if having a lid somehow lets me taste more than I smell, but the gaiwan has been great for me. I generally use Chatsford pots of varying sizes (standard brown betty pots with a basket), and I've found that some teas prefer small pots -- especially my golden yunnans. Others want tons of room to unfurl and loosen the leaves before the true flavors come out. (see my previous post, Leaf: Before & After)

TRYING A TEA WITH A STRONG FLAVOR: There’s just something about tasting what is familiar or known to you. This is sort of intuitive -- how can you identify or separate out a flavor if you don't already know what it is? There's more to it than this, though. For example, I didn't taste an after-bite of pepper until after trying IPOT's golden yunnan. There was an "ah, okay" moment -- now I get what that peppery note is, and now I taste it in other teas. The same for the cocoa flavor (dark unsweetened cocoa powder, not chocolate) -- I had one tea that was extremely heavy in cocoa flavor, and now I taste notes of cocoa all over the place (even in an Assam that has been a regular tea for years). So, once you "get it" in one, it spreads. By the way, that orchid taste was the first flavor I got in oolongs. It took several cuppings of a variety of oolongs (I purchased a bunch of samples to start out) before I really started to expand and taste other things as well. :)

QUALITY OF TEA: This doesn't necessarily mean the tea has to be ultra-expensive, but (unfortunately) that often is the case. The high-quality leaves that have been tended with care, then packaged and shipped carefully, have many more flavor characteristics. They also can often be steeped several times, so you end up using less tea. Most importantly, I think that the closer you are to purchasing from the actual tea makers, the better. The tea is fresher, plus it has had less opportunity for damage to the leaves from packaging and re-packaging.

STEEPING & LEAF AMOUNT: This is probably my number one problem. Some teas really do need a ton of leaves with just a little water, but other leaves need to spread out to unfurl and release their flavor. Additionally, if they sit too long (especially in extra hot water), the acidity in the tannins gets overwhelming and the tea flavor itself can become very strong and end up sort of suppressing the underlying notes. Now that I think about it, maybe this isn't so much a problem, actually, as it is part of the fun. :)

Leaf: before & after

2005-04-23T15:54:00.000-07:00

This week I've been sipping a medium-roast oolong from Floating Leaves Tea. Some oolongs have a late summer or fall vegetation flavor (tomato leaves, falling leaves, mosses), but this tea is on the other end of things -- the end with flavors of fresh spring, early blossoms, and young grass. It's very fresh in the cup, and it brews up easily and quickly.

The first time I tried this oolong, I used way too much tea and the resulting brew was too bitter. What I hadn't expected was the dramatic change in size when the leaf unfurled; I ended up with a cup full of leaf and nowhere for the water to go. Now I know to only use 6-8 of the rolled leaves. Here are a few photos that demonstrate the change between leaf in the bag and leaf 2 gaiwan steeps later.

Click either photo to see it as a larger, more detailed image.

The smaller, furled, "before" leaf is circled.

note added: a few people have asked where I found the glass gaiwan. I purchased it from TeaSpring, one of my favorite online tea shops.

CW

Links of the Day, 4/23/05

2005-04-23T11:25:00.000-07:00

Tea plays an important role in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I'm planning to reread the book (and probably the series) soon, and I'll post fun quotes when I do. Right now, I'm just trying to decide whether to read it before or after the movie. Here's a book review with a fun anecdote about the author, Douglas Addams, being given tea with a surprise at the bottom.

World Sunlight Map, so you can see how sunny (or dark) it is in your favorite tea region.

Fold an Origami Teapot, from Cat-tea Corner: I'm saving this to do with my nieces and nephew.

I stumbled across Tea and Art, a web page with links to art that features tea. The web site hasn't been updated in almost 7 years (!), so only half of the links work. I loved seeing how different the Cassatt is from the Pollock (no surprise there), but I think my favorite piece of art here is Tea for Three, by Matisse. What's yours?

Time for Tea, a good overall look at the importance of timing in tea. Unfortunately, the blogger didn't remain active. Please note, although the pages look the same as mine, it is a different blog (we both used the same template, that's all).

I've been looking for other tea bloggers out there.So far, I've mostly found tea company blogs, some green tea blogs (usually in languages I don't speak), blogs that were started but went nowhere, and lots of blogs with "tea" in the title but nothing actually about camellia sinensis. If you have a tea blog, or know someone who does, or even if you have a link that you think might interest me, please feel free to post a comment!

CW

First Puerh

2005-04-22T14:16:00.000-07:00

I have just brewed my first Puerh (other than a nasty cheap bagged tea experience years ago that doesn’t really count). After all of my raving about golden yunnan teas, it seemed logical to make the progression from yunnan to puerh (a fermented tea that is also from the Yunnan province).

The brand/type of the puerh I tried is unknown. This was given to me after a visit to a fellow tealover’s home; she found out I had no real experience with puerh and handed me 5 small paper-wrapped balls of the fermented tea. Here’s a photo:

click photo to see larger, more detailed image

Although it is not one of their teas, I mostly followed the instructions from Hou de Fin Asian Arts. They had one of the more thorough web pages I could find, and I respect the owner’s knowledge and the quality of the tea (see comments below for a review I wrote of a 12-year aged oolong).

Brewed with tap water. Steamed small cake just for a minute, then gently broke apart (but into chunks more than leaves). I brewed the tea in a small Chatsford for only about 90 seconds, but the color was quite dark so I decided to remove the leaves.

Nothing objectionable, but this isn’t knocking my socks off like a golden yunnan does. I found the odor a bit . . . disconcerting. However, the flavor itself doesn’t bother me, just seems a bit flat. I may need to experiment with water temperature and steeping time, as well as finding other web sites and checking the Teamail Archives.

2 minutes later: As the tea cools in my cup, the range of flavors is becoming more distinct. It’s quite earthy, in a dark clay way. I’m not sure what about this reminds me of banana peels, but there is a vague memory that is kicking in. Maybe it’s a musky odor that I associate with bananas peels that have been sitting in the sun? Or perhaps it’s the the way that any vegetation smells after baking in the sun on a summer afternoon? It’s that sort of warm and musky scent.

My overall reaction to this tea: interesting. I’m intrigued enough to try it again, perhaps brewed a bit differently. I’ll definitely be watching Teamail for discussions and recommendations and giving puerhs a try at various shops. If it starts to strike more of a chord with me, then I’ll start purchasing more appropriate pots and cups that may affect the puerh tea experience.

CW

Tea Trip: Portland, Oregon

2005-04-21T22:15:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I had a great time on a tea trip to Portland, Oregon. I’ve only been to Portland once before and had never really explored the city. After a 3-hour rainy drive, I stopped by for tea at the home of a teamail acquaintance, then headed to the Heathman Hotel downtown. The small rooms are nice and cozy – just what I wanted on a rainy evening. Downstairs they have evening jazz and small plates in The Tea Lounge (which has a full tea service on Saturday afternoons). The rooms have Russell-Hobbsish kettles and nice cups/saucers. Next to each bed is a platter with the fixings for an herbal tisane (mint – chamomile). I didn't know until just now when I did a quick google search for the hotel, but apparently I stayed in a supposed haunted room (one that ended in 03). I don't remember anything funky happening, though (bummer!). :)

I spent the evening walking around and exploring – found one geocache and spent some time at Powell’s Used Book Store (which is interestingly set up a lot like its web site). Thanks to Marilyn, I knew that the Portland Farmer’s Market had started early this year, so the next morning I had a great time buying radishes, fancy breads, and big, leafy lettuces. Next stop, the Saturday Market, a uniquely Portland experience. Great fun, but the final stop was the reason for my visit – a Northwest Gathering of Teamailers at the Tao of Tea.

It was wonderful meeting a great group of tea lovers. I think that the Tao of Tea in Portland is one of my favorite-ever tea rooms, in part because of the great tea and food, but also because of the wonderful company. Each tea is served in the appropriate pot and/or cup, making every person's experience just a little different. The food is all vegetarian, and there are some incredible desserts.

CW

Yunnans Side-by-Side

2005-04-21T10:29:00.000-07:00

One of the fun aspects of golden yunnan tea is the leaves -- they're really beautiful, long, and twisted. The twisted nature of them gives them body and keeps the bag of tea full and round (no sinking into the bottom for these teas). They feel great in the hand, with a distinctly youthful texture. They look delicate and soft, but they're very durable and springy. Here's a side-by-side comparison to give you a sense of the leaf:

click the photo to see a larger, more detailed image

From left to right, these teas are Floating Leaves' Yunnan Gold, IPOT's Royal Yunnan, TeaSource's Golden Downey Tip. You can read my review of these teas in two of my past blogs: Golden Downey Tip and Golden Yunnans.

I don't have a high-powered camera, so it's hard to see two important things. First, the color varies just slightly, darker to lighter from left to right (Floating Leaves to Teasource). The color definitely reflects the taste, with the darkest the most chocolately of the bunch. Second, there is a dust that is left behind by the two darker teas. This dust is most pronounced in the Floating Leaves' tea; it is a golden-brown color and comes across almost as a cocoa powder (when you open the bag the scent of cocoa dominates).

CW

Lapsang Souchong Song

2005-04-21T10:03:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite songs with tea lyrics is Colin Hay's "Beautiful World." You may know Colin Hay from his old group, Men at Work, but this song is from a later solo album titled Going Somewhere. It's a nice song, great for sipping tea on a summer afternoon. Plus, how many songs actually mention lapsang souchong? Here are the relevant lyrics:

My my my it's a beautiful world.
I like drinking Irish tea
with a little bit of lapsang souchong
I like making my own tea

Click here to listen to a clip of the song

Lapsang Souchong is one of those love it or hate it teas, and I'm on the Love-It end. I enjoy the tarry smokiness (it's actually smoked over pine needles) and find it especially good when at very high altitudes (always sip it at my parents' home, which is about 7500 ft) or when you're outdoors and/or camping. A Teamailer says there's a lapsang souchong that's actually smoked in the Pacific Northwest, and I'm hoping to find that soon. In the meantime, here's a link to Mark T. Wendell's Hu Kwa, which is one of the more popular lapsang souchongs out there.

I do love my golden yunnans!

CW

Photos

2005-04-19T16:07:00.000-07:00

I was taking photos of gaiwan cups and tea still-lifes to find a photo for my profile. Here are the two runners-up:

CelebriTea

2005-04-19T15:53:00.000-07:00

Moby has been making the rounds the past couple of weeks -- he has a new album to plug. I saw him last week on the Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Moby joked that there has been tea for him at every stop on his junket (is that the right word?), and after 12 shows worth of tea he’s been getting to know show’s bathrooms quite well. Most tea-philes can relate to that! He mentioned his (and his girlfriend's?) New York City tea shop, and I've been wondering about it -- figured that it was probably cool and fast-paced, which can be fun, but isn't what everyone wants in a tea shop.

Teamailers have given generally negative reviews. I gather that Teany is a place to see-and-be-seen, the service is poor, and (worse) the food and tea aren’t all that good. I’m still curious, but this tea-sippin’, electronica-lovin’ , middle-aged-and-a-bit-frumpy woman probably wouldn’t fit in well. :)

One last thing, this time about the Late, Late Show. Craig Ferguson does a recurring bit called "Cup of Tea and a Chat." It's usually on Thursday or Friday (this week is in repeats, so it's hard to say) -- mostly it's a setup for gags, but he has a full silver tea service and it looks like actual tea is being poured. Kind of fun. If you’re interested, you should be able to find the latest in Late, Late Show Comedy Clips.

Golden Yunnans

2005-04-19T15:01:00.000-07:00

Golden Yunnans grow in the Yunnan province of China. The tea is handpicked as partially-opened buds in the early spring. Even though it is a black tea, the leaves actually turn gold after the oxidizing process. Good quality golden yunnan features long, thin, tightly-rolled leaves, and it has a distinctly earthy flavor.

In the past few months, Golden Yunnans have become my irreplaceable tea. I've fallen in love with the earthy, smokey characteristics of this tea and tend to shy away from any on the more floral end. I prefer overtones of cocoa and pepper with this tea. Here are my current favorites:

Teaspring's Golden Yunnan (the first I tried), a nicely grounded tea, and I mean that literally. This tea reminds me of a foggy day in the Puget Sound, when the air smells of moss and clay and ferns. My husband has used this in a blend that turns out quite nicely, but we've been wondering if the batch of tea has changed. We're not tasting as much depth in our most recent order (it's also possible that the strong cocoa overtones of my other two favorites are changing our perception).

In Pursuit Of Tea's Royal Yunnan, with its wonderfully peppery finish and beautifully "sproingy" leaves. I never use a spoon to measure the leaves with this because I love the feel of it in my fingers when I pull out a pinch. I'm starting to taste the hints of cocoa more, now that I've had the next tea. . .

Floating Leaves' Yunnan Gold, which is an incredible experience. When I first opened the bag, a heady scent of cocoa rose up. The leaves remind me of IPOT's -- very beautiful, and I can't help wanting to hold them in my fingers. There is a hint of a musty dark chocolate, and some great smokey undertones. There's also a nice pepper flavor, especially as the tea cools and you can feel the pricks on your tongue. Oddly enough, this reminds me of certain foods in New Mexico (smokey dark roasted chiles, moles, chipotles).

Imperial Tea Court's yunnan gold has been suggested to me, but that's next month's new tea. If anyone out there has suggestions for others, let me know! :)

see the comments for a copy of my initial experience with "Herons, Mud, and Yunnan Gold"

Links of the Day, 4/19/05

2005-04-19T14:30:00.000-07:00

Teamail, a friendly e-mail list for those who love tea. There are conversations to be had with sippers and purveyors from around the world.

Thanks to Winnie from Teamail for sharing a nicely upbeat quote: “bread and water can so easily be made into toast and tea”

Tea Rooms Northwest, by Sharron and John de Montigny, has become a standard for those who love trying tea rooms. There’s definitely a British tea/Red Hat Society slant to this, but it’s a useful guide. The accompanying web site has page-numbered updates.

Marmalady's Jams & Jellies are wonderful. I am particularly fond of the Apricot-Darjeeling.

One Perfect Cup of Tea Measuring Spoon, the name says it all.

Review: Teasource's Golden Downey Tip Yunnan

2005-04-19T14:07:00.000-07:00

I first tried this tea about a month ago, and here is what I then posted to Teamail:

The leaves for the tea look quite delicate, but they really aren't. I think that's my reaction to this tea -- I expect it to be delicate, almost weak, then it isn't. There is a definite earthiness that you smell and taste on the roof of your mouth, but there is no "muddy" followup. I think [Holly is] right in describing this as a clean earth taste. For me, it's has the qualities I want in a nice afternoon/evening tea -- very refreshing and not heavy.

I’m returning to this tea for the first time, and it is indeed a good afternoon tea. I’m finding it smokier than a I remembered (perhaps because I used a lower temp of water?) and am enjoying that sensation. I miss the cocoa overtones of other yunnans, but this does have a peppery finish.

It’s hard to sip the Golden Downey Tip with a gaiwan, and I am wishing I used a Chatsford to brew it instead (as I did the first time). The leaves are young and tightly furled, almost “needle-ey,” and this means they slip out of the cup and into my mouth when I sip. Next time I’ll use to the Chatsford.