Tea Goober

90's Blue Dingxing "Yiwu"

2011-01-23T11:30:00.000-08:00

Bug bites and all, I think the wrapper is what lured me most to this tea, very old fashioned looking. I wish I knew what is says. Like most everyone else, I had first seen this cake at Essence Of Tea and had since read both Hobbes and MarshalN's review of it. EOT has several teas that I am interested in but could never muster up the gumption to pay EOT prices, (nothing personal EOT) Thankfully there are a few of these cakes showing up here and there, Puerh Shop has a few interesting cakes in the "Aged Tea" section and offered at a price that is more in line with my budget.

The date of manufacture seems to vary depending on your source of information. Puerh Shop claims it to be from the 90"s. Others claim it to be from 2001. I don't think it matters all that much. What matters is the content. So, lets dig in and see what we have here.

The wrapper has turned yellow with age and dotted with oil spots, that's a good sign.

What a chubby cake! I don't know why but it always pleases me to unwrap a new cake and find a nice, thick, chunky, slab of tea. Ummm......yeah I do, because it usually means that the cake has been stoned pressed and consequently will be easier to break apart without breaking the leaves.

Thick and chunky leaves with a generous portion of twigs, I love rustic teas. There is the faintest of woodsy aromas wafting from the cake as well as the smell of wet storage. But as the wet storage smell is not all that strong I,m not too alarmed, I,ll give it a couple of good rinses and see whats left of it.

Whats in the cup is a pretty tasty tea. Woodsy and earthy with just a trace of astringency and some vegetal flavors from it's youth are still in the tea. Plenty of sweetness in both the soup and the aroma. Here and there I detect florals and sometimes spice. But the predominant thing is wood and earth. The wet storage aspects fade fairly quickly as I hoped they would. By the third to fourth infusion the tea has really opened up and it's origins become evident. I bet this tea was kinda fruity when freshly processed, I can barely taste something that reminds me of pears.

This is a decent tea (in my opinion) I can see how it could benefit from further storage but I,m liking it now. A hearty tea with a robust and sweet aftertaste. Very durable, I,m up to ten infusions and it's still going strong but just starting to wane. Brews up a nicely orange"d heading towards amber cup with good clarity. At Puerh Shops prices this is a decent tea. If I were to have bought this from EOT at his prices, I would have been kinda disappointed.

As you can see the tea is comprised of lots of chopped leaf, some rather large whole leaves, and plenty of twigs. Some burnished red and brown, and some still clinging to the greenness of youth. Not bad really, not bad at all. I couldn't see myself stockpiling this tea, but a couple of cakes for future consumption sounds like a good idea.

2010 Dragon Whiskers Mao Jian

2011-01-22T14:03:00.000-08:00

He's so sleepy, he can just barely keep his peepers open. I think it's safe to assume that I can now have an un-interrupted tea break, if I,m very quiet about it. Tyson thinks he needs to be involved in everything I do. Boxers are a great breed of dog, good natured and fun. But if they have one fault, it's separation anxiety. He has to be constantly touching you, leaning against you, or worst of all, staring at you.

If I had to choose just one type of tea to drink for the rest of my life, it would undoubtedly be green tea. I generally like all types of tea but green tea is the only tea that I actually crave. From "Tea Trekker" this Mao Jian is a fairly new addition to their catalog. Bob and Mary Lou bought this tea during their recent trip to the Fang Cun Tea Market in Guangzhou China. They made the decision to add this to their catalog immediately upon tasting it, and I can see why, it's delicious! Ive become a big advocate of Tea Trekker, everything Ive had from them was excellent quality and priced fairly.

This Mao Jian is an early spring harvest tea from Zhejiang province. The Mao Jian pluck is defined as one bud and leaf. Hand rolled and pan fired. When it comes to green tea I don't bother with scales for weighing the quantity, I just get a feel for it. It's probably around 3 grams of leaf to six ounces of water. This Mao Jian needs cooler water than other China greens. I get the best results using water at about 175 degrees. Water temperature and brewing times are important factors of brewing green tea that I am fairly diligent about. Timing is everything, it's not that this tea will become bitter or astringent if the water is too hot, but you will exhaust the leaf prematurely and you won't get as many brews from it.
Be observant and pay attention when brewing green tea. Decant too soon and the brew isn't all it could have been, the flavors and aromas haven't been fully developed. Wait a little too long and the best flavors to be had are long gone and there's no way to go back and get them in the subsequent brews. You blew it! Brewing first pluck greens can be a challenge, but it's worth the effort when it comes to some farm fresh, high quality teas.

That picture up there speaks volumes about the quality and the condition of this tea. Absolutely beautiful leaf with such a healthy green color. As you can see below the brew is a crystal clear, golden color. Slightly sweet, rich and vegetal. As soon as the water hits the dry leaf there is an explosion of the most mouth watering aromas wafting from the shiboridashi. This is what good green tea is all about. And whats more is that it's not a very expensive tea.At $60.00 a lb. it's a very fair price for a tea of this quality.

Very easy to brew, I get three good infusions from the leaf. This tea infuses pretty quickly, about 1&1/2 to 2 minutes. The second infusion is almost indistinguishable from the first, no real noticeable difference in the flavor, color or the body. The third infusion is almost as good, definitely fading but still too good to let it go to waste.

Well, I almost made it through the entire session without Tyson waking up. The Postman rang the doorbell and Tyson was off and running again. Both a blessing and a curse because the Postman brought more tea.

90's CNNP 7542

2011-01-08T13:57:00.000-08:00

It's one of those days that I don't know what I want to drink. Growing bored with all of my go-to teas Ive been drinking lately, so I resorted to my box of tea samples and tid-bits for inspiration. And bless my cotton socks I might have found something here. I don't know where I got this from or how long Ive had it. Ive always liked Menghai's 7542 but Ive never had the old school, CNNP version of it before. So this is the proper, back in the day (before Dayi) version of 7542. Although I have to keep in mind the 7542's price point, which tells a lot. I figure that if a cake sells for $17.00 or so, what could the ratio of high grade mao cha to plantation grown filler be? After having travelled through all the middle men before it got to me and that's the price I paid, then these cakes must be cheap as dirt to produce.

But then again, even though this is pre-Dayi, it's still cheap tea and maybe I shouldn't have high hopes for this tea seeing that it's been in the sample box for God knows how long. Also it's a fairly small chunk of tea, it's not going to be representative of the same tea stored as a whole cake in a proper storage environment.

There is indeed a noticeable difference in the teas composition. Modern day 7542 is made from a much more consistent leaf size. This tea also has some twigs ranging in size from insignificant to full blown sticks, that's something I haven't seen in a Dayi 7542. This tea consists of various leaf sizes and it's much easier to see the blend itself. Some of the leaves are kinda thin and paper like, while others are quite thick and chunky. The dry leaf has only the slightest of wet storage odors remaining.

Seven grams of leaf go into the yixing, two good rinses (trying to diminish any traces of wet storage) and lets see what we have here. The characteristics that Ive come to expect from the 7542 recipe is definitely in the cup. Woodsy and leathery with barely noticeable traces of smoke. Almost no bitterness to be found and just enough sweetness to provide contrast to the wood and leather.

This tea was initially wet stored, and probably quite heavily, but it's been dry for so long that it brews up a pretty light and clear amber color. This is pretty much a straight forward, basic sheng with not much in the way of complexity. What Folgers is to coffee is what this tea is to raw puerh. Nothing wrong with it but nothing to write home about either. This teas less than ideal storage hasn't "ruined" the tea, but even if it were to go into a moderately humid environment for revivifying I,m not sure it's salvageable. It's lost too much at this point.

Drinking these kinds of teas provide some insight into how important storage environments are to puerh. I,m kinda leery of buying "aged sheng" from online vendors for this exact reason. Just because it's from a reputable maker and it's a popular tea doesn't mean anything really. Whats been done to it over the years plays such a big role in the teas outcome. This tea is probably still available online somewhere out there, but I wouldn't want it if they were giving it away. Just doesn't cut the mustard in my book.

I wonder..........is it possible that you can learn what good tea should taste like...... by drinking bad tea? I think what you learn is the tell tale signs of improper or negligent storage conditions. The year the tea was made doesn't matter, the name brand or maker doesn't matter, nor it's blend or mountain of origin. These three issues can give you an indication of what to expect or what the teas potential might be. But there is only one way to tell for sure........Drink It!

The Taming Of The Shu

2010-12-09T16:02:00.000-08:00

Isn't that a corny title? Well, at least it's appropriate for the issue at hand. 2006 is the year that Menghai won the Gold Award for the V93 tuocha, and this is the same tea from the same year. I had bought these when they first became available (six years ago) and they have been in storage ever since. Still available (here) but at about twice the price they sold for when first released.

Menghai still sets the standard when it comes to cooked puerh, you really can't beat em. Although there are shu's from other company's that are well on their way to challenging Menghai's position. The world is full of average quality, mediocre shu and it can be a bit of a challenge to find the good stuff. But once the goods have been procured, it needs to go into storage for at least several years to mellow. At five years of age this tea has (in my opinion) reached it's potential. Well, maybe another year or two of clean, dry storage would bring further improvements but for the most part it's good to go.

I,m not a subscriber to the "older is better" school of thought when it comes to cooked puerh. Shu definitely needs it's storage time but it can't stand up to the lengthy storage time that a raw puerh needs. In my opinion, shu reaches it's potential within a five to ten year time span and then starts to fade and loose it;s flavor. The handful of shu's Ive had that were older than ten years were not very good, they were bland and boring.

The color of the dry leaf is exactly what I want to see, a nice healthy caramel brown with some red and gold bit's here and there. Not the dull, monochromatic shades of muck you,ll find in lesser teas.

What I really like about the V93 recipe is it's cleanliness in the cup. It's not one of those heavy, sludge like shu's. It's flavors and aroma's are woodsy, rich and nutty with a caramel like sweetness. What also sets it apart from the others is the crisp and clean aspects it brings to the cup. It brews up a deep amber cup with sparkling clarity.

Easily brews ten to fifteen infusions, which is a bit much even for me. Autumn and Winter is the only time of year I drink cooked puerh, any other season and the flavors are too much for my palate. But in the cold of Winter it's very satisfying.

Ding Gu Da Fang

2010-12-04T11:07:00.000-08:00

I always feel a little guilty about having all of these teas going un-drunk and wasting away in the tea cabinet. So, Ive been making an honest effort to consume a substantial quantity of these neglected teas before Christmas gets here and I get bombarded with more gifts of tea.

Ding Gu Da Fang is a China green tea that was once a tribute tea during the Qing Dynasty and at one time was included in the list of China's 10 famous teas. Legend has it that a Buddhist monk by the name of Da Fang invented this tea during the Song Dynasty. Ding Gu translates as Valley Peak. Grown in the An Hui province.

First thing many people say about this tea is that it reminiscent of a Long Jing, "Poppycock" it's only similarity as far as I can see is that the dry leaf kinda resembles Long Jing in that it's kinda flat, thin and a yellowish green in color. It has none of the toasty, yeasty flavors that I associate with a Long Jing. The leaf in the above picture looks pretty tattered (bottom of the caddie) but you can see in the top picture that the dry leaf is for the most part whole and beautiful.

Ding Gu Da Fang tastes of chestnuts, smooth and buttery, slightly sweet and vegetal with a medium body. It's not a dainty tea by any means. Most of the descriptions Ive read about Ding Gu Da Fang tea always refers to it as being rather strong tasting, Ive never thought of it as strong. Ive also never had a Ding Gu Da Fang that was anything more than a really good everyday type of tea, just a rich and tasty cup that wouldn't hurt any ones budget. For my tastes this tea requires extra leaf to get fully saturated flavors, I typically use about 3&1/2 gms. per 6 oz. 185 degree water, with a 2-3 minute infusion time. Ive had a kilo of this tea in the cabinet since last spring and though I drink it almost daily Ive got a long ways to go before it's gone. For anyone interested in trying this tea "Uptons" has just re-stocked it (which is where I had bought this batch) and it's affordable too boot!

The only reason for the above picture is just because I like the cup, but it's not mine. I got it for a friend and it's on it's way to Canada. Oh well......we bonded a little, we laughed, we cried, but now it's time for you to go. The cups as well as the shiboridashi in this post were made by Petr Novak. The shiboridashi has some issues, the glaze is chipping off all around the edge of the lid. But I don't know why, it's never been treated roughly. Perhaps Petr can tell us why the glaze is crumbling?

That Red Tin Ti Kuan Yin Oolong

2010-12-02T13:14:00.000-08:00

This tea was given to me by a well meaning person a long, long time ago. We have all seen these tins on the shelves of just about every Chinese market. I always appreciate the gift of tea, no matter how humble it may be. I had actually forgotten about this tin of oolong, it's been in the cabinet for a year or more. Today while digging through all the bags, tins, boxes of teas I found this and thought I,d give it a go. I,m probably not any different than most people reading this in that Ive got more tea samples and bits of this and that laying around than I,ll ever get around to trying. I,m making a concerted effort to try to whittle these teas down a bit before buying anything else.

I had to run some errands today and stopped by the Asian market and sure enough, there it was on the shelf. At $5.99 a tin I shouldn't expect much. I see that "Puerh Shop" has this same exact tea on sale for $13.77 Just go's to show that you should be very careful where you spend your money. Not all of Puerh Shop's teas are this over priced, some of his teas are very good and sold at a fair price.

Opening the tins outer and inner lids unleashes a very strong roasted aroma with some very pungent citrus aspects wafting into the room. The teas dry leaf is pretty darned strong smelling. Could be a good sign, could be a sign of overly roasted bland and lifeless tea. So......lets get some leaf into the pot, give it a good rinse and see what we have here.

First things first, the first infusion smells very strongly of the roast and a floral smell that Ive always thought of as "grapefruit flower" a very clean and tart citrus with just a touch of spice is in the mix as well. The aroma is impressive, it smells good. The tea brews up fairly clear with a deep amber color. The flavor isn't bad, actually, it's a lot better than I thought it would be considering it's price. It's body is a little thin and not much in the way of sweetness, but all in all, it's really not a bad tea. Perfectly acceptable as a matter of fact. Of course you can't compare this tea to others selling for a lot more money but it has some of the same flavors and aromas as those higher priced oolongs.

It was a nice gift after all. Now I,m not saying I'd run out and buy a few tins of this stuff but what I have I,ll drink and enjoy it. We all know that you get what you pay for but every once in a while I,m surprised at some of these mass produced teas. Most of them are not very good, or even drinkable for that matter. I don't always have to have some really expensive tea in my cup to be happy, and most days I,m too busy and don't have enough time to really appreciate my tea. So, I save my "good" teas for a time when I can give them the attention they deserve. But having said that, sooner or latter after drinking these kinds of teas for a while I will get to the point where I,m wanting something sublime. And no matter how hard you look you are never going to find sublime for $5.99 or $13.77 depending on where you shop. Nope, your going to have to fork out the dough.

What The Pho!

2010-11-25T14:34:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving

As there are no family around this year I am at liberty to cook whatever I want for Thanksgiving dinner. I don't like turkey at all, and for that matter most of the traditional dishes that accompany the Thanksgiving feast are not at the top of my list of favorite foods. I do like Yams though. O.K. so.......what to cook? I decided to make Pho ( pronounced fuh ) Pho is Vietnam's national dish. A big steaming bowl of rice noodles, with either chicken or beef, swimming in a broth made from your meat bones of choice, onions, star anise, cinnamon stick, ginger, sugar, salt, fish sauce and black pepper corns. After the broth has simmered for hours the noodles get topped with mung bean sprouts, cilantro, Thai basil, lime, green onions, hoisen sauce and saracha (hot sauce) and a generous quantity of the broth. I love this stuff, so much better than pho-king turkey and the like.

By the way, there is no tea that I know of that can compete with the pungent flavors of this soup, so don't even waste your time or tea. If you have never had Pho before, and you like this kind of stuff, it's very easy to make and quite affordable. And it's fairly healthy, lean meats, rice noodles and spices and herbs. But it's best to wait a few hours before breaking out your tea and tea gear because after eating this soup your tea will be completely tasteless.

The Tea Tables of Seol Seok-cheol

2010-10-25T21:34:00.000-07:00

Go ahead and get your credit card, your going to need it.

Just thought I,d post about "Antiques Alive" for anybody interested. I accidentally stumbled upon this site and found that they offer some very interesting and cool handmade items that are made by Korean master craftsman. I,m not going to go into any details about the company or any of the artists, all that info is available on their site. But I will say, Seol Seok-cheol's tables are very cool, mines ~~on the way~~ here. They also sell Korean tea. Though they don't say who the maker is they do state that it's handmade from wild tea bushes.

To find the tea and tea wares on Antiques Alive click on "For The Table" section.

The table I chose is one of the more basic designs and made from Paulownia.

Handmade lamps that are made from Mulberry paper.

Handmade Buncheong Porcelain, wouldn't this little jar be great filled with Bahlyocha?

2010 Kim Shin Ho Balhyocha

2010-10-08T11:49:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I had received my Korean tea samples from Pedro (Dao Tea) and of all the teas that were included in the tasting this Balhyocha was the one that really intrigued me, very different from any other tea Ive had before. I just had to have some more of this Balhyocha, or, "Yellow Tea" as Matt has referred to it, for further tastings. Thanks Pedro! A superb handmade tea by Tea Master Kim Shin Ho.

A Japanese Cherry Wood Coaster Set from the 1950's

As you can see for yourself the dry leaf is chunky and thick. I love chunky and thick, what that tells me is there are many, many infusions to be had. The tea smells of malty roasted grain, honey, raisins and a touch of cocoa. Ive had to experiment a little to get Balhyocha's to brew correctly, or rather, to my liking. Initially when I first brewed these teas I felt that I wasn't extracting all the flavors this tea had to offer. Water temperature and infusion times needed to be adjusted. Spring water brought to the boil and cooled to 185 degrees, plenty of leaf, quickish infusion times brought out the flavors that I knew this tea possessed but I had missed when first attempting this tea.

Balhyocha is a really unique tea, the malted grain and honey notes are a perfect match with the cocoa aspects. This tea is just slightly sweet. Something Ive noticed with all of these Korean teas is that they trick your other senses into perceiving that they are sweeter than they really are. The tea smells of honey, very much so in fact. But when you taste it, it's not as sweet as you thought it was going to be. Now, I,m not saying that's a negative thing, just making observations.

Using more leaf and quicker infusions brings out the best in this tea. And of course the durability was increased by bumping up the leaf quantity, four to five good pots. This Balhyocha is quite rich, almost (but not quite) buttery in the cup. My first impression of these "Yellow Teas" is that they were good, but not very complex. Ive since changed my mind. Yesterday while drinking this tea I noticed some lilac florals in the later infusions. Such a gorgeous tea! Ive been trying to restrain from drinking this stuff up, trying to make it last a while. But it's just so damned good I bet I devour it all within a week. Pedro, you may be hearing from me again shortly.

Puttabong Estate 2nd Flush Darjeeling

2010-09-22T11:19:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's that time of year again. When you see the second flush Darjeeling's on the market then you know Autumn is just around the corner. From Uptons, the go-to place for Darjeeling teas. Upton's is from my experience, just about the most professionally operated online tea vendors out there on that inter-web thing. Ive been buying from them for maybe the past 10 years or so and never once have I had any problem. Very prompt service, order's are almost always shipped out the same day and it's not unusual for my order to be delivered within one to two days after ordering. O.K. here go's....Puttabong Estate 2nd flush SFTGFOP1 Cl/Qu. These acronyms are the grading system India uses to get REAL specific about just what pigeon hole these teas fit into. In other words, Super Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe "Grade" 1 Clonal Queen. A bit much.....isn't it?

At their best Darjeeling has got to be one of the most sublime teas there is. But Darjeeling has not been up to snuff for several years now. Last year Darjeeling suffered a draught and the teas were not on a par with previous years. You could find the occasional gem here and there but all in all it was another year of disappointment.

Ive noticed something different about Darjeeling's in the past few years, there are more and more of them displaying a malty flavor in the cup. I don't remember ever having noticed this before. The malty flavors are something that I would expect from India's native Assamica varietal of tea tree. True Darjeeling is made from China clonal bushes, which leads me to wonder if they are gradually introducing their native tea trees into the gardens. And if so, why? Is there a higher yield? Easier to grow?

Ive had an on again, off again, love affair with Darjeeling teas for years and years. When they are good, they are REALLY good. But more often than not they get an "it's pretty good" ranking from me. This Darjeeling falls into the later category. Puttabong has never been one of my preferred estates but with this years 1st flushes from Puttabong getting such rave reviews I thought maybe they deserve a re-investigation from me. I,m still not that impressed. It's a good quality everyday type of Darjeeling. You know, the kind of Darjeeling you are likely to find in gourmet grocery stores. The dry leafs colors are beautiful, presents the full color spectrum of browns, oranges and some rusty reds with the occasional silver tip.

This tea is fresh, I,ll give it that much. It has some of the stereotypical aspects I want to see in a Darjeeling but it's falls just a little short of being all it could be. A little fruity and floral, too astringent with normal brewing methods. By keeping the steeping time shorter than what I would usually go for some of that astringency can be left behind in the pot. The flavor isn't as fully developed as it should be and the body is a tad thin, it's just kinda flat. For the past several years Darjeeling hasn't been getting the quality they are capable of. Not their fault though, there's nothing they can do about the weather. But I,m not calling it a day as far as this years Darjeeling's are concerned, I plan on trying Arya Estates 2nd flush when they come out. Arya is (in my opinion) just about the best there is when it comes to the second flushes. Especially the "Ruby" grade.

Sorry for that glaringly orange pic up there, don't know what I was thinking when I took that. The tea ware? That's a set made by Hokujo, a Japanese potter. Hokujo's tea wares are the best of the best when it comes to hand made pottery. Very high grade, well processed clay. His skill is baffling, every line, edge has perfect uniformity. I normally use this pot for green teas but every once in a while I,ll brew something like this tea in it. This set is one of my most cherished pieces, my Sencha just wouldn't be the same without it. But as with all things in life, you get what you pay for, his wares are not cheap. I think the pot alone is a little under $200.00 Hokujo rarely uses a glaze on his wares, I guess he wants the focus to be on the clay itself. Why would you want to cover that clay with anything?

Note: after drinking this tea for a few days and experimenting with brewing parameters I realized that cooler water and shorter infusion times bring out some malty flavors as well as the fruit, leaving a lot of the biting astringency behind in the pot. Still.....not a great tea but better than I initially thought.

Kim Shin Ho - 2009 - Hwagae Village Sejak

2010-09-16T10:55:00.000-07:00

Another tea from Dao Teas is what we have today. Again, thanks to Matt and Pedro for making this Korean tea throw down possible. This Sejak was hand made by tea master Kim Shin Ho using time honored, traditional techniques.

This Sejak is from 2009 and it looks like it doesn't it? The color of the dry leaf is pale and washed out. Actually starting to turn brown in places. The dry leafs aroma reflects it's washed out appearance, a barely detectable smell of what used to be. It's getting on in years, elderly and feeble. Compare the color of Kim Shin Ho's 2009 Sejak to ( this ) see the difference? By comparison the Dong Cheon Sejak is a much healthier, richer shade of green.

There really isn't much to comment on here, the flavor is so thin and washed out. I can taste traces of what used to be in the cup, and I bet it was pretty good in it's day. What a waste that this tea wasn't appreciated when it was fresh. This Sejak gave everthing it had to give in the first infusion, the second infusion turned out so thin and bland it wasn't worth drinking. I wonder if they were to use nitro flush packaging if the teas freshness could be extended? It works great for Japanese greens, why not Korean?

For me this is a good example of the importance of buying teas in season. Some teas can hold up for a while, some can't. So......Kim Shin Ho's 2009 Sejak is pretty uneventful but his Balyhocha was superb, had that last night and it was delicious. Brewed a really nice cup that was rich and creamy. Caramalized, roasted grain flavors that had just the right amount of sweetness. Kim Shin Ho's Balyhocha is a tea I would buy, but the Sejak? Maybe next spring!

Kim Jong Yeol - 2010 Hwagae Village Sejak

2010-09-14T12:48:00.000-07:00

As I have plenty of free time today I thought I,d continue with tasting some of Dao Teas offerings. This tea, like the Balhyocha in the previous post are made by Kim Jong Yeol, a tea master who reportedly quit his corporate job so that he could dedicate his life to the art of making tea. Now that's a man who likes his tea!

Opening the little foil pack and sniffing, the smell reminds me of sea weed and sencha. A very bright smell as opposed to a tea with a lot of depth. The dusty grey / green of the dry leaf even looks like little strips of kombu. Some of the leaves are quite thick and chunky, some are more thin and spindly. They all go into the pot along with some 165 degree spring water. An infusion time of a minute and lets see what we have here. Brews a cup of very clear and clean, light yellow soup. In keeping with the dry leafs aroma there is a resemblance to sencha in the cup as well. Slightly astringent with barely a trace of sweetness. Delicately vegetal with a faint odor of egg white. All of the flavors this tea has to offer are bright, clean and upper palate.

Aesthetically, this celadon tea set made by Xu De Jia looks more Korean than any other wares I have. The kyusu has developed a small crack on the inside of the pot, sometimes it leaks and sometimes not, this time it didn't. I think it's one of those scenarios where it leaks because I don't use it enough, I don't use it because it leaks. If I were to use it more regularly I,m sure the crack would repair itself.

All in all, I,m not a big fan of this tea. It's nice enough but it pales in comparison to the Dong Cheon Korean teas. This tea is just too light, bright and tart for my tastes. The smell of egg white is also a strike against it in my book. I wonder why some teas have that almost sulfuric smell? Ive noticed that same smell in some China Tie Guan Yins before, Yuck! I,ll say this much for it, the durability is pretty good. Even the fourth infusion had some of the same flavors that were found in the first pot. Usually the initial flavors wane quickly and your left with something else. This tea doesn't really evolve or open up into anything other than what it started out with, a light and delicate cup of tea that though it's enjoyable, just isn't to my liking.

2009 Kim Jong Yeol's Balhyocha (Dao Tea)

2010-09-07T13:04:00.000-07:00

Having just received Pedro's ( Dao Teas ) bag of samples in the mail, I was eager to give this Balhyocha a try. Thanks go's to Pedro and Matt ( Mattcha's Blog ) who are sponsoring this event. Between this tea tasting, the book club and his regular posts, Matts got his work cut out for him. Matt and Pedro are having an online tasting of Korean teas of which I am one of the lucky ten people that are participating.

This tea was made in 2009 by Tea Master Kim Jong Yeol, grown in the Hwagae Village, South Korea. Pedro sources all of Dao Teas offerings himself, directly from the Tea Masters. Pedro doesn't have a huge selection but what he has is a fairly nice selection of Korean teas that all of which are handmade using time honored, traditional techniques. Balhyocha is an oxidised ( Yellow Tea ) This should be interesting, Ive only had three Korean teas previously and all of those were green teas.

First things first, the dry leaf is a very deep, dark, roasted brown color, with the some of the leaves edges turning a rich burnt sienna color. An intense aroma of malted grain and chocolate, with the slightest touch of fruity raisin. The leaves are quite long, chunky and thick. What that tells me is that there is a lot of flavor packed in those leaves that typically results in many, many infusions. Leaves with these characteristics usually require at least one infusion just to get them to open up a little. So, the first pot is a teaser for what's to come in later infusions.

The recommended brewing method suggests using 175 degree water. O.K. I,ll give it a shot, I would have thought hotter water would be needed to pull the flavors out of these stout leaves. The aroma wafting from the pot is very nice, malted grain (cereal) chocolaty, a tad fruity. The tea brews a yellow cup with a touch of amber, judging by the color of the dry leaf I was expecting something a little more reddish, brown.

Very nice! The flavor leans very much toward cereal and chocolate, reflects it's aromas very well. No astringency at all, very slightly sweet. In some ways the Balhyocha's aroma is reminiscent of a China Congo, but then again it's in a category of it's own. Hmmm......it's a nice tea but it just isn't delivering what I would consider fully saturated flavors, just a little tame. Resorting to using hotter water and longer infusion times in an attempt to get a little more flavor out of the leaf turned out to be of no avail, the teas already fading.

Intuition is telling me I didn't coax from these leaves everything they had to offer, could this have been caused by the tea being a year old? Improper brewing? I,m gonna have to buy a bag of this so I can get a better grasp of Balhyocha's flavors and brewing requirements.

It's a great day for tea tasting, first hint of Autumn in the air, pouring rain the entire day. I,m beginning to see how Korean teas are made in such a way as to coax the best attributes of each plucking, 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc. The tea makers probably varying the various stages of tea production to maximize each pluckings potential. The Balyhocha's leaf is much larger than Ujeon, Sejak or Jungjak so it makes sense that the leaf would need partial oxidation as there would be little of the fresh green tea characteristics remaining in the leaf at this stage of it's growth.

Thanks again Matt and Pedro! I,m looking forward to trying the other samples.

2010 Dong Cheon Hwagae Valley Ujeon

2010-08-30T12:04:00.000-07:00

Saving the "best" for last and letting Petr's Shiboridashi have the honors we have Dong Cheons Ujeon. Courtesy of Tea Trekker, A big "Thank You" go's to Bob & Mary Lou Heiss for their generosity. Having had both the Jungjak and the Sejak and realizing how different those two teas were I didn't know what to expect from the Ujeon. This Ujeon was made from the second spring pluck (mid April) the Sejak from the third spring pluck, the Jungjak from the fourth. All three teas are made from the exact same semi wild organic tea bush's grown in the Hwagae valley. So..... the waters been boiled, tea tables set, let the session begin.

The Ujeon is the most expensive of the three Korean teas currently offered by Tea Trekker. At $60.00 for a canister containing ten 3.3 gm. packets. It's evidently "worthy" of special packaging. Is this tea worth such a lofty price? In my opinion, it's worth every penny. But having said that, this is a tea I would buy rarely and only for special occasions. Sometimes you've just gotta set limits.

The Ujeon is a much finer, smaller leaf than the Sejak or the Jungjak, which is to be expected. The dry leaf has a rich but delicate silvery, green color. Very fresh, slightly sweet vegetal aroma with traces of cherry blossoms and the tenderest, young, pine. The teas aroma has such depth, clarity and balance. It really does remind me of fresh spring meadows. This tea is special! Lighter and cleaner than the Sejak or Jungjak, almost feminine in it's nature. A little more crisp and savory than the other two teas. In both the Sejak and the Jungjak the cereal or malted grain flavors and aromas are much more prevelant, the Ujeon contains these aspects as well but very subtle. The Ujeons berry flavors are more delicate and understated compared to either the Sejak or the Jungjak. The aftertaste is quite persistent, lasting long after the teas been drunk.

Just look at those leaves! Gorgeous, aren't they? Tender young shoots loaded with juicy spring time goodness. This tea requires water that's a little cooler than would normally be used for green tea, around 160 degrees or so. I noticed in the later infusions that the Ujeon maintained it's aroma through out the session, in fact, even when the session was over the leaves were still quite fragrant. Usually a teas aroma fades more rapidly than this.

Although these teas are pricey I think it important to fight the impulse to skimp on the quantity of leaf used. Actually, this applies to all teas. You need enough leaf to attain fully saturated flavors and aromas. Don't fork out that much money and then cheat yourself out of tasting the teas potential.

Again, such sparkling, crystaline, clarity. That shimmering, golden, silvery soup speaks volumes about the teas quality. That cup is brimming with some of the juiciest, most delicious tea Ive ever had. It's fascinating to know that all three of Dong Cheons teas are made from the exact same bush's. They are so different from each other yet they also share some aspects in aromas and flavors. I can honestly say that I don't consider the more expensive "best" ones to be better than the lesser expensive. Like three brothers you can see the similarities of all three, but all three have their own identity and character.

I,m glad I had the opportunity to try these Korean green teas, they are all superb examples of the tea makers art. Also a "Thank You" to Matt for providing us with a wealth of first hand knowledge and much experience with these teas. If this post has tweaked your interest then be sure to visit Matt, Mattchas Blog can keep you busy for hours.

2010 Dong Cheon Korean Teas, Sejak & Jungjak

2010-08-28T12:56:00.000-07:00

At last! Finally some Korean green teas. As most of you reading this know, Korean teas have been difficult, if not impossible to find here in the U.S.A. But things are changing, there are now a few online sources for these teas, one of them being www.teatrekker.com which is where these teas came from. I can't recommend Tea Trekker enough, Bob and Mary Lou Heiss know their teas. In all my years of tea drinking I had never had a Korean tea before. Also in all my years of tea drinking I thought I,d had just about every conceivable flavor profile green tea has to offer. Boy was I wrong, these teas are in a class of their own. They deserve more recognition, they are indeed superb. I,m not really going to do an in depth description of these teas flavors and aromas because the ultimate review can be found on Mattchas Blog. If your reading this then chances are good you are already know Matt. So, go give Matt a visit, he can summarize these teas much better than I.

All three teas, Ujeon, Sejak and the Jungjak are made from semi wild, organic tea bushes growing in the Hwagae valley. All three are also made using the Jeong Cha method, which means the kill green stage is accomplished by briefly plunging the leaves into near boiling water, then the shaping and drying is done in one step in a metal cauldron. The more common method of processing tea is to caldlron dry the leaf, out of the cauldron for shaping and resting, then back into the cauldron, back out etc. It requires several times of doing this before the tea is finished. Lastly, all three teas are made from the same semi wild bush's but what makes them so markedly different is the harvest time. In order of harvest is Ujeon, Sejak and Jungjak.

The first one up to bat is the "Sejak" which comes from the third spring pluck. Cutting open the bag unleashes a pungent aroma, very vegetal with some rich fruit aromas in the background, also a slight hint of malted grain buried deep within. Something that reminds me of toasted Nori is also in the dry leafs aroma. O.K. so lets get the kettle on to boil and see what we have here.

Sejak

Careful brewing is required here, 170 degree water and attention paid to infusion times and you will be rewarded with a superb cup. Absolutely delicious! I see what Matt meant when he described this tea as being "slippery" reminds me of some kind of tree sap. The flavors permeate into your entire mouth and stays a while, it doesn't just wash over it. The Nori aroma I mentioned earlier shows up in the cup as well. Man.... this stuff is good. The soup has a really nice thickish body.I have found these teas to be much more durable than either Chinese or Japanese green teas. These teas are very complex and additional steepings bring out buried flavors and aromas. It's not one of those teas that just gets weaker and thinner as the sessions continue. I could go on and on trying to tell you what this tea tastes like but like I said.......go see Matt.

Jungjak

Jungjak is made from the fourth pluck harvest. It's interesting to know that Jungjak is made from the exact same tea bushes as the Sejak.....yet the aromas and flavors are so different. The Jungjak has a deep caramelized toasty malted grain aroma in both the dry and infused leaf. That vegetal, toasted Nori aroma is present in the Jungjak as well but it's way, way back in the background. It smells as though it should taste sweet, but it doesn't. Very rich and mouth watering flavors and aromas of roasted nuts, cocoa, nori and malt. Ive noticed in both the Sejak and the Jungjak the slightest touch of saline in the aftertaste, I wonder if they are feeding these plants sea weed as fertilizer?

Again, you can tell by the dry leafs appearance that this is a very well made tea, the producers cared about the quality first and foremost. Mind you......this care and attention costs. These teas are quite expensive and I could see myself buying them as an occasional treat but way too costly to drink regularly. Just look at that vibrant green color in the pot.

Brews a cup of the most intense yellowy green color. And like the Sejak, the Jungjak has a thickish body. Though the Jungjak is less expensive than the Sejak the price difference doesn't reflect a difference in quality. In my opinion they are equally good, just different styles and flavor profiles. In some ways the Sejak and the Jungjak share some of the same flavors and aromas but it's as if the flavors have been shuffled and the order of dominance has been re-arranged.

Tea Trekker Greens Pt. 2 "Lu'An Gua Pian"

2010-07-21T13:07:00.000-07:00

I touched upon the topic of the seasons dictating my choice in teas in the previous post. To continue with this issue, I pretty much only drink green teas during the Spring and Summer months. Yancha or Dan Congs are also on the menu from time to time. Listening to that little voice in my head, I comply and save the Puerhs and Taiwan Oolongs for Autumn and Winter. For me that's when the time is right for such robust and intense teas. So.......there isn't going to be much talk of sheng on Tea Goober for a while, unless I run across something worth mentioning, the "Boys Club" (sheng posts) will be on hold.

" Lu'An Gua Pian "

China produces thousands of different kinds of green teas but there are really only a handful that I,m interested in. Without doubt one of my favorite China green teas. Lu'An Gua Pian is grown on Lu'An mountain in the Anhui Province. From what Ive read it is by far one of the most difficult China greens to produce. One of the reasons for the difficulty is the picking standard, only the first true leaf below the bud set is used to make Lu'An tea. Then the leaf is de-veined, can you imagine having to remove the vein from each and every leaf? Multiple basket firings finish the tea. This particular batch is from 2009, getting to be quite elderly but still delicious.Tea Trekker has become my "go-to" guys for China green teas.

Lu'An tea leaves are always big, thick and chunky. Colors ranging from a light olive to the deepest of greens. There is a lot of depth in the dry leafs aroma yet it subtly hints at the flavors to come. Even with it's age I can still smell the sweet and earthy characteristics that I remember from it's youth. Lu'An Gua Pian always brews a cup that's full, round and rich. Brews a cup that's deep golden yellow in color with the slightest of green undertone. Ive found Lu'An tea always good for several infusions. If you have tried China greens and thought them to be not your cup, Lu'An might be the tea that changes your mind. It's very different from any other China green tea. Lu'An has no astringency what so ever and never turns bitter from over steeping. You can see the depth of color in the cup, it's not a light and wimpy tea at all. Almost Oolong like in it's viscosity but most definitely a green tea flavor profile.

Next in line is some Lu'Shan Clouds & Mist and Purple Bamboo. Good stuff !

Something unrelated !

Another of Tysons morning rituals, he will whine and whine until Ive made the bed. He literally wants the bed made so that he can then re-make it just the way he wants it. He's such a turd sometimes. Now that he has all the pillows just the way he likes em, (everything wadded up in a pile) he wants me to go away and leave him alone so he can take a nap. Nighty nite Tyson.

Tea Trekker Greens

2010-07-13T12:04:00.000-07:00

With the unrelenting summer heat beating down, my taste in teas change. Heartier teas like Puerh and most Oolongs are not at the top of my list, they get relegated to the Autumn and Winter months. They are just too heavy, too much for me. I want something clean and refreshing, yet something rich and satisfying at the same time. Ive some China Greens that fit the bill very nicely. Both from Tea Trekker. And both of them superb examples of high quality, handmade greens that are sold at a fair price. Fair market value is my criteria when lurking for new vendors. If I find anything being sold at inflated prices on a vendors site I tend to not buy anything at all from them. Tea Trekker is an online vendor that I,ll return to again and again. Superlatives without the grief of an empty wallet.

Gan Lu

First up is an excellent China green. A 2010 Pre-Qing Ming Gan Lu, or "Sweet Dew" Gan Lu is a tea with a lot of character and a very long history. An early Spring tea that was an Imperial favorite during the Tang Dynasty (960-1279) Grown on Mengding Mountain in the Sichuan Province. Opening the bag fills the room with rich vegetal sweetness. Just the smell of the dry leaf alone makes my mouth water. Comprised primarily of a bud only picking that is covered in silvery, fuzzy down. Soft and velvety to the touch. Vegetal without the raw spinachy tastes of other greens. I love those veggie teas but that veggieness has to be balanced with other flavors and aromas. This tea is buttery smooth with no bitterness or astringency. Even the most negligent of brewers will have no problem with this tea, never becomes bitter when over steeped or when using hotter than necessary water. Durability is good, 2-3 infusions. Brews up a sparkling clean cup of golden, silvery tea. Absolutely delicious.

Long Ding

Next up is an equally excellent 2010 Pre-Qing Ming Long Ding from Zhejiang Province. Long Ding is a early season, pan fired tea that's made from a bud only picking standard. This being a "Larks Tongue" style of tea it's best appreciated brewed in a glass pot or cup. The leaves are juicy, plump and intensely green. Long Ding is one of those teas that infuse vertically, the leaves tend to stand on end while brewing. The dry leafs aroma is intensely pungent, reminds me of walking through a pine forest in the Autumn. The teas flavor is slightly vegetal, very crisp with a touch of pine. I suspect that the soil this tea is grown in is very rich in minerals, rocky and flinty soils show up as cleanliness in the cup, at least that's my theory. Delicately sweet and clear as a bell. Very crisp, bright and refreshing, yet at the same time fairly rich. Brewing parameters do need to be adhered to in order to not over steep this tea. It will become bitter if left too long in the pot. What a gorgeous tea! Durability is very good, 3-4 infusions.

Next up, Lu'An Gua Pian and 2010 Pre-Qing Ming Man Tang Xiang.

2009 Yunnan Sourcing Ban Zhang - Revisited

2010-07-06T12:45:00.000-07:00

Jeez! Has it been a year since these teas were all the talk? Ummm.......just about! After having a hearty breakfast this morning I was contemplating what tea to wash it all down with and decided to dig into this one, Ban Zhang "Chun Qing" which translates as "Precious Feeling" or something equally silly. I remember loving this tea upon the very first sip, rich beany flavors and aromas sit side by side with nutty notes. Now that the teas had a year to settle in and find it's groove let's see what we have here. This Ban Zhang is one in a series of cakes released by Scott last year. There are also cakes from Yiwu, Bulang, You Le and a Wu Liang mountains in the 2009 line up.

The cakes surface leaf is definitely a shade darker than it was last September. The smell is just a tad woodsier than it once was. The compression has relaxed just a wee bit and it's very easy to separate into a nice pile of unbroken leaf. Keeping the leaves whole makes all the difference in the world, it allows for proper extraction without unnecessary bitterness. Which, speaking of bitterness, I remember when this tea was initially reviewed most people thought this tea lacking in bitterness. Considering that this is a Ban Zhang tea and one of Ban Zhangs traits is that infamous bitterness, a lot of people were left scratching their heads wondering where it was. Well, it's there now. Not obnoxious by any means but there is no denying it now.

The first Yixing I ever bought. I think Ive had it for about ten years or so. Ten years of sheng poured over the pot has given the pot a beautiful glow. Single hole spout that pours in a good, solid stream with no drips.

If I were one of those people that names their tea pots I,d name this one Tug Boat. There is something about the pots shape that reminds me of those chubby little boats, small but what a brute. A couple of weeks ago I had added this pot to my garage sale, what was I thinking? I love this little pot, it can brew a pot of sheng like no other I own. It takes years of training to get a pot to sit up straight and behave properly. Nope.......it's not for sale.

The teas color has changed as well. Still clear as a bell with a touch of amber starting to show. Just a little more viscosity than when these cakes were straight from the press. I think Austin TX (where I live) has a perfect environment for aging sheng. Average humidity level inside the house is around 55 % with the air conditioner running. The teas flavor has deepened, woodsy and faint tobacco flavors. Long beans and nuts are still there in spades. Very slightly sweet that becomes more dominant in later infusions. Solid but tolerable bitterness. Just a much more solid tea than it was a year ago. But...having said that, I don't see this tea as having the required traits necessary to age well. Now, I could be wrong, it's happened before and I guess theoretically it could happen again. I see this sheng as dropping out for about twenty years or so and then maybe emerging as something tasty. I havn't the time for all that, I,m gonna enjoy it now. Ive come to the conclusion that nothing washes down a hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs, toast and marmalade like young sheng. Aged sheng doesn't do it, youngish, slightly bitter, slightly sweet sheng washes it down the gullet and caps off the meal to perfection. Now it's time to pay the piper and go clean up the mess I made in the kitchen.

Da Guan Taiwan Oolong Tea's

2010-06-30T11:32:00.000-07:00

Times are tough for everyone these days and trying to find affordable yet good quality tea's can be a challenge. The "Da Guan" brand I had never tried before, or seen on the shelves anywhere previously. I bought a selection of these Da Guan Oolongs from a local Asian Market. All of the tea's in the Da Guan product line are from Taiwan. Besides what's shown in the photo above they also offer a Bai Hao Oolong and a Green Jasmine Tea. Ive also got the Bai Hao but Jasmine tea has never appealed to me.

These are all fairly good quality tea's that accurately represent their given category. Mind you they are not the cream of the crop (and the price reflects that) but....they are darned good tea's that I have been enjoying for some time now. So, sometimes it pays to do a little browsing at the local markets. Granted the majority of tea's at these markets are not very good, and some are just garbage. I don't always have to have the new Wuyi, Dan Cong or whatever from the elite online vendors to be happy, sometimes a darned good cup is just around the corner.

Those leaves don't look bad, do they? A nice, vibrant healthy green color. They come packaged in vacuum sealed bags inside the canister. I think most of them are 150 gm.s This particular tea is the King Hsuan Oolong, which is very aromatic. Candy sweet with a touch of spice residing in the background. The Mt. A Li Oolong is also quite tasty. Rich with the veggie protein flavor and aroma and a touch of the floral and spice thing that you would expect from an A Li Oolong. The Bai Hao is also a good representation, not bud heavy but just enough in there to sweeten the cup.

You can see in the picture that this tea has viscosity, to me that's what Taiwan Oolong's are supposed to be, almost thick and slightly sticky. The price range on these tea's range from about $10.00 up to $30.00 for a 150 gm. tin. All four tins of the Da Guan tea's that I bought cost about $70.00 or so. And Ive got enough tea to last a while. Hou De's, Seven Cups, etc. Nope! Not this time.

Unknown Soldiers

2010-06-10T15:38:00.000-07:00

Ive never had an unknown soldier that so intrigued me before. This tea was a gift from Petr Novak. If I remember correctly he had got this from a friend who had this tea specially made for his tea shop. What is really interesting about this tea is that it's the richest, most buttery sheng Ive ever had before. Tastes kinda like a very fruity (pears) and rich.Yiwu tea? It's very nice. Now, what is making me suspicious of this "sheng" is that there is not a trace of bitterness, not much in the way of aftertaste. There is a slight astringency in the aftertaste though. In both the flavor and the aroma there is a delicate woodsy aspect, the faintest hint of leather. Mostly, it's butter and fruit. Is this actually a puerh? I haven't the faintest idea. Whatever it is it's very enjoyable, and if it were possible, I'd buy some. The dry leaf is a little flat and thin, when infused the leaf is rather limp. I'd like to know what it could be. Petr, Thank you very much for this tea, it is delicious.

Note: Well, I found out what this tea is. It's a 2009 Ai Lao Shan Sheng and the maocha was gathered from trees that ranged between 100-140 years old. It really is the most buttery and syrup like sheng Ive ever had. Thanks Petr! The Shiboridashi & Cup Set in this post has become my favorite. I decided to keep this one for myself. It's particularly well suited to brewing Puerh or Roasted Oolongs because it's very thick and sturdy. It holds heat very well.

2010 Pre-Qing Ming Dafo Long Jing

2010-05-21T11:41:00.000-07:00

Tis the season for what is one of my all time favorite Chinese green tea's, Long Jing a.k.a. Dragon Well. Even those unfamiliar with green tea's are likely to have heard of Long Jing. There is no other tea on earth that smells as good as Long Jing, at least in my opinion. A lb. of this Dafo Long Jing was delivered just a few days ago (I know...a whole lb?) I had some steeping in a gaiwan in the kitchen and while side tracked in another room the rich and nutty aroma that is unique to Long Jing wafted down the hall to remind me that it was ready. The aroma is very intense and it permeates the entire room but this tea is way too expensive for such negligent brewing. In the summer months I,m all about fresh and clean green tea's. Oolong's and Puerhs are for the most part relegated to Autumn and Winter, they can be just a little too heavy in hot weather.

This "Dafo" Long Jing is not grown in the officially designated county of Xi Hu, but just outside of it, in Xin Chang county. Tea's grown in Xi Hu county are the cream of the crop Long Jing's. But of course there are different grades of tea from Xi Hu and I would rather pay for a prime grade from a lesser esteemed region than a lower grade from the primo region. People that are interested in pinching pennies yet still want a high quality tea have been appreciating Dafo Long Jing for years. Usually about half the price of the tea's grown in Xi Hu. The designation of "Pre Qing Ming" means that it was picked before the rains. The very first pick of the year is the one that is most prized. As you can see in the pics the dry leaf is well made, almost paper thin bud and leaf sets that were pan dried, the old fashioned traditional way, by hand in large wok's.

I think that green tea's are the hardest of all tea's to brew well. The slightest change in brewing parameters can yield very different tastes and aroma's. The skill required to brew these tea's to perfection every time is not a skill that I claim to have mastered but sometimes when everything is just right, water temp. infusion times and all the other variables are in sinc it's easy to realize why this tea is so famous. It's simply some of the best tea there is. This particular Long Jing requires a very specific water temperature of 185-187 degree's. Water either hotter or colder and the tea's aromas will not bloom nearly as well. Also needs a little more leaf than tea's from previous years. Growing conditions were not good this year and it shows in a lot of the tea's on the market. The Pre-Qing Ming Long Jings will brew a more light and delicate cup than the all leaf Long Jings. But don't confuse light and delicate with weak and thin. These Qing Ming tea's flavors are much more focused and complex. Each of the tea's flavor componants are apparent, they don't become muddled and blunt. The world is full of thousands of supposed Long Jing's and most of them aren't even from Zhejiang province. But if you buy from vendors that know their stuff and you are willing to pay for it, finding the real thing isn't that much of a challenge. But having said that, the only Long Jing that we are ever going to see is what is available commercially. I don't think we are ever going to taste the cream of the crop by shopping online. But that's o.k. by me, as long as I can continue to get tea's of this quality then I,m a happy camper.

Rattlesnakes and Tea

2010-05-21T09:59:00.000-07:00

There's trouble on the home front. My typical morning and evening routine is to have my tea outside on the patio. I like it there, big beautiful trees, squirrels at play, blue birds and cardinals make Austin there home. The seldom seen owls and pesky deer are also no stranger here. Now, over the past month or so Ive gone out late at night or early morning to relax and have my tea only to realize that there is a rattlesnake just a few feet away from where I am sitting. This situation limits my ability to appreciate my tea. And after having realized the danger you are in, no matter what tea you are brewing it all tends to taste like crap. Having seen so many this year (and it's only May) I realized that there must be a nest of them somewhere close by. You know as summer progresses they are only going to get bigger and their venom more toxic. The evening news has broadcast (like they do every year) to be careful, use common sense kinda thing. On a normal year I might see one or two snakes, no big deal. But this year they are saying that for whatever reason the snakes are in abundance and evidently they are all headed for my back yard. One of the real problems with snakes around residential areas is that they can get into the foundation of your home and sometimes when they come out it's on the wrong side of the wall and they wind up inside your house.

So I decided to take matters into my own hands. A Benjamin & Sheridan .22 caliber bolt action pellet gun should do the trick. I don't like the idea of killing anything but.........If it comes down to it, I,m gonna kill the little tea spoilers. And if I do say so myself, I am one hell of a shot with a rifle. I couldn't hit a house with a hand gun. On two different occasions Ive found two snakes at the same time on my porch. I know to stay away from them and they will usually slither off without any encouragement from me, but my dogs don't know any better. Just can't take that chance. So, if you hear any rat-a-tat's going off in the middle of the night, it's just me, don't worry about it, go back to sleep.

My new Benjamin & Sheridan, bolt action, single shot, .22 caliber, all solid hard wood walnut stock, all solid metal parts. This is a very well made pellet gun, not one of those cheap plastic ones. Although Ive always wanted a Daisy Red Rider BB gun since I was a kid but my parents being sensible wouldn't let me have one. They said I,d shoot my eye out, now where have I heard that before?

Twenty yards away, very first shot. I should be in the circus or something, one of those trick shooters.

Fragrant Orchid Dan Cong Oolong

2010-05-15T11:34:00.000-07:00

It wasn't all that many years ago that I remember thinking that Dan Cong Oolongs were just about as good as it gets when it comes to Chinese tea's. Ive since changed my ways. I occasionally will pick up a small quantity just for a change of pace. I bought this at my favorite local tea shop "The Steeping Room" I still enjoy the ocassional Dan Cong but "a little go's a long way" in my book. I think the best thing Dan Congs have going for them are their aroma's.

This Dan Cong is no exception, the aroma's are not shy in the least. Osmanthus florals, spice, honey and bitter hop's. Dan Cong's that are not heavily oxidised / fermented before being roasted tend to have a greener finished leaf. It's those green leaves that are providing the bitter hop's flavor and aroma. It's a good thing the hop's are there because otherwise this would be a really one dimensional tea. The bitterness is providing a contrast to the sweet floral's in the cup. The flavors follow right along with the aroma's. Honey sweet florals and spice. Aromatherapy in a cup! Brews to a deep golden color with good clarity. Not all that durable, by the fourth infusion it's well on it's way out. And by the way, there is no mistaking a Dan Cong that's on it's way out, the flavor doesn't just fade out gracefully as with most tea's. It typically becomes quite astringent and puckery with a chalky mouth feel.

What I realized about Dan Cong's after drinking them for so long is that they are all flash and seldom is there anything substantial underneath, no depth what so ever. In other words there is very little in the way of complexity in the cup. Now.......I,m not talking smack about em or anything, just calling it how I see it. I admit that there has been exceptions and Ive had some sublime Dan Cong tea's but for the most part they are a really good smelling cup of uninteresting, superficial tea.

Himalayan Jun Chiyabari

2010-05-07T16:55:00.000-07:00

This is a tea I just had to have. You know the ones you see online somewhere and the vendors description sounds amazing? Or for whatever reason it just grabs your attention. This is one of Upton's new offerings. Upton's has several new first flush Darjeeling tea's that sound very promising and I almost grabbed one of those but instead I opted for the Himalayan Jun Chiyabari Estate GHRHT. Golden Hand Rolled Himalayan Tips. Upton's description is pretty much on target. It is very similar to a Bai Hao Oolong but with a few curves. Opening the bag creates an assault on the senses, extremely pungent with the aromas of cocoa, stone fruits, lemon and floral nuances. But the curve ball with this tea is the aroma of a very light and clean rosemary. I know, rosemary? Yep! And you know what? It matches this tea perfectly. The smell of cocoa and fruit are the dominant smells and flavors but the floral, lemon and rosemary form a perfect alliance in balancing the heavier flavors. This tea isn't cheap, A 140 gm. bag will set you back $54.72

I wasn't sure how to approach brewing this tea, would it withstand gong fu? Or would it be better suited to the British style? Well, after experimenting Ive come to the conclusion that you can gong fu this tea but your not going to get multiple infusions, about four, maybe five steeping's is as far as it's going to go. And it's better with extended infusion times, starting at a minute for the first, 1&1/2, then 2 minutes. I used a small 125 ml. yixing, 5&1/2 gms. of leaf, boiling water. I think the most impressive thing about this tea is the aroma, it is incredibly strong, you can smell the teapot from across the room. A nice little treat for a change of pace. As much as I love my sheng and greens Ive gotta have something a little different every now and the

Just take a gander at those leaves, almost makes me want to just eat them. The tea brews up a cup with brilliant amber clarity. It's a medium bodied tea and just barely sweet enough to balance it's astringency. By the way, that cup is one of Petr's. The "Bark Cup" is a little camera shy, I like them because they hold the entire pot of tea, they hold heat very well and they just feel right when holding them. It's a gorgeous set of cups but not easy to photograph. It seems my choices are I can get a good clear shot of the cups bark texture but with the whitish rim glaring. Or the rim clean and clear but the bark texture looking muddy. One of these days I'll read my camera's owners manual.

Tea Ware's By Petr Novak

2010-05-07T03:45:00.000-07:00

The following items are on the way here and I should be able to start posting them for sale in the next couple of weeks.

2009 Anxi High Fired TiKwan Yin

2010-04-24T10:10:00.000-07:00

Ive started using Petr's Shiboridashi's for brewing everything lately, why not? They brew all teas equally well, easy to use and clean up is a breeze. In my everyday tea brewing I don't often use those tiny little cups, don't want to be bothered with the constant re-filling. The Shiboridashi's matching cup makes it easy, one pot makes one cup, who would have of thought of that?

This Anxi Oolong is from The Mandarins Tea Room Toki offers three different Anxi tea's but this is the only roasted TiKwan Yin (his spelling, not mine) that he sells. Normally I,m not crazy about TGY, they are just too heavy and acidic, and that can really do a number on your stomach. But I couldn't help from trying this one as Toki's description made it sound enticing. Initially I had ordered the sample size but before I had even finished the first cup I was online ordering more. Your $45.00 will get you a very stylish 100 gm. bag.

The leaves look beautiful don't they? Sometimes you can just tell by looking at the leaves that it's a nice tea. The aroma from the pot is not subtle, a pungently rich roasted aroma fills the room. Mingled in with the roast is a clean and sweet smell of citrus. More specifically, grapefruit flower (if there is such a thing) Honestly, the tea's aroma is amazing. This Anxi is very different from any Ive had before, Very rich yet clean and vibrant at the same time, amazing!

The tea's flavors follow suit with it's aromas. Sweet, rich, roasted flavors with the sparkling cleanliness that the citrus and floral aspects provide. The first several infusions can be a little tart but in the later cups the tea's sweetness becomes more dominant. If you really enjoy high quality oolongs you shouldn't let this one pass by, it's worth every penny. Durability is good, maybe eight to ten infusions.

Now, a little story for you. I have an acquaintance, an elderly Chinese man named Tai Ling. From time to time I engage in a little small talk with Tai Ling, the weather, whats on sale at the market etc. Every once in a while I would see Tai Ling sipping coffee from a paper cup and I noticed that he winces with every sip. I asked why he drinks it if he doesn't like it, his response was that he doesn't like coffee but drinks it anyways because it keeps him warm. Being Chinese he of course prefers tea but can not afford it. So every once in a while I would give Tai Ling some tea, nothing special, just everyday teas. He is always appreciative of the gift and would later tell me that it was o.k. (not impressed), I started wondering, just what doe's it take to get a nod of approval from him? So, I gave Tai Ling 10 gms of this TGY and a few days later I,m out walking the dog's and I hear someone yelling my name from across the street, it was Tai Ling. He came running up to me with a big smile on his face. Ive never seen Tai Ling smile before, he normally is very sullen. He wanted to tell me how much he liked this tea, he said it was very good and in his opinion that this is a "first level" oolong. Actually, I had never even seen Tai Ling exhibiting anything that even approached happiness before, but he was a happy man that day. I was happy that I had brought a little joy into Tai Lings life. For me the sharing of tea is what tea is really about, it's not to be selfishly hoarded. Having said that though, this tea is rather expensive so I doubt that Tai Ling will be seeing much more of it.

1985 Menghai 8582

2010-04-12T12:45:00.000-07:00

This is very exciting, Tim from "The Mandarins Tea" blog has opened an online tea shop of his own. Now, I knew as soon as I became aware of the tea shop that "The Mandarin's Tea Room" teas were going to be special. Superb tea's and tea wares offered up with such class and style. Here I will quote from the card attached to the packaging, " From fresh, seasonal varietals to sophisticated vintages of the past; we offer only the finest, handcrafted rarities that exemplify traditional tea cultivation and production" A chance for all of us to taste for ourselves what teas used to taste like before modern farming and processing became the standard. The packaging was well thought out, attached to each package is a removable strip that allows you to re-close the package between use, only a real tea head would think of such things. In addition, each package comes with a classy little card that states the contents and also gives recommended brewing parameters. I would recommend following Tim's suggestions, this tea brewed to perfection by doing so.

First of all I should start by saying that 1985 was the year that Menghai first introduced the 8582 recipe. The 8582 is made from larger, coarser leaves than any of the other numbered cakes that Menghai produces. Just look at the depth of color in the cup. In trying to describe this teas flavors and aromas I,m not sure where to start. It's so complex that it leaves me almost incapable of finding words to convey the tastes and sensations that this tea possesses. All the flavors you would expect are there, and in abundance. Woodsy, is an understatement. It's extremely woodsy but somehow it's not over the top or too much. Old and faded leathery scents and flavors. The slightest traces of camphor that have, over the years, transformed into a touch of mintiness. Such a gentle sweetness helps to mingle all the other flavors together. Tingly sensations on the lips and front of the mouth are found in the first several infusions, yet it is as smooth as silk. But there is much more in the cup than these inadequate words can describe.

The above pic is taken on the first infusion, which following Tim's recommendations was ten seconds. Normally, for most puerh's, my first infusion time is around twenty seconds. You can tell by the teas color that it doesn't require normal infusion times. This tea is uber-durable, I stopped counting at around the fifteenth infusion, took a break of a few hours and came back to it, and there was plenty more to be had. The flavors already mentioned are a constant with this tea but with further infusions it's the underlying flavors that will surprise you. Sometimes I taste something slightly herbal in the cup and sometimes there is something that's a tad floral, not really a floral that is fresh but something more like a memory of something floral, think of your Grandmother and that's the kind of floral that I,m getting here. Sometimes there is something that's kinda bitter and citrus like in it's flavor. This tea is very satisfying, full rounded flavors that are buttery and rich. I actually feel like Ive had enough by the time Ive exhausted the leaf.

The picture (of the brewed tea) at the top of this post is on the tenth infusion, a testament to this tea's stamina. My kettle ran out of hot water long before this tea was done, that was a first for me, Ive never had a tea this durable before. I love the color of the dry leaf, it looks like a rusty, old antique. The dry leaf is thick and chunky and smells like old, dried out timber with a touch of old, dried out leather. Also a trace of something light and delicate is buried deep under the wood and leather, what that smell is I can't really say. It's familiar, but I can't put a name to it.

Amazing stuff! The Mandarins Tea Room is going to do very well. Expensive? Yes! The Mandarins Tea Room doesn't offer this tea as a whole cake, only loose leaves. Even if it were offered by the cake I,m not sure.....well, actually, positive, I could ever bring myself to spend that much money on a single cake, basically a dollar a gram. But the price of a small qty. doesn't hurt so bad. I always have in the back of my mind that I can just buy my own young cakes and forget about them for forever and they will turn out more or less the same as these cakes. But every once in a while I let a bit of reality slip in and have to admit that they will not age into something as sublime as this tea. But who knows.....they might turn out to be something equally good, just different. Maybe an aged teas flavor has as much to do with it's storage as the maocha it's made from.
Thanks Tim! Though this was my first time ordering I,m sure there will be many, many more orders in my future.

2009 Douji Red Dadou

2010-04-07T12:42:00.000-07:00

The Douji brand of teas have been getting plenty of positive reviews lately, and as usual, I,m lagging a little behind everybody else when it comes to checking them out. It seems that the majority of people think of the Douji brand as being a step up in quality from Menghai brand. I hope that they are. It would be nice if there were a brand that fits neatly in between the Menghai teas and the boutique teas. Although some of the Douji cakes are a little pricey they haven't quite reached the price range of say a Hai Lang Hao, yet anyways. Well, I am about to find out just where the Douji's rank when it comes to my tastes in tea. The Red Dadou is made from a blend of Menghai and Lincang area tea's. (Not to be confused with the Menghai brand) The Red Dadou is Douji's highest grade of the recipe (blended) cakes.

Not even having opened the cake the first thing I notice is the higher quality paper wrapper, just a little touch of class. Also the wrapping of the cake itself is evidence that they have their own way of doing things.To me it's obvious that Douji wants to visually set itself apart from Menghai and Xiaguan. Look at the back of the cakes wrapper, very neatly folded pleats with a re-attachable sticker that clearly states what it is. In such contrast to Menghai's wadded up wrappers with the anti-fake label that turns out to be not so anti-fake after all.

Now, on to the tea. The cakes surface is very attractive. Whole, healthy looking leaf that has a splattering of silvery buds. This cake smells very fresh and green. The wood and tobacco smells are there but much more in the background when compared to a Menghai tea. Doesn't really have anything unique in it's aroma, nothing I haven't seen before but what I can say is that it's very balanced. Judging by the smell alone I,m not sure I could guess in what direction this teas flavor is going to lean.

The cakes compression is perfection. Tight enough that it has a solid and hefty feel to it yet loose enough that prying into the cake is effortless. The maocha is very easy to separate into a nice pile of unbroken leaves. Not the dried up, chopped mulch that you get with a Menghai tea. But I do realize that those chopped leaves is how they achieve consistency from one cake to the next. With cakes made from whole leaves there is variation from one cake to the next. Even from one side of the cake to the other you can find differences in the teas flavors.

The tea brews up a crystal clear yellow soup. The aroma from the sharing pot is leathery and woodsy with the tobacco in the background, but that could all change with further infusions. Sometimes these flavors and aromas shift roles throughout the session. Very slightly sweet with plenty of bitterness. It's not a heavy dull bitterness we have here but something very light and clean but there is plenty of it. The teas body is just a little on the thin side but maybe I need to bump up the quantity of leaf used. After further contemplation, I think I do need to use more leaf. I normally use 10 gms of leaf for the yixing I,m using today but next time I,ll increase it to 12 gms and see how it turns out. There are some of the beany flavors that I like, but not in sufficient quantity. To be honest I,m not really enjoying this teas flavors that much. Not that it's bad or anything it's just kinda flat and thin. Maybe it needs a couple years of age on it before it starts to put on a little weight. After all, Menghai's teas are made from maocha that already has a few years of age on it when it's being pressed. If the Douji's are being pressed from the current years harvest then that would explain the lack of character.

So, all in all, I,m impressed by the presentation and the quality of the leaf. The compression is perfect and it's durability is good. I,m just not exactly bowled over by the teas flavor. But I,m not dismissing it yet. I,ll have another go at it with more leaf and see if I don't like it any better. All the indicators are there for a tea that's going to age well. We will see! And by the way, I didn't get a picture of the spent leaf but it was rather nice, a very healthy shade of green with no oxidation to the leaf. This is a debatable issue in that the oxidised leaf may or may not (depending on what you choose to believe) age well. I have no way of knowing if this is correct or not but for those of you who believe that it affects the teas age ability you will be pleased to hear that the tea has not been "wulong,d"

Note: just as I suspected, gotta use extra leaf in order to bring the best out of this tea. The teas richness is much more noticeable and those sweet and beany flavors are more assertive. However, I do think that this tea needs some storage time to fill out a little as it,s still a tad thin. One aspect of this tea that I had not noticed before was a delicate floral, perfume like aroma in the cup. It's a very nice tea and I have high expectations for it in the coming years. I really hope that Douji doesn't turn out to be one of those "here today, gone tomorrow" company's.

2005 Chang Tai "Menghai Qiao"

2010-03-30T16:18:00.000-07:00

Now this is a tea I could drink regularly and never tire of. A nice healthy 400 gm. cake of some gorgeous Jingmai maocha. The cakes compression is fairly loose and so provides easy access, no chipping away at it or any of the usual methods just pinch how much you want from it and start gently prying and the leaves willingly oblige. Big chunky leaves with some rather large twigs thrown into the mix, I think I,m seeing a pattern here in that I like my teas twiggy and rustic. The aroma wafting from the cake is mouthwatering. Very rich with tons of complexity. The slightest trace of smokiness still remains but that's something Ive learned to enjoy as long as it's minimal.

The teas flavors are comprised of a little bit of everything. Boatloads of full, rich flavors to be had and they are not in the least bit shy. There are rich leather and tobacco aromas and flavors as well as those beany, yam like flavors. Also just a tad of spice in both the aroma and the cup. Thick and gloopy with plenty of sweetness. The teas bitterness and astringency in the correct proportions. At five years of age this tea is very nice to drink now and there is plenty of everything required for it to continue to age very well. I,m starting to become a really big fan of Chang Tai teas, Ive yet to have a bad or boring one. He definately has his own style of flavor profiles.

Brews up a nice fairly clear cup with an orange, brown color. Durability is good enough, nothing special. This Menghai Qiao's flavors don't wash out early in the session, the tea stays rich and full a little longer than many other teas. This is a tea that I need to have more of, one cake is not enough. The only negative thing I have to say about this tea is concerning the wrapper. It's very thin paper that tears very easily and starts falling apart after a couple of times of unwrapping and rewrapping the cake. But that's not what I,m paying for is it?

Note: for anyone interested in purchasing Chang Tai teas please be sure to read the comments section of this post. Steve at jas-etea is taking orders.

2005 Chang Tai - Gold Bamboo Mountain

2010-03-27T13:09:00.000-07:00

Gold Bamboo Mountain, sounds delicious doesn't it? A Chang Tai offering made from "wild grown arbor material" from the Qiunjia Zhai area, where ever that is, Yiwu? I don't know really, guess I could check into it. Ive been experimenting lately buying several Chang Tai teas. The reviews for Chang Tai's cakes are pretty much all over the place, people seem to either really like these cakes a lot or are indifferent to them. So far I'm liking them quite a bit. This Gold Bamboo Mountain cake is a good example of a cake made by people that cared about quality of product. Judging by the cakes ease of disassemble I'm assuming they were stone pressed. Very large and beautiful leaf with some rather large, healthy twigs and branches thrown in for good measure, artisanally rustic. The tea smells very fresh for being five years of age. The teas aroma kinda reminds me of the Wu Liang area teas, very fresh, green and kinda herbal.

The teas flavors are very enjoyable, the vegetal aspects are still there despite the five years of age this tea has. Slightly sweet with bitterness being nothing more than an afterthought. It's not smokey or tobaccoish, nor is it floral or fruity. Just delightfully vegetal, herbal and refreshingly clean. For a tea with such light flavors whats unusual about it is that it has a fairly heavy body, slightly syrupy. Brews up a cup with superb clarity, it just sparkles in the glass sharing pot. Durability is average, nothing really noteworthy there. A really enjoyable tea that Ive no intentions of buying more of. We have all had our share of those haven't we? For me this tea makes for a good afternoon session but not something that's going to get you out the door in the morning. The teas quality is reflected in it's price, $45.00 per cake. But I don't see it as having the potential to age very well. It's never going to change into one of those robust and stout teas that I love so much.

2001 Ming Yuan Hao - Yiwu Zheng Shan

2010-03-21T04:27:00.000-07:00

All kinds of new stuff has found it's way to my doorstep over the past few weeks, puerhs, greens, oolongs and even a few new pieces of tea ware. But this tea I bought from The Steeping Room, a local tea shop. Without a doubt they had acquired this from Hou De's as they are the only source for this tea that I'm aware of anyways. I had been wanting to add some sheng with a little age to my collection. But not being a big lover of wet storage that presents me with a problem because the vast majority of aged teas out there have been stored in very humid environments. I don't mind a trace of that musty wet storage flavor but to me less is better. This tea was a god send as far as I'm concerned. From what I remember of Guangs description it was stored in Taiwan for about three years but it's been at Hou De's ever since. I don't think Guang likes wet storage any more than I do.

This tea is the bee's knee's as far as I'm concerned. The flavors are intense. Woodsy with a bit of camphor, something similar to an anise like spice. I also noticed a touch of mintiness in the aroma as well as the aftertaste which lends a interesting counterpart to the teas woody notes. Without a doubt this tea will continue to age very well. It's still young enough that it has some astringency in the cup as well as a good bit of bitterness but a couple more years of storage should knock those aspects back a notch or two. Brews up clean and clear as a bell with a deep amber color. Exceptional durability. The pic of the brewed tea is a little on the light side (7th infusion) but still going strong. Compression is moderate, it's leaf is easily wrangled from the cake without breaking.

I bought a couple of these cakes but may decide to add even more to my cabinet. I love it! Such intensity yet still approachable. A far better value than many of the Menghai cakes out there with the same amount of age on them, much more complexity in the cup. You gotta give Guang credit, he knows how to pick em. An excellent value!

1996 Menghai 8582

2010-02-20T15:43:00.001-08:00

This tea session was brought to you by "Terje" proud sponsor of the Tea Goober blog. Once again, Thanks!

This is the first aged 8582 that Ive had. I always wondered what they would grow up to be. Acquired from Nada (I think) this is a pretty tasty treat. I was at first worried with five grams of tea to work with but I realized with this tea five grams is plenty. Just a trace of wet storage in the first few infusions but residing behind the wet storage flavor is a very autumnal and woodsy, crisp and clean cup of tea. Brews up a beautiful amber cup with superb clarity. Slightly sweet yet still a tad of bitterness in the cup. The bitterness sits very firmly in the hollow of the cheeks. Weird? Yes, but that's where it likes to hang out. This tea doesn't have a lot of complexity but it's simply good. Very rich and satisfying. Incredibly durable, eight infusions and it's just beginning to fade.

That does it! Ive got to invest in some aged sheng. I always buy in sample size quantity but that has got to stop. Terje's got some great teas and I am grateful for his generosity.

Mao Zedong "Snow" poem written in 1936

2010-02-16T16:33:00.000-08:00

Thanks everyone for helping, I now have the translation. I found this "book" in a local Chinese shop and just had to have it.

The poems title is "Snow" written by Mao Zedong in 1936

North country scene:

A hundred leagues locked in ice,

A thousand leagues of whirling snow.

Both sides of the Great Wall One single white immensity.

The Yellow River's swift current Is stilled from end to end.

The mountains dance like silver snakes

And the highlands* charge like wax-hued elephants, Vying with heaven in stature.

On a fine day, the land, Clad in white, adorned in red, Grows more enchanting.
This land so rich in beauty Has made countless heroes bow in homage.

But alas! Chin Shih-huang and Han Wu-ti Were lacking in literary grace,

And Tang Tai-tsung and Sung Tai-tsu Had little poetry in their souls;

And Genghis Khan, Proud Son of Heaven for a day, Knew only shooting eagles, bow outstretched

All are past and gone!

For truly great men Look to this age alone.

2009 Guan Zi Zai "Zao Chun Yiwu Shan"

2010-02-08T08:02:00.000-08:00

The stage has been set for a much needed day of tea and solitude. Yet another cold and rainy day, will these clouds ever part and let some happiness in? Radio's set to my "go-to" station, National Public Radio (NPR) Radioheads O.K. Computer is in heavy rotation today and it's fine by me, suits the day. As they contributed greatly to today's tea session (Rain, Radiohead, Terje) I owe all three a big thank you.

Guan Zi Zai in my humble opinion produces teas that fit into my "good value" category, never seeming to muster anything truly superb but always enjoyable. This cake weighs in at a hefty 400 gm's and made from 100% spring harvested tea. Available from Yunnan Sourcing.

The dry leaf doesn't have much to offer in the way of aroma, but that could be because it's been sitting on my desk for so long. The leaf is of the chunky and thick type, browns and greens are the colors to be found with a few sticks thrown into the mix as a reminder that it's a handmade tea.

Those tea producers know what appeals to us, they've got us pegged, in our (the consumers) mind the more rustic and artisanal they can make the tea appear to be, the more we are attracted to it. Take wrapper art for example. There are quite a few producers that have started using wrappers that have nothing but plain white paper with Chinese characters on them for tea and the producers info. Aesthetically I find them appealing. Do we really need pictures of elephants or big screaming logo's splattered on the wrapper? As if we need a day-glo reminder of what it is we are drinking.

Just as I reckoned, Guan Zi Zai's teas sit squarely in the "drink now" category. This tea is one that's fresh, delicate and light. The aroma has a good dose of Oolong like vegetal and floral aromas. Very lightly sweet and a very light body to match. Usually these kinds of teas can be a little acidic, but that's not the case with this one. Nothing complex going on here, nor is there much to say about it. Not that there is any fault to be found in this tea, it's what I though it would be, a nice, enjoyable, moderately priced sheng. But lacking enough content to provide much to blather on about. This tea really does smack of Oolong in both the aroma and flavors, thins out pretty quickly. Brilliant? No, and it ain't never going to be. But it's a pretty good "drink now" tea.

Ah! The sun just broke through and the birds are tweeting. And almost simultaneously the radio switches gears and the Beach Boys are "Getting Around" See Ya!

2008 Menghai - "Peacock Of Nannou"

2010-01-28T11:05:00.000-08:00

The Peacock of Nannou is the only other of the Peacock series of teas that I purchased besides the Menghai and while it definitely plays second fiddle to the Peacock of Menghai it's just the same a nice, enjoyable tea. I really had no clue as to what a Nannou tea should taste like, maybe I still don't, I don't know. Is the Peacock of Nannou a good example of what a classic Nannou tea should taste, smell or look like? Evidently Menghai feels that it is so who am I to argue? I,m sure there is a whole world of cakes out there that a lot of people would consider a much better representation of a classic Nannou flavor profile and maybe someday I,ll discover them for myself but until then Ive got this tea, and I like it.

All of the Peacock cakes weigh in at a hefty 400 gm,s. And at the price point they are selling at they are a good value. But another thing that I have to take into consideration is that the compression is pretty tight, almost Xiaguan tight. Consequently when breaking into something this heavily compressed there is a lot of waste material. Little tiny fragments of leaf that in my book is un-brewable. Even when exercising a lot of care I wind up with maybe 15-20% of the cake going into the garbage, and that waste costs just as much as the rest of the cake. So taking the "waste factor" into consideration they are still a good value.But the idea of paying money for tea and taking any amount of it and throwing it away makes me cringe. But I do realize that expecting them to be user friendly at this age is kinda putting the cart before the horse. With continued aging in a moderately humid environment they will become a little more relaxed and hopefully easier to deal with.

Now, lets get to the tea. The cake itself is made up of pretty nice looking leaf. The aroma is rich, intense and pungent. Sweet and meadowy, floral, with a background of leathery scents. Nine gms. of leaf go into the yixing, a couple of rinses and lets see what we have here. Well, same descriptive words as I used in describing the teas aroma applies to it's flavor as well. Nice viscous body, just sweet enough to marry with the other flavors but isn't bullying the other flavors out of the way either. Slightly dry and tart mouth feel. When compared to the Peacock of Menghai the Nannou seems a little cleaner and maybe a tad brighter in it,s flavors. Very delicate smell of perfume like floral's wafting from the cup. Tis nice!

The tea brews up a clean and clear yellow soup with just a trace of orange in it. Nice and slightly sticky, I love sticky teas. Durability is alright, somewhere around the 7th pot or so it really thins out. But we know the deal here, all the brewing variables plays a big part in how a tea progresses through the session. While I found the Peacock of Menghai to be a very tong worthy tea, the Peacock of Nannou? A tong? No, it's nice enough to justify buying a couple of cakes for the cabinet and see how they progress with time but falls just a little short of falling into the category of tong worthy.

So back to the waste factor, for the Peacock of Menghai I,m willing to overlook the waste, the Menghai is exceptionally tasty in my book. From what Ive read it seems to be that there are a whole lot of people out there that are really liking the Menghai cakes, and Ive happily fallen in line with the rest of em.

Note: additional sessions with this Nannou tea Ive realized that it's sweetness noticeably fades after the first few infusions leaving behind a very dry mouth feel. I find my jaws clenching after the fourth infusion. Very,very dry.

Tyson, In The Beginning

2010-01-25T18:03:00.000-08:00

A more current photo of Tyson and Max. Actually I have two dogs, Max is extremely camera shy hence the lack of pics. But here they are doing there daily routine of re-claiming Daddys bed after Ive gotten up. Tyson and Max are the best of friends, Max is a little more sneaky and plotting than Tyson. Max also has the unique ability to bite ankles where as Tysons has the ability to just stomp the hell out of Max once he's had enough. Tysons kinda aloof most of the time where as Max is the alarm system, loud, penetrating barking at even the most imaginary of threats. Max has some ummmm, food issues, he will eat any and everything in the blink of an eye. Tyson, wont touch a thing unless he checks it out first and decides if he likes it or not.

I never really wanted to be a dog owner, not that I didn't like dogs, I just didn't want the responsibility. When you have a dog you always have to be aware things like, you cant just take off and leave for the day, you have to think about stuff like the dog needs to be fed, has to be let out to go potty, are they going to get into things while I,m gone, etc. So I just had better things to do with my time than worry about a dog. One day I see this white boxer in my front yard, he looks to be friendly and obviously on some sort of unsupervised excursion. He had no dog tags so I had no way of contacting the owners. So I walk him around the neighborhood to see if I can find where he lives. It turns out that everybody knew this dog, he's been out running around for weeks. But nobody knew where he lived. So, I take him back home and needed some time to think about how can I find his owners. One of my neighbors decided that he could spend the night at his house and the next day we could see what we could find out about Tyson.

The next day turned into 3 days later I was out in the yard with the dog and a car driving by stopped, Tyson's owners had found him. Turns out he lived on the street behind where I lived (Tyson Cove) They take him home and as far as I knew it was over. What a relief to be rid of that dog. Well, a couple of days later I open my door to find Tyson sitting on my porch waiting for me. He had been jumping a six foot tall fence at his house for quite some time, evidently he'd been going on these outings for quite some time. I take him back home and that's the end of that. This scenario had repeated itself many times, Tyson knew exactly where I lived and for whatever reason had decided that he liked me. Eventually the owners would take longer and longer to come pick him up, he had spent the night at my house many times by then. Eventually they stopped coming to pick him up and come to find out they had moved away and just left him behind. I felt so sorry for Tyson, he's very young, 1 year old at that time. All my neighbors played a dirty trick on me. They all talked to me about letting Tyson stay at my house and we could all work on finding Tyson a new home. One of the neighbors even made sure that I had plenty of dog food and treats for him. Well guess what? Nobody ever found a home for Tyson, they never had any intention of finding him a home. Tyson already had a home, my house. They knew that if I had him long enough that I would grow attached to him and decide to keep him. That's how I came to be Tyson's new Daddy. Ive had him for four years now. I can honestly say that I wouldn't give him away for anything. Tyson exudes unconditional love to everybody, he see's no strangers, just new friends. Loves to cuddle and give kisses. He's my little buddy and everyday I genuinely look forward to spending time with him, going for walks or whatever. All the photos here are from around the time when this was actually taking place. The above pic where he's staring at my foot is one of his favorite games, "get my toes" he just waiting for the slightest of movement and then he will ATTACK! All in fun, although he is a lot stronger then you would think, he could easily rip your face off but he just doesn't have it in him to be aggressive. The pic below is a rather embarrassing and unflattering pic of him sleeping on the sofa. The house was being repaired at that time due to a hail storm that put leaks in the roof. Ruined carpet, you name it. The sofa had also been damaged due to the leak in the ceiling so I didn't care if he slept on it. That was a big mistake, Tyson still sleeps on the sofa, he knows he is not supposed to get on the sofa but he thinks that as long as he's asleep it's o.k. for him to be there. So there have been times that I enter the room and find him on the couch and when he sees me he just shuts his eyes and pretends to be asleep. Anyways that's how I came to be a dog owner. Stay tuned, in pt.2 you will learn all about the time Tyson helped himself to 8 jumbo sized bran muffins and a lb. of butter while I was at the grocery store.

2008 Menghai - Peacock of Menghai

2010-01-23T12:19:00.000-08:00

I think it was meant to be, the "Peacock of Menghai" was destined for the jar with the peacock glaze. I don't really enjoy the process of breaking into and prying chunks of tea from a cake. When I do have to deal with it I usually dismember a good portion of it so I don't have to deal with it again anytime soon. Hence the use of jars.

Now for the tea, I know that a lot of you are already familiar with Menghai's Peacock series of cakes, but they are new to me. Available in the boxed set of five cakes with five different mountains being represented, Mengsong, Menghai, Nannou, Bulang and Bada. Or they are also available individually. Out of the three cakes that Ive had (Mengsong, Menghai and Nannou) the Peacock of Menghai is the real standout. I might not have ever tried these tea's were it not for Terje, one of my fellow online tea cronies. Some few weeks ago Terje had sent me some tea samples and that's when I first tasted these tea's. Thanks again Terje.

The Peacock of Menghai is a great tea sold at an affordable price. A little under $20.00 for a 400 gm. beeng. This tea is the bee's knee's in the eye's of many people, clearly the standout cake in the series. I bought one each of the Menghai and the Nannou, in the process of procurement of a tong of the Menghai. Steve over at jas-etea has several tongs on the way. My impression of the Mengsong cake was that it's a good tea but a little too familiar, to me it's very reminiscent of the 7542 cakes. I suspect that one of the base tea's in the 7542 recipe is Mengsong.

Opening the cakes paper wrapper unleashes the most mouthwatering smell of pungently, rich sheng. It's got a little of everything going on here, leathery, beany, a tad fruity, meadows and floral. The cake's made from a mix of multi colored leaf, greens, browns, reds and white buds. The compression is pretty tight, almost Xiaguan tight, but I,m not intimidated in the least, it's really not that bad but it takes a little effort.

The tea brews up clean and clear and the flavors reflect the tea's aroma's pretty well. The tea's body may be just a little on the light side but not too much. The flavors are very full and well rounded though. This tea is very close to my idea of perfection. I love this stuff regardless of it's price. Bitterness could be an issue if you don't stay on top of your timing. The durability is good but nothing special.

Another example of Menghai's mastery of puerh. This tea could run circles around a lot of the elite, boutique tea's out there. Who needs handmade, stone pressed tea's when you've got these cakes? Menghai has only offered the entire peacock series once or twice before so these tea's are not available all the time. But there seems to be plenty of them on the market presently, just about all the usual online vendors have them in stock. Ive made plenty of room in my tea cabinet for a little nest egg of the Peacock of Menghai cakes. Hopefully I,ll still have some ten years from now and I,m hedging my bets that they will be superb. I,ll let you know.

Thanks Terje

2010-01-12T17:21:00.000-08:00

After a long weeks work and feeling like Ive just about had enough of it all I came home to a most welcome surprise in the mail today, a package from Terje (an online tea chum from Norway) which contains an assortment of sheng samples. That was very nice suprise. I can just relax and enjoy some new teas and stop fantasising about the best way to kill my co-workers. Of course I allowed myself to try the most alluring of the bunch, a 1999 Menghai Dayi Yiwu Shan.

Absolutely superb! Thank you Terje. I demand to know where you got this from. Opening the little baggy emitted a wonderful aroma, I knew this was going to be good as soon as I smelled it, a rich and heavy depth but at the same time some delicate aromas were also there. The tea brews a very clean and clear orange color. The aroma is decadent, woodsy, yet clean. Very floral for a tea with 11 years age on it. The sweetness and bitterness are very well balanced. I almost want to say there are some fruity flavors in the aftertaste. This tea is a true delight and a much needed session (after the cluster fuck that I,ll refer to as "today") Just look at that cup of goodness. There is so much in the cup that's enjoyable now it would be quite a challenge for me to have a cake of this and allow it to continue aging. Nah, I couldn't do it, wouldn't last a year unscathed around here. This tea fades out with grace, I love teas that do that. Doesn't just turn into sweet grain water, the flavors remain intact but slowly and gradually turn down the volume. So, Terje. Where did you get this? And how much did it set you back?

Note: As it turns out Terje received this tea as a gift from a friend who purchased it in Hong Kong. In other words, tis none to be had. Boo Hoo!

Puerh Video Sheds New Light On The Topic Of "Wulong,d" Maocha (maybe)

2010-01-04T13:11:00.000-08:00

http://v.cctv.com/html/documentary/2008/08/documentary_300_20080831_2.shtml

I found this video and thought it was interesting. Covers most of the history of Puerh as well as some of it,s production. You may have seen this before but I had not. One of the things I found interesting was that at one time evidently it was common practice to pre-ferment the maocha. Yep, you heard correctly, the tea was not ready for consumption until after the leaf had been pre-fermented. So, if this is correct then all the hub bub about pre-fermentation and how the tea may not age properly is a bunch of hooey. This video is about thirty minutes long but it,s somewhere around the seventeen minute mark that this issue is addressed. Those red tinged leaves have never worried me too much, although their are exceptions I usually prefer the taste of the red tinged teas to the pure green. A little rounder, fuller and the astringency seems to be toned down a bit. But I am perfectly aware that this video is not going to change the minds of people who have already made up their mind that this practice is either an accident or the result of producers wanting to make a drink now tea. Let me know what you think. What this tells me is that, take all the "online personalities" opinions and perspective with a grain of salt. The people making these teas have been doing so for a whole lot longer than all us twenty something white boys have been drinking it. Having cakes stacked to the rafters doesnt make you an expert, nor does having a popular blog. But, whatever!

2009 Phoenix Mountain Dan Cong

2009-12-11T12:37:00.000-08:00

It,s been a long time since I last had a really good Dan Cong. Back when Hou De had acquired their Dan Congs I had bought pretty much a lb. of each they had to offer and consequently got kinda burned out on em. Those were the first super fresh Dan Congs I had the opportunity to purchase and kinda over did it, but man those were good. I think I,m ready to pick up where I left off and this Phoenix Mountain I,m hoping will renew my interest.

Some people say the aroma of Dan Congs can be very ummm.......blunt and obnoxious. And there is a part of me that agrees, but there is also a part of me that appreciates those pungent aromas. Theres nothing light or dainty about Dan Cong Oolongs. There are also some who believe that Phoenix Mountain Dan Congs are made from a single tea tree, meaning that the one single trees harvest for that year is processed and sold as is and not blended with teas from other trees in the area. While the idea of that appeals to me, I think it,s doubtful that this is true. The only reason I even bring the subject up is because it was on my mind, I had recently read an article where Imen (Tea Habitat) and Roy (Imperial Tea Court) were going at it over this same issue. With Imen supporting the concept of single tree offerings and Roy saying that this is impossible due to the small qty. that a tree can produce in a season. It kinda bugs me to be agreeing with Roy but I cant help it, the single bush theory just doesn't make sense to me. I don't really care one way or the other, all I care about is whether or not I like the tea.

This tea I picked up at a local tea shop (Central Market) and the sales woman didn't seem to know anything about the tea other than it,s name and that it sells for $189.00 a lb. Judging by the appearance and smell of the dry leaf I could tell it is fresh and a good quality, the leaf is in good condition with not many broken leaves. The leafs color is rich and vibrant, not the dusty, muted colors of an older tea. It appears to be both lightly fermented and roasted. The leaf has a light honey and floral aroma with a cool and refreshing aspect. A tad of the citrus thing is also present. Five grams of leaf are harangued into the small zhuni and rinsed once with boiling water, add more water and with a 15 second infusion time I get a golden yellow brew with superb clarity. The tea turns the slightest bit orange when exposed to fresh air for a few seconds. What relief, I was glad to not see a brown tea pouring from the pot. With Dan Congs that's what you want, yellow tea , not brown. Brown could be a sign of lesser quality or older tea. The flavor reflects it,s aromas fairly well. This has got to be the most elegant Dan Cong Ive ever had, the flavors are very well balanced. Deliciously sweet and slightly syrupy. Pungent with the herbal, floral, barely noticeable citrus (orange) flavor and aroma and at the same time so cool and clean. Reminds me of eucalyptus. The flavor permeates immediately into every part of my mouth and nose. I can smell the tea quite strongly even before Ive swallowed. Sweet, cooling and floral. The second infusion is brutal, in a good way. More of the same but even heavier and almost overwhelming. This tea needs small cups and a leisurely approach, no gulping. I might just need to go back and get a couple more ounces of this tea, pretty good stuff.

It,s weird that Ive bought Dan Congs from all the "cool" online vendors and none of the teas Ive had from them can hold a candle to the one I bought here in town at a local store. Not that the vendors teas were poor quality or anything it,s just that this one is so much damned better. Ive never found Dan Congs to be really durable, they usually turn rather unpleasant in the latter infusions. But this tea keeps it going through the sixth or seventh infusion without turning too funky. In fact the latter cups are much sweeter and floral than the first few infusions. To me worn out Dan Congs are not a nice tea experience. A damned fine tea this one is, and it,s filling out my tea collection nicely. There is more to life than puerh you know!

Ive learned over the years through trial and error that coaxing the best from any Dan Cong requires that you pay attention to details. Of course the qty. of leaf used is important, the yixing in the picture above has a 125 ml. capacity, the qty. of leaf should be around 5-6 gms. Rinse the leaves very briefly and then commence brewing. Ive found boiling water works best for me. The first infusion is your guide for infusion times for the rest of the session. What I,m aiming for is full saturation without over steeping and bringing out the unwanted astringent, harsher flavors. I,m mainly judging infusion times by the color of the brew. Once the optimum strength has been established I am trying to get the same color in each successive infusion. I think that Dan Cong teas can be tricky to brew and it all boils down to timing for the most part. With a lot of other types of tea a few seconds doesn't make all that much difference. But with Dan Congs those few seconds can be the difference between a bland under extracted cup or an over extracted, astringent cup. This way of brewing Dan Cong is what Ive found to work best for me. There is no magic involved it,s just a matter of paying close attention to the teas color. If this helps anyone to get a better cup then great. If you disagree with me about any of this you don't really have to tell me about it.

2008 Menghai "Da Jing Dian"

2009-11-23T09:51:00.000-08:00

I blindly bought a couple of these cakes, having read nothing but positive things about them I felt it would be a fairly safe gamble. "Da Jing Dian" a.k.a. "Big Classic" made from grade three leaves, semi aged, sun dried maocha. I don't usually dabble in the Menghai special production cakes preferring to stick with the tried and true numbers (7542-7532) which are my favorites. The Da Jing Dian is a commemorative cake celebrating the "Dayi" brand as being recognised for some kinda national heritage award. They seem to like coming up with special occasion recipes.
Not any different from Xiaguan really, variations on a theme but Menghai has a much bigger repertoire to choose from. Maybe more creative with base ingredients they seem to come up with subtle yet distinct variations.

The dry leaf is rather pretty, green transitioning into brown. Plenty of whitish tea buds blended into the mix. The aroma wafting from the cake is enticing, judging from the smell alone I can tell there is much to be had here. A lot of depth with an underlying fruit like sweetness and woodsy aroma. The slightest touch of smokiness still remains. The cakes compression is the slightest bit tighter than the numbered cakes but still easy enough to deal with. This tea doesn't dawdle, it gets going pretty quickly. The first infusions flavor sits firmly in the woodsy and mushroomy genre, the flavor spreads and penetrates quickly. A good balance of sweet and bitter astringency. Nice full mouth feel yet the teas flavor also has a "brightness" about it, a crisp cleanliness that serves as the perfect counterpart to the sweetness and the full body. This is an interesting tea experience in that the lower palate is saturated with sweet and woodsy, a smidgen of fruit flavors yet the upper palate experiences the nutty, bright and clean, touch of floral flavors. The aftertaste is robust, thick and long lasting. Not much in the way of transitioning flavors with this tea it pretty much opens up and stays the same through out the session. It doesn't drop out on you but fades gradually and gracefully, I admire that in a tea. Honestly, you just cannot beat Menghai for quality and value. A high quality, well made product for not a lot of money. $15.50 per cake.

The teas color doesn't really show up well in the cup but in the sharing pot you can see it,s true color. A deep golden yellow. Brews up clear as a bell. Durability is very good, I think about 6-7 infusions before it starts to wane into sweet, grainy blandness. I know most people keep the pot going till the teas flavors are completely gone, I,m not one of those people. Once the teas flavors are exhausted and the body has gone I call it a day. A good tea, glad I grabbed a couple of these but two is enough. I,m sticking to my guns in that the 7542 is where it,s at with the Menghai teas. It,s got everything I love in a tea.

I haven't been very creative with my picture taking lately, no glamour shots, no back lighting, just tea. Maybe I,ll get back into taking glamour shots again but in a way it,s an unnecessary affectation. Beautiful as it is, that's not my reality. My tea table is the patio table in the back yard, that's where I usually enjoy my tea, watching the dogs play and the birds chirping and the squirrels teasing the dogs with their taunting (you cant catch me) game. This may sound strange but all the ruckus and shenanigans distract me while I,m drinking tea, being distracted helps me enjoy and evaluate a tea by "not thinking" about it. Just "experiencing" it. Sometimes it,s the furthest thing from my mind, and that,s when it,s sublime. Does that make sense?

note: Having had a few sessions with the Da Jing Dian I may have to eat my words and get a couple more of these cakes for storage.

2009 Guan Zi Zai "Ban Zhang" Wild Arbor

2009-11-13T12:04:00.000-08:00

A big "Thanks" goes to Maitre for providing me with this sample. My curiosity was sparked when I saw this cake posted on Yunnan Sourcing,s site. Given my newly acquired obsession with Ban Zhang teas I was tempted to buy some but wanted to hold off on ordering to see if anyone else had tried this one yet. At $43.20 for a 500 gm. cake it,s a good value if the tea is decent. The wrapper is real perty as you can see. And if the wrappers pretty the tea must be good, right? Nope! not always. Sometimes them perty wrappers are the teas strongest selling point, there to draw you in. With this tea the wrapper is fitting, no deception going on here.

Not the crystal clear yellow soup we would hope for. Claity is good but the teas been "wulong'd" Theres something about the teas aroma that reminds me of Xiaguan,s teas. Maybe it,s just the smokiness of it. It looks more like a manufactured tea than handmade. Compression is medium tight. It appears to be made from less than first grade leaf. A hodge podge blend of small, medium and large leaf thats been bruised, tattered and torn with a few sticks thrown into the mix.

Dark shades of green with a few brown and red leaves to be found. The teas aroma has a lot of depth, woodsy, that much loved beany smell is there along with the slightest wisp of smokiness and a faint hint of a perfume like aroma. The flavor is fairly intense right off the bat. All the expected flavors, woodsy, beany, a little yam, tobacco and leather. A decent amount of bitterness as well as sweetness. The bitterness could get out of control without careful brewing parameters. The teas body is just a tad light, but it,s o.k. The teas richness fades a little sooner than what I would like leaving behind a wash of generic washed out sheng flavors. Grain, bitter and astringent.

All in all, not bad. It,s a good quality, well made tea. For me, I would rather spend a little extra and buy Yunnan Sourcing,s Lao Ban Zhang "Chun Qing" The flavors of the Chun Qing are more balanced and it has tons of depth and richness that continues to show up well into the 6th to 8th infusion. Thanks again for all the samples Maitre. Ive got yours on the way, you should get it soon.

Yunnan Sourcing Global Store

2009-11-09T05:02:00.000-08:00

Scotts got a new site that I thought everyone should know about. Same great selection, Ive had a quick gander at it and the prices are 10% lower than his ebay prices and he now offers reward points which can be used towards your purchase. Go (here) to check it out. Hmmm........you think he,s gonna make the leap and jump off of ebay? Much easier to use, automatically calculates shipping fees and now has discounted shipping rates for EMS.

2009 Menghai 7542-901

2009-11-07T03:05:00.000-08:00

It,s time for stock piling. The 2009 Menghai numbers are making their way onto the market and you can get your favorites right (here) Ive never written about these teas before mainly because there is so much info about them out there already it,s safe to assume that everybody knows the deal with these cakes. They are the firmly established benchmark that all other sheng,s are compared to. There is really no better time to grab some than now. At $10.00 each your not going to find a tea in this price range that offers so much. In their youth I wouldn't consider any of them to be cream of the crop brilliant but always a consistently good cup a tea. I go to the Menghai numbers when I need to get back to square one. I kinda feel that after a while of drinking some of the more boutique teas I need to re-center myself and re-establish my framework of flavor profiles. For me the Menghai numbers are home base, everything else is sometimes amazing, more often mediocre and occasionally a waste of money. This blog would be incomplete if left without ever writing about the numbers.

So at the risk of redundancy I,ll supply my brief description of the 7542 tea. Rich and savory with that beany, slightly leathery, slight tobacco flavor and aroma. This years tea maybe a little more refined than the previous years teas. A slight floral aspect shows up in the cup, not quite as assertive as in the past. User friendly level of compression, not too tight or loose. Brews up yellow with a very slight amber tinge, but I tend to be heavy handed with the leaf quantity which has an affect on the brews color. Plenty of body, nice and sticky. I always have plans of saving these cakes for aging, Ha! what a laugh, they never last more than a year around here.

The Menghai numbers are excellent teas to hone your brewing skills with. Learning to coax the best from these cakes (7542,8582,7532) by varying your parameters you,ll be better equipped to tackle some of the more persnickety teas. Good old Menghai.

2000 Zhong Cha Tie Bing

2009-10-20T12:45:00.000-07:00

It,s a beautiful day here in Austin so I thought I,d ride the Capitol Metro Rail to one of my favorite tea shops. Glad I did because I bought a couple ounces of a superb Chung Cha Tie Bing. This shop typically has half a dozen shengs to choose from ranging from teas you can find online and usually one or two that Ive never heard of before. Ive heard of Chung Cha brand before and if memory serves me it has a good reputation, lets see. The owner assured me that this is a very nice tea and that there is not that much more of it to be found (implying that it is rare, buy it, don't be a fool) so I did.

Now this tea is a perfect example of a well stored tea. The soup is a bright, clear, clean amber with a syrup like viscosity. I bought this from a local tea shop, the price of the whole cake is $175.00 To rich for me but a ounce or two is allowable on my budget. This is the first Chung Cha tea that Ive ever had. I don't recall ever even seeing Chung Cha for sale anywhere before. What a unique aroma wafts from the pot, woodsy and anise like spice is the first thing I notice. There is the very faintest of smokiness and camphor, so minimal that it,s really an after thought. The slightest bitterness quickly followed by a caramel like sweetness that completely coats my mouth and throat, even my teeth. What a unique flavor this tea has, something that is so subtle reminds me of licorice and anise. So rich that I can smell it long after the session is over. So many flavors and aromas. This is one of those teas that each time you drink it you notice some flavor that you didn't notice before. So much complexity in both the soup and the aroma.

This tea sets a new standard for aged sheng for me, just goes to show that not all aged tea is murky and musty. This Chung Cha,s flavors and aromas are clean and somewhat medicinal and they retain there individuality very well. Each component is very distinct from each other. The dry leaf is large and mostly whole. Considering it,s a tie bing the leaf comes loose from the chunks with almost no effort, all I have to do is threaten it with the pu knife and they just fall apart. There are some rather large stems in the mix but who cares? Maybe the stems are contributing to the over all flavor, who knows? If this tea has had any wet storage it was so minimal that no damage was done, the teas clarity speaks for itself. What a gorgeous tea. This is one worth saving for special occasions or when you have the time to savor it.

P.S. Thanks Will. I had wondered if Zhong Cha or Chung Cha was the correct spelling.

2009 Yunnan Sourcing "Ai Lao Jue Se"

2009-10-10T14:57:00.000-07:00

The last in a series of seven teas that Scott made this year. I was honestly postponing trying this tea because neither the look or the aroma of the dry leaf appeals to me very much, I can smell the tart, green traits that tell my stomach to get ready for a little turmoil. I wonder if in time these thin, sour teas become more sweet and have a fuller body or if I,m always going to need Imodium after drinking them? Anybody with more experience with these teas feel free to fill me in. Grown at 2200 meters these wild arbor trees average about 200 years of age. Handmade, stone pressed and low temp. baking to dry the finished cakes. Ai Lao Jue Se is a more affordable cousin of the Wu Liang Lan Xiang, I think the cakes are priced at $20.00 each. The dry leaf is a flat dull green with some brown and red, leaf size really varies, small baby leaves and big chunks. The aroma is tart and floral, maybe a slight citrus coming into play. The teas flavor reflects the aroma but with more astringency than either sweetness or bitterness, puckery, thin and tart. Brews a perfectly clear bright yellow cup with fairly good durability. I don't really want to go into a lengthy, in depth description of this tea because for one, there,s not that much to say about it and two, I,m just not that into it. I just felt like I had an obligation to finish up this series of teas. It,s worth the extra money to get the Wu Liang Lan Xiang, it,s a much better tea. Much fuller rounder flavors that are nicely balanced. Sorry Scott but you cant win em all.

2009 Yunnan Sourcing Yiwu Da Qiu Feng

2009-09-27T13:25:00.000-07:00

This Yiwu Da Qiu Feng is much more to my liking than the Gua Feng Zhai. While the Gua Feng Zhai is an excellent tea it has some issues, but Ive already gone into that in a previous post. The Da Qiu Feng sells for about half the price of the Gua Feng Zhai so I was thinking this tea is going to be mediocre at best, but I rather like it. The dry leaf is quite brown, seeing how it was stone pressed last august this browning didn't happen after processing, it,s seen some oxidation prior to the pressing. But that,s alright with me, from what Ive seen it kinda helps to round out the flavors. No idea how that affects it,s aging potential. But anyways the dry leaf is fairly small, a little dried out and crunchy. There is depth in the aroma, smells rich and savory. No green or sour flavors in this one rather a tad beany and grassy. More sweet than bitter. Slight fruitiness in the cup, not so much in the aroma. While this tea brews a clear cup with a nice syrupy body, it also brews up dirty, meaning the strainer is full of little brown and black bits of charred leaf. This tea did get treated to low temperature baking in order to dry the cakes, traditionally the cakes are allowed to air dry. The Da Qiu Feng is gathered from 80 to 100 year old arbor trees that grow on the southern slopes of the mountain. I would think that more exposure to sunlight makes for faster growth and higher potential for bitterness and astringency. I find neither one of those to be an issue in the cup. I like this tea quite a bit. Durability is good. In some ways this tea reminds me of Xiaguans "Yun Mei" if you've tried that one. Should I buy some? At the price of $35.00 each, probably not. At the "secret handshake" price, maybe. I like this tea but there are plenty of other teas that fit into this same basic flavor profile, nothing all that unique here. If I was placing an order with Y.S. anyways I might get a cake or two but I wouldnt go out of my way for this tea.

Yunnan Sourcing Tasting ( Epsilon ) = Ban Zhang

2009-09-26T15:45:00.000-07:00

Epsilon was the tea that saved the day for me, I was beginning to think that none of these teas are really wowing me, some are interesting and fun but nothing to write home about. Epsilon stands head and shoulders above the rest, as far as my tastes are concerned. The dry leaf is a multitude of autumnal colors, greens, browns, rusty reds and an abundance of grey / blue buds. There,s lots of depth in the cakes aroma, earthy and beany with rich notes of tobacco and leather. Perfect compression makes for such effortless coaxing of these long beautiful leaves from the cake. Ah, I love that crispy sound. Nine grams of leaf are scooped into the yixing, a quick rinse and a steam bath in the drained yixing makes for perfectly primed leaf. From the first pot the flavor palate has been established. Sitting on top of a foundation of malted grain and rich leather and tobacco is a delicious blend of long beans and chestnut. The sweetness and bitterness are in perfect harmony and in sinc with each other. On about the fourth infusion the flavors have opened up nicely and I see that the tea is so full and rich that I start to back peddle and slightly shorten the infusion times. It makes for a great session when you find a tea that you have to hold back, it,s usually the other way around. I find that this tea doesn't really need pushing until sometime around the eighth pot. Brews a rich yellow cup with just a tinge of amber starting to show. Clarity is good but not great, cant have everything I guess. Easily ten to fifteen pots before it calls it a day. The Ban Zhang is one of the more expensive cakes but it,s money well spent. This tasting turned out to be a lot of fun and educational. It,s interesting to read other peoples take on these teas. All of the teas in this tasting are excellent quality and each has there own individuality. Again thanks goes to Hobbes and Scott for making this tasting happen. It,s fun for all of us to be on the same page and drinking the same tea and discussing them. Hope we can do this again sometime but until then everybody enjoy your tea and support your tea vendors, without them where would we be?

P.S. Ive no idea if the cake in the top pic is right side up or not.

Yunnan Sourcing Tasting (Delta) Wu Liang Lan Xiang

2009-09-26T03:48:00.000-07:00

The Wu Liang is a pleasant, light hearted little number. The leaf is multi colored, greens, browns and reds. Not the big, chunky leaf of some of the other teas in this tasting but rather small and a little more deilicate. That delicacy reflects in the soup as well. The aroma wafting from the Yixing is rather gentle, green and tart, florals and light leather scents. The first infusions flavors carry along the same lines as the aroma, bitterness is there but restrained and balanced. Mid way through the session the flavor of toasted grain slyly makes it,s appearance. Kinda sneaks in the back door. Brews a beautiful yellow cup with good clarity. The Wu Liang is a reliable tea, never dropping out or shifting gears, it stays consistent from cup to cup. The floral aspects along with the fresh, green, tangy flavors stay for the ride as well. The gentle sweetness helps to balance all the flavors and aromas and makes for an enjoyable cup of tea. Not brilliant mind you but nice enough that I bought a couple of these cakes, by the way, they are very affordable. I,m hoping that with a little age on them they might develop some body and depth, we'll see.

Note: In the several months since the tasting this tea has gained more body and depth. The flavors are richer and much more complexity than when these cakes were fresh. Begining to lose some of the tart, green flavors that intitially was a fairly dominant in the cup.

Yunnan Sourcing Tasting (Gamma) = Bu Lang

2009-09-22T05:24:00.000-07:00

Gamma,s got some big crunchy brown leaves. Obviously Gamma has gone through some fermentation at some stage of it,s processing. Not what your looking for when it comes to something with shelf life, but who knows how this tea could develop. Brews up orangey brown. Full round mouth feel with no bitterness what so ever. Gamma,s flavor reminds me of malted grain and dates. I kept thinking while drinking it that it reminds me of shu, minus the funky aspects. Gamma is a pretty mindless, drink now tea. Doesn't really give you much to think about but it is tasty.

Note: since the tasting event I had bought a couple of these cakes and have realized that this tea needs extra leaf and longer infusions than what I normally use. By uping the leaf / steeping time the tea takes on a more complex character. This tea has a rich date and grain aroma and there is a slight bitterness in the cup. Still not a very complex tea but there is more in the cup than originally thought.

Yunnan Sourcing Tasting ( Beta ) = You Le

2009-09-19T18:13:00.000-07:00

Taking a whiff from Betas sample makes quite an impression. Very sharp, pungently green and tart with some florals. Electric yellow crystalline clarity pours from the pot. Herbal, citrus aromas waft from the cup, a delicate sweetness that is persistent enough to cut through the tang. While Beta does have depth it,s not woodsy, tobacco flavors that I usually associate with providing that depth. More of a green, herbal, light tobacco depth. Betas light syrup like body is the perfect match for it,s flavors. Green apple acidity and floral, meadowy aspects show up midway through the session and yet none of the initial flavors have faded, Beta goes the distance, but when it does start to fade it does so gracefully and gradually. Beta would make for an exellent afternoon sheng but not a "go-to" tea when Ive got the craves.

Yunnan Sourcing Tasting Notes ( Alpha ) = Yiwu

2009-09-16T20:32:00.000-07:00

Alpha was a bit of a problem for me. Using my usual brewing methods with Alpha resulted in severely compromised durability. After four infusions Alpha was done. But what I tasted I initially liked. Slightly bitter and astringent with a flavor of under ripe pears and nuts, I keep thinking cashews.There was a very mild sweetness that balanced very well with the other flavors. Also a slightly grassy, sour taste that was also in the aroma of the dry leaf. Just fruity acidity and nutty. Nice enough. Brews a crystal clear yellow cup with the slightest tinge of apricot. Over all a nice tea but the durability needed to be addressed. So increasing the qty. of leaf and keeping the infusion times very short solved that but what resulted was a cup that was bitingly bitter and astringent. Not the clean crisp bitterness that we normally admire in a sheng. This was intense. A bitterness that really hunkered down and stayed a while, heavy penetrating chalky astringent bitterness. Alpha had some really good aspects but that aftertaste makes for an unpleasant session. I really wanted to like Alpha, but I just couldn't. So, seeing how Alpha was the first tea in the tasting and my just flat out not liking it very much, it kinda set the tone for disappointment for me on some kind of subconscious level. And I think I started to focus on the teas faults, very unfair, you can find fault in any tea if you look hard enough. Had I more experience with Alpha maybe this issue could have been resolved but the sample had been consumed. So all I,m left with is a memory of creepy, creepy bitterness.

Alpha = Yiwu

2009 Yunnan Sourcing Tea Tasting

2009-09-13T17:56:00.000-07:00

I,m sure some of you are familiar with this tea tasting. Orchestrated by Hobbes (Half Dipper) with tea samples provided by Scott of (Yunnan Sourcing) This tea tasting was comprised of five 2009 spring flush puerhs. The five teas are exclusive to Yunnan Sourcing. All five single origin, varietal teas. Stone pressed and about as handmade as you can get. All of them visual works of art. A testament to what skilled people who care about quality and tradition can do. Thanks to Scott and Hobbes for making this tasting possible. Very generous samples were supplied, enough for several sessions with each tea. The teas are as follows, You Le, Bu Lang, Wu Liang, Ban Zhang and Yiwu. These teas were sent "incognito" we have no idea what tea is what. It,s up to our wits and tastes to figure it out.

The "incognito " names given to the teas are, Alpha, Beta, Delta, Gamma and Epsilon.

Having sampled all of the teas, some of them a couple of times Ive realized that this isn't easy. Although I never thought it would be. It forces you to question yourself, do I really know what a You Le tastes like? As if there are no variations in You Le teas. For me this tasting is not so much a game of "name that tea" more of an opportunity to learn how much I don't know. I,m not going to go into detailed tasting notes here, they will be posted on Half Dippers blog. But for me there was only one tea that stood head and shoulders above the rest, Epsilon. Superlative in every aspect. The only sheng Ive ever had that made me want to have back to back sessions. The above photos are the Epsilon.

Again, Thanks to Hobbes and Scott for providing great tea and an even greater experience.

Sorry We Missed You a.k.a. Catch Me If You Can

2009-09-08T21:26:00.000-07:00

There is nothing I hate more than coming home from work to find one of these on my door. I know what I,m in for, a big freaking hassle. I hate the U.S.P.S. This package I,m sure is from Scott at Yunnan Sourcing, tea samples. O.K. for starters they are supposed to DELIVER your stuff. The post man didn't even ring the bell, I was home this morning, I would know. So finding this note later in the day I head off to the post office. I stand in line only to be told that the post man has the package with him. So, he will attempt to deliver it again tomorrow. Well, tomorrow I,ll be at work. That,s their final attempt. So I,m going to have to go back to the post office again on Friday and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if there is another problem. This is exactly why I will not order anything from outside the U.S. The parcels always require a signature and the post man makes a very feeble attempt at doing his job. I swear it,s like they do this intentionally. A barely audible knock at the door (if that) and then a mad dash to their truck and let the games begin. Jeez, what we go through for tea. But I,m sure once I drink some of these I,ll forget all about the mailman and how much I hate him.

Part 2, next day. O.K. so knowing that if I don't get to the post office early I,m going to have to wait in line for forever. Turns out I,m the first one in line, cool. 8:30 A.M. the magic metal door opens and I cant believe it, I,m the first one here. Keep in mind there is nobody else there yet but I can hear them filing in behind me. So I ignore the designated path that weaves it,s way to the desk and go straight to the man. I hear a voice yelling from across the room "Sir! you have to follow the line" What? So I turn around walk around the table to wind up where I started from. This is ridiculous I said, what purpose did it serve to make me walk around that table? Turns out by not following the path they don't have you on camera and that,s an issue for them. So that I understand, but at the time I as well as the people in line behind me laughed quite audibly at the demand for me to run around the desk just to wind up where I started from. Comical really! Like I said before, the things we go through for tea. I feel like I just played musical chairs to get this package. This tea had better be good.

Grand Opening of jas-etea,

2009-09-04T05:28:00.000-07:00

Congratulations Steve! jas-etea . Opening day is imminent. A superlative selection of puerh tea,s and tea wares. Ive been buying tea,s from Steve for a while now and have always received excellent products and service. jas-etea has a large selection ranging from the puerh staples that we should all have in our collection. Menghai, Xiaguan, Haiwan. As well as some harder to find handmade premium puerhs that are a treat for the puerh enthusiast. Xi Zhi Hao, Mengku, Hai Lang Hao, Yong Pin Hao, just to name a few. Oolongs, Chinese Green Tea,s, Yixing, Gaiwans, Cups, you name it. And of course you can purchase sample size packets to try before you buy. Scheduled to be open in the coming week. We westerners have been needing a source of good quality, fairly priced tea and it,s been a long time coming. Again, congratulations and thanks Steve.

2008 Yong Pin Hao " YiWu Wild Arbor"

2009-08-25T03:54:00.000-07:00

I just received a pair of these handmade cakes yesterday from jas-etea. I was wanting something a little different from what Ive been drinking lately.(and this is) Never having even so much as sampled this tea before I knew I was taking a risk but I had read some pretty good things about them and felt it was a fairly safe gamble. Everything about these cakes spells "attention to detail" even down to the paper wrapper, it feels like silk. The Yong Pin Hao gang who are all about using old school, traditional methods have even gone the extent of setting up an on site pu-hut so they can process the maocha in the same area that it was harvested in. Avoiding the lengthy transit time and the potential for oxidation of the leaf. Made entirely from 2008 spring, first flush maocha gathered from wild arbor trees that range from 100-200 years old. The maocha was dried in small batches by hand using woks. And the finished cakes were air dried naturally, instead of low temperature baking which I guess is common practice.

The level of compression is pure perfection, loose enough so as to make prying very easy yet tight enough to hold together and not fall apart with time. The cakes are made from large, whole leaves that are a thing of beauty. The aroma emitting from the cakes is very mild, fresh and clean. Nothing heavy or overly rustic. This tea needs a heavy hand to realize it,s potential, ten gms of leaf is the quantity determined through trial and error. I go for the typical infusion times starting at 8-10 seconds and progressing and that approach works out fine for me. Brews a golden yellow cup with a tinge of orange starting to show up. The durability is good, 8-10 infusions. This tea doesn't really smack of YiWu,s typical flavor profile but there are some similarities to be found, if you look hard enough. At a price of $30.00 for a 400 gm beeng I wasn't really expecting anything too spot on.

The teas aroma is fresh and green. Again, nothing heavy but actually a fairly light, clean, woodsy, faintly tobaccoish, slightly floral tea. Just the right amount of sweetness, given the delicacy of this tea I was worried that it was going to be too sweet. But it,s not, it,s nicely balanced. At the risk of sounding cliche, there is an aspect of fresh spring meadow in both the flavor and aroma. The tea has just the slightest bitterness that quickly transforms into sweetness. This is a pretty easy going tea. Almost refreshing in it,s clean, crisp flavor profile. This isn't a sheng that,s going to kick you in the head. It just doesn't have it in it. Very low key but with lots of class and style. Not to be confused with a tea that,s thin or weak but rather a sheng that,s light and delicate, there,s a difference. With proper brewing parameters this sheng does have a nice viscosity. For my tastes it,s not one to start the day with but fine for an afternoon session when your not up for something too intense.

I cant imagine how this tea will age, I cant see it turning into anything other than what it is now, maybe a more concentrated version of it,s present self. It will obviously loose the fresh, crisp and clean aspects it now has. I also don't see the potential for any real body to develop over time, it,s always going to be a light to medium bodied tea. I guess what I,m trying to say is that I just don't see this tea as having the required traits for long term storage, it,s going to peek fairly young then peter out. I can see this tea reaching it,s potential in about four to five years. But I could be wrong (it,s happened before)

This pu-purchase gave me yet another example of the scope of flavor profiles or styles of tea to be had that I hadn't experienced before. All in all, The Yong Pin Hao boys definately know what their doing. A beautifully made tea that in every aspect shows that they cared about it. A very nice couple of cakes Ive added to my collection, I,ll enjoy dipping into from time to time. But two of these is enough. I guess I like getting kicked in the head, repeatedly.

P.S. Something that I didnt notice during my initial sessions with this tea was that there is the faintest of cooling sensation in the brew, almost mint like. Drinking this tea now I dont know how I didnt notice this before, as it,s there plain as day.

Xiaguan Green Tuocha

2009-08-21T11:47:00.000-07:00

Wow! Ive been on such a Xiaguan spree lately and loving every sip, until this one. The 100 gm. Green box tuocha. I bought a couple of these from a Chinese shop, at $3.99 each. Never having had these tuo,s before and knowing that they are bottom of the rung sheng, my expectations were meagre. Visual inspection sounds no alarms, nor the lack of aroma from the tuo. Looks to be an everyday, nothing special tea. The tea leaves appear to be o.k. Compression is normal. I brew some up and....nothing. Literally no flavor aside from generic green bog water. It,s not a case of me being spoiled by the good stuff it,s just this tea has virtually no flavor. Thin, weak and insipid. I immediately rushed to the pot to wash this tea out and made myself some proper sheng. I wonder, could they be counterfeit? How does one tell? When an Xiaguan tea has no flavor there is something amiss. At least they didn't cost much. I would be interested to try this tea from another source for comparison and then I think I could solve the puzzle of the flavor that,s gone missing.

2008 Xiaguan FT " Imperial Tribute"

2009-08-16T15:59:00.000-07:00

A redux of the 2006 Xiaguan Yushang Tuocha. The redux is in beeng form, your typical 357 gm cake. I have high hopes for this tea, will it live up to my Yushangian expectations? We,ll see !

I bought three of these cakes as well as some others from JAS Teas, a new online vendor that is somehow affiliated with Yunnan Sourcing. A great source for puerh that is located here in the states. It,s about time, there are plenty of us pu-heads out there to keep JAS busy.

As you can see in the pics the cake is made from smallish leaf but nice enough, decorated with the mandatory
white tea buds that seem to be on all
of the FT series cakes and tuochas Ive bought. The tea smells pungent with rich tobacco, wood, the very same floral smell that the yushang had. And like the majority of Xiaguan teas the slight smoky aroma is there, but it,s not too strong. Compression is typical Xiaguan, I have to kinda psych myself up to deal with the physical exertion necessary to pry some of this beeng apart.
Having accomplished that it,s time to brew some up and see what we have here. Nine gms go into my six ounce capacity yixing and with one quick rinse and a rest we are good to go. The first brew tells all, brews up an orange colored cup. I don't really mind that but what that might mean is that the tea has undergone some fermentation during some stage of it,s production. And it,s ability to age properly may be compromised. This tea needs a few years age on them to really tell what we have here. All the components of a good tea are present but at this stage of it,s life the flavors are a wee bit much. It needs to mellow out a bit.

Now, the brewed tea is pretty darned potent, just the way I like it. The room where the tea is being brewed is filled with the smells of sweet leather, woodsy scents and the perfume like floral smell that brings back memories of the yushang. The smell alone entices with promises of flavors to come. The first infusion,s bitterness is there but it,s not overwhelming. I actually like a bit of bitterness in the brew. This tea doesn't really hit it,s stride until the fourth infusion (or there abouts) all of the flavors are balanced, the floral aspect this tea has knows it,s place which is way back in the background where it provides nothing more than a pleasant afterthought. The taste of grain or more accurate, sweet gruel takes center stage with the woodsy and tobacco flavors playing back up now. All the flavors stay put with none dropping out during any stage of the session. Durability is really good, ten or more if your parameters are right.

All in all this is good tea. It,s not the stuff that the yushang was made from but never the less it,s pretty good. Considering it,s price point it,s a really good value. A little under $20.00 gets you a sheng with a lot of good flavors and great durability. I have to admit that when it comes to duplicating the yushangs aroma, they nailed it. But the tea just isn't the same. You can compare the two teas color by comparing the pics in this post and then scrolling down to the bottom of the page. That pic is the yushang. See the difference? The yushang even though it was several years old brewed a clear yellowish / orange cup with good viscosity. The Imperial Tribute brews an orange cup with a fairly light body. But the body will improve with a few years age on them, I hope.

P.S. JAS teas site has not launched yet so trying to link to it now would be useless. I,m not sure when he,ll be up and running but untill then he sells some of his stuff through Amazon. Keep an eye out for JAS he,s got a lot of great teas and sells them at fair prices.

Nepal Kuwapani Estate SFTGFOP1CL/SP

2009-08-08T16:56:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while I get a wild hair up my butt and buy something a little out of the ordinary. Ive never had a Nepalese tea before and thought I,d give it a try. I don't usually spend too much money on these excursions and I,m not expecting too much in return. But this tea surpassed my meager expectations by leaps and bounds. This stuff is good, really good! At just under $10.00 for 100 gms it,s an affordable tea that I,d be hard pressed to find anything anywhere close to the unique qualities this tea has to offer. I ordered this from Uptons two days ago and it was delivered today, now that's fast service. The dry leaf is a multicolored mix of browns, reds and greens with plenty of silver buds. The aroma of the dry leaf is pungent with muscatel and an unusual rustic earthiness. The aroma from the brewed tea comes out swinging. There are so many smells to be savored here. The muscatel aroma is neck in neck with the smell of fresh peaches and apricots. The rich aroma of honey is also there as well as a sparkling clean citrus smell. You know the smell of a freshly opened jar of wildflower honey? I,m not referring to the obvious sweet smell but the smell that lays just underneath that, the smell of the terroir that the bee,s toiled in. That,s the rustic, earthy sweet smell that this tea has. Brews a crystal clear brew of the most beautiful orange, amber color you've ever seen. The teas flavor follows suit with it,s fragrance. A fairly complex cup with a medium body. I could just sit and smell this stuff all day, almost worth the price for the smell alone. I think teas from Nepal are generally considered a Darjeeling wanna be. If this Kuwapani Estate tea is a typical Nepal offering then Darjeeling,s got nothing on them. While Nepalese teas share some of Darjeeling,s characteristics they bring a few of their own to the cup that in my opinion makes for a much more complex cup than any Darjeeling can muster. This is definitely a buy more of this situation here. As far as brewing parameters go I approached this tea like a Darjeeling. About two tsp. per eight oz. of boiling water with a three minute infusion time. I tried this tea using a gong fu approach but it doesn't work, the flavors are washed out after the initial steeping.

2006 Chen Guang Ho Tang Yiwu Yeh Cha

2009-08-03T05:56:00.000-07:00

Ive posted on this tea before with not so positive things to say about it. I decided to revisit it now that it,s been resting in a clay jar for eight months or so, lets see if anything interesting has come out of it. I remember being really disappointed in the initial tasting of this tea, nothing bad about the teas flavors but nothing very note worthy either. Lets see if the several months storage has changed anything. The teas appearance is still very nice, the color has become a little darker. Two rinses and a 30 second rest, and what have we got here? Not much has changed really. It,s not bad but this tea just isn't very interesting, at all. Just generic, rather thin, bland cup of mediocrity. Don't waste your money. I see no point in hanging on to this tea, it,s destined for the garbage bin. About $45.00, down the drain. Oh well, live and learn I guess. This sheng is so boring that I cant even put it into the category of a good everyday tea. I,m so disappointed with it, looks can be deceiving! I guess that we sometimes make the mistake of believing that the small, independent producers make better teas than the large company's. Ain't always so! Give me Xiaguan or Menghai any day. At least with them you know what your getting. But then again that,s kinda like receiving a gift when you already know whats inside the box. Not as exciting.

Xiaguan "Happy Tuocha" Jitters

2009-07-31T09:31:00.000-07:00

2008 Xiaguan,s Happy Tuo is one of the many products in Xiaguan,s FT series of teas. Made as a special order for the Fei Tai company and intended for the Taiwan market these FT series teas are of a higher quality than the regular Xiaguan Puerhs. My first experience with the FT lineup was the Yushang Tuo,s, I liked it so much that I started looking into these teas and collecting them. This is my first time with the Happy Tuo but judging from the looks of the tuo I think I will indeed be happy. The packaging is as cute as a squirrels nut, a little purple hexagonal shaped box. After examining the tuo Ive realized that I may not need my hammer to get into this one as it doesn't appear to be pressed as tight as other Xiaguans tuo,s. The tuo,s surface is sprinkled with the to be expected silver leaf (decoration) But the tuo,s mostly made from rather small leaf and broken leaf. With Xiaguan Ive come to expect a mix of chopped leaf and am no longer disappointed when I see it. The aroma from the dry leaf is rich as all get out. Woodsy and tobacco aromas permeate the area where the tuo is being fought with. Now that a good chunks been pried from the tuo lets get down to business. The usual two rinses start the session, a 30 second rest and let the brewing commence. The first pots flavor is quite nice. Anticipating some bitterness I kept the infusion time short. Rich tobacco, some bitterness and sweet. The teas color is a little dark for it,s age. That's not a bad thing but what that implies is that the mao cha may have gone through some fermentation before the tea started to be processed. The tea has a good heavy mouth feel, permeates deeply and almost overwhelms the taste buds and nasal passage. This stuff packs a pretty good wallop. By the third infusion the bitterness has for the most part disappeared, it really didn't have a lot of bitterness to start with. The teas sweetness is pretty dominant but I like it. Around the fourth infusion it needs to be pushed a little to try to maintain the body and flavor. But that initial flavor profile has abandoned it,s post leaving behind a flavor of grain with a very faint honey tone. By the sixth infusion it,s pretty washed out and gone home for the day. All in all, it,s good. But not great. For the price it,s a good value I guess. I wouldn't mind storing a few of these out of curiosity to see how they age.

Liu An Gua Pian

2009-06-06T05:35:00.000-07:00

Liu An Gua Pian also known as Melon Slice is one of Chinas Tribute Teas. Got to be one of my all time favorite China green teas. Grown in Liu An County which is in the Anhui province. This tea is unlike any other China green tea in both its method of manufacture and its flavor and aroma profile. With most China greens, or for that matter teas in general the inclusion of the tea bud is an indicator of quality. With Gua Pian the tea bud is discarded and only the leaf is used to make this unique tea. The dry leaf is long, flat, deep emerald green in color. When infused they open up to reveal their true size, which is huge for a green tea. Gua Pian has a strong aroma, very fruity, sweet and rich. Not a trace of vegetal or astringency to be found (because of the tea bud being removed) The flavor of this tea is gorgeous, full mouth feel, sweet as all get out, a good amount of the floral thing going on here. This is by far the most durable green tea your gonna find anywhere, easily five or six infusions. If you don't like China green teas this could be one that changes your mind. This particular batch brews a greenish yellow cup, Ive had others that brew a jade green cup, those were probably a higher quality than this one. I use a generous four grams of leaf and 175 degree water with a three minute brew time. Ive discovered that using water any hotter than that kills some of the sweet floral aroma. Because of this teas labor intensive manufacturing process this tea is never cheap. The leaf has to be hand dried in a wok in small batches to create the flat leaf shape. Liu An Gua Pian,s flavor and aroma are so unique that you cant really compare it to any other green tea, it,s in a category all it,s own. If you are of the opinion that a Long Jing is the ultimate China green then you really should give Liu An Gua Pian a try. It,s equally good to any of the other famous teas but very much at the other end of the flavor spectrum.

2009 Purple Bamboo Green Tea

2009-06-04T12:11:00.000-07:00

This is another tea I picked up at a local tea shop the other day. I had never had this tea before and was curious. Taking a whiff from the bulk jar I was transformed into a zombie and became oblivious to the price tag, $14.99 per ounce. My curiosity was sparked and there was no walking away from the shop without at least an ounce of it. The smell of the dry leaf is pungently fresh and slightly vegetal. Something in the smell of this tea causes the same kinda reaction in my nose as smelling black pepper, doesn't smell like pepper but my nose kinda tingles when I smell it. From Hu Zhou City, which is in Zhejiang province. Purple Bamboo is a early harvest green tea which uses the one bud one leaf system. And the dry leaf really does have a kinda purple sheen. It,s one of those things where if you are looking for it, you wont see it. But if you just casually glance at it, it,s there, plain as day. I hope I can capture that color in a photo, we,ll see. Using four grams of leaf, six ounces of 185 degree water in a Gaiwan and with a three minute infusion it brews a very light straw colored cup. I saw on Seven Cups site where they described the color as similar to ancient ivory, I guess that's a little more elegant sounding than straw colored. The flavor is delicious! The flavors in this tea are as follows, vegetal, slightly sweet, fresh and very clean mouth feel and a slightly tart sensation in the mouth. Really unique flavor profile, not so much in the flavors but more in the balance of flavors and the way in which they present themselves in your mouth. The first flavors you notice are the vegetal and tart, then followed by the sweet. The brewed teas aroma are the same as the flavors. Everything about this tea is very light, clean and so fresh. I get two good infusions and the third is just O.K. and then it,s done. A new tea experience for me, I thought I,d just about had every tea experience there was to be had. A really great tea but now that Ive had it I,m not sure I would buy it again. It,s just too light for my tastes. Almost more like a white tea. But worth the price for a sample of a really unique tea that,s not a tea you see everyday.

note: well I didnt really get the color of the tea to show up well. The brew is much lighter than what the picture shows.

2009 Takumi Shincha

2009-05-22T10:12:00.000-07:00

After a long winter of drinking Oolongs and Puerh even the most die hard tea lovers become somewhat jaded, but spring does amazing things. With all the new teas coming to market it,s easy to get drawn into the world of tea again. This Takumi Shincha I bought at a local shop, $13.99 for a 50 gm. nitro flushed bag. Grown in the Kagoshima prefecture and using the Gokou varietal which is known for it.s sweetness and richness. This teas dry leaf appears much more broken than most Shincha, suggesting it,s been subjected to a little heavier steaming than is typical. Also a fair amount of tiny little stems, so small it,s easy to mistake them for leaf. So rustic that it almost looks more like an Aracha (farmers tea) The smell of the dry leaf is very vegetal and fresh. Traditionally Shincha is a very light and delicate tea, but this one appears to be a little bit more on the sturdy and stout end of the spectrum. Brews a deep green cup with a slight murkiness. a.k.a. cloudy. Yep! When they brew up like that, they have been deep steamed, a.k.a. fukamushi. The flavor is very deep and rich with that savory vegetal flavor permeating. In the aftertaste there is a noticable sweetness. A slight astringency in the aftertaste as well. I know a lot of people really love the fukamushi style tea but I prefer the traditional light or mid level steamed tea. Not because I don't like the flavor of the fukamushi but because I don't like the way it looks, green swamp water. Also I prefer to taste the tea itself and not the processing. I guess you could think of it as French Roast Coffee which because of the way it was roasted all you really taste is the roast, the type of coffee used is very much secondary. This is a good quality tea but I,m not sure I,d buy it again. The flavors this tea has are easily found in a lot of the less expensive brands. The characteristics of the Gokou varietal show up well and the tea is fresh, I,ll give it that much. For my money I,d rather buy a mid or light steamed Yakubita, now there,s a tea to swoon over.

note: one of my favorite cups, I bought this from Artistic Nippon a couple of years ago. Holds an entire pot of tea. Even though there is a crack running all the way down the side of the cup it doesn't leak. Very rustic clay with large particle sand mixed in and then glazed and hand painted in porcelain.

2009 Honyama Shincha

2009-05-17T12:31:00.000-07:00

At last, some fresh Japanese teas are starting to show up in the shops. This tea is gorgeous! The smell of the dry leaf is pungent and rich, just sticking my nose down into the bag and smelling it makes me realize how every year I always seem to forget just how good Japanese teas can be. This stuff smells so freakin good! The leaf is very long and spindly and a very dark, earthy green color. (Click on the pics and see for yourself) I already know what this teas gonna taste like just by smelling the leaf. This tea is without a doubt the best Shincha Ive seen in several years. I mean their always good but this Shincha smells far more pungent than I remember it smelling before. When brewing Shincha or Sencha I,m pretty heavy handed with the quantity of leaf, I use 7 &1/2 gms for I,m guessing maybe a 12 oz capacity kyusu and give it a full two minute infusion. This is my theory on brewing Sencha. I think the best flavors are extracted in the first infusion, no matter how brief you keep that infusion time the best flavors to be had are in the first pot. The second pot I brew very briefly, pour the water in and right back out. Knowing the second pot is not gonna be as good as the first. With Sencha I don't think it,s possible to get two consecutive infusions that taste identical to each other so I put all my eggs in one basket (the first pot) and just be happy with that. Honyama teas are from the Shizuoka prefecture grown near the Abe river, an area known for the pristine water sources and misty climate. The flavor is just what I expected, rich with that veggie protein flavor, full mouth feel and the aroma permeates into my nose, I can still smell it even though I finished my tea 15 minutes ago. This tea is a Chumushi style tea.(mid steamed) Fukamushi (deep steamed) teas, while I like them are not the cream of the crop. And there is also the Asamushi style (light steamed) Really high quality Sencha would never be subjected to a fukamushi style process because the deep steamed method is used on teas that are a little lacking in inherent flavor. It,s just a way of coaxing the most they can get from it. I know Ive said this before but the aroma of good Sencha always reminds me of popcorn, while it,s popping. Seeing how I bought this at my local tea shop there really is no point in going into prices and all that, meaning you don't have access to it anyways. But get out there and get your orders placed, you,ll find something just as good or maybe better. Shincha is only here for a very brief time, so order soon.

P.S. I accidentally posted two pics of dry leaf but I liked both pics so decided to leave em both.

Rishi Bao Zhong

2009-05-17T06:13:00.000-07:00

One more Rishi tea for ya and then I,ll call it quits with Rishi. This Bao Zhong being such a good value at $53.00 lb. I thought it deserved a mention. Of all the times Ive bought more premium quality Bao Zhongs I admit that at least half of the time Ive been somewhat disappointed. Even Hou De,s Bao Zhongs were not all that great, at least in my opinion. Rishi,s Bao Zhong is a fraction of the price of the "gourmet type" Bao Zhong,s and in some ways the flavor is just as good if not better. It has that floral, spice aroma. Brews a cup with good clarity. The aroma reflects in the flavor as well. Judging by the dry leafs appearance, it looks to me that this tea has a little more oxidation than most Bao Zhongs, probably to coax as much aroma as they can get into the leaf. Mouth feel isn't quite as full as some others but it,s alright. The only reason I,m posting about this tea is that it,s such a good bargain, has a lot of the aspects you look for in a good Bao Zhong. Has it,s limitations also but at their price it,s not difficult to overlook that. I think in a blind taste test this tea could fare better than you'd think.

Rishi,s Organic Dragon Well

2009-05-15T17:01:00.001-07:00

Yeah I know, another Rishi tea? At the tea shop the other day I just filled up a bunch of two oz. bags of various teas. So now I have my sample box back up to brimming with little bags of teas to explore or re-discover, and this one falls into the category of re-discover. The last time I had this tea was easily 5 years ago. Rishi currently has two new Long Jing teas but this is the Organic Dragon Well, a long time staple on their menu. $61.00 a lb. The appearance of the dry leaf has similarities to the "real thing" flat, light green leaf. The aroma of the leaf also has characteristics of the real thing but much more subtle. The flavor? Ummm.... it,s alright. A lot better quality than you ll find at your local Asian market that's for sure. I learned through experimentation that this is best brewed as a one infusion tea. 185 degree water and a three minute infusion time and that's about as good as it,s going to get. I tried going for two infusions with a shorter brewing time but it just cant hold up to that. In summary, the flavor is there, kinda. And the aroma is there, kinda. It,s lacking that rich, nutty flavor. Good Long Jing,s flavor really permeates your taste buds and the flavor stays a while. With this Dragon Well the flavor just washes over your palate but leaves you with nothing. If you don't go into this tea anticipating something rich and pungent then it,s really an alright tea. Another thing to consider is that Rishi doesn't date their teas, you have no idea how many years they have had this tea. If really fresh, who knows? Did anybody notice that Rishi started offering their Sakura Sencha (or whatever they call it) about two months before Shincha was available? Getting rid of last years teas by flavoring them and calling them by another name? I think so. Anyways, I think it would be more accurate to think of this tea as more of a Dragon Well style of tea rather than the actual tea.

Rishi,s Organic 2nd Flush Darjeeling

2009-05-15T15:31:00.000-07:00

Now this is a offering from Rishi that I find no fault in what so ever. Ive been buying this tea for about four or five years now and it,s flavor profile is always very consistent. It reminds me a lot of a Thurbo Estate tea. The flavor of stone fruit is there in abundance as well as the muscatel. Nice medium body. I prefer second flush teas with a little more body than this one, but it has so much going on in the flavor and aroma that all is forgiven. This tea is a great value at $84.00 a lb. This is one of the teas that made me a big fan of Rishi,s way back then. Rishi,s Darjeeling and the Golden Yunnan were once upon a time mainstays in my house but that's no longer the case. Even though I don't buy much from them anymore I still think Rishi has several teas that can hold their own even compared to teas from the "cool" online vendors. When you have been buying from Hou De, Jings and Seven Cups can you go back to Rishi and find satisfaction? With this tea the answer is a resounding yes. It just smacks of peaches and apricots with a good amount of the floral aspects in the aroma to make this a Darjeeling that is as complex as many of the other more elite teas. If your looking for a really good value Darjeeling I cant imagine a better one. You can see in the picture above that the dry leaf is comprised of a mix of browns, reds, greens and silver tips. Brews a amber cup with superb clarity. This tea in my book is one of Rishi,s winners.

Lin,s Ceramic Art Studio Ju Series Celadon And Purion Tea Ware

2009-05-13T06:22:00.001-07:00

Some of you may not know this but it is now possible to buy directly from Lin,s Ceramics. Their site is now in English and they can email a price list. The above pics are of the new Ju Ware series and the Purion series. The Ju Ware is celadon, good for green teas and oolongs not requiring high heat retention. The Purion is intended for yancha, black or puerh as it,s heat retaining abilities are superb and the special clay that it,s made from adds minerals to the water. Something like that.

Taiwan Style Celadon Pt.2

2009-05-05T13:13:00.000-07:00

The above and below pics are Japanese celadon. Handmade by Kamada Koji, set of 5 cups, $700.00

A close up of the fracturing. Slowly but surely the teapots acquiring a spiderweb like appearance.

By examining the teapots foot or in this case feet, we can see what type of clay was used in it,s construction. In this case the clay used was the traditional dark clay.

The pics above are on the left side a celadon teacup, on the right side a "mi zi"rice glazed teacup. Both cups being made with the dark clay. The metallic like sheen on the rim of the cups in the pics below are caused by being re-fired with an ash glaze. The mi zi teacup seems to crack differently than the traditional celadon, a lot of the cracks run in straight lines which makes it look like the cracks were cut into the glaze, almost like incisions. Both of these cups are very heavy, they do a good job of keeping your tea hot but I have to admit that I only use these for oolong or puerh tea. Drinking green tea from them just doesn't feel right.

Comparison Of Chinese And Taiwan Celadon

2009-05-03T15:25:00.000-07:00

Celadon or Qing Ci in Chinese was invented in ancient China during the Song Dynasty (960-1126 AD) most notably Zhejiang province. In ancient China only the elite and royalty could afford it. The perfect pieces destined for the emperor's use. The above pieces are Chinese celadon made at the Longquan kilns.

The above and below pictures are the only Chinese celadon that I own. By examining the foot of the cup it is apparent that that base material for the piece is porcelain. And that is the main issue of this post, the base material that is used in the piece of celadon has a big impact on the appearance of the finished piece. Porcelain is not the traditional way of making celadon, originally it was made with a red clay base. The rim of the cup in the above pic pays homage to celadons roots, by painting it red it,s purpose is to imitate the original look of celadon.

Celadon is making a come back, many young potters taking up this almost lost art and learning through trial and error and mostly self taught. Celadon is made in a reducing atmosphere kiln, meaning the temperature is gradually reduced, that as well as the base material and the thickness of the glaze is what determines the finished pieces color and appearance. The colors can range from white, grey, grey / green, yellow and a variety of blues. One of the most notable visual aspects of celadon is the cracks in the glaze, some of them deliberately made to crack in the kiln and some of the celadon initially have no cracks but with use develop cracks and fractures. The reason for the different base material is that the original red clay base contains iron oxide, and there is the problem. The glaze also contains iron oxide and consequently there are adhesion problems between the glaze and the clay. Originally Chinese celadon also used the red clay but with a 20% success rate after firing I can understand why the potters stopped using it. You can not determine which pieces will be defective before firing. However there are still some potters willing to take that gamble, mostly the Taiwanese potters. All the pieces in the pics below are handmade by Xu De Jia, a Taiwanese potter. The temperamental nature of the combination of glaze and pottery make for a not so lucrative pursuit as many pieces are lost due to flaws. Wu Yuen Zhong a Taiwanese potter claims a success rate of one out of every thirty pieces.

A variety of celadon tea ware, kyusu style teapot, fair cups, tea jars and cups. All made with red clay as it,s base. The pic above was taken a long time ago, now the teapot is almost completely covered in tiny cracks. You can see pics of that in some of my other posts. The teapot and the cup are made with the traditional red clay, the jars and fair cup an alternative red clay similar to the white tasting cups in the pic below.

But not all red clay is the same. The cups above are made from red clay but it,s not the original type of clay. This clay contains no iron and therefore no adhesion problems. Celadon has such a unique creamy feel, some people wouldn't use anything else for their tea. I wouldn't go that far but I,m definitely obsessed with the stuff. Celadon is expensive, of course the handmade type being more expensive. Usually the Chinese celadon is manufactured and the handmade celadon coming from Taiwan and Japan. The examples of Japanese celadon that Ive seen are amazing, with each yunomi selling for $100.00 each. Out of my price range!

The piece above is made with the traditional red clay, as you can see the traditional clay is quite coarse in appearance but it,s feel is very smooth. One type of celadon is not superior to the other, they are just different styles and methods and materials. Everything is subjective but I personally prefer the traditional red clay celadon. To me it,s rustic yet elegant. When new these pieces were without fractures and gradually watching the cracks develop with use was at the same time interesting and disconcerting. But the cracking is what celadon is known for so if you cant stand the idea of your tea ware cracking then stay away from celadon. When everything works like it is supposed to the results are gorgeous. Not only visually but the feel of the pottery is equally impressive, soft and creamy, elegant and earthy at the same time. Maybe not best suited to tea,s requiring boiling water but for green tea and oolongs it,s ideal.

2006 Menghai Dayi 7572 Chitse Beeng Cha

2009-04-30T09:47:00.001-07:00

This Yixing used to be a designated oolong pot, it,s being transformed into a shu pot. Ive got plenty of oolong pots but only one other for shu so I dont feel like too much of a creep.

A classic recipe from Menghai that was first produced in 1975. A whole lot of people seem to like these cakes so I thought I,d break into one and see for myself what all the hub bubs about. As I have one empty Yixing jar in need of replenishing I might as well go ahead and break the entire cake up, something I dont always do since a lot of the time I just want to try a tea but not make a commitment to it. An entire 357 gm cake lasts me a long time, maybe eight months or more.

The anti counterfeit sticker, Whew! (wiping brow) what a relief. I wonder if any of the Pu-Mafia have figured out a way to copy these yet? Just knowing that they are there does allow me to get a good nights sleep though. Just kidding. So the famous 7572 shu, to tell the truth Ive never tried them before. I bet my bottom dollar It,s good. I wonder where that expression came from, bottom dollar? As opposed to my top dollar? Getting a little too Seinfeld here. But seriously, Ive read so many positive reviews for this pu that I,m sure I will at least think of it as alright. All the outward indications look promising, nice red raspberry leaf , nice smell, not to much compression. I,m sure this was hydraulically pressed but I,m finding it to be fairly pliable and the cake crackles and snap,s just the way I want it to. So far so good.

Hmmm, the cakes surface looks nice enough. Lots of reddish, golden colored leaf to be seen on the surface. But you don't really know what you've got until breaking it open and seeing if the inside appears consistent with whats on the surface. A lot of times there is good looking leaf that is only on the surface, as decoration. On the inside a lower quality tea. That may or may not be the case here, we are about to find out. Well, after breaking into it I see the cake has indeed been decorated, although the interior leaf isn't bad either. Ive come to expect such shenanigans even from Menghai. Maybe I shouldn't look at this as trickery. Maybe they have been doing this since who knows when, and the intentions were never to deceive but just to dress it up a little. Like a bow on a package.

The dry leafs aroma is O.K. none of the heavy, cooked pu odors. The inside of the cake is much darker in color than the surface but still a mix of browns, reds and a sprinkling of golden leaf.
This tea doesn't have a real strong smell, I was expecting it to be a little more aggressive. Even the first pot, after a couple of rinses , was good. This puerh brews a cup with a slightly amber hue, to me that,s good, I didn't want to see brown sludge. Clarity is superb, clear as a bell even on the first pot. The flavor is quite nice indeed. Woodsy without over doing it, and a little sweet. There is a cleanliness to this tea, balanced flavors, none of which trying to overpower the others. Although this shu has plenty of body it somehow leaves a crisp, clean feeling in your mouth. The flavor doesn't really spread much or really permeate, but that,s O.K. I cant help but to put this shu in a category of it,s own, quite different from others in that it is so clean and crisp and the immaculate balance of flavors. Another new pu experience for me. I can see why people like this shu so much, it,s good. But if I had to choose between the 7572 and the V93 tuocha, I,d take the V93. It also has the same clean and crisp aspects as this tea but a little sweeter and a little more body and aftertaste. The 7572 has good durability, I havnt been counting but I think it,s up to around 7 or 8 infusions and just now starting to call it a day. And even if there is more tea to be had here, I,m done. Pretty good stuff!

2007 Xiaquan "Xiao Fa" Tuocha

2009-04-29T18:42:00.001-07:00

As I didn't find this tea to be deserving of a glamour shot I,m giving you the above photo. No set up, no mood lighting, just reali-tea.

I read a couple of blogs about these tuocha today and they both were pretty much of the same opinion in that they found these tuocha to be boring. I don't really think of them as boring I think these little 100 gm tuo,s are alright. At $4.00 each, what do you expect? A complex, multifaceted cup? Not gonna happen! Originally made for export to France in the 1960,s they have been a Xiaquan mainstay ever since. Given the price range these tuo are in, the only thing I expect from them is that they brew a cup with good clarity with no offensive odors or flavors. If they can pass those two tests then I think Ive gotten my moneys worth. The maocha used for these is from the Lincang area and some of the smallest leaf size Ive seen. I don't think these will ever improve with time, their a drink now shu. Admittedly these are not the shu,s I reach for when I got a hankering rather when I don't really want to be bothered with having to think about tea is when I drink this shu. Why the French supposedly love these I cant imagine. Nothing to love here, nothing to complain about either.

These are the only Xiaquan shu Ive ever had. I cant see myself buying any more of them but no regrets as their so cheap. I tell ya, these things are a lot better than anything from Rishi or any of those kinds of tea vendors but not interesting enough for the serious pu-heads. A little woodsy, slightly sweet and that,s about it. Their alright.

Afterthought: after just explaining how ordinary this tea is I noticed while brewing some the distinct smell of maple syrup, I ****you not. How bizzare! This doesnt change my opinion though.

Taishan Fo Mei Green Tea

2009-04-28T06:59:00.000-07:00

Taishan Fo Mei, also known as Buddhas Eyebrow. Grown on Tai Mountain near the local Buddhist temple this tea is consumed daily by the monks. An inexpensive green tea from Seven Cups, thought I,d give it a try and see what the monks drink for their daily tea. How bad could it be if the monks drink it right? This tea to me looks like Chun Mee, or Precious Eyebrow. Could this be the same thing? I think it very well could be. Nothing very distinctive about the dry leafs appearance, as you can see for yourself. Apparently though it does require great skill to roll the leaf to get the correct shape. It does have a nice pungent green tea smell but nothing I can pin down and say it smells like so and so. This tea,s a sinker, meaning that once the water has been added to the pot the leaves just lay on the bottom refusing to float around and explore. How appalling, their complete lack of motivation. Oh well, what can you do? This tea has a heavy mouth feel, generally not a bad thing but when the teas flavor is so one dimensional it makes for a uneventful tea. I think when teas have such a heavy mouth feel that somewhere in it,s flavor it needs something bright to balance that out, to add something resembling complexity. But that brightness is not to be found here.There is a slight astringency that seems to provide a kind of palate cleansing, thats a good thing considering the teas full body. This teas name comes from the fact that it,s grown near a temple and that the shape of the dry leaf resembles little green comma,s or eyebrows. While the teas flavor is in no way crude or boring it,s just so ordinary that it leaves my vocabulary useless do make it sound interesting. I bet Matt could spin some words around this tea but not me. I,m at a loss for words.

Giving credit where it,s due, this is a good quality, fresh, everyday green tea. That's all it is intended to be, I guess. But for me it,s one dimensional heavy green flavor just isn't very interesting. Chun Mee, Precious Eyebrow or Buddhas Eyebrow whatever you want to call it, is a good tea to have on hand for an everyday tea, a casual cup for when your minds on other things, but nothing I would break out for company. Let,s just leave it at that and call it a day.

Lao Zhuni Yixing

2009-04-26T13:41:00.000-07:00

Also from Yunnan Sourcing. This is a Lao Zhuni, I,m not sure what Lao means, I,m assuming red, I don't know really. I also am not clear as to whether the gravel or sand is something that,s added to the clay or if it is inherent. But either way it add,s an interesting surface texture. This pot unlike the Hei Zhuni Pot does appear to be made from the same clay through and through. These pots are not the ones held in high regard or in high esteem by collectors, but they are definitely a good value. A good, well made solid pot that holds heat very well and pours like a dream. This is the pot I always grab when I,m being indifferent about tea, whatever tea is sitting closest to the kettle is what this one gets used for. I mean it,s always some type of oolong, probably more often than not Dan Cong but whatever.It,s capacity is 150 cc still a good size for gong fu brewing for one or two people. Again the price on this one was around $35.00, a good price for a pot of this quality.

And like some of my other Yixing, with consistent, daily use this pot transforms into a deep, dark brick red color with an oily sheen. For someone on a budget but still wanting a high quality, well made Yixing you cant go wrong with Yunnan Sourcing. Scott,s always got dozens to choose from. Not to mention an outstanding selection of Puerh.

The potters name, Tian Zhong. These pots are extremely sturdy and strong. Even if you were to drop it, it,s doubtful it would break or even crack.

P.S. Thanks Will, in the case of this pot Lao translates as old, so..... a pot made from old clay. Traditionaly made high quality clay is aged for however long and I guess that improves it in some way. Seeing how the price of this Yixing was $35.00 I doubt that the claim of this being made from old clay is true.

Hei Zhuni Shi Piao Yixing

2009-04-26T05:55:00.001-07:00

Another one of my favorites. This is one of the three Yixing I got from Yunnan Sourcing. This style of pot "Shi Piao" is definitely just about my favorite. There is nothing dainty about the way this style of pot pours. A good solid stream with little or no drips. The claim for this Yixing was that it is made from Hei Zhuni, supposedly a high quality black Zhuni clay. Upon further inspection we can see if this is the case. The price of this Yixing was somewhere around $35.00.

You can see in the picture that the inside of the ball filter is a solid red clay and it appears that the black "zhuni" clay was applied afterwards, maybe painted on, who knows. This doesn't mean there was deception in the description of the pot, just not made from solid black zhuni clay. This makes no difference in how well the pot brews tea, this pots a solid little chump that can brew the snot out of some roasted or heavily fermented oolong,s. It,s capcity is 100 cc, so it,s perfect for a gong fu session for one.

By consequence of the Shi Piao,s design the lids never fit as well as other style,s of pots. I mean they are snug enough and everything, they just don't have that air tight seal that is possible with other style,s of pots. I know that the ability to seal well also has to do with the potters skill but I think with this style it,s maybe just not gonna happen. But to me all that,s just an added bonus anyways, if it does, that,s fine. If not, that,s o.k. too.

You can see in the picture below the seam mark around the base, not a real good job of burnishing. Again, I have no idea if the chop marks are upside down or what. All in all, it,s a you get what you pay for situation here. The pot is maybe not really made from this black zhuni clay but rather cosmetically applied. But just the same, I love this little pot, solid as a rock and brews tea as good as any other regardless of price.

This Yixing has no ring to speak of, just kind of a solid clunk sound when you tap it. The makers name, Tian Zhong. As you can see in the above picture that this is a footed teapot.

Misty New Top Green Tea

2009-04-25T09:50:00.000-07:00

With a name like that it sounds like something R.O.T would offer. From Seven Cups It,s been a while since the last time ordering from them, and truth be told I haven't bought all that much tea from them period. I have bought four or five Yixing from them but not very much tea. This tea sparked my interest because it,s made from the Long Jing tea bush. Long Jing # 43 to be exact. Gathered from the growth following the Long Jing harvest. I didn't buy this tea expecting it to have anything in common with Long Jing but rather out of curiosity as Ive never heard of this tea before. From the 2008 season, I know, I should have waited and bought this years tea but this tea is pretty inexpensive so I didn't care all that much. Realistically, I think at best this could be a good everyday green tea, going by the adage that you get what you pay for then this tea should fall into that category. The dry leaf has a range of green colors, chunky, long and spindly. The dry leaf aroma is kinda subtle, you can smell a little of it,s more famous counterpart. But there is also a lot of depth and somewhat grassy. Maybe some of that aroma will wind up in the cup, lets see. Umm.... yeah it does, kinda. In some ways the flavor also reminds me of Sencha in that it,s very vegetal and savory. The color of the brew even looks like Sencha, yellowish with a green undertone. It,s good, I like it. It,s about what I expected, a good everyday green tea. No disappointment with this purchase at all. A really good value, I,ll say that much for it. Nice full mouth feel and a flavor that isnt in the least bit light and wimpy. It,s a tea I definitely will re-order but I,ll wait for 2009 teas to come in. Seven Cups sells high quality teas and tea wares, even their least expensive teas are good for their price point. And of course their high end teas are the best money can buy, but I don't have that kinda money, maybe why I haven't bought that much tea from them. If I ever win the lottery though, Seven Cups here I come. They have a pretty informative site, quite a few videos about all things tea with Zhuping, owner and tea master, she seems to be quite a character and her love of tea is obvious. Ive had several of Seven Cups Rock Oolongs and Dan Congs, all of them very nice. I,m curious their new Puerh,s they recently aquired. Evidently they re-opened the Jing Gu Puerh factory that held at one time an elite position in the Puerh market. Personally, Ive never heard of Jing Gu Puerh but the buzz going around is that it,s pretty good stuff. We,ll see.

Bian Yuan Of Er Pu Zhuni Yixing

2009-04-22T09:43:00.001-07:00

My beloved Bian Yuan, of Er Pu. Thanks to Bill of Ancient Tea Horse Road for educating me on the history of the Er Pu potters. Made in the 80,s of Zhuni clay, 125 cc capacity. The small size is perfect for an oolong tea session for one. Being made of medium light weight clay makes it ideal for green oolongs. This is the only pot that I have that has historical significance, all the others are made by artists that Ive heard referred to as celebrity potters.
The Er Pu potters were known for making the shantou type of teapots but some of the better potters of Er Pu went to Yixing to have the opportunity to work with the higher quality hongni and zhuni clays. Superb skill and craftsmanship went into making these pots. Although I have to admit this style of pot is not my favorite. You,ll notice the tip of the spout and the pots body are on the same level. What that does is affect the way the pot pours, the tea kinda shoots up and away from the pot while pouring. I,m not crazy about that but just the same this is one of my favorite pots.

Stout little guy, don't let the cuteness of the pot fool you, he means business. Er Pu being located in the GuangDong province the potters only type of clay available for use was the local terra cotta. The Shantou pots were generally considered Yixing wanna be,s. And the genuine Yixing too expensive for the average person to afford. What a treat for the potters to be able to work with these clays after making pots considered common and ordinary. Fit for nothing more than the local farmers crude tea.

Chop marks, one of these days I,ll learn how to read these things. Has a crispy ringing ping when tapped. Ive noticed that the lighter weight clays make a higher pitched ring and the heavier pots have more depth and resonance in it,s ring.
Over a year of continual use and hardly any build up of grime to be seen. From what Ive read zhuni pots take a lot longer to become seasoned than other clays. Brews like a well seasoned pot despite the fact that there is nothing very visible. I have noticed that when used on a daily basis the surface of the pot becomes a much darker brick red and very oily (as seen in the top picture) But within a week of lying fallow it returns to an orangy red color. I got this from Hou De about a year or so ago.

Problem Solved

2009-04-22T08:26:00.001-07:00

After: problem solved. With a small variation on Jamus,s recomendation. It finely occured to me to seperate the boxes into three piles. Small, medium and large. Put the small into medium and then the medium into the large and presto Ive got a much smaller pile of boxes to deal with. The wooden crate is full of Puerh.

Before: a big towering pile of empty tea ware storage boxes that needed to be dealt with.

Zisha "Tai Mu" Yixing

2009-04-22T06:39:00.000-07:00

Another Yixing that goes into my leave out for use pile. Another great pot that Ive had for a few years. Hand made by Xu Xi, it,s capacity is about six oz. This is my Sheng Puerh pot. The wide opening at the top allows for easy placement of large chunks of puerh. Plenty of room inside for long whole leaves to expand properly. Made from high quality purple and yellow clay, the method of clay stacking is called Tai Mu. The image isn't painted on it,s done by stacking different types of clay to create images.

Artists Chop Marks

Pours very nice, a good solid stream of tea with no false starts or much in the way of dribbles.
I dont do the traditional gong fu brewing method of pouring the first pot over the outside of the pot. I just pour it down the sink instead. While it can help your pot to acquire that much sought after patina in time it also makes your pot into a pot that's too dirty and not so attractive to look at. (for a good example of the situation see Marshlans site) he has several posts about how to deal with dirty pots and the ways he has tried to clean them. And personally, I don't care so much about the shine of my pots. And Ive also read that pouring the first pot of tea over your Yixing in some cases can remove the luster from your pot. I know in time I,ll wind up with pots where the color of the lid and pot don't match anymore but I don't care about that. And as for it serving the purpose of pre-heating, believe it or not but there have been studies done that shows that pouring tea/water over the pot does nothing to raise the internal temperature. Pre-heating it by filling the pot with hot water makes the pot as hot as it,s ever gonna get.

As I don't drink Puerh daily this pots taking a while to acquire a good solid lining. It,s well past the new stage though, where it seems like the pot absorbs the teas flavor. Even though the clay isn't all that thick it holds heat really well. This Yixing is a bit on the unusual side in appearances. Upon close inspection you can see small pieces of mica reflecting light. Has a good solid yet crispy knocking sound.

Fujian Snow Monkey

2009-04-21T16:04:00.000-07:00

And the first green tea of the year is, Fujian Snow Monkey. Grown in the Taimu mountains.
Snow Monkey is usually one of the first green teas to show up on the market in spring. A fairly common green tea but that doesn't equal ordinary in flavor. I picked this up at my local tea shop, The Steeping Room. I,m not sure about what price online vendors would sell this tea for but it,s a pretty inexpensive green tea.
The dry leaf is beautiful, long slender leaf that is a fresh healthy green and a good proportion of them being covered in white down. Ive also seen this same tea called White Monkey King when it has a high percentage of downy leaf. The picking is a one leaf one bud method. Smells so damned fresh and sweet. In trying to describe this teas flavor I think if you were to take the nutty, veggie richness of a Dragon Well and the sweet, mellow depth of a Lu An Gua Pian and tone those two down a notch you would have as close of a flavor profile as I can come up with.

Three or four grams of leaf, 185 degree water and a two to three minute infusion.
Good durability for a green tea too, oh, at least three good cups. I,m trying to wrangle four out of it. More leaf and quicker infusions? We,ll see.

Brews a nice clear yellow cup with a slight green tint. The tea broth is vegital and sweet. This isn't a green tea that the flavor just washes over your mouth and that's the end of it. Rather it seems to coat the inside of your mouth with a light syrup like sweetness that lasts a while.

I,m really enjoying this tea a lot. After a winter of teas that consisted of whatever I already had on hand (for the most part) this is a long awaited breath of fresh air. Spring and summer for me are all about fresh Chinese and Japanese Tea.

This is the fourth infusion. The leaves don't fully open until the second brew. And that,s the way I like it, that tells me this tea has a little more staying power than most green teas. From my experience the majority of greens give you two or three good brews and then just bottom out. But this Snow Monkey never really goes bitter or bland on you rather the flavor never really changes into anything other than what it started out as. It stays sweet even till the last cup.

A Small Army

2009-04-21T10:10:00.001-07:00

Glamour Shots
Look at em, hamming it up for the camera.

A close up of the small spout. The reason for brewing some killer oolong?
A superb job of burnishing the clay, no noticable seams, at least as far as I can see.

The artists seal or chop mark, hand made by Zhao Ming Min

More chop marks, their all over the place
This pot has a very clear high pitched ring when tapping the lid against the body.

After two years of regular use this pots just starting to get a healthy layer of oolong grunge built up inside.

This Zhuni is one of my most used Yixing. As Ive said before, this pot is magic. Used exclusively for Taiwan and Anxi green oolongs. It,s capacity is about 8.5 oz. or so. Ive written about this pot before, it,s intended use is for oolongs and the supposed main feature of this pot is it,s small spout which forces an extended steeping time by means of it,s slow pour. I dont really think that has anything to do with it,s ability to brew good tea. It,s just a really well made pot and made from high quality Zhuni clay.

A lot of these other Yixing are getting packed up and put away for the summer. How do you know when you have too many? I try to stop myself from buying any more of em, but I cant help it sometimes. With the exception of a couple of pots for puerh I think the majority of these are going to get neglected through the summer. Poor little guys, just when they were getting their hopes up.

Oh how the mighty have fallen. Summer is coming and I dont love you anymore.
Believe it or not but Ive got more than this, these are just the ones I actually use.

Going through all of these pots should work out to be a good thing as it,s an opportunity for me to catalog all of them. Who made them, what type of clay, when they were made and so on. So in a big way me posting about these pots is kinda more about me than the tea community. Something I should have done a long time ago but just never got around to it.

Texas Hill Country In Spring

2009-04-20T07:20:00.000-07:00

Ummm........the smell of fresh, clean air in the spring. In the hill country the landscape is carpeted with wild flowers. Wild ferns and lord knows what else. It makes my day to go for a walk and just admire all the wildlife. The chain link fence doesn't detract from the Lantana,s beauty at all. The center pic is the state flower, Bluebonnets and the top pic, Texas Mountain Laurel, which smells like blueberry bubblegum.

Tysons Morning Ritual, For LaoChaGui

2009-04-19T09:40:00.000-07:00

Another episode in the life of Tyson. Tysons always the neighborhood personality, Ive lived with him in three different places now and everywhere we have lived he,s the dog that everybody knows by name. Loves everyone (except for that one guy) who he tried to bite. Loves kids, other dogs and his favorite, kitty's. I don't know why but he loves cats, but he cant figure out why they don't want to play with him. Our morning ritual consists of our walk. We first of all, go feed the kitty's. Across the street from my house is a shed that somebody dumped off a litter of kittens (I hate it when people do that kind of stuff) so every morning me and Tyson pack a baggy full of food and go feed them. Then we walk down that special sidewalk where most mornings out of the drive thru window a anonymous hand is waving one glazed donut in the air, it,s for me and Tyson. I have no idea who this woman is but if she,s working that day we get a free donut. Tyson loves windows, sometimes windows have french fries though, you just never know whats going to come out of the window, their magic. Then the all important pee and a poop and we are on our way home. Then it,s time for a snooze (for Tyson) and I can get on with what I need to do that day. Every things always about Tyson, if he doesn't get to start his day with this routine he pouts and sigh,s for the rest of the day. Poor baby, he,s got such a rough life. But seriously, I wouldn't trade him for anything. He,s really a well behaved dog, in the four years Ive had him he has never once used the bathroom or gotten sick inside the house. Even if it,s the middle of the night and he has to do something he will very gently wake me. Nobody likes being woken at three a.m. but that,s much better than the alternative. But we enjoy each other and are so co-dependant, I cant imagine what life would be like without him. Knowing the days coming when that will be the case even when he,s pissing me off I just think of that and whatever he,s doing/not doing doesn't seem all that important anymore.

Tysons favorite toy, Dot. He,ll chase this thing all day. Sometimes he try,s to pin it down under one of his paws, he,s thinking "now Ive got ya" it,s funny because he very slowly raises his paw to discover that dot somehow got away again. Very disturbing for him.

Hime Bancha

2009-04-18T13:36:00.000-07:00

Now, now, before you say anything. I just happen to like Bancha. I know it,s crude third or fourth growth tea that,s not suitable for any of it,s more esteemed relatives like Sencha. But I genuinely like this stuff. It,s flavor is vegital and grassy, more robust and pungent than Sencha and brews a much heavier cup. From what Ive read Bancha contains only trace amounts of caffeine. The Hime brand of products is in just about every Asian market that Ive ever been in and usually I can find it in my neighborhood HEB grocery store. Hime also makes a Genmaicha and I think a Houjicha. An 8 oz. box of Hime Bancha cost me $3.99, comes in a foil bag inside the box. The first Japanese tea I ever drank was Bancha, I liked it then and still like it today even though my taste in teas has grown and evolved over the years. But sometimes it,s good to go back to the everyday fair and who knows, maybe it will make me appreciate this years Shincha even more. With Bancha you don't need to be so exacting with weight,s and steeping times or water temperatures. About one Tablespoon per cup, just off the boil water and a 30 to 45 second infusion time and that's it. Your not gonna get a good second pot out of the leaves, it,s a one shot tea. I wonder if it,s possible to make your own Houjicha from Bancha? I know Houjicha is just roasted or baked Bancha but I,m wondering how much this could stink up the house. Who knows, I might try it. Bancha is an everyday tea in Japan and for good reason. It,s good for you, it,s not gonna break the bank and it tastes good. What more could you ask for?