M@ND@Y TE@D@Y 4/07/08

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Talk about 2008 harvest is off the charts on the forum...are you currently shopping for, buying, or preordering new harvest teas?

Yes, I am seriously looking currently and have already purchased or preordered
10
18%
Yes, I am looking but have not made any moves yet
13
23%
Yes, I have taken a gander or two
7
13%
No, but I am going to start any day now
4
7%
No, I have not
6
11%
No, and I really do not pay attention to new harvest and buy from my vendor(s) when I need it regardless of harvest
16
29%
Other
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 56

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Apr 7th, '08, 21:44
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by Katrina » Apr 7th, '08, 21:44

daughteroftheKing wrote:In an effort to keep a check on my tea addiction, I've purposedly NOT jumped on the fresh harvest bandwagon. There's probably (at least) a good year's worth of tea in my cabinets now that needs to be enjoyed before justifying a deeper plunge.
I'm in the same boat. I'm amassing enough of an assortment of teas that I wouldn't dare start obsessing over fresh harvest...If I end up buying fresh harvest it's only because it caught my eye - not something I sought out.

Today I'm drinking Yunnan Jing Mao Hou Select from Upton Tea. Wow. What an amazing tea.

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Apr 7th, '08, 22:59
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by Chip » Apr 7th, '08, 22:59

jogrebe wrote:
Victoria wrote:
Chip wrote: Tea is cheap.
Tell that to my credit card that has seen 7 Hou De orders since February.
And that's one of the vendors.

It's a good thing I'm not all caught up in the teapot buying craze.
:D
I agree while one can argue that for an individual cup with multiple infusions that tea is cheap. The problem however is how quickly these cups add up when one is a tea drinker especially if they drink very high grades of tea.
Still compared to passions such as wine which is very comparable on many levels...TEA IS CHEAP!!!

Heirloom Camelia sinensis flowers (actual flowers from the tea plant..nothing else) from old tea trees...nice ending to a great TeaDay. Everyone should try this at least once...or not...more for me. I was chatting to V about this tea which I gave her a sample of...I figure maybe 1 in 5,000,000 Americans may have tried this obscure "tea." This is a cheap thrill...

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Apr 7th, '08, 23:18
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by Space Samurai » Apr 7th, '08, 23:18

This daily post has pointed out my changing drinking habits to me. I used to drink a wide varity of tea from day to day or all in one day, blacks, whites, greens, puerh, what have you.

But the past few weeks its almost exclusively sencha, matcha, and some TGY for variety.

Right now, drinking the just4tea TGY.

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Apr 7th, '08, 23:20
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by jogrebe » Apr 7th, '08, 23:20

Chip wrote:
jogrebe wrote:
Victoria wrote:
Chip wrote: Tea is cheap.
Tell that to my credit card that has seen 7 Hou De orders since February.
And that's one of the vendors.

It's a good thing I'm not all caught up in the teapot buying craze.
:D
I agree while one can argue that for an individual cup with multiple infusions that tea is cheap. The problem however is how quickly these cups add up when one is a tea drinker especially if they drink very high grades of tea.
Still compared to passions such as wine which is very comparable on many levels...TEA IS CHEAP!!!

Heirloom Camelia sinensis flowers (actual flowers from the tea plant..nothing else) from old tea trees...nice ending to a great TeaDay. Everyone should try this at least once...or not...more for me. I was chatting to V about this tea which I gave her a sample of...I figure maybe 1 in 5,000,000 Americans may have tried this obscure "tea." This is a cheap thrill...
I think we have different views of what cheap is. Sure in small amounts even high grade teas are cheap compared to cheap to mid grade wines. But unlike wine, one can reasonably drink mainly tea for their fluid intakes. What I mean is for a heavy tea drinker the tea budget can quickly take up more of the overall food budget than it should be if you don't watch out.
John Grebe

"You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me."
~C. S. Lewis

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Apr 7th, '08, 23:22
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by daughteroftheKing » Apr 7th, '08, 23:22

There IS one harvest to which I pay attention: Darjeeling summer. The spring is too astringent for me, but I really love that smoother-tasting summer harvest. And this fall I'd like to try some of the fall harvest Darjeeling.
Hmm, maybe I just needed the right tea to put this "fresh harvest" excitement into perspective for me :) .
"Top off the tea... it lubricates the grey matter."
(Jerry Ledbetter, "Good Neighbors")

Apr 7th, '08, 23:44
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by Pentox » Apr 7th, '08, 23:44

olivierco wrote:Quote from Kevin (O-cha)

Also - there is no "shincha" gyokuro as gyokuro is aged for a few months, and there is also really no "shincha matcha", just in case anyone is wondering. There is no "shincha bancha" since bancha is a later harvest tea. Shincha basically equals freshly harvested sencha.
Hm.. Even though gyokuro is aged (although I was reading that not all gyokuro is aged) you can still have a gyokuro which would be made from the shincha leaves. Also from what I understand shincha processing is a bit different than regular processing. Shincha if I have read right is not sorted as heavily as traditional sencha/gyo/etc, and also is steamed a bit lighter.

I'm curious if there were no shincha gyokuro, would the gyokuro made from the very first leaves be named something different? Or would it get lumped with the rest of the gyokuro from the first picking?

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Apr 8th, '08, 00:18
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by greenisgood » Apr 8th, '08, 00:18

I must agree with chip, for the amount of pleasure one can get out of tea and the price of one "session" or even one steeping is really cheap. If you go with o-cha's 22 first steepings for a 100g bag of sencha (which is very resonable from my experience as a person who does not use a scale), for the most expensive shincha you can buy on o-cha its only about $1.75 per session. If you steep three times thats a little over $0.50 for each pot of tea (and even less if you steep five times til its almost clear like chip). Even gyokuro which is often considered the most expensive tea which requires a lot of leaf per session, using the highest grade from Tsuen its around $5 per session. I dunno about you guys but I know a lot of people who don't think twice about spending $4 on some oversweet flavored mocha with whipped cream and then give a tip (I should know, I'm a barista). Even a coffee of the day is about the same as having a fresh pot of the best shincha money can buy from o-cha. It's been said that tea is the world's cheapest luxury, and I must happily agree.

As for my own shincha adventures, I'm just getting some Kago' Yutaka Midori cause I have way a lot of tea on my hands right now but I couldn't miss out on my first new harvest since I've been tea-enlightened. I think it will be my only tea purchase until about next fall.

I've just had the good old Darjeeling 2nd flush today and some everyday sencha with dinner. And way too much coffee.

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Apr 8th, '08, 00:46
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by olivierco » Apr 8th, '08, 00:46

Pentox wrote:
olivierco wrote:Quote from Kevin (O-cha)

Also - there is no "shincha" gyokuro as gyokuro is aged for a few months, and there is also really no "shincha matcha", just in case anyone is wondering. There is no "shincha bancha" since bancha is a later harvest tea. Shincha basically equals freshly harvested sencha.
Hm.. Even though gyokuro is aged (although I was reading that not all gyokuro is aged) you can still have a gyokuro which would be made from the shincha leaves. Also from what I understand shincha processing is a bit different than regular processing. Shincha if I have read right is not sorted as heavily as traditional sencha/gyo/etc, and also is steamed a bit lighter.

I'm curious if there were no shincha gyokuro, would the gyokuro made from the very first leaves be named something different? Or would it get lumped with the rest of the gyokuro from the first picking?
I have found a mention of shincha and gyokuro on the hibiki-an website:

In contrast to Sencha, which is enjoyed for its refreshing aroma immediately after being harvested, Gyokuro also gains an enriched flavor and deep noble aroma and sweetness over time, and so is best some months after harvest. A long time ago, people celebrated aged Gyokuro as the Shincha of Gyokuro in autumn. It was called Kuradashi Gyokuro meaning Gyokuro taken out from the granary.

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