TeaChat

Have any of you been practicing "xian cha"? The first time I met with the owner of the shop that entertained me Long Jing.

its a Xing Cha...my mistake.

or maybe a "xin cha"? "new tea"?
Southern Chinese are often confused about "g" in Chinese pinyin

No. Xing Cha.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kff7Oxa ... re=related

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AFAIK, waking up the tea is sometimes a step for brewing certain kinds of teas. The wash CAN sometimes achieve the same effect. I haven't seen it much myself in brewing long jing or green teas in general though.

chado.my.teaway wrote:No. Xing Cha.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kff7Oxa ... re=related

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Oh I see! Usually I put small amount of water before putting in the tea and then swirl the cup a bit after putting in the tea and before filling the cup with hot water. Somewhat similar to what she does except putting water before the tea.

醒, xǐng, "to rouse." Often used to mean simply "wake up," but the 酉 radical means it has something to do with a jar, specifically to recover from drunkenness!

Thanks for sharing. I usually flash rinse my LJ before brewing, but maybe some swirling in the first infusion might be a good thing.

jayinhk wrote:Thanks for sharing. I usually flash rinse my LJ before brewing, but maybe some swirling in the first infusion might be a good thing.

Really no need to flash rinse LJ or most green teas. Maybe brewing 1st brew a bit longer because you are going from dry to wet and the water needs more time to penetrate. Many myths associated with flash rinsing and 'cleaning' most teas.

Been meaning to try this method for a while. But my Longjing wouldn't sink after several minutes! Guess it got so drunk it wouldn't rouse...the Bon Scott of Long jings.

By the way, does anyone have a good source for buying such heat-resistant narrow glass tumblers from the US? It's the kind of thing you can just get at Walmart in China, but nobody in the states has any use for them apparently Your choices are either a shatter-prone bud vase or an over-insulated space age travel monstrosity.

Tead Off wrote:Many myths associated with flash rinsing and 'cleaning' most teas.

How about this? Removing pesticide residue.

bagua7 wrote:

Tead Off wrote:Many myths associated with flash rinsing and 'cleaning' most teas.

How about this? Removing pesticide residue.

Pesticide residue is not very soluble in water. Rinse with dish soap or you're not accomplishing anything

Evan Draper wrote:By the way, does anyone have a good source for buying such heat-resistant narrow glass tumblers from the US? It's the kind of thing you can just get at Walmart in China, but nobody in the states has any use for them apparently Your choices are either a shatter-prone bud vase or an over-insulated space age travel monstrosity.

Unfortunately, I've been on the same mission without much success. I think we should organize a group to do a large taobao buy for these tumblers. I especially like ones such as these: http://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?spm=a2 ... id=&pm_id= $12 on taobao, but if you could find it in the states, it would surely be $50.

Teahabitat has a few http://www.teahabitat.com/store/index.p ... cts_id=336, but I prefer the durable steel tumblers over glass.

entropyembrace wrote:

bagua7 wrote:

Tead Off wrote:Many myths associated with flash rinsing and 'cleaning' most teas.

How about this? Removing pesticide residue.

Pesticide residue is not very soluble in water. Rinse with dish soap or you're not accomplishing anything

The HK Govt's Centre for Food Safety seems to disagree:

http://www.cfs.gov.hk/english/multimedi ... 35_03.html

Also this study from the Tea Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences seems to indicate some pesticides are very much water soluble (DDT isn't, but dimethoate, for example, very much is):

http://www.selamat.wur.nl/NR/rdonlyres/ ... ssment.pdf