Saturday, 7/05/08, TeaDay

[Chip]

A lot of rained on parades yesterday, but TeaChatters reported lots of tea being poured yesterday. You can still vote and discuss this topic.

Welcome everyone to TeaDay, let's brew tea and share what is in our cups today...all day.

Today's TeaPoll is about giving...well, really receiving! Most of us have received Tea related gifts from well meaning friends and family. But are the gifts we receive appropriate to our tastes, needs, wants. Or are they so off taget that we wonder what was the well meaning giver thinking. Please share your tea gift receiving experiences...maybe the strangest tea related gift you received.

I am looking forward to sharing TeaDay with everyone...so, as always, bottoms up, refill, repeat many times.

[Terrasi]

I don't receive a lot of tea gifts, just occasional "here, try this" gifts from my Brother. I always expect a new tea I haven't tried before, so it's always what I expect.

I like to broaden my horizons.

I couldn't really see many tea gifts being bad at all. I could always use another tea/cup/etc.

...wait.

Once a friend gave me some generic green tea bags from wal-mart or something when I mentioned I liked tea... It's the thought that counts... I suppose.

[Salsero]

2004 Fengquing Mao Cha shu puerh. "Mao Cha" means puerh leaves that have not been compressed into a cake or bing. It is usually thought that mao cha does not age as well as compressed leaves.

[tenuki]

My friends and family generally know how picky I am, and are generally very clever and thoughtful people. I'm lucky that way.

Still drinking this, tea and pot both from stephane of teamasters. wow.


more pics of the pot here in case you missed it yesterday, I posted kinda late:


Hope everyone had a great 4th of July, I did! Seattle Mariners beat the Detroit Tigers in the game we went to. Either one would have been ok with me, of course Seattle is my team now, but I grew up with 'the Bird', Rusty Staub, Alan Trammell, Lou Witaker, Sparky and all the other boyz way back when (Yes I saw Al Kaline play before he retired, yikes I'm old). I have to say, Safeco Field is a great ballpark to see a game in, maybe lacking in the wacko character old detroit stadium had, but it's gotta rank up there with the top modern ballparks. And my son's first fireworks where he didn't freak out over the noise and and actually watched spellbound the whole time - priceless.

[omegapd]

Gifts to me are usually off target. Even my wife, who knows exactly what I like, will come home with stuff occasionally from the grocery store that just doesn't sound appealing to my tastes at all. Of course, I'm lucky that she even thinks about getting me anything in the first place, so we always try it and if she likes it, we'll have it occasionally together for our Sunday lunch tea ritual. If she says it's awful, well then it gets passed on to somebody else or brought to her work where a few other ladies drink tea with their lunch.

Tenuki, I'm a Red Sox fan all the way, but those years of Trammel at short and Sweet Lou at second bring back some memories. Them letting Kirk Gibson get away is just about as bad as the Sox selling the Babe to the hated Yankees.

Irish Breakfast in the cup at work this morning. Last night was almost as bad as I figured it would be. Maybe this can keep me awake the next 2 hours until I get home.

EW

[Riene]

I'm regarded as an oddity here as I don't like or drink coffee and prefer tea. Friends locally will occasionally buy me herbal stuff as gifts. It's been interesting to try, but always tastes like steeped weeds.

I have some out-of-country friends in Canada, Belgium, and the UK who will occasionally send me black tea from their countries, and they are usually right on track with what I like.

Yorkshire in the morning mug right now. Since things should be less crazy today with the holiday past, I plan on trying one of my new oolongs.

[olivierco]

Bulls eye...right on the TeaTarget. I could not have selected something better, but just because people that offered me teagifts always asked me before what I wanted.

This morning, keemun.
Premium sencha (hibiki-an) after my lunch.

[hop_goblin]

Hey.. common, a gift is a gift!

[TimeforTea]

I voted way off target ...although thoughtful...

A friend gave me a tea ball infuser shaped like a heart--it's sweet, but I'll never use it. She also included the most awful tea I have ever tasted in my life. Additionally, she gave me a cute tea timer...that one I may use...

This morning I had a nice refreshing mug of casa-blanca twist. Can't wait to have this one iced later today.

[Beanbean]

I don't receive that many tea related gifts but when I do, I am always touched that the giver remembers that I enjoy tea. However, I am constantly amazed at how many people assume that if you pour hot water over something botanical, it's TEA. Bleh. I've received such "tea" as mint, camomile, hibiscus infused alfalfa (I think), and rose hips with orange peel. While I certainly acknowledge a place for tisanes and other steeped infusions, they aren't tea.

When it comes to tea, I'd prefer to pick out my own! But, thank you so much for your kind and thoughtful gift.

Off to brew some assam to get the day going.

[Riene]

2004 Fengquing Mao Cha shu puerh. "Mao Cha" means puerh leaves that have not been compressed into a cake or bing. It is usually thought that mao cha does not age as well as compressed leaves.

Salsero, what is the tall white cup for, next to the tea cup? Neat photo, btw, the pink/purple dish looks as if it's floating.

[Salsero]

Salsero, what is the tall white cup for, next to the tea cup? Neat photo, btw, the pink/purple dish looks as if it's floating.

Good question. It's an aroma cup, sniffing cup, or wen xiang bei. It's use is more easily seen than read so here is a youtube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmP3RNXPGfE

You fill the tall cup with tea, invert the short cup over the top of the full tall one, turn the whole assembly upside down so the short is on the bottom and the tall is on the top, some great force of physics keeps the liquor in the inverted tall cup until you pull it, removing the tall (leaving the tea liquor in the short one) ... whew

...the goal is to sniff a tea aroma in the just-emptied aroma cup.

Lew Perin's great BabelCarp says it so much better than I do:

• wenxiangbei = tall, thin fragrance cup into which tea is poured and then decanted into the cha bei, literally Sniff Fragrance Cup (闻香杯 or 聞香杯), used to enjoy the aroma of gongfu tea

Moral: Never ask a pedant a short question.

[tseirPsaduJ]

usually it is store-brand tea. But I see the happiness on their face as they think they have given me something perfect, and that alone makes it perfect. It's very sweet they give me anything at all.

Occasionally, I am extra blessed and the human I am most suited to will exchange a packet of some good quality tea with me. That hasn't happened recently as we are both in a budget-rut and several thousand miles apart.

I also had someone give me a small glass teapot which I adored, until I elbowed it off the counter. That chubby thing did me well. I miss it alot. But I suppose it is more common to get tea gifts I wouldn't likely pick out.

[britt]

Since I'm rather particular about tea and teaware, and since I give away so much of both, friends and family avoid giving me tea gifts. They know I have far too much already.

Right now some Old Bush Dan Cong in a new Yixing and Jing De Zhen cups from Jing Tea Shop that I just opened up yesterday. I boiled the Yixing for 20 minutes, didn't bother seasoning it, and threw in some Dan Cong. The result is beyond my expectations. It seems I've hit one of those rare tea/Yixing matches that is just about perfect. It's even better that this was achieved on the first try. Thanks to Jing Tea Shop for adding tea pairing recommendations to each pot they sell. This is very helpful.

I already have an Yixing for Dan Cong and it has worked very well, but it's bigger than I want @ 180cc and it has clay branches and buds on it. It was the only one I could find at the time that was recommended specifically for Dan Cong. The new one is smaller @ 120cc and is plain, simple, and unadorned and produces a taste that I think is even better than the previous one.

I've lost track of the exact number of infusions, but I continued this morning from the batch I started last night after I boiled the new pot. I'm guessing I'm approaching at least 10, but this is gong fu style and I did start with the pot about 1/3 full of leaf.

[henley]

Sal, I think this is the first time I've seen you do a photo w/o some sort of flowers or foliage. While the photo is still very nice, kinda miss your signature.

And my son's first fireworks where he didn't freak out over the noise and and actually watched spellbound the whole time - priceless.

So there's hope for my kids? Dtr loves the fireworks but watched them w/hands over her ears & my hands over hers. Our 21 mth did okay until the very end when they shot off several at one time then he got upset.


I've received several tea related gifts & while I'm touched by all of them, some of them are more appropriate than others. Hubby has done good & surprised me w/things I didn't know how much I would like until started using them (ie pewter measuring spoons & 16 oz initial mug I'm using this morning). Gifts from others... not always so good. Like someone else said, it's amazing what people give you once they find out you drink tea. I just smile, say a heartfelt thank you for the thoughtfulness & put the tea in the 'kid stash' or donate any undesireable teaware to goodwill.

Had a chocolate craving this morning. Since I normally don't like chocolate tea, I doctored it by mixing 2 parts choc tea w/1 part vanilla tea. After sweetening it w/sugar, it almost reminded me of hot coccoa. After I got that craving out of the way, went back & made some "real" tea. In my big mug now is a nice blend of Oolong #40 & orange oolong. This is muuuuuch better!