Wednesday TeaDay 6/25/08

[Chip]

Nice pictures today!

I love to brew and love a good challenge. This year so far, THE challenge was Hatsumi for me...and some others. After 5 tries, I got it. wooohooo.

After 9 years of drinking tea, I am fortunately not making toooo many purchase mistakes. I generally deal with vendors I know I can trust and know if I work at it a bit, the tea will shine for me.

More times than not, a bad first session is do to my error, not the tea's...so 4-5 tries IF I am convinced the tea will eventually shine.

If I am not convinced...maybe 2 tries.

Actually...I recently worked through half a bag of "decent" sessions til I made the tea really sing. Turned out I needed to really up the leaf.

Today...Golden Monkey a la adagio. Currently, I am trying a sample courtesy of Joel from Ito En. It is their Kagoshima Superior Shincha. Thanx Joel! It is what I expect from a high end Kagoshima sencha, innovative and vibrant. I suspect it may be a different breed, common to Kagoshima sencha

[Jagori]

Depends why I don't like it the first time. If it's got some sickening flavor (which is the effect most floral teas have on me), then I won't even finish the first cup. If it just has a not-so-pleasant taste, I'll often try brewing it again differently. I won't go too far, though... I'm busy enough trying out various kinds of puerh that I don't need to get into other new kinds of tea on top of that!

Then again, I don't think I've ever had truly bad tea. I've had some boring stuff, and badly brewed stuff - for ten years, I thought green tea brewed up light brown - but nothing that was just so horrible as to be undrinkable, rather than me just not liking it.

[Ti]

I had puerh with a dash of salt ala early Luwuh (from Book of Tea fame).

[Salsero]

Nice pic, Sal. The pattern reminds me of Old Country Roses.

Wow, Henley, you've got an eye! My new cup is in fact from the Royal Albert Old Country Roses series. I found it in an antique shop in Micanopy, Florida yesterday.

Congrats on your new Asian cup, also the spectacular daylily keeping it company: gotta love that color.

With further reference to my antiquing trip yesterday, does anyone know about some unpleasant antique Japanese ceramic that feels like plastic? Is it post WW II? My impression is that it's older than that, however. My mother has a cup and saucer made from it, elaborately painted but without the density of good porcelain. While its history is blurred, I think it may be approaching 100 years old, maybe more. I find the stuff unpleasant to handle, it really seems more like plastic or thin papier-mâché. My problem with it isn't that it's thin (it is thin). I love quality ceramic that is thin and delicate, but this stuff has a different feel to it.

Wow how did you brew a black tea to get 5 infusions?

I am unhappy with blacks that don't give me at least 3 infusions. Most don't go 5, and you might not have liked the fifth of this session. I think it is a question of quality of the tea. If I just really love the first couple infusions, they drive me back to re-infuse to recreate the experience. With this Nilgiri, I think the last infusion was for 15 m, the first for 3 m.

Hehe - I was actually planning on doing that tonight! Pics of my pretty pink laptop and a cup of tea beside it

Yes, please.

Where did you find this Nilgiri?

SpecialTeas.

Do you give it a couple tries and then abandon the effort... [/b]

I belong to the camp that imagines there is no bad tea, just bad technique ... or an untrained palate. I can probably attribute the former delusion to Chip's influence, since he just keeps trying forever. The palate issue, I attribute to the internet. Many times someone else has told me what to look for in a tea, something that I had previously overlooked, misinterpreted, or discounted. Some of my best tea experiences have resulted from trying over and again ... and some of my worst! I have several pounds of puerh devoted to the proposition that if I just keep trying, it will be great some day.

Feminine Powercup.

I find that the female energy of the Powerware greatly enhances the

• QI

I rather doubt the addition of a cigar could do as much, Omegapd.

[Geekgirl]

With further reference to my antiquing trip yesterday, does anyone know about some unpleasant antique Japanese ceramic that feels like plastic? Is it post WW II? My impression is that it's older than that, however. My mother has a cup and saucer made from it, elaborately painted but without the density of good porcelain. While its history is blurred, I think it may be approaching 100 years old, maybe more. I find the stuff unpleasant to handle, it really seems more like plastic or thin papier-mâché. My problem with it isn't that it's thin (it is thin). I love quality ceramic that is thin and delicate, but this stuff has a different feel to it.

Well, I don't know anything about it, but I have two cups and saucers of it that belonged to my great (great-great?) grandmother. Very odd feel, almost garishly painted, I believe some people refer to it as "eggshell porcelain." I don't use them, but yeah, I see a lot of it in the antique stores.

[chamekke]

Sadly, no pink teaware and that's something that I just realized I need to fix ASAP!

Hmm. You know what would be fun? Colour-themed teaware photo shoots! (Well, I think it would be fun anyway...) Now I'm tempted to get together the few pink pieces I have and do a group shot!

Incidentally, somewhere I do have a pink raku chawan with bunnies on it. Very precious. Can't say I've used it a lot, but it would be really nice for easter

[chamekke]

With further reference to my antiquing trip yesterday, does anyone know about some unpleasant antique Japanese ceramic that feels like plastic? Is it post WW II?

I did once see a plastic "raku" chawan on eBay once. To my eternal regret, I didn't buy it. Someone in my tea group later pointed out that it would have been the perfect joke gift for our sensei. (Although I'm a little doubtful about "joke gifts"...)

Anyway, I don't know if your ceramic was anything like that, but I did want to mention that, rare as it may be, plastic isn't unheard of.

[auggy]

Sadly, no pink teaware and that's something that I just realized I need to fix ASAP!

Hmm. You know what would be fun? Colour-themed teaware photo shoots! (Well, I think it would be fun anyway...) Now I'm tempted to get together the few pink pieces I have and do a group shot!

Incidentally, somewhere I do have a pink raku chawan with bunnies on it. Very precious. Can't say I've used it a lot, but it would be really nice for easter

Ah! You must post!

[bronzebed]

for the most part i like to give every tea at least two tries. the main reason, is sometimes i'm just not in the right mood or i like to try different times and temps for brewing.

in honor of this thread, i gave a tea that i had been having difficulties with another shot. i took two sips and just couldn't get into it. tasted like old dirt. i have it labeled as 'bo nan-aged one' (maybe some type of puerh, i really no nothing about puerhs other than that i haven't tried one that i like). not sure anything about it and i initially tried it because i was feeling adventurous. anyone with any type of info about this tea, i'd be curious to know more about it. it was relatively expensive and i'd like to find a home for it.

this is what it looks like:

[Space Samurai]

If I had not given sencha several opportunities, I would be missing out today. Early on in my tea exploration, I just couldn't get a taste for green tea, but I would go back to it every few months as my palate changed. That and some help with my brewing style paved the way for my current love affair with Japanese tea.

Playing around with ice tea today.

[olivierco]

Space, I liked the advice you posted on your blog:

Tip #2 When rigorously cleaning said pot with boiling water that you then spill on you hand, gently set down the pot first, then feel pain.

Closing the day with some Rooibos.

[Chip]

If I had not given sencha several opportunities, I would be missing out today. Early on in my tea exploration, I just couldn't get a taste for green tea, but I would go back to it every few months as my palate changed. That and some help with my brewing style paved the way for my current love affair with Japanese tea.

Playing around with ice tea today.

Looks delicious already, Space!!! It is hard for me to make the transition from hot to cold. I love hot so much, but I am sure I could appreciate cold as well.

Hmmm...what is next for me?

[Space Samurai]

Chip, I'm finding that summer ice tea, both the quirky version and more traditional, is a great way to get through some of the samples, gifts and teas that just aren't my fav that have been collecting all year.

My Ice brewing experiments for the day involved some roasted TGY, milk oolong, zhen qu hong cha, and some kukicha (yuck). I just made a pitcher of ice tea using some medium roasted tgy from Rishi that I forgot I had.

[Tadpole]

I get 1 oz of any tea I'm trying. This gives me 6-8 tries, usually enough to figure out water temp and brew time. By the end of the 1 oz, I have a pretty clear idea of whether I like the tea and would buy more.

The last of the ounce of WenShan BaoZhong in my mug today. This year's is definitely to my liking. Very floral and peachy if brewed around 160-F. Any hotter and it tastes like cooked veggies. Tea lady is out and I must wait 3 weeks before she restocks. Urg. I threatened to buy 1 pound this time, because last year I wanted more and wasn't able to get my grubby hands on any more!

I have some blossoming jasmine tea ball things on my desk, maybe I'll share with a coworker later.

[cane]

Chip, I'm finding that summer ice tea, both the quirky version and more traditional, is a great way to get through some of the samples, gifts and teas that just aren't my fav that have been collecting all year.

My Ice brewing experiments for the day involved some roasted TGY, milk oolong, zhen qu hong cha, and some kukicha (yuck). I just made a pitcher of ice tea using some medium roasted tgy from Rishi that I forgot I had.

I have had great success with Kukicha in the iced form. I used tea provided from Sara's Tea Caddie. It was actually something that the owner recommended and brewed to her instructions I found very refreshing, light and delicious!
I dont have the recommended brewing instructions on hand, but when I run across them I can let you know.