Well, despite the snow and cold, EO drove up to Minneapolis to attend to some business, to share some tea with Salsero (who was visiting his Eskimo brother), and to gossip about the rest of you! Actually, we had planned on warm weather, but we were so influenced by Hobbes' Rocky Mountain posts that we opted for snow and ice.
(If we look cold, it's because we are!)EO fired up the gaiwan for some shu puerh (?) to restore us after cavorting with exotic flora at a local bar and an improv club.
The next day it was DHP in a new YSLLC pot of EO's.
Salsero watched the master brew (please tell me he is NOT wearing a Sponge Bob shirt!) Finally, a dazzling display of the bad manners Sal is so well known for in the IM and forums.
I had a wonderful time meeting Steven whom I have known electronically for a year and a half. We had some Den's Gyokuro Kin, Sencha Fuka-Midori, and powdered sencha, some 2003 Keyixing Yiwu sheng, DHP from TeaSpring, some shu (?), Dan Cong, and I don't remember what else. EO brought an enormous bag of sheng samples from YSLLC from a factory that Hop has spoken well of ... but we ran out of time!! We also sent each other home with still more goodies to try out on our own.
The meeting was actually a little impromptu at the last minute and with my brother and his friend who are curious tea voyeurs but not really possessed by the madness yet. Those factors impeded us from planning to have the best stuff and devoting the proper time to brewing and discussing, but we did have some tea, a little night life, visited TeaSource, and discovered a great hole-in-the-wall Indian restaurant. We tried to entice Hop down from the Ivory Tower of his PhD program, but he wasn't able to get away to join us with so little advance notice. We did earmark several infusions of puerh to drink in his name, however!
The nice experience makes me hopeful that more of us will manage to meet and brew together over the coming years.
Thanks for posting pics of your meeting! It looks very cold outside.
