Thursday TeaDay 7/30/09 TeaMemory?

[tea-guy]

For me it really depends. Some teas are so fantastic I'll remember them for years. Others don't present much differentiation from a 'norm' and I won't recall them for very long.

The notes across my moleskines do serve as wonderful reminders though.

In my cup this morning: Oohashiri Shincha from Maeda-En

[leiche2]

I remember teas very well, I'm just bad a describing them. I remember the first time I tried certain teas, and the best ones of course.

Yes, this. I fondly remember some flavored blacks made with an Assam base from a now long-defunct online shop. It was also from that very same shop that I got my first taste of Lan Gui Ren oolong, which I remember as being sweet, obviously licorice-y, and faintly toasty.

Sticking to the cold brewed green kukicha today, as the humidity is quite unpleasantly high.

[olivierco]

Keemun Mao Feng Xiang Luo right now. One tea I will sure remember for a long time.

[pb2q]

The first aged puerhs (7542s and 8582s), that I drank years ago still seem present and available to memory. It's not too uncommon that while walking down the street, especially after rain or during a light rain, I'll be hit with a strong redolent flashback of those teas. The storage of these teas was impeccable. When I taste aged sheng today (good or bad), each time I'm reminded of those flavor/aroma memories.

[Victoria]

Quiet TeaDay! Currently in my cup Camellia Sinensis Bao Zhong.
Good stuff.

[Chip]

It seems most of my oldest memories with tea were more bad experiences. Lapsang Souchong teabags when I first got serious about tea 10 years ago. Vending machine tea decades ago. Extremely roasted TKY from Chinatown 7ish years ago. Etc.

I will have to think about good teas I have had that long ago. But most good tea memories seem to be shorter which is sad!!!

Began the TD with 88 Nights shincha from Sugimota USA. Very good, deep flavor. SweeTea wanted her fair share while Fuji entertained.

Later Yamata from Rishi, full of 'Hika.' Very good too.

Later yet, genmaicha with sushi and sashimi for late lunch.

[Proinsias]

Years, not very accurately but years nonetheless.

Really good tea experiences also improve with age, once it's no longer available and my supply has long ago dried up my memories of it become even fonder.

Drinking some ff Darjeeling, not sure which one as I've binned some of the lables

[Cinnamon Kitty]

I can remember at least vague impressions of teas that I have tasted months ago. Most of it is whether it was a good tea or a bad tea, though sometime various flavor memories pop up, especially if I am drinking something similar. The specific tastes and brewing parameters get written down because after a while, I will merge things in my mind and get different teas confused. I have a surprisingly good long term memory, but my short term memory is not that great, unless it is something numeric that I have to recall. I keep mini legal pads for notes and have some stashed away in various places through out the house and even one in my car for when I need them.

Iced Darjeeling in my glass at the moment.

[kymidwife]

I remember generalities more than specifics from more than a year ago. I don't really keep notes on my tastings, other than what I post here... too undisciplined. The things I really like are easy enough to remember for future reorder... assuming that there is any consistency in a particular tea from year to year, which is not always the case.

Iced Sae Midori in my glass... enjoyed a hot cup earlier, and iced the rest for dinner. Very delicious.

Sarah

[JP]

One of my earliest tea memories is from when I was in London at the age of twelve. And it's not so much the tea itself that I remember, rather the experience surrounding it when the waiter expressed astonishment after I ordered tea with no milk in it. "Hey Charlie, 'ere's a bloke what don't want milk in his tea!"

[Intuit]

My family hails from Edinburgh and Glasgow. I had an early introduction to quality India and China teas, tucked into mailed holiday parcels or devotedly hand-carried on family visits to America, until a semi-local Scots bakery opened that also sold popular British tea brands. Several great aunts were devoted to Brodies Teas. One of their more enduring blends, Edinburgh Blend, has been in production for 65 years. I first had it 48 years ago and drank it and other famous tea blends for several decades, until I became a vegetarian, switching to herbal tissanes, because quality black and oolong tea was hard to find, unless you were visiting Canada.

Happily, I discovered Murchies a decade ago; many of their blends have catered to the Scots tea drinkers of the Canadian West Coast for three decades or longer. They were immediately familiar and enormously likable teas.

Perhaps these oral memories are rosily tinted by the pleasure of the tea table and the happiness of afternoon teas served with love. Or perhaps it was the accompaniment of heavenly scones and shortbread that made the tea taste extra special, indelibly stamping them into memory.

But I have no doubt on this point: the remembered flavor and rich aroma is reproducible and accurate.

[olivierco]

test

[Dreamer]

My oldest tea memories are from the contrast of my grandma's sweet iced tea (I mean really sweet...as a kid who only got to drink milk or water; I thought that grandma's sweet tea was awesome) to the taste of my aunt's (grandma's sister) un-sweet iced tea! The un-sweet was so bad and even though she'd give us a sugar bowl and spoon, we could never get it to taste good.

Funny thing is that in the past year, I've stopped sweetening my black (hot) tea (the sweetener was taking away from the flavor of the tea!), but I still sweeten (stevia) my iced tea....even if what I'm drinking iced is the same tea I was just drinking hot!!

Keep on making those tea memories!
Dreamer

[Sam.]

I remember pretty well, but I have trouble recalling very specific nuances.

[JPX]

i remember the great experiences. I wont remember the okish tea.
But there is some session where the moment is so perfect and the tea is so delicious and your mind start to wander and you think, think, think...

Well, those i do remember!