Saturday TeaDay 5/8/10 Swanky tea or swanky food?

[Chip]

I will take a gander at what a restuarant has to offer. If they are making a good effort to offer good teas, I will select a teabag or in the really rare situaltion, loose leaf. I have already purchased the teabag just to get the water, and used my BYOT. But if they are making an effort to offer decent tea, I reward them.

If they are just not trying and offer crap, I will just ask coyly for hot water. I have never had a problem doing this, but I will reward the server.

Began the TD with SHINCHA. which arrived yesterday, and more just arrived today! SweeTea was relieved to finally have sencha again while Pyrit and Shincha (kitty version) visited the TeaTable this morning.

[entropyembrace]

I´d pick Keemun or the oolong if it smelled roasty (green oolongs get lost with a meal imo)

but honestly I´d be very impressed to have such a selection in a restaurant! The only restaurant I´ve been to with a selection of loose tea was one in Mexico City inside a book store. I had a pot of earl grey with fettucini topped with grilled chicken and a mix of alfredo and lemon butter sauce
: )::...

The waiter started to really be an idiot and ruined the experience though :s He was giving my gf and I angry looks, not paying attention and not using respectful language. We finished our meals, paid and left a 1 peso tip to make a point...we didn´t dare order dessert with how he was acting after realizing we were a couple. Totally rediculous behavior...we were in the middle of the gay zone dining surrounded by rare books and they had such a bigot for the waiter.

We didn´t have such problems in any other restaurants there. :s

usually I order coffee, lemonaid with mineral water, agua de jamaica or just water.

[brad4419]

Chinese oolong for sure!

The greens and blacks could go terribly wrong to the point of undrinkable but I feel if the oolong is even half decent it will be drinkable even if brewed wrong.

long jing and kenilworth this morning.

[LauraW]

I usually have water, or maybe a glass of wine for dinner, when eating out. But if they offered loose leaf tea, I would try the oolong in this case.

Ditto. We go out seldom, as I cook most nights, but when we do I normally stick with water or wine (especially if it's a swanky place - or if I'm not paying for it). I'm more likely to drink wine at home, because it's always significantly cheaper. But were they to have decent tea (especially looseleaf) or if I'm desperate for tea, I'd say oolong.

Adagio's iced white tea this morning while running a couple errands - came as a "try-me" with my last order, and I was thinking about just giving it to my boyfriend... but ended up drinking it instead, and I'm glad I did, it was surprisingly tasty, considering I don't normally like cold tea.
Opened up the Yunnan Noir today as well, on my second cup! Headed out to run a couple more errands shortly... then more tea!

[murrius]

Assam for me. I love a rich black tea after a restaurant meal.

Long Jing was in my cup this morning; my traditional Saturday morning tea.

[Skippyandjif]

I would go for matcha blended with kukicha, simply because I've never had that before but I absolutely love both components!! Also, it's something that I wouldn't otherwise have thought of, and I'll try almost anything once.

Began the day with a lot of genmaicha (the girlfriend stayed over and needed something to motivate her to get up and study, and green tea of any sort fits the bill). This afternoon, I had some looseleaf Earl Grey, which I love if it's made properly (e.g., not oversteeped), at some little cafe. It was indeed made properly. LIfe is good.

[David Duckler]

I probably wouldn't choose any tea at this restaurant (but if they had had puer, I would have been too intrigued to pass it by). Anything else would have trouble standing up to the competition of the foods' flavours, and if I'm going out, I want to get the most of those.

This day has been incredibly full of tea. Infinitea gave me a sample of their sencha, which I tried before lunch. I visited the teahouse again this afternoon to see what the place was like in the daytime. While there, I tried their Organic Asahina Gyokuro extra fine, and it was a very excellent experience. Usually green tea at an American teahouse is so boring, but this was not at all. The flavour was also strikingly similar to Lao Shan green tea from Shandong province. The teas didn't stop there. I had asked about their Yunnan Golden Tip the night before, and I brought mine in to compare this afternoon. The owners and I tried them side by side, and in their medium-large testubin tea pots, their tea's quality was very comparable to my own. At this point, I dove further into Infinitea's new offerings and tried some of thier Yerba Mate in a gourd (traditional Argentinian style). I had never had Yerba Mate before, and I am so glad this has been remedied. The taste was like star anise and licorice root with notes of cedar. It also has a kick- I felt like going jogging afterwards. Bought a gourd and three kinds of mate, and prepared mint mate at home. Here's to new ceremonies!

[Chip]

I would go for matcha blended with kukicha, simply because I've never had that before but I absolutely love both components!! Also, it's something that I wouldn't otherwise have thought of, and I'll try almost anything once.

You should give this a try, quite good. In fact, you can whip up your own if you have kukicha and matcha around. Put around 5-10 parts kuki to one part matcha in a small tin and shake it around for maybe 30 seconds. The matcha will have coated everything.

Shincha today, 2 organics. Magokuro and Yuuki Yutaki fukamushi-s from Yuuki-Cha with Mrs. Chip. It is amazing how light these are compared to conventionally grown exact same forms.

[Skippyandjif]

Thank you for the proportions for the matcha-kukicha blend, Chip! I'm probably going tea shopping once I'm back from college, and both kukicha and matcha are high on my list.

Right now, I'm drinking some longjing tea-- I need something to calm myself down because the dryer in my dorm building decided it didn't want to function. Hooray. Oh well, the tea makes it worth the annoyance, hehe.

I just finished making and drinking some pu-erh and some Yunnan black in order to do a proper comparison. I think I like the pu-erh a little more, although I adore both. The earthiness gives it a slightly more substantial feeling, but oh my gosh... I hate to sound cliched, but the Yunnan really is noticeably more smoky and "peppery" relative to the pu-erh. I hadn't noticed it before.

There is more tea to come before I go to bed, probably-- finals week means burning the midnight oil, which means tea. A lot of tea.

[debunix]

Today is becoming quite a mixed tea day. Started out with the overdone mint experience--think maybe I should separately infuse a smaller quantity of peppermint and cardamom with boiling water, and then mix with a stronger than usual brew of green tea, for better results. Moved on to some Big Red Robe Oolong, usually a favorite, but it was just not the right thing for early evening after doing errands on the bicycle on a warm spring afternoon. Have now hit the right spot with some of Ya Bao wild camellia buds (spring 2009) from norbu mixed with a bit of Silver Dragon white tea from Wing Hop Fung. The Silver Dragon gave a nice depth to the Ya Bao with their delicate 'wild' flavor.

[David Duckler]

Have now hit the right spot with some of Ya Bao wild camellia buds (spring 2009) from norbu mixed with a bit of Silver Dragon white tea from Wing Hop Fung. The Silver Dragon gave a nice depth to the Ya Bao with their delicate 'wild' flavor.

This is the first time I have ever heard of anyone other than myself enjoying YaBao. I first tried it in 2008, pressed into a brick and aged for about 8 years, and I thoroughly enjoyed its spicy flavors (with a hint of mushroom, actually). Whenever I asked about it, all of my tea friends around China, would "tsk tsk" and shake their heads and say, "Why do you want to drink that stuff? No one likes it. It's bad for your health!" No one could ever explain why, and I enjoyed the interestingly complex flavors too much not to drink it. I've since found it in a ten year old brick (zealously guarded, a much-loved secret of one eccentric tea friend-vendor), loose in buds the same small size that Norbu is offering as their 2010 stock, and as much longer buds of about 2 inches long on average.
Thanks for your posting; I did not know there were any vendors selling YaBao to the USA. Whenever I finally drink through the three pounds I brought back, I'll know where to go.

Last tea of the evening (I think): tieguanyin oolong. Our tieguanyin yixing teapots were looking sad from lack of use, so we made some up and drank more than fifteen steepings. Delicious- I never regret drinking fine tieguanyin.

[Skippyandjif]

My last teas before bed have been sencha with lotus petals and some shou mei white tea that is currently cooling off a bit (I really hate burning my mouth on anything... ). I haven't had white tea in far too long, the anticipation is crazy!!

[LauraW]

Last teas of the day were some Snowbud with dinner, then tried (again) some Rooibos since it was a little too late for more caffeine... still not quite sure about the flavor, but I figure I'll keep trying it occasionally to see if it grows on me.