Sunday TeaRoom 2/01/09 Super Bowl or fave tea for January?

[Chip]

Last day to submit entries for the Gaiwan Contest under Teaware. Be sure to check out the growing number of entries.
Welcome everyone to a TeaRoom TeaDay. Please share what is in your cup today.

Yesterday, the vast majority of responders indicated they did take time to check out their dry leaves before brewing. You can still vote and discuss yesterday's topic.

Today's TeaPoll and discussion topic. It is that time again. Time to share what was your favorite tea for the month of January. The poll question, what type of tea was it? Please also share some details about your fave tea this past month.

Today's secondary topic, will you watch the Super Bowl, and will tea fill your cup?

I am as always looking forward to sharing TeaDay with everyone. Bottoms up.

[TaiPing Hou Kui]

Favorite tea for the month was again, surprise surprise----JAPANESE GREENS! More specifically an award winning sencha from Japan of which I dont know the name as it was all in Japanese......only thing on it I could read was "100g"....it came from a very trusted source and I will certainly be getting more as I drank the last of it two nights ago (Sorry again Chip)
*I will be watching the Super Bowl tomorrow....rooting for the Steelers.....my great grandfather was actually a coal miner in a small town in Pennsylvania called Springdale and my grandparents and dad were all raised there....so I have some strong ties to that team.......my cup will be filled with tea rather than beer.....for the most part.....I have been known to enjoy a Sam Adams every now and again
*Currently on the second cup of Sencha Yabe Supreme (organic)

-Nick

[Dr. Eel]

Green. From Japan. I did not drink any yutaka midori from o-cha this month. Therefore my favorite was a sencha from ippodo.

My first order from them included a mid-grade sencha: shoike-no-o, which was my staple green for the month. It was good, but I cant wait to try thier higher grades.

[Salsero]

Super bowl? Is that the 2 quart chawan?

For me it was an extraordinary month for sheng puerh. That mushroom tuo from Xiaguan would have made the month all by itself, but there were others nearly or just as good.

In honor of some great, informative posts yesterday about Long Jing from some of our sino american experts:

[snafu]

Favourite tea this month was O-Cha's Gyokuro "Kama-Giru-Shi".

All day today (Saturday) I've been drinking Li Shan Da Yu Ling from Hou De, a really nice fruity Oolong. A bit late for tea right now.

No interest in the Super Bowl here, but have fun to those who watch it. I'm going to fill a thermos with genmaicha and go x-country skiing.

[Victoria]

No Superbowl for me. But tea yes.

January I came back to oolongs in a big way,
placing orders and sampling from most of my
favorite vendors.

[olivierco]

Green. Kame Giru Shi gyokuro and Kaboku sencha.

I don't think I will watch Superbowl live this year (It starts at midnight for me).

Yunnan golden tips with my breakfast.

[omegapd]

Considering that I drank 90% of my tea this month as iced tea, I gotta go with black. I did make a few pitchers of iced Pu-erh Shu that was really good, though.

My team ain't in the Bowl but I'm sure I'll be flipping channels through it most of the game. As much as I don't care about the Cards or Steelers, I do like Bruce Springsteen.

Happy Sunday!

EW

[cherylopal]

I have fallen in love with Japanese greens- I've had genmaicha which I liked- thought it was kinda fun- but had my first sencha and gyokuro this month- OMG is about all I can say.

I placed an order with O-Cha but decided that I should have proper teaware to brew this extra special tea. I would like to publicly thank Chip for his advice via pm-

I will not be drinking tea for the superbowl- I'll be at a friends house enjoying other beverages- mostly likely wine or beer. I will be routing for the Steelers- I grew up in WV near Pittsburgh and remember all the superbowl victories when I was in high school (should I be giving my age away??). I even managed to buy tickets and go to a few games. Stopped by the party store yesterday and picked up a few terrible towels for my friends daughters-

Currently enjoying Kiwi-Berry Coconut from Tealuxe.

[Trey Winston]

January was dominated by Adagio's White Symphony, with sprinklings of SN, sencha and sundry samples.

Today guzzling Sencha Overture while playing KLF on exceedingly high volume. In hindsight, the 80s were relatively good, pop culture-wise.

American football is not a major factor in my existence, so the SB will have to go unwatched by me.

[brianlavelle]

My most-tasted and enjoyed tea in January was a puerh - the 2006 12 Gentlemen Da Bai Hao, from Nada. A very pleasing and approachable tea, in my opinion.

Currently having some Genmaicha Matcha-iri and some rather delicious white grapes - quite a striking combination!

[Drax]

Green... my first matcha stole the show for January.

Now trying out another pu-erh sample... a Long Yuan Hao, which say 2000, but could be 2006. It certainly has a strong flavor more indicative of the 2006, with a light amount of smokiness to it.

[brandon]

The best tea I had all month was prepared yesterday by our own Tim. Roasted TGY in the traditional gong fu style. This is serious tea!

I will probably be drinking nothing but yancha for awhile after drinking several with Michael at The Tea Gallery yesterday. Seeing him prepare Wuyi was truly enlightening. Need some serious improvement on my part before I am ready to break into his 1950's Shui Xian.

I found this three legged Zini Shui Ping near the back of the store. Who could resist?





Here is a lesson from Michael on testing the effect of your Yixing on tea.
Brew a few rounds of tea in a gaiwan and mix them in your faircup. Drink some directly from the faircup along side some that is allowed to sit in the Yixing for awhile.

[Sydney]

I voted green, as almost always in these polls. Maybe we should subdivide into Chinese and Japanese greens, which are quite different.

Sencha Extra Green w/ Matcha (Den's) is my favorite this week and in my cup presently. Simply gorgeous stuff.

[TIM]

I found this three legged Zini Shui Ping near the back of the store. Who could resist?

YOU GOT THIS ONE! ! It's an amazing shape and clay! Congrats B. Let us know what will it be dedicated to. Cheers