Tea Tasting Party with Friends: Suggestions?

[Kale-Good]

I'm going to invite a few of my friends over for a lazy afternoon of tea tasting in a couple of weeks. I'm curious if anyone has ever done this and any suggestions that they might have.

My idea was to taste 2-3 teas from each category (white, Chinese Green, Japanese Green & Oolong) although I might just stick to the greens and white.

I have minimal tea accessories beyond a tea pot and a French Press and basic mugs. My idea was that we'd try the teas simultaneously within the categories, although perhaps trying across categories might help the uninitiated to discern the basic differences. (My tea palate is still in its infancy as well).

I want to focus on the teas but also have a convivial, unpretentious event.

Any suggestions or directions to online resources or books are all greatly appreciated. Here are some specific questions as well:

1. Is there a minimum or maximum number of teas you'd recommend to try?
2. Most of us will have untrained tea palates, with this would you suggest tasting within categories (Yin Zhen vs. White Peony) or outside (Yin Zhen vs. Sencha)
3. Are there any tea accessories that would make tasting logistics a little easier on the host?
4. Any foods that are good to clean the palate or are a nice partner to the tea? I was thinking of keeping it simple with some brown rice crackers and edamame.
4. Any procedural or logistical suggestions?

Thanks!

[teaguy]

A general rule we use here is not to do too many teas per sitting - if we're not testing or buying tea, we do 3 maximum - and try not to deal with too wide a range at one time. If you plan to drink 2-3 cups of each type, I'd suggest picking 1 tea from 3 categories, or 3 teas within a category, and do the others another time.

If you want to study/compare all the groups, I'd suggest just testing each - a small sip or 2 of each - so you don't overload your palates and get too confused. Since you don't have a lot of tea ware, you could get some white bowls (rice bowls with straight sides, not too large would be ideal - one bowl per tea). Add 1tsp of leaf to each bowl, and fill the bowls completely to the rim with hot water (do the higher temp teas first so the water can cool a bit for the lower temp teas, or break it into 2 groups). Give them a 5-6 minute steep, spoon out a little into a small cup, and drink. You can watch the leaves unfurl, see the color develop, compare aroma & taste. You can vote on a 'winner' or favorite, and then brew it in the press and serve it with your snacks.

Of course, the main point is to have fun and not be too serious about any of it!

[Oni]

I had 3 tea tastings, first I made good quality Tie Guan Yin, after that a high quality gyokurolast a koicha for the guests, but some guests became ill because of the kick that those 3 gave toghether, afer 3 hours of stimulating tea consuming, the next meeting was shuppin sencha and kuradashi gyokuro, and the last meeting Dong Ding oolong.
i had tried all the teas before, and I served my guest with the best teas I have tasted sofar, I owned specific teaware for all these teas (houhin set for gyokuro, tokoname and bako kyusu, yixing ware for oolong), even those who never tried tea before enjoyed the strong full bodied taste of gyokuro, specially men like gyokuro, some even identifyed forest fruit tastes in kuradashi gyokuro, wemen who first try teas like flowery teas such as TGY and other greener oloong.

[Beidao]

I have had some tea tastings at home. I would say, get a gaiwan if you want to try oolong. There are special tasting cups if you want to try that, Adagio has them. Coffee powder is good to sniff, if you do that and then smell the tea you will get a better view of the aroma. I use popcorn to clear the taste buds but that's a little unconventional I guess How many teas depends on if you are brewing them several times or not. Give small amounts of each tea.

[yee]

http://ancientteahorseroad.blogspot.com ... there.html
I think that this one is just brilliant.

[gingkoseto]

I agree with teaguy that fewer teas is better than more. Tea drinking is a slow activity, so 3 teas can last quite a while.

For tea parties, especially for sharing oolong, I've found most useful vessels are the tiny cups (15ml or 0.5oz), so that 3-5 people can share a small pot of tea easily.

I personally seldom like food going with tea. But for tea parties, I feel I must offer some food to show hospitality Edamame is one of my favorite choices and I believe it's one of the best for tea. Generally I provide very light snacks , less greasy nuts (like home roasted almond) and sometimes fruits. There are some very nice Taiwanese tea snacks and candied dry fruit that are good for tea parties. But they are only found in Asian markets of larger cities.

I love a few things from trader joe for tea parties. This is one of my favorite (candied, dried Thailand hibiscus flower) (photo is googled from someone's flickr)


For the past 1.5 year they stopped supplying it. I was so mad at this and even wrote to them and asked them to bring it back. They stopped supplying their snack edamame too, and I was mad again and wrote them again Now they have the hibiscus back (but not yet the edmame)! But I don't think it's because of my emails to them

[Kale-Good]

Thanks All! Great suggestions.

TeaGuy: I'm curious on the 5-6 minute steep time. That seems awfully long for greens. Is this because you assume the bowls will be larger than 8oz?