Tongyu Mountain Green

No. 536, a Chinese Green, bought from Special Teas a bit too long ago.

Brewed: 170 +/- 10 degrees (cool) for approximately three minutes using my ingenuiTEA "pot". Seems very mellow and accommodating, no bitter tones, no edgy exactly right temp and timing.
Liquor Scent: Nutty, cut grass green tones, very faint fruit notes.
Liquor Color: Gold green, fairly deep for a green.
Leaf Scent: Big wine and fruit, almost like fermented lychee
Taste: Pleasantly sweet with unremarkable green characteristics and the mellow depth of a good, high altitude tea.
Appearance: Dark, long leaf, rolled along the stem. I would not call them "silver tips".
I'd drink it again, the easy temperament is nice for a green. A 7 on a scale of 10.

Tongyu Mountain Green

No. 536, a Chinese Green, bought from Special Teas a bit too long ago.

Brewed: 170 +/- 10 degrees (cool) for approximately three minutes using my ingenuiTEA "pot". Seems very mellow and accommodating, no bitter tones, no edgy exactly right temp and timing.
Liquor Scent: Nutty, cut grass green tones, very faint fruit notes.
Liquor Color: Gold green, fairly deep for a green.
Leaf Scent: Big wine and fruit, almost like fermented lychee
Taste: Pleasantly sweet with unremarkable green characteristics and the mellow depth of a good, high altitude tea.
Appearance: Dark, long leaf, rolled along the stem. I would not call them "silver tips".
I'd drink it again, the easy temperament is nice for a green. A 7 on a scale of 10.

Senior Staff Engineer

I'm now officially a Senior Staff Engineer. My first promotion since joining the company, and, honestly it's the first time I took the additional responsibility steps it took to get the promotion. First time I really wanted to, too, and felt the problems were interesting enough to do.

It's nice to be acknowledged and I won't sneeze that the raise and stock options, either.

But it's been an interesting delve into what really motivates me and what doesn't. Learning about this new problem they've thrown me at has been far more "cool" than the larger paycheck. I haven't even upped my allowance, though I did take the opportunity to spend some on a bargain basement Sheaffer Intrigue that I've wanted for a while and now can get at half price. Having someone who was behaving quite badly be investigated by my boss with the intent to help correct that behavior has me much, much happier than the change in title. I'd rather enjoy my work than be labeled for it, I guess.

It's taken a year and a half for me to finally get motivated enough to have new business cards made, now that EVERYTHING on my old card is now wrong, including the address, since we moved sites. Okay, everything other than my name, and that's why one hands out cards anyway...

Maybe I can now get my hair dyed green, and not rely as much on the white hairs as I do on my title? Nah... better to just have green hair for its sake. I love having a marketing job where having green hair might be an asset.

Senior Staff Engineer

I'm now officially a Senior Staff Engineer. My first promotion since joining the company, and, honestly it's the first time I took the additional responsibility steps it took to get the promotion. First time I really wanted to, too, and felt the problems were interesting enough to do.

It's nice to be acknowledged and I won't sneeze that the raise and stock options, either.

But it's been an interesting delve into what really motivates me and what doesn't. Learning about this new problem they've thrown me at has been far more "cool" than the larger paycheck. I haven't even upped my allowance, though I did take the opportunity to spend some on a bargain basement Sheaffer Intrigue that I've wanted for a while and now can get at half price. Having someone who was behaving quite badly be investigated by my boss with the intent to help correct that behavior has me much, much happier than the change in title. I'd rather enjoy my work than be labeled for it, I guess.

It's taken a year and a half for me to finally get motivated enough to have new business cards made, now that EVERYTHING on my old card is now wrong, including the address, since we moved sites. Okay, everything other than my name, and that's why one hands out cards anyway...

Maybe I can now get my hair dyed green, and not rely as much on the white hairs as I do on my title? Nah... better to just have green hair for its sake. I love having a marketing job where having green hair might be an asset.

Vivace Green Bean blend

Roasted yesterday, brewed this morning using my little Mr. Coffee MC40.

Bought at Espresso Vivace at their Broadway store.

Brewing: It's damned picky stuff. I have to get everything exactly right, roast (10 seconds into 2nd crack), grind (variable according to the lack of humidity here), tamp (30 pounds) and then I get glorious golden crema to fill the shot glasses and even then it's not exactly sweet compared to other single variatels or other blends, even. If ANY of it's wrong, or even if I brew it anything past three days (high altitude air sucks the oils right out) after the roast, the stuff gets sour and thin and nothing will coax crema from it. WAY too picky for me and what I'm doing and where I am.

Given that it's blended for their commercial use, at sea level, in Seattle humidity, I can see why it's so darn picky. What I really don't like about it is that some of the beans look like they've been par-roasted already and the differences in size and prep some of the beans get into Full City+ before some of the beans have even gone through a decent amount of first crack. It comes out far more uneven than the Sweet Maria blends and it's sure to be less even than any single varietal.

So a 3 out of 10 for me, as there are a few glories to be had when it's Right.

Vivace Green Bean blend

Roasted yesterday, brewed this morning using my little Mr. Coffee MC40.

Bought at Espresso Vivace at their Broadway store.

Brewing: It's damned picky stuff. I have to get everything exactly right, roast (10 seconds into 2nd crack), grind (variable according to the lack of humidity here), tamp (30 pounds) and then I get glorious golden crema to fill the shot glasses and even then it's not exactly sweet compared to other single variatels or other blends, even. If ANY of it's wrong, or even if I brew it anything past three days (high altitude air sucks the oils right out) after the roast, the stuff gets sour and thin and nothing will coax crema from it. WAY too picky for me and what I'm doing and where I am.

Given that it's blended for their commercial use, at sea level, in Seattle humidity, I can see why it's so darn picky. What I really don't like about it is that some of the beans look like they've been par-roasted already and the differences in size and prep some of the beans get into Full City+ before some of the beans have even gone through a decent amount of first crack. It comes out far more uneven than the Sweet Maria blends and it's sure to be less even than any single varietal.

So a 3 out of 10 for me, as there are a few glories to be had when it's Right.

June 27th and 28th

Filled in June 27th and June 28th, discovered the new date format for entries! Neat.

I'm also tagging all the roadtrip entries with the 2005_roadtrip tag, so if you want to just see roadtrip entries click the tag in the Entry Tag section of the sidebar on the right.

These notification entries aren't being added. The Table is at the top.

June 27th and 28th

Filled in June 27th and June 28th, discovered the new date format for entries! Neat.

I'm also tagging all the roadtrip entries with the 2005_roadtrip tag, so if you want to just see roadtrip entries click the tag in the Entry Tag section of the sidebar on the right.

These notification entries aren't being added. The Table is at the top.