Tea!!

[liralen]

There is nothing quite like fresh tea.

I have a collection several dozen kinds of tea, and I am sometimes hard-pressed to drink it all before it gets too old to really be good anymore. I've evolved to the point where all greens, and especially the ground matchas, I'll only buy if it's under 10 grams in weight, because I just can't drink it all. And I throw out quite a lot into the compost as it's just not worth keeping the stuff that's too old, mostly because I'm probably avoiding it for a reason.

But I have lots of blacks, oolongs, whites, greens, and one or two yellow teas, and probably more ways to brew tea than most people even know exists.



So just the other day I got 4 grams of an organic, high grade matcha, a few grams of a genma I really wanted, and a few ounces of Irish Breakfast CCT (yes, rmd, it's the Upton wake up call) because I've been using it to wake up ever since I went off regular coffee. They sent a few grams of Ceylon, which is good for making clear iced tea, but I don't really like bright Ceylons that much.

Then I got a treasure chest today. flit and amberley sent me a chest of tea from Chaikhana Tea Culture, which resides in Santa Cruz. When I went to visit them a few months ago, the shop was closed when we got there, so I wasn't able to indulge. And they sent me some beauties!! A Osmanthus Flower tea, a Yellow Emperor's Dream, and a Green Bamboo that smells and looks like a type of Dragon's well. And they also sent a whole brick of Puerh, from 2006, one of the teas that does do better with oxidation and aging. It smells wonderful, all earthy and solid.

So I have a *lot* of good, fresh tea. Plus, since I dug out the Jon Singer ware, I've also dug out my old Yixing pots and some pouring ware, and I'm very happy again to indulge in teas.

Comments

[r0ck3tsci3ntist.livejournal.com]

I love tea as well! A lot of my pots are on the verge of breaking though because they are cheapys. :( I need to invest in a really nice one someday. I found one once at a flea market but I gave it to my MIL (and have never seen it again).

I do invest in high quality teas though. I two excellent tea shops within walking distance .

If you have trouble with tea going bad and you like deep blacks you could try pu-erh shou. It's fermented and can be laid up for years. I find it calming and it makes me just a little bit high like Japanese matcha - oops wait! LOL I didn't read far enough before I started typing! I drank a LOT of pu-erh in 2006! It was a good year. So was '98, but I didn't have the discipline to save any of it.

Do you like dragon's tears? It doesn't keep but it's so lovely and aromatic! White peony is one of my basic faves.

I envy you your lovely pots. ^___^

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*giggles* Yes. I *love* puerh.

I don't think I've tried dragon's tears!! I don't even know what it is, yet! Now I shall have to look for it. I do like phoenix pearls. I love white peony, and found one that was mixed with rose petals that I adore as well, when I'm in a flowery kind of mood. *laughter*

I love pi lo chun, but it wires me for the rest of the day.

I really love a lot of oolongs, the ali shan especially, but a lot of the greener oolongs as well. I've found an old bush Wuyi oolong that I just adore, completely. I can drink that all day.

I have far more teaware than I can really use. I have nearly a dozen Yixing pots, one for pu-erh, one for unflavored whites, and one for Iron Goddess of Mercy only (though I'll cheat and use it for my Monkey Picked IGM, too...) and the others I haven't really made up my mind about, yet, so they aren't really used that much. I have two Chatsford one-person pots, and like five ways to brew loose leaf in bags, or through fine mesh sieves. I also have a little train pot with a metal sleeve that's exactly the size of a standard mug, so I use it all the time. *laughter*

I also have like six different gaiwans, which I love, especially the jade one that I indulged extravagantly in but... oh, the feel of it is just... astonishing.

Now I'm tempted to offer you a Yixing pot or a simple gaiwan or something, just because I have way too many and it would be fun to share. *laughter*

[r0ck3tsci3ntist.livejournal.com]

Dragon's tears, dragon's pearls, phenix pears... I wonder if they aren't the same and the translations are confused.

I like oolong but I have the feeling I'm not steeping it properly because it gets bitter on me very fast. I know I need a better steeper/pot thing, lol I'm so literate! I tend to stick to whites or pu-erh unless I'm doing English tea. One of my local shops has a house blend if oolong that is fabulous but once again I can't make it as well at home. I'm sure i don't pay enough attention to my timing.

Oh another favorite that is almost impossible to get wrong is the brown rice tea. It's Japanese and soooooo lovely and warming on a dank rainy day.

It's very generous of you to think of offering some of your tea ware. :) I must sound very pathetic! :p

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Mmm... most oolongs do better around 180 degrees rather than a full boil. So they will get bitter fast if at full heat. Kinda like most greens.

I do love Silver Needles, but it's sometimes tricky to get at a reasonable price.

Ooo! Yes. I love the brown rice teas, and they do taste all toasty. *happy sigh*

No no! You sound like you *really* love tea and that you'd really enjoy something solid sent to you, and some of these things are basically being neglected by me. *giggles* Would you want one of the Chatsford pots? Or a gaiwan? The Yixing pots are a little tricky to take care of... but if you really wanted the experience, I'd be happy to send you one.

[r0ck3tsci3ntist.livejournal.com]

Gosh! That's just altogether too generous... but maybe we could do a trade... >.> if you like.

o.o

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Certainly! Though I certainly don't need any more teaware, I'd love a little art, especially if it's a green-eyed Jyuushiro. *laughter* Not sure if that's what you were thinking.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*grins* Or if you had something else in mind with respect to a trade, I'd love to know.

[r0ck3tsci3ntist.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry I didn't get back till now! I've been very scattered recently. I'd love to trade art for tea wear! I don't know very much about the different kinds of pots except for some of the glazing processes. Maybe you could give me a quick education.

I've been thinking about an Ukitake painting for a while now... *muses*

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Chatsford pots are very spherical, have an excellent filter basket that gets lots of the really fine particles, and pour very nicely. They're glazed and are pretty much classical British tea pots. Capacity is measured in even numbers of 6 ounce "cups"... so a 2-cup pot brews about 12 to 16 ounces.

Yixing pots have no glazing, and are made of a porous clay. The pores are dead air pockets, so they insulate really, really well. However, since they're open to the tea and whatever is outside, they absorb the tea. So you pick one kind of tea to go with your pot and you first boil it in that tea, to season it, and then only ever brew that kind of tea in that pot. It's good for white teas and black teas, and certain heat resistant oolongs. They can brew really good and hot. Their capacities, however are usually around 6 ounces, but can go up a lot.

Gaiwan (http://www.artoftea.com/catalog/images/Gaiwan.jpg) are just covered porcelain or glass cups with a saucer below. They're glazed. You can either drink out of them or brew in them and pour from them. Again, portion sizes are about 4-6 ounces. I love the versatility, and in a lot of Hong Kong or Chinese martial arts films, when you see someone sipping tea, it's from a gaiwan.

I hope that helps?

[shaterri.livejournal.com]

I run into the same problem with having tea go bad before I get to it all; there are just too many interesting choices! My favorite thing to do with my excess lately is to make ice cream - I just cold steep the tea in the milk/cream overnight (a cold steep to keep it from going bitter), strain, and then follow a standard egg yolks/sugar custard recipe. I have a sakura sencha from one of the Market tea shops that adapted perfectly, and I think the next batch will be chocolate hojicha to use up a slight excess of the latter. Well worth trying out, if you somehow find yourself with tea to spare. *grin*

[liralen.livejournal.com]

OOoooo... that is a remarkably great idea.

Thank you!! Especially the idea of a good, green sencha in cream. Yummmm....