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.