A Tea Addict's Journal

Friday September 15, 2006

September 15, 2006 · 4 Comments

I spent the afternoon today first drinking the very cheap oolong that I got from Hong Kong. It’s a mix of heavily roasted shuixian with a little bit of qingxiang tieguanyin. I think having tasted it a little more, the reason for the odd mixture is so that the heavy roasted taste is balanced out a bit. I suspect that on its own, the shuixian will taste just like charcoal and not much else. That, unfortunately, isn’t very nice, so the qingxiang tieguanyin is there to lend it a little more aroma, to soften up the tea, if you will. The result is actually not too bad. It’s certainly no great tea, and doesn’t have much qi nor aftertaste, but it does work. There’s a bit of sourness, no doubt from the heavily fired shuixian as well.

I also drank a bit of Hou De’s free sample of maocha today. Compared to the one I bought here, I find the Hou De one to be a little more bitter, less sweet, and in fact, less tasty. I need to give them a fair shake by putting them side by side (maybe we can do that, bearsbearsbears).

While drinking all that, I passed the time by polishing my pots. They’re more shiny than ever. I used to not polish them at all, but I realized that it leads to somewhat uneven seasoning, and that polishing it really does make the pot look nicer. I looked at my qingxiang tieguanyin pot, and I realize that over the years (it’s been… 3 years now) it has gotten progressively better looking. The very ugly and obvious rings on the lid is also gone as well.

Bringing up the pots does remind me that I need to get a little qingxiang tieguanyin and also some dancong to feed my pots. However, I have a bad feeling that while qingxiang tieguanyin will be very, very easy to find (they’re everywhere) dancong will be considerably tougher, since I like the fired variety rather than the qingxiang type. I should’ve brought some from Hong Kong….

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4 responses so far ↓

  • stevendodd // September 15, 2006 at 2:16 pm | Reply

    It’s funny when you talk about getting some tea to feed your pots. It’s as if they are your children and you need to buy them treats to keep them happy. If you don’t, they’ll get hungry and become little monsters.

  • Castalleta // September 15, 2006 at 3:44 pm | Reply

    Hi Marshaln,

    Big fan of your blog and of the puerh tea community (big lurker too…)

    I just wanted to know what method you use to polish your pots ?

    Nadim

  • Phyllo // September 15, 2006 at 4:51 pm | Reply

    Which Mao Cha from Houde is that, Marshaln?

    EO: I feed my Yixing frog ornament everyday with good tea….it’s my tea companion.  He gets cranky when he doesn’t get any tea everyday.  Creepy, huh?

  • MarshalN // September 16, 2006 at 2:05 am | Reply

    Yeah, they’re little demons who need constant feeding or they yell at me.

    I just polish my pots using a wet towel, preferably wet with tea — pretty simple, actually. You rub, rub, rub (the outside). If you usually pour tea over the pot, like you should, it will shine. Just remember, PUT THE LID DOWN when rubbing. I’ve heard too many broken lids story.

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