A Tea Addict's Journal

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Headache…

September 6, 2008 · 5 Comments

It’s odd. I had some Yunnan gold today, and a slight headache showed up a little after I drank the stuff.

That is, in and of itself, not too interesting. Afterall, there are lots of things that can cause a headache. What’s odd is that I normally don’t have headaches, and I noticed that last time when I drank a bunch of black teas (i.e. when I was drinking those Keemuns) I was suffering from headaches during the day.

I have no good explanation for it, except that they seem to be correlated — and drinking those teas seem to precede the headache. Too much caffeine too quickly? Too concentrated a dose? Something else?

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The power of silver

September 5, 2008 · 2 Comments

It can make my $3 huangjingui taste like $30 huangjingui.

Well, maybe I’m exaggerating a little, since the tea is still weak and a bit flat, but at the same time, I got the most incredible throatiness for what is certainly a mediocre tea today, and the only variable is the kettle used. For people like me who look for such things and appreciate them in tea, it’s a nice plus. The taste also changed a bit — cleaner, as I’ve mentioned before, and a little sweeter. Tetsubins can be heavy sometimes for the lighter teas, and huangjingui is on the light side of things.

And for those who remain skeptical — the difference should be obvious, not subtle. My friend who owns a silver kettle said the same when he first tried it — he thought it would only be a minor difference, but it turns out the changes are quite dramatic.

This, however, is not an endorsement to go out and buy a $3000 kettle. They’re not worth that much money.

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Silver kettle

September 4, 2008 · 2 Comments

I got a heating plate (you can see a corner of it in yesterday’s picture) so I can safely heat my silver kettle without running a high risk of screwing it up. I noticed that a flame will help tarnish the silver, even just a little. I decided I’d like a more even and less risky method of heating the thing.

I brewed some wet stored Vietnamese puerh today, and at first, used a tetsubin. Then, near the end, I switched to the silver kettle…. with a remarkable difference. The fact that they’re different is of course not surprising, but exactly how it’s different and what’s different is, perhaps, still a little startling when drinking it. The tea comes out much cleaner in taste, and also much sweeter. Maybe it loses a little body, but it’s definitely a different tea when using the differently prepared water.

I wonder how the Huangjingui will taste with the silver kettle. Time to experiment.

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Huangjinggui

September 3, 2008 · 3 Comments

I bought some random tea recently from the local Asian market

This is Huangjingui, a variety of oolong that is often used to imitate tieguanyin. They don’t quite taste the same, and tieguanyin (real ones anyway) are better, but if you don’t know much about this stuff… you might just think this is tieguanyin.

It’s certainly hard to tell by looks

The tea is thinner, and this particular one is slightly sour. The taste is a bit different from tieguanyin, and that, I think, is the biggest marker of difference, but taste is a fickle thing, and as we all know, taste is relative and subjective. It can easily be sold at some “gourmet” tea shop as some “jade oolong” and cost you $10 per 50g.

It’s not the greatest tea… but probably worth the $3 I paid for it.

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I hate infuser baskets

August 31, 2008 · 7 Comments

especially the red ones that have a plastic lining.

What I’ve found over the years is that if you go out to a tea shop to drink some tea, in this country anyway, more likely than not they use an infuser basket to brew the tea for you. This makes sense to them — it’s easier to clean up and remove all the tea leaves that were used in the process, and so all they have to do is to rinse the pot and it’s ready to go again. All is well, is it not?

The problem, as I’ve mentioned before, is that these things are very good at soaking up smells and tastes, and that what actually happens is that they start to impart a taste to the tea that is made in them. Yesterday, I went to Tea Time in Palo Alto. It’s a nice little shop with lots of interesting English style teacup and saucer sets for sale. It also has a decent selection of tea, and aside from a few items that seem grossly overpriced, such as a $1 a gram Wuyi yancha of unknown provenance, it offers a nice variety and is not entirely filled by your typical “blackberry currant butterscotch mint vanilla tea”.

I ordered some cheaper Wuyi, as I found them to be generally fairly safe when going to a tea shop I’ve never been to before. I sat down and waited for my tea. When it came out, in an English style pot with a cozy, I figured that I am not going to see the leaves — and I was right. It was pre-brewed, which is ok, except that the tea has a slight hint of something else…. maybe vanilla? Peach? I couldn’t tell, and it can be a mix of both. What it almost certainly is though, is that it is the leftover smell from previous teas, usually flavoured teas, that were brewed in the infuser basket. The flavours that those teas have tend to seep into the infuser… which makes for bad tea for everybody else when it’s brewed weakly, which my Wuyi certainly was.

I wish there were more stores out there that will let you brew your own tea, instead of them brewing for you. I actually don’t really understand that, because it’s more work for them, and I’d imagine it’s easier to just let the customers make their own tea. Perhaps it’s a ploy to get us to buy more, because without giving us the leaves, we can’t refill? Or perhaps it’s a fear that the customers will mess it up? I don’t know, but please…. the infuser baskets have to go. There has to be a better way.

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Caffeine overdose

August 28, 2008 · 9 Comments

I’ve had caffeine overdose exactly once in my life. I remember it was early in my college years, and I was staying up writing some paper. I had some rather nasty jasmine pearls, and…. well, long story short, I woke up in the middle of the night and my legs were shaking uncontrollably.

These days when I drink too much tea, I know, because my heart starts feeling like it’s pounding and I feel as though I want to throw up. It’s not a pleasant feeling, and nothing will really get rid of it. It doesn’t usually happen when I brew tea myself, but sometimes when I go out, it happens. I had to go out and get some things done today, and had two cups of tea while out. The first one was fine — a keemun that was fairly tasty, but not too interesting either way. The second, however, was a killer. It was one of those places that put loose leaves into the paper filter bag, and then brew in a paper cup for you to go. Nothing’s wrong with that, except that he must’ve put about 10g of tea (darjeeling) into a cup that’s about 100ml.

Needless to say, after that cup (and I wisely took it out after realizing, 30 seconds in, that it’s too much tea) I was rather buzzed. The uncomfortable feeling showed up, and I spent the next three hours shaking it off.

I hope that guy wasn’t paid to try to kill me.

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New stuff

August 26, 2008 · 1 Comment

Today I recieved in the mail two beautiful cups as a wedding present from our common sensei. The cups, I believe, have Korean origins. They have a milky white crackled glaze, sort of like Hagi-ware for the Japanese ceramics aficiandos out there, and is quite large. Just large enough, in fact, so that when I put my two chataku together, the lips of the cups just touch, which means no tea wasted when I pour straight from my pot into the cups, gongfu style, splitting the guangyungong bing I brewed today evenly into two cups.

Perfect!

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Weeks old tea

August 25, 2008 · 5 Comments

I went to the Tea Gallery yesterday. Among the many things that Michael, the proprietor of the Tea Gallery, has been experimenting is one scary sounding thing — drinking teas that have been brewing for weeks on end.

I think I am fairly brave sometimes when it comes to tea, but even that, initially, has me feeling rather skeptical. After all, I have tried having forgotten tea in a pot for weeks on end and ended up with nasty, white mouldy tea that smelled sickly sweet and forever screwed up the pot, so the idea of drinking stuff that have been brewing a few weeks is, to say the least, a little alarming.

Yet that’s not really what’s going on. What Michael does is basically brew the tea fresh everyday using new water (and drinking the previous day’s brew). On and on it goes. I have now tried a few teas at different “ages”… from a week to a few weeks. None are mouldy, and all of them, though light, are still drinkable and enjoyable in their own way. Mind you, I think a certain amount of proper processing and what not is probably required, but maybe it’s not as far fetched as it seems…

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Aged darjeeling

August 22, 2008 · 3 Comments

I have, with me, a 10 years old tin of Darjeeling

I bought this quite some years ago in New York city, some first flush stuff that I never really drank much of. I carried it with me to many places, and after numerous moves (and multiple times considering whether or not to throw it away) it is still there

Having had some fresh first flush recently from Lochan tea, I can say that the muscatel from this aged darjeeling is much more subdued. There’s a different character that shows up early in the cup — some form of sweetness. The tea is still bitter if you overbrew it, but there’s less of a bite and a little more rounded, I think, than fresh stuff. It’s not quite as aromatic, and will certainly taste a little strange to someone expecting the usual. I do wonder though… are these things ageable?

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Keemun from Taiwan

August 21, 2008 · Leave a Comment

I drank the same tea two days in a row, a rarity for me. The reason is because I completely misjudged the amount of tea I should use in such a small pot for blacks, so I ended up with too much tea (and not enough water). So eventually, I just dumped the leaves out into a mug and drank it that way yesterday.

The tea in question is a Keemun I got in Taiwan. No, it’s not a Taiwanese Keemun… just sold in Taiwan.

Keemun, like Lapsang and a few other blacks from China, are generally better grade when the leaves get smaller. I remember, almost two years ago, I tried two Lapsang from the same guy but of slightly different grades. The difference between the two was subtle but very present. The differences in price for higher grades of black usually isn’t that much more than the lower ones, and since I drink this stuff only very occasionally, I figured it’s a good investment.

I like Keemuns because they are sweet. I think brewing them English style is a complete waste of tea and time — Indian blacks are probably better for that purpose. Using a gaiwan might work best. I am using a yixing pot simply as a way to experiment. It doesn’t work terribly well with the small leaves — the pot gets clogged. I should actually find one of my gaiwans and brew the same tea (again!) in it and see what happens.

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