A Tea Addict's Journal

Entries tagged as ‘friends’

Moving

June 13, 2008 · 2 Comments

After the trip to LA, now the move… I’m going to be moving somewhere east of Ohio this weekend, which means… packing up all the tea, teaware, and all other worldly belongings I have. Fun it is not.

Before I left though, I went and visited Sherab today for lunch and some tea. We ended up with a whirlwind of four teas, all drunk within about an hour and half. It’s too bad this country is so big — makes meeting tea friends a rather difficult operation.

Anyway, as I have to pack up almost everything and then go on the road, nothing much interesting will come of it — so until I’ve settled down, hopefully by the middle of next week, I’ll continue on my little break.

Cheers

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A wedding and a tea meeting

June 11, 2008 · 5 Comments

Weddings are sometimes fun, but tea meetings with like minded addicts are always enjoyable. It was nice escaping to the clear blue skies of LA, going to the wedding of my cousin who gave out jasmine blooming tea balls as wedding favours, and then, on Sunday, meeting with a few of those from the LA tea group whom I’ve corresponded with before.

Two of them I’ve already met — Jason and Phyll — but the others I’ve only emailed on a number of occasions and exchanged teas with, but never met. It’s always good to know who is sending you leaves in sealed foiled packs. It gives me a little more confidence in drinking stuff coated with mysterious white powder sent by them :).

We started with two greens, each different and rather interesting, especially when we experimented with the “mineral rocks” (ch. maifanshi) that you can get from Asia which are supposedly used for adding minerals to water. They do seem to make a difference, even when there’s only one rock in the fairness cup and thus the water is only exposed to the rock for a short amount of time. I’ve always been rather skeptical of the ability of these rocks to do much of anything, mostly because they are exposed to the water for not very long periods and I wonder about the solubility of the minerals in these things… but I must say I’m sold.

After the two greens, we had two aged oolongs (one of mine from the Candy Store, and one an aged baozhong). The little rock still did the trick there, as we tried our tea with and without the rock…. when it’s in the fairness cup, the tea tasted better. Odd, and possibly placebo…

I think we ended with two Wuyi teas, one is simply called “Laoshucha” or “old tree tea” from Will, and another which is a dahongpao. The laoshucha clearly does have some nice qi.

If I seem to be short on the description of teas… that’s because I wasn’t paying all THAT much attention to them. It was far more interesting to meet old friends again, and in some cases, meeting friends whom I’ve only known through the cyberspace until now. Tea, after all, is a social drink, and it is nice to be able to do it finally in its proper setting — among a group of friends, instead of drinking alone. It might be nice to finally be able to live in a city with more than a plurality of tea drinkers whom I can regularly meet with again, but until then… there’s always this blog.

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Another tea meeting

May 25, 2008 · Leave a Comment

It’s always nice to have a meeting with like minded tea friends, especially when you’re in the middle of Ohio.

The owner of Mount Awakening Aroma came by today to drink some tea together with me, a sort of return visit from last time when I went over. It’s an hour drive away, but he came out all the way here in the middle of nowhere anyway.

We quickly got down to business, going through four teas and I think four or maybe five kettles of water in total. What’s always better than the tea, though, is the company. It was certainly one of the more intellectual conversations I’ve ever had with regards to tea, and I thoroughly enjoyed the discussion of what a puerh is, what makes certain teas age, etc etc. Thank you, and I hope we can meet up again before I leave this part of the country 🙂

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Tea meeting

May 10, 2008 · 4 Comments

I had tea today with the owner of the blog Mount Awakening Aroma in Columbus, OH, a rather unlikely location for a meeting of two Chinese men drinking some tea.

The two Chinese men were not alone, as there were others who joined in the drinking. We went outdoors, to a park nearby, and sat down and had tea in a picnic area, complete with a shade and a usable (but unused today) barbeque.

Making tea for a lot of people pose unique challenges. There were a total of 13 people at the meeting today. I thought we were getting maybe 5, so I brought with me my black pot, which would work well with 5-6 people using small cups. 13 people, however, completely changed that.

The Hermit of Mount Awakening, however, was better prepared, and brought along one of those 300 ml pots that are well suited for such large gatherings. We first had a Taiwanese gaoshan oolong, from Nantou. Those teas work well in these circumstances, pleasing all at the table and being rather easy to appreciate. The pot performed admirably, although the table was so long as to require passing of the fairness cup from one to another, because it was impossible to pour otherwise (these are basically park benches, you see…)

I tried to make tea using my black pot, with the biyuzhu that I brought along. It worked out better than I imagined, since the tea rebrews very well, so I was able to get three combo steeps of three infusions (i.e. pour infusions 1, 2, 3 into fairness cup, distribute, repeat). Then we had to move on to something else, and I was using my pot more for my personal drinking and for my neighbours while we had a lull in the tea making – mostly between water boiling for use.

Two more teas were made — a rather nice competition tea from Dongding, fired appropriately and thus removed of any trace of grassy notes, and then another Taiwanese gaoshan oolong, not fired as much and thus, in contrast, has much grassy character. There’s a reason, I think, why oolongs used to be much higher fired than they are generally today. I think I like it the way it was.

It’s always nice drinking tea out. I should learn how to better make tea for a larger crowd. I think being mostly a solitary drinker recently has really made me less adept at doing it for many people — it was ok when I was getting lots of practice at Maliandao, but not so much now. Sigh, even these things can get rusty.

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Enjoying tea

March 4, 2008 · 2 Comments

One of the great benefits of meeting somebody live for tea, rather than say just sharing samples through the mail, is that when you’re actually talking to the person, you know exactly what’s going on in the cup at the same time and can respond with meaningful comments, rather than having to guess what “fruit” or “astringent” means in any particular context. I always find tea meetings to be useful, even when it’s a tea you already know inside out, because somebody else’s tongue (and words) are always going to be different than yours. Today I had tea with dogma and the tea I made was an aged baozhong that I have had on many occasions, and which I find is great for traveling on the road. Among the qualities of the tea which I find are interesting are 1) the bitterness is nonexistent and, 2) it can taste a bit like hongcha. Both of which are confirmed without me needing to really say much of anything about it.

But of course, confirming what you know about a tea is not the main point of having tea with somebody. It’s just a side benefit. Like any addictions, I think this one’s best shared with others who truly enjoy in partaking in it.

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A parting meeting

December 23, 2007 · 2 Comments

I went to Wisteria today, to see Aaron and a couple who are making a documentary about tea. I met the couple once already, but since I figured Aaron might be able to help them a lot more (seeing as he’s in Taiwan and all) we planned to meet together before we left. After some discussion, the meeting ended up being at Wisteria.

We started with a tea that Aaron brought with him — some tea from Tibet. It’s a mixture, actually — a tea with some other plant. Aaron thinks it’s a white tea plus some moss-like herb. We really have no clue. It reminded me of the incense smell I get from flipping some of these old books that I regularly have to read, most likely because the books were stored in places where incense was burned regularly. It’s a very calming tea, actually, and the plant, whatever it is, has a sort of citrus like taste and a great aftertaste. I could feel the medicinal quality of this thing. Very very nice stuff.

Then we had a 1930s puerh called “Shuang Hua” or twin flowers. Not one of the most famous brands out there, but it’s still old nonetheless. It’s a relaxing tea — mellow, good soft qi, but not too powerful (there’s a reason it’s not that famous). Still, one can’t complain about drinking stuff like this.

It was a nice tea meeting to end my visit in Taiwan this time. They sometimes call Taiwan “Treasure Island” here. For the tea enthusiast, there’s a lot of treasures to be found, provided that you’ve got the time, energy, and patience to deal with it. It took me a while before I had a sort of breakthrough in finding good stuff, but I think eventually I found some pretty nice teas and teaware along the way. I’m sure I’ll come back, but for now… I am looking ahead at a 24 hours trip through SFO and IAD to CMH. I wonder if I’ll see snow tomorrow?

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Brewing techniques

December 9, 2007 · 12 Comments

I went down to Miaoli today again to have tea with Aaron. It was, as usual, a good day with good tea.

One of the topics that came up during the course of conversation was the little things you do that can make the tea better. He went to Malaysia recently, and rediscovered the warming of the pot. Heating the pot before and after adding water makes a difference (as well as pouring water into the cup to keep it warm between infusions). I myself have also started to neglect doing it recently, even though I used to do it before. It’s time to try it again and keep it in my habit.

One other thing though that came up — making tea isn’t like doing experiments in a chemistry lab. Measuring out the amount of water, checking the temperature, using a timer…. those might be things that help make somebody starting out more comfortable with the making of tea, but if too much attention is paid to those things, the person making the tea can actually get too busy, too distracted to actually make a good cup. A good story I’ve heard from Action Jackson a while ago was that she’s met a couple who made tea for her, and who were so obsessed with the timer and how long each infusion should be that they completely forgot about keeping the water warm. So, it was a perfectly timed cup with lukewarm water. If they didn’t obsess about the time, perhaps they would’ve remembered to do the other things right, but they didn’t.

The point being, doing all those things (and perhaps even taking meticulous notes on the side while doing all those things) can actually take the person away from the actual drinking of the tea. Maybe while worrying about the temperature, the time, the amount… the actual tea gets lost in the process. There isn’t a right or wrong (just look at how so many tea experts disagree with each other). There isn’t an optimal amount of leaves or water that will make a tea come out perfectly. I know if I used the exact same parameters, teaware, water, etc as somebody else and make tea together in the same setting, the taste will still not be quite the same. Maybe it’s that jerk of the hand, the force of the pour, etc. If one were looking for a scientific explanation, there might be one that’s usable to explain the difference. But does it really matter? Can one truly control all those things? We try our best, but I have always found the best tea making happens when I’m focused and not distracted, then things go smoothly without me having to worry about each specific little thing. When I’m doing other things, sometimes I am drinking tea, but not really drinking tea. After a few cups, I don’t even remember what I drank, basically. Then it’s just a beverage and I might as well be drinking Lipton teabags.

For those of you who use a scale, timer, thermometer… try ditching it for a change. It might mean you will screw up the brewing sometimes, maybe too much tea, too long a steep, etc, but that can happen with those aids anyway. It’s best to try it with a tea you know well. Then move on to things that you don’t know so well. You might just surprise yourself when your eyeballs, hands, and mind do better than scales, timers, and thermometers.

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An opening party

December 6, 2007 · 5 Comments

Today I went with Aaron Fisher to Jingmei Tang, Wushing Publications’ teahouse, so to speak. They’re not normally open, but only for events. There’s an event today — the opening of a 1920s (or is it 1930s?) jian of liu’an that they found in some Chinese medicine shop.

So we went there at 2pm sharp. Everybody was already there, and the prize was there too, sitting in the middle of the room. Now, liu’an is a tea that is generally packaged in baskets. When they first come out, they’re basically green tea steamed into the basket — sort of like liubao, although liubao usually comes from Guangxi, and liu’an comes from the Huizhou area, near Huangshan, the same places that give us Qimen, but NOT the same place that gives us liu’an guapian, the loose green tea (that’s farther to the west and has nothing to do with Huizhou). The most famous brands of these is the Sunyishun, and this is what we’re opening today.

Before we went on with the opening (and drinking) though, we first drank the 1930s liu’an that they opened a month or two back and featured in the current Chinese issue of Puerh Teapot.

The bamboo leaf is part of the wrapping of the original basket, and in some cases you brew the bamboo leaf along with the tea (depending on preference, really). The bamboo leaf itself is so old and mixed with the tea for so long that it has taken on medicinal quality. So has the tea. Sitting across me was a gentleman whose family originally was in the medicine business. He said back in the day, teas like this were used as medicine for certain ailments. I can believe him.

So Aaron did the honours in our corner of the room and brewed. The liquor is very much looking like a liu’an

It tastes like a good liu’an, mellow, medicinal, good and obvious qi, but in a pleasant way, and generally a pleasure to drink.

But you don’t want me to babble on about this, so on to the video. This is Lu Lizhen, another one of the Taiwan tea experts, who was doing the honours. Zhou Yu did some introductions and background info for the tea in question.

And in case you want to see pictures of the jian of tea in detail

There are ten stacks of tea in this bundled together, each stack consisting of six baskets. The small writing on the canes that hold the baskets together says “Xin’an Sunyishun zihao jianxuan yuqian shangshang yinzhen”, which means, “Top grade (literally top top) silver needles selected by Sunyishun company of Xin’an”, with Xin’an the older name for the Huizhou area.

So of course we drank this too… stronger, more lively, and more aggressive. The tea’s been kept in excellent condition, and the finish of the tea even has a hint of that greenness that you find in younger teas. I even came home with a sample of it…. which is worth quite a bit, considering the whole ball of tea, 60 baskets in all, is said to be something like $400,000 USD.

Aaron and I stayed behind to drink some more tea with the owner of Wushing Publications, a good tieluohan and an extremely good shuijingui, both of them Wuyi varietals. It was a pretty good outing.

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A tea meeting

November 25, 2007 · 3 Comments

I went to meet some guy from the Taiwanese tea forum t4u today. He just posted an open invitation for anybody in the Taipei area to come. It was supposed to be a 3 people affair, but I was the only one who showed up at his place, so it ended up just being me and him.

The original focus of the meeting was to drink “Big Tree Tea”, referring to puerh. When I got there, we weren’t sure if the other person was going to show, so he offered to make some Taiwanese shuixian first. This is Wuyi varietal planted in Taiwan (these are mostly gone nowadays). It’s been aged about 20 years… and it’s a very good tea. I quite liked the complexity in the taste, and since I’ve been dabbling in aged oolong these days, it was an interesting contrast. I’ve met a tea or two that tastes like it.

The other guy was still a no show, so we went on to an aged dongding. This is a very different kind of aged dongding than the one I bought. It’s not as heavily fermented, and the agedness is lighter — it has a mild fruity sourness that is interesting instead of revolting. I think I prefer the style of the first instead of the second — not that the second is bad at all.

Still no show, so we proceeded with the puerh. I brought three samples, which we tasted in quick sucession. Nothing too interesting there, with one he thinks more like an old tree tea than the other two, which were more plantation-esque. It’s always nice to exchange views with somebody else on tea, especially youngish puerh. So much tea out there are called “old tree”, but yet very few actually are. I haven’t really devoted much thought to this problem recently, but now that I think about it… one of these cakes is indeed aging faster than the other two, obviously so, in fact. Aging faster in the first few years seems to be something that big tree tea is supposed to do. Maybe that gives me the explanation I needed… not that it really matters either way.

The other thing that we ended up agreeing is that the big tree teas are often less interesting initially — they can be very subdued things that only gradually show their true worth. They’re not teas that will wow your mouth — that’s the work of plantation tea. Instead, they are subtle but strong. The subtlety though can be mistaken for weakness. I know people who routinely think that these are crap because they seem weak.

Will it be better in the long run? This friend (let’s call him N) thinks it will. N thinks, from his experience of drinking teas from the 70s or before, that this is more like the sort of thing that was put into the old cakes. He thinks early spring puerh are a bad deal (the really buddy ones), which I concur as well.

We moved on to two more teas (that’s 7 for those of you who are counting). The first is a 2002 Yiwu which he has and likes… and tastes quite similar in some ways to the Yisheng tea that I bought a few of in Beijing, but only more aged, since the Yisheng is 05. It’s a nice tea, very mellow. The second is a 1996 Purple Dayi… a little more “big factory” ish. N thinks it’s mixed in with some (not a lot) big tree material. Perhaps, although the big factory taste still dominates. At today’s prices for this sort of thing, I’m not sure if it’s all that worthwhile. Interesting stuff though.

I was a bit high on caffeine at the end, but not too terribly so. Still, it was nice to meet somebody new who’s obviously interested and engaged in tea, and has that sort of intellectual curiosity in exploring different things. I wish someday I can throw a tea party for all the people whom I’ve met (and whom I haven’t met, like you lurkers out there), but alas, I’m not Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

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A busy tea day

November 16, 2007 · 5 Comments

Today was a busy day (yesterday internet died again). I first went out to get some tea for Action Jackson, who has a tea mule waiting for me to bring back stuff from Taiwan. I was on my way to get her some aged baozhongs, when, along the street, I saw a sign saying “Antique and Famous Masters Teapots, 6th Floor!” with some truly dubious looking pots in poorly taken photos next to the sign. Hmmm

What the heck, I had time, I thought, so I went upstairs to the 6th floor. It looked a little creepy. I thought about leaving. Then I saw the teapot sign…. the door was open, so I figured it’s not a bad idea to peek. Taiwan has a lot of scams going on, so I was a little worried about getting sucked into one. Inside that little office were a few shelves full of pots, and an older guy just walking around. I entered, and he greeted me and started talking pots.

This place was pretty interesting. There were, by my estimate, about 200 pots of various shapes and sizes on the shelves in that place. Every one of them had a little sign in front of it, listing the approximate age, the seal (or signature) and whatever else info there is. Most looked like credible zhuni pots. Many looked old, some very much so. They’re clean, well kept, and obviously in good hands. The only question is…. are they real?

The man claims he’s been collecting pots for about 20+ years. Makes sense. The 80s was when Taiwanese went nuts collecting yixing pots. What happened to puerh in the past few years happened to yixing pots in the 80s. Then, of course, the market went bust and prices of many of the older pots dropped dramatically. Tea probably won’t suffer as bad a fate, since it’s perishable and will continue to be consumed, whereas pots aren’t. Nevertheless… it is entirely possible that somebody’s sitting on a big stash of older pots.

The craft of many of these pots obviously look good. Some are very good, and have intricate details and fantastic calligraphy. Some have very rough finishes, especially on the inside, which I learned from another source is quite typical of older pots — it was not usual for them to make picture perfect finishes inside back in the day; it just wasn’t done. So you had a lot of what one might consider a rough finish now on the inside (outside all look good). I didn’t bother inquiring about prices, but some had prices on those labels and they ranged from what seems like a hundred or two all the way up to a few thousand. Age of pots range from the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) to 1970s.

I didn’t have much time there, only spent about an hour chatting with the owner, and looking through an incredible array of pots. The guy obviously wants to talk, and isn’t particularly pushy or anything. He clearly loves his stuff… and kept showing me pot after pot. Unfortunately I ran out of time and had to go (I still had to buy the tea and then rendevous with the tea mule). I will most likely go back to this place though.

The buying of the tea was itself fairly uneventful. I did drink some 20 years old cooked puerh mixed with osmanthus. That was interesting.

After dropping off the goods with the tea mule, I had to meet with two people — and we chose Wisteria as our meeting place. I haven’t gone there since I arrived in Taiwan, and figured it’s time to go. Their original location is under renovation. This is a branch of sorts.

Wisteria is mostly a place for you to drink tea (unless you want to buy stuff there). The way it works is this: you go in, you sit down, and you look at the tea menu (there are a few snacks, but no real food). Everybody has to order something… or at least, everybody has to order one serving of tea or its equivilent. So, for the three of us, we had to get three servings of something. I leafed through the menu. For a Taiwan oolong, say, one serving would cost 350NT. So for three of us getting something of that calibre… that’s 1050 NT or thereabouts.

Then I flipped to the back where the good stuff (Tongqing, Red Label, etc) are… for three-four people, a serving of a 30s Sun Yi Shun is…. 1980 NT.

Is this a no-brainer or what?

I suggested we go with the SYS. The other rationale is that it was near dinner time… and drinking something as green as a gaoshan oolong right before dinner is potentially suicidal.

The tea is as I remember a SYS to be…. nice, medicinal, mellow, had a soft kind of qi, easy on the body…. very durable. Nice tea, even if not mind blowing. People in Hong Kong told me to try to find them in Taiwan, as they think it might still be reasonably priced there for what they are. Either way though…. good tea needs good company. It always makes a tea more enjoyable 🙂

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