Xing Ren Dan Cong

27/02/2011, posted by Cha in tea

I am continuously surprised by the varieties of feelings and sensations offered by the same plant.  Or should I say, I am continuously surprised on how human beings can produce a variety of effects and tastes from one single plant.

Vendor Description:
A rare and delicious, high grown Dan Cong exclusive to Canton Tea and picked from just one tea bush. Lovely mellow notes of almond and sweet apricots. Sensational.

This is a true single bush tea as all the leaves come from just one tree. Canton can
source this extraordinary quality tea because of our buyer’s very close relationship with the
producer who allows us to choose our batch before he blends the rest of the tea.

What most surprised me about this tea is not the (excellent taste) but how the taste didn’t change a bit in first 7 infusions. You can also see how the color didn’t change, everything was consistent. I think the taste would be the same afterward, but first kettle went out of water. I had 4 or 5 more rounds later in the day.

I have found that Xing can be translated as apricot and Xing Ren something as apricot seed  (i am not sure about the seed part). I imagine you know a bit about dan cong . Tea naming is so simple, to bad we can’t speak Chinese. I think Chinese tea drinkers  are much more comfortable when  buying and understanding a tea. In our hemisphere,  many of us fail to understand the naming, and with many occasions, the name becomes the product itself , even if it what goes under the label does not match the name.

For example I have seen  a description that  said that leaves are  mixed from tea variety A and tea variety B, while the name clearly stated that teas like that are directly from original tea plants and not clones. However, the naming mystification  makes the original name lose it’s power and meaning, even if translated in English.   When you translate mu shu cha into something like “tea from the mother tree” , the average person will not take it literally.

I never imagined years ago that in order to learn about tea you also have to study a bit of Chinese (at least make a minimal effort to have a translation), water, culture, pottery and so on.

Spring 2010 “Pure Bud Feng Qing Black Tea cake”

19/02/2011, posted by Cha in tea

This little tea cake is pressed from Spring 2010 Feng Qing black tea. The tea is made entirely from small bud (no leaf) Feng Qing black tea from Lincang. The taste is super-smooth with malty and floral notes. Typically black tea is not pressed but in the last several years we have pressed black tea into cakes with great success. Black tea is suitable for aging and undergoes a gradual mellowing. Compressing black tea slows the aging process and makes the tea suitable for drinking as much as 5 years into the future. The compressed black tea cake is also quite bold and lovely in its appearance!

That above is the vendor’s description (Yunnan Sourcing). While I do love this tea, I found it not much different from a (very good) Yunnan gold.  Perhaps, because it is a cake, I expected  something different.  However, I am pleased with the taste and it’s smoothness.   The cake is easier to break than a regular shu or sheng puerh cake and the leaves can be separated easily. I broke just about for  two brewing sessions, one with a gaiwan , and one with a yixing teapot tomorrow.

As for most of new teas, I brew them first using a gaiwan. Since I am not always sure what to expect , the first infusion is very very short (you can see that in liquor color) , so I can guide myself  on the next infusions. Tomorrow, I’ll have better results for sure as I know now what to expect.

There were plenty infusions, but only three pics are included in this post. I imagine I will post again about this tea at some point.

Long Jing, from Jing

06/02/2011, posted by Cha in tea

This should be a rare tea, but I think now it’s the most common type of green tea in stores (and that raises some questions).  If you can get enough information about the grades, it is very difficult  to distinguish them, at least in Europe, where the offer is pretty limited.

Categories like lion‘s peak, dragon, cloud, tiger or plum, or like Shi Feng, Mei Jia Wu and Xi Hu are very nice as a information, but difficult to actually understand it, because it’s very difficult to actually drink from all categories.

I think for us,  the European (and not only) consumers, this information is difficult to grasp.  I think even the tea makers themselves don’t differentiate all  grades (does any one have any information about this?). As I see things, Long Jing tea is sold by different providers,  some include location data, some not.  I tried Xi Hu and Shi Feng, but also varieties who were simply listed as being from Zhejiang, or some with no provenience information of all.  While their leaf was somehow larger than ‘usually’, the liquor did resemble  a Long Ling. However, with so many grades and subgrades, what is a fake Long Jing? Still, I did tried some that were definitely fake .  There were crafted in such a way that the dry leaf resembled (somehow) a Long Jing, but the wet leves not at all. It was stated many times on twitter than 90% of the Long Jing from the market is actually from Sichuan. How can one actually distinguish? I have as reference the teas from some trusted providers,  and some tea I had in Hong Kong. But is that enough?

Leaving the origin besides, in my Long Jing quest I have learned many ways of brewing it.  I have found that high quality Long Jing can be brewed with near boiling water, while lower grades require a cooler water.   I learned that the you can either wait for the water to cool, or you can choose different brewing methods that produce a slightly variation in the water temperature.

The pictures were made 2 years ago. I did not post anything about it because I was overwhelmed with so much information out there. I have forgotten the details about the provenience, but it’s one of the best I had. And I think that is the only thing that matters.

Tea Coasters

03/02/2011, posted by Cha in teaware

Tea Coasters. I always admired them whenever I saw posts on other blog sites.  On Teamasters and MattCha you often see them in a wonderful setup. Matt also goes sometime deeper with the explanations,  and writes about their effect.

For me, a tea coaster is something important for my tea sessions. I  believe it can bring balance to a tea session. Besides the aesthetic and practical aspect, you can enforce metal, wood or earth into your tea setup. That will make things right (or wrong).

Many avoid metal when choosing tea coasters, but I find these very nice and I like how they cool down the tea a bit, just enough to feel it somehow smoother.

Stéphane Erler(from whom I acquired these) has sent me more information via e-mail:

The drawings on the Chataku represent plants with strong symbolic meaning : “matsu” (pine), “kiku” (chrysanthemum), “ume” (plum blossoms), “take” (bamboo), and “yuri” (iris).

More explanations on some meanings:

Plum = a flower that blooms in winter -> age makes us wiser, more beautiful!
Pine = leaves that are always green -> long and eternal life
Bamboo = bends but never breaks -> virtue