Mid 1970 Bao Zhong

11/11/2011, posted by Cha in journal,tea

It  has been a long time since I posted on my English blog. I think this has been the longest pause I took  here. Yet I haven’t stopped blogging. On the Romanian version  I post almost weekly. I also have a twitter account where I often post almost any tea I drink. If you are not a twitter fan, you may want to check my facebook profile or my google plus one. So please stay in contact there if you want.

It has been a very busy period.  In this period, I was gone for almost one month in Barcelona, where I met the wonderful people at Tetereria,  a teashop that will have it’s own post here soon,  I  got married  and celebrated my birthday not so long ago.

To sum all this I opened a old tea purchased from Stephane.  A baozhong from Wenshan, Taiwan. This tea is older even than all the puerhs I had so far.  Mid 1970. A great teacher but a very easy to brew tea.

You can really feel the age of the tea, but in a very different way than for a puerh tea. The taste and aroma are also very complex and the liquor, almost like a cream. The aftertaste stays really a long time.  The tea left a deep impression on me.

Gao Cong Shui Xian

10/06/2011, posted by Cha in tea

Changing the area, the country and the style,  but keeping the provider, Canton Tea, I am moving to a Shui Xian oolong. This oolong, also known as  High Bush Water Sprite, is a  heavy  oxidized and baked oolong.

Being heavy oxidized, it makes it clear why Chinese black teas  could originate from a tea like this.  I find this tea wonderful. Also because of the oxidation and  because of the baking process, the tea is very warm in nature.   Drink it  at the right moment and  it will certainly make your day. Taste, after taste and effect.

Some day, I would like to see the difference between the people who manufacture  oxidized oolongs and the ones who manufacture light oxidized oolongs. I have a feeling the difference between them is quite big.

In terms of brewing, this is a forgiving tea.  On first infusion,  I brew it longer than I usually do and it was still fine.  I think I had at least 8 infusions and I stopped because I ran out of water.

Li Shan

29/05/2011, posted by Cha in tea

Jumping on another mountain,  I tried the Li Shan (Pear Mountain).

It is said  that Li Shan is similar in style with Ali Shan. That may be true, in terms of shape and rolling, but I find them very different in terms of taste, after taste  ( and maybe effect). I have noticed from start, even before brewing, that leaves are smaller.  I got my pouring right again, but I have decided to step the first infusion (no wash)  a little bit longer. I was wrong. You can notice that in the pics the first one has a somehow more accentuated color.  The ‘green’ part of the tea made itself clear in this first  infusion, which was still very nice.

Next infusions were really surprising.  Taste didn’t dropped until infusion eight or so. The aftertaste was really incredible, and overall, I felt it as a nice tea.  There are certainly some resemblances with the Ali Shan I have tried, but again, it’s different.  This one is much more ‘green’, and I guess the fact that Li Shan tea plantations grow between 1700 and 2600 meters plays its role.

I received this sample from Canton Tea, as well as some other oolong samples (Like the previous Ali Shan). I started the oolong learning process now. I hope to be able to cover at least 1 oolong tea per week.  It is going to take a while until I will finish with them all, but I hope I will gain  a new  kind of understanding  after I will finish.

Ali Shan

27/05/2011, posted by Cha in tea

Many of you know about Ali Shan already. It is a oolong from the Ali Shan mountain in Taiwan, grown on high altitude. This one is from Canton Tea. I find it excellent. Oolong tea of this caliber has a very distinct shiny appearance that is difficult to catch on photos. I find it difficult to catch the infusion color (especially with my camera).

On another note, I’m starting to have most of my  oolong pourings right.   After some practice, I am finally confident that I gained the necessary skills to go further with my oolong (very long) sampling. As I told you, this year I want to learn more about oolong. More in term of brewing , taste and nature. I recently added a curiosity to my list of oolong samples: A japanese oolong.

I believe I have around 40 oolong types from different areas and years waiting inline.  The only problem is to find as many beautiful days so I can fully enjoy them.

I am also experimenting a lot with tea setups, but that is also difficult to catch on camera.

2003 CNNP Yi Wu High Mountain Wild Arbor

14/05/2011, posted by Cha in tea

It has been a while since my last blog post. Life kept me busy, but I never stopped drinking tea. In fact,  almost every morning starts with a tea session.

This is a tea sample I got from one of my readers, which probably has it from Yunnan Sourcing. As soon as I saw the tea i knew I will like it.  I really enjoy Yi Wu sheng  teas . In my case, they  produce a particular sensation when brewed with care.

I have found that I  almost never remember the taste of the teas I enjoy, but I do remember the sensations.  I brew and choose teas according to what  sensation or effect I require.   I never brew special teas to guests because I want to maximize that effect, and I never brew a tea that I haven’t tried to guests. This is because I don’t want to make a tea look bad because of my inability.  This is the same reason for keeping some samples until my brewing ability reaches a certain point.

Now back to this puerh. I have found that I prefer to help the cake loosen, especially if it is loose pressed.  That is why the leaves in the pic look like they are not pressed.  After that, I don’t pour directly on the leaves and i rinse it once. The tea releases much faster than I do it this way.

1999 Vietnamese shu puerh

10/04/2011, posted by Cha in tea

This shu puerh has a feeling of clarity, but not as intense as for  some others I wrote about. Perhaps the feeling was amplified by the tea setup I have chosen.

This was one of the tea sessions when everything fitted together just nice. The light was nice, the flowers were appropriate. You would never say it was during a harsh winter.

As I drink more and more tea, I find it easier to create setups that create a targeted sensation.    Heat, cold, distant places, everything can be recreated with a tea setup and an appropriate tea.

Ba Xian Dan Cong

24/03/2011, posted by Cha in tea

What surprised me most about this  tea was not the (excellent) taste, but the fact that I got very different results in my brewing sessions.  First time I used a gaiwan, but second time a (gongfu ) teapot.  I didn’t imagined the difference will be so great, because usually the difference is not that big.  Or perhaps I had a lucky leaf/water ratio for the teapot brewing session.

This tea has a great taste and aftertaste.   I decided it’s best to use quick infusions for this one.  For the first three or four infusions  I poured immediately after I filled the teapot with water.  The tea felt very nice.

The name, Ba Xian , literally means Eight Immortals (based on my online findings).  According to Canton Tea, this tea comes from the Guang Dong Province, Wu Dong mountain.

The reason why  I try to translate  tea names and find about the origin is to be able  to learn more about Chinese naming and classification system.  It helps a bit to know  one or two terms in Chinese when you shop for your teas (especially online). Of course, that does not guarantee anything, but I consider it a plus.  For example, when I will  see a Yunnan Hong Cha Green Tea for sale , I will definitely run away from that shop.

Yunnan Mao Feng

20/03/2011, posted by Cha in tea

Two years ago I was focusing on Yunnan  non-puerh teas, especially green ones. This green tea was one of them. I always liked the quality/price ratio offered by these teas. In fact, in that year, i acquired several teas like this  to have them as daily teas. It was not uncommon from me to buy 500g at once.

Yunnan teas have a characteristic taste, you know for sure they are from that region.  Or at least, this was my impression. They are different from other green teas.  I can’t explain exactly why, so probably you should try it yourself. Here is something I posted in 2009 on another Yunnan green tea.  Brewing notes are similar.

I have learned a lot from Yunnan teas at that period. These pics were waiting as a draft for two years now.  But I feel like it was yesterday.  I still remember the tea, what I have learned from it and what peace I had brewing it.

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.