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Andrew S Your picture really captures the session well, I think! Feels very meditative... Thanks - yes, a calming little session with a smooth, gentle tea (and with the added pleasure of feeling the smoothness of the clay pot at the same time). I guess it's an aspect of trying to match the tea to t...

Beginning a slow, steady exploration of dancong - one of the many categories of tea which I've pretty much completely ignored so far due to misconceptions and bad early experiences. I've had to re-adjust my expectations and preferences towards using far fewer leaves than with yancha, and aiming to e...

Finishing off a bit of a Taiwanese TTES 8 hongcha from 2013 - there's a very nice fresh and vibrant quality to the flavour and mouthfeel which I think is emphasised by the teapot, and which helps to cut through an otherwise dark and cloudy day.

Andrew

@OCTO: the interior of a tetsubin never looked so ominous...

Andrew

Not all grape jellybeans taste the same. Australian ones may be quite different than jellybeans in California. :roll: And the last time that I had jellybeans could have been about two decades ago... they may well taste better in my memory than in reality. Same tea today, but different teapot, diffe...

grapes and jellybeans Curious: I get the grapes reference, that sounds quite tasty. But I don't think of a 'jellybean' flavor, perhaps because I was introduced to JellyBellies at an early age--a cousin started carrying them in her shop long before they were staples of every sort of candy and gift s...

I'm enjoying my second session of a small sample of an AiJiao yancha from HuiYuanKeng. I've been trying to get into the habit of writing down some notes when I try new teas, and it's been quite useful when I revisit them, especially if the samples are only small and I won't get to try them more than...

I have no problem with drinking teas past their peak of flavour; I see it as a farewell. However, time constraints can force me to be more efficient or demanding, and social constraints can force me to serve only the best parts. Additionally, sometimes I need to focus less on 'testing' the tea, and ...

Making the most of a bit of spare time by having a little morning yancha session of my own down here; comparing two different yancha varieties, both from HuiYuanKeng and both from 2012.

Andrew

Yee On's 1997 Jiang Cheng raw brick on an overcast day; tastes mature but vibrant, with a bright and uplifting kind of relaxing feeling for me today, and lasts over many brews. Very nice.

Andrew

And here's a fairly unhelpful comparison between a well-used hongni and one of these pots.

Edit: also added perhaps a slightly better comparison between well-used 60s hongni and one of the well-used pre-factory pots.

Andrew

From the pictures, the clay looks like factory hong ni to me. But from your description - they are zhuni? From what little I understand, yes - but I think that pre-factory zhuni is quite different to LQER zhuni or modern zhuni. I'm not sure if it was composed differently, or fired differently, or w...

Awesome! 😍 I love the shuiping as well. 60's? Thanks; these ones are all pre-factory pots in slightly-different interpretations (I'd call them dainty, chunky and puffy from front to back). The one at the back of the group photo used to be even more dull than the one in the middle, so I'm looking fo...

Old siblings, re-united. The one at the back is welcoming the two at the front (one of whom is currently drinking some yancha).

I'll have to play with the 'new' ones more once I've got more time. Even though it's an 'ordinary' shape, I still think the humble shuiping is one of my favourites.

Andrew

Enjoying a very nice XinBei green tea made from wild bushes. Long deep floral aftertaste, bright mouthfeel, and, more importantly for me, an active but very calming feeling, especially for a green tea. It somehow seems to match today's warm weather and clear blue sky.

Andrew