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Re: What Green Are You Drinking

Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 1:05 pm
by swordofmytriumph
Yeah the Chiran is amazing, I ordered it because one of the reviewers on o Cha said it “It has the same green umami taste of sencha with a rich hint of a floral, honeyed- toastiness”, which I think is spot on. It arrived yesterday, and I’m so glad I decided to also pre order this year’s shincha when I got the email, even though I hadn’t tried it yet at the time.

Re: What Green Are You Drinking

Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 1:12 pm
by Teachronicles
Victoria wrote:
Tue Apr 09, 2019 12:42 pm
Teachronicles wrote:
Tue Apr 09, 2019 11:14 am
Had some long jing from the lazy cat yesterday. 3g in a 6oz mug grandpa style. It was delicious. From the package "First pick. Processed 23/03/2019. Wengjiashan, Xihu. Pre-Qingming."

Edit: added some pictures of the leaves, not from the same session, from this morning doing some comparison to year old longjing.
Wow, that is fresh. How are tasting notes compared to year old? The best I’ve had so far is from TeaHabitat, ‘Crystal White Long Jing’ very fresh and green with sweet pea, warming umami notes.
The comparison tea was bana tea co. 2018 xihu pre-qing Ming longjing. The wet leaves of LC's long jing were noticeably more fragrant and vegetal, while bana's had some sort of mint aroma. Overall, they were both good , the bana did have some lower deeper vegetal flavor that's hard to describe. LC's was more light and crisp. Sweat pea would be a good description of LC's.

Re: What Green Are You Drinking

Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 11:39 pm
by bluerose
Spar Premium Sencha 1st green tea in loose shape

Re: What Green Are You Drinking

Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2019 3:05 pm
by Victoria
Have been tweaking O-Cha’s Kirishima Organic Asamushi Sencha for a week now. Started off with vendor recommendation .6 gr /1oz (30 ml)/74℃ (165℉)/45sec. and found the steep way too light, so I gradually increased amount of leaf ending with 3x more leaf than recommended 1.5gr/1oz (30 ml)/74℃ (165℉)/45sec. For the first few tries I was using a porcelain Kiyomizu-ware houhin not wanting the pot to detract from the leaf. Well, today I used a new 120ml shigaraki Tachi Masaki kyusu that I got from @Muadeeb. Much better in this clay, the bitterness is smoothed out nicely. I have found this to be a pretty difficult sencha to steep with more bitterness than I like and a very light body that leaves me a little frustrated. Very happy though to find that this shigaraki kyusu works so well with a difficult sencha. Thank you Muadeeb.

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Re: What Green Are You Drinking

Posted: Tue Apr 23, 2019 12:49 am
by Sweetestdew
I been all about Mao Feng. Since I am living in Huangshan I made a point ot find truly amazing Mao Feng. I bought from two farmer, 3-4 pounds each of different grades, and just when I thought I was finished I found a third guy who has tea so good I need to buy more. (its better than the other two)

This leaves me with way more Mao Feng then I know what to do with.

Re: What Green Are You Drinking

Posted: Tue Apr 23, 2019 12:49 pm
by Victoria
Sweetestdew wrote:
Tue Apr 23, 2019 12:49 am
I been all about Mao Feng. Since I am living in Huangshan I made a point ot find truly amazing Mao Feng. I bought from two farmer, 3-4 pounds each of different grades, and just when I thought I was finished I found a third guy who has tea so good I need to buy more. (its better than the other two)

This leaves me with way more Mao Feng then I know what to do with.
@Sweetestdew I enjoyed reading your Mao Feng post and especially interesting video at the end. Thanks for sharing your journey and these moments on your blog, makes me feel like I was almost there. Pretty cool that you plucked yourself out of Brooklyn into this remote and beautiful region of China. Do you plan on being there very long? Those are some narrow roads and steep inclines. Good to see hand picking and sorting of tea and the village too. A big concern for me regarding Chinese teas is the use of pesticides. How much pesticide do you think is being used? I think you mention it’s only used in August.

P.S. in your introduction you mentioned that you have “spent the last year studying Mao Feng”. Very interesting to devote yourself so completely to one tea. You are a vertical explorer, going deep into one area.

Re: What Green Are You Drinking

Posted: Tue Apr 23, 2019 3:16 pm
by Victoria
Oh, I just remembered I have a big can of Huangshan Mao Feng, like 200gr. I received it as a gift last fall from a friend who’s not into tea (who received it as a thank you gift from a Chinese consultant who said it was very special). I find it extremely light steeped at 3gr/9oz (250ml)/190F, waited 3 minutes leaves hadn’t fallen to bottom of glass and was very light tasting, so let it go to 9 minutes -some flavor coming through but still very light. I’ll try doubling leaf next time.

Re: What Green Are You Drinking

Posted: Tue Apr 23, 2019 11:00 pm
by nasalfrog
Victoria wrote:
Tue Apr 16, 2019 3:05 pm
I have found this to be a pretty difficult sencha to steep with more bitterness than I like and a very light body that leaves me a little frustrated.
I looked at my notes and, when I had this tea last summer, I was using closer to 2g/oz and steeping at 165 for 60s. This was in a 140ml Kohokujo pot. Nice shigaraki teapot, btw! I'm glad to hear it is working well. I hope my notes may help you continue to unlock this tea, but you may still find it very bitter. I'm starting to realize I either really enjoy bitterness... or I don't sense it (I drink mostly organic, so I might be desensitized at this point).

Re: What Green Are You Drinking

Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2019 8:37 am
by swordofmytriumph
Victoria wrote:
Tue Apr 09, 2019 12:19 pm
Brewing Iced Shincha
8-12gr of Shincha into my Tokoname Sake pitcher by Hokujo/ Fill with Ice Cubes/ Let Cubes Melt over several hours. Enjoy
Gonna try this. So you just put ice cubes in and drink the tea once the ice has melted? No cold water? Or do you just drink it AS it melts in small doses?

Re: What Green Are You Drinking

Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2019 12:57 pm
by Victoria
swordofmytriumph wrote:
Fri Apr 26, 2019 8:37 am
Victoria wrote:
Tue Apr 09, 2019 12:19 pm
Brewing Iced Shincha
8-12gr of Shincha into my Tokoname Sake pitcher by Hokujo/ Fill with Ice Cubes/ Let Cubes Melt over several hours. Enjoy
Gonna try this. So you just put ice cubes in and drink the tea once the ice has melted? No cold water? Or do you just drink it AS it melts in small doses?
It is called Shinobi-cha: 1st you put 8-12gr gyokuro or high quality sencha into pitcher/kyusu, then fill with spring/filtered water ice cubes (don’t cover), wait until it is all melted (could be +1-2hr), then enjoy. Kyusu has a built in filter, so if you are using a pitcher you’ll want to pour very slowly and or strain the leaves out while pouring into your cup. A little patience or a distraction helps. You can reuse the leaves a few times using cold water steeps (7min, 3min.) or ice cubes.

Ippodo has a few other methods for preparing chilled green tea. I haven’t tried those yet, but they are faster using chilled water and just one ice cube. Would be interesting to do a side by side comparison. I think waiting for ice cubes to melt will produce a richer extraction of umami sweetness.

Re: What Green Are You Drinking

Posted: Sun Apr 28, 2019 12:09 am
by Sweetestdew
Victoria wrote:
Tue Apr 23, 2019 12:49 pm
Sweetestdew wrote:
Tue Apr 23, 2019 12:49 am
I been all about Mao Feng. Since I am living in Huangshan I made a point ot find truly amazing Mao Feng. I bought from two farmer, 3-4 pounds each of different grades, and just when I thought I was finished I found a third guy who has tea so good I need to buy more. (its better than the other two)

This leaves me with way more Mao Feng then I know what to do with.
Sweetestdew I enjoyed reading your Mao Feng post and especially interesting video at the end. Thanks for sharing your journey and these moments on your blog, makes me feel like I was almost there. Pretty cool that you plucked yourself out of Brooklyn into this remote and beautiful region of China. Do you plan on being there very long? Those are some narrow roads and steep inclines. Good to see hand picking and sorting of tea and the village too. A big concern for me regarding Chinese teas is the use of pesticides. How much pesticide do you think is being used? I think you mention it’s only used in August.

P.S. in your introduction you mentioned that you have “spent the last year studying Mao Feng”. Very interesting to devote yourself so completely to one tea. You are a vertical explorer, going deep into one area.
Thank you for so many kind words.
Yes I do plan to be here for a long time, not always Huangshan, but in China. I plan to move around to different tea areas in China. When I first got here the big question was "with so many tea areas so close, where do I go?" I decided to just focus on what ever tea was produced in the area where I live. So in this case it is Huang Shan Mao Feng. This has let me really see all the differnt levels in the Chinese market and get all side of the story. (everything I know about Mao Feng such far article coming soon".

It's hard to say for pesticides. Generally they are used in the hotter seasons right after spring because thats when the bugs are the most. The bugs during the season dont seem to be such as a problem as thats when the weather is just warming up. I think though that pesticides are more normal than people think, partially for the reason I mentioned that if you don't get a really biodiverse field, as most fields are not, the farmer really feel they need it.
I dont think its a lot of pesticides since the field is really only taken care of by one or two people in the family, so its basically what ever they carry up the mountain themselves. I will as my friend more about the pesticides and see what kind they use and now they apply it.
I wil ask more farmers about their pesticide use and maybe write and article about it so people really understand pesticide use.

Re: What Green Are You Drinking

Posted: Sun Apr 28, 2019 12:14 am
by Sweetestdew
Victoria wrote:
Tue Apr 23, 2019 3:16 pm
Oh, I just remembered I have a big can of Huangshan Mao Feng, like 200gr. I received it as a gift last fall from a friend who’s not into tea (who received it as a thank you gift from a Chinese consultant who said it was very special). I find it extremely light steeped at 3gr/9oz (250ml)/190F, waited 3 minutes leaves hadn’t fallen to bottom of glass and was very light tasting, so let it go to 9 minutes -some flavor coming through but still very light. I’ll try doubling leaf next time.
Mao Feng can be a tricky tea to get into because the flavor profile is so light. What you are really looking for in Mao Feng is the mouth feel. The best Mao Fengs are slight and refreshing but still have a deep and thick mouth feel. With out that mouth feel, I find Mao Fengs dont really have any other characterstics that really make them stand out since the flavor profile is so very light. So need to get one with a some mouth feel to really enjoy it.

Re: What Green Are You Drinking

Posted: Sun Apr 28, 2019 1:20 am
by Bok
Sweetestdew wrote:
Sun Apr 28, 2019 12:14 am
Mao Feng can be a tricky tea to get into because the flavor profile is so light. What you are really looking for in Mao Feng is the mouth feel. The best Mao Fengs are slight and refreshing but still have a deep and thick mouth feel. With out that mouth feel, I find Mao Fengs dont really have any other characterstics that really make them stand out since the flavor profile is so very light. So need to get one with a some mouth feel to really enjoy it.
Sounds like it’s the tofu of tea! All about texture and mouthfeel, but otherwise almost tasteless ;)

Re: What Green Are You Drinking

Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2019 9:27 am
by d.manuk
I am drinking Spring 2017 Qingxin oolong buds sourced from Pinglin by @TeaMastersBlog. These leaves were processed as a green tea instead of as an oolong, which I think is interesting to try. I've tried brewing the leaves in several different ways and today I decided to brew it similar to how I would a typical oolong (with a generous amount of leaf). This way, I can get a strong sense of what the essence of the leaf is like before it is bruised and processed to increase the floral aspects.
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Re: What Green Are You Drinking

Posted: Fri May 03, 2019 5:45 am
by Sweetestdew
Bok wrote:
Sun Apr 28, 2019 1:20 am
Sweetestdew wrote:
Sun Apr 28, 2019 12:14 am
Mao Feng can be a tricky tea to get into because the flavor profile is so light. What you are really looking for in Mao Feng is the mouth feel. The best Mao Fengs are slight and refreshing but still have a deep and thick mouth feel. With out that mouth feel, I find Mao Fengs dont really have any other characterstics that really make them stand out since the flavor profile is so very light. So need to get one with a some mouth feel to really enjoy it.
Sounds like it’s the tofu of tea! All about texture and mouthfeel, but otherwise almost tasteless ;)
I wouldn't say completely tasteless, but that is actually a good comparison haha