Your day in tea
Here in Florida we are moving into a bit colder Fall weather. A comfortable 60 degrees which is nice but at home for me the motor on the AC unit broke and I have no heat. This makes the house even colder than outside as I have tested myself. It is 15 degrees colder than it is outside but tea came to the rescue!! I have a smartwool layer and some nice hong to keep me warm. First world problems for sure but they are still problems
In the meanwhile, first snow forecasted for Sunday in Beijing... 
I've been thinking the same thing, especially now that our second lockdown over here has ended, people are returning to offices, there are fewer excuses to work from home, and it'll be leaves-in-a-cup, or possibly a big pot, for a lot of the time from now on (that is, unless I'm simply too busy to make any tea, and have to resort to that certain other beverage that most people down here use to 'wake up'...).
That's why I've been making a bit of an effort to brew teas that I might not normally brew; smaller samples instead of the same few teas each day, different styles compared to what I'd normally have, and teas that are more rare or expensive than what I would otherwise have had.
So it might seem as though I like to try different teas every few days, but that's mostly a result of having had the time and inclination recently to do so. I'm probably going to return to my old routine of the same big bag of simple loose old puer, the same big bag of decent but not amazing yancha, and some more interesting or special teas on the weekend.
And as the temperature down here rises, I'm finding myself drawn more to my loose old puer that I can brew with very little attention, instead of the yancha that I find demands more focus. I'm a bit envious of those members who have the climate to enjoy some snow on occasion...
Andrew
Just for the sake of sharing an atypical experience, let me say I am one of the probably few for whom the pandemic has, ultimately, meant less work from home.
Before the pandemic, I often stayed home, alone, for the better part of the morning. We were were not using videoconferencing for internal communications then, so for me this was time spent reading and writing emails, making a few phone calls, and working on things that required focus. I typically had a couple of tea sessions before leaving for the office, a 30-minute drive, more or less. Lucky me, I also had a mostly complete tea-making setup there, with a closet in my office to hide my arsenal.
"Pandemic phase 1" meant working from our smallish home, sharing limited space and bandwidth with my partner and teenagers. Lots of time spent at home, but a noisy and overcrowded home. Not great for tea. Not great for much, really.
Then, I was lucky enough to have space available in a building owned by the company I work for, less than 5 minutes from my home by foot. I picked an unoccupied corner office with trees visible from all windows and had unused furniture moved there including a big cabinet to house more teaware than anyone should reasonably have at the office. I even found a small table to keep a kettle right beside my desk at all times. I can (and do) spend whole meetings making and drinking tea without leaving my chair.
You sound like a Taiwanese boss
If not in the office, most companies will have at least one tea table somewhere on the immediate premises. And tea gift boxes ready somewhere in a cupboard.
I do keep my stuff clean and organized, behind doors. There is also strength in numbers : if I had one teapot, maybe someone would be tempted to clean it. But with several, that would start to feel weird, and people do not typically go that far out of their way to be nice. Sure, there is some risk, but the alternative is not being able to have tea the way I want to in the office, and I spend way too much time there for that to be an insignificant downside.
Also, you have much finer teaware than I have so, there is that...
Here, people cannot recognize tea if it does not come in bags. My brother always jokingly refers to it as "tisane" (herbal tea) to have a laugh at my expense whenever he can. Tea is definitely associated with your old gentle old aunt, not you boss.
If people see my teaware, they will at least giggle. If I were to gift tea, they would think I am one step closer to requiring professional help.
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swordofmytriumph
- Posts: 429
- Joined: Sun Dec 16, 2018 5:19 am
- Location: Seattle, USA
At least they don't think you're doing drugs...funny story several years ago when I was still new at my company, I had a big cake of unusually green looking sheng puerh I kept in my drawer and every break and lunch I would faithfully take it to the breakroom and chip off "unidentifiable green matter" and steep it. Since I always looked so much happier and more awake (caffeine anyone?) after drinking it, and I once said that drinking my tea made me happy and that meant it was "my happy tea", people started to think I was doing weed at work. At least, the people in the desks next to me. Everyone else thought I was weird lol.
I had no clue--completely oblivious--and didn't pick up on it for a whole year, when I was obviously feeling down and the person in the desk next to mine said I needed some more of my "happy tea" with a sort of wink wink look. When I was obviously very confused they said, "It's your happy tea, doesn't it have...you know...weed?" I was like, "no of course not, whatever gave you that idea?" I though about it....oh yeah I guess I could see where they got that idea. Everyone else at that point within several desks of me looked at me and said "wait, your tea DOESN'T have weed in it?"
I had to assure them it didn't, and gave them a history and explanation of what puerh is, let them smell it and examine it.
Well, weed is legal here now, actually sold by state-owned shops. Getting bits of dried grass from the opposite side of the world is probably more suspect nowadays.
Quit being happy at work, only causes problems.swordofmytriumph wrote: ↑Tue Nov 02, 2021 4:23 amSince I always looked so much happier and more awake (caffeine anyone?) after drinking it
Do you think people were more curious to try it, or less, once they found out?swordofmytriumph wrote: ↑Tue Nov 02, 2021 4:23 amEveryone else at that point within several desks of me looked at me and said "wait, your tea DOESN'T have weed in it?"
In addition to brewing tea in a thermos, I have often brought cool-infused tea along in a clear water bottle of one kind or another, especially on hot days: I put the leaves in a gaiwan, cover with boiling water, let steep five minutes, then pour leaves and all into a water bottle filled with cool water, close up and go.
This has led to many odd glances and questions...clearly many who have no idea what marijuana looks like are imagining I'm drinking that or something else illicit. I'm always happy to enlighten them if they actually ask a question.
This morning I am enjoying Kabuse sencha from Obubu Tea Farm. Warm, richly vegetal, delicately sweet, a delicious start to a crisply cool morning.
This has led to many odd glances and questions...clearly many who have no idea what marijuana looks like are imagining I'm drinking that or something else illicit. I'm always happy to enlighten them if they actually ask a question.
This morning I am enjoying Kabuse sencha from Obubu Tea Farm. Warm, richly vegetal, delicately sweet, a delicious start to a crisply cool morning.
Riding high on my minor successes with Hong Kong milk tea (and discovering someone who sells shelf-stable yak ghee), I thought I'd try another boiled tea, Tibetan butter tea.
Bought some young, dry-stored 2018 Dayi tuo-chas from their Amazon store (anyone know what the story is behind this? I suppose it could be a fake store, but the selection seems a little odd for that), and tried to see if I could make do without a butter churn.
Yak butter tastes more like cheese than butter. If I had to pick, I'd say "oil of Parmesan" might be a good description.
I think that ghee is maybe too clarified, though, as it melts clear, so you don't get that milky look. I tried to work around this by adding a little evaporated milk, but this might be the wrong direction. Maybe the churning emulsifies the butter with the tea somehow?
Another thing that helped was that you are supposed to add some soda or potash to the water you make the tea in, sort of like with Kashmiri Chai, which sort of replicates making tea in hard water, making it not quite so harsh as a young green boiled sheng in soft water would be.
Boiled the tea for around 15 minutes, gave it a good aeration, warmed it back up, poured it on some yak ghee while whisking quickly, then stirred in some evaporated milk.
Drinkable, and no obvious ill-effects, which are both good signs.
Bought some young, dry-stored 2018 Dayi tuo-chas from their Amazon store (anyone know what the story is behind this? I suppose it could be a fake store, but the selection seems a little odd for that), and tried to see if I could make do without a butter churn.
Yak butter tastes more like cheese than butter. If I had to pick, I'd say "oil of Parmesan" might be a good description.
I think that ghee is maybe too clarified, though, as it melts clear, so you don't get that milky look. I tried to work around this by adding a little evaporated milk, but this might be the wrong direction. Maybe the churning emulsifies the butter with the tea somehow?
Another thing that helped was that you are supposed to add some soda or potash to the water you make the tea in, sort of like with Kashmiri Chai, which sort of replicates making tea in hard water, making it not quite so harsh as a young green boiled sheng in soft water would be.
Boiled the tea for around 15 minutes, gave it a good aeration, warmed it back up, poured it on some yak ghee while whisking quickly, then stirred in some evaporated milk.
Drinkable, and no obvious ill-effects, which are both good signs.
I remember someone who coped with repeatedly being offered yak butter tea, which he did not find to his taste as tea, by telling himself that it was a soup broth. He very much enjoyed the soup broth, as long as he kept thinking, 'soup....soup.....soup.' He was not a regular drinker of tea, FWIW.
Haha that reminds me of my experience with some Gyokuru. As long as I think it’s lukewarm seaweed chicken soup, it’s fine.debunix wrote: ↑Tue Nov 02, 2021 10:15 pmI remember someone who coped with repeatedly being offered yak butter tea, which he did not find to his taste as tea, by telling himself that it was a soup broth. He very much enjoyed the soup broth, as long as he kept thinking, 'soup....soup.....soup.' He was not a regular drinker of tea, FWIW.