Your day in tea

Andrew S
Posts: 704
Joined: Sat Jan 30, 2021 8:53 pm
Location: Sydney, Australia

Tue Feb 14, 2023 8:39 pm

Ethan's Foshoushan for me earlier today, followed by a vibrant wild baozhong from Pinglin that's still brewing. Yesterday involved a very interesting wild wulong, and the days before that involved some more home-aged yancha.

I've been trying not to order too much fresh high mountain tea and similar styles, since it takes me a while to get through it, but it's nice to have some lying around for when it's needed. The weather has been quite odd and unpredictable around here lately, so it's nice to have a little stash of different styles of tea.

(and while I usually enjoy brewing fresh styles of wulong in zini and duanni, there's also something aesthetically pleasing about the contrast between green and red...)

Andrew
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polezaivsani
Posts: 191
Joined: Sun Oct 06, 2019 4:43 pm
Location: Kaliningrad, RU

Wed Feb 15, 2023 3:09 pm

I've just concluded my liu an season with a jubilant session. The running jar had last few chunks, a bit over what I'd use for for one round but finishing the season seemed like a missing sense of accomplishment to cheer myself up a bit. That particular liu an, also my most loved specimen thus far, is a bit of a maverick in swaying odd spaced sessions from gorgeous uplifting treats to less fortunate ones. That's probably the trait I cherish it most for—even approaching it with due diligence, you don't know how it'll turn out this time, this morning (breezy winter mornings is the liu an time for me) it can be prickly and harsh and the next could be a glimmering delicacy. This time it's been a blushing treat and I'm typing this with a slight happy smile.

The mechanics of brewing a good deal of small curls and pouring it all through a decent single hole filter amiably also contributed to this nice round up.

No photos, yet plenty wishing of nice tea time to you all!
faj
Posts: 710
Joined: Mon Oct 14, 2019 6:45 am
Location: Quebec

Wed Feb 15, 2023 3:37 pm

Victoria wrote:
Tue Feb 14, 2023 6:22 pm
O-Cha’s 2021 lightly steamed sencha ‘Tsuyu Hikari from Shizuoka’ is so refined, really closer to a gyokuro. It’s a special treat that won’t last long since packs are just 30 grams and I’m using 10g sessions 🍃

Edit: O-Cha’s light steamed Tsuyu Hikari Sencha from Shizuoka is 100 gram pack, so much the better!
The 2021 came in 50g bags incorrectly marked as 100g bags (but correctly advertised as 50g bags), at least looking at the one unopened bag I still have in the refrigerator. I liked it very, very much.

There is a 2022 tea that shares the name but is a different, much less expensive sencha. Good, but certainly not remotely as good as the 2021.
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Victoria
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Wed Feb 15, 2023 4:40 pm

faj wrote:
Wed Feb 15, 2023 3:37 pm
Victoria wrote:
Tue Feb 14, 2023 6:22 pm
O-Cha’s 2021 lightly steamed sencha ‘Tsuyu Hikari from Shizuoka’ is so refined, really closer to a gyokuro. It’s a special treat that won’t last long since packs are just 30 grams and I’m using 10g sessions 🍃

Edit: O-Cha’s light steamed Tsuyu Hikari Sencha from Shizuoka is 100 gram pack, so much the better!
The 2021 came in 50g bags incorrectly marked as 100g bags (but correctly advertised as 50g bags), at least looking at the one unopened bag I still have in the refrigerator. I liked it very, very much.

There is a 2022 tea that shares the name but is a different, much less expensive sencha. Good, but certainly not remotely as good as the 2021.
Interesting, thanks for pointing this out @faj. My bag also says 100g, but my notes indicate 50g, and now that I think about it I’m 88.8% sure this bag had 50g -because I think I’ve had 3 sessions so far, and have just enough left for 2x10gram sessions. Maybe he changes pack size yearly based on availability. I see a 2013 Notti @Chip did indicated 50 gram packs at 1/2 current price $15.75 usd. 8-) definitely worth current price though imo. Wait, just checked current price is now just $17.94 for 100g pack, but in 2021 we paid $30.72 usd per 50g pack…. so strange-ish…

Faj, maybe quality varies wildly, so price fluctuations reflect that 🍃
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pedant
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Wed Feb 15, 2023 9:57 pm

faj wrote:
Wed Feb 15, 2023 3:37 pm
The 2021 came in 50g bags incorrectly marked as 100g bags (but correctly advertised as 50g bags)
correct
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LeoFox
Posts: 1777
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2020 4:01 pm
Location: Washington DC

Sat Feb 18, 2023 1:19 pm

Andrew S
Posts: 704
Joined: Sat Jan 30, 2021 8:53 pm
Location: Sydney, Australia

Mon Mar 06, 2023 4:32 am

It's 9.30pm, and the temperature has only recently dropped below 30 degrees (after hitting a disgusting 38 degrees during the day), while the humidity has decided to start climbing, as if to compensate...

Trying to cool down with a lazily-brewed pot of Ethan's foshoushan, in breach of my 'no gaoshan after sunset' rule.

Andrew
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LeoFox
Posts: 1777
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Location: Washington DC

Sun Apr 02, 2023 6:24 am

Some roasted oolong. When water is poor, it flattens tea. Local water gets flooded with chemicals for a few weeks about twice a year for cleaning. Even npr warns residents about this- "please use filters during this time" - hahahaha. I always double filter - but during these periods of time when levels edge epa limits, the filters can only do so much.

This is when the more astringent, bitter stuff comes out of storage for me - like assam or low quality roasted oolong. Not a great oolong, this one but it is okay - and enables calibration
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Green looking but Roast is aggressive; as if maker left tea on one side way too long, burning the tea
Green looking but Roast is aggressive; as if maker left tea on one side way too long, burning the tea
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Pretty but with rancid vegetable notes
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Andrew S
Posts: 704
Joined: Sat Jan 30, 2021 8:53 pm
Location: Sydney, Australia

Sat Apr 22, 2023 8:56 pm

Two yanchas to start today, and it's been one of those rare occasions when the teas came out just 'perfectly'.

That's not to suggest that there's any such thing as a perfect brewing time, a perfect quantity, a perfect teapot... only that today has been a perfect little tea session.

Andrew
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DailyTX
Posts: 882
Joined: Wed Jul 03, 2019 4:43 pm
Location: United States

Wed Apr 26, 2023 5:58 pm

The weather is a little warmer here in the US. I started the day with Chang Tai 2005 Peak of the Cloud as I was working on some cleaning projects. Now, drinking an early 2000 raw puerh came in a 1 kg brick.
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Teafortea
Posts: 220
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Location: France

Sat Apr 29, 2023 5:15 am

Started my saturday morning with a good cup of darjeeling from Thunderbolt. This was one of those sessions that after I finished it and went on with my Saturday of working in the garden and meal preparation for some friends coming over later, I wanted all the time to sit again and prepare another cup as the it left a thirst for it afterward. This darjeing was from Turzum tea estate. An absolute delight, flavors of dry raisins and very nutty with almost 0 astringency. So I did sit down again and had another cup and another and now I have to rush to prepare the meals 🙃
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Ackernym
Posts: 18
Joined: Sun May 30, 2021 4:49 pm
Location: Chicago

Sat Apr 29, 2023 1:04 pm

I had a nice Tie Guan Yin from Tea Habitat today in my Watanabe Tozo teapot! The tea tasted about the same as it usually does, which is a nice roasted flavor with SLIGHT floral notes during the first few infusions. I can't ever seem to ever get a strong consistent flavor out of it though. Maybe I would prefer a lighter roasted Oolong instead, I can't really tell! I have the same problem with black tea as well in terms of getting a strong flavor. Maybe I need to use more tea leaves or less hard water.

One thing I noticed though was that there seems to be a slightly raised internal crack near where the lower part of the handle meets the body of the teapot. It's not leaking or anything, and I can't remember if it was there before. I haven't dropped the teapot or anything, the worst I've done is maybe cool it down or heat it up top fast, but the nature of the crack and the thicker walls leads me to think it wasn't caused by that. What do you all think? You think this happened during firing, or more due to my lax heating and cooling standards? :lol: I don't know if it's something that might become an issue later on, or if it's just a slight crack from firing.
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LeoFox
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Location: Washington DC

Sat Apr 29, 2023 1:33 pm

@Ackernym
My take is that it was there from the beginning- but only became more apparent with tea staining. I've seen that happen in a few pots
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Balthazar
Posts: 706
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Location: Oslo, Norway

Sat May 06, 2023 3:07 pm

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A typical day in tea: mid-aged sheng in the morning, Anhua heicha after lunch (and some jiaogulan throughout the day).

Today: 801 7542 and the 2021 Qinyang heizhuan.
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teatray
Posts: 259
Joined: Sun Dec 12, 2021 4:46 am
Location: Sofia, Bulgaria

Sat May 06, 2023 6:17 pm

Sanxia BLC 2023. Beanier than last year's, but nice. Less flowery, less forest aromas, a little more green-tea-y. Brewed leaf-in-glass, at a much higher ratio than suggested by the Chinese pack instructions (per Google translate), develops a very pleasant bitterness that I'm now looking forward to every morning. Glad I got 150g this time.
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