Your day in tea

[debunix]

debunix, when you get a chance, please post about that hawaiian tea

Already had gyokuro warming in the kyusu when I read this....but I am setting it out on top of the gyokuro tea caddy to remind me to brew and share tomorrow.

decided to bowl brew the bottom bit of this amazing bao zhong
viewtopic.php?p=36491#p36491

Used a spoon that has traveled with me all my life - one of the few surviving items that accompanied me from China to the US in the late 80s. Nothing fancy of course, but does carry some sentimental value.

Sentimental value counts too! And what a gorgeous green leaf....it looks as amazing as you describe.

I started my tea day with that last overnight infusion of yesterday's gyokuro, cool and smooth and flavorful--because yesterday morning I only had time for 3 hot infusions, and this tea is worthy of 5 or 6. Then onto today's gyokuro session which is giving a nice start to the day. I have a pot each filled with end-of-leaf overnight infusions of Red Alishan and 2005 CNNP green label puerh that I will enjoy this evening. And I have a lot of a Tillerman LiShan that was bulk brewed in my thermos and not finished yesterday at work, which I will bring with me to the other office today to finish off.

[Balthazar]

Came across something odd today, had me thinking of @mbanu

Puer mixed with jiaogulan, this one is a 97 production from "Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Yaoyongzhiwu Institute, Yunnan Substation".

Probably awful but the novelty factor has me intrigued

[debunix]

Genius or mistake? Could be anything. But….wouldn’t there be a lot of it if it was genius?

[Ethan Kurland]

I cannot imagine the strong flavor of jiaogulan blending well with anything.

[Victoria]

Since our tasting last Sunday I’ve been enjoying two teas that just kept on giving;
Hojo’s Wuyi Yancha Ban Tian Yao
2000 CNNP Bulang from Varat Phong

They finally gave their last magic this morning. So, I followed up with HY Chen’s ‘19 Bug Bitten oolong. Hmmm so excellent, sweet and herbaceous with stone fruit minerality, and some alpine resinous notes too

[Ethan Kurland]

Since our tasting last Sunday I’ve been enjoying two teas that just kept on giving;
Hojo’s Wuyi Yancha Ban Tian Yao
2000 CNNP Bulang from Varat Phong

They finally gave their last magic this morning.

Wow! You steeped the same leaves 5 days & not because you were in a prisoner of war camp

[Victoria]

Since our tasting last Sunday I’ve been enjoying two teas that just kept on giving;
Hojo’s Wuyi Yancha Ban Tian Yao
2000 CNNP Bulang from Varat Phong

They finally gave their last magic this morning.

Wow! You steeped the same leaves 5 days & not because you were in a prisoner of war camp

Haha, it’s been in the 60s here, so cool weather, and if a tea still has good flavor I just keep doing all day steeps with heartier leaves, i.e. not with tender Japanese greens that degrade much faster.

[LeoFox]

Since our tasting last Sunday I’ve been enjoying two teas that just kept on giving;
Hojo’s Wuyi Yancha Ban Tian Yao
2000 CNNP Bulang from Varat Phong

They finally gave their last magic this morning.

Wow! You steeped the same leaves 5 days & not because you were in a prisoner of war camp

Haha, it’s been in the 60s here, so cool weather, and if a tea still has good flavor I just keep doing all day steeps with heartier leaves, i.e. not with tender Japanese greens that degrade much faster.

Sometimes I just end the session by eating the leaves...I just did that with the laoshi Alishan...

[Victoria]

Wow! You steeped the same leaves 5 days & not because you were in a prisoner of war camp

Haha, it’s been in the 60s here, so cool weather, and if a tea still has good flavor I just keep doing all day steeps with heartier leaves, i.e. not with tender Japanese greens that degrade much faster.

Sometimes I just end the session by eating the leaves...I just did that with the laoshi Alishan...

Did you add any condiments, olive oil and vinegar
It’s curious, I steep upfront longer than many because I enjoy full flavor, so after four steeps most teas are spent, yet after that I really enjoy all day steeps too, different subtle notes come up, it’s nice. After the leaves have given their all, I share then with my plants outdoors, they then get to enjoy

[LeoFox]

For me, eating the leaves is often an educational experience so I dont add sauce unless its sencha.

So far, the best tea comes from leaves that taste fruity. For the alishan, the smallest leaves were very sweet. Some of the larger leaves were slightly bitter and there were a few I couldn't eat because they had a plasticky consistency. Most of the leaves were sweet though.

[debunix]

My day started with an overnight cool infusion of the Mauna Kea green tea from Flower of Forgetfulness, which leaves were then discarded into the compost bucket for the worms….doing this whole heating water for another fresh start on grandpa-style infusion of the same tea.

Between about the second and third bowlful of the Mauna Kea green, I enjoyed a 24 hour infusion of Red Alishan that was started at the same tasting visit on Sunday.

I can afford to drink fresh leaves, but I like to honor the best leaves with these long cool infusions until I am tired of the resulting infusion, or I need to put something else in the pot.

There were also a mix of fresh infusions and leftover long cool infusions at work, including LiShan from Tillerman; An Ji Bai Cha from Seven Cups; “flowery” Rou gui from Jingteashop; and heavenly dew gyokuro from Obubu. And of course some of that was shared, and our newest member of our division picked out her tea cup today to officially join my office tea buddies (celebrated with the gyokuro!)

[Victoria]

Omg, took a sip from a mystery pot that was steeping overnight, and immediately I knew it was yesterday’s Bug Bitten. So rich today that I added a little boiling water nice.

[debunix]

I saw this on my ride home from work last night....its a sign.

IMG_2515.jpg (84.29 KiB) Viewed 13298 times

Ordering some JB Weld clear today.

[Victoria]

That’s a great Pinterest add debunix. I’ve seen around LA similarly incongruous, yet perfect for the moment adds, some are art pieces, others are adds. Liking that kind of cross over.

[mbanu]

I've been trying to drink down my tea-collection, which has mostly been a success -- drinking through the traditional oolongs was a pleasure (I guess I've been lucky here) so I'm down to a few white teas, a few pu'ers, the ingredients for Hong Kong milk tea (which has temporarily replaced my Assam blends), and a tired green Tieguanyin for when I feel like messing around with my cheap Yixing teapot. I did finally grit my teeth and toss a few perfectly good longjings, though. I found I was no longer looking forward to drinking them, no matter how I fiddled with the brewing. If I was unlucky in my brewing, I would end up with tea that gave me a headache, and if I was lucky, the best I could hope for was, "That was OK, and it sure does look nice in its glass..." Took a bit of effort on my part, as the other part of my brain kept unhelpfully suggesting, "So have you tried making Moroccan tea out of it yet? Or what about cooking, maybe you could use it for tea eggs..." I won't refuse longjing if a friend offers me a cup, but I think I will stick to sencha and gunpowder in the future for my own tea purchases.