Your day in tea

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LeoFox
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Fri Mar 11, 2022 6:36 pm

@Andrew S

The white tea leaves are big and so I probably cant get in more than 6g into the 100 ml volume. White tea, at least the stuff I'm drinking, seems very relaxing with a nice thick mouthfeel - and can go all day - infusing over and over again.
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Baisao
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Fri Mar 11, 2022 6:45 pm

Andrew S wrote:
Fri Mar 11, 2022 6:13 pm
Baisao: on the topic of "illicit drugs", I'm finally relaxing with some of my loose leaf puer from the 70s.

There's something strangely pleasant for me about being overpowered by a tea, and letting it take me on a little ride (though I appreciate that that is not everyone's idea of a pleasant experience).

I suppose that tea is more a 'ritual' than a 'routine' for me, in the sense that a routine tends to be mundane and requires little thought, whereas, for me, the word ritual connotes an activity undertaken with some sense of purpose, even if it is something that is done every day, and even if that purpose is pursued without much active thought.
It’s been a very long time since I’ve had 70s loose leaf. My source ran out a long time ago. Do you mind messaging me your source?
Andrew S
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Fri Mar 11, 2022 7:14 pm

Baisao wrote:
Fri Mar 11, 2022 6:45 pm
Andrew S wrote:
Fri Mar 11, 2022 6:13 pm
Baisao: on the topic of "illicit drugs", I'm finally relaxing with some of my loose leaf puer from the 70s.

There's something strangely pleasant for me about being overpowered by a tea, and letting it take me on a little ride (though I appreciate that that is not everyone's idea of a pleasant experience).

I suppose that tea is more a 'ritual' than a 'routine' for me, in the sense that a routine tends to be mundane and requires little thought, whereas, for me, the word ritual connotes an activity undertaken with some sense of purpose, even if it is something that is done every day, and even if that purpose is pursued without much active thought.
It’s been a very long time since I’ve had 70s loose leaf. My source ran out a long time ago. Do you mind messaging me your source?
My source for this one was Essence of Tea, but that was quite a few years ago. I got a few bags of it back when this kind of tea was 'only' around 50 cents per gram. Now each session makes me more and more conscious that I'll run out of it soon...

EoT has got a very different 70s loose leaf on their website now, less bright and 'active', smoother, more humidly-stored, a different kind of relaxing feeling to it for me. Also not as affordable, of course.

Andrew
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LeoFox
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Sat Mar 12, 2022 1:18 pm

Some nice tea during the last snow of the season



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Baisao
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Wed Mar 16, 2022 8:15 pm

I had a chance to try the 2022 crop of Jun Chiyabari‘s Shiba last week. With the passing of one of the garden managers there was some curiosity about how the resulting changes would be reflected in the 2022 crop of teas.

Having tried this year’s Shiba I think all is well in the tea garden.

I prepared it a kind of hybrid fashion using sencha parameters with gfc timing and techniques. Thus, 4g/120ml @ 165° increasing to 175° in a zhuni pot I know very well. I feel this is preferable to standard Western brewing for this tea as it presents, for me, more structured aromatics.

These are my notes as I was drinking it:
More forgiving and less punchy than 2021. Also, there is negligible bitterness compared to 2021. Whereas 2021 was a magnolia bomb with bitterness that needed to be controlled with clay and heat, 2022 is more nuanced and closer to a lemon drop and can take more heat. There’s a floral element that reminds me of daisies. The liquor is very smooth and gently drying on the palate. It also has a very nice feeling in the throat.

Conclusions: in some ways this is a better tea than 2021; many of the same facets of 2021 are in 2022 yet it is a different tea. It is like seeing the features of a parent in the child. It is less of a fireworks show, certainly, but it makes up for that with sophistication and more forgiving steeps.
It looks to be out of stock at the moment but I’ve been assured more is on the way in addition to these other Jun Chiyabari offerings: https://www.thesteepingroom.com/collections/nepal
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Ethan Kurland
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Thu Mar 17, 2022 1:01 am

It seems that how much a tea from Jun Chiyabari & Nepal (generally) varies over the seasons, remains greater than how much most teas are different from season to season usually.

Baiso, your post has me thinking of getting some white tea from Nepal again; though I have been satisfied using tea from Taiwan + 1 from Thailand for a couple of years. Should I ignore the unique experience of sessions of Nepali tea? :roll:
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Baisao
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Thu Mar 17, 2022 11:15 am

Ethan Kurland wrote:
Thu Mar 17, 2022 1:01 am
It seems that how much a tea from Jun Chiyabari & Nepal (generally) varies over the seasons, remains greater than how much most teas are different from season to season usually.

Baiso, your post has me thinking of getting some white tea from Nepal again; though I have been satisfied using tea from Taiwan + 1 from Thailand for a couple of years. Should I ignore the unique experience of sessions of Nepali tea? :roll:
@Ethan Kurland, I can’t say much about Nepalese teas. This garden is well regarded though and their shiba is wholly unique. It’s a Japanese tea bush from Shiba being grown in Nepal. It was a gift to the owners from Japanese friends.

They started with a limited number of Shiba tea bushes but have increased them each year throughout vegetative propagation. My understanding is that it is blended with their non-Japanese teas but is increasingly closer to all Shiba as they are able to have more bushes.

That in itself would account for yearly variation with this tea.

I haven’t tried the others but the 2021 Shiba was my top find last year.

There is a Korean white of unknown origin that might be this years top find. But only if I can find out who sells it. Gah!

Anyway, the 2022 Shiba is excellent and highly recommend.
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Bok
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Sun Mar 20, 2022 5:40 am

A good reminder of how nice teaware can elevate a session to different heights… kind of got lost watching the moisture evaporate on this perfectly made pot, the change of light and texture. It’s mesmerising to me, a low key meditative thing I would not want to miss in my day.
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Andrew S
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Sun Mar 20, 2022 5:57 am

@Bok: lovely... flat shui ping? Or bian deng with a curved lid? I'm not sure at what stage a shui ping ends and a bian deng begins. Maybe those categories can become a distraction anyway.

I had a similar thought recently - that nice tea pots (and other tea-things) are not at all necessary, but can nevertheless become very enjoyable parts of our tea adventures.

And it's nice that tea drinkers can use antique pots, cups and other nice things on a daily basis, while most antique collectors in other areas of life have to satisfy themselves with putting their antiques onto a shelf and admiring them from a safe distance.

I haven't had much time to make tea properly recently, but even so, it's a bit humbling to drink some lazily-made tea from a teacup that's a few centuries older than I'll ever be.

Andrew
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Bok
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Sun Mar 20, 2022 6:21 am

@Andrew S it’s a Biandeng. A very elongated version of it though.

Shuiping in the sense it is used today, would have a round/not flat body. Biandeng has that particular oil-lamp body shape.

And yes, being able to use these things is quite the privilege compared to other kinds of collections!
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LeoFox
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Mon Mar 21, 2022 7:54 pm

:lol: :lol: :lol:
This is ridiculous:
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This exceptional TWG Tea, once the favourite of Chinese emperors, has been transformed into an elusive jewel - a golden ornament as precious as it is ethereal. Each tea bud is lavished in 24-karat gold, which once infused, yields a delicately metallic and floral aftertaste. Unforgettable.
https://twgtea.com/teas/loose-leaf/yellow-gold-tea-buds


According to TWG tea connoisseur Alexandre Mallochet, this tea is harvested on only one mountain, one day per year. What is more, it is harvested exclusively with golden scissors and only from the top of the tree, which is the tea bud. It is then sun-dried and placed into closed containers to slightly heat the tea leaves so that the polyphenols that they contain can be released and give a yellowish color to the leaves and a very soft and flowery taste. After this, the tea is painted with 24 ct gold flakes! The gold is not used to give it a luxurious finish but to provide nutritional benefits, as, in Asia, gold is believed to be good for health.

https://luxurylaunches.com/other_stuff/ ... _world.php
Last edited by LeoFox on Mon Mar 21, 2022 9:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Bok
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Mon Mar 21, 2022 7:57 pm

LeoFox wrote:
Mon Mar 21, 2022 7:54 pm
:lol: :lol: :lol:
This is ridiculous:

Image
This exceptional TWG Tea, once the favourite of Chinese emperors, has been transformed into an elusive jewel - a golden ornament as precious as it is ethereal. Each tea bud is lavished in 24-karat gold, which once infused, yields a delicately metallic and floral aftertaste. Unforgettable.
https://twgtea.com/teas/loose-leaf/yellow-gold-tea-buds
TWG is to be consumed with caution. They have been caught more than once for excessive pesticides in their tea in Taiwan. Not to mention being a total design rip-off from Mariages Frères, where coincidentally the founder of TWG worked...
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TeaGrove
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Mon Mar 21, 2022 9:15 pm

Each tea bud is lavished in 24-karat gold, which once infused, yields a delicately metallic and floral aftertaste.
:lol: Good grief
swordofmytriumph
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Tue Mar 22, 2022 4:55 am

Drinking my way through a sencha I got on Thes du Japon, from Yame, Yabe yamakai cultivar. I'm really enjoying how dynamic the flavor is, every time I drink it, I taste something I didn't taste before. I think part of that is me for sure, and I'm definitely having an off day (woke up with a stuffy nose), but somehow it only brings out even more. I noticed fruity notes yesterday, then today my nose was stuffed up but that only brought the front all the umami notes that were overshadowed yesterday when my nose was working properly. A great tea to be enjoyed no matter what kind of tea day your sniffer is having! So many times I feel sad to drink some of my favorites on a day when I'm not my best, but I don't feel that with this one! :D
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Baisao
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Wed Mar 23, 2022 12:58 am

swordofmytriumph wrote:
Tue Mar 22, 2022 4:55 am
Drinking my way through a sencha I got on Thes du Japon, from Yame, Yabe yamakai cultivar. I'm really enjoying how dynamic the flavor is, every time I drink it, I taste something I didn't taste before. I think part of that is me for sure, and I'm definitely having an off day (woke up with a stuffy nose), but somehow it only brings out even more. I noticed fruity notes yesterday, then today my nose was stuffed up but that only brought the front all the umami notes that were overshadowed yesterday when my nose was working properly. A great tea to be enjoyed no matter what kind of tea day your sniffer is having! So many times I feel sad to drink some of my favorites on a day when I'm not my best, but I don't feel that with this one! :D
This resonates with me. I feel like I am frequently detecting different aspects of the same teas from TDJ. I’ve never been disappointed.
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