Introduce Yourself

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Bok
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Posts: 5782
Joined: Wed Oct 04, 2017 8:55 am
Location: Taiwan

Mon Jul 08, 2019 8:18 pm

@WuMeiSifu Welcome!
Seeing that you are also a martial arts practitioner. What are the origins of Wumei? Never heard about this style before, or maybe I know it under a different spelling, what are the Chinese Characters for it? 伍枚? That would suggest it is broadly Shaolin inspired (aren't they all :mrgreen: )

Wondering how many among us do also dip into martial arts? Tea and martial arts seem like quite natural matches in my opinion.
Makes me think of someone posting on FB that gongfu tea has nothing to do with martial arts. Clearly that person did not know the meaning of the words...
t-curious
Posts: 67
Joined: Mon Dec 11, 2017 7:22 pm
Location: Omaha, Nebraska

Tue Jul 09, 2019 3:46 pm

How long have you been drinking tea?

I grew up on a ranch in Nebraska drinking copious amounts of sun tea my mother brewed. Does that count? :D

The first time I drank loose leaf tea was in Tunisia. I was a Peace Corps volunteer there. The cafes sold either green or black tea. Another option was ordering tea half green and half black. The tea was very strong, boiled, and heavily sugared. The guys at work made a fire each morning and boiled tea on coals in a small metal teapot. The amount of tea they started with expanded to fill the entire teapot, and of course they added lots of sugar. They would keep adding water and boiling until the leaves were spent. Most mornings when I arrived they'd give me tea in a shot glass usually with pine nuts or peanuts on top. A shot glass because that's how strong the stuff was! My job was to determine which steeping (boiling) it was. I usually got it right, or they were just humoring me most days ;)

My foray into the type of tea discussed here happened three years ago. One of my work mates was leaving and while clearing out his desk gave me a box of "green tea with matcha." I brewed a bag and thought it was awful. I had no idea what matcha was so I googled it. That took me down a short rabbit hole of Japanese teas until I discovered puer. Along the way I tried many black teas from around the world, oolongs, etc.

What kind of tea do you drink?

I have a bit of a caffeine sensitivity so that's limited what I drink. The main driver for me at this point isn't taste, it's how the tea makes me feel. In terms of puer I don't drink shou much anymore, mostly sheng on the younger side. Currently I'm back into matcha after a long layoff. I've got 19 different matchas coming from 6 different companies and plan on doing a blind taste test as soon as they all arrive. I'm also interested in trying different gyokuros. I really like the calming/alertness of the theanine/caffeine combination.

How do you prepare your tea?

If I'm traveling I'll whing the proportions but for the most part I weigh my teas. For puer I use grams of tea per milliliter of water. Since I use several different sizes of brewing vessels I find this the easiest way to figure out how much tea I need. I generally use .05 grams of tea per ml of water. I'll go up to .07 sometimes. Matcha I've settled on 1 gram per 25 ml of water, for the time being.

What tea knowledge are you interested in exploring right now?

Matcha and gyokuro and also Japanese pottery. I'm a budding potter, and I've just started making chawans.

What is your location?

Omaha, Nebraska
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Jo
Mrs. Chip
Posts: 268
Joined: Mon Oct 02, 2017 6:48 pm
Location: Pennsylvania

Tue Jul 09, 2019 5:21 pm

Welcome t-curious! Glad to have you join us. Enjoyed your intro :mrgreen:

Budding potter ... hmm. Keep us posted.
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Victoria
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Location: Santa Monica, CA
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Tue Jul 09, 2019 5:29 pm

Welcome to TeaForum @t-curious. Omaha lot’s of artist live there, and lots of matcha and gyokuro lovers here 🍃.
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Bok
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Posts: 5782
Joined: Wed Oct 04, 2017 8:55 am
Location: Taiwan

Tue Jul 09, 2019 7:42 pm

Welcome @t-curious !
You are not by any chance the tea blogger of the same name? In that case we would know each other... :)
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Dresden
Posts: 111
Joined: Sat Mar 30, 2019 11:31 pm
Location: Bayou Self, Louisiana

Wed Jul 10, 2019 1:17 am

Welcome @t-curious . Nice to have you here!
t-curious
Posts: 67
Joined: Mon Dec 11, 2017 7:22 pm
Location: Omaha, Nebraska

Wed Jul 10, 2019 12:25 pm

Jo wrote:
Tue Jul 09, 2019 5:21 pm
Welcome t-curious! Glad to have you join us. Enjoyed your intro :mrgreen:

Budding potter ... hmm. Keep us posted.
@Jo Thanks. I will :)
t-curious
Posts: 67
Joined: Mon Dec 11, 2017 7:22 pm
Location: Omaha, Nebraska

Wed Jul 10, 2019 12:26 pm

Bok wrote:
Tue Jul 09, 2019 7:42 pm
Welcome t-curious !
You are not by any chance the tea blogger of the same name? In that case we would know each other... :)
@Bok Thanks! I don't have a blog, so that's not me.
t-curious
Posts: 67
Joined: Mon Dec 11, 2017 7:22 pm
Location: Omaha, Nebraska

Wed Jul 10, 2019 12:27 pm

Dresden wrote:
Wed Jul 10, 2019 1:17 am
Welcome t-curious . Nice to have you here!
@Dresden Thanks!
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Endokai
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Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Jul 12, 2019 12:36 pm

Fri Jul 12, 2019 10:35 pm

How long have you been drinking tea?
A couple minutes out of the womb

What kind of tea do you consume?
Endokai Premium Organic Ceremonial Matcha (True Stone Ground)
Endokai Premium Organic Culinary Matcha (True Stone Ground)

How do you prepare your tea?

Secret technique from master korin...
Image

What tea knowledge are you interested in exploring right now?
Tea Marketing/Advertising

What factors lead you to delve into the world of tea, and what is keeping you there?
Family farm in Kagoshima, Japan

What is your location?
Atlanta, Georgia
Last edited by Endokai on Thu Aug 22, 2019 5:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Jo
Mrs. Chip
Posts: 268
Joined: Mon Oct 02, 2017 6:48 pm
Location: Pennsylvania

Sat Jul 13, 2019 6:43 am

Welcome to our teaforum, Endokai.
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TEAMOOD
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Posts: 28
Joined: Tue Jul 23, 2019 2:01 pm
Location: Dingshu Town, Yixing 214221, China

Tue Jul 23, 2019 9:05 pm

Hello Tea Mates!

The amaze of tea culture bringing all here, I hope to contribute a little from the aspect of being a local folk from the very origin place of Yixing zisha teapot. Actually, from business occasions I became a fan of oolong leaves BEFORE being more interested in teapots.

My family business has been all about teapots but I've been an exception since graduation from university, took a job, burying myself into business of global industrial products in the past 10years during which I've been travelling a lot too across the world and occasionally saw various styles of tea shops scattered over the worldwith zisha teapots on shelves.

I notice that Yixing/teapot is quite a hot topic still and everyone is willing to share with others the personal collections on hand. Also, I notice there's still a gap of acknowledgement about our teapots between tea fans in and outside China. Overseas availability of various teapot styles, designs and high cost-performance ones is quite limited I should say, there maybe three reasons(from marketing perspective of views):

A. Maybe due to the filtering control by traders on sourcing and procurement guided by their targeted margin with their clients' fixed middle-low level of price acceptance (relatively compared to the one of China domestic market which has increased obviously during the last 6-7 years). Overseas sales costs are definitely higher than our locals, they have international logistic costs , operational team's pay and mainland Invoice taxes (when they try to get the shipment out, this becomes mandatory I think). Deals among our locals basically no taxes at all.

B. Or, our locals wouldn't like to sell extreme low-profit teapots to outsiders, especially not to sell those consuming moderate or good local clays which are of low accessibility. e.g. with certain quantity of stock of clay on hand, one brand or one workshop wouldn't hesitate to make them into teapots or other zisha accessories of higher value and at higher price acceptance by clients.

C. There're still old stock of traders outside Yixing who are aiming for overseas market to consume their burden of previous years' of stock. Global economic problem and zisha-storm(negative) influence both contributed on the later weak demand.

D. The limitation/guidance of traders outside of Yixing on valuing the worth of a zisha teapot among 'old' and 'modern'. But I also notice more and more overseas fan become more realistic and professional on choosing between the two. Aftercall, whether modern or old, quality of clay, techniques of art skills are both being considered when purchasing. More, nowadays, local young artists are also creative on designs and the value of their works are being recognized more and more at least both at home and abroad.

Economic development during the last 6-7 years further levelled-up mainland China's ability of spending money. Thus, teapot sales makes good money than long before that. That's why this business attracted more people from other cities here in Yixing. Roughly there're 50,000 people in this zisha teaware & accessory business, almost half of them are non-locals who brought with them new decoration techniques and craftmanship from other teaware culture.

It's quite a pity that many good and affordable choices are not being presented to people who really have passion on it but having to stay away from it just because of the tagged beyond-budget prices, or limited choices of design and styles, or because of many doubts on the raw materials but having no one to provide insight advice.

Hope what I've learned about local zisha business and my subjective passion in this hobby could help people get what they really like from less barriers and have more choices within budgets.

Joe

How long have you been drinking tea?
Only 5-6 years if counting from the time when brewing a tea became of my daily habit

What kind of tea do you drink?
Yancha(favorite Oolong-natural gardenia species), Puers, Zhejiang Baicha(Green tea), Yixing Black(newly categorized into Chinese tea system), Yixing local green teas.

How do you prepare your tea?
Mostly brewing them in zisha teapots. Sometimes in glass wares with green leaves.

What tea knowledge are you interested in exploring right now?
The different understandings and the degree of people's acknowledgement of zisha and leaves.

What factors lead you to delve into the world of tea, and what is keeping you there?
Firstly driven by global business atmosphere, people are talking about teas during business too. Tea is a good media for every topics.
Later, amazed and get a little addictive to leaves from different places.

What is your location?
Dingshu Town, Yixing 214221, Jiangsu, Yixing.
If anyone come across my region, welcome to drop by, I can show you around. Free guide (LOL).
By high speed train (foreigner can buy tickets on our APP just as we locals do but need to claim the paper tickets at station offices before boarding)
40mins between Nanjing and Yixing(one train per roughly10-20min),
40mins between Hangzhou(east) and Yixing(one train per roughly10-20min),
2H30mins between Shanghai(Hongqiao) and Yixing(one train per roughly 30min-connecting trains at Hangzhou East),
5H(roughly) between Beijing and Yixing (direct train).

Generally, there are direct trains between Majority Chinese cities and Yixing. If anyone has a plan to visit, feel free to ask me for assitance.
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Bok
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Posts: 5782
Joined: Wed Oct 04, 2017 8:55 am
Location: Taiwan

Tue Jul 23, 2019 9:34 pm

@TEAMOOD Welcome aboard and looking forward to your inside information!
You are not by any chance the same guy that Tealog(German tea blogger) met in Yixing a few weeks ago? As you mentioned Yixing black and that is only the second time I heard of it, it seems likely :P
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TEAMOOD
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Posts: 28
Joined: Tue Jul 23, 2019 2:01 pm
Location: Dingshu Town, Yixing 214221, China

Tue Jul 23, 2019 10:00 pm

Dear Bok,

No. I'm not the one. But Yixing Black is newly-presented to the world by being added into Chinese tea system.
It smells good, tastes good but not promoted good. Only those foreigner came to Yixing know it is quite good.

Maybe due to its small output in the past decades or maybe locals want to keep it enjoyed by ourselves only (joking), very few information about Yixing Black in the past. But I believe it will be acknowledged by more and more people.

I mailed last month one pack of it to one of my friends in the States. I think it's enjoyed.

If you are interested, I can send you some to try in near future.
Since you are from Taiwan, maybe you visited Yixing and tried before?

Joe
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Bok
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Posts: 5782
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Location: Taiwan

Tue Jul 23, 2019 10:21 pm

Ok, would have been too much of a coincidence if you were the same person, haha!
TEAMOOD wrote:
Tue Jul 23, 2019 10:00 pm
Since you are from Taiwan, maybe you visited Yixing and tried before?
Although I have been to various places in China, I sadly did not yet get the chance to visit! Too many places I want to see, China is too big for one life I think!
Is Yixing Black comparable or similar to any of the more known Chinese Black teas? Do you happen to know the varietal that is used to make it?

I only had some Wuyi and Fenghuang Dancong Black teas in the past, quite nice as well and very different from the varieties I am used to in Taiwan.
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