What Green Are You Drinking

[mjac]

I did find one extensive tea and herb store in the French Quarter and perhaps another a little smaller. You gravitate toward visiting a local tea because you have experienced professionally run stores that are of impeccable integrity including Harney & Sons in SoHo.

Actually, my gateway tea into this current wormhole began at a local coop market with bins of loose organic sencha, gunmetal, jasmine... not top shelf but I liked it, then I moved over into Japanese local markets ‘high end’ sencha, only later did I find online sources. We each have a path. Enjoy the journey.

I think I started with this organic gunpowder, Starwest Botanicals Gunpowder, use to buy it by the pound to make kombucha and then just to drink. But I grew up with Maté and Pau d’Arco so like strong teas. Haha can’t believe how cheap that is by the pound! I now spend >15X, 30X, 60X times that ...

I am certain you were attracted to the local COOP Market at first because it offered a good value on costs. This spice and tea store in the French Quarter starts off at $6 an ounce the same as top notch online, established tea providers. It offers no value or convenience located in the French Market. So finiding an online vendor I can trust would be much more beneficial. Did you see what Bok had to say about Adagio?

On a lighter note how does one prevent from falling down that rabbit hole? Especially the 30X, 60X times part. We would not want to become a tea elitist.

[Bok]

On a lighter note how does one prevent from falling down that rabbit hole? Especially the 30X, 60X times part. We would not want to become a tea elitist.

Yet we use the majestic plural
Kidding aside, I don’t have any recommendations on gunpowder and the like, I haven’t touched these since a long time ago.

Back then I could find them very cheaply in the local Chinatown, or some Turkish and Arab groceries as they use them for their own tea interpretations.

I kind of lost interest in most Chinese greens once I discovered Taiwanese high mountain teas. The random can of longjing one gets inavoidably gifted in these parts, but those as well mostly end up brewed as cold brew for casual drinking in the hot summer.

[mjac]

On a lighter note how does one prevent from falling down that rabbit hole? Especially the 30X, 60X times part. We would not want to become a tea elitist.

Yet we use the majestic plural
Kidding aside, I don’t have any recommendations on gunpowder and the like, I haven’t touched these since a long time ago.

Back then I could find them very cheaply in the local Chinatown, or some Turkish and Arab groceries as they use them for their own tea interpretations.

I kind of lost interest in most Chinese greens once I discovered Taiwanese high mountain teas. The random can of longjing one gets inavoidably gifted in these parts, but those as well mostly end up brewed as cold brew for casual drinking in the hot summer.

Majestic Plural: The bigger the net,the more fish.

Like you are saying, if you could breeze on down to local markets and pick up various samples inexpensively to try it would be worth while. But this one of only maybe two stores starts at $6 an ounce and is located in the French Market. Not convenient.

I will just look into different teas form reputable providers and try and develop a taste. You may not have Chinese Green Tea recommendations but you would surely have tea providers recommendations. Unless I am too lowly to be dealt with. Ahem. Up until now that is all I have done is cold brew teas at room temperature for 16 - 24 hours. It seems better the heating a tea unless I am wrong.

One other thing that has been bothering me, is there anything to this heavy metal thing? One guy who reviewed the one tea I have bought so far, Temple of Heaven Gunpowder, thought it contained heavy metals.

[Bok]

@mjac not to lowly of course! I am buying locally in Taiwan, so that’s out of the question for you. Just have a look in the vendors recommendations section here on the forum, I am sure you’ll find something that fits your bill.

[mjac]

mjac not to lowly of course! I am buying locally in Taiwan, so that’s out of the question for you. Just have a look in the vendors recommendations section here on the forum, I am sure you’ll find something that fits your bill.

I was worried there for a second. Maybe I will go to Taiwan.

I did not know there was a vendors recommendations section. I thought it was just a bunch of tea elitists discussing their idiosyncrasies and I do mean idiosyncrasies.

That is probably a very good place to start. I wonder why no one mentioned it before. Thank goodness for Bok.

[Victoria]

Enjoying a trilogy of greens from O-cha on another grey rainy day; Kabusecha, Yutaka Midori (2014), and Okabe Shizuoka Gyokuro. While I’ve managed to arrive at steeping parameters for each so they are to my liking, they are all a little lighter and more delicate than I’d prefer. The Gyokuro is elegant and nuanced though, and Kabusecha tasty too, with the aged Yutaka slightly past its prime but enjoyable even so, since it was unopened and refrigerated all these years.

Well, actually the Okabe Shizuoka Gyokuro is rich using slightly more leaf/more time; 5.7g/75ml/131F pre-heated/90sec, 90, 2min. in Jozan III 80ml mayake kyusu, filtered tap. Lots of lingering salivation going on.

[debunix]

that sounds so good....and wondering now if the gyokuros have truly come to room temp yet since being taken out of the referigerator early this morning....

[debunix]

Patience rewarded. I took the Suigyoko Uji gyokuro from O-Cha out of the refrigerator in the vacuum-sealed canning jar I'd which stored it and the other special gyokuros from our tasting, and I let them sit 24 hours before opening to avoid any moisture damage. The other two are back to the refrigerator until I finish this one. I'm enjoying it from my left-handled Shimizu Ken nosaka lefty kyusu (purchased from KyaraZen), a favorite routine for gyokuro.

While this photo is not from today, it's quite representative, as I was enjoying a gyokuro from this kyusu and the same Shawn McGuire snowflake cup:

[Victoria]

Patience rewarded. I took the Suigyoko Uji gyokuro from O-Cha out of the refrigerator in the vacuum-sealed canning jar I'd which stored it and the other special gyokuros from our tasting, and I let them sit 24 hours before opening to avoid any moisture damage. The other two are back to the refrigerator until I finish this one.

Interesting experiment. Makes sense to use a vacuum-sealed canning jar that works with your FoodSaver. I’m thinking you placed opened gyokuro packs inside the vacuum canning jar? Not sure if I mentioned here, but a Japanese tea friend puts open Matcha cannisters in the freezer, takes out what she wants, and puts canister back in freezer. She says there is no degradation. I haven’t seen the canister used, but if it can be vacuum-sealed each time it seems it should work okay.

[debunix]

I’m thinking you placed opened gyokuro packs inside the vacuum canning jar?

yes

a Japanese tea friend puts open Matcha cannisters in the freezer, takes out what she wants, and puts canister back in freezer. She says there is no degradation.

As soon as you open it, warm air comes into the container and moisture can condense on the very cold matcha....not an idea I'd like to experiment with. I leave my matcha out one room temp, and drink up from only one at a time. Ditto gyokuro and sencha, usually, but I had to open all three gyokuro at once for my tasting.

(Oh! my tasting! Coming up right after I finish my soup.)

[Vanenbw]

@debunix You have the greatest photographs. I can stare at them all day long. You are really motivating me to go out and buy a new camera to replace my Canon Rebel XS (which I got rid of a year ago). I'm thinking about a Canon Rebel T6.

[Vanenbw]

I recently have returned to brewing 200 - 250ml in my original 360ml kyusu. Then I switched back to a combination of my 160ml kobiwako houhin and 160ml yohen mogake hiramaru kyusu by Hiroshi Mizuno. Love the both of them. The last week or so I'm using both of these exclusively, brewing 5gms of tea to 160ml (approximately) of water. I just pour to the top, or close to it, so it could be 130 - 160ml.

I've been drinking a combination of organic sencha from Shimizu, Sayama Kaori cultivar and organic sencha from Kagoshima Yamakai cultivar from Thes Du Japon. They are both wonderful teas. I look forward to drinking them every day. They are both a little more astringent than some other teas, but it's not a cloying bitterness. It's mild, pleasant. I usually get about 5 infusions from each.

I'm also drinking kabusecha from Birouen Tea House and organic kabusecha from O-cha. I enjoy both very much, but I think if I had to choose one over the other I'd choose the Biroen Tea House kabusecha. Another one of my recent favorites.

I am also drinking everyday sencha from O-cha. So inexpensive and simple, yet still it's very good. It blows away any of the "everyday" loose leaf teas you might find in an Asian grocery store.

Now that I'm working from home every day (at least until it's safe to return to the office), I'm drinking more tea than usual, and I look forward to spending time with these teas every day. I'm going to choose one of the above to have right now, or I might open my new pack of sencha from Koyu, Miyazaki Yamanami cultivar from Thes Du Japon.

I'm truly excited. Off to my cups of tea now...

[Ginpachi]

@debunix Nice photos!

Today, I have a new Tamaryokucha from SONO Organic in my cup.
The first brew was clear and surprisingly transparent, and missing nothing in terms of flavor, to my tongue.
The second brew, now, is optically quite the opposite - opaque yet translucent, looks like jade in my cup. Very precious!
(which I may have failed to capture in the photo, but as the saying goes, "it's the the thought that counts," I hope )
The taste is stronger and still very good, to my taste, for a second brew. I hope that a third brew is going to be possible.

SONO_Organic_Tamaryokucha.jpg (50.9 KiB) Viewed 7953 times

[debunix]

Suigyoko Uji gyokuro from O-Cha. I overslept this morning and did not get my usual sencha start, so it was a gyokuro end to the day. Mmmm.

[hopeofdawn]

Stuck at home for a while due to the coronavirus here in the Seattle area, so thought I'd try to get back into the swing of posting up pictures of my tea sessions. This one was very multinational--Czech teapot and teacup (Petr Novak), Korean pitcher, and tea mammoth to drink the leftovers from Jingdezhen.

Tea is a lovely easy drinker Wu Yan Chun Yu from 2019, from Tea Trekker. A nice start to an evening!