Your day in tea
I had originally intended this pot for yancha, but after brewing the nice sample of Hong you included, I can't seem to use it for any other kind of tea. Thank you for introducing me to hong ni.
I had a great tea session this afternoon, it lowered my stress levels and I could feel the tension in my shoulders melting.
I'm immune to qi most of the time but some effects are easily noticed. A renewed appreciation for tea of course!!
I'm immune to qi most of the time but some effects are easily noticed. A renewed appreciation for tea of course!!
A first for me: Balhyocha
Korean tea from the steeping room
Seriously though - we need a section for tea that doesn't fit green, black, white, oolong or fermented.
Korean tea from the steeping room
Seriously though - we need a section for tea that doesn't fit green, black, white, oolong or fermented.
Last edited by LeoFox on Sat Feb 12, 2022 7:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Big pot of simple tea, brewed lazily. Sometime it is best not to think too much.
The same tea in the same pot earlier in the week and late at night looked rather different.
Andrew
The same tea in the same pot earlier in the week and late at night looked rather different.
Andrew
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Beautiful photos as always, @Andrew S
Forgive me Lu Yu, for I have sinned...
Been mug-brewing my teas exclusively since the little one entered this world at the start of the year. Most of the time grandpa-style, but occasionally, when I'm brewing something that easily turns bitter and don't want to go too light on the leaf, using a paper-filter (*gasp*).
It's been working well, and has served as another reminder of the futility of obsessing about the minor details. The macro stuff (primarily leaf and water quality) probably covers 80-90% of the range of enjoyment I'm able to experience in my line of work anyways. A zini mug, a nixing mug and a porcelain mug for some variation, although any one of them would suffice. (Side note: The zini mug pictured was used by my mother-in-law for most of her career and until retirement. It's surprisingly decent.)
(Come to think of it, my current brewing style is more of a return to normalcy, after a two-year long anomaly of home office with daily gongfu-sessions.)
Weekends and vacations are another matter. I look forward to being able to use my pots again for such occasions.
Forgive me Lu Yu, for I have sinned...
Been mug-brewing my teas exclusively since the little one entered this world at the start of the year. Most of the time grandpa-style, but occasionally, when I'm brewing something that easily turns bitter and don't want to go too light on the leaf, using a paper-filter (*gasp*).
It's been working well, and has served as another reminder of the futility of obsessing about the minor details. The macro stuff (primarily leaf and water quality) probably covers 80-90% of the range of enjoyment I'm able to experience in my line of work anyways. A zini mug, a nixing mug and a porcelain mug for some variation, although any one of them would suffice. (Side note: The zini mug pictured was used by my mother-in-law for most of her career and until retirement. It's surprisingly decent.)
(Come to think of it, my current brewing style is more of a return to normalcy, after a two-year long anomaly of home office with daily gongfu-sessions.)
Weekends and vacations are another matter. I look forward to being able to use my pots again for such occasions.
Perhaps I might drink more hong cha if it were cooler and drier down here (I assume that that is your double-hong combo, so to say).
There has been an awful lot of rain and humidity around me recently, and I've only just started playing with some yancha again, after lots of simple wet-stored puer in huge pots. Even then, it is just 'every day' yancha to wake up, nothing special, and more wet puer later in the day.
It feels annoying, or irritating, when it is both rainy and hot - the worst of both worlds, as far as I'm concerned. Only old puer and friends seem to be suitable for this kind of weather. Other teas feel like they'd be 'wasted' at times like this.
I've wondered in the past why there seems to be a green tea / dark tea distinction between Northern China and Southern China respectively, whereas green teas might feel instinctively better-suited to warmer climates and roasted or aged tea better-suited for colder climates, but I think that it is more a function of humidity than of temperature. Others would know much more than me on that front, of course.
Andrew
There has been an awful lot of rain and humidity around me recently, and I've only just started playing with some yancha again, after lots of simple wet-stored puer in huge pots. Even then, it is just 'every day' yancha to wake up, nothing special, and more wet puer later in the day.
It feels annoying, or irritating, when it is both rainy and hot - the worst of both worlds, as far as I'm concerned. Only old puer and friends seem to be suitable for this kind of weather. Other teas feel like they'd be 'wasted' at times like this.
I've wondered in the past why there seems to be a green tea / dark tea distinction between Northern China and Southern China respectively, whereas green teas might feel instinctively better-suited to warmer climates and roasted or aged tea better-suited for colder climates, but I think that it is more a function of humidity than of temperature. Others would know much more than me on that front, of course.
Andrew
Weather is getting warmer- starting to smell like spring. It doesn't seem to matter how many times this happens, the beginning of spring always feels new and energising
Green tea at noon.
And then some shou in the evening
Green tea at noon.
And then some shou in the evening
I've been stuffing some tiny pots full of ('everyday') yancha and brewing them hard again.
It is mostly a matter of 'practical necessity'. It's not to appreciate or maximise the quality of the tea, but rather just to wake up and keep going, before I have to subject myself to The Other Caffeine Source whose name we dare not speak (which is another 'practical necessity' at the moment, albeit one that makes me feel queasy).
While I appreciate that there is an art to gong fu cha that I am yet to learn, and that it can indeed provide a very different character and profile to many teas, I also feel that I can understand how making tea in this way is a 'ritual' for some people, not in the sense of a prescriptive formula like some kind of 'tea ceremony', but rather a 'ritual' in the same sense as a small cup of espresso is a 'ritual' for others.
I think that no-one would suggest that making a cup of espresso (even with apparently-prescriptive quantities, timings, grinder settings, etc) is some kind of Italian 'coffee ceremony', and I doubt that such a label is any more appropriate in the context of tea.
My ability to make such tea intuitively is improving, slowly, so perhaps tea-method will start to be more of a 'ritual' for me.
Andrew
It is mostly a matter of 'practical necessity'. It's not to appreciate or maximise the quality of the tea, but rather just to wake up and keep going, before I have to subject myself to The Other Caffeine Source whose name we dare not speak (which is another 'practical necessity' at the moment, albeit one that makes me feel queasy).
While I appreciate that there is an art to gong fu cha that I am yet to learn, and that it can indeed provide a very different character and profile to many teas, I also feel that I can understand how making tea in this way is a 'ritual' for some people, not in the sense of a prescriptive formula like some kind of 'tea ceremony', but rather a 'ritual' in the same sense as a small cup of espresso is a 'ritual' for others.
I think that no-one would suggest that making a cup of espresso (even with apparently-prescriptive quantities, timings, grinder settings, etc) is some kind of Italian 'coffee ceremony', and I doubt that such a label is any more appropriate in the context of tea.
My ability to make such tea intuitively is improving, slowly, so perhaps tea-method will start to be more of a 'ritual' for me.
Andrew