Teadonism

…and I still have the most sincere intentions to keep this sucker up on a regular basis.

Unfortunately, I work in the insurance industry, on the enrollment side of things, and with Medicare.  This means that the last few months have been full of open enrollment super-busy nonsense, and I haven’t had a lot of time to post, read blogs, etc.  My apologies!

While I’ve been gone, a few notable tea things did occur.  We visited “Dream About Tea” in Evanston again and took an amazing and incredibly informative tea class from Hong.  That was a blast!  I’d highly recommend her classes–whether on tea or, I’m sure, on Chinese language, as she was a marvelous and patient teacher–to anyone in the area.

Also, for Christmas, I got a gorgeous new gong fu tray and will definitely be showing off a picture here in the near future.  Pete got a Super-Gaiwan, as he always complained that the 4oz ones were just too small.  This one holds about 10, I think, and came from the Imperial Tea Court.  Pictures of that, too, later.

Thanks to everyone who prodded me about it! :)  I’ll try to be better in the near future.  Hope you are all well, and I look forward to catching up on your blogs.

First off, a great fella from the alt.rec.food.drink.tea newsgroup has just launched his own teablog.  He’s got reliable and interesting theories on tea, particularly greens, and his story about his own personal “tea journey” under “About Me” is really great.  Here’s to hoping that Dominic shares lots more tea ideas and information with us in the future at his Teasphere.

Also, here you can find an interesting interview with the fellow behind “The Simple Leaf.”  This is the beginning, it appears, of a few articles about the startup and philosophy of their company.  It’s a great inspiration to anyone wanting to share their love of tea with the world.

Other than that, thanks much to everyone who shared their answers with me in my curiosity on “What’s In The Pot?,” below.  Feel free to keep chiming in. 

That’s all I know for today.  I hope to do lots of knitting and tea drinking this weekend, though, so I’ll have lots of impressions to share next week.  Have a super weekend!

Let me tell you, the woods were *especially* lovely, dark, and deep this morning. I very nearly stayed in bed and called in. It’s drear and drizzly here, a bit chill…perfect nesting/knitting/napping weather. Still, I was able to shift my [arguably shiftless (although I am properly undergarmented)] self to work by promising myself I could have tea and zone out in front of some feeds and tea blogs for an hour or so before setting down to work.

But enough rambling and wordplay! I do have a point in posting today, though it may be a rather dull one. I was curious–all of us tea blog people are great at posting fascinating reviews of lovely (and mediocre, and wretched) teas that come our way, but we generally seem to consume these in small quantities, or, at the very least, in large quantities strung out over time due to using a tiny Yixing pot, etc.

My question, then, is this: What is in our pots? And, by that, I mean to refer to “traditional” Western teapots–the kind that produce relatively large amounts of tea for several people, tea that can be drunk and enjoyed but not truly *concentrated* upon, necessarily…maybe I’m still not being perfectly clear.

You see, I have a decent collection (nothing like some of the envy-worthy stashes of other online tea people, not *yet*) of tea that I truly treasure and enjoy. I’ll haul out the tiny Yixings and spend two solid hours really trying to understand a small quantity of a tea, or I’ll pull out a small gaiwan and make some rounds of really loveable, unusual green now and again. And I make about seven or eight single 8oz “mugsfull” of tea a day at work, brewing each one individually in a coffee press or Pyrex cup or gaiwan and pouring them into my designated “tea” mug. (I also have a coffee mug. It’s roughly ye olde East and West–and never the twain shall meet.)

But I drink a *lot* of tea in a day, and the vast majority of it comes out of a series of large, “traditional Western” teapots of various sorts that I own, teapots that make six or so large cups/mugs of tea at a go. I’ll put a green of some sort in here, or an oolong, and I will drink a pot with dinner, a pot (or two) while playing Neverwinter Nights multiplayer, or watching a movie, or what have you…and then I’ll make another pot to take cold to work in the morning, and maybe one more to keep iced in the fridge, etc.

Lots of tea, and definitely not my most precious greens and puerhs and the darling, exciting samples of oolong I recently got from Stephane at Teamasters’ blog, etc.

Mostly, my pots are filled with the bancha, sencha, hojicha, kukicha, and genmaicha I purchased in the cheap “sleeves” from a Korean grocery store near Chicago, the super cheap “Dong Ding” oolong (”Dong Ding” in quotations because…well…I sincerely doubt it. The stuff has an almost “soapy” aftertaste if it isn’t brewed just right, or if it is chilled.) I got from an Asian grocery near here, etc.

None of it is super tea, and some of it is tricky to brew so that it can be palatable, but some of it is darn good in its own way, and all of it is cheap and plentiful enough to hold up to pot after pot (multiple infusions and copious fresh leaves when needed), and I don’t fuss about the quantity or price and just drink the stuff like water.

Am I alone in this? Do others simply drink small amounts of good tea (my philosophy with alcohol…small amounts of good *always* better than large amounts of mediocre, although it’s different, for me, with tea)? Or do you, too, have “second string” teas you use in making large potsful? Or, do you, as either well-heeled, established professionals or, at the very least, hardcore classy tea junkies, shell out for the truly premium stuff in mass quantity, everyday consumption as *well* as in your brilliant, clever, highly controlled reviews?

I’m just curious. What’s in your pot?

Okay, I’ve been seriously slacking lately, and I apologize. My only excuse is that, for the last four days, I’ve been so dramatically ill with a sinus infection that I haven’t been able to taste so much as the spicy, sodium-y goodness of Picante Chicken Ramen noodles, let alone the delicate nuances of so many of the teas I own. Definitely not a good time to be conducting review of new tea. (On a side note, I’ve been relying heavily on the teas I *was* somewhat able to taste as comfort these last few days–lots of long-brewed shu puerh and the American Breakfast Assam I mentioned earlier. Yum!)

Today, though, I think the clouds are breaking (and by “clouds” I actually mean “the globules that do not bear thinking about which are inhabiting my sinus cavities”) and I think I can taste properly, so I’m going to give the last of my “bold” teas from The Simple Leaf a try.  Don’t quite trust myself yet for more delicate Darjeelings, but let’s see how this goes…

Dry, this tea smelled less malty than the American Breakfast I reviewed before.  This made me second guess my tasting abilities for the day, so I opened American Breakfast and smelled that, thus verifying that “Mountain Malt” does indeed smell slightly *less* malty than “American Breakfast.”  The leaves are large, curled pieces and are very attractive.

Brewed, the liquor is a lovely dark brown with hints of a coppery red undertone.  It smells like…well, like autumn, really.  A little bit of hay, a little bit of cool outside air, and a little bit of dry fallen leaves. 

The taste of this tea is *very* bold–a very strong tea, in a good way.  It’s very smooth, mellow, and full-bodied, with a definite black tea taste that is refreshingly lacking in “bad” bite and bitterness.  This tea stands well on its own but could definitely hold up to some milk and sugar.  In fact, the mellow smoothness of this tea would make me pick it to pair with milk and sugar over the more malty American Breakfast.

For me, this is a very good basic black tea.  I enjoy the “round” taste of it, and the lack of heavy malting makes it more “basic” for me, better able to take milk and sugar or just to drink several cups of on its own.  I still enjoy the bold maltyness of the American Breakfast, but this one may very well become a staple as well for the pure strength and black-tea-purity of the flavour.

I’m really enjoying learning about what I like and prefer in black teas.  I seem to very much enjoy strength and maltyness.  This isn’t really a surprise, given that my first cup in the morning is usually filled with wretched-tasting coffee that I use to jolt myself into unpleasant awakeness…I’m too much of a zombie in the early morning to even trust myself to brew a decent cup of tea.

It’s been a crazy-busy week, and next week won’t be any better.  (Next week is our scheduled governmental audit and everyone is a little keyed-up, naturally.)

I’ve been depending on lots of tea at work to get me through the workday. (That and bothering Pete via Gmail chat.)  Haven’t had a lot of time to do formal tastings on any more of the new teas this week (I’ve also been distracted by the beginning of my yearly yarn-frenzy…this year’s bout of knitting has begun), but I did have time to attempt to right a grave, grave wrong.  (And to be free with my parentheticals, clearly.)
In the office kitchen, the only provided tea-choice is a big box of vile, horrid, food-service quality “Darjeeling” tea.  This stuff is *way* worse than Lipton.  It’s dreadful.  And yet, somebody is drinking it…I know they are, since the box very slowly gets less-full.  So it’s probably only one or two people, judging from the volume, and it’s probably only once in a while.

That’s still too many people drinking it too often.  Time to attempt to Stick it to the Man.

Sign taped to the inside of the office kitchen tea box cover:

I’ll be sure to tell you all if I have any takers. 

In other news, while I’m sure *everyone* has read both of the NY Times articles on tea (teabags and gongfu tea) as they’ve been all over the blogs and mailing lists, this video has not yet gotten as much attention.  It showed up on a (the!) tea newsgroup a few days ago and I only just got around to watching it now. 

I know we’ve all seen the other videos of gongfu cha/etc. on Google video/YouTube/etc., but this one must be fairly new.  Now, I’m not linking to it for educational purposes (or even this man’s incredibly creepy-yet-amusing constant sociopathic smile) or telling you to follow this fella’s technique.  What I am linking to it for is the fact that I just spent five minutes trying not to laugh my morning tea through my nose.  Starting at about one minute into the video, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, watch the bottom left corner.  There is a strange lightning bolt-esque lightshow over the HEAD OF A SMALL WHITE DOG.

It is bizarre, inexplicable (please tell me post-processing!) and HILARIOUS.  Go now.

Have a super weekend, everyone!

This isn’t a vendor review proper, just a few notes on the latest round of tea catalogs that has graced my threshold. 

I requested a few this year that I’d never gotten before, just out of curiosity.  I think I asked for Upton, Harney & Sons, Mark T. Wendell, Stash, Republic of Tea, Peet’s…I think that’s it.  The only one that hasn’t come yet is Stash, but I’ve gotten their catalogue before and I’ve never ordered any tea from them, just the occasional gifty-type-thing.

Peet’s…you can pretty much forget about the catalogue.  It looks like they might have one or two worthwhile teas, despite being more a coffee company, but you’re better off ordering at their website.  The “catalogue” is glossy and easy to navigate, but it’s also only about five pages long…more of an advertising mailer than a catalogue.  I’ve never ordered anything from Peet’s, only just heard of ‘em.  I’d probably pick to get my tea from someplace that specialized in tea, but, like I said, they seem to have a few interesting offerings.

Mark T. Wendell’s I’ve also never ordered from, and probably won’t.  They have a nice, modest, easily navigated catalogue, but I get a weird vibe from them.  They seem to focus mostly on teabags and producing consistent-but-possibly-mediocre teas and tea blends…they also do a lot of “importing” and reselling of packaged brands (loose and bagged) from different areas of the world.  I’m sure this was useful ten years ago if you wanted PG Tips in America or Typhoo or some Chinese tea bags, but the advent of the internet and larger “Ethnic” sections in most grocery stores makes this seem like a waste of effort and catalogue space on the part of Wendell’s.

Harney & Son’s…I’ve had their tea now and again when I’m shopping at Barnes & Noble, as that’s what their little cafe serves.  It isn’t bad; I’d compare it to Numi or Republic of Tea in quality and presentation.  I’m sure a lot of Harney fans will take that as an insult, but their company strikes me as concerned mostly with wide-appeal, consistent-but-not-thrilling blends, fancy packaging, “theme” teas, *lots* of flavoured teas, etc.  None of that is really my favourite.  The catalogue is very glossy and impressive, but a little busy and hard to navigate, for me, anyway.  Too much flash all around.  Stick with the website if you’re after one of their more “normal” teas or a favourite blend.

Upton’s catalogue is, as always, a huge favourite.  They always have interesting, long, in-depth articles on the history or influence of tea, which is a great treat.  The selection is, of course, enormous, and you will know *everything* you wanted to know about the age and provenance of most of their teas.  Their “blurbs” on the tea are occasionally helpful, but they do tend to run together after the hundredth one or so…still, good guidelines.  The best thing about the catalogue is the *super clear* organization and the absolute no-nonsense style of it.  No colour, no graphics, small black and white pictures of teaware where needed, just lists of tea laid out by colour, region, and “body/boldness.”  Yay!  I *hate* Upton’s website, although that’s where I go to do the actual ordering…it’s just not instinctive for me to navigate, for some reason, but I love the catalogue.  Use it for fun browsing and the website for up-to-date information on selections and ordering.  You can also read their quarterly articles on the website–well worth it.  The current one is on the early economics of tea as it related to Tibetan/Chinese horse trading…very cool!

Republic of Tea’s catalogue was surprisingly nice…I wouldn’t order their tea, as a rule, but it isn’t bad for bags (and the occasional loose).  It’s pricey, though, I think…you’re paying a lot for packaging, artwork, etc.  Lovely catalogue, but what was really nice was all of their teaware.  While the markups on, say, Bodum products, was a little ridiculous, their own line of pots and cups and accessories is shockingly well-priced, for the most part, and quite pretty.  There’s a tea tray and a few pots I have my eye on in there–I’ll post if I wind up ordering them.  Tea-wise, they do a ton of “themed” stuff, including a Jerry Garcia teas line (WTF?!?!?) and a “Sip For the Cure” Breast-cancer research line, which is all…pink, in one way or another.

They sent along a sample bag of their “Pink Grapefruit Grean Tea” from the “Sip For the Cure” line with my catalogue–brief review as follows.  Anyway, request some of these catalogues–they’re fun “fluff” reading, and they might even send you a bit of tea!

PINK GRAPEFRUIT ROUND GREEN TEA BAGS from The Republic of Tea:

This is *not* a tea I would *ever* pick for myself.  It’s flavoured, themed, and pink.  That’s *three* things going against it.  Still, I’ll try to keep an open mind.  Dry, the bag smells vaguely citrus and vaguely green tea.  And vaguely pink, but that might be psychosomatic.  Steeped the bag in green-tea-temperature water in a cup for about a minute.

This stuff purports to contain “green tea,” (Does it make anyone else mildly nervous when something says it contains “green tea”?  What *kind* of green tea?), “natural grapefruit flavors,” (Hopefully of grapefruit origin…) and “pink peony petals.”  (Alliteration having to do with a pink flower…DANGER, DANGER!)

The tea in the cup smells a little green-tea-ish and a little citrusy-astringent.  The tea in the cup tastes…like medium quality generic “green tea” with, maybe, a hint of mild lemony-grapefruityness…but only a hint.  I’d characterize this tea as “warm, inoffensive, and marginally even pleasant,” but that’s about it.  It’s classic flavoured tea-bag tea, to my palate–slighly bland, slightly exotically-scented, warm, wet, and…yup, that’s it.

I wouldn’t recommend this tea, and I’d probably pick something else (even a straight green) if I had to get at tea bag at a coffeehouse.  You could serve this to a non-tea-drinker, though, and they wouldn’t dislike it, hot or iced, I’m sure.

It was a bit of a rough weekend, what with Edgar the Ferret getting sick and needing surgery on Labor Day, so I can’t describe how exiting it was to get two tea packages yesterday!  One was from Stephane Erlers at Teamasters Blog, and the other from The Simple Leaf. 

 It really lifted my spirits to find two beautiful, painstakingly packaged boxes of tea!  I pawed through them immediately and found both of them to far outstrip my initial expectations.  Expect vendor and tea reviews on these in the near future–I plan on sitting down to some of these lovely blacks and oolongs (and a green!) later today.

Anyway, don’t wait for my reviews–if you’ve never dealt with either of these vendors/sources (somehow I don’t exactly consider Stephane a “vendor,” proper, but rather a “source,” if that makes sense…?) before, I’d tell you to go for it.  The service was knowlegeable and prompt, the shipping was fast, prices were good, packaging was careful, etc.–and the teas, while currently untasted, look to be of a very high, uniform quality. 

In other news, Edgar has returned from the animal hospital.  He had a hairball blocking off his little stomach.  The hairball had probably been building up since before I even owned him, the poor dear.  He’s feeling better now, I think, and is eating well, so I feel much better.  In closing, a few darling and completely off-topic slices of cuteness:

(Note the adorable fang-a-langs below.  Strictly decorative–he’s a very sweet ferret.)

Now, as promised, some new and exciting teawares I picked up since last I posted on my small collection…

Here are my new bamboo tea tools, which I got from Imperial Tea Court.  They’re pretty standard issue, but the price was all right.  Coulda kicked myself when I saw them in Ten Ren days later–more expensive, but saving the shipping would’ve made them *just* cheaper.  Oh, well.  Sometime I’d like to get fancier rosewood ones, maybe, but for now I like the comfortable feel of these and the way they match with everything else I have.  The tongs and the clean-y out-y thing-y (official term, right?) are my favourite–they make life easier!

This is my new reserve pitcher/faircup, which I got at Dream About Tea.  It’s just plain ol’ servicable porcelain with a tolerably pretty and simple design, and it keeps the tea relatively warm–but we drink it up so quickly, anyway!  The size is just perfect for holding the output of my *new* Yixing pot–I’ll probably keep using the iron teapot I own as a reserve pitcher for my larger, older, shu puerh Yixing.  I make more tea at a go and don’t need to control the parameters so quickly…

This is a pride-and-joy already–my new gongfu tray!  Much prettier than Ye Olde Broiler Pan, but I am still adjusting to the smallness of it.  Also got this at Dream About Tea.

Here’s a “group shot” that includes the new gaiwan I got at Dream About Tea and the tasting/aroma cup sets and bamboo coasters that arrived recently from The Tao of Tea:

Now, *here* is what I know you were waiting for–the beautiful little Yixing pot I got at Dream About Tea.  The pour and fit of the lid are excellent, the clay is lovely (adore those bumps!) and I think I’m going to use the tiny little dear for sheng puerh:

Here’s a shot of it with my older (lower quality ) Yixing pot, for a sense of scale:

That’s all for now.  I hope to have a sheng puerh review up tomorrow or Monday.  Thanks for reading!

My “tea story” is, I’m sure, fairly typical but for a few slight abonormalities. (This could also be said for the story of my life-in-general, I daresay.)  Still, I feel somewhat compelled to tell it due to my reaction to what I’m drinking right now.

I’m feeling terribly under-the-weather just now; I generally feel rather icky at this time of year, as it’s when my allergies are at their worst.  I lose my appetite, have to take antihistamines that make me feel like a walking zombie, my eyes and throat itch all the time–one’s run-of-the-mill allergy irritations.

The losing my regular appetite (I love to eat!) is one of the most troublesome things; I try to eat appealing snacks whenever I can so that I don’t feel weak and growly on top of allergic.  Last night I had a pot of hojicha, good crackers, and two kinds of cheddar cheese, and it was just perfect.  This morning, I was just craving a good, solid black “breakfast” type tea with milk and sugar, along with toast and homemade strawberry jam.

That, as with many people, I’m sure, is the type of tea I started on when I was younger.  I was allowed (and loved!) coffee when I was about ten, in controlled amounts, but was encouraged to drink tea instead–my parents weren’t really tea drinkers to any degree, but felt that some black Lipton was likely better for me than coffee.  As long as I could have more of the warm, brown stuff in my cup that took milk and sugar so well, I was happy, and tea was one of the drinks I was allowed to order for myself when we went out to eat (along with juice, milk, chocolate milk, and water), whereas coffee had to be shared with me.

A simple enough reason to start drinking tea.  As I got older and could drink coffee on my own, I still liked the taste of tea, and my tastes got slightly more sophisticated…I preferred certain tea bags over others.  I’d get teas and teawares (both of strictly the local-coffee-and-gift-shop sort) for presents, and all was well.  I *loved* the teas served at Chinese restaurants and *adored* the green tea served at Japanese hibachi places, etc., but I hadn’t the foggiest idea what I was drinking or how to duplicate it at home.  In fact, I wouldn’t *touch* green teas outside of Japanese eateries for years…every time I brewed it as it suggested on the package, I was left with a bitter, awful brew that was hard on my stomache and often made me feel queasy.

In college, I gave informal afternoon teas every Friday for my friends and for whatever guests/professors/wanderers-by might happen to come.  I generally had about fifteen people at these little affairs, which took place in a dormitory common room (Trever Hall’s basement, for the initiated) off a dormitory kitchen.  The fare was simple–store-bought shortbread cookies, iced tea or lemonade and hot chocolate packets as alternatives for the non tea-drinkers, about twenty varities of tea bags for the picky, and pots upon pots upon pots of Lipton black with milk and sugar cubes for the offering.  My teawares were five different patterns of cups-and-saucers (but all in blue, silver, and white just the same) that I’d picked up from Goodwill, along with random soup spoons and my kettle and pots. 

The thing to understand about me and my friends is that we were, frankly (and some of us still are), rather hard-drinking, flippant, “odd,” and trouble-making creatures.  These people were very seldom sober (and/or clearheaded–the college soft-drug trade flourishes!), and here they all were at a Friday afternoon tea.  It was my little offering to the community, I suppose–a time when everyone was expected to engage in reasonably polite conversation with a reasonable degree of substance-free-ness…aside from the tea, of course.  Most people took from the pot of Lipton, which was well-brewed, at least, and learned how they liked it and how much milk and sugar to add, and I even made some tea converts.

That, to me, was tea. 

Then, a shift–my third year of college, when I was visiting my parents and in their local coffee-shop, I found a tin of something by The Republic of Tea that was labeled “White Tea.”  White tea?  I knew green and black…what was this stuff?  I was sold by the tin, the tiny unbleached round teabags, the advertising type…and I bought the damn thing for $15–far, *far* more than I had *ever* spent on an equivalent amount of tea before then.

I was determined to make this white tea work.  At first it was too bitter.  Then it was too insipid.  Time to hit the internet (why hadn’t I done this before?)!

An entire world opened up for me, just like that.  (Keep in mind now that this is only about three years ago–I *told* you I was new at this.)  White tea, new brewing instructions for green tea, more kinds of black tea than I ever knew existed!!!

Thus, a minor obsession was born.  This obsession grew slowly to major.  I started learning to tell the difference between good and bad teas (haven’t quite figured out “good” and “better” yet, not all the way), collected more teaware, started using loose tea, etc.  The obsession became even more major some few months ago when I discovered that a heretofore-unknown-to-me type of tea, “puerh,” existed…along with an understanding of what an “oolong” was, roughly…and with it these brought Yixing pots and gongfu and I came to love these (and greens!)  more than I had ever loved my “traditonal” western afternoon blacks, and so it grew and grew and…

…here I am today, blogging about my learning experiences with tea and craving the milk-and-sugared black of yore.

A quick cabinet search revealed the expected 15-ish samples/tuochas/beengs of shu and sheng, six types of green, Lapsang Souchong, lychee and jasmine scented teas, rosebuds, a camomile, and a few cheap oolongs.

Nothing quite right…a trip to my regular ol’ pantry turned up boxes of Lipton and some other tea bags (I still use these for big pitchers of no-fuss iced tea sometimes)…and a little red tin of Twinnings “English Breakfast” tea.  Perfect!  I tried to remember where the tin came from…remembered a friend had picked it up for me when I specified a loose black…and packed it off to work with me.

Opened the tin…found…well, fannings, I guess, although they looked pretty much like dust to me.  Teabag crud.  Pulverized black coffee-ground looking stuff.  Hrm.  Brewed it (carefully!).  Now the stuff *did* puff up into coffee grounds.  Ick.

Added the normal amount of milk and sugar.  Tried it. 

VILE. 

 Beyond vile.  Horrific.  Aberrant.  Tragic.

I had to add enough sugar to choke a horse to even make it palatable–the bitterness was unbelievable!–and even now the aftertaste is incredibly unpleasant.

Threw out the rest of the tin.  Lipton tea bags are leaps and bounds better than this loose, low-quality nonsense, if I’m desperate–which I am, for some good, plain black to sugar-and-milk up.

The good news is that my fall Upton Quarterly arrived recently.  I already have a zillion greens and oolongs circled to sample…time to turn to the front of the catalogue and re-familiarize myself with good ol’ black tea–of a high quality, this time.  I haven’t the time to really learn well about Ceylons and Darjeelings and Assams right now, as I’m still focusing on learning about oolongs and puerhs, but I am very much looking forward to having some good blacks on hand for when moods like today’s strike me.

Back to the vile Twinnings…actually, those foodservice Darjeeling bags in the office kitchen are starting to look preeeeetty good right now.  Ugh.

EDIT: Strike that.  I’m going to order the black tea sampler set from The Simple Leaf.  Looks like it would be a good way to get some good black tea samplers posthaste.  I’m not in any position to (nor do I desire to) worry about what single-estate-plantation-flush-tippy-district-civet-zamboni-rumyunyunson my black tea comes from/has been in contact with.  Going to concentrate on learning my greens, oolongs, and puerhs first, and just keep some good quality black on hand for these occasional cravings.

Vendor: Dream About Tea  

Right now I am drinking a gorgeous Dragonwell tea at room temperature.  Starting last night, I used about three grams of tea to make a bit more than a liter of delicious, delicate green tea.  When the infusions started getting thin, I left it overnight in another liter of room-temperature water and am still enjoying it today.  Completely devoid of bitterness, full of character, and with a lovely green, vegetative, creamy/buttery taste with a hint of wood…I’m going to treasure the ounce I bought until I can return for more.

I am delighted to say that I got to choose this tea myself from the most amazing teashop I’ve ever had the priviledge to visit.  This tea, along with about a zillion other fresh, gorgeous, well-labeled teas of clear provenance…along with an incredible assortment of teaware…can be found at “Dream About Tea” on Davis Street in Evanston, Illinois.  While not exactly “right next door” for me, it’s awfully darn close when it comes to tea and teawares of this quality, and I will definitely be a repeat visitor.

When we looked into the window of the store, I was already floored.  There were cakes upon cakes of puerh, many still wrapped in their bamboo sets, along with *countless* beautiful, tiny Yixing teapots, delicate gaiwans, cup sets, tea trays…on and on and on.

We entered and were greeted right away by the proprietors.  When the woman behind the counter saw how thrilled I was about everything, she immediately asked if I was the person from Wisconsin she had e-mail corresponded with the day before–and I was!  It was super to be remembered and greeted so intuitively, and I had her full attention and help during my entire visit.

There were *at least* a hundred and fifty different, unique, handmade Yixing teapots to look at and choose from.  I was *beyond* excited.  My every question was answered–they showed me beautiful shu and sheng puerh, gave suggestions for which pot would go best with which kind of tea, showed me their new stock, etc.

I’ll level with you–I wanted *everything*.  I fell madly in love with no less than five different teapots and with almost *all* of the puerh, but budget forces choices, and I absolutely couldn’t say no to one of the lovely bamboo tea trays.  (They had a great selection of these as well–at least *seven* different models of varying sizes, types of decoration, and prices…more than I’ve ever seen in one place before, just like the teapots.)

I wound up getting a tiny Yixing teapot that I’m planning to use for young sheng, a white porcelain gaiwan to replace the evil, clumsy one I’m using at work, a pretty reserve pitcher and one of those cunning fine-mesh funnel-filters, the ounce of Dragonwell tea, and the bamboo tea tray.  I’ll certainly be posting pictures of all of this soon–you won’t *believe* how gorgeous it all is.

Other things I wanted–more tea!  They have *so* many jars of tea on their counter, and when it matters, they can tell you the region, year, etc. of the teas.  Their knowledge and ability to recommend teas is super.  I also wanted more teapots!  These were all just amazing.  The quality of the one I chose is great, and it was a low-end teapot, $40, cheaper than my more disappointing Ten Ren teapot–it has a perfect pour, the cover fits superbly, etc.  The majority of the teapots they had were handmade and unique–the exception to this is their *very own line* of Yixing pots in various types of the appropriate clay.  These they contract with a shop in China to mold for them, and are just darling, in a very practical shape with a detailed dragon relief in the bottom of the pot.  The result is inexpensive, well-made Yixing pots of various types of clay with predictable results and a handsome design.  I will *definitely* be picking up at least one of these proprietary pots for some type of oolong in the future.  Aside from those, though, the range of Yixing pots was jaw-dropping.  All sizes, all clay types, all price ranges, all styles (from simple and graceful brewing pots to incredibly detailed and sculpted “whimsy” pots)…

I clearly just can’t say enough about this teashop, my visit, the owners…wow!  I absolutely cannot wait to visit again, and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this place to anyone.

We were there for about an hour, but I could’ve been there all day.  Pete and his stepmother kept themselves busy at the counter with two green teas.  One, their house tea and about $70 a pound, was a more-than-serviceable everyday green that they (or so they say) contract with an entire plantation to corner the supply of.  The other was a Dragontop and one of their highest-end teas, at $200/lb, and was absolutely amazing.  It was green, deep, buttery, infinitely smooth, and just phenomenal to drink.  We compared the two under both favourable and less-than-favourable conditions and went through lots and lots of hot water with the samples we’d purchased.  I ended up hoarding the Dragontop, but we were able to squeeze even a bit more out of the teas when we got back to the house, using my new gaiwan. 

Why hadn’t I heard about this place before?  Why aren’t its praises sung to the rafters when someone asks for tea recommendations in the Chicago area?  I can only thank my luck that a random Google search turned this place up before our Chicago visit, and I can only assume that word of this place just hasn’t gotten out yet.  I can’t imagine that it has been deliberately overlooked for complaints of quality of lack of knowledge–again, I just couldn’t have been more pleased. They had *everything* one could possibly desire when beginning one’s journey with Eastern teas, and plenty of stuff for even experts, I would hazard.

In short: if you live anywhere *near* the Chicago area, drop whatever you’re doing right now and head to Dream About Tea.  It is an amazing place run by incredibly helpful, kind people, and you will be *floored* by the selection of teaware and tea. 

Go now! Their website is also amazing, with mail-order functionality, lots of great details, contact info, etc.  Also not that they are offering *Tea Classes* coming up soon, where they’ll cover various types of teas and brewing methods.  I would give my eyeteeth to attend these classes; I’m sure they’ll be great–definitely worth a look! http://www.dreamabouttea.com/comersus6f/store/index.asp