Teadonism

Here are some photos of my current teaware collection, along with a few notes on usage, etc.

This is the lovely hutch I inherited from my mother.  It has been taken over by tea and teaware, clearly:

This is my little Yixing teapot:

And these are my current gongfu cup sets.  I’m using acrylic sheets from photo frames for coasters right now, but I do have some bamboo coasters on order, along with some plain white porcelain cup sets:

More to come!

Well, this weekend I sat down to try the tuo cha and the beeng that I got from Chicago’s Chinatown.  I was eager to do this for a few reasons–first off, I really wanted to see how these cheaper shu’s were going to taste.  Secondly, I’ve decided that I’m going to use my new Yixing teapot for shu puerh (more on the “why” of that in another post), and I wanted to make sure that these shu’s weren’t going to be so icky-tasting as to have me not want them ever touching that teapot!

 First up was the tuo cha, which, as I understand it, is available in many Chinatowns and some larger Asian grocery stores.  This could very well be the tuo cha that so many people talk about trying for their first puerh experience and end up despising–I’m not sure.  Here it is again:

In all honesty, my rather dull beginner’s palate didn’t think it was half bad.  In fact, I liked it quite a bit.  It wasn’t nearly as good as the shu I got from Jing Teashop (see tasting notes below), as it was far, far less complex and “interesting” tasting, but it was good. 

As I said, it was very straightforward–it tasted smooth, slightly vegetal, and, well, like shu puerh.  There weren’t any “pondy” or icky overtones/aftertastes, however, and the smell of the leaves and liquor wasn’t offensive in the least.  I brewed up about five infusions of this in my 4oz gaiwan and was pleased with all of them.  Again, it tasted mellow and full and yummy, like something I’d very much want to drink with a meal.  So, setting me back only a buck-fifty in Chinatown, I’m deeming this tuo cha to be shu-puerh-Yixing-pot-worthy.  Hoorah!

The day after that, I tried the beeng:

Now, the very first thing I noticed about this puerh was that it was nowhere near as tightly compressed as the tuo cha’s I’ve been drinking have been–maybe that’s normal for this shape over that.  Also, the leaves were *much* bigger than those in the tuo cha, and were more whole.  There were also a lot more twigs.

Now, I don’t know exactly what the story is behind the bigger leaves–older?  poorer-quality trees?–but while I know it’s desirable sometimes, these leaves-and-twigs struck me as being of a lower quality than what I’ve been drinking.  Of course, I don’t know anything about this all yet, so I might be crazy.

 The taste is the important thing, though, of course, so I did multiple infusions of varying lengths in the gaiwan to see what I thought?  The verdict?  This stuff can go into the pot, too, because I don’t think it will hurt it.  This beeng was very faint-tasting, even when brewed a long time.  Again, there were no offensive smells or tastes, and the tea was very smooth and mild.  This tea was just missing the depth and fullness that even the tuo cha from Chinatown had.  This wasn’t offensive, just different–a much less-flavourful experience, but still not something I’d turn up my nose at a big pot of with dinner.

 So, all in all, I’m pleased with all of this tea and pleased that I bought two beengs and two tuo chas.  This will mean I have quite a bit of lower-quality shu to drink up, but I’m not in any hurry and am starting to really like cooked puerh as an everyday “coffee replacement” of sorts, so I’m glad to have lots of tea that I don’t have to worry about ruining and can put into my Yixing, etc.

Of course, your opinion on these puerhs may very well differ.  As I said, my palate is still pretty uneducated.  But I liked both of these better than I liked, say, the mini-shu-tuo cha’s from TenRen, and it’s the taste that matters.  So, at one-fifty a tuo cha and four-fifty a beeng for the teas above at a Chinatown or grocery near you, give ‘em a try and see what you think–then let me know!

Year: 2001, Spring

Producer: Meng Hai Tea Factory

Region: Meng Hai Tea Mountain

Vendor: Jing Teashop

Leaf: Dry–dark, tightly compressed, small and broken, a few twigs  Wet–shiny, lighter, many small pieces, some twigs.

Scent: Dry scent–not as “fishy” or “pondy” as the other (lower-quality) shu puerhs I’ve had access to, which is nice.  Wet scent–wet leaves smell very pondy with undertones of horse…clean horse.  That probably sounds very strange, but it’s what it reminds me of.

Liquour–Smells loamy, some sweetness.  Colour is dark reddish brown but translucent, and moves from very dark and almost “oily” looking to a rosier, orangier sepia tone as infusions progress, staying a very handsome chestnut for most of the infusions.

Infusion Parameters: 5 grams in a 4oz (120mL) gaiwan, boiling water, one 20s rinse followed by brief rest, 20s, 20s, 10s, 20s, 35s, 45s, 1min, 1min

Tasting Notes:

Infusion 1:  20s Smooth!  With a lot of depth…lots of loam/soil/pond on the top, but not unpleasantly so.  A tiny bit of dry afterbite, some new, raw wood taste.

Infusion 2: 20s Smoother yet.  Brighter, too, with less of the afterbite, and leather replacing the wood taste.

Infusion 3: 10s Flash infusion for curiosity’s sake–less depth but not in a bad way, otherwise same as above.  Would keep it at 20s in the future.

Infusion 4: 20s Much as above–the flavour is thinner but again, not in a bad way.  Very smooth, the leather is gone, but I’m having a hard time describing what the leather gave way to.  As close as I can figure, I’m now tasting the “ethos” of shu puerh.  I’ve never tasted anything else quite like it, so this leads me to believe that it is simply the puerh, the leaf, itself.  Yum.

Infusion 5: 35s As above but getting still “thinner” in flavour.

Infusion 6: 45s Lighter, with a delicate presence over the leaf that I can only call “musk”–light, slightly animal musk, but very attractive.

Infusion 7: 1min A sort of dark sweetness is coming through, and it’s really fabulous.  It even smells sweeter, and all the musk is gone.

Infusion 8: 1min I was intrigued by that sweetness despite the “thin” nature of the last infusion, so I tried one more minute and was rewarded by yet more sweetness.  This stuff is starting to taste almost delicate!  There’s no depth left at all, though, so it’s off to the thermos overnight for these leaves.

Overall notes”

In retrospect, if I would’ve given this tea 2 rinses as I’ve heard recommended sometimes for shu, it would’ve been perfect from the get-go.  As it was, I was feeling a little uncertain about how much I liked the first infusion, but the flavours I considered undesirable were gone by the second infusion, and I enjoyed it very much overall.  Somewhere halfway through I realized that this stuff just felt *good* going down, and I felt warm and alert, but relaxed and a trifle dizzy.  This is unexpectedly heady stuff, and I found myself fondly wishing that it could be got anywhere, brewed well, so that I could have it in place of coffee during breakfast at, say, IHOP.  In short, I just really enjoyed it.

I was also a little surprised by the time it took to do the tasting–about an hour and fifteen minutes from setup to knockdown.  It was very fun, though, and I know I’ll be thankful for these more detailed notes as I learn more about puerh. 

These are the two puerhs that I mentioned I picked up in Chicago’s Chinatown:

So, does anyone have an info for me? I know they’re both shu, and not of very good quality, but what can I expect? Are they going to be *truly* toxic and wretched? Where are they from? What sort of production period am I looking at?

So many questions. What I do know is this–these puerh came complete with…bugs! Yup. Little bitty greyish bugs, about the size of commas, living in the boxes with the tea.

This would deter most people from consuming this tea. Not me, though…I’ll definitely report back on these when I try ‘em, bugs and all…(all right, not really. I de-bugged them as completely as possible and removed them from their boxes altogether. And am keeping them rather far away from the puerh I got from Jing Teashop!)

Also coming in the near future–my first order from Jing Teashop, my current teaware collection, and a review of the shu puerh from the aforementioned order.

All right…just a brief account of something I found amusing…I recently picked up some puerh in Chicago’s Chinatown. Well, the other day I sat down to try and decipher the wrappers–to get a handle on the when and where of them, at least.

First observation: This is harder than I initally thought it would be.

Before I continue, let me say this: if you’re making any similar attempts of your own, get thee posthaste to this wonderful resource on Mike Petro’s amazing puerh site:

http://www.pu-erh.net/cheatsheet.php

It’s chock-full of the Chinese characters that any silly, ignorant, first-time puerh buyer like me needs to try to puzzle out the pretty little wrappers arrayed in front of me.

So I sat with sheets from Mr. Petro’s site and pored over the wrappers, occasionally saying, “Hey, this has something to do with the factory!” or “I sure have that ‘tea’ character down pat at this point…”

I figured out bits and pieces–grade on one, I think, and the “seven sons” designation on the other. Also, “Yunnan,” and, umm, “tuo cha.”

Advanced, aren’t I?

Anyway, the exercise was very fun, if a bit of a wash. I’m still far too new at all of this to know much what was in front of me.

My plan? To take a six-pack of good longnecks and the mystery puerh to a friend of mine who works as a Mandarin and Cantonese Chinese interpreter. Hopefully, she’ll be able to give me information on the characters, which I can then take to the brilliant people on some of the mailing lists I belong to. I know they’ll be able to tell me loads about my mystery puerh (and, I’m sure, it’s rather poor quality, eep!) if I can provide ‘em with some wrapper info.

So, in short–get that Puerh Cheat Sheet from the link above, find some mystery puerh, and have a blast trying to make heads-or-tails of it. I wish you lots of fun and a bit of luck!

No, really, I did!

The first ten or so times I used the gaiwan, it went something like this, “Okay, I picked it up all right…whoops, spilling half of it all over…YIKES that burns…hold steady…OWOWOWOWOWW *clatter*, CRUD!”

And I’d stare at my red, sore fingers and think, “What the devil am I doing wrong?  Everybody makes this look and sound so easy–nobody ever mentions constantly burning your fingers!”

I wondered if maybe it was just common knowledge, and that one had to develop blisters and callouses or something.  So I kept at it, getting a little better every time and just resigning myself to pained fingers and lots of spilled tea.

Now that I’ve emptied and filled two different gaiwans about a hundred times (not much when you’re talking about multiple infusions, but enough to make a few observations), what I’ve learned is this:

1. No, you *don’t* have to burn your fingers every time!

2. The gaiwan itself really does make a difference.  I now have a $4 gaiwan from a Chinese housewares shop and a $18 gaiwan from the Jing Teashop.  The more expensive gaiwan is thinner, sounder, and the *lid fits much better*.  I’m convinced that it is the better make of the lid and the subsequent fit that makes much of the difference.  Less spilling and less burning steam!

3.  It isn’t so much the gaiwan that’s burning you as the steam coming from open spots on the lid-to-cup seal.  Try to make sure you’re only leaving the pouring spout area open–that way, the fingers on either side of the gaiwan’s mouth won’t get burned along their length by steam escaping from either side.

4.  Be careful to rest your “top” finger (I tend to use my pointer or middle) on the knob of the gaiwan, not just the lid.  The lid will burn–I’ve learned this even with the Jing Teashop gaiwan, where the knob is hollow in the middle. If I put my finger in the middle of the hollow knob “button,” yeeeowww!

5.  Really only do use one hand.  It seems tricky at first and you’ll spill a lot, initially, but using two hands ruins the seal and makes the whole process too “busy” with fingers, resulting in steam and burns and yet more spilling.

6.  Go ahead and “lower” the lid down into the body a little more–I spent too much time trying to “pull back” the lid from a tiny spot right on the lip and burning myself that way.  You can “sink” the lid down at an angle into the body and still keep a good seal all around.  This seems to strain better, too.

 That’s all.  Yup, it’s pure common sense, but it took me a bit to work it all out, so I hope it’s maybe helpful to newcomers-to-gaiwans.

The rest of you can feel free to laugh at me–I’m so new at this!

She’s one of my favourites, but I’m somehow always the last to hear about her newest works.  Interview below–suffice it to say, I’ll be picking this up posthaste.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/01/2006_10_mon.shtml

On another Atwood-related note, does it bother anyone else that she is often *solely* lauded for her feminist approach, strong female characters, forward-thinking ideas, etc.?  All of that is there, it’s very true, but approaching it like that cheapens the realness and individuality of her characters and novels, as I see it. 

I read Atwood for the poetry she weaves into every chapter–not the rhetoric she seems to be so well-loved for.