Some Tea With Me

Tag: tea

  • Some very old puer

    Some very old puer

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    Today I felt like having a Sheng (raw) Puer. It’s a sunny day and nearly Fall, and I wanted something energetic but comforting. I don’t drink my Shengs very frequently and so they’ve piled up for many years. I have a whole shelf of my tea cabinet packed with them, which makes for a fun…

  • Sapporo Shincha

    Sapporo Shincha

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    Shincha, 新茶, is the first harvest Sencha of the year in Japanese tea gardens. When tea leaves are harvested, farmers pick the youngest, most supple leaves of the plant. As leaves age, they become tough and their taste becomes bitter, but the youngest leaves are soft and contain a large concentration of the organic compounds…

  • Japanese white tea from 7Tea+

    Japanese white tea from 7Tea+

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    When I was visiting 7Tea+ in Kyoto I asked for a recommendation to try a unique Japanese tea. Their tiny tea bar is so cute! Great selection and they clearly know a lot about tea from all over the world. Much to my surprise, the woman who was helping me suggested a 2022 white tea…

  • Yunnan green tea

    Yunnan green tea

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    I am always amazed by the variety of tea grown in Yúnnán province, the most south-western area of China. It’s extremely mountainous in the north and a tropical jungle in the south. In that large swath of land, they make every kind of tea. Although they are probably most well known for Puer, their red…

  • Gui Fei at Stone Leaf Tea House

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    Yesterday was a beautiful lazy Saturday, and my wife had the brilliant suggestion to spend our afternoon drinking tea someplace we don’t get to nearly often enough: Stone Leaf Tea House in Middlebury. As we sat and tasted some fine Gui Fei oolong I realized I have never written about this wonderful tea destination, despite…

  • How Much Tea?

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    With all of these posts about my tea making process, I realized that I hadn’t ever said much about the amount of tea that I’m using. Time and Temperature are very important factors when making tea, as well as the tools you are using. But the amount of leaf in your pot can have just…

  • Some Notes on Oxidation

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    Back in the old days I wrote a post on Dobra Tea’s blog about tea and oxidation. This is an updated version of that post. If you have learned a little about tea processing, you have doubtless come across the saying that Black tea is more “fermented” than Green tea. This is more than a…

  • hong shui spring for fall

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    How to describe this tea experience? This spring 2010 Gao Shan Hong Shui (or Hung Shui) has the aroma and taste of plum and baked apricot. Caramelized layers surprise me, coming from a flaxen gold liquor. It doesn’t have nearly the darkness that I’d expect in a similarly aromatic Tie Guan Yin. The aroma is…

  • Old Tea: 2010 Winter Alishan Jin Xuan

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    Another among the teas I decided to test in my grand (old) tea tasting experiment of this summer. Another Ali Shan Jin Xuan (I have a lot), these particular leaves are the last remnants of one of my favorite teas of all time. Unless I’m misremembering, I purchased this tea from DigniTea in Taipei, a…

  • Old Tea: Pinglin Bao Zhong

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    This is the second tea I decided to test in my grand (old) tea tasting experiment of this summer. Another from Taiwan in 2011, drinking this tea is always a step back to rural Pinglin. We had taken a bus to the town hoping to find a plethora of tea shops, but we were surprised…