Tag: tea
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Some Teas to Test
A little preview of a new project of mine. I have a big cabinet of tea, much of it left over from China and Taiwan, much of which is not really cutting it any more. I find myself more and more frequently disappointed by the oolongs I’m pulling out of my stash, but knowing how…
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Brazier Experiments Three
Significant progress with the tea stove! One of our biggest challenges was lighting the charcoal, and so we thought, “let’s go buy one of those charcoal starter chimney things“. When we were in the store looking at them, though, it seemed to me that their design was really simple. Just a grate to hold up…
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Puer is always appropriate
There’s very rarely a time when I’m not interested in drinking some puer. This is not true for other styles of tea. There are definitely days when a green tea seems out of place or a black tea too bold. Puer (good puer, anyway) seems to meet every situation with just the right amount of…
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More adventures with the Brazier
With some success on our first try, my fiancée this afternoon attempted to speed the process of heating the charcoal on our ceramic tea stove. While much was learned, the resulting water was not as hot as we could have liked, and so we searched the tea cabinet for a tea that would fare well…
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Engagement Cha Xi
Yesterday my excellent friends Ben and Sarah joined my fiancée and I for an outdoor tea session to celebrate our upcoming wedding. The weather cooperated and we spent around four hours talking, sipping, and taking pictures. Now normally when I get together for a long tea session like this one, we blast through as many…
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Ways to Pour a Gaiwan
First I should say, do you know what a Gaiwan (蓋碗) is? Literally, it means “lidded bowl”, so there’s not a lot of confusion. Sometimes it’s also called a “Gaibei” (lidded cup) or “zhong” (Cantonese, if I’m not mistaken). They are made in different sizes and materials, but generally are between 100-200ml and made from…
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Keemun from the UK
Keemun Mao Feng Darkly sweet, like a deeply ripe blood orange. An aroma of very dark chocolate with a touch of cinnamon. There’s a subtle dryness and roughness at the end that is typical of some Qi Men teas. Qi Men (aka: “Keemun”) tea (祁門红茶) is a black tea (“red tea” in China) made in…
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Da Hong Pao from Shanghai Shop
Rich golden orange liquor with a sweet pumpkin taste and a gentle roast in the aroma. Fantastic. Such good Da Hong Pao. I bought several Wuyi teas when I was in Shanghai and I haven’t had this one in a while. Clearly I’ve been missing out! Thankfully my fiancée picked it from our tea cabinet…
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1970s Bao Zhong
When we were wandering around Pinglin (坪林區) in Taiwan looking for exciting Bao Zhong to taste, we only found a couple of places that piqued our interest. The first was a small family shop right next to the bus stop and was where we spent most of our time. That’s another story. The second, though,…