五行雲

Spot the difference

2011-06-23T05:10:00.000-07:00

So went the longest day of the year. In small groups around the world there exists a following of herbalists that drink a certain herb to celebrate. This herb (the ball like appendages pictured above) has a long history in Chinese medicine, it is unfashionably hot and drying that goes against the current trend of cold and fluid engendering herbs. It was even accused, for a while, of being the poison that gave Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer a heart attack. It's toxic without preparation, but nothing returns warmth and function quite like it. It is 附子, aconite. It is to herbs as the Rolling Stones are to rock and roll.

Why take a hot herb at the most yang time of year I hear you say? Because in summer, all your yang is at the surface of the body, so logically it is not at your centre. You may feel warm (British summers withstanding) because your warmth is exactly where you can perceive it but inside you are stone cold.

Above is a picture of two almost identical teas. Both are Xiaguan 8653's, are from Essence of Tea and for those who know Nada's catalog well might of guessed the difference between the two. They have been stored differently, one dry and one not so dry. Neither are cheap and retail for about £550 a bing I remember but I thought it, well, fun to fork out for 5 grams of each to see just how the storage has changed this tea. I won't mention which one I tried first, but these are my notes.

This tea comes in a chunk, a solid dark lump that Xiaguan squeezed together when I was in my teen ages, there is no discernible aroma. For some reason, after a single rinse, I infuse for a brief five seconds despite the tight compression. The result was a soup of golden yellow, empty in my fragrance cup with a flavour that could of been mistaken for honey water.

Ten seconds pass for the second infusion but does little to change the soup apart from a slight change to amber. I swiftly move onto the third, at fifteen seconds, yielding more amber but still holding a yellow glint, but not much to write about other than appearance. The fourth infusion turns pure amber and the aroma starts to hold in my fragrance cup. The soup is very smooth, especially noticeable in the throat and I am gifted the lightest but sweetest huigan. The fifth becomes cooling on the tongue and lips, it really doesn't strike me as a tea from the eighties, more like a particularly smooth and fine tea from the turn of the millennium.

On the sixth (pictured above), and now at a time of sixty seconds in my yixing pot, the tea is becoming more solid and I am gripped by it's superb qi. I am quite becalmed but in no way could I say that I feel fatigued or sleepy. Inside my thoughts are alive and vibrant. Finally the terrific compression has started to give way and the leaf begins to spread.

The amber becomes mahogany, it has taken an hour to get this far! I notice a slight sourness. Another brew and the tea is squarely in the nineties, oily and thick but never overpowering with a dark fruity spice. As I drink the postman drops off some medicinal dit da jow I ordered from Plum dragon Herbs in America. I have a quick sniff, I just love the aroma of Chinese herbs. It reminds me of my young adulthood in Hong Kong, great years of my life.

Nine infusions in now and the sourness is back with some astringency on the tongue, that caught me by surprise a little. This is the only imperfection against what is an enormously enjoyable session of tea drinking and the sourness doesn't last into the tenth infusion, the final infusion before my stomach calls for a late breakfast. Anyway, feeling the tea in the head a little too I take a break.

I have read some criticism of Xiaguan's compression in that it stops this tea from ageing at the same pace as looser teas. In brewing it too, it took the fourth infusion to actually produce anything of note. Slowly the water started to penetrate and as it gradually did so I was transported back through the years until it's real age was on display. Some patience is required before I try the other sample I must make sure I have at least a good two hours clear.

To explore a mountain

2011-04-07T07:51:00.000-07:00

Back from my long and rarely arduous trip to Sri Lanka and the cricket world cup there was something at home I really missed, my tea. For a country that produces a rather large amount of tea, the actual tea at street level was quite disappointing. Even the tea shops were little different from the ones in the British High Street and were mainly packed with.. gasp.. flavoured teas. I found some solace in the lobby of the Columbo Continental and enjoyed at least some decent leaf tea there with a slice of cake or two but on the whole I was let down somewhat. Given the time and the right directions I'm sure I could of done better but there was a lot of cricket to cover and most of it many miles from the hills.

Back we are though and whilst away a couple of lumps of tea had arrived to welcome me home. After going through many different samples of Ban Zhang area teas from many different sources I have, for no good reason, decided to have a thorough look at Nannuo. Why Nannuo? beats me! From my first impressions it's a bit of a girly mountain, all sweetness with sugar and spice, no puppy dog's tails and snails. Armed with a selection of mao cha from Pu Erh Shop, little Douji bricks, EOT's hideaway 2010 cake and another sample of the same year from Yunnan Sourcing I plod forward. It's all very new tea and rather unwittingly I haven't strolled across anything much older from Nannuo. Perhaps this is just an oversight of mine or perhaps they just don't exist.

With YS's Nan Nuo Ya Kou in the pot I start the tricky process of brewing and writing. The sample looks good and is straight off the side of a cake so even though it is merely a sample it still retails some of the essence of being from something greater. Very nice compression that crumbles in the fingers, no need to be bludgeoned.

Three pots in I am a little bemused, the soup is quite thick to the mouth but there isn't much oomph. I seem to of brewed some very sweet oil. I inspect the foil bag containing the rest of the sample to pass time as I boil some more water and find the leaves to be very attractive, a nice mix of greens and darker olives with streaks of silver but lacking much aroma. I'm finding myself searching for a huigan desperately instead of being given one without escape.

Freshly boiled water at hand I decide to let the time pass as I bathe the leaves. Went too far, it's bitter and tastes like cologne. I try again and this time come up a little too short. In my frustration for brewing like a chump I ditch the rest of the soup and grab another tea, my journey up Nannuo will go no further today and I take rest at, what must be, base camp.

Some days I brew tea and it's excellent, the very next time the same tea falls flat. Considering this I should put this sample to one side and return to it another day.

Xiaguan Elegant Frisbee 2008

2011-02-07T04:39:00.000-08:00

I'm back into the groove of drinking pu erh again. Today's bing has something of a toy like attraction to it, I say that because holding this cake after the chubby, flakey Ding Xing has really intrigued me. The iron compression so typical of Xiaguan has rendered the leaves into a tea frisbee! It's hard and well defined, it's edges are cutting and sharp. I have no doubt that if I were to venture down to the park today I could let loose and this baby would fly.

Fearing that my cha dao would be repelled by the tight weave of the tiny leaves I plunged into it and found that a 15 gram lump easily came off, (in a Homer style) mmm tobacco. Calculating one third I plopped it into my pot admiring the silver tips as it went in. One quick rinse and off we go.

I have had some quite aromatic teas in the last week or so so I was expecting some more fireworks out of my fragrance cup but there wasn't a whole lot going on first up. The smell reminded me of something from my childhood, hot orange cordial. The second infusion woke up the Benson and Hedges in this tea and it suddenly become very, very tobacco. It's orange hue soup was a little more rough and ready than I was expecting but led itself into a very interesting huigan that gripped my tongue.

I pushed the brewing a little further, a little brave considering how brutish the tea was. The outcome was an even heavier tobacco kick with more perfume, a quick cooling sensation on the lips and a much stronger huigan. I'm quite amused by the gripping feeling on my tongue. It doesn't last forever though, I'm not sure of how many infusions I made but my 1.5 litre bottle of Evian is nearly done.

How would such a tea age? I am most curious. I was given possible sneak preview of how my belolved but rather scary Nada Bulang would turn out by sampling Nada's Heng Li Chang Bu Lang. I know very little about Xiaguan teas and I would love to know of a sample that would give me a heads up on how Father Time would treat this tea.

A very worthwhile tea that is full of character in it's form and also in it's soup. I mean, isn't pu erh just great? It's an almost endless journey of discovery.

** It is at this point that I realise that I have already, in fact, blogged this tea in sample form. It turns out that I didn't really care for it much first time around. Perhaps my ability to appreciate tea has grown over the last year or so, or perhaps I just had an off session. I am certainly enjoying my life a lot more now than then and that could have a huge impact on how much I bond with my tea **

Old Notorious Ding Xing

2011-02-03T05:34:00.000-08:00

Along comes a tea once in a while that causes a bit of a stir. It's not because of it's excellence, everyone agreed that it's pretty good for the price, but it is because it has some controversy and is also pretty cheap. The controversy over this cake is it's age and that it comes from a slightly shady seller, not as shady as the geezer that sells little bags of herbs openly in public on Camden Town bridge but someone still of questionable repute. Cheap to boot too as you could score these for puppies for about £20 I believe on Taobao and much kudos to Hobbes for giving us advice on how to purchase them, even more kudos for updating his blog on this cake's availability at Pu Erh Shop. So off to Pu Erh Shop I went and picked up a couple. I'm not as bigger collector as some so I tend to buy one for keeps and one to drink.

The wrapping has been eaten somewhat by bugs or what have you, one of my cakes much more than the other so I chose the most tarnished cake (chubby little bugger) for my drinking cake. I inspected it for frosting and there was just the slightest hint and with a swish of my knife the leaf happily crumbled off. Being about ten years old is a funny old age for pu erh, past it's teenage years the leaf has some signs of maturity but you can appreciate how it must of looked when it was new. I popped about 5 grams into a gaiwan for brewing and gave it a rinse and was immediately greeted by those pleasant woody aromas.

This tea is very nice, I must say that I like it a lot. It's very smooth in the mouth and after an abortive attempt where the flavour rose no further than my throat, it has given me an extremely rewarding huigan full of peach. The cha qi is also very noticeable, uplifting to the eyes and forehead early on and then settling to warm my middle jiao followed by warmth creeping to my upper jiao. How rewarding this session is!

My collection is made up of teas mainly between the 2007 to 2010 range and although I occasionally pick up small quantities of old tea I didn't have any cakes younger than 2006. Given it's availability and price I heartily recommend picking up some of this tea before it goes.

Tea in Abu Dhabi

2011-02-01T06:19:00.000-08:00

I am lucky enough to have a 'day job' that gives me the opportunity to travel the world and also earn a reasonable living. I was delighted to discover then that Wasps rugby union team had moved a game from their industrial estate bound ground in High Wycombe to Abu Dhabi, more so that it gave me a chance to escape the sub zero temperatures. I'm no sun lizard, my skin is rather opaque but my joints are getting creakier by the year and the sun is a marvellous tonic.

Our hotel and ground was at the very luxurious Palace Hotel, every inch an effort to demonstrate just how much money the sheiks have at their disposal but in reality a soulless monstrosity built by the hands of down trodden Indian and Pakistani workers. I have a real gripe with what you see behind the scenes in places like Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

Tucked away in one corner of the beach (resplendent with it's imported sand) was an opportunity to sample something missing from the rest of the complex, some culture! Even more surprising was that it was entirely free, not a room number request in sight. In an open sided tent sat a local man who spoke little english.

"Come! Come!" he said as he waved, "Sit, rest."

He surrounded himself with various pots, some tongs and a supply of charcoal and it was his job to brew tea and coffee whilst people waited to ride camels.

"Tea? Coffee?" was the cue for my face to light up and a few moments later I was the proud owner of a glass of tea. I no longer felt compelled to mooch about the hotel grounds and I grabbed my opportunity to sit back and read a translation with commentaries of the Nan-Ching (nan jing for those pin yin minded people) by the thorough sinologist Paul Unschuld.

The brew was exactly how I wouldn't prepare tea, sweeter than a sherbet fountain but despite this I enjoyed it immensely, vive la difference! My new friend seemed very insistent that I had some coffee too which was also unusual. It came in a cup not much bigger than my chinese tea cups and had a heavy flavour of mint through it.

A place must be a good place if you have no idea how long you spent there. I read my book (or as much of it as I could absorb, which isn't a lot when it comes to Unschuld) and drank several cups of tea and coffee. Along came an offering of a few dates and I found out through sign language that the man had a real interest in camel racing. Sign language doesn't take you very far and he went back to fanning his coals and brewing more tea.

I walked away feeling very content with the experience, it was genuine and enriching, a saving grace for the hotel that up to that point had little to offer anything beyond skin deep. I went back there again the next morning and saw my friend who greeted me with the same words and I watched him light his fire and prepare his drinks. Work intervened and I was drawn back into the hotel's grasp.

Drinking tea is becoming more about the moment of the tea as opposed to the tea itself, that is the true gift it brings me.

A lot of do about Qi

2011-01-27T03:16:00.000-08:00

Hmmm, it's happened again, I have gone on the tea buying rampage. From Xiaguan to Douji to the now notorious Dingxing cake, it's all on it's way inbound to The Corn Barn (that's where I live).

I thought I would write something about the topic of 'qi' and my opinion on what it is (this is the sort of thing that crosses my mind on a day off sitting at my tea table). In fact, the inspiration for this was all started by a marvelous sensation in my chest which I squarely attribute to Nada's Bulang which I am revisiting today. A lot is said about cha qi, but what on earth is 'qi'?

Although I am a practicing acupuncturist and herbalist one thing I am not is a member of the spiritual hippy brigade! There is a type of person that is attracted to practicing acupuncture in the west and they are usually middle aged females with a new age, spiritual aspect to them (85% of students at my old acupuncture college fit this stereotype). As a result one of the core concepts of Asian medicine, qi, is rather over romanticised. It need not be.

Do you have to 'believe' in qi? No, not if you have a pair of eyes and nerve endings. Qi describes anything with motion, temperature and function. When you lift your arm and scratch your nose, it is qi. Regardless of the actual biomechanical function that enables you to move you will be perfectly correct in stating that it was an act of qi, it moved thus it was a result of some qi.

You can't grasp it as it is formless. You can grasp your moving arm but that is the substance you have just touched, you have not touched the movement itself. Heat plus water creates steam, you can touch the steam, feel the heat but all that is on your skin is the water. You can touch flames but you can't hold them.

Peristalsis, the movements of your gastrointestinal tract is just another thing that can be labeled qi, it makes you poop and it makes you burp. This isn't magic we are talking about, it's just a word that embodies anything that moves be it the rain or your mood.

Anger, it makes you so mad your face goes red! You want to stand up and punch the nearest inanimate object. You could explain the exact process that flushes blood to your face or you could use the Chinese abstract physiological model that anger belongs to the liver, liver belongs to the wood phase, the wood phase surges upwards and this is why your blood goes to the face and you feel so animated. Is it strictly accurate? no but it does the job of understanding the relationship of things.

So, what is cha qi? If you feel it and it has a moving quality to it, a temperature then you are perfectly correct in explaining it as an expression of qi without having to wear hemp trousers and meditate. Of course, if you like hemp trousers and meditation you can do that too.. ;-)

Rant over.

Five in one, 五味子

2011-01-20T04:22:00.000-08:00

Again, a little bit off the usual tea topic, I thought I would would sing the praises of a medicinal herb. It's a real favourite of mine, wŭ wèi zĭ or schisandra fruit.

The first place to look if you really want to get to know a herb is in the classics. Chinese medicine has arguably been going more backwards than forwards since the Han dynasty. The majority of herbal formula still used today originate from this time and many modern formulas are based on classical ones (you can instantly tell the ones that don't). Zhang Zhong Jing, the author of the Han classic the Shang Han Lun, took his knowledge straight from the Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing, and it is in this classic we first examine this herb.

Wu Wei is sour and warm. It mainly boosts the qi, treating cough and counterflow qi ascent, taxation damage, and languor and emaciation. It supplements insufficiency, fortifies yin, and boosts male's essence. It grows in mountains and valleys.

Although it has a sour energetic, it actually has all the five tastes on the palette, hence the name one presumes. Sour is the representative taste of the wood element the theory classic, the Nei Jing, tells us that sour tonifies the metal element. You can imagine the movement of sour being analogous to breathing in, it is an inward, conserving dynamic. Certainly when you breath in you are boosting your qi via the lung (lung being a metal element organ) and if you don't believe me I suggest you reverse the process by breathing out and go for a sprint.

Zhang Zhong Jing primarily used schisandra as a modification herb, it was added to formula if certain symptoms were present and in the case of schisandra it was used for coughing. Throughout the Shang Han Lun you see it paired with dried ginger and wild chinese ginger which added the effect of drying and warming the lung for wet coughs.

It supplements insufficiency, fortifies yin, and boosts male's essence.

Broadly speaking, yin is a term for material bodily fluids and essence relates to sexual fluids. But from a Chinese perspective how does this work? Using a five element model we already understand that the sour dynamic tonifies the metal element. Part of that element is the lung and the concept that the lung is the upper source of water in the body and that the metal element is in charge of downward movement. When we tonify metal we are able to manifest water and descend it downwards towards the kidney, resonant with the water element and sexual function. This is a classic example of the five element sheng 生 cycle where metal gives birth to water.

I love this herb, it tackles cough very well and also gives off a nice dark fruit flavour to formula. TCM practitioners also note it's ability to curb sweating, stop diarrhea, spermatorrhea and many more uses. I'm a bit old school so I'm keeping with it's original Han dynasty use.

Making Zhi Gan Cao

2010-12-18T06:35:00.000-08:00

Well, I am being snowed in today so it's a perfect opportunity to mess about at home. It was suggested to me after my Kuki entry yesterday to try my hand at roasting the twigs further, all good fun and the result being a heavily roasted tea!

I thought I would try my hand at roasting another twig that it used in more Oriental medicinal teas than any other hands down, gan cao or liquorice to the rest of us. It is used to tonify the Chinese concept of the spleen (a view which isn't just restricted to the Western spleen organ), moisten the Chinese 'lung' and also detoxifies and harmonises other herbs in formulas. Zhi gan cao is made by dry stir frying it with honey and is said to increase it's spleen and lung tonifying effects plus enhance it's effect on coughing.

The zhi gan cao supplied to me from my herb merchant is an industrially produced version that keeps for a long time, good for my stocks but it doesn't actually resemble real zhi gan cao. So with a dry wok in hand, some honey, liquorice and plenty of spare time I stirred away!

The results were very passable and even by itself quite tasty if not a little chewy. This, however, is a tea blog so I thought I would make some tea with it. My partner is a chronic spleen qi vacuity case borne out of her poor diet and overwork so with my new honey liquorice I prepared a batch of ren shen tang or ginseng decoction.

This tea is prepared in about a litre of water and boiled until about half remains which takes a good hour or so. It's an excellent tonic for those with poor digestion, loose stool and limbs that feel like they are lined with lead.

In this picture you can see the end result, the zhi gan cao on the left with the gan cao on the right. Preparing herbal medicinals is becoming a bit of a lost art nowadays, it's not really taught here in the West at colleges and most practitioners are buying their herbs in convenient granule forms that are easy to take. As well as honey roasting you can also prepare herbs with salt, vinegar, dried earth, baked; the list goes on. Tea bags destroy the enjoyment of the original plant, you don't get to touch, feel or smell it and it's the same with herbs.

Thanks for the suggestion to roast my Kuki! What if I honey roast ...

A fun experiment, in with the wok goes my more twiggy Kuki from Clearsprings, a dollop of honey and out she comes, my invention! Tetsubin at the ready I prepare the tea in one of my pots and I wait a few minutes to steep. The result? rather average if not slightly worst than rather average....

Still, one wouldn't know if one did not try.

Kuki Hojicha (Ippodo Tea)

2010-12-17T12:27:00.000-08:00

Not for the first time have I crossed paths with Kuki cha. My first exposure to this almost oxymoronic leafless tea was after hanging out with some macrobiotic friends that drink Kuki regularly as part of their dietary regime. It's none too difficult to obtain this tea in the UK from Clearsprings, a Japanese food brand and I have a bag of the stuff in my tea village (or cupboard if you may). Since I was ordering Matcha from Ippodo in Kyoto I also got myself a bag of this tea. It's cost effective and low in caffeine so it makes an excellent evening tea.

The aroma of this tea dry is anything but subtle, the bag absolutely assaults the nose like a prize boxer with a grudge to bear. Pop! 'ave that! ... ouch. I must be some sort of misguided masochist or something as I keep going back for another whiff. Sickly sweet like a pot of bubbling bramble jam is the only way I can put it.

Unsure of how to actually make Kuki properly, in a pot one presumes, I rebel and decide to brew it in a gaiwan with xiangbei cups. The blackberry jam aroma follows it with a liquorice under current, the caramel soup has lost a lot of the sweetness and holds an easy roasted malt with a nuttiness. The tea doesn't show much endurance beyond it's third infusion.

It's a cheap and simple thrill that is instantly scrummy and warming, just right for the cold winter. Perhaps this is the tea equivalent of a bag of chips smothered with salt and vinegar!

Kimmo-no-mukashi (Ippodo)

2010-12-14T17:19:00.000-08:00

I suppose that one of the attractions of being a tea fan is just the sheer variety of teas in the world. You could spend a life time honing your tastes towards just one type of tea, discovering it's complexities year after year. I, however, just enjoy tea. There's nothing better than a nice cup of Earl Grey or an extended session with an old Pu Erh. Whatever your mood there is a tea to match.

I am currently on a challenge to myself right now, to learn more about Matcha. I could be mistaken but I think I drank my first bowl of Matcha in Uji, Japan. Not a bad place to start. The 'tea' street in Uji though is a rather tourist heavy spot and I'm sure the best places are in fact the ones hidden away in the back streets.

One of the best places to start with any sort of tea could well be with the really bad stuff, tea so bad that when you have some of the good stuff the difference knocks your socks off! As previously mentioned I have a rather large bag of the bad stuff in my fridge, it's essentially cooking Matcha. It's bitter, slightly yellow and thin. The next stop was Jing UK's Matcha which was very nice, very smooth and sweet. The first time I whisked it I was amazed just how the 'head' came out, thick and creamy like the head of a pint of stout!

I decided to source some from Kyoto's Ippodo store and forked out for their 'high quality' Kimmo-no-mukashi and 'premium quality' Wakamatsu-no-mukashi teas. The latter being twice the cost of the former. My original idea was to compare them side by side which worked out just fine when comparing the aromas of the powder. I actually prefer the cheaper Kimmo-no-mukashi, it was a little stronger, perhaps a little more pungent and had a heavy overtone of cooked banana with some white chocolate.

I don't think I'll be trying a side by side taste test again though. I am finding it quite difficult to discern the differences between similar Matcha without having the both of them over lapping each other. To my mind both of them tasted more bitter than Jing UK's. They did have plenty of complexity but I am just without the vocabulary to describe what I found. It's worth mentioning that the Kimmo-no-mukashi is a third of the cost (discarding postage) and the Wakamatsu-no-mukashi a little over two thirds of the Jing UK. It's a little like going back to square one with Pu Erh again. All rather frustrating when you can't describe what you feel. Whilst frustrated I am also as high as a kite after drinking both bowls.

Tomorrow morning I'll finish off the last of my Jing UK and see how it goes.

** next morning **

This morning's test consisted of drinking the Jing UK matcha then the Wakamatsu-no-mukashi. I wasn't imagining it, the Jing UK (I wish this tea had a name instead of calling it by the company) was much more sweet pea than banana in the aroma, thicker and smoother with the froth consisting of smaller bubbles and hence firmer. The Wakamatsu-no-mukashi was less pleasant on the palette, slightly sour cream, but had a longer sweeter after taste. The after taste (what is the Japanese for huigan?) is much more pronounced. Two bowls has left me awfully giddy, let's hope that I don't get the shakes as I have an acupuncture patient in an hour or so.

Hmmm, so I wonder. I preferred the taste and smoothness of the Jing UK but the Wakamatsu-no-mukashi was a more complex experience...

Winter greens..

2010-12-06T04:17:00.000-08:00

Should we drink green tea in Winter? I suppose the energetic purists amongst us would say no, it's not the season for it. Winter is dark, cold and is all about root vegetables as opposed to a nice fresh salad. But we live in a land of loft insulation and radiators so why not crank up the heating and enjoy something green? As you can see by my pictures I have something new to drink tea out of and I thought I'd show it off a bit.

Hagi ware (or Blobby-ware™) was something I was quite unsure about when I first saw it whilst perusing various tea blogs (the Sip-Tip was the likely source). I have to admit I thought it looked rather naff. Time went by though and those chaotic blobs started to grow on me but the fact that I didn't really like matcha too much and I associate Hagi with that unusual green frothy brew more so than regular green tea, meant that I didn't bother purchasing a bowl. The prices on various websites for Hagi put me right off too!

I must admit to having a rather large bag of rather awful matcha. Occasionally I would froth some up with my electric whisker gadget and gulp it down with the knowledge that it was good for me as opposed to actually interesting my taste buds. I finally got around to purchasing a chasen whisk and despite my most frantic efforts I couldn't get the damn stuff to froth up with it!

There must be more to this though I pondered so I decided to shell out for some better matcha. Without a clear idea where to actually buy good matcha I went to Jing UK to purchase theirs. **edit** Sure, Jing UK have been accused for marking up their pu erh prices as noted by the blogging stalwart Hobbes, but the tea they sell is always reasonable at the very least and the postage quick. **edit-see comments**

I was genuinely surprised just how much difference there was, this time around the matcha was smooth, it frothed well and had a decent green pea flavour. All of a sudden I'm interested and in my flurry of interest I got myself my new Blobby-ware™ bowl from Japan. The textures of the bowl makes the experience a more tactile affair but I wish it was heavier and gravity left me really grasping it's odd surface. The price of matcha makes repeated bowls an insanely expensive tipple so I don't have much chance to really appreciate the moment, it's a little fleeting.

I would like to delve a little deeper into both matcha and Hagi.. where would you suggest?

Jin De Zhen tea set

2010-09-30T05:22:00.000-07:00

I have been slumming it somewhat with my various gaiwans and cups since I started my little tea fetish. As with all hobbies I guess at first glance the prices of the finer things are shocking but after time one's 'price gag reflex' starts to relax and we spend ever increasing amounts. So I have been getting by on some rather average gaiwans that was until today when my Jin De Zhen tea set came to visit.

The set comprised of a gaiwan, jug and six cups with matching fragrance cups at a total cost of about £62. I must say that I was very much drawn towards the use of fragrance cups after seeing them in Hobbes' excellent tea blog. After much searching around the internet I didn't find much to choose from and settled for a non glazed set which Nada had lying about but the naked clay seemed to absorb the aromas. Do I need six cups? no, but as it came as a set I decided to go 'all in'.

Whilst not hugely priced this is a very decent tea set for the money. Perhaps it is all in my mind but I have really enjoyed my first session, the more subtle flavours in the soup were easier to discern, the huigan improved and the smoothness of the cups as they touched my lips gave me an extra dimension to each sip. Today was a good day for drinking tea.

Why didn't I invest earlier?

Our little London trip

2010-09-21T05:23:00.000-07:00

It's one of those things, I take my girlfriend to see Camden Town in London, a busy market renown for quirky fashion, in your face food stall sellers and dodgy dudes hawking oregano in little plastic baggies. We spent a good couple of hours mooching around, I was happy to just tag alongside until I caught sight of some teapots.

"Tea!!!" I proclaimed and off I scuttled, probably showing the first real interest in the afternoons browsing. Somewhere near the very northern edge of the stables area of Camden was a little tea shop specialising in matcha and other Japanese green teas. For about three quid or so a drink, we sat down with a matcha and a more fancy genmaicha matcha latte with the usual complimentary sweet tit bits that come with it. The fare was actually kinda ordinary, but this is Camden after all and it provided me with a welcome little tea break away from the usual Camden garb.

Next stop, Vitaorganics in the Soho district, an oasis of good nutritional vegan food and a favourite place of mine to eat when I'm in the area. I just feel better about myself after eating there. Again for three quid or so I ordered a pot of kukicha as the day was dragging on and I felt like avoiding caffeine. Out came a small tetsubin pot of quite tasty kukicha resplendent with nuttiness and sweetness. I had a peep inside the pot for the twigs only to be disappointed with naught. It's not a fancy tea nor complex but it's thick caramel soup kept me entertained whilst I munched away and watched the unusual locals go about their unusual Soho lives.

Sometimes it is not really about the tea you drink but the experience around it that lingers in the memory for the years that pass us by. I think I might have some more matcha and kukicha soon.

Why do I drink tea?

2010-09-06T03:51:00.000-07:00

An odd hobby?

It is an odd hobby I suppose, drinking cow pat shaped lumps of tea that can cost more than gold but there is little about my choice of past times that could be considered mainstream.

You begin to notice things in greater detail

I guess the main reason why is that I have the chance to develop an appreaciation for something elusive and fine. By seeking such I also have a chance to reflect inwardly upon myself which is a gift. Lastly, and most unexpectedly, I have met new friends, again a great gift.

Why do you drink tea?

2010 Nannuo (Essence of Tea)

2010-09-03T05:58:00.000-07:00

Even the Emperor can wear simple clothes

It's no secret that I have the complete selection of pu erhs from Essence of Tea this year after my visit to Falmouth. I didn't realise that they had picked a Nannuo this year and correspondingly didn't put it on my list until Nada mentioned it.

"No harm in having another cake!"

I poured out some spring water that was a full five litres the day before but was now two thirds gone! Have I really been drinking so much? Like the other cakes from Nada a chunk of leaf was prized off without much of a fight and the individual parts easily spread, "There seems to be a few extra streaks of silver." I noticed. A strong fragrance from the bing emerged.

Forgive my rather naff pictures taken off my iPhone, I tried my best to capture the light yellow colour of the soup. Using very quick steeps the soup was indeed fruity, very melon like, sweet as sugar with a strong presence of green apples. I thought it was a little bit astringent, which again made me think of apples, as my mouth was left a little dry, the huigan was candy sweet too around the sides of my tongue.

Light clear soup

After several infusions it started to settle down and level out with straw and butter, I feared the most that I had finished my journey when up pops the huigan again filling out the back of my mouth. A few more infusions and the job was done.

Tea in the park

2010-09-01T10:35:00.000-07:00

Uneven pouring on uneven ground

Today's theme doing the tea blogging rounds is tea outside so it seems and as I have just this minute returned from sitting in the park with some roasted Dong Ding oolong I thought it apt to post a picture or two.

Actually the tea was quite spoilt by the remaining flavour of my flask tainting the water with the faint whiff of Chinese herbs.

I love my new pot

Still, tea was drunk, food was devoured and an interesting passage on the clinical application of Rhei Radix et Rhizoma (大黄) was read.

1997 Hen Li Chang Bu Lang (Essence of Tea)

2010-08-30T05:28:00.000-07:00

A fine brandy?

One of the parting gifts from Nada during our visit a couple of weeks ago was this tea. It's nice to be able to have a chance to drink a pu erh from the late nineties again as I think it's a fascinating age where the tea goes from youth into maturity. I just wish I could of been able to track just how a pu erh reaches this stage year by year, what a education that would be!

Infused by the Sun, yang within yin.

The dry leaf crumbled effortlessly into my larger gaiwan, it's so nice to not have to hack away with a hammer and chisel to get at the leaf (cough.. cough.. Xiaguan..). The dark honey amber soup was re-soundly in the realm of wood without being too earthy. I decided to brew using shorter steeps after my experiences at the Essence of Tea as I do have a tendency to go over the top, this also causes me to zero out passing distractions so I can fully concentrate on the tea. If there is one thing my life needs it is some tranquility, drinking tea at home gives me my only chance to truly slow down and concentrate inwardly.

Several steeps in the numbness on my lips goes up several notches and the session becomes more interesting all of a sudden with a fascinating expression of cha qi. I spend the next while focussing my attention on just how this feels and being quite tea drunk my mind wonders on the topic of kettles and water.

So far I have experimented a bit on using different waters from tap to filter to bottle and how to boil it. As I write this I am using a relatively cheap tetsubin on an induction heater that bleeps and whistles more than R2D2! I have always had an eye on an old tetsubin like the one pictured above and recently I have also taken a shine to a copper kettle from Postcard Teas but the truth is that spending a long distance flight amount of money on a kettle seems to be a little bit extravagant an expense at the moment. I suppose a more sensible first step would be to spend a tenth of that money on a less collectable item to give me an idea on the effects of a copper kettle.

The volume of my little tetsubin is small and I rarely have need to re-boil the water. I suppose if I were to have a larger kettle then I will be forced to bring the water to temperature again and again, would that have a negative effect on the taste of the water? One supposes it does but in reality I am without much actual insight.

Visiting Nada

2010-08-30T04:46:00.000-07:00

Holiday makers on the busy High Street pass a tea oasis

Finally given a whole four day break in my busy cricket schedule myself and my partner head down the long road to Cornwall and pitch up our tent in a rather wet and windy farmers field a few miles from the town of Falmouth, home of Nada and his newly opened tea shop Essence of Tea. Nada's teas are no doubt well known to many of you, every year he makes the trip to Yunnan and sources out very promising pu erh and then sells it on without hiking up the price (there is a lesson to be learnt there tea sellers!) giving the western audience a terrific source of good tea. Pitching our tent so close to Falmouth was no coincidence and as soon as our breakfast was in our bellies we headed off to find the shop. After a couple of loops around the block, being given a bum steer by Google Maps we came across this most wonderful of tea shops. Nada's wife was sitting by the table, happily brewing tea for one of the locals and within a few minutes we were nattering away sipping to our hearts content.

Many fine teas to choose from

Over the next couple of days I lost count of how much tea had been drunk, the flow was constant and fine. Such a shop is a brave adventure considering the UK high street folk but one by one people who came in to mooch around were politely encouraged to spend time around the table and be given a true tea experience, how lucky they are!

Essence of Tea on the outside may be a delightful shop but the real essence is not of the tea but that of the couple that run it. We left after a couple of days feeling like we were leaving old friends quite touched by their warmth and promising to make the journey again to spend time sipping tea in their company. Thanks guys!

Master Xu's Rou Gui

2010-08-04T08:03:00.000-07:00

Nutty and sweet in aroma, a thoroughly enjoyable tea..

.. short and sweet, there's something about yancha I can't really grasp!

Behold the Beast of Bulang!!

2010-08-02T07:20:00.000-07:00

What seems like an age ago and was only a year or so I received a shipment of sample Pu Erhs from The Essence of Tea owner, DC. The one stand out tea of that shipment was his 2009 Bulang, it was extremely bitter and challenging to drink. Unfortunately I was too late to grab myself a full bing as they had all been sold and my sample soon dwindled to nowt.

The beast returns though, in it's 2010 guise and this time I managed to snag myself a bing. Would it be as potent as last years? Well, with my parcel arriving in double time from DC, I launched myself upon it. Brewing 4.6 grams of leaf in a 100ml gaiwan I set about brewing this mighty tea once more. I consciously kept the steeping time shorter than 15 seconds and took my first sip.

Almost swearing, the soup was swallowed. This tea is an unadulterated assault of bitter lemon rind upon the palette! I cowered somewhat and reduced my second steep to just 10 seconds in an attempt to bring the beast upon some control. What followed was several rounds of myself locking horns with a formidable foe, again and again we clashed leaving me bewildering tea drunk and strongly moved by the chaqi. The huigan was most curious and quite unique, it felt like it wanted to express itself but was somehow shrouded.

Rather sheepishly I took the bing and set it into storage, I was soundly defeated. This tea fascinates me, it is several magnitudes more potent than anything else I have tried. I can only imagine how time will warp it's characteristics and ultimately tame the beast. I am really looking forward locking horns once again in a few months time.

Postcard Teas and the 100 year old Shui Xian

2010-07-28T04:56:00.000-07:00

How nice it is to be able to blog again but why the absence? The truth is that I have been just too busy to sit down and enjoy my tea for months now. My life has become a non stop rollercoaster ride of work and study which has been exhausting and there is little light at the end of the tunnel. My medical studies have really come along and I feel like I am finally getting somewhere. Today though is a day of rest, I have fought off illness and long days to have this solitary day sitting at home, giving me the chance to just relax and drink some fine tea.

On my way to clinic in London's Harley Street I had a chance to pop by a place I had only ever visited on Sundays (when the doors are closed). Postcard Teas sits just off Oxford Street a couple of minutes walk from the Apple store. The shop feels more like an art gallery than a retail outlet with it's well thought out displays. There are many fine quality wares with equally fine quality prices too, not for the faint hearted.

The owner is a very approachable chap and we had a good natter about tea, the weather in China this year and touched bases on people we both knew from the tea world.

My time was short so I had to leave but I left feeling rather content and ready for my clinical challenges that waited for me. I also walked off with a couple of samples generously donated to me, 'You might as well just have these for free as you will like them and want more!'.

Both samples were from Wuyi Shan and today's tipple is a Shui Xian from 100 year old trees. I am an admitted numpty when it comes to yan cha, but I do remember having a chat with a good tea chum about these teas and he recommended that I gave Postcard Teas' yan cha a go. Instead of making notes as I drunk I decided to just sit back and enjoy myself. I wasn't let down by this tea either, it is most agreeable! It had all the usual yan cha goodness but the huigan really stood out as did the endurance of the leaf. This tea kept me captivated for a good hour (which is a long time for someone with the attention span of a small child!).

It's good to be back.

France 1 England 0

2010-05-04T13:28:00.000-07:00

Not a football score I may add.

Here I am in the picturesque town of Biarritz as part of my work (a hard life it isn't). I had a couple of hours to spend looking around so I dropped by a café for a drink and some nibbles. Along came the menu and to my surprise I found this.

Ok, it wasn't the finest pu erh, in fact I wasn't really sure that it was pu erh at all really. It wasn't dark enough for a shu but certainly not green like sheng. The taste was pretty unspectacular but it kept me amused enough through my hangover. I didn't take a picture of the tea bag but it was a nice cotton affair instead of the more common, and rather pointless, plastic perforated bag that I regularly see in France.

Come on England, get your act together and be more serious about tea!

Xiaguan FT Exquisite Elegance 2008 (YS)

2010-04-20T02:59:00.000-07:00

The spring has arrived and my hay fever mercifully isn't too bad today, so it's back to the blog I go.

I've been waiting a while for a new tea and upon my door came two examples of Xiaguan raw pu erhs, the first I'll tackle today. Certainly 'Exquisite Elegance' is a grand name but can the tea come up with the goods?

I haven't drunk much Xiaguan in the past but from what I have read the compression is tight and this tea doesn't do anything to disprove that myth. The majority of the sample came out of the foil bag in one large chunk! I wimped out of trying to prize a five gram lump and stuck to brewing up the loose leaf left over which came in handsomely to 5.1 grams.

Fitting with the volcanic activity that has brought the skies to a halt over the last week I am brewing this tea with Volvic water that filters through volcanic soil. The pot's aroma has tobacco, legume and dark winter berries coming up from the noticeably small leaf. The soup itself comes across not as potent as the aroma might of suggested but has a slight sweetness to it that grabs the sides of the tongue and builds up.

You know, it's just so nice to concentrate on tea again. My life has been a hubbub of activity recently and doesn't seem like it's going to slow down. It's my fault really with work, fatherhood, my degree and a diploma in Chinese herbal medicine too for good measure. Tea gives me a chance to slow down though and focus on a single aspect for just a moment though. What a joyous and useful hobby drinking tea is in modern life.

The second infusion hasn't changed much, no bitterness and a smooth quality, it coats the tongue nicely, a little bit numbing. The huigan builds slowly and I notice myself rolling my tongue around in the mouth a lot, God knows what I look like to any passers by my window. Along comes the third infusion, more bitter now but still lacking a bit of oomph, oh dear. It seems like like this tea just doesn't have enough in it to captivate my senses and the brief break from the outside world starts to fade in tandem.

On with the study and the pot becomes a side show.

Ten minutes later....

2010-04-16T02:27:00.000-07:00

Well, as soon as I had posted my last entry there was a knock at the door and my two month wait for the Xiaguan was over. Now that's timing!

Guess I will blog again on my return from work...

Tea, tea all around but not a drop to drink...

2010-04-16T02:01:00.000-07:00

I have been unusually quiet on the blog since the start of last month. The reason for this is quite simple, I just don't have any new tea to review I'm afraid. It's not that I haven't ordered any, in fact, I have been waiting almost two months for one shipment of Xiaguan samples to arrive (something which happens quite often when shipping from China). I also have a considerable collection of tea now and I am busy making my way through my tea mountain before stocking up on new teas. I'm also waiting out for Nadacha to stock it's 2010 bings of which I wish to buy a couple of each I think.

As I'm typing this I am happily finishing off my '93 7542, very nice it is too!

2007 Mengku Lao Ban Zhang mini brick (YS)

2010-03-15T06:46:00.000-07:00

The story of this tea brick is as repetitive as a Hollywood blockbuster, an expedition travels to Ban Zhang and picks leaves off old trees that were cut back in the Cultural Revolution. As if I haven't heard that one before!

The brick itself is quite 'cute', small in size and very light in the hand. There is a warning that the bricks might not reach the 100 gram mark due to inconsistent pressing, mine came in at 81 grams, a long way short of the century!

The pressing is indeed very light and it was easy to pry off a nice chunk for my pot without too much bludgeoning, something I am quite guilty of in the past

After the rinse the pot still produced a strong legume aroma with a slightly smokey background. It was more reminiscent of a 2008 or 2009 tea. The soup was still yellow and thin, the initial flavour was exactly how I expected it to be, not too potent and still quite fresh.

The lack of potency caused me to adjust my brewing times longer to try to extract more character. This improved things bringing out some more bitterness, a little lemon rind and some apricot tones to the huigan aftertaste. It troubles me though that I have to really beat the flavours out of the leaf. In my mind a good tea will happily give you it's complexities and retain a nice energetic feeling to it. By brewing longer you might produce more layers to a tea but they still seem rather dull in the mouth.

Well, it didn't cost a lot, about £8 for the brick so that'll work out at around about 50p per session, the price of a Twix. This brick will most definitely be moved into my everyday tea group, and it's not going to be at the front of that queue either.

Nothing to do in Llandudno

2010-02-27T06:52:00.000-08:00

The North Welsh coast in February, nothing to drink but pots of PG Tips and fighting off seagulls the size of velociraptors.

2007 Pu Jing Hao Yi Wu (Sampan Tea)

2010-02-22T05:47:00.000-08:00

Reams of smoke and heavy, heavy tobacco are what this tea is about. It's like drinking a dark potent oak casked whisky and the red grape huigan aftertaste is fills the mouth especially around the lower palette.

At first I found this tea to be rather too much but I have grown to enjoy it when I want a dense and rewarding session. Sometimes when you revisit a tea it seems to offer nothing, all the attributes you remember don't show up but this tea has never failed. It's quite a brute, and I like that.

Just a quick review, I have herbal formulas to commit to memory. Pictures courtesy of my Hipstamatic vintage camera, take the colours with a pinch of salt!

2009 Zhi Ming Du Lao Ban Zhang (Chinese Kung Fu Tea Art)

2010-02-16T06:41:00.000-08:00

Yes, another week and another Ban Zhang tea, it's been a re-occuring theme of mine recently and I'm not done yet. I purchased this tea following a rather glowing review by Adam on his Sip Tip blog and it sounded rather too good to miss out on. It has come at a cost though as it's the most expensive Ban Zhang I have I believe coming in at £23 ($36) per bing but the bing itself is only 100 grams.

I enjoy bludgening the cuteness out of the tiny bing and am left with two fascinating layers that really display the fine spindly nature of the leaf (no pictures I'm afraid he says cursing his Olympus).

The rinsed leaf has a somewhat vegetal aroma to it, shades of Japan. The first infusion is light and green with a good vibrancy on the tongue and is absent from any obvious bitterness. Nothing too captivating here yet.

The second infusion is more potent and thick which retains the vibrancy on the tongue tip and also has a curious numbing of the rear tongue as the huigan issues forth. It certainly fills the mouth with flavours and watering reactions, superbly complex!

By now I'm more relaxed and enjoying this tea's lingering, multi faceted huigan. I would compare it with Yunnan Sourcing's chun qing as both give similar experiences but, memory allowing, I'd give the edge to the zhi ming du as it's complex without going overboard with the perfumed sweetness. One must bear in mind though that it's almost double the price!

I'm glad I've tried this tea and that I've got 95 grams left over for future visits. Yes, it was expensive but I have spent a lot more on yancha in the past. I just wish it had a bit more bitter kick to it.

Happy Chinese New Year fellow tea people

2010-02-12T05:16:00.000-08:00

For may this year bring us much mao cha and good company to drink it with...

I just don't get shu

2010-02-11T04:13:00.000-08:00

It's always a pleasure to receive little freebie's in tea orders, long may the vendors feel obliged to throw in goodies! Today's free hit was a small 100g cooked pu erh cake, quite attractive and 'cute' to behold, so I thought I'd give it a spin.

The aroma of the bing was rather lacklustre and reminded me of cardboard, the comparison to the sheng pu erh cake I received in the same order is not even on the same planet. Out with my cha dao and off with it's head! Separating nicely I congratulate myself for some fine handy work when something catches my eye. Is it a chip of stone? Hard to say as it could well be a shard of glass, either way I don't want it in my tea. I start to wonder if the leaves were swiped up off the floor at some point?

That's scuppered my mood for this tea I'm afraid. For sure you find odd things in pu erh from time to time and I remember seeing a picture recently of a cigarette filter from another blog that escapes me for now. A couple of rinses and I still give this tea a go but except for one small hit of huigan to me it just tastes bland and like the other ripe pu erh I've drunk. Until proven wrong I just don't get this!

Is this just me?

2005 Gan En Lao Ban Zhang (Essence of Tea)

2010-02-10T03:01:00.000-08:00

There is a poem in Chinese that ends with the line 'and to eat in Guangdong.' referring to the food in the southern province being the finest in all of China.

For the select few who read my blog may well know that I'm on a bit of a hunt around for Ban Zhang tea at the moment. It's awfully expensive and as such is the target for unscrupulous business men/con artists to exploit the name to jack up the prices of their tea. We all hear about how good it is like it's the holy grail or something and poor sods like myself spend reasonably large amounts of paypal cash trying to obtain the real deal.

Today's offering is from a familiar source, one that is trustworthy and needs no more introduction. You can pick up a bing of this tea for a smidge under £80, so it's not cheap but in comparison to fresh Ban Zhang bings it's not a massive mark up for nearly 5 years of storage. Another thing is, I believe this to be what is says on the wrapper.

The rinsed leaves still hold onto a little legume but it's clear that this tea is on a pivot edge in it's life as the last of it's youth is in decline. The resulting soup is vibrant to behold and a decent shade of light amber but what taste awaits me?

This is more like it. There is no mistaking the initial layer is one of bitterness that interestingly enough concentrates on the rear portion of my mouth. The transition to sweetness is a rapid affair and I can best describe it as being like dried apricots. I start to fumble the brewing and push the leaves too far, it's still not overly bitter but the tobacco and leather tones become too emphasised.

I curse the flu gods for my congested nose, I suspect my session is muted because of it, however, all is not lost as the marvellous properties of this tea are still evident. The bitterness doesn't hang around forever and sweet tobacco with leather predominates with the apricot and peach kernel finish. I'm left thinking that this tea isn't quite ready yet to be drunk though although highly enjoyable, I just feel that there is better to come.

Perhaps a new line should be added to that poem, 'to drink tea from Ban Zhang.'

1970's Tong Qing Hao Sheng Pu Erh (Essence of Tea)

2010-02-09T06:45:00.000-08:00

I don't get to drink much really old pu erh as it's rather expensive and hard to obtain from trustworthy sources. This is my first excursion into the age of beige and wafty trouser legs, the seventies!

Call me uncouth but I have a harder time sifting through the peat and dark woodiness of aged pu erh for it's finer attributes, I'm putting down to a real lack of experience. So there is no surprise that I jot down the usual superlatives such as peat with sweetness on initial contact with this tea. It's been a hustle bustle sort of a day and suddenly I am pacified. I rarely mention cha qi but there is no mistaking the effect upon myself whilst drinking this tea. I have been rendered quiet and start to enjoy the moment.

With my senses rather more inward I feel a warmth on my ren meridian, a pathway that ascends straight up the forward center line of the body. If I were to choose an acupuncture point it would be radiating from yu tang 玉堂, which is known in English as Jade Hall. Energetically this point helps descend qi in the upper chest cavity and one can easily associate the dynamics of this point with the movement of my mood, for qi is movement at its purest.

What an unexpected surprise this afternoon's session has been. With all the to'ing and fro'ing of my life I have just found a space to reflect. Thank you Nada for a most interesting experience!

2009 American Hao 904 (Pu Erh Shop)

2010-02-04T03:11:00.000-08:00

Now if I haven't already done so, I'm going to really give away how much of a novice I am to pu erh and tea in general. Fresh off drinking the 906 yesterday I am going to re-dip my toes into the solemn waters of the 904. I quite like the American Hao brand as each pressing is unique and brings a different experience to the drinker. I'd much rather enjoy my time with small custom bings than to large production runs any day, who wouldn't?

You see, the 904 was one of the first pu erhs I tried as a sample since I rediscovered tea early last year. I really liked it then but I was hesitant to splash out the $40 or so dollars on a cake, I was quite shocked at the price at the time. The infernal wind of tea pricing has weathered my sensibilities and I am now quite happy to fork out the dosh for my hit.

I unwrap the paper on the bing for the first time and my nose is met with the sweet smell of a tasty honey. In goes a nice chunk of dry leaf, one rinse and we are off!

The wet leaves of fresh pu erh tend to be too legume for my nose but I can't resist to stick my snoz amongst them and behold there is a distinct lack of beans on offer, interesting. Yesterdays 906 was a brash young oik of a tea with a taste and huigan aftertaste to match but the 904 is far more sedate. It beckons you to take notice of its qualities instead of flaunting them in your face.

The flavours are darker and covered with a barbecue ash with a subtle, creeping huigan that builds up steadily as the infusions pass by but never reach a crescendo. There are no fireworks here, just a constant undercurrent of textures to keep one amused if you have the patience to savour them or frustrated if you don't have the environment to take seek them. This is a tea for one of my more quiet mornings I think.

I feel a little jittery but I suspect it has more to do with someone at Morrisons filling the decaf coffee pot with the wrong beans earlier as opposed to the caffeine present in my eleven o'clock tea. A quick peek into the yixing reveals the slightly broken nature of the smallish leaf with patches of oxidisation, quite the opposite of the 906 which had one of the biggest pu erh leaves I had ever seen!

Before you know it things are winding down and lunch time is coming along. Was the tea as good as I remembered? Hard to say, it's the sort of tea I could drink often and I am in the mood for contemplation. Perhaps I should stop typing and focus a little more... ;-)

2009 American Hao 906 (Pu Erh Shop)

2010-02-03T04:44:00.000-08:00

Today with have the sixth American Hao release of 2009 by the well known online retailer, Pu Erh Shop. I am very familiar with the great value 901 and as of this morning have also received one bing of the much more expensive 904 which impressed me as a sample.

The leaves are chock full of silvery tips. The compression is two fold with the edge already starting to crumble under finger pressure however further into the cake it is far more compact.

Aided today by my brand new pot, also from Pu Erh Shop. I haven't yet splashed out a large amount for a pot as I was quite happy my previous $40 or so purchase. I desired another pot so I've forked out a similar amount and here it is. Although the box wasn't so luxurious the pouring of this new pot is quick compared to my other pots, it's like driving a sports car after being used to a transit van!

Here we go then equipped with bamboo charcoal filtered water, my little iron kettle on my induction heater, my new pot and a simple celadon cup.

The yellow soup brings forth some bitterness and plenty of butter. Being so young there is no hiding how green it is! The soup is quite thick, young and rather feisty. Such thickness makes for an interesting throat feel and I don't have to wait too long before the huigan issues forth from the sides of my tongue then difuses itself to the roof of my mouth. The first incarnation of the huigan has interesting complexity too.

Subsequent infusions soon lose the initial burst of bitterness and a more peaceful nature is brought about. The rebellion has been quelled. All the butteriness does make it a little on the rich side and the distraction of the blog caused me to totally over brew the fifth infusion but the resulting soup wasn't undrinkable.

As time passes it becomes a little thinner and flashes of other flavours appear although somewhat fleeting. Hints of melon and cucumber come quickly and leave even quicker. I start to gag a little on all the sweetness and decide to slow down. The last moments of the session leave me with champignons and I ponder what the 904 with offer tomorrow.

As is my habit now I have a little look at the online information on this tea after making my notes to see if I come up with the same sorts of findings and I'm not a million miles away which is reassuring. It's interesting to see that the cake was pressed with bulang and yiwu leaves. Perhaps that burst of bitterness was the former making a statement but the overall impression of the tea was more of sweetness and something that I'd associate with the latter. But what do I know as according to Pu Erh Shop it's the spring yiwu that is bitter, rough and ready!

I had no idea of the cost of the bing as I had completely forgotten but upon checking, $14 seems to be rather reasonable and only the 901 comes in cheaper.

It's not the sort of tea I would want to drink everyday at the moment but as my stock pile increases I will be able to check back every now and then.

2007 Menghai 7542 vs Menghai 8582

2010-01-26T07:09:00.000-08:00

Get two stock sheng pu erh, in this case Menghai's 7542 and 8582, then brew them in gaiwan and drink!

On the left is the 8582 and the orange hue says everything. The leaf was brown, the aroma was molasses with some camphor, the soup was sweet tobacco and sandalwood. The 7542 is on the right, the leaf is more olive with stalks, some legume in the aroma, yellow soup with a liquorice finish.

The flavour of the 8582 outlasted the 7542 noticeably but even though the 7542 lost it's legs it stick hung onto its huigan. I was really surprised to see just how oxidised and orange the '85 was, seriously processed which is a great shame.

Neither tea was particularly outstanding though in any department so I think I'll put them at the bottom of the pile to age. I have much higher hopes for the 7542 though in the years to come.

2009 American Hao 901 (Pu Erh Shop)

2010-01-25T23:45:00.000-08:00

Hmmm.. 6am and I'm wide awake. I'm staring blankly at the ceiling and listening to the cars go by my bedroom, where are all those people going to so early? I live in sleepy Warwick, it's not exactly Time Square.

I have seen an opportunity though to have another look at an old friend of mine, the American Hao 901. Under artificial light, with its yellow hue, I unwrap the bing to be met with a rather pungent melon aroma. I bludgeon the cake with my cha dao and remove about five grams of leaf, pop it into my pot and rinse the tea. In the meanwhile I set up my table, fill my iron kettle and sit patiently whilst my induction heater whizzes and whirs itself into a stupor of heat.

The rather broken leaf in the pot, no doubt the victim of my attack, releases its notes rather quickly. For all of the floral perfume and ponce of a lot of my other fresh sheng this particular tea stands apart. It's not really a case of bitterness but more of an anise perhaps, as usual I'm stuck for adjectives.

There is something so marvellous about being up so early, before the Sun even, and drinking tea. You really can apply your concentration to the moment, it's just so serene.

I do miss waking up early in Hong Kong though, taking a walk outside past the legions of old folk performing their morning exercises, some with swords, heading down to a cafe that's already busy despite it being 5am and having a pot of dubious generic tea, not for drinking but to wash your plates with.

Anyway, back to the American Hao, it's still under a dark shroud. It's like something is holding back the fireworks. Perhaps I should use a different water?

My little session has been interrupted by Michelle, my absence has been noted and joins me by the sofa. With my concentration broken I think I might have some breakfast. Thanks to Adam from The Sip Tip for inspiring me to revisit this tea.

Oh, the Sun's up.

2009 Hai Lang Hao Lao Ban Zhang Gu Shu (Yunnan Sourcing)

2010-01-25T09:57:00.000-08:00

This was a surprise, through the post came yet another 2009 sheng sample, something I was suppose to be cutting out as part of my new year resolutions! I can be forgiven though as much as the Royal Mail can be chastised as I ordered this sample at the start of November and they had been ageing the tea for me for almost three months now. The dry leaf was highly aromatic inside the foil packet, perhaps because it had been closed for such a long time.

First rinse and as expected with such a fresh sheng pu erh the beanie aroma was strong but not too overpowering, shades of spicy winter apples. The soup is a good clear yellow colour, gladly lacking oranges.

Hints of slight smoke in the taste but not unpleasant and good in that it left a tingle on the sides of the tongue. The taste seems to flood the entirety of my mouth, a nice even coating. Evidence of a good early huigan from under the sides of the tongue and I'm enticed to explore further. The taste lingers for some time like a nice floral honey.

Quickly I'm into the fourth infusion and things have started to level out with some bitterness taking over the proceedings and I hang about to wait for the sweet after taste. It doesn't rush onto the scene so I take my time to savour it. So often at the fourth infusion mark many teas just become sweet, this tea holds its own still.

I've made my mind up, I really like this tea. I feel compelled to order a bing which is unusual for me, I'm often just satisfied with a sample only.

How about the price? Oh dear oh dear, pro ported Lao Ban Zhang leaf is never cheap and you never know if you're really getting what you paid for. Hai Lang Hao produces both a 2009 Xin Ban Zhang and Lao Ban Zhang bing at $59 and $73 dollars respectively significantly more expensive than any other tea they produce and almost twice the price of their 2002 Mengku Wild Arbor cake. My conundrum is this, should I spend over $70 on this 2009 tea when I could spend about $100 on 2005 Lao Ban Zhang from Nada whose opinion I trust on the real quality of a tea more than my own?

There is something 'fun' about betting and many a gambler will tell you that its a perilous road to travel down. I may well just take a punt on this tea but being a sensible gambler I will have a flutter on Nada's 2005 Lao Ban Zhang first.

I've always liked a bit of heavy metal

2010-01-22T03:32:00.000-08:00

I've had a bit of bad luck recently with having, not one, but two glass kettles crack on me. Although being supposedly made for induction heaters and that my own induction heater being rather tame in nature both lasted no longer than a couple of weeks. Having a quantity of water pour out upon an electric stove is no joke either.

Lesson learnt, don't buy glassware like that from China.

So, plan B, I was walking by my local tea shop here in Warwick and I thought to myself, why not buy an iron pot? I had a little look at what was on offer and this particular one appealed to me despite looking like a over engineered iron frisbee!

The design itself does have a drawback as if you fill it up too much the boiling water tends to leap for freedom out of the spout but it has character and I like that. Compared to my glass kettles the iron holds heat a lot better and I am able reduce the amount of times I need to reboil the water during a session.

Let's hope I don't break this one.

2007 Fall Harvest Yiwu Zheng Shan Qiao Mu (Sampan Tea)

2010-01-22T02:41:00.000-08:00

I bought a sample of this tea at the same time as the Yiwu Gao Shan I reviewed a little while ago and this morning upon rising I finally got around to trying it, call it a pre breakfast treat.

The yixing holding the freshly brewed leaf released it's vapours of light tobacco, honey and something most like brambles. It doesn't fill the nose too quickly and allows for deep inhalations. A quick look through the open lid and the leaves seem very solid with immensely thick stalks, something I recall from the Gao Shan, which is unsurprising since they are picked by the same minority. Perhaps the material collected is from the exact same source but with this tea being picked in the fall.

The soup itself though holds no surprises, it's characteristics go hand in hand with the aroma. It's sweet like honey with mild tobacco, lightly floral. It doesn't take long for me to desire more from my early morning tea kick so I increase the duration of each steep considerably but it seems that it's nearly impossible push the five grams of leaf too far.

Yet again I'm faced with a tea whose leaf really looks the business but falls short in potency, it's such a shame. Having said that, it's a really inexpensive tea coming in at about £22 per bing. Sometimes you can be pleasantly surprised by a budget tea, often though it's just a fair reflection of the price.

2009 Favourite Tipples!

2010-01-08T11:03:00.000-08:00

Well, after my first calendar year blogging here are my favourite teas from 2009 :

1. '99 Menghai 7542 (Sampan Tea)
2. '03 Menghai Wild Yiwu (Jing Tea)
3. Da Hong Pao Supreme (Jing Tea)
4. '09 Nada Bulang (Nada)

I couldn't make my mind up for a fifth place so I'll leave it like that. The '99 7542 is just what I like, a great balance of age with an enduring sweet huigan. I admit it's not an exotic choice of tea, it's a 7542, it's like a gun fanatic awarding his favourite pistol of all time to the Colt 45.

But I like what I like!

Kombucha update

2010-01-07T10:31:00.000-08:00

A while back I did a post on my second dabbling into brewing kombucha.

Kombucha 101 :
1. Made with a healthy bacteria colony that eats sugar and converts it into good things
2. Brew some tea and throw in half a bucket of sugar
3. Let it sit nice and warm for a few days
4. Bottle it up before it turns into vinegar (and it will if you leave it too long)
5. Stick it in the fridge for a few days and you have a lightly fizzy, tart beverage that has more healthy bacteria than an entire Tescos full of Yakult.

Quite a lot of faff but unlike California you can't buy this stuff in the local store and it's cheap to make...

....cheap to make if you stick to the usual PGTips tea bags and white sugar. Unfortunately, being a complete idiot, I decided to 'up the spec'.

What you see in the picture above is today's batches, the one on the right is made using a Dong Ding Oolong base. The one of the left goes further, it's made from a Da Hong Pao or Big Red Robe yancha base with a soft brown sugar as a bit of an experiment. The 'scoby' or bacteria thingy for the Da Hong Pao also has an experimental history since it's last brew was made from honey and water with no tea at all (it's suppose to be champagne like). If the Red Robe doesn't work it doesn't matter too much, without pushing the limits a bit you'll never learn!

In the past I've made kombucha from Dragon Well and Mao Feng green teas with much success. My pu erh brewing experiment with a 2007 Bu Lang was an unmitigated disaster and became moldy thus forcing me to bin it, scoby and all.

Happy brewing!

New Year Resolution

2010-01-02T08:53:00.000-08:00

Stop buying sheng pu erh that is less than one year old!

I just don't enjoy it enough. I've got plenty in my tea cupboard and I certainly don't need anymore.

2009 Yi Wu Da Qiu Feng (Yunnan Sourcing)

2010-01-02T07:17:00.000-08:00

Quite dark for such youth

This is the third fresh sheng sample I have received from Yunnan Sourcing following my desire to compare my notes with those from other tea blogs. Let's cut to the chase and see what I have found.

The sample seemed to be of a reasonably tight compression and required some slightly heavy handed cha dao action to remove a 5g amount for brewing. The first thing that struck me about this tea was that the soup was rather darker than I expected for a 2009 pu erh. I wasn't going to take any pictures of this session but I was suddenly compelled to, with the picture above coming from the first infusion. I didn't think that I steeped the pot for too long, perhaps this tea is not too forgiving?

The first couple of infusions came out quite thick too, sweet and with a swift fragrant huigan after taste. I backed off the steeping time third time around but the result wasn't a great success, the colour was more what I thought it should of been but the tea was clearly under brewed in it's taste.

I am really struggling to get this tea brewed to my liking.

On my fourth attempt I starting to get the hang of it. There is still remains of the milky thickness in the soup, the sweetness is starting to depart and there is some astringency. Again though, for the second tea review in a row I am not feeling very inspired. There is little that compels me to purchase more and I am wondering when I will return for a second thought.

Spring 2007 Yi Wu Gao Shan Sheng Tai Cha Qi Zi Bing (Sampan Tea)

2009-12-31T04:21:00.000-08:00

Pic taken from Ebay. It's too dark to take my own

"This is a small family production made by Yi people in Mengla. Early spring 2007 material from wild arbor collected at around 1700 meters migh. The mix of large leaves and early spring buds makes this cake very balanced with notes of campher throughout the infusions. A very nice cake."

I bought a sample of this cake for a couple of reasons, the main one being that I liked the simplicity of the wrapper, I also have had good experiences with this seller. There is something about the wrapper that is appealing, the producer hasn't tried to 'tart' the tea up by adorning it with a pretty coat.

Usual parameters : yixing pot with bamboo charcoal filtered tap water.

The aroma from the freshly brewed pot is about right for a 2007 pu erh, it's somewhere half and half between it's young character and something that is starting to mature, a teenage tea. The soup is a pleasant yellow and amber, no signs of any attempts to pre age the tea. It also pours really well from my pot with an even flow, the small spout isn't blocked by any leaf fragments. Further examination shows that the spent leaves are largely intact, whole and of good size. The stalks are particularly thick and robust. Small production wild arbor? perhaps so.

Large leaf, robust stalk and tip

Still though, it's not an expensive bing at about £26 and for something of that price you shouldn't expect too much. I've been amused by the wrapper and the nature of the leaf but the actual flavour of the tea is a little underwhelming. 'Well balanced' it may be but it doesn't have any outstanding quality, nice but not captivating, I found myself steeping it for long periods too to try to coax more out of it so it's a little lacking in legs.

In summary, there is much to like about this tea for what it is. The romance of a small run with sturdy leaf is alluring even though the potency of the soup is a little lacklustre.

Anyway, happy new year tea drinkers! May 2010 be a good year for drinking!

2009 Yiwuzhidao Guanfengzhai (Yunnan Sourcing)

2009-12-17T05:29:00.000-08:00

a touch of sweetness to an otherwise drab winter's day

Three months ago well known tea blogger Hobbes ran a sample tasting experiment using several bings from Yunnan Sourcing. I was unfortunately too late to sign up but not deterred I ordered samples of three of the better teas. Three months later my samples arrived (where have they been?), which is no fault of Yunnan Sourcing. This particular sample was the favourite of the lot in Hobbes' opinion so I was looking forward to trying it.

The dry scent of the leaf has grassy tones above the thicker aroma of a dark honey. The post infused leaf was more typically that of a new pu erh and not something I am all that fond of in general so I don't hang about to analyse it.

Forgive me if my initial impression of honey has biased my taste buds but to me it is the overriding characteristic of this tea, not a bad thing. Falling in line with other reviews of this tea I can clearly taste the mushroom after the 4th infusion, it comes to the fore once the initial sweetness starts to taper. I'm not entirely bowled over by this tea, but I'm not really that keen on brand new sheng pu erhs in general. It's still pleasant to drink now though although it doesn't inspire me to purchase anymore beyond the sample.

2009 BanZhang Chun Qing (Yunnan Sourcing)

2009-12-15T07:21:00.000-08:00

"Like the stalk of a spring onion" Kong Mai - Hollow pulse depicting blood deficiency

Aromatic dry new leaf with greens, browns and slivers of tips, the aroma from the pot after the first infusion is very legume, there's no denying it's from 2009.

The first infusion is surprisingly light and floral with a early appearance of huigan supplemented by a good energetic buzz on the outside of my lips. I slow down my intake to really observe the qi. Hints of liquorice with a quick appearance of bitter that arrives and immediately departs.

It's such a world away from the '99 7542 I drank earlier in the day, it's young, fresh and floral, almost perfumed, lingering pleasantly on the palette. No fireworks though or anything characteristic that grabs the headlines especially. There's a little bit of pepper to the aftertaste a couple of minutes after finishing the cup.

After a while it gets a little too much for my tastes, just a little too green, and I back off from the session.

2008 Pu Jing Hao Yi Wu Old Trees (Sampan Tea Ebay)

2009-12-08T02:23:00.000-08:00

In reality its not so amber, good news!

I've been buying a bit from Sampan Teas on Ebay. It's a very small outfit that hasn't even achieved 100 feedbacks yet but they always stock small amounts of unusual tea and quite refreshingly always change what they sell so it keeps me interested to go back once in a while and see what they have.

I'm sure if you had some sort of word randomizer that contained various tea names it wouldn't take it long to come up with 'Yi Wu Old Trees', you just see that sort of a name all the time and I personally don't actually think that the bing actually would be made from much of the stuff. At £28 it's not a very expensive cake but I still thought I'd just pick up a sample and give it a whirl.

Usual parameters, bamboo charcoal water, 5g of leaf, short steeps all in my sheng yixing pot.

It's good to see that the soup on second infusion (pictured above) wasn't too amber (despite my iPhone camera making it look so), hopefully it's not tweaked. On the first sips I felt good energy on my tongue, it went through the surface layer quite quickly, that's a good sign. Further down the road it's a little harsh still at times with a strong ku bitterness, but to me thats a good sign. Even better than that is the sweet and lingering huigan, giving me a rollercoaster ride of bitter and sweet between sips.

I really do like this tea, it's one of those samples that has convinced me enough to go for a couple of bings. The price is right and I am rather curious to see what will happen to it's properties over the next couple of years. Only one way to find out!

1980's Wang Zi (Nada)

2009-12-04T02:15:00.000-08:00

yang within yin

I woke up this morning to find my car iced over and the ground dangerous to tread. The school run over I find solice in this dark old pu erh. I sit in the gloom and savour the subtleties beyond the earthy palette and from within the yin comes forth yang for one cannot be without the other.

Menghai 7542 1993 (Nada)

2009-12-03T02:23:00.000-08:00

I have liberated some of my tea from the Royal Mail! Huzzah! Thanks to Nada for providing me with a tea from one of the best years of my life. 1993 was a rock and roll year for me in Hong Kong!

The leaf looks much older than the '99 7542 I drank last week with almost rusty browns and a very light white dusting. A quick rinse and then straight into the action.

I'm keeping the infusions short to not darken the soup too quickly but still it eagerly shrouds over. The '99 was rather quite woody, like something fresh cut from a carpenters shop where as the extra six years of storage has mellowed this characteristic out somewhat. It's more like an ebony or mahogany that quietly numbs my tongue and leaves me with an initial aftertaste that reminds me of brazil nuts. It's smooth but the sweet huigan is much more elusive than the '99.

With all the hubbub of the last week it's just so pleasant to sit down with a new tea and 'kick back' in modern parlance. I've bitten off perhaps more than I can chew in my studies, simultaneously studying a diploma in Chinese herbs at the London College of Chinese Medicine, nose diving into herbal formulation and classical pathology with Arnauld Versluys and preparing to restart my second year studies at the College of Traditional Acupuncture in Warwick. Oh well, in two years time I'll be through the worst of it.

drip drip drip

Menghai 7542 1999 (Sampan Tea Ebay)

2009-11-25T02:37:00.000-08:00

The Royal Mail has been scuppering my enjoyment of tea recently by refusing to deliver anything I had ordered. Some how everything else was arriving except my tea, perhaps there is a pu erh sipping postie in Warwick?

Finally though something did creep through and I'm excited about it. This was the first of my various 7452's to arrive and being from 1999, somewhat older than a lot of teas I usually drink.

Gave it a rinse and a sniff, lots of peat! It doesn't take more than one infusion for the leaves to separate and the dark wood to come out in the soup. It's all about the wood as I'm taken back to my youth in Hong Kong. Drinking bo lei in Hong Kong though didn't give me such a sweet huigan, wow...

What a fantastic tea.. It has plenty of maturity and depth but still such sweetness comes out of nowhere..

http://www.charcoalpeople.co.uk/

I have been troubled with the amount of bottled water I have been going through. One positive is that I'm recycling them all and by taking them out of work at least I'm getting those bottles back into the system. It still troubles me though to see so much plastic. My solution is to switch to bamboo charcoal filtering. No plastic waste, road miles in delivery, cheaper and ecologically sound as well, consider it.

Wuyi Star Da Hong Pao (Dragon Teahouse Ebay)

2009-11-10T03:19:00.000-08:00

Marlboro packaging but hopefully no tobacco taste

I ordered this tea from the popular China based Ebay shop, Dragon Teahouse. They ship quickly and are generally cost effective compared to western shops. Their 大红袍 da hong pao or Big Red Robe selection is priced and sold in 100g and 500g offerings at different quality levels much like their other teas. You can get 100grams for either about £10 or £18 depending on the grade. Something caught my eye though.

They also sell a branded da hong pao by a company called Wuyi Star that is, rather oddly, packaged in what looks like a packet of cigarettes! This tea costs a whopping £8 per advertised 18 grams (postage included) and it turns out that they are in fact only 16 gram boxes with two 8 gram foil sachets inside. This struck me as rather costly but an interesting purchase. I have some average da hong pao as well as some good stuff, how would this 'top grade' compare?

I warmed my yancha pot, emptied it and then poured the leaf inside. The warm clay heated and lightly steamed the leaves giving me a chance to catch a most wonderful aroma of chocolate transforming to dark brambles. This is good and I haven't even brewed it yet.

I decided to not rinse but fill the pot so the froth is displaced as I close the lid. A short 15 second infusion and the dark tea is poured into my glass jug. I just miss my chance to smell the pot after pouring so I go on to drink the tea. The flavours don't overpower me but I can't say it's bland, it's more like the dark cocoa hints are there to be discovered and I am surprised to have an almost instant huigan and some energetic feelings around the sides of my tongue.

Round two! The pot smells very aromatic before I add the water but somehow isn't very powerful after the infusion. I poke my nose further into the pot to pick up the interesting aromas on display, I catch a couple including grapefruit and a very hot steamed conk. The thick and potent soup tastes a little dark and a bit bitter, I'll back off the heat of the water next time around. There are hints of those dark bramble fruits underneath.

It's not quite what I was expecting but I'm enjoying the session.

I'm a little worried that the 8 gram 'serving' is a little too much for my small pot and this is causing the tea to be overly steeped. Time to adjust my brewing, quicker and a little cooler. This is the problem of having a pre determined packet of tea. Perhaps next time I should empty both 8 gram packets into a suitable container so I can brew three 5.3 gram amounts. I don't have a suitable pot.. hmmm...

Boil the water, wait for it to cool a little, in it goes, count to ten and pour... I'm about to drink when the sweet caramel aroma of the soup distracts me then I notice how much I am feeling the tea in my head. I'm going through infusions of this tea fast... slow down cowboy!

What should I conclude about this tea? The smell of the dry leaf in the warm pot was fantastic as was the aroma of the soup. The aroma of the emptied pot didn't have that interesting transition but the tea itself was potent and like a dark chocolate, hints of fruit tones with a sweet smelling soup. It's gone right to my head too! If I compare it to Jing Tea UK's premium da hong pao I believe that it only surpassed that tea in it's aroma but the taste was just a little too dark cocoa for my liking. Somehow I'm left a little short of my expectation.

2007 Ancient Road (Jing Tea)

2009-11-06T03:42:00.000-08:00

You can't get a lot for a quid nowadays! But here is an example. Jing Tea offer 10grams of this tea for just a pound so I thought 'What the heck!' and stuck it on the end of my order.

... what if pound shops sold pu erh?

The dry leaf smell is very Benson and Hedges and also very twiggy. It kind of reminds me of a rack of lamb in shape. Hmm, it's so dark.

The dry leaf goes into the warm empty pot and the heat alone arouses the aroma, again it's tobacco.

First infusion is on the brink of amber, the soup is sweet and lightly tobacco. Not much else. I drink it quite quickly hoping to get onto the next infusion.

Second infusion and the leaves are open now. I'm quite surprised that many of them are an unusual dark olive. I was somehow expecting them to be more brown, not because it's an old bing but that the soup is darker than I expected. I did get a hit of green in the aroma revealing that it's youth hadn't quite escaped it yet.

Third infusion and the sweetness is leaving but it leaves a void behind as nothing takes it's place. I experience a short huigan. It's at this point that I decide to have a test and quickly brew an equal proportion of my 2007 Bulang Spring Tips, a tea that really doesn't excite me and give them both an AB test (it is at this point I really notice the Bulang bing being layered with lots of tips on the outside and on the surface only).

There's not a lot of difference between them really and there the pu erh session ends and a mug of Margaret's Hope darjeeling waits.

Well, it was just a pound in the end I would have to say it was a learning experience. I would recommend anyone ordering from Jing Tea London to spend an extra quid for this sample, it's such a cheap way to have a little look at pu erh. What I wouldn't recommend is that anyone spent £34.60 on a bing like this, it just didn't stand above a very average pu erh that costs just $12 or so.

As their website states, '.. this pu erh produces a rich golden orange liquor with the scent of warm autumn leaves and rich wood and tobacco flavour notes.'

I am suspicious of youngish sheng producing orange soups, to me it suggests tweaking.

At least yesterday was good.

2003 Menghai Wild Yiwu Sheng (Jing Tea)

2009-11-05T07:30:00.000-08:00

I am going to enjoy today, I have something I think will be special.

Despite the postal strike's best effort to stop all my tea from arriving I did receive a sample from Jing Tea London within 24 hours of ordering, well done Jing! As a side note I am becoming quite impressed by them as a company, their service has been very good. I even got a phone call apologising for one of my glass tea cups having a defect. They seem to be a good bunch.

They only stock a handful of pu erhs, it's not really their thing but if a company like Jing decides to choose just a couple of pu erhs to represent them, you would imagine they are going to pick a good one. Of the two bings they sell, one is from 2007 and the other 2003. The latter I shall deal with here. One thing it's not is cheap, priced at a whopping £132.40 per bing! Despite this high price the sample pricing is very fair.

350g @ £132.40
10g sample @ £3.75
350g using the sample price is £131.25!

Now, I'm not sure £132.40 is a good price for this tea, it seems rather high. But I haven't been able to find it sold online elsewhere to compare the price. Anyway, £3.75 isn't a lot to spend if you think about it. I'll get two sessions from the 10g sample and, if it's got good legs, an awful lot of infusions from each session. The final cost of each infusion is pennies.

The first infusion

5g rinsed then brewed with One Love Welsh spring water in my yixing pot.

The first infusion is sweet, slight tobacco and some camphor in the finish that awakes the tongue and leaves my mouth feeling cool.

Second infusion reminds me of honey, amber and thick, the camphor has picked up and the center of my tongue feels more energetic. The tobacoo is more pronounced and I am able to observe the woodiness. My lips feel a little numb, especially my lower lip and I feel more focussed.

Third infusion

Just before I am about to start my third infusion I notice my tongue is still alive with feelings from the last steep. The soup is slightly darker now and this is when it's at it's best. My session is cut short by the need to pick Michelle up from college (note to self : allow much more than an hour for a good session). On the drive over to Stratford I pick up a nice huigan, not overpowering but pleasant. I also pick up a £60 speeding ticket and three points which shatters my mood somewhat.

Subsequent infusions are lasting but don't have the magic of the first three, perhaps my mind is elsewhere now?

It's a very nice pu erh. I don't think it's £132 nice but still highly enjoyable and it sets the benchmark from now on for me. I'm gonna wrap up this session's notes with a very pleasant huigan in my mouth.

Changing wind

2009-11-02T06:32:00.000-08:00

It's quite usual to have a free sample thrown into a shipment of tea and the last time I ordered from Pu erh Shop I had some Yunnan premium silver thread amongst my things.

It's decided inexpensive at under $4 per 50g and it is described as a 'green' tea but it is most unusual. Quite often with pu erh I have used the word 'beanie' to approximate the smell of freshly boiled legumes. As an odour it is very strong in my 09 pu erh teas and not so in teas slightly older. I have associated this smell with a certain flavour as well which I am really starting to dislike! Unfortunately the silver thread tea this taste and smell in droves. There is no doubt that the effects of the tea is significant, it quickly numbed my tongue and mouth, I had a strong huigan and I felt lots of sensations rising to my head. Something about this taste though, in such abundance, makes me nauseous, it's quite unpleasant.

In short, I will be avoiding this tea at all costs. The knock on effect of this is effecting my drinking of young sheng pu erh as well.

Patience is a virtue and I am eagerly awaiting my shipment of 7542's that are on the way. I feel that I need to branch out in my tasting of pu erh, I'm getting too stuck drinking young sheng.

岩茶 suddenly seems all the more appealing.

Simple pu erh maths..

2009-10-30T05:19:00.000-07:00

This morning's tipple Bi Luo Chun

I have spent a lot of money on tea this month and it's troubling me. Included in my purchases has been Gyokuro @ £17.50 per 25g, Oolong sampler @ £11.50 per 50g and Da Hong Pao @ £8.15 per 18g.

Let's look at the average cost of these teas :

Total weight : 93g

Total cost : £37.15

Cost per gram : 40p per gram

I have also bought some pu erh, 1999 Menghai 7542 @ £7.90 per 25g, 1993 Menghai 7542 @ £10.50 per 15g, 1980's wangzi @ £3.40 per 20g, 2009 Yi Wu @ £3.93 per 25g and 2009 Banzhang @ £3.93 per 25g.

Here's the maths :

Total weight : 110g

Total cost : £29.66

Cost per gram : 26p per gram

It's not that there is too vaster quality difference between the two sets of teas either. Neither choice of tea is too low or too high, it's just a nice selection of decent teas.

Let's have another look shall we at Yunnan Sourcing's 2009 Menghai 7542. A full bing costs £6.65 per 357g.

Total weight : 357g

Total cost : £6.65

Cost per gram : under 2p per gram!

Not convinced? How about Nada's Bulang bing? It's a serious tea with awesome qi, really quite scary if not handled properly.

Total weight : 357g

Total cost : £24

Cost per gram : under 7p per gram

That's not even 7p for something that could be described as a 'boutique' tea.

Ok, so pu erh can go a little crazy. Nada also sells a 1980's Da Ye bing.

Total weight : 357g

Total cost : £750

Cost per gram : £2.10 per gram

One final consideration too is that pu erh can normally be brewed more times than green or oolongs and in my opinion pu erh provides far more interesting qualities in the taste of the tea. Giving the 2009 7542 as an example, what sort of green tea would you be expecting that costs £7 for about 400g?

Everyone goes on about the cost of pu erh being high and silly but from where I'm sitting (at my tea table) the maths seems to suggest otherwise. Thoughts?

It's not all in my mind..

2009-10-28T04:38:00.000-07:00

My last post was a little long, today's post will be short.

I've drunk a lot of tea recently but not so much pu erh as I've been 'playing' with other kinds. I felt in the mood for some pu erh again so I opened up my American Hao 901 bing. First thing I noticed was a honey aroma I hadn't spotted before, then the leaves looked different from what I expected too. The soup was a darker amber and the taste didn't have much apart from brown sugar.

I smell a rat...

In fact, I smell my Spring Tips Bulang... What a donkey! Session restart.... grrr

On the bright side, at least I did notice. If I had missed that I would of been really peeved.

The Yancha showdown

2009-10-26T05:16:00.000-07:00

"Please don't give up on yancha!" Were the wise words to me from Nada. So I took four yancha teas and tasted them one by one over a day or so.

Jing Tea London Big Red Robe Supreme aka 大红袍

I ordered the 'Oolong Explorer' set that contained a 10g sample of this tea. It's priced at £20 for 50g making it the priciest tea in this comparison. The blurb on the website goes into detail of the exact source of the tea, saying that 5kg was obtained from a total production of 15kg reinforcing the idea that this tea is exclusive.

The aroma was captivating with a floral layer to it, something I wasn't expecting but it kept my nose at the pot for some time. The quality fragrance was accompanied by some fantastic qualities in the flavour and thickness of the soup. It had peaches and cream with a distinct oily character, a real joy to sip.

This tea made my day and hours after drinking it I was excited and alive about my experience with it. It surpassed my expectations by some distance.

Jing Tea London Cassia Oolong aka rou gui 肉桂

The second sample from this vendor in my little taste test. This tea is the cheapest of the two priced at £11 for 50g, almost half the price of the Big Red Robe.

I found it rather telling that the vendors website doesn't really say much about this tea, just one sentence.

"Full, firm and satisfying, with ample richness and lifted by unexpected grapefruit-citrus aromas."
Where is the history and the passion about the origins of this tea?
I have found the tea to be a little uninspiring. It's not a bad tea experience but it lacks something distinct about it that says 'drink me!'

Teasmith Dark Rock aka shui xian 水仙

Just a short period of time from my first experience of this tea where I just didn't get a grasp of it, I'm having another go. Previously I brewed the tea in a gaiwan, which to my mind keeps the influence of the vessel to a minimum, but as with the other teas here I am using a pot instead. Price wise I'm trying to remember the exact cost but I think it was about £6 for 20g 左右 (or thereabouts), don't quote me on that!

Following John's instructions I am keeping the brewing times much shorter with his tea, starting at 15s and even so the first infusion is surprisingly coloured, much darker than I would of expected. After pouring into my chagang 茶缸 I immediately inspected the aroma of the pot, it starts off potently nutty and about 7-8 seconds later the sweet dark berry scent rushes onto the scene.

The flavour is markedly different from the Jing Tea London wuyi teas in this test. It's certainly less floral on the palette and given the colour of the soup being a richer amber the tea must surely be more roasted. If I am honest, the flavour of this tea doesn't capture my imagination, however, the chaqi 茶企 is very significant. After a few cups I am quite tea drunk.

The next step in my education of yancha 岩茶 and more specifically, shui xian 水仙, is to try another vendor. I have ordered a sample of Jing Tea Shop's (not to be confused with Jing Tea London) competition shui xian.

Golden Monkey Big Red Robe aka dahongpao 大红袍

This vendor is a place I am fond of as it's only 60 seconds walk from my front door and the proprietor, Maria, is a lovely, bubbly tea fan. It's a shop born of passion and love for a good cuppa, which gives it much merit from a spiritual sense. Her 大红袍 is the cheapest of the teas in this test at a snip under £10 for 50g.

Heavily roasted and dark, the soup is the deepest amber of them all. The aroma from the pot just after pouring has an initial quality that leaves me cutting my inhales short, the roasted smell gets right at you! Again there is a transition to a sweet aroma after a few seconds but it's not as enchanting as the 水仙 or Jing Tea London's 大红袍.

In taste it has the 岩茶 flavours on view but like the 肉桂 it leaves me a little flat. To the less enthusiastic tea drinker it might seem rather costly still but I this wouldn't be a bad place to have a little look at wuyi teas. Would I buy it again? I would have to say no, I just want more from my tea and I'm prepared to splash my cash for the finer product.

To recap :

Jing Tea London 大红袍 : Great flavour, soup and aroma. I loved it.
Teasmith 水仙 : Intriguing aroma and knock out chaqi!
Jing Tea London 肉桂 : Reasonable floral flavour but not captivating.
Golden Monkey 大红袍 : Entry level wuyi, heavy roast.

(front) broken and green Jing Tea 大红袍， (left) twisted and thin Teasmith 水仙， (rear) dark roasted Golden Monkey 大红袍， (right) large and green 肉桂。

What a great way to spend the morning, just me and some tea. I think I have rather overdosed on 岩茶 though, I should be as thin as a rake if all the silly weight loss marketing was to be believed. As a learner of tea it's very beneficial for me to keep trying various samples of tea instead of committing to buying larger quantities just on the vendors sales pitch. Even though it is expensive I would certainly consider buying Jing Tea London's 大红袍 again, there was something special about that tea that stood it out, it just felt right and I should follow my feelings.

"Spare £2 for a cup of tea?" asked the polite beggar in the street. He must be drinking some fine 大红袍！

My new Korean tea mug

2009-10-23T05:06:00.000-07:00

I was quite enchanted by it..

Gritty and rough..

The iron like exterior reveals a softness and depth inside

等等我的新朋友，茶来，茶来。

Premium Long Jing (Dragon House Ebay store)

2009-10-21T07:27:00.000-07:00

Bit of a conundrum today, what is the point of me drinking mediocre tea? Ok, if I'm away at work and the environment isn't conducive to enjoying the finer points of tea.. fine. Drink the 100g for £10 stuff.

When I'm at home though I don't think I should settle for anything but good tea. It's ok to just want to saviour the finer things in life right?

Speaking of 100g for a tenner, how about 100g for £12? A while back I went down to Teapigs in Brentford and purchased some of their Dragon Well and Mao Feng teas. The idea was that I wanted to see what level of tea this company was actually producing, which in my own eyes was the bee's knees not so long ago. I also ordered some of the lowest grade Dragon Well and Mao Feng from an online Ebay store, both companies were around the same price mark and the exercise was to compare quality.

I'll post a comparison picture of the Mao Feng when I am home, it's good for a laugh.

The Long Jing doesn't look so green in this picture but it's alright, little bit twiggy too so I'm expecting it to be machine processed. It has a similar taste profile to Teapigs Long Jing, fresh grass with a lemon zest and slightly buttery. I'm not going to hang about dissecting this tea, it's not special enough to be worth it really.

The real question here is a moral one. Would I be happy to sell this level of tea at my own tea bar? For sure the casual punter would love it and think it's all rather good, but the reality is that it's not all that swanky. I am rather torn on this subject.

Cooling tea

2009-10-20T06:13:00.000-07:00

Michelle is an unusual case for a filipina, she lived in the super hot and sticky environment of Cebu but seems to be impervious to cold here in the UK! When I'm all wrapped up Michelle wears t-shirts. All well and good? Perhaps not.

She seems to suffer from 'Heat' in the sense of the pathogen. Her skin has several signs of Heat and over the last couple of days her lips were red and dry. Her tongue was also showing small signs of heat but overall it's not excessive by any stretch of the imagination.

I thought then that I would make her some 菊花茶 jú huā chá (guk fa cha) Chrysanthemum tea. Energetically it's cooling and it's taste is bitter and sweet. It is also in the category of acrid surface releasing herbs and it enters the Liver and Lung meridians.

It's not a great match to her condition, 金银花 jin yin hua or Honeysuckle would of been better as it's cold in nature and enters the Stomach meridian.

I boiled up some spring water and then took it off the heat, added some dried flowers. This was left for 15 mins to infuse before I added some nice local honey straight from the comb. After it cooled down I bottled it and left it for Michelle to compliment her dinner.

Having a green week

2009-10-14T05:37:00.000-07:00

Seems that I have forgotten my pu erh's this week and have gone for greener pastures. Yesterday I was enjoying a Bi Luo Chun and today it's my best rolled Taiwanese oolong from Da Yu Ling. You must excuse me though as I haven't found out where I got it from, not too surprising though considering the myriad of online sellers.

Perhaps I am just going through a phase? Or perhaps it is because I have a shed load of green and oolong teas that should be drunk when fresh? Maybe it is just to take a break in my tastes and 'reset' my palette.

Either way, it's very enjoyable. Today's tipple is going down extremely well, it must be on it's 5th infusion at the time of writing and is holding up very well. The huigan is only really coming to the fore now and is holding on my tongue in subtle but enchanting waves. I am having to really concentrate on the dynamics of this experience as Michelle is busy vacuuming around me but my mind is at peace, the hubbub doesn't agitate my mood and I am taking that of a clear indication of how calming this tea session is.

Today's water is of higher quality too, Highland Spring from Sainsburys. I had been sourcing my water from hoarding the free bottles at work. Nine litres doesn't cost much so it's not a problem for me as water quality is so important. I used this water to prepare the first litre of oolong-bu-cha with a little apple cider vinegar to lower the ph of the brew as I had no starter liquid.

My Kombucha has been fermenting for a day now and, rather unsurprisingly given the temperature, isn't reacting much. I'm expecting this culture to be a little sluggish and perhaps it will take about 10-14 days for this first batch, if not a little longer.

The scoby seems at home though already.

Teasmith Bi Luo Chun and a new oolong idea..

2009-10-13T07:49:00.000-07:00

Just a quick one, a couple of posts ago was about our trip to Teasmith in London and I was left with the decision of what tea Michelle would have. I ended up opting for the Bi Luo Chun as an odds on hit with its smooth sweetness and great aroma. Needless to say it went down very well in terms of drinkability and acceptance from Michelle (someone who is not naturally born into tea drinking being a Filipina).

Today's session is just some casual drinking on my day off and I thought I would make some of the Bi Luo Chun. Prepared in my gaiwan with some of my better bottled water this tea has excellent aroma, it really is a pleasure to pour the soup off, let some of the steam from the leaves gather under the lid of the gaiwan before releasing it and capturing its fragrance.

The colour of the soup resonates with the delicacy of its flavour, it's sweet, pure and slightly buttery. The perfect accompaniment to my lazy afternoon. I just love the transparent light jade hue.

Now I feel gathered I will be moving onto my next project today. I have received a kombucha culture in the post. For those who don't know, kombucha is made from highly sweetened tea that is transformed by the culture over a few days into a health drink. The sugar and certain parts of the tea is consumed with the by product being vitamins and healthy bacteria like lactobacillus. I have made lots and lots before but always with horrid Twinnings green tea bags. I have decided to give it another go but with an oolong this time, the oolong in question being the relatively cheap Teapigs' Dong Ding.

What will be the outcome? Tasty kombucha with a hint of oolong or just plain old kombucha. It's going to be interesting to see if the quality of the tea can really affect the taste or will the cultures process prove too overbearing. Watch this space.

Teasmith WuYi Dark Rock

2009-10-12T02:44:00.000-07:00

Dark and twisted with a cereal aroma, what sort of tea do I have here? I'm not sure. I purchased 20 grams of this tea from my recent trip to Teasmith as a bit of a stab in the dark. I had no idea what it was but I thought it would be fun to buy it and try it.

I rinsed the tea quickly and found the aroma interesting. At first it was the same cereal tone I found from the dry leaves but it transitioned into an interesting black current. The transition of the aroma was quite noticeable and I hoped the taste would be similar.

I did a quick google to find out more background knowledge on this tea but I found nothing other than the usual barrage of weight loss sites associating themselves with WuYi.

Unfortunately I didn't really get much from this tea other than the same cereal like tone in the taste. I tried to over brew it to get something more but I didn't succeed. It definitely aroused my head but not in a way I like.

Post brewing I examined the leaves and found then to be long and very very durable. They had been folded lengthways several times which was interesting.

The tea was fascinating in the way the aroma developed and in the leaf itself. I didn't, however, have much from the taste though. Such a shame. Perhaps I will enquire at Teasmith on my next visit on how to approach this tea.

** Update **

Just hours after I made this post I was sent an email from John at Teasmith.

It's a Shui Xian (http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp.cgi?phrase=shui+xian), or Water Sprite Oolong from Wuyi. As I'm sure you know, such teas are collectively called Rock teas, hence our name...

...As for the taste, it should be more complex than you experienced: initially almost sour, smoky, charcoal taste, being replaced with a toffee/caramel sweetness after you swallow the tea. A chef we know made a pistachio dish using this tea since he felt that the nutty character was dominant.

We brew the tea at around 90degC and the quantity of leaf you used should tolerate a wide range of infusion times from 15s or so up to minutes in later brews. Aside from the quality if the leaves, the biggest variable in the infusion taste is water character. This tea should be robust enough to cope with anything but you may want to try a light mountain spring bottled water to see if it makes a difference...

First note then, great job Teasmith for taking the time to inform me. I was being quite conscious of not saying it was a bad tea as I don't think Teasmith would sell one, I just didn't 'get it'. I will give it another go soon and change the water I used, which was an average bottled water. I should also try it with some more leaf I think.

Thank you John for educating me. ;-)

Two Tea Tipples in Twondon Town

2009-10-10T07:00:00.000-07:00

Michelle and I decided to have a good look at various health and tea shops in London to see what sort of environments were available with a mind towards setting up our own place. We trawled around various hideous Chinese medicine shops in Soho resplendent with various 'herbal viagra' posters and untidy shop interiors. Ghastly.

Hungry and thirsty we headed off to Yauatcha, a restaurant that mainly serves dimsum and a large selection of teas, particularly Oolongs. It's an impressive looking place with a mouth watering display of deserts and must be popular as we had to be shoe horned the schedule as we had not previously booked. We were given twenty or so minutes to drink our tea.

I chose a 'tuo cha' pu erh from 'Yunnan' and selected an Ali Shan oolong for Michelle. Both teas came pre steeped in pots. It was a generous pot of tea but as it was pre prepped each cup was all rather the same, only cooler.

Michelle chose a pretty desert from the selection to quell her sweet tooth. Sounds ok so far? Actually no. The service was rather impersonal, the seats uncomfortable and almost under the noses of the table adjacent. It just seemed to be another 'trendy' Soho eatery for suit types looking to do whatever it is Soho people do. We felt out of place, uneasy, clostrophobic, rushed and we left as soon as we could. The energy of the place was just awful and quite the opposite from what I was expecting.

Huge disappointment.

Next stop, Teasmith in London's E1 district... read on..

I was a west London boy and crossing the City over to the east just makes me feel queasy. But amidst the slightly run down vibe of the wild east is a true tea oasis, Teasmith.

Inside the charm of Teasmith's is apparent, it's a product of a couples love and hard work. Instead of a single pot pre steeped for you, we had a nice chat about what tea I wanted, had a peak at the bings provided by Nada (who else!) and it was expertly poured by the owner again and again and again.

Several infusions later I started to feel a little sorry as Nada's Yiwu was just getting nicer and nicer and poor old Teasmith were only being paid the once. Michelle's Bi Luo Chun was also just superb, I could barely pry the pot away from her as she was enchanted with the smell. What a great place for tea... I just can't say enough about Teasmiths, I am just so impressed.

We left Teasmith after an hour or two, I have no idea exactly how long we spent there, fully refreshed and becalmed by the tea and the experience. I can't wait to return for some tea tasting or any reason really..

The short story is.. if you are a yuppy and want to look cool, go to Yauatcha.

..if you have a soul and want to enjoy great tea amongst tea lovers, head to Teasmith.

You decide.

2009 Nada Nannuo Old Plantation

2009-10-06T02:02:00.000-07:00

Small and unassuming in aroma and leaf, this was a tea I had written off first time around. I was enjoying the unsubtle flavours of my other teas and thought this tea was rather... inert.

My frame of mind this time was a negative one.

"Which tea should I have today?" I pondered, looking at my jumbled collection. I eyed over my favourite samples that are now thread bare in size. "Perhaps I will just have this one, it's from Nada whom I am fond".

There is a bitterness that numbs the tip of my tongue and tries to creep backwards. Instead it rises to the roof of the mouth and is absorbed in the skin there. The subtle liquorice turns to sweetness which hovers just above the tongue, a gentle coating.

It's not an invading tea. It doesn't come to the party with reckless abandon. It's a tea that suits being in a darkened, quiet room that if you are to relish you must shut your senses down to appreciate.

I am at peace.

2007 Yunnan Bulang Spring Tips (Pu Erh Shop)

2009-10-02T06:09:00.000-07:00

Oh the folly of beginners.

After trying the knock out bitterness of Nada's Bulang I thought I'd pick up a low cost Bulang cake from Pu Erh shop for fun. After all, it was only $12 $17, so if was it was rubbish I wasn't losing too much. If I am honest with myself I was expecting something like Nada's tea as the tea was from the same area, oops.

Oh the folly.

Hmmm, the leaves are certainly full of silvery tips and contrasted with dark leaves, not much in between. Pu Erh Shop's website states that it's an orangey brew and has a refreshing taste. Well, it's certainly orangey but I'm not sure 'refreshing' is the correct term for the taste. I know I'm a simpleton in describing taste and I will keep it simple here.

Tobacco and treacle with a very slight apple twinge.

The soup is thick, dark and brown sugary sweet with a very powerful tobacco taste. Energetically weak with a slight returning sweetness to it.

And that's about it!

After four infusions I'm bored with it already and miss the powerful sensations of yesterday's session. I was advised that I should not buy full cakes for now and I think I will struggle to ever finish this cake. I'm not sure it will age well either but it seems I will find out. Still I suppose it's an interesting exercise to see just how this sort of tea ages be it good or bad.

Bringing herbs to Classical 5 Element acupuncture

2009-10-01T07:29:00.000-07:00

Part of my journey in Five Element acupuncture is how to combine the acupuncture theory with herbalism. One of the biggest obstacles to combining Chinese Herbal Medicine (CHM) to Classical Five Element (CFE) is the underlying notion of energetic transfer in needle treatment.

Unlike regular TCM diagnosis with it's emphasis on patterns and pathogens, CFE theory is more simplistic and needling generally revolves around removing energetic blocks and making transfers on the sheng and ke cycles.

It seems that herbal theory quickly moved away from five phase theory and fitting herbal remedies within a five phase paradigm might be tricky. Hang on, why even attempt to do this?

Here in the UK there are a great many CFE practitioners that don't offer herbs. We also have a reasonable orthodox medicine service that will cater for a lot of illness that herbs are good at treating. I still believe there is a gap though for CFE practitioners to be able to offer herbs to benefit their patients without making things too complicated and having to restudy a great deal in TCM diagnosis.

CFE leans itself towards chronic disorders that need tonification. I will be exploring basic herbal formulas that deal with tonification over the next few months.

Nada Naka

2009-10-01T03:01:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm doing this one blind, I haven't checked any of the other reviews on this tea beforehand. I know it's gonna be a good one, I have a lot of faith in Nada to bring the quality.

I'm just writing this as I'm going, drinking my tea infusion by infusion. My usual brewing method by warming the yixing pot in boiling tap water, rinsing with tap water then preparing the first infusion with spring water.

The aroma is beanie but I want to skip right by the aroma to get to the huigan, it's just great. Sometimes with tea it takes a while for it to kick in, sometimes it never arrives. This tea is all over my mouth after the first infusion, wave after wave of sweet sensations that just don't stop coming. My tongue just feels like it's sweating spicy sugar. I am holding back on making the second infusion because I'm enjoying this first one so much and I must of stopped sipping the tea ages ago!

My tongue is still buzzing as the second brew pours over it and just increases the qi. I have to remind myself to slow down and savour the moment. The energetics of the experience is taking precedence over finding words to describe the flavours. Needless to say, I'm enjoying it. This is a session I don't want to end.

2006 Old Tree Banzhang (Pu Erh Shop)

2009-09-22T02:13:00.000-07:00

Another sample of mine from Pu Erh shop. This time it's a Banzhang from 2006, well.. 40% of it is, the other 60% is Bulang. It's supposed to be a close match to the 2003 Spring Banzhang cake I sampled yesterday so I thought it would be an ideal time to try it.

First up, what do you do when the remaining size of your sample is too much for one brew but only just? I seem to always be left with an amount too small for another session, most frustrating! I left the 'chunk' in the bag (pictured above) as it's compression was too tight to separate with my cha dao 茶刀.

First impressions, it was a lot darker than I expected, had I used too much tea this time? The pictures on Pu Erh Shop's website confirmed the colour though. The soup was thick and it's main characteristic was the taste of burnt dark sugar. 2nd infusion less so but it didn't have a second flavour to replace the sweetness.

3rd infusion, this is more like it. A little bitterness at last with a slight numbing of the tongue. I've rushed though this infusion so I can get to my fourth, I'm starting to become intrigued.

4th infusion, it has lost its sugar and is now tasting more like the 2003. The effect on the tongue is more pronounced and far more energetic in general across the mouth. It's at this point I'm going to stop 'trying' to analyze the tea. It's time to clear my mind and get on with the days doings.

Is it a close match to the 2003 at one 1/3 of the price? I preferred the 2003 as it was tasted more refined and didn't go through an awkward first stage of being nothing but caramel. It does, however, become a lot closer after a while. It's a $25 cake compared to $99, that's a big difference in price! Again, I ask myself, is the better cake worth almost four times the cost? No, but it is better.

Side note for today, I've stumbled across another place in London to drink tea for myself to investigate. Prices for decent teas start at £10 with the first few infusions being performed by a member of staff in a gaiwan. I must take a closer look.... watch this space.

Autumn is upon us

2009-09-21T05:31:00.000-07:00

Dried leaves are on the ground and the air is crisp, Autumn is coming and it's not hanging about. My local park is starting to become endowed with a veneer of yellow and brown. The season of the Summer is in it's final throws and most of the berries have gone.

Classically the colour of Autumn is white. The casual observer may associate this season with the amber and browns of the leaves with white being that of snow, a Winter affair. To me, the colour appears in the sky and the hue that casts on the earth beneath. The skies are like a sheet of white and there is clarity and definition. Precision is manifest.

The air clears your lungs but don't breath too deeply for the dryness of the atmosphere may be too harsh.

2003 Spring Banzhang (pu erh shop)

2009-09-21T02:35:00.000-07:00

A little while ago I ordered a bunch of samplers from Pu Erh Shop without really knowing what I was doing (I still don't). I was familiar with the name of Banzhang and I was expecting something magical to come from this tea. Before I tried it I tasted Nadacha's Bulang which was supremely powerful and I was expecting something along the same lines but with something extra from the maturity of this cake, but I was left short. I dismissed it as nothing too special and then to my great surprise I noticed that the price of this cake was around the $100 mark! It turned out it was my most expensive pu erh and I didn't really rate it from the taste alone. Much bemusement followed...

Moving onto this morning I am tired. I have worked long hours over the week and I was looking forward to just resting today. My mood was lethargic. Something drew me towards giving this sample another spin. What would I detect in this brew second time around?

The yixing pot was warmed up, the leaves rinsed and then steeped with some mineral water. The decanted soup was a lovely rich colour, not too dark and murky and also not that fake tan orange much beloved of body builders and the self conscious members of the British public. I'm not going to search for words to describe it unless something aspect of its flavour really jumps out at me. I am in the frame of mind to just enjoying the moment for what it is instead of muddling my thoughts with the correct terms for what I am experiencing.

The flavour reminds me of aged pu erh, the earthy flavours of Hong Kong. It really starts to taste what I remember 香港 bolei was all about. It's not overpowering but strikes me as a nice relaxing, enjoyable, subtle earth.

My stomach gurgles when it receives the brew. Something is going on in there but I feel it is beneficial.

My conclusion? Easy to drink but it doesn't excite me. The flavours don't overpower me and my thoughts on other subjects come first. Perhaps I should use more leaf? But alas my sample is finished and at $99 a cake I won't be investing in more. My tastes are too unrefined to spend big bucks on a cake that I honestly can't decide upon. The way forward is to keep trying samples everyday to build up my experience.

Thoughts on my tea shop.. Although looking authentic, perhaps all wooden Chinese furniture will be too hard for my customers to relax. The aura and feel of my shop should encourage my guests to stay and relax. The surroundings inspiring and comfortable. An oasis for tea inspired thought that allows you to melt into its very existence.

*** Edit ***

Just added the very last of the leaf to the pot and brewed it. It's darker still and earthier with a liquorice taste. All of a sudden I was hit the the huigan like a dark, sweet candy, lingering nice and long. I feel compelled to brew another cup.. I want another hit! Silly me, not enough leaf.

Thoughts and Teapigs Mao Feng..

2009-09-16T06:18:00.000-07:00

Well the search is on. Looking forward to my plan of opening my own herbal apothecary, tea shop and clinic, I am looking through teas to have an idea of what to offer. What level of tea should I offer? Is my plan to be more of a tea merchant offering the finest teas or on the other hand be more of a tea shop offering lower grade teas? I think the best thing is to offer a selection a bit above a company like Teapigs so the casual customer would be catered for instead of the expert as such a person would really look at more direct sourcing for teas online.
Here's a initial idea for a tea list :

Dragon Well
Huang Shan Mao Feng
Silver Needle white tea
Wu Yi oolong
Jasmine pearls
Tie Guan Yin
Green Snail Spring
Flower ball tea
Pu Erh (probably sheng pu)

Matcha
Chai
Darjeeling
Assam
Earl Grey
Mint/Peppermint/Cinnamon

I'm sort of envisaging clear glass pots so people can see the leaves and be curious in them, tea tables and posters on the wall providing information on each tea. These posters can be shrunk down as well to make up the bulk of the menu.

But where to source the tea? Obviously each step marks the price up so I should try to source as close to China as possible. Supply will be an issue. People will be served each tea in shop and then also have the chance to buy it loose to take home.

Today I'm drinking various loose teas from Teapigs to decided whether that level of tea is good enough in my mind to be sold in my shop. So it's teas in the region of £4 per 50 grams, but just how good a tea can I get for that sort of price? Let's start with Teapigs as it's to hand and then compare it to online sourced teas in a similar price bracket from China. Just a small amount of research gives me shocking results. Teapigs Mao Feng looks dry, dark and fragmented. After brewing it's reasonably green and it's a reasonable but average cup. Mao Feng is called 'fur peak' in English and there is no fur on this tea, it almost looks fermented when loose. Compare that to tea directly from China which is green and furred, well.. I'm am expecting a big difference in taste. The proof is in the pudding though!

I shall be ordering a low grade tea and see how it fares. It's going to be fascinating finding out!!!!

The broken leaves of Teapigs Mao Feng

2006 Tongxing Hao VS 0904 American Hao

2009-09-14T04:04:00.000-07:00

Sounds like a 1970's kung fu flick in the title!
I was kind of naffed off yesterday by drinking some tea whilst my seven year old son ran riot in the house, what a mistake! Instead of enjoying my tea and relaxing I seemed to spend my time 'trying' to enjoy my tea and becoming agitated by the distraction. Not healthy for me or beneficial to my son.
This morning I have had a chance to do some drinking in solitude and enjoy my brews. Is it pure chance that my tea tastes just so much better today? I started with a strong favourite of mine, the American Hao 0904 by Pu Erh Shop. It's such a nice tea and very green, just how I like it. I just love it but I'm not sure I love it enough to pay the $46 asking price (plus postage!). Is it $36 better than the 0901? Or 4.6 times better? hmmm... Love it though!
I thought I'd try another tea of mine too, one that didn't capture my imagination like my Nadacha samples, Banzhang teas or American Hao's. I wasn't expecting much from it but it also was a nice tipple. Older and darker, more rounded and more reminiscent of my original perception of Pu Erh.
I lack the vocabulary to describe my experiences yet. If I pick up a taste I'll just say it straight, like leather, grass, plum, apricot and even beetroot! More important though is that I enjoy my tea drinking and this morning was just such a thing. Lesson learnt, drink tea when you are able to enjoy it without distraction!

Nada Bulang Cha

2009-09-07T07:23:00.000-07:00

One of my more recent discoveries is that of pu erh tea. I grew up drinking dark, earthy ripe pu erh in Hong Kong and little did I realise that there is a whole world of interesting pu erhs that are as different as night and day. This particular tea was bought as a sample from a nice man and tea enthusiast called 'Nada' and was picked in 2009 on his journey to Yunnan province.

This tea comes from the Bulang region which is famous for producing teas with a strong bitter character and this tea is extremely bitter to my tastes. If I am honest I do struggle with it as it's 苦 kŭ, it's just too much and after 3 or 4 infusions I'm starting to run for cover! Perhaps this is the sort of tea that will mellow after being stored for a while?

One thing is for sure, it's a great tea to compare to sweeter pu erhs to demonstrate just how different they can be. I've tried hard with this tea all day today and must be on my 15th infusion but I can't really bring myself to like it. I'm living in fear now as I have a 2007 spring tips Bulang bing in my cupboard, I'm praying its not as knockout as this tea!

**edit later on** The 2007 spring tips is far from knock out..

Hòu Xī (Back Stream)

2009-09-07T06:59:00.000-07:00

Small Intestine 3
Hòu Xī (Back Stream)
Wood point
This makes is a tonification point (木生火）
2 to 5 fen
3 to 7 moxa

Just proximal to the metocarpal-phalangeal joint of the fifth digit

Just going through points in my head I struggled to recall what was the element association of this point. I had forgotten the simple sheng 生 cycle of the points. As its a yang meridian the most distal point starts as a jīn 金 metal point. Following the 生 cycle the next point is 水， then 木, then 原 source, 火 and the sixth point of the Small Intestine meridian is an accumulation point. SI7 is the junction point with last of the command point being 土.

Wàn Gŭ (Wrist Bone)

2009-08-27T12:34:00.000-07:00

Small Intestine 4
Wàn Gŭ (Wrist Bone)
Yuan source point
2 to 5 fen
3 to 7 moxa

In between the 5th metacarpal and the hamate bone.

As part of my blog I will be listing out points seemingly at random but mainly just to jog my memory. I will hesitate to list any information about their TCM use as a point sticking to their basic 五行 wuxing use.

Although I will be embarking on TCM based herbal methodology soon I am trying to separate the use of herbs to treat symptoms from the use of needling to perform energetic transfer.

Herbs for symptoms, needles for 5 element energetic balance.

This seems to be a good approach considering that herbs are diagnosed by pulse qualities and cross referenced to the tongue. Energetic transfer is planned by the relative strengths of each Official's pulse, not the pulse quality. I am not a subscriber to the 'Spirit of the Point' so much at the moment and I am very much a disbeliever in 'intention' changing the effect of the point. To me, the point does what the point does and by stimulating it you active that desired effect. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't have good intention when treating and needling, that is also necessary to be a good practitioner as your intention to do good will improve the way to handle the patient.

腕骨 isn't the most exciting point to start with but it's a nice simple start. Perhaps next time I'll remember it was the source point!

五行雲 Mission Statement

2009-08-27T10:27:00.000-07:00

I feel in love with 5 element theory after starting a course in Classical 5 Elemental Acupuncture here in Warwick. I certainly don't pertain it to be the end all and be all of complimentary medicine but after seeing the signs of the effects of the elements in people I concluded the basic theory was sound.

I'm now a third of the way into my degree and I've faced a crossroads. I'm a pragmatic person who struggles with some of the more spiritual parts of the theory, scepticism I have inherited from my father, but I have observed so many signs of 5 element resonance's in people I cannot turn a blind eye.

I have a passion for all things Chinese, I speak one dialect well another not so well. I enjoy Chinese history, it's medicine and also it's food and tea. In short, I love the culture. It's just something I have never grown bored of and it seems like I never will.

My studies of acupuncture came about because it was the only really viable option to learn in my area. I was certainly more interested in dit da practice, no doubt influenced by my adopted uncle Chan Cheuk Sam of Hong Kong who was a dit da doctor. Two events have really caused me to consider a change of direction in my studies though.

The first event was something that was said to me on attendance to an auricular acupuncture course held in London by Dragomir Lubamirov.

"In China, herbal medicine is the big guns!"

This got me thinking. I had seen an awful lot of herbal medicine in Hong Kong and very very little acupuncture. Why was this? Was the herbal approach more powerful than acupuncture?

The second event was being in the Philippines and seeing the medical needs of people who can't always afford medicine or doctors. No doubt this might cause great debate but I didn't see my style of acupuncture being overly useful. People weren't seeking complimentary medicine to supplement the orthodox treatments available, they weren't getting orthodox medicine at all. Diagnosing someone's emotional imbalance seemed of little use when they had a stomach ulcer and had blood in the stool. Acute symptoms needed to be addressed before the chronic syndromes that are well catered for by 5 element acupuncture.

"Let nature deal with symptoms." Was the response I had upon discussing this with a fellow student. But no doubt this very same student would rather go to see their GP when nature becomes a little too painful.

So I have changed tactics. I am supplementing my medicinal studies with herbal theory. I'm hoping this will make me a well rounded practitioner that can deal with much beyond what 5 elemental acupuncture can deal with. I will still keep my 五行 hat on though by trying to correlate the herbal teachings with Classical 5 Element theory.

This is my journey and you are welcome to follow.