1997 Hen Li Chang Bu Lang (Essence of Tea)

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

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

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!!

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

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

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)

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.