Sri Lankan Tea Tasting Event at Redwing Cafe!

Hi Tea Friends! It's your old tea geek pal Brett. I've been cooking at Redwing Cafe in southeast Seattle for 4 great years now. Although I'm no longer in the tea industry, I still drink high quality loose-leaf tea everyday.

Recently I met Simon, an owner of Amba organic tea estate in Sri Lanka, who asked to present a Sri Lankan tea tasting event entitled "Teaology" at Redwing Cafe to promote his tea garden and to benefit the Suriya Women’s Development Centre, a grass-roots charity working with conflict-affected communities in eastern Sri Lanka

The tasting is Thursday, June 13th starting at 5:00 PM. It is $25 per guest, which is a great deal considering you get a flight of 6 delicious unique teas, paired with light vegetarian treats and snacks (let me know in advance if you have any specific food allergies). Plus you're helping to support a great organization.

A flyer about this event is pictured below. This Tea Tasting event will fill up quickly so please RSVP asap.

Please email me if you have any questions or to RSVP and I hope to see you there!

Cupping Two Winter Wenshan Baozhong Teas

Hi Tea Friends! Happy New Year! Long time no see!

I've been doing well. These days I stay busy taking care of my home and family, playing ukulele and guitar, cooking at a busy neighborhood vegetarian cafe, and drinking lots of great tea. I mostly drink oolongs and black/reds, but I'll happily drink some green tea or puer in social settings.

My tea blogging goal for 2019 is a minimum 300% increase in posts compared to 2018. That should not be too hard because I only had one post in 2018! Hashtag "setting the bar low" am I right ?!

Today I cupped up a couple of fresh, high quality, Winter Wenshan Baozhong teas (文山包種茶) from my friend's farm in Pinglin, Taiwan! (Check out my previous post for a photo of my daughter looking out at the very tea bushes these teas were picked from!)

-I'll call them Tea #1 and Tea #2.
-Tea #2 is about 25% more expensive than tea #1.
-Both teas were made by @Pinglin54 in November 2018.
-For each tea I used 4 grams of dry leaf in identical ceramic bowls.
-Water at about 200° F.

Ah! I love that sweet Baozhong fragrance!!! 

Tea #1

... and Tea #2

(I realize they both look pretty much exactly the same :)

Let me just start by singing ♪♫♬♪♫♬ I LOVE WINTER BAOZHONG! ♪♫♬♪♫♬

Both of these teas are superb but they did cup up very differently for me today.

Tea #1 had a grassier, thinner liquor. It was refreshing and crisp with a pleasant honeydew melon aroma, and pine-forest flavor notes. The body was good compared with most Baozhong teas, especially most Spring Baozhong, but it lacked mouthfeel and body compared with #1. It did win for throat-feel though. It left a really wonderful, peppery, sparkly aftertaste in the back of my throat that I didn't get much from #2.

Tea #2, as I just mentioned, was tops for mouthfeel! It was very thick and buttery and much more floral than its less expensive sibling. #2 was also more fragrant off the spoon too. I enjoyed its alluring flavor notes of lilac and mock orange.

In my happy place!

Northwest Tea Festival 2017 and Colombian Black Tea Cupping

On September 30th and October 1st I attended the Northwest Tea Festival at Seattle Center. Both days, I presented a session in the tea tasting booths called Oolongs with Brett. As the name suggests my sessions featured me serving and discussing oolong tea (along with a bit of ukulele strumming). It felt great to get behind a bamboo serving tray once again!

After my tasting sessions I spent my time sampling tea and connecting with friends on the expo floor. I picked up some fantastic Alishan from Floating Leaves and miscellaneous other goodies from some of my favorite stores (like Phoenix Tea, Smacha, and Young Mountain). My tea cupboard is now ready for Autumn!

At one point my old boss Brian Keating wanted to introduce me to a Colombian tea producer called Bitaco. I had never tried Colombian tea so I was excited to give it a shot. After chatting with Brian and the Bitaco representatives, I had faith that Bitaco cares about the people in their community and the lush mountain environment at which their tea is grown. Also, their tea looked and smelled super fresh and the price was great.

I picked up these 3 Colombian black teas:

Tippy 2

Wiry 2

Black Wiry 1

During the past week I enjoyed mugs of each tea, but today I decided to cup all three side by side to see how they really compared. I used 3 grams of leaf in three identical 6 ounce glass mugs. Each tea was steeped 3 minutes with boiling water.  

Wiry 2 (top left) 

Tippy 2 (top right)

 Wiry 1 (bottom middle)

The teas cupped up nicely. Here are my tasting notes:
✵Wiry 2 had the lightest body, but not by much. It was brisk, sweet and clean tasting. Compared to the others it was mellow, but the delicate notes of fruit, honey, and wood made it the most complex. It's a black tea that drinks more like a dark oolong.

✵Wiry 1 was the most peppery. It reminded me of a mid-grade Yunnan hongcha. It is a great cup of tea but it slightly lacked complexity when sipped alongside the other two.

✵Tippy 2 was very nice. It had the most body and mouthfeel. It was malty with a sweet stone-fruit aftertaste. If you like high quality Assam tea this would be one to try.

Long Yuan Hao - Bing Vs. Tuo - Round 3

Every three years I do a comparison cupping of two 2006 Gold Medal Long Yuan Hao (金級龍園號) puer teas. The Bing (cake) (餅) is called Banna Yin Xiang (Banna Impression) (版納印象) and the Tuocha (沱茶) is called Banna Tai Zi (Banna Prince) (版納太子).

The first time I cupped these two together was way back in August 2007, the second was July 2010 and the third is today! When they're not being brewed, these two sheng puer teas (生普洱茶) live on my puer shelf (located in the corner of my bedroom behind a curtain). I haven't brewed either of them since 2010 and I did not reread my two previous posts prior to writing this post so that they would not influence my taste buds.

Lets get brewing!

The cake is on the left and the tuocha is on the right.

I brewed these teas in two identical 6 ounce glass mugs using boiling water, 3 grams of dry leaf per tea, and ceramic soup spoons to ladle the liquor into drinking cups.

The color of the tea soup was yellowish-orange with a little more red and amber in later infusions. The aroma was sweet and woodsy with a hint of pleasant smokiness.

I'm really enjoying both of these teas and I don't remember being this impressed 3 years ago. Also, for some reason, they are tasting very similar to me today. Both are smooth and mellow with a touch of honey flavor. In the end, the tuocha came out ahead, but just barely. It had a more earthy, Autumny, sweetness and a hint of lingering beeswax aroma. The Bing had a slightly thinner mouth-feel and some infusions had more pronounced notes of grass and artichoke.

Back on the shelf now fellows. Next time I see you you'll be 10 years old!

Tea with Jody

My friend Tiffany recently connected me with a tea lover name Jody from San Francisco. Jody works for Samovar Tea Lounge and has his own tea business called Tap Twice Tea. Last weekend, Jody was in Seattle and he came down to Phoenix Tea for a wonderful afternoon spent tasting tea and chatting with Cinnabar and me.

Together we drank Phoenix Tea's 5 year aged/roasted Nantou county oolong, Dan-cha (a Korean red tea) and Tap Twice Tea's Large Leaf Shu Puer. I had a great time and truly believe that Jody is a kindred spirit. I wish him all the best with his future tea-related projects. By the end of our afternoon session I was most pleasantly tea drunk.

Jody left behind four samples for Cinnabar and I to taste at our leisure. Today I cupped them all. They were all very beautiful and delicious. I'll provide their names exactly as Jody wrote them on the samples bags.

North = Xi Biang Phoenix

South = 95 Sheng Large Leaf

East = Diamond Crate 2001 Sheng

West = Large Leaf Shou Puerh W.P.

Dianhong Cupping

I recently cupped two Dianhong (滇紅) black teas that are currently available at Cinnabar's and my tea shop, Phoenix Tea. One is called Golden Dianhong and the other Dianhong Needles. Both of them were produced at the Fengqing (鳳慶) Tea factory, a nearly 75 year old operation, in Lincang (臨滄) region of Yunnan, China. These leaves were grown at an altitude of 6000 feet and are of the "big leaf" (da ye) (大葉) variety.

I have had many great solo sessions with these two teas in the past but I had never tried them together. My hope is to learn more about how they differ.

Needles = Top Left

Golden = Bottom Right

I steeped 2 grams of each tea in two identical ceramic tea cupping sets for 5 minutes. After decanting the tea soup it was very hard to tell them apart. They both had a lovely red color and sweet, alluring aroma. In this photo the Golden Dianhong is on the top and the Dianhong Needles is on the bottom.

I took my time sipping back and forth and came up with a few subtle differences. Golden is a little stronger, sweeter, and maltier while Needles is brisker. Needles has a tiny bit more smokiness and a complex "wild side" with note of pinewood, dried fruit, and nuts. Golden has a creamier, thicker mouth-feel. Both are very smooth, satisfying black teas with loads of wonderful dark chocolate flavors.

This cupping left me with a comfortable, happy tea-buzz and a major chocolate craving.

White Peony Cupping Experiment

A couple days ago I conducted a new cupping experiment with a high quality White Peony (aka Bai Mudan) (白牡丹). I thought it might be interesting to stagger the water temperature and the steeping time three ways and taste the resulting infusions.

For this cupping, I used six identical 8 ounce glass mugs. After the cups were cleaned and warmed I placed 2 grams of White Peony dry leaf into three of the cups.

The first cup was brewed for 2 minutes with 200° F water,
the second cup was brewed for 4 minutes with 180° F water,
and the third cup was brewed for 6 minutes with 160° F water.

After they steeped for the correct number of minutes the tea soup was immediately decanted into an empty mug.

200° (left) - 180° (middle) - 16o° (right)

As you can see, the liquor had a very similar color for each cup. They all smelled nice too but 200° had a little less fragrance than the other two.

I sipped each cup carefully going back and forth between them while making notes.

16o° for 6 minutes was easily my favorite. It had the cleanest mouth-feel, a pleasant sparkly sensation in the throat and aroma notes of champagne and fragrant wood.

Predictably, 180° for 4 minutes was squarely in the middle. This cup of tea was a bit heavier and earthier than 160° with some similar flavor notes but also notes of grass and sand.

200° for 2 minutes tasted "cooked" and had a harsh finish. The usual nice fragrance of White Peony was present but in the mouth it was muddy and elusive.

After sipping the 200°, when I switched back to the 160°, the 160° really popped out with a sweet, clean, happy flavor. And of course, going the other way made the 200° taste even worse.

Another point in favor of the cooler water was the look of the leaves after the first infusion. The 200° were limp and dull looking. They did not steep well at all for their second infusion. The 180° and the 160° both still had little bits of dry white fuzzy buds shielded by the top leaf. These cups produced good second infusions.

160° right after the first infusion (left). The white fuzzy bud is still mostly dry.
180° (in the middle) has a little fuzz left.
200° on the right is spent and the bud is cooked to a pale green.

*Like all my casual cupping experiments these results don't really mean anything in the larger scheme of things. This same experiment could have totally different results depending on any number of variables. Even so, it reinforced my long-standing personal belief that most white teas prefer a longer, cooler infusion.

Cupping Two Awazon Organic Puer Cakes

A few days ago I did a comparison cupping of two sheng puer tea cakes that I purchased back in 2004 and 2005 respectively. They are from Awazon (阿佤山) and advertise "organic tea picked from high mountain wild tea trees." I purchased one tong (筒) (stack of seven) of both cakes. I sold most of them but kept a couple for aging. It's now been at least four years since I last tasted them.

2004 Cake


2004 Naked


2005 Cake


2005 Naked

Both cakes are plainly packaged with March production dates stamped in Chinese. I'm not sure what is meant by 2004's mention of "1000 kg." Perhaps that was how much of this tea was produced? That's possible, but it seems like a lot to me. The 2005 cake looks older, but that is because it has been opened, by myself, a few more times than the 2004, and it appears that the printer was low on red ink when its wrapper was stamped.

I brewed both teas in small, identical gaiwans with ~5 grams of dry leaf each. Freshly boiled, filtered, Seattle tap water was used. I poured 5 infusions before calling it quits, though undoubtedly these leaves held more layers of nice flavor.

These teas were quite different. In my opinion, 2004 was better. Its color was a shade darker with the tiniest hint of aged flavor. It smelled sweet like damp autumn leaves (which is the only type of autumn leaves we have over here in Seattle). There was a little bitterness in several infusions (user error, I believe) but in the end it finished smooth and left a gentle ripe plum flavor in my throat.

2004 Leaves and Liquor

2005 drank like a decent Yunnan green tea. It was more floral and had a hint of pine and smoke in the aroma. The broth lacked depth and body but tried to make up for this deficiency with subtle grass and honey notes. It was smooth but yielded little in the way of complexity or aftertaste.

2005 Leaves and Liquor

Both of these cakes struck me as "gutless" when compared to some of the higher quality sheng puer teas that I have been lucky enough to sample. These cakes are simply "OK" but because they didn't cost a lot of money, I'm perfectly happy to have them in my collection.

2008 Wenshan Baozhong Roasting Experiment

Back in May of 2008 my little sister Nicole, her husband Justice, Justice's little sister, my friend David, his fiance Gwen and I all spent 8 awesome days together on a tea trek in Taiwan. During our trip, everyone purchased a good amount of fresh oolong to bring back home.

Last week, while spending some time in her sister-in-law's kitchen, Nicole discovered one unopened 300 gram bag of Wenshan Baozhong forgotten in a cupboard! Nicole and her sister-in-law were sad that it was never enjoyed and decided to send it to me for some comments on its current quality.

A few days later I held the neglected bag of tea in my own hands. The vacuum seal on the bag was broken and probably had been for years. The leaves themselves looked OK but they lacked aroma. I brewed a small amount in a gaiwan. It was flavorless and flat with only the tiniest hint of its original Baozhong fragrance. Worst of all was the aftertaste, which was bitter and harsh.

I decided to experiment with my Taiwanese electric basket-roaster (although my hopes were very low that the tea could be saved). I saved about an ounce of unroasted tea in a little tin and poured the rest (about 9.5 ounces) into the basket-roaster.

The basket-roaster (it has a lid) and the tea's original bag:

I baked the tea at Phoenix Tea for 2 hours at 100° C before stopping to mix gently. Towards the end of this period the store began to smell sweet. Then I raised the temperature to 130° C for 1 hour and mixed again. Finally I lowered the temperature back to 100° C for one more hour.

At this point the leaves (and the store) were smelling wonderful. The smell is hard to describe but it's a little bit like I was making candy and baking sugar cookies at the same time.

Unfortunately when I brewed the tea a few minutes later the flavor was still bad. It had a hint of warming roasty goodness but it was bland and the aftertaste was terrible. I decided to roast the tea longer the next morning.

The following morning I baked the tea for 1 hour at 100° C and then 2 hours at 130° C (mixing gently every hour). Once again the same heavenly aroma filled the air.

I estimated an equal pinch of leaf into two bowls and poured in freshly boiled spring water.

Roasted on the Left. Original on the Right.

Interestingly the Original tasted slightly better this morning. Most likely it benefited greatly from 24 hours spent outside of the bag it had been trapped in for 4 long years. It still lacked flavor but it yielded more floral aroma and had an improved aftertaste.

The Roasted tea was nuttier than it had been yesterday which for me was an improvement. Cinnabar, who joined me for this tasting but did not try it the day before, pointed out undesirable notes of cornflakes and straw. We both agreed that the tea was "not good" and had a weird aftertaste (sort of metallic tasting).

After the Roasted tea had cooled down I put it back inside its original bag, a step I now regret because I suspect the bag is partly to blame for the tea's bad aftertaste.

A week has now passed since this experiment began. Today I plan to throw away the original bag, roast the tea for a few more hours, and then store the tea in a special jar for a few weeks. After which I will write a follow up to this post.

Cupping Experiment - Broken Baozhong Leaves

Have you ever notice how the last few grams of tea in any tin or bag is usually a sad-looking mix of broken, dusty tea-crumbs? In my experience this is especially true with long twisted leaf teas such as Wenshan Baozhong (文山包種) or various Wuyi Mountain Cliff Teas (武夷山岩茶).

Case in point:

What you're looking at here was poured from the bottom of an extremely good bag of Winter 2011 Wenshan Baozhong. This broken melange weighed in at just about 8 grams. What would you do with this stuff? Drink it? Toss it? Sift it?

I'm a pretty frugal fellow so I'll use a colander to gently separate the dust from the larger leaves.

This time I'm left with ~6 grams of dust and ~2 grams of whole leaves.

Feeling curious, I decided to conduct a little tasting experiment. I set up three small tea bowls. In one I put 1 gram of large leaves, in another I put 1 gram of broken leaf dust, and in the third I put a mix of 1/2 gram dust and 1/2 gram leaves. Next I steeped each sample for 3 minutes with 120 ml of 180° F water.

Mix is at the top.
Unbroken is in the bottom left.
Dust only is in the bottom right.

This cupping was interesting. Surprisingly, I found myself liking the dust-only infusion (shown above with the brightest yellow color) the most. It was just as buttery as the whole leaf specimen but it had better mouth-feel. It wasn't bitter but I expect it would have been if I'd used boiling hot water.

The infusion made only from intact leaves was the sweetest and the most floral. I liked it quite a bit too. I'm betting it would have otherwise been better than the dust-cup but in this particular instance it was "under-leafed."

The mix was easily the worst of the three. Instead of tasting like the sum of its parts, as I would have guessed, the 50/50 mix of dust and whole leaves came out flat and stale tasting. The balance was off and it was hard to find any redeeming qualities in the liquor.

Like all such casual cupping experiments these results don't really mean anything in the larger scheme of things. It was really just an interesting diversion. That being said, it does inspire me to sift the "bottom of the bag/tin" leaves and crumbs more often.

Two White Teas - Comparison Cupping

I've been meaning to do a comparison cupping (aka side-by-side cupping) of Canton Tea Company's Silver Needle (Yinzhen / 銀針) white tea and Royal Tea of Kenya's White Whisper for some time now. I've tasted them on their own quite a few times but today will be the first time I've ever cupped them up together.

These two teas are both teas that Cinnabar and I are proud to stock at Phoenix Tea, so please keep that in your mind as you're reading my (some might say glowing) reviews.

I chose two identical cupping sets each with 4 grams of dry leaf.

Silver Needle (SN) is on the left.
White Whisper (WW) is on the right.
(It'll be the same for all photos.)

The first thing I notice is how different they look. The SN leaves are much shorter, plumper and fuzzier, while the WW's are long and straight. The SN also has a more pungent earthy, smoky aroma while the WW's is sweeter, lighter and grassier.

A five minute steep with 170° F water yields two very different cups of tea.

I did 3 infusions using those parameters and the liquors were about the same colors each time.

SN was always several shades darker and more aromatic in a musky, brothy sort of way. It has wonderful body with foresty notes such as pine and cedar. This tea lingers beautifully in the throat.

The WW is markedly sweeter with a sparkly champagne-like tingle that I find so refreshing. The body, like the color, is quite a bit lighter than the SN. The aroma flits about playfully suggesting wild flowers, hay, and honey.

I don't drink white tea very often so after a session like this one my body feels electric. My eyes are wide open and my toes are tapping swiftly. I'll need some food and aged puer soon to help me mellow out.

Even so, I really adore both of these teas. They are complex and rewarding beverages. I couldn't choose a favorite because it would depend on my mood which tea I would pick to drink.

2006 Rougui Oolong Roasting Experiment

Back in 2006 I purchased a few pounds of Rougui oolong (肉桂烏龍) from Josh at J-Tea. This tea was made either in Taiwan, or mainland China under Taiwanese management (Josh was not certain which). The dry leaves are rolled into a ball shape instead of the long, twisted shape of many Rougui teas. I've always really loved this tea's toasty cinnamon notes and pleasant substantial mouth-feel.

In the years since, I have sold, traded, gifted and imbibed about half my stash. The remaining ~17 ounces have been resting in a plastic bag inside of an old competition Wenshan Baozhong tin in a forgotten corner of my tea cabinet.

I opened the bag on the evening of 12-4-2011 to smell it for the first time in years. The smell is nice, a tiny bit musty and sweet. I let the leaf air out for a couple hours and made a plan to roast half of it the following day.

On 12/5/2011 at 9:30 AM I used my electric stove to bake ~8 ounces of this tea in an aluminum pie pan. I let it go for one hour at 200° F. The leaf was about 3/4 inch deep and was not stirred.

Towards the end of the hour a sweet cinnamon granola aroma started to emerge from my stove. After baking I allowed the leaf to cool completely and put it in a new plastic bag to wait until the following morning.

After First Roast

On 12/6/2011 at 7:30 AM I stirred the leaves and baked them again, this time at 215° F. I gently stirred them every 15 minutes for 2 hours. I choose these parameters based loosely on the recommendations of several tea people I emailed for advice.

Finished Roasting - 9:30 AM on 12/6/2011

After the leaves had mostly cooled, ~10 minutes later, I set up a cupping of the unbaked and the baked leaves. I used 5 grams of tea in two identical glass cups with 6 ounces boiling water.

Unbaked on left; baked on Right.

The two teas were quite different but I didn't prefer one over the other. The unbaked tea was unsurprisingly brighter and greener with more cinnamon notes on the tongue. It still tasted roasty to me and had a slightly sour taste that hinted at grapefruit and clove. The baked tea was mellow and toasty. I was happy that it didn't taste burnt or smoky but I felt that it lost some complexity going sip for sip with the unbaked tea. The baked tea was smoother and more warming with muted cinnamon and whole wheat bread crust notes.

Both teas are great and I feel lucky that I didn't ruin the baked tea. Now that I've finished the experiment I do not feel like the tea really needed to be roasted again at this time. Perhaps the careful airtight storage at my house and the original roast back in 2006 made this experiment redundant. I think I will cup these two together again in a few months to see how they're coming along.

Cupping 2005 & 2006 Wenshan Baozhong

Six and a half years ago I set aside ~4 ounces of fresh spring 2005 Wenshan Baozhong (文山包種) tea in a tall mason jar with a screw on lid. One year later I did the same with my 2006 Wenshan Baozhong, but this time I used a shorter jar with a rubber gasket lid.

Since that time the leaves have been stored in the dark corner of a bookshelf, behind a curtain, along with my humble puer collection. I have only opened them once, a few years back, to take a little sniff.

Today will be the first time I've cupped them since they were new.

2006 (left) and 2005 (right)

I chose two identical glass mugs for this cupping. In each mug I used 2.5 grams of leaf and 80 ml of boiling water. I sipped directly from the mugs and added more water several times.

I realize that today's cupping will provide me with very little useful information. This is because I do not have any notes or memories (except the notion that they were once really good) about how these two teas originally tasted. So today I will just describe my impressions so that I'll have a useful "baseline" a few years later when I decide to repeat this cupping.

The dry leaves look similar but I noticed a few more woody stems in the 2005. The 2006, on the other hand, had a few more broken leaves. For both teas, the aroma off the dry leaves is muted and underwhelming. The 2005 reminds me a little bit of stale graham crackers and the 2006 reminds me of stale graham crackers in the grass.

The flavor of 2005 was slightly darker and earthier and its aroma was a bit mustier. It was still a little bit floral and had a nice thick mouth-feel. I also perceived a soft ocean flavor in this tea.

In contrast, the 2006 drank much more like a new tea. It had a delightful lilac aroma and a crisper medium-body with buttery notes. Perhaps the rubber gasket sealed in more freshness?

Both teas were long lasting and soaked for hours without bitterness. All in all I was pleasantly surprised by the taste of these two teas.

Although these two specimens are both spring Wenshan Baozhong teas from Pinglin, Taiwan they really have little else in common. They were made at different times by different people on different farms. But now they share the same fate. I'll now put them back in their little hide-away to await the next cupping.

Three Grades of Spring 2011 Baozhong Tea

Yesterday, I cupped three grades of Spring 2011 Wenshan Baozhong Tea (文山包種茶) produced by my buddy Amin (and his family) in Pinglin, Taiwan. If you read Chinese (unlike me) and/or if you'd like to see videos of Amin making tea with his family, here is the link to his blog.

For this post, I will call the teas C (lowest grade), B (middle grade) and A (highest grade). I've tasted A a few times already on its own and I really like it, but I've never tried B and C before this cupping. According to Amin, these teas were picked in mid-May using the qing xin (清心) tea plant (which is common in Pinglin for Baozhong tea), and pass SGS tests for pesticide residue.

I set up a "more casual than usual" cupping station and then measured out 5 grams of dry leaf for each tea. I used spring water at a full boil.

C (top left)
B (top right)
A (low middle)

I was very pleased that my tasting notes and Amin's descriptions were analogous. Not that I ever expected otherwise. He has earned my trust over these last 4 years by always selling me great tea at a fair price.

This was a very pleasant cupping indeed (wish you could have been here). The window was open and the cool misty morning breeze filled the house with delightful garden aromas. I poured into each cup and then just put my nose in real close. Ahh.

C was nice... but when it was compared to the other two teas it didn't stand a chance. It came across as grassy and bright with fleeting fragrance and weak body.

B was the creamiest. It also appeared to be a little heavier oxidation. Great texture, even a little bit better than A, but lacking for aroma. It had a nice ripe honeydew melon note.

A: This tea was the king for floral fragrance, yielding lots of sweet lilac and mock orange blossom notes. The liquor felt thick and buttery with many wonderful pine, fruit and herbal notes.

PS: I have about 12 ounces left of A and I'd really love to place it in good homes (for $10 per ounce). If you and your teapot (or gaiwan, I don't discriminate) are looking to adopt some Baozhong tea (or Spring 2011 Alishan Zhang Shu Hu for that matter), please email me at blackdragontea@gmail.com

Spring 2011 High Mountain Oolong Sale!

Hello tea friends. I have some Taiwanese oolong for sale! Three spring 2011 high mountain oolong teas arrived at my home yesterday from my mentor and friend Penny Yang in Taipei.

The three teas are: Alishan Zhang Shu Hu (阿里山樟樹湖), Meishan (梅山), and Shan Lin Xi Long Feng Xia (杉林溪龍鳳峽). I cupped them all together this morning.

Shan Lin Xi is on the left,
Alishan is in the Middle,
and Meishan is on the Right.

Here are my tasting notes from this morning's cupping session:

Alishan Zhang Shu Hu: The most buttery and floral. Savory and sweet with notes of apple and wild herbaceous dandelion. In the middle for body.

Meishan: The brightest and greenest of the three. Refreshing and crisp. Sugary with lingering orange rind and other fruit notes.

Shan Lin Xi Long Feng Xia (sorry this tea SOLD OUT on 6/9/11 ): Toastiest with thickest body and mouth-feel, a little bit floral with notes of almond, earth and meadow grass.

In my opinion these three teas are all very wonderful and unique and they all have great aftertastes. I am so happy to once again have some fresh high mountain oolong in my house!

I am selling these teas for $12.50 per ounce. Shipping to the lower 48 states adds $5 (more for other places). Of course you can skip the shipping if you arrange to pick the tea up from me at my home or work.

If you're interested in buying some tea from me please email me at blackdragontea@gmail.com. I can be paid via paypal, cash or check. Thanks!

Infuser Basket vs Tea Bag Experiment

Last week, my coworker Elliot and I conducted an "Infuser Basket vs Tea Bag Experiment" while working at the Teacup (a retail tea shop and cafe here in Seattle).

The three products we tested were: a medium Finum brand brewing basket, a Finum brand paper tea sack and a (sadly not compostable) polyester tea bag from Japan.

The Packaging

The experiment was conducted in three rounds with the exact same weight of leaf, water temperature, steeping time and cups used each time. Round #1 was Dragon Well green tea, #2 was Darjeeling black tea, and #3 was Kukicha green tea. I choose these three teas because I drink them often and thus already know them quite well.

Round #1 - Set Up

Round #1 - Steeping

During the first round (the Dragon Well) I knew before I started sipping which cup had been used for each brewing method. The next two rounds, on the other hand, Elliot poured the liquor into new cups while I wasn't looking, so that I was cupping them "blind."

The results of the Dragon Well round were as follows: The Finum basket yielded the nicest, nuttiest flavor with the most color, depth and complexity. The Finum paper tea bag was pleasant, a bit lighter than the basket and had a slight dusty note. The Japanese tea bag tasted like garbage compared to the other two. It was too weak with a very faint unpleasant "envelope glue-like" aftertaste.

The results of the Darjeeling round were as follows (keep in mind that this time I didn't know which of the three methods was used until after I'd formed my opinions): The Finum basket had the nicest, richest, cleanest flavor. The Finum paper tea bag fell flat with and odd sort of "filmy" texture in my mouth. The Japanese tea bag actually tasted fine. It just tasted a little weak.

The results for round #3, the Kukicha, were pretty much the same as with the Dragon Well. Even though I didn't know which method was used to brew each cup, I right away guessed the basket because it yielded the greenest color (the other two looked more yellow). Elliot and I thought the basket tasted twice as good as the others and I even picked up a tiny hint of that "unpleasant envelope glue flavor" from the Japanese tea bag cup.

These results were in line with my past experiences but it was still a great exercise to test them with all the variables controlled.

2005 Awazon Sheng Bing Cupping Experiment

Back in 2005 I purchased a couple stacks (aka tong) (筒) of 2005 Awazon (阿佤山) factory sheng puer cakes. I kept two cakes for myself. One, I stored among other random sheng cakes on my puer shelf. Let's call him "Whole Bing."

Hi, I'm Whole Bing!

The other, I broke up into small chunks and stored in a large clay teapot. Let's call him "Pot Head."

Yo.

Today I thought it might be fun to cup them up together. This will be my first experience with this tea in 5 years.

I set up my usual cupping station...

...which looks something like this...

...then I grabbed my notebook, and got down to business.

I used 5 grams of dry leaf to about 8 ounces of boiling water and took my time going back and forth smelling each spoon and slurping the tea soup.

Turns out they taste pretty different!

Whole Bing is on the right and Pot Head is on the left.

Whole Bing was a little bit woodsier, smokier and more earthy. I believe he picked up some of these flavors from the other cakes with which he had cohabited. He was also a shade darker.

Pot Head's isolation in the large lidded teapot seems to have shielded him from most outside influences and perhaps caused him to taste "less aged" to me. He had a lighter body with more grass and herb notes. His flavor was closer to how these cakes tasted five years ago.

I did not prefer one storage method over the other and I do not take the results of this experiment too seriously. There are quite simply too many variables to consider when dealing with puer tea storage. In fact, I believe, this exact same experiment could easily have yielded different results in different places, on different days or for different people. That being said, I still found this to be a very rewarding and educational cupping.