Garden Tea Party

Last Sunday, on a lovely summer afternoon here in Seattle, my wife and I hosted 12 friends to an afternoon of fine tea and light snacks in our garden.

On the tea menu was: Spring 2011 Alishan Zhang Shu Hu, Spring 2011 Wenshan Baozhong, Summer 2010 Formosa Bonita hongcha, 1999 Baked Tie Guanyin and a wee nip of Communitea Kombucha.

The all-vegan-nibbles included: cherry almond tart, fresh baked sourdough bread, hummus, strawberry jam, cherry-vanilla jam, and coconut date balls (all homemade by my brilliant wife).

DoMatcha's Organic Ceremonial

Last week my good friend and former coworker Tiffany P. asked me if I'd like to review DoMatcha's Organic Ceremonial tea on my blog. I've had a couple of great experiences with DoMatcha's products in the past at World Tea Expo so I happily agreed. Just two days later a can of tea and a new bamboo whisk (aka chasen) appeared at my door!

You may already know this (but it bears repeating) in order to taste good, matcha must be prepared well. It really takes skill, and that means a lot of practice. I'm by no means a skilled matcha whipper. I've only had a couple of short tutorials and seen a few videos. I don't drink matcha very often but I am lucky to already possess a very nice Japanese matcha bowl and chasen.

This morning I set up a serene matcha tasting under my cherry tree. As I opened the can I was delighted to find a small red booklet explaining matcha preparation waiting under the lid. Very classy.

The tea smells fresh and has a lively green color. I'll try my best to whisk it well!

I used two scoops from my bamboo matcha scoop (aka chashaku) and a few ounces of 190° spring water. I whisked as smooth and quick as possible in a zig-zag pattern for about 20 to 25 seconds until it looked like this:

Wide shot:


Close up:

The tea has a heady, sweet aroma and felt rich and substantial in my mouth. The texture was not at all chalky. My tasting notes included green banana (in a good way), and sugar snap pea. My daughter, who has never tried matcha before, took one small sip and stated that "Drinking matcha tea makes me feel like a sweet apple." (It should be noted that she is three years old and happened to be eating an apple at the time.)

I don't claim to have a well developed palate for matcha tea but I'd rank this one as very good.

2005 Gu Yuan Chen Xiang Shu Puer Cake

Today I'm reviewing the Cang Yuan Wa Mountain Tea Factories' 2005 Gu Yuan Chen Xiang shu puer cake (滄源佤山茶廠-古遠陳香-熟餅). I was recently given a half-cake-chunk by my generous friend T.Bass in Georgia (the state, not the country). He also included the beautiful gift box for this tea.

The box.


The wrapper.


The chunk.

The session.

I used a ~5 gram chunk of tea in a small gaiwan. I started with a three-second rinse before inhaling the sweet, earthy and smoky aroma on the wet leaves. The underside of the gaiwan lid presented a similar aroma with more fruity and rosy aspects.

When I drink shu puer tea I'm usually looking for something smooth, rich and pleasant. The liquor on this worthy specimen was very smooth and pleasant but not too rich. Compared to its cousin, the Cang Yuan Wa Mountain Tea Factory's 2006 Ripe Puer Brick (滄源佤山茶廠熟普洱茶磚), this tea seems pretty light.

Although lighter than I expected, it did display many lovely little bursts of complexity. My tasting notes included old wood, vanilla and ripe red grape. I'm also glad that the liquor was not very smoky. This cake will make an excellent summer shu.

CommuniTea Kombucha

Today is a beautiful, sunny day here in Seattle (Happy 4th of July btw!) and my beverage of choice is CommuniTea Kombucha. It is a fizzy, crisp, refreshing, local micro-brew made with organic green tea.

I've enjoyed this Kombucha many times over the last few years but yesterday evening I finally met Chris J. (the man behind the brew). We drank some Makabari estate Darjeeling green tea together and talked for quite a while about running a sustainable, community based small business, biodynamic farming and several other shared interests.

I'm happy to announce that this Saturday and next I'll be helping Chris sell his Kombucha at the University District Farmers Market!

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

What's new with me, you ask?

I was unexpectedly terminated after 9.5 great years working at Teacup. I do not agree with any of the reasons given to me for the termination. I love Teacup and all my old customers with all my heart and I'm very proud of all the work I've done at Teacup up to my very last minute. I wish Teacup nothing but the best as it goes forward into its 3rd decade.

To Collect or To Simplify?

I have always had an inclination to collect things. As a young kid it was action figures (especially Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), as a teen it was rock albums, and throughout my life I've been known as "a penguin collector" by my friends and family. So... as many of my readers can totally relate, my growing tea obsession triggered a major teapot and puer tea cake collecting phase of my life. I now share my home with around 40 teapots and approximately 20 kilos of puer tea. Some of you might think that's a lot, while others will think that it's "barely anything."

I'm proud of my teapots and my puer. Even the puer cakes that I know are not very good have a place on my tea shelf. I'm sure every puer collector must, for one reason or another, purchase bad tea. I've even heard the venerable MarshalN refer to this concept as the collector's "tuition." Looking at, and organizing, my teapots and my puer brings me pleasure and I feel they are worth every penny.

That being said, I've really put on the breaks lately when it comes to collecting tea and teaware. Inspired in part by books such as Radical Homemakers, The Urban Homestead, and Simplicity Parenting, my wife and I have been on our own journey towards self reliance, simplification, and community building. Mainly we are doing little things like getting to know our neighbors, producing more of our own food, and limiting (sometimes easier said than done) our own and our children's screen time. We're not interested in living entirely "off the grid," instead we're just trying to be more conscious of where our money is going and focus most of our efforts on building a happy and fulfilling home life. Buying "stuff," especially when we can make it ourselves, barter for it, or simply "do without," no longer seems to fit with our lifestyle.

This doesn't mean I'll ever stop buying new tea and teaware. I'll still occasionally treat myself to small quantities of seasonal tea when money allows. It just means that I won't be impulsive (also easier said than done), and I'll only buy new or used things when I need to replace something else and I can't figure out a free way to acquire them.

My tea friend J. (first mentioned in my 2009 Gratitude post) once told me, "You know you've made it when you don't have to buy your own tea anymore." He alluded to his father in Taiwan whose friends and family give him more than enough great tea. He can drink all he wishes and re-gift any surplus. I want to be more like J's father in that respect. I hope that the more I write about tea, share homegrown produce, and help out my friends and neighbors the more great tea and teaware will come my way.