Just tea and what sticks

When it is simply about seeking solace and or enjoyment from a cup of tea, I let my senses guide me. Depending on what I am craving for, a laid back tea session gives rise to the most memorable tasting notes that I take away with me towards the last brew.

With the same Hong Shui Oolong, this afternoon's tea comforted me with its fleeting floral fruity scents, followed by a sugarcane sweetness that seems to go on forever like a true friend who is tirelessly there for you.

Curated tea #1 - Red Water 'Hong Shui' Oolong

Traditional ball-styled oolong look and feel very supple to touch.

This medium roasted oolong is representative of Taiwanese oolongs. With the name Hong Shui, meaning red water, it is thought to produce a very red brew after infusion. However, this isn't so. The main producing areas (but not all, as in this case) of red water oolong are located in Dong Ding, Nantou County. During the process of manufacturing, special attention is paid to the precise level of leaf fermentation - a highly-skilled technique!

Preheating

For my customers, I have selected a red water oolong from the mountainous Shan Lin Xi area, located at roughly 1.5 km above sea level. My wish is to combine high mountain scents and  freshness with a gently roasted tea that not only tastes sweeter but can keep well. Roasting is such a process that reduces the overall tea's moisture content while concentrating the leaves' sugar content and improving the overall taste and aftertaste.  The joy of storing such roasted teas and enjoying them in years to come also deserves special mention! Unfortunately, the strong demand for light fragrant unroasted tea in the last 10 years at least has made it less appealing for tea producers to invest time, money and effort into the 'hong shui' process, resulting in fewer sourcing options. When choices are limited, consumers shortchange themselves by closing the doors to many pre-existing opportunities of tasting diversely processed teas. 

A glowing purple- red zisha pot after a hot douse of water

Opening this bag of oolong for the first time really lifted my mood that day. The leaves smelled pleasantly floral and deceptively light I would have thought that this is the unroasted version of Shan Lin Xi oolong.

Leaf appearance: Nice tightly rolled traditional ball style oolong, with yellow brown stems and relatively green leaves. The tightly rolled leaves also carry a particular sheen on their surface which makes it look particularly mouth-watering and secretly raised my expectations. 

Infusion: Autumn in my tea cup! The brew's green-ish yellow appearance seems to hint at freshness despite this being a roasted tea. For tea saucers, I picked old Japanese bronze pieces to add to the autumnal atmosphere and symbolise the roasted nutty undertone of this tea which is not at all obtrusive to the greener notes present. Also included is a gold kimono sash to impart a luxurious feel that reflects the taste of this tea.

Roasted yet almost green  and very tender leaves!

Taste profile: A medium, slow roasted tea that suprises the palates with its fresh high mountain characteristic accompanied by flavours of baked fruit layers - notes of plum, apricot, peach and honied hazel move from my throat to nose. These flavours develop at the tongue's root alongside a slight sappy but delicate ending. A tea of superb character & contrast!

Goodbye dragon, hello spiritual snake

3 days to the Chinese Lunar New Year of the snake. To see the year of the dragon off, I planned my chaxi tonight with dragon themed cups and saucers. In the Chinese culture, dragons motifs are heavily used to decorate personal items and prominently adorn architectural creations. The snake however, does not share the same standing and understandably commands less reverence. Perhaps, it has to do with negative legendary associations with this legless reptile. Personally it isn't one of my favourites either.

Tea tonight is a 4 year old hong shui oolong form Ali Shan. It has been aging in my pewter jar for 16 months now in the hopes of refining it further and taming the roast. I especially like this tea because of the its strength that lasts for quite a while both in the mouth and its overall sensation of warmth that can be felt radiating from my stomach.
Notice the obvious roasting on the edges yet slightly yellow but mainly green appearance in the centre of the rolled tea leaves?  I believe care has been taken to roast this tea very gradually for an extended period of time. The purpose is to remove water content so tea tastes sweeter.

I used a zisha teapot to brew this tea. The infusion is a very light yellow green colour with a less obvious but present roasted scent. This time the fruity notes emerge more prominently than previous tea sessions. The difference that time makes to the aging process of tea is magical! The infusion is nicely balanced, moderately complex and sweet. The flavour reminds me of hay. The mouth feel can be compared to semi-bubbly mineral water. It is smooth and at the same time leaves behind a slight tingle on the insides of my cheeks and coats my whole tongue with a rather high resolution and long aftertaste. I really enjoy my tea sessions more and more so with this tea every few months I come back to it when I feel the need for a medium strength tea that gently heats me up and its effects continue to persist long after my pot is emptied. I put together a full scale cha xi complete with new year goodies and some candles to draw attention to the smallest of details and keep all our senses engaged. Afterall, a chaxi is an interaction between the tea master, tea and the chosen teaware. 

Like good people who mellow with age, so does good tea. What used to be an overpowering roast has subsided to allow the underlying fruitiness and freshness to take centre-stage. The tea has begun to balance itself out.

Happy lunar new year everyone!

Was macht das Kochen von Tee in einer Teekanne so besonders?

Heute bereitete ich einen Hongshui Oolong aus Nantou, Taiwan. Die kleinen, festen Oolong-Bälle haben ein leichtes Karamell-Aroma und einen leichten Geruch ähnlich gerösteten Kastanien. Ich war neugierig zu erfahren, wie dieser Tee ausfallen wird, wenn er in einer Kanne gekocht wird.

Für diesen gerösteten Tee benutzte ich meine Zisha-Kanne, mit überraschenden Ergebnissen. Das war mir mit meinem Gaiwan aus Porzellan noch nicht passiert. Die Infusion war eine verführerische und tief goldene Farbe mit hoher Transparenz. Starke Noten von Litschi-Früchten und Zuckerrohr durchdrang mein Tee-Ecke, als ich den Inhalt in die Tassen gegossen habe. Die antiken Untertassen aus Kupfer, die ich für diese Sitzung gewählt hatte, erinnert an gefallene Blätter und eignen sich für ein Outdoor-Feeling. Ich bin bereit den Tee nicht außen, da es immerhin 32 Grad im Schatten sind!

  

Bei diesem eher jungen Tee ist der der Geschmack eher herb und mag sich nicht besonders für einen schwachen Magen eignen. Ich muss diesen Tee einige Wochen in einem Zinn-Behälter aufbewahren, um zu sehen, wie dieser Tee sich über mehrere entwickelt.

Article in English: What makes brewing tea in a pot special?

What makes brewing tea in a pot special?

Today, I prepared some Hongshui Oolong from Nantou, Taiwan. The tight Oolong balls smell faintly of caramel with a slight roast similar to that of warm chestnuts. I was curious to find out how this tea will perform when brewed in a pot.

For this roasted tea, I used my Zisha pot with pleasantly surprising results. I did not come across anything like this when brewing with a porcelain gaiwan. The infusion was an alluring and deep golden colour with high transparency.  Strong notes of lychee fruit and sugarcane permeated my tea corner as I poured emptied the contents into cups. The antique copper-based saucers that I chose for this session reminds us of fallen leaves and lend themselves to an outdoor feel.  I am not preparing tea outside as it is an overly warm 32 degree Celsius daytime temperature!

Being a rather young tea, the level of astringency is obvious and may not be as comforting a drink for weak stomachs. I will have to store this aside in a pewter jar to see how this tea develops in a few weeks' time from now.

Blogeintrag auf Deutsch: Was macht das Kochen von Tee in einer Teekanne so besonders?

Trying out a roasted tea after storage

Being a newcomer to the concept of storing tea, I am convinced that by doing so, one can intensify and/or nurture desirable tasting notes and scents while doing away with any stagnant air that may have been present in the packaging. I experimented with a Hong Shui Oolong tea, which I have so far kept sealed in its original bag, by emptying half of the contents into a Suzu tea caddy which I later kept aside for three weeks. This is also one of my favourite pieces of teaware acquired over Christmas. The delicate pine motifs serve as a visual reminder of my time on Jeju island.

Three weeks of storage seem to have made a slight difference to the initial scents that greeted my nose when uncovering the lid. The roasted aroma  is still obvious but did not hit me as potently as before. I am starting to pick up more lightly delicate scents from the tea leaves stored in the tea caddy but cannot be sure what they are at the moment. Intuition tells me that the infusion will be mellower and maybe sweeter.

Following good advice such as a strong douse of boiling water during the first infusion followed by slower pours of hot water in subsequent infusions, I managed six steeps of nicely balanced, distinctively aromatic and sweet Hong Shui Oolong tea. The results were encouraging and I would like to continue storing these leaves for more extended periods of time. Monitoring these gradual changes in tea quality and scent seems to hint at me that these leaves are alive.