How to prepare white tea - silver needles 白毫银针

White tea is one of the least oxidised teas in the whole spectrum of tea types. Grown and harvested almost exclusively in the Fujian province of China, white tea is the product of the most delicate buds and young leaves of the Camellia sinesis plant. Only those young tea leaves with much fine hair (pekoe) are plucked to produce good-quality white tea with lots of pekoe.

The processing steps involved in manufacturing white tea are relatively simple as compared to other types of tea. The leaves are allowed to wither under the sun before they are air dried to prevent further oxidation. This is why white tea is very rich in antioxidants.

 To brew this tea, you will need:
1. a porcelain gaiwan, 2. high quality white tea from a trusted vendor, 3. tea cups, to enjoy the beautiful colours of a white tea infusion. When at work, I usually would drink form the gaiwan without these "frills".

Preheating the gaiwan is always recommended to ensure an optimum brew. After preheating your gaiwan, pour some of the hot water into your cups to warm them as you get ready for the next few steps. Discard the remaining used water.

Depending on the size of your gaiwan, the right amount of leaves should allow enough room for the tea leaves to open fully to release their maximum flavours. Add boiling water to just about 80% full so that the gaiwan will not be too hot to handle after the infusion. As these are delicate leaves, I do not recommend pouring hot water directly onto the leaves. The hot water should ideally hit the walls of the gaiwan first before coming into contact with the leaves. In addition, a thin-walled porcelain gaiwan is used to help diffuse the heat.

If you find bubbles accumulating on the surface, gently push them to the sides of the gaiwan with its lid before replacing the lid. As they are rather open leaves already in their dried form, infusion time is short. To quantify, I would say, approximately 40 seconds. No hard and fast rules apply here.

The infusion is light tangerine in colour. The tea smells beautifully of autumn leaves and tastes very sweet with an even sweeter aftertaste.

Blogeintrag auf Deutsch: Wie man weißen Tee aus Silber-Nadeln bereitet

Tea inspired art - Two rare birds

Brush and ink by Richard Bohn 2006

Happy Halloween: 2002 Yunnan cooked Pu'er cake

Dear readers, I hope you have enjoyed my tea blog as much as I try to share some of my beautiful tea moments here. Feeling inspired, I have decided to throw in a few more colours to spice up my tea space in today's Halloween's special.

 I picked this 2002 Yunnan cooked Pu'er today as my tea of choice for its distinct woody scents, rich and dark colours. Perfect for the occasion! More tasting notes to come in my next blog entry.

For now, I prefer to relax and enjoy this Halloween evening. Have a spook-tacular night everyone!

Iron Goddess Tea (Tie Guan Yin, TGY)

Asian designs inspire me a lot nowadays. So with a good camera in hand, I would always take some pictures of things, people, sights that I come across which I think will go very nicely with my tea-inspired blog. Here are some of them which I have put together in a collection under TGY, a premium variety of Chinese oolong tea that originated in the 19th century in Anxi in Fujian province.

In case you were wondering, "Guan Yin" also is the name of a goddess mostly associated with chinese myths and legends.

The infused leaves of this tea are big. In their dried form, the leaves are more closely knitted. Being a more avid green tea drinker, I opt for a lightly roasted variety. The brew is light in colour and has a shade of light green with a tinge of yellow. Apologies for the lack of photos on this one as I had enjoyed this tea in a gaiwan with the leaves in my cup.  Filtering the tea is not necessary as the open leaves are rather big and the lid keeps them from falling out.

The tea smells and tastes of fresh green leaves with a twist of maturity, accentuated by hints of soya bean and notes of coconut flesh.

Lu Xun's thoughts about tea

"Lu Xun (鲁迅) was the name that Zhou Shuren (周树人) wrote under in as a major force in early 20th Century Chinese culture. Born in 1881, he is often considered the founder of modern Chinese literature as a writer of fiction, poetry, criticism and essays."

What I like here is his down-to-earth attitude towards tea as a beverage and a part of his daily routine. Tea to him is a pursuit of respect for nature and simplicity. In this poem, he briefly concluded one of his tea brewing experiences and found the gaiwan to be the most suitable vessel for brewing quality tea leaves. "The infusion is clear and sweet, lightly fragrant with a hint of bitter sweetness."

The many facets of water

It may seem commonplace at first to fill your kettle with water and bring it to the boil before infusing your tea leaves.

Upon closer observation, the boiling vessel's material largely affects the taste of the resulting boiled water. Our taste buds are tingled by the silkiness of boiled water and once it comes into contact with the tea leaves, yet another dimension of the tea-licious brew unfolds. The same water source when boiled in different vessels, under different heating conditions, results in the law of interaction between tea and water. A sort of hidden order behind the rhythm of the tea. Weak at times, overpowering the next minute.

Starting at a common water source, one should experiment with different boiling vessels. Making use of the concept of relative objectivity in one's experiences, water should be allowed to interact freely with those different materials that make up boiling vessels. The essence of a seemingly ordinary activity such as boiling water resides in the diverse experiences inherent to the combination of water, fire and earth.

Adapted from TeaParker

Revisiting my first lesson in tea - Water

Water is the main pillar of preparing tea. When using a good water source in combination with quality tea leaves, one is almost always guaranteed a better tea tasting experience. In other words, good water should be a highly dynamic entity, overflowing with vitality. Water of this nature never disappoints in terms of the qualities of the final tea infusion: clarity of brew, fragrance, sweetness. A multidimensional experience for our senses of smell and taste.

Being in between solids and gases, the largely dynamic nature of water as a liquid extends into a blinding myriad of varying tastes and flavours which certainly add to the fun of tea appreciation keeping it uniquely charming, and by no means lesser than a class of its own in the field of taste exploration.

 A long term observation of tea aficionados is this: Consistently, the same water source and vessels for boiling water are used. A wealth of tea tasting notes and experiences are accumulated through the passing of time and more importantly by recognising the hallmarks of suitable vessels used for boiling water.

Adapted from TeaParker