Fin de siècle

I wasn't quite expecting to find anything like this in the forest during a short weekend getaway. A Russian train from the turn of the century parked in a small green field surrounded by forest. The interior brought us back more than a hundred years, to the times of the Czar. To one side of the room was a tea table that looked inviting enough. Its old-fashioned attractiveness made me question if I was still in the right space and age.

We brewed Dongding oolong tea and put together a sparser cha xi that will not overwhelm the tea experience visually. An attempt at bringing two rather diverse elements together somewhere amidst roaming wildlife that fortunately did not come anywhere close to our windows. Also, I would like to think that few before me have had the privilege of enjoying fine oolong tea in a setting like this.

Although a light oolong, the dried leaves are a bit more roasted and thus smell sweeter than regular green oolongs. More roasting removes the moisture and increases the leaves' sugar to water ratio. With nature on my side, I found that the clean forest air also helped to highlight this aspect of the tea and brought out the complexity of its aromas.

The infusion was light green with a broth-like aftertaste that reminded me of slow-cooked bouillon. With the mixed clay teapot, I managed to push the limits of this tea and reached 6 brews before I was ready to call it a day. 

Same tea, different pot

Dong ding oolong

When it comes to oolong teas with light oxidation, the gaiwan is the most common teaware used to prepare this tea. To achieve a higher resolution in the taste profile of this tea, I thought I might give it a try with a clay teapot. By a higher resolution, I mean tasting notes that appear in higher densities in the mouth cavity and can be felt most prominently on the tongue followed by a trail of flavours that enters the nose.

Mixed clay teapot

I confirmed the following theories with medium roasted oolongs but have yet to do the same with light oolongs. With a gaiwan, you will get a bit of everything: fruity and nutty notes with a weak aftertaste that seems detached from the roasting. When brewing medium roasted oolong in a teapot, the lighter fruity notes are felt less, the roasting presents itself more robustly, balanced with a lengthier aftertaste and  an emerging sweetness. The extent to which tea, water and teaware materials interact bears the most influence on the end result.

To brew this light oolong from Dong ding, I used a teapot made from zhuni, zisha, sandstone and yellow clay. The colour of the infusion came out stronger than one would have expected from a gaiwan and the fragrance leans a bit on the heavier side where the sweet smell clearly stands out from the rest.

The floral, fruity and grassy notes coat the tongue surface very evenly, similar to the bouquet where every flower stands out in its own little way. After a while, the flavours also extended to the back of my throat. I thought that the heaviness could be attributed to the longer aftertaste and higher resolution of this tea infusion from the pot. Compared to the gaiwan where mostly fragrant notes are emphasised, I also like today's experiment where a change in teaware has helped to reveal the other side of this tea previously unknown to me.

Fresh pu'er, anyone?

My pu'er roadmap

Teaparker posted a question on his blog yesterday:  how tasty is young and fresh pu'er? A question that challenges the norm where trendsetters would go for aged pu'ers, the older, the better.

What about young pu'ers? In fact, a good quality pu'er tea can already be consumed at a young age. Delicate and fragrant, these young leaves mature into aged pu'er that exudes a mellow charm with the passing of time.

The grading of pu'er teas is a very demanding task as this brings into question the age of the tea tree's age, it's cultivar and region of growth. These factors all play decisive roles in the quality of the final product. It was a widespread belief that newly made pu'er teas cannot be used immediately and require some years of storage before they become palatable. Truth is, good pu'er teas should taste good from the outset. Hence, a good piece of cake with proper storage conditions work most favourably towards improving quality and increasing value.

So far, I have found the humidity levels in a tropical climate to be ideal for my pu'er cakes. Of equal importance are the conditions of  your storage location, which should be shaded, clean and well-ventilated.

A respite from tea

As I embark on my water retasting project, I also decided to experiment with different boiling vessels and prepare tea with various combinations of mineral water brands and kettles. Obviously, some combinations made the tea taste worse than I have known them, leaving behind prominently burnt notes in my nose and mouth, not to mention a headache. In such cases, it is sensible to give your body a break and flush away the bad taste.

What went into my gaiwan today? It is technically speaking not tea but a restorative concoction of  goji berries and chrysanthemum flowers. The berry fruits are sweet and mildly tangy with a texture that is similar to sun dried tomatoes before infusion. The flowers smell beautifully comforting with a sweet fragrance. Delicious!

Simplici-tea

"Tea is not but this.
First you make the water boil,
Then infuse the tea.
Then you drink it properly.
That is all you need to know."

Utterly simple yet complicated. I have been pondering over these few short lines from Sen Rikyu for a while now and concluded a few things.

As easy as the topic on tea may sound, there are a few preparatory steps that culminate in the final enjoyment of tea: a good understanding of the kind of water you need and how to bring it to a boil, a careful selection of the teaware that you find most suitable for the tea that you will brew and the interaction between your five senses and tea.

Once a certain person came to Rikyu and asked him what were the mysteries of Tea. "You place the charcoal so that the water
boils properly, and you make the tea to bring out the proper taste. You arrange the flowers as they appear when they are
growing. In summer you suggest coolness and in winter cosiness.
There is no other secret," replied the Master. 

From here, I am beginning to see how great tea masters worthy of their salt use layman's language to convey a deeper, underlying message. What beginners perceive to be menial tasks of boiling water, infusing, pouring and drinking tea can be translated into bringing water to a sufficient boil without depleting its oxygen content, infusing tea adequately, knowing when tea is ready to be served and appreciating the beverage.

Now and then

08.08.08 - Four years ago this day, as the Beijing Olympics commenced, I found myself transiting in Hangzhou, China's tea capital. Although I already was becoming a regular tea drinker, I did not have a deeper appreciation for tea as a cultural heritage and was not really well-informed about this subject matter. This visit planted the seeds of tea love and joy in me. I grew very fond of tea ceremonies and found myself frequently locked in a gaze at tea masters engaged in an enchanting and seemingly complex ritual of examining, sniffing, brewing and pouring tea.

Today, my role has entered transition and I am in a place between observing, brewing and drawing conclusions about tea. My preferences have evolved and my tea choices expanded beyond the category of Japanese green teas. A lot has changed I must say, and I hope this is all for the better. A great pastime, albeit an expensive one.

While browsing Taipei's endless rows of tea shops earlier this year, I bought a highly oxidised roasted red oolong tea also known as Wa Cuo '瓦厝‘ red oolong. My guess is, the name could point to the red tiled roofs that were hallmarks of older colonial architecture.

The brew is clear, golden and with a tinge of red thanks to its higher levels of oxidation, this tea has a few elements of surprise awaiting me - Walnut, cranberries and a medium body with a pleasant aftertaste. I picked a Zisha teapot to prepare this tea because clay teapots help to trap heat and coax more flavours out of  the tea leaves.

A pleasant afternoon spent retracing my footsteps and recounting the various milestones in this short span of time. I am also happy that my initiative to start a blog about tea has allowed me to share precious tea moments with others and more importantly as a diary for lasting memories.

Use force if necessary

2011 Ali Shan Oolong

With tightly rolled Oolong tea balls, brewing requires more strength of pour in a controlled manner. After all,  we do not want the tea leaves to spin in all directions, resulting in a messed up brew.

Set leaves into a spin

The usual rules of engagement hold - preheating your gaiwan and cups. Meanwhile, estimate the right amount of tea to use. With a compact tea such as this Ali Shan high mountain oolong, I would recommend enough tea to cover the bottom of your gaiwan and keep enough room for the leaves to expand during infusion. This ensures maximum flavour release.

Decanting

The next step involves infusing your tea leaves with a strong pour of hot water from the side of the gaiwan. This sets the tea leaves into a circular spin and helps the leaves to open up most effectively. In the first infusion, floral and delicious milky notes with a hint of umami presented themselves without hesitation. This is a sign of a successful brew.

What about unsuccessful first attempts? One will notice that the brew is not as flavoursome and somewhat muted. It is advisable to increase the strength of your pour throughout the cup, ensuring that each leaf opens up from then on.

Having said that, it is most rewarding to get it right the first time because there are limitations to salvaging a brew gone wrong when tea leaves cannot unfurl sufficiently at the first contact with water.