Life vs Tea

I feel like I've been very absent lately.  I haven't been drinking tea, let alone trying new ones and writing reviews; visiting cool tea places; or even doing as much reading about tea as I normally do.

In a word, my life right now is messy. June has been a terrifying month full of heartbreak and drastic changes. For the first time in my adult life I am officially on my own. When I get past the fear and sadness though there's also so much to be excited about. Like lots of potential for growth and really having a chance to reacquaint myself with the adult me.

I think tea has subconsciously helped me to deal with this scary transition. One of the major aspects of tea that appeals to me is it's impermanence. It teaches us to savor every sip because no cup lasts forever. But much like fish in the ocean, there are always more cups of tea.

So enjoy a cup of tea with me today because we never know what life has in store for us tomorrow. 

My first pot of tea in my new place.  :) Masala chai with some French Breakfast.

Phoenix Comicon Steampunk Tea House

Hi all!

I'm at Phoenix Comicon right this second being anti-social in their Steampunk Tea House. There are going to be Steampunk authors and personas here but mostly I came for the tea.

It's bagged tea, not quite what I hoped but as I drank all my tea from this morning, I'll take what I can get.

My first cup is a white orchard from a company called Mighty Leaf. The package says Chinese white tea with peach and melon. It certainly smells very fruity. It brewed up pretty dark for a white with quite a bit of sediment (but that's a tea bag for ya).

The first sip of it had a very thick mouth feel and made me think of my favorite childhood lunch snack: gushers. This however was not a good thing.

The rest of it tasted like body wash, I think because the melon and the prevalences of cucumber melon bath products. It's got a very sweet aftertaste that unfortunately seals the last nail in this flavor's coffin. Maybe I'll have better luck with the Jasmine Green?

If not, at least I'm still at my favorite event of the year!!!! Rocking my Hufflepuff uniform!!  Happy Friday all!! TeaGIF!

Glenburn 2013 Autumn Oolong

Can I be honest for a minute? I feel a bit silly writing a review of this tea. I'm still so new to the tea world that I feel like there isn't anything I can say about this one that more knowledgeable experts haven't already said.

But that being said, I love this tea so much I have to tell you about it! Here's what I know.

This oolong comes from the Glenburn Estate in Darjeeling. It is an autumnal flush and dried in the sun.  There's a neat little video of their processing technique here.

This is a 2013 harvest that I picked up at a local independent tea shop: Souvia. The 2014 harvest won 2nd place (dark oolong category) in this years tea tasting championship.

I love the look of this tea, all curly blacks, browns, and greens. It's got a rich woodsy sweet smell. Brewed up the sweet smell comes through even more and the floral notes really start to stand out.  The liquor is a bright orange and smells complex, combining the wet and dried leaf smells.

So how did it taste? Heavenly. It started off with a bit of tartness due, I think, to slight overstepping. However it wasn't unpleasant. I got some hints of malt and dried fruit sweetness.

This tea really started to captivate me during its subsequent steepings, shortened to two minutes. That's when the floral notes bloomed and turned into an absolutely amazing experience. I almost can't describe it. It was floral but not like the jasmines that I'm used to, it was much sweeter and I flew through the next three or four infusions.

I can definitely see why this tea won its spot in the championship; and make me really want to try the first place winner.

Have you had a chance to try this tea, or anything from Glenburn? Know any other neat tidbits about this tea? Let me know in the comments! I'm gonna go steep this since more, but before I go here's my stats:

Glenburn Autumn Oolong 2013

Temp: 195° F

Time: 3 minutes for the first infusion but then 2 min for the subsequent ones

Tea: 2.5g 

Vessel: Gaiwan (≈100mL)

Steepings: 5+

Sterilizing my Yixing pot

Some time ago, I finally took the plunge and bought my very first Yixing pot.  I was a bit scared but had found some great pu'er teas and felt confident that I wouldn't be wasting my money on a pot I wouldn't ever use.

Dan, the owner at Trailhead Tea, where I bought the pot, gave me great instructions on how to sterilize it BEFORE seasoning.  So here's what I did.

I started by covering the pot with bottled water.  The desert is notorious for it's hard water and I really didn't want all those chemicals in my pot so I wasted the water but I think for good reason.

I made sure that only the bottom of the pot touched the pan.  You don't want the handle or spout touching the sides.  The lid I put next to the pot, handle up for stability, also not touching the sides or the pot.

I've read a lot of tutorials that say to boil but Dan told me to simmer.  Boiling creates bubbles that are potentially large enough to disrupt the pot.  The large bubbles could knock it over and cause it to break.  We don't want that before we even use it so simmering is a safer way to go.

Heating up.

I covered the pot with water and set my heat to medium.  I wanted to bring the heat up slowly so as not to subject the pot to any kind of extreme temperature difference.  Once the pot was simmering very gently I set a timer for 30 minutes.  Or at least that's what I tried.  I think I got up to look at it every five minutes or so.  It was my first pot so I think I was a bit over protective.

This was as bubbly as my water got.

Once it had simmered for 30 minutes I turned off the heat and left it for a few hours so it could thoroughly cool down. Then I drained the water, which had more dust/sediment particles than I expected, and left the pot out for a day or two to dry completely.  

Yay!  Squeaky clean!  Stay tuned for my take on Yixing pot seasoning.

Freedom at last!

Finals are done! School is over! I can finally have my life back!! Hooray!

The top thing on my list of activities I've been missing out on is reading. I've always been a bit of a bookworm and it's been terrible not being able to read for fun. So when I saw this beauty at World Market, I couldn't pass it up.

I never see tea books out in the wild. They all seem to hide in their Amazon habitats and I really prefer to flip through them before I buy. I think this one was fate.

I'm also excited to start being productive again.  Actually finish some tea reviews instead of just drinking them and reveling in how delicious they are while sharing none of it.  Of course that's assuming I can suddenly learn to be organized and disciplined.  I bet there's a lot of ideas on how to do that on Pinterest.  I'll go make some tea and "research" that.  

Happy Sunday all!

Tea Shops - The Scented Leaf

Hi there!

I recently made a day trip.  Roughly two hours south of my Phoenix home lies Tucson.  Home of the University of Arizona, numerous tea shops, and the Rialto theatre.  I drove out there with my sister to attend an event at the Rialto.  Since we were going to be down there I insisted we check out their tea scene.

From what I could discover, there are three tea shops.  Seven Cups is world famous for their incredible selection of orthodox tea.  The Scented Leaf and Maya Tea seemed pretty standard tea shops from their websites.

When we got into town our first stop was The Scented Leaf.  We had to park in a nearby parking garage since, being within walking distance of the Uni, it was so busy.  Inside was the same situation.  I think it was the busiest I've ever seen a tea shop, it was very starbucks-esq.  It was a pretty spacious store with lots of outdoor seating and I think every table was full.  The counter was pretty small and there were a lot of employees bustling around making drinks.

My sister and I mentioned we'd never been there and the friendly girl behind the counter gave us the rundown.  Roughly 50 teas, mostly flavored.  They had a bunch of teas somehow coming out of a draft pull tab apparratus that was intriguing.  My sister tried a sample of some orange cream conconction that the barrista pulled from it like a draft beer. Crazy!  I so badly want to know how it works.

But I digress, my main purpose in visiting was to check out their Green Mango tea.  I've had a long time love affair with a Sencha Mango that has since been discontinued, and I was extremely curious to see if it was similar.  I asked the friendly barista what kind of green tea was in the green mango and she was a bit stumped.  She said a Chinese green tea and my heart sank.  But then she smiled and said, "let me double check."  She got another man (the owner? manager?) involved and he said that it was indeed Sencha.  Huzzah!  I explained my predicament, and he offered to contact a previous employee of the tea shop that discontined my Sencha Mango.  I admitted that I work there and that it wasn't necessary.  But still!  That was very much above and beyond of what he needed to do and the store got much more tea cred (for me at least).

Overall I was very impressed with the place.  The Sencha Mango of course was delicious.  My sister got Lemon Ginger Snap and also really liked it.  Another interesting tidbit, the barista made sure that we tried the tea while at the counter to make sure we liked it.  I wonder what would have happened if we hadn't.

The bad?  Not the place for hardcore orthodox tea drinkers, as they have just a few standards.  A caveat to that though, he is in the same city as Seven Cups.  It would be really tough to compete with that so I appreciate that he decided to cater to a different clientel.  The only other downside was it was so busy.  Not a Tucson resident, I'm not used to the crouds that I'm sure are constant and every where; so that was a bit of a turn off.  We got our brewed teas and left.  However, if I was a student doing homework it would probably be heaven!

If you're ever in the Tucson area and want some draft (though not really) tea the Scented Leaf is a pretty sweet place!  Definitely worth another visit the next time I'm in the area. This post got too long so stay tuned for my Seven Cups adventure!

Palate Training Troubles

Tasting words are HARD!  At least they are for me, a life-long picky eater and new-ish to the nuances of orthodox tea.  My palate is severely underdeveloped.  This is a big disadvantage for someone with a strong desire to drink ALL the teas.  :(  Reading about tasting words is one thing, my tea journal has a very handy list of the most common aspects of color, body, aroma, and taste.  But sometimes reading the definitions of the words doesn't transfer to the actual taste.  Is this tea naturally astringent or is it bitter because I steeped it too long/ too hot?

If I had an unlimited amount of funds and time (thanks homework and house cleaning) I would love to sit down and develop an easy tasting flight that showcases prime examples of the most common tea aspects.  In my head it's similar to that scene in French Kiss where she tries some wine, smells some herbs and oils, tries the wine again, and can taste so much more in it.  (French Kiss is an awesome movie, you should go watch it)  :D

I'm sure someone in the tea world out there has done this already but I can't seem to find it.  Have any of you come across something like this before?  If so let me know, cause tea is awesome but tasting words are hard.  Luckily, tea is still amazingly delicious so tasting them over and over isn't too brutal.  :D