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

March Steepster and Chrysanthemum Flower Tea

My Steepster Select package arrived in the mail yesterday!

It was the first one that I've recived since I signed up.  I'm pretty excited about what they sent.

An organic Dragon Well: This is one that my new-ish tea knowledge is familiar with.  We sell a Dragon Well at the shop and the shop's owner treated us to some that she bought when she visited Longjing.  I'm excited to try this one against the one we sell and see how they compare.

An organic Wuyi Oolong:  I've heard of Wuyi teas before.  I believe we have a Wuyi Clound and Mist at the shop but I haven't tried an oolong yet.

Dai Bai Cha Jasmine:  I'm not at all familar with this tea.  This one will require some more research.  

Jade Cloud:  This is another one that I'm unfamiar with.

Wild Chrysanthemum Flower:  This one came as quite the surprise.  I didn't realized they'd be sending herbals.

Since I opened my package when I got home at about 10pm, I decided to try the herbal first.  I was very surprised!  We have quite a few single herbs at the shop but I haven't tried a lot of them unblended.  The ones I have were generally on the mild or simple side and tasted like they smelled.  

This was not the case with the chrysanthemum.  The dried flowers had an interesting blend of savory and floral smells.  

Looks like mush, lol.

The liquor smelled quite different, with a distinctly herbal smell.  Brewed up a super pretty yellow color.

The taste was another sensation altogether.  At first it's a nice and deep kind of earthy.  I hate to use that word since it's also a pu'er trait and it's a very different kind of earthy.  Not vegetal like a green tea, something between earthy and vegetal.  After that inital herb taste it turns into a pleasant mild spicy.

I'm surprised that I didn't taste a lot of floral notes in it.  But overall I actually really enjoyed it.  It was very interesting and complex.

Chrysanthemum Flowers

4 grams in roughly 8-10 oz of water

Time: 4 min

Temp: 212 degrees

Tea Shop - Trailhead Tea

I've mentioned before that the tea scene in the greater Phoenix area is a little bit scarce.  As such, when an opportunity presents itself to get out of the city I immediately hunt down any tea shops in the area.

Sedona, Arizona is located about 2 hours north and slightly east of Phoenix.  It's a thriving tourist town that draws hiking and new age enthusiasts alike.  It's home to some famous red sandstone formations like: Slide Rock, Chapel of the Holy Cross, and Cathedral Rock.  It's also renowned for it's mysterious energy votices, that can be found in various places around the town like behind the airport (sound like Welcome to Nightvale to anyone else?).

Chapel of the Holy Cross

Source: Wikipedia

Cathedral Rock

Source: Wikipedia

I was lured up there to visit the tea shop attend a very dear friend's wedding.  The wedding started at 9:26am and since it's a 2 hour drive I chose the safe route and stayed up there Friday night.  My first stop when I arrived was Trailhead Tea.

Located right off the SR179, Trailhead Tea is situated in a big, multilevel shopping plaza.  Parking was a slight hassle but well worth it in the end.  When you walk in you're greeted with a wall of tea in front of you, lots of teaware to the right, and a long inviting bar to the left.  The teaware drew me first, it's hard to find non-Teavana teaware in Phoenix.  They had SO much cool stuff.  I think I squealed when I saw Yixing pots and gongfu sets of various sizes.

When I finally ambled over to the bar I saw that they do tastings!  3 cups of tea; premiums teas $15, and reagular teas $10.  YAY!  After much deliberation I went with a Huo Shan yellow bud, black dragon pearls, and a 2012 DaDuGang Sheng Pu'er.

By this point I'd discovered that the two people in the shop were in fact the owners, Eileen and Dan.  They were amazingly friendly and very knowledgable, especially about where their specific teas come from.  They steeped my teas twice each (THANKS!) and helped me out when I struggled with my tasting words.

I think I was in their store for at least 2 hours and they didn't bat an eye or get impatient once.  It was an absolutely amazing experience.

As for my tea flight: I ened up buying the Huo Shan because it was an interesting mix of white and green qualities.  The black dragon pearls were very strong and bold and would probably convince my coffee-drinking mom to switch to tea.  The DaDuGang was smooth and had the perfect amount of earthy.  I ended up going home with some of that also, along with....*drumroll* my very first Yixing pot!!!!  (Sterilizing, seasoning, and brewing posts to follow).

I stopped in the next day, to get a quick iced tea for the road, decided on white grape, and it too was awesome.  Light and fruity and perfect for a trek in the desert.  If you're a traveler in the area, or a Phoenix local willing to make a (beautiful) drive, Trailhead Tea is definitely worth a visit!  

Himalayan Honey Green - Souvia Tea

I've been drinking flavored teas for quite a few years now, but it's only recently that I've begun to appreciate the orthodox teas. I think a big contributing factor to that was my recent employment by a local tea shop. It's hard to talk about a tea that you've never tried.  

Sine my appreciation is so new sometimes I feel a bit silly trying to talk about tea tastes when I consider myself, and my palate, to be such an amateur. But, I think that's a big part of the beauty of tea: it tastes different to everyone. Its what makes tea so universal. I completely believe there is a tea out there for everyone.

I think the point of my rant was: my appreciation isn't quite there yet for green tea. To me they are just a bit too vegetal and astringent. However, this Himalayan Honey Green totally rocks my green tea paradigm.

Origin: Nepal
Type: Green (20% oxidized but it seems most vendors still sell it as a Neapalese green tea)
Steep time: 2 min 30 sec
Water temp: 175°
Method: porcelain cupping set

Dry, this tea smells rich and sweet like dates/raisins.  The leaves are long, a bit curled, and just georgous shades of green.  The grassy green smell really comes out once they're steeped and the liquor comes out a very pale green.
It's a very well balanced combination of vegetal, astringent, and a mellow honey sweetness.  Since it isn't overy grassy, I think it would be a good introductory green.

Tea Shop - Duck and Decanter

The tea scene in the greater Phoenix area is sadly like it's landscape: desolate.  With a combined population of just over 4 million you would probably expect a bit more from this growing metropolis than our meager, albeit awesome, offerings.  But, like the beauty of the desert, you can find some amazing tea shops if you look hard enough.

Today I finally got around to checking out Duck and Decanter which is mainly a deli.  I was actually very surprised to learn they carried loose leaf tea; and apparently coffee beans and a crazy ton of wine/beer.  Pretty much a Phoenix landmark since it opened in 1972, they were definitely a pioneer in the coffe/tea bar operations.  Today they carry about 50 loose leaf teas and will custom brew anything for about $3.00 (sorry couldn't find my receipt).

They're kind of a jack of all trades store.  You're greeted with a beautiful patio area with lots of seating to enjoy this amazing (80 degree) weather.  There are two entrances, the left leads to their wine bar, and the right leads to the main shop/deli portion.  They had quite a few brewed tea options, 5 I believe, for deli patrons getting iced tea with their meals.  None of those options really grabbed me but I did notice they carry a Prickly Pear black.

Is prickly pear a common flavoring outside the desert?  I love it!  It makes great margaritas and martinis.  Intrigued, I got that iced.  They also had an oolong I'd never heard of called Sechung.  The label said that it was a partially fermented tea so I couldn't pass it up.  Most of their offerings were flavored but they did have a pu'er and a lapsang and even a Darjeeling so it's a great little shop for the budding tea enthusiast.

Prickly Pear Black

Brewed: At the shop in a gravity infuser

Steep Time: Was real short, don't think the barrista had a timer, just kind of winged it.

Taste: Very smooth.  Not a very bold black as the prickly pear was definitely the most prominent charicteristic which is kind of a mellow tartness.

A refreshing tea, great for a "spring" desert day!