Upon my latest visit to Jeffersons Tea shop, the purveyor drew my attention to a new tea which he had in stock by accident - a wrong delivery of Yunnan Golden Monkey. This tea gets its name from where it is grown (Yunnan province of China), the quality of the leaf (high percentage of gold tips and buds), and the original method of its harvesting (monkeys were used to pick the leaves of the large trees growing precariously on the side of mountains. The 'monkey' reference may also refer to the appearance of the leaf resembling the hair (or the claws) of the Golden Yunnan Monkey which is native to this area.
This tea is fantastic! The aroma has an amazingly sweet bouquet. The tea brews a lovely bright reddish-amber colour and the taste is a blend of Yunnan's unique pepperyness and a well rounded fruitiness with a hint of honey.
Yunnan Golden Monkey continues to brew well after three infusions, remaining clear in the cup and surprisingly bright in flavour. At this point in time, this tea is my favourite black tea. The search is now on for another to replace it!
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Monday, July 16, 2007
Dragonwell Tea (Long Jing / Lung Ching)
I have since found a Chinese Emporium in Hobart which sells Dragonwell tea. I am trying to consume my current Adelaide batch so that I am 'forced' to buy some. I am really enjoying the Dragonwell tea. It is perhaps one of the most well-balanced Chinese Green teas I have tried. It is smoother than a Gunpowder or Chun Mee, and yet deeper than the Monkey Green. I wonder how different the top of the range Dragonwell tea would be. Mmmm, must find out some time...
The origin of Dragonwell tea is rather fascinating. It is China’s most famous tea and has over a thousand year history and is referred to in the first ever tea book (Cha Ching) by Lu Yu in the Tang dynasty. Longjing comes from a small village on the Fenghuang Hill, in Hangzhou Zhengjiang Province. It is said that residents in ancient times believed that a dragon dwelt there and controlled the rainfall. This caused people to travel to this well from all the surrounding areas whenever there was a drought to pray for rainfall, from as early as the Three Kingdoms Period (221-280AD). The origin of this belief may be due to the fact that when rain water floats on the denser well water it makes shapes appear which resemble the movement of a dragon.
The origin of Dragonwell tea is rather fascinating. It is China’s most famous tea and has over a thousand year history and is referred to in the first ever tea book (Cha Ching) by Lu Yu in the Tang dynasty. Longjing comes from a small village on the Fenghuang Hill, in Hangzhou Zhengjiang Province. It is said that residents in ancient times believed that a dragon dwelt there and controlled the rainfall. This caused people to travel to this well from all the surrounding areas whenever there was a drought to pray for rainfall, from as early as the Three Kingdoms Period (221-280AD). The origin of this belief may be due to the fact that when rain water floats on the denser well water it makes shapes appear which resemble the movement of a dragon.
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Adelaide Visit
I went to Adelaide a few weeks ago with my wife and sons to visit my brother and his wife. While over there I hunted around for some tea shops. I purchased tea from three different vendors.
The first teas I bought were a Dragonwell Green Tea aka Long Jing aka Lung Ching, and a Pu-erh tea.
The second venue was a tea-shop called "Kappy's & Wright Plantation Teas". Visiting this shop was an enjoyable experience. It had a relaxed feel, with friendly staff. The tables tops were made from Indian tea crates and along one wall was an extensive range of teas, covering a large number of varieties. From this shop I purchased two teas, a Margaret's Hope Autumnal Darjeeling and a Monkey Green Tea. The latter is a bud-rich, delicate green with a natural sweetness, making it a very pleasant drink.
The final tea purchase was made only minutes before leaving for the airport back home. It was from a lovely Chinese teahouse and homwares shop called Saldechin. Among the teas available for drinking or purchasing was a Baihou Yinzhen (Silver Needle) tea. Not seeing any on the shelf but having read that they stocked it, I enquired and was informed that some had just arrived but hadn't been packaged yet. Therefore I was able to purchase it in as fresh condition as possible. And upon making my first pot later that day (back in Hobart), I could tell why it was costlier than Pai Mu Tan. Silver Needle tea gets its name from the fact that it is made up completely of closed buds which have a silvery, downy and slightly pointy appearance. A wonderful drink, especially for evenings. The shop also sold cakes of aged pu-erh tea for around $75 each. I must return there some time for this purchase.
So, all in all, I was very happy with my tea-exploration of Adelaide. The Silver Needle (Baihou Yinzhen) and Monkey Green teas are both unavailable in Tasmania (as far as I'm aware) and so they have made fine additions to my tea collection.
The first teas I bought were a Dragonwell Green Tea aka Long Jing aka Lung Ching, and a Pu-erh tea.
The second venue was a tea-shop called "Kappy's & Wright Plantation Teas". Visiting this shop was an enjoyable experience. It had a relaxed feel, with friendly staff. The tables tops were made from Indian tea crates and along one wall was an extensive range of teas, covering a large number of varieties. From this shop I purchased two teas, a Margaret's Hope Autumnal Darjeeling and a Monkey Green Tea. The latter is a bud-rich, delicate green with a natural sweetness, making it a very pleasant drink.
The final tea purchase was made only minutes before leaving for the airport back home. It was from a lovely Chinese teahouse and homwares shop called Saldechin. Among the teas available for drinking or purchasing was a Baihou Yinzhen (Silver Needle) tea. Not seeing any on the shelf but having read that they stocked it, I enquired and was informed that some had just arrived but hadn't been packaged yet. Therefore I was able to purchase it in as fresh condition as possible. And upon making my first pot later that day (back in Hobart), I could tell why it was costlier than Pai Mu Tan. Silver Needle tea gets its name from the fact that it is made up completely of closed buds which have a silvery, downy and slightly pointy appearance. A wonderful drink, especially for evenings. The shop also sold cakes of aged pu-erh tea for around $75 each. I must return there some time for this purchase.
So, all in all, I was very happy with my tea-exploration of Adelaide. The Silver Needle (Baihou Yinzhen) and Monkey Green teas are both unavailable in Tasmania (as far as I'm aware) and so they have made fine additions to my tea collection.
Monday, July 02, 2007
Gyokuro and Shincha arrivals
A few weeks ago I ordered Gyokuro Premium and Shincha Tradional tea from http://www.hibiki-an.com/
Upon opening the packages the initial aroma revealed the teas' freshness and quality. As Hibiki-an is a family-owned company time and money was saved by buying directly from them, as the order was sent straight from the tea farm to my house. In the case of the shincha only days had passed between its picking and being in my teapot.
It has been interesting learning how to master the art of brewing Gyokuro and I have found 55 degrees Celcius seems to be the best temperature for this particular type.
More later...
Upon opening the packages the initial aroma revealed the teas' freshness and quality. As Hibiki-an is a family-owned company time and money was saved by buying directly from them, as the order was sent straight from the tea farm to my house. In the case of the shincha only days had passed between its picking and being in my teapot.
It has been interesting learning how to master the art of brewing Gyokuro and I have found 55 degrees Celcius seems to be the best temperature for this particular type.
More later...
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
One small step...
Well, I've managed to place one of the tea cards along the sidebar (under my profile). But have not as yet discovered how to insert it in the main body of the post. Will keep trying...
Tea Cards Complete!
Over the last few months I have been sporadically working on Tea Cards. They were initally intended to have very few words on each card to be used for a tea game. But as I went along I decided to make them more comprehensive (as much as cards can be at any rate). Thus the result is 33 cards, made up of three cards per variety and 3 cards on tea grading. Each card provides the following information:
- Type of Tea Variety
- Name of Tea (with its meaning in English)
- Country of Origin
- General Information - including historical and/or interesting facts
- Appearance - of both the leaf and the infusion
- Aroma
- Taste
- Brewing Instructions
- Information on Tea Type
- Card Number
The tea varieties represented are:
- Ceylon Teas
- Chinese White Teas
- Chinese Yellow Teas
- Chinese Green Teas
- Chinese Oolong Teas
- Chinese Black Teas
- Chinese Pu-erh Teas
- Indian Teas
- Japanese Teas
- Taiwanese Teas
And the last three cards have information on tea grading.
I would still like to create a game around these cards - my next project. But for the moment I am happy with the outcome. I aim to post these cards on the blog. Will have to figure out how to do this first, however.
Happy Gongfucha!
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