Drinking up the Inventory

My horse Bucephalus at Sassau Monastery KCD

Sweet words my husband's been waiting a decade to hear- "I think it's finally time to stop buying tea and start drinking 'dem beengs!"  Most of my mid to early 2000s shengs are decidedly ready to drink even if sub-optimally aged. Cracked open a '06 Changtai 65th Anniversary Beeing last weekend and had a fine time. Low expectations combined with a total acceptance of my inadequate aging environment has lead me to a plateau of pleasant enjoyment.  I'm just grateful to be alive with loved ones, grateful to have a solid roof over one's head, grateful to breathe fresh air, and grateful to be able to brew tea.

As you may have seen in the news, California was burning at both ends spawning human tragedy in its charred wake.  Even if one had the good fortune of your house not burning down, all of the Bay Area was coated thick with toxic smoke and we could not venture outside without a mask with a proper particulate filter.  The many days of dirty orange haze with everyone scurrying around in face masks gave me a terrible sense of forboding- a sense that such scenes were going to be now a new normal wrought by global warming. 

Dear Readers, I haven't written much since I have been trapped in the coffee doldrums. I am shamelessly gulping down a budget Guji as I write this- at least it's a single origin hand ground single drip brewed cup. Most mornings I slug instant coffee- I tried to downgrade to drinking instant coffee like methadone or nicotine gum to wean myself off the real thing.  But instead of the desired effect, I became thoroughly addicted to the substitute. Although I'd like to point out I'm not chugging just any old supermarket variety but rather some of the finest Nescafe to be had personally hand delivered from Germany by a sympathetic friend. Germans I've determined make superior instant coffee.  But coffee/caffeine addiction is a real thing and I fear I must suffer the cold sweats and headaches to go over the hump.

(A note on these photos- I could put up shots of vessels with various liquids in them but who wants to see that! You've probably seen every permutation I've presented in the last few years of this blog and thought I would mix it up with some gaming shots.

While I was cooped up indoors, I drank buckets of matcha, played a lot of Kingdom Come Deliverance galloping around the cool verdant forests of Bohemia.   I had visited Prague this summer for the first time- utterly charmed by the beauty of the city and overwhelmed by the hordes of scantily clad tourists in an epic heat wave.  After dozens of hours engrossed in this medieval peasant simulator I'm hoping to return to Czechoslovakia for a cooler countryside retreat.)

A Rainy Day for Nannuo, Bulang, and a Yiwu

Northern California is beset with a rainy week thanks to the "Pineapple Express".  In previous years, wet winter days such as this meant cracking open tea boxes for a day of brewing.  It has been too long I have cracked open any beengs and choose a few to see how they are getting along- a '05 Changtai Lao Chen Bulang, '06 Changtai Nannuo, and a '05 Yiwu Zheng Shan Song Pin Xing.

I'm looking for a daily drinker to share at work. We have had a green tea shortage at the office and I've been for dawdling for months making a selection.  The two Changtai's are pretty decent- reasonably bitter, dense and sweet.  I am briefly stoked that these beengs have turned a corner into drinkability.

The Yiwu is still mild and inoffensive as ever- mildly bitter and mildly sweet.  I'll probably bring the tamer Yiwu in since bitterness of the Changtai would be considered off the charts for regular green tea drinkers. The "reasonably bitter" designation is for fellow sheng drinkers who are used to a punch in the mouth.  I wouldn't bring such brute teas into a place of work. Or wouldn't I?

The handsome octopus teapot was a Xmas gift from my husband. How does it brew?  Even though it's a mass produced pot, it has so much character that it need not rely on it's brewing abilities to merit a permanent spot on my dining table.  It's too much of an inconvenient brew and the size I prefer for solo sessions is this tiny friend from Petr's Pots and Tea Club.