Random Tea Confessions

Ever since Hobbes bravely came out of the closet as a hongcha drinker and a band camp attendee,  I thought I would entertain you dear reader with some confessions of my own. 

1. My husband makes me a milky mug of Darjeeling every morning before I head out to work. Even though I swill copious amounts of hongcha(most of it bagged)  I mentally don't count it as tea just as medieval drinkers did not count ale or cider as alcohol.

2. I buy lottery tickets because I totally want to mega-splurge on five-figure teas.

3. My friends think I'm super busy and that's why I'm such a social deadbeat. Sometimes I spend hours zoning out deciding which tea to brew and then most of the day brewing.

 

4. I've become delinquent on taxes because the bill was lost under a pile of Kunming Post boxes.  

5. I like to fondle and sniff my young shengs at night.  Shu inspection however belongs in the safety of daylight.

6. I was rather put out when Celestial Seasonings discontinued Almond Sunset. I haven't drunk it since college but I just liked looking at the picnic scene on the box at the grocery store.

7. I've come to the realization that puerh fails to yield satisfactorily to a rational empirical approach not because there are too many dynamic variables with some of them unknown but because the principal instruments involved, my tastebuds, are unreliable and unpredictable.  

8.  I break out into a special wiggly dance when a tea is really good.

 

Yixing Gaiwans

I've been using mostly ceramic gaiwans to brew as it's the easiest way to gongfu allowing me to drink puerh even at work.  Recently I smashed a gaiwan lid and needed a replacement.  For variety, I thought I would look for a cheap replaceable yixing gaiwan.   A bit of yixing clay would help diffuse the basement taste on my budget wet-stored pu and I'm not one to waste a precious teapot on such teas.

I spotted this simple $10 zisha clay gaiwan from an ebay vendor who sells the oddest mix of teaware,  cosplay wigs, erotic anime pillows,  Tibetan "babao male enhancer" pills, and quilted doggy tents.  If you are a tea drinking anime addict with a small dog and a potency condition, this might be one of the few one-stop shops to cater to your exact needs.

Despite the suspicious mix of goods, I saw some mica and silica content on the surface closeup of the gaiwan so I pushed buy.  It's most likely low quality yixing clay but I'm willing to give it a go as my plan B is to use it as a tea caddy if brewing doesn't work out.  It will take another week or so to reach me.  At the higher end, there is the Di Cao Qing gaiwan on ebay but for $38 with shipping, this purchase defeats the purpose of having a cheap breakable gaiwan.

The other yixing tea set which did arrive today is this hybrid contraption which is more like a lidless houhin than anything else. I initially didn't want to buy it because the aesthetics is butt ugly and I wanted to maintain some self respect.  But it's functionality appealed to my sense of practicality - side knobs to prevent finger scorching and a slotted lip to keep those wiggly tea leaves back.  But my better judgement was absent as this thing pours much slower than expected and I may ask my husband to drill a few more holes.  He has enlarged holes on ceramic and yixing teapots for me using a special drill bit before and he really owes me after what happened next.

My husband fingered the curve of the attached demi-top quite suggestively and asked me if it was a miniature chamberpot.  You can't see it from this angle but the demi-top curves perfectly as if it was designed to accommodate a seated pair of buns. You can imagine how such a comment will flavor my tea sessions.

90s Malaysia Stored CNNP Qing Bing

Even though I planned to hang up my blogging hat for 2015, my tea life got a spectacular boost today and it would be most selfish of me not to share my tea learning.  I was the unfathomably lucky recipient of a package of aged teas including a liu bao from 1930's.  Nineteen thirties.  From whence did such a magical package arrive?

Most tea readers know the legend of Su- a true tea connoisseur who has been devoted to puerh for multiple decades.  Unlike you or me or even MarshalN or Hobbes- she has actually tended her sheng beengs into full maturity in the favorable climes of Malaysia.  She knows aging intimately and deeply in a way I yearn to but I will never catch up to.  No matter.  I'm utterly moved that Su wants to help me further my understanding of aging through teas that are not available to me.

This early 90s Qing Bing is a hefty chunk so I have many chances to brew it and even save for aging.  Su's generosity makes me blush but I'm giddily joyous she deems me worthy.

First sniff,  I'm seduced by the sweet sweet fragrance of dried plums of the dried leaf.   I'll probably sniff this every night.  When I taste incense and cedar in the brews,  I'm transported back to the time I visited Bulguksa temple and all my current worries drop off.

Su said this tea was strong and bitter when young and with the incense "jiang xiang" being more in the background.  Su casually tells me this Qing Bing will be a lot better in a couple decades.  The tea has a golden mouthfeel,  and I'm more than happy to enjoy this tea as it is now. 

After the session I started feeling sorry for my other teas.  I've read many reviewers state recently that '90s $100-$200 wet stored cakes are worth getting as being easy to drink now.  I've had those samples and after this Qing Bing, I really don't want to bother.  I don't want to go back to traditional storage or Kunming dry storage- this Malaysian dry storage is a lovely thing to behold.  Su tells me this is "just a Qing Bing", that if I tried the Haoji and Mark series teas, I'll be spoiled for life.   

Sometimes having the best can be dangerous if you can no longer enjoy the "inferior" versions.  But I'm of the mindset it's always worth trying the best to lay out your reference points.  I enjoy no shortage of mid-range versions (chocolate, olive oil, salumi, jams) regularly even after having had the best.  The best should be reserved and savored for special occasions and now I have a selection of rare teas to enjoy on my upcoming birthday. Thank you Su!

Heart's Desire

The first tea of 2015, I brewed up one of the few precious teas in my possession.  Happy New Year. 

KDrama Puerh

Somehow over the holidays I got sucked into the black hole which is Korean drama.  I don't own a television not due to any sense of superior virtue but because I know I lack self control.  In this dangerous age of VOD, you can find yourself binge watching on a tablet until wee hours in the morning when the right drama catches your fancy.  Imagine my surprise to see puerh being part of the plot.

The actor below is a crooked head of a baking conglomerate calmly enjoying the puerh he won at an auction as his daughter-in-law is being arrested after he carefully framed her for fraud.   The character mentions the excellent tea fragrance so it's definitely not a shu nor a wet stored wonder.  I have to ding the set designers for not brewing real tea leaves as it looked more like herbal dried citron tea than aged sheng.

This MBS drama- the Legendary Witch- is a twisted tale of four women sharing a room in prison who end up starting a bakery together.  When you get a mention on a major network kdrama, it means you've made it big in Korea.  My mother tells me that puerh is considered a premium tea in Korea and has made a showing on other dramas being served to powerful men.  Maybe there will finally be a tea based drama.