Tancho-no-mukashi Matcha

This is a High grade offering from Ippodo, a traditional teashop in Japan specializing in tea form the Uji region.

This might be the first time I have ever detected a floral note in matcha, sweet yes, but this is distinctly floral almost rose like. Drinking this is drinking something which you know is there, you feel its warmth, you taste its sweet and bitter combination with the slightly chalky mouth feel which lingers into the finish. But before you know it half the bowl is gone, then the whole thing, and you are wondering what happened, because you are convinced you did not drink nearly that much. But what you remember of the sip you took was that it was good, subtle and ever so enjoyable, but seemingly non existent.

Andao Tea Wuyi Big Red Robe.

Some of you may know that I did review this tea last August. As I state in the post the tea then was not my favorite, but I did eventually figure out how to brew it, and thankfully I still have not forgotten. This is a brand new bag, but as Andao does not label some teas with production years it is rather hard to know, if what I had in August was the same year or production run as this tea.

Wuyi in my mind is best brewed with a completely attentive mind. Brew this tea with an attentive mind and it will be good to you, great mouth feel, great aroma, only the flavor is slightly lacking. It is rather plain and not that strong. But everything else was great.

A reunion of sorts,
A reflection off a teapot,
Life comes forth.
--Adam Yusko

Embrace the Green

From Matcha\

I am not normally one to do a special holiday post, but everyone just seemed a buzz with St. Patrick's day festivities. So I said what can I do teawise that is completely green. Well the greenest brew has to be Matcha by far, and I do have that seafoam green chawan.

So I made myself a Large batch of the Green tea powder, and basked the wonderful weather outside.

But on that note, I've noticed my teaclock seems to be off a bit. I really got into green teas, especially Japanese greens during the cold months of the year, which the only seasonal one was Gyokuro which should typically be aged at least 6 months prior to release. Yet now I am really getting in the mood for Wuyi Yancha now that it is getting warm.

So Two questions open to my readers:

Did you enjoy any special teas for St. Patrick's day?

Do you believe that there is a typical "Tea clock" as in you should only drink certain teas at certain times of the year?

Intensive Studies.

I haven't taken many new tea pictures lately, and I did not feel like recycling even more photo's, so I'm posting some of the nature photo's to liven up this post.

I have always advocated the focused approach to tea, as in focusing on a certain category or type, when first getting into tea or a new type of tea. I feel it helps you perfect brewing procedures for those teas, and lets you get better results quicker because you are seldom confusing your mindset with a different brewing process.

This past week, I have been brewing the same tea almost daily and it has been almost the only tea I have been drinking is a gyokuro from Ippodo. At first it was rather questionable, over powering with umami, but it was just that overpowering. With a weeks worth of repetitive brewing, I have managed to make it much better.

As such I feel my general Gyokuro brewing has improved drastically. I noticed my Wuyi brewing improved at the end of the summer when I was brewing Yancha nearly daily and by the time I basically ran out, I could do it in my sleep and it would be exactly how I liked it.

In essence I think the Chinese had the absolute right idea when they named the pratice Gong fu. In essence I feel every practice of brewing tea should have names equivalent to Gong fu, or skill.

So if you can stand the repetition, it might be a rather interesting practice to dedicate a 100g bag of tea to a week or so worth of brewing. Try to brew it 7 or so times in 10 days, and hopefully you will note how much better you came to understanding that tea, and getting the most out of it.

It is almost spring time, which on campus brings about one of my favorite times of years, with the oldest Magnolia tree I think I have ever seen, so enjoy these pictures, as I will hopefully be seeing something similar for an entire week or two depending on the weather shortly.