Signs you might be an addict

Pardon the mess around the edges, but yes, today when brewing this morning I duel wielded ( pardon the video game reference).   The pot on the left contains the second day of 2011 Mandarins Tea Room Tie Lou Han, which while longer steeps, was offering up a lovely woody spice, and dried fruit profile.  The tea on the right, might raise a few eyebrows.

It was The Tea Galleries High Fire TGY.   Yes I know they have been closed for several years, I just happened to have two 50g bags of the stuff in my possession that I have somehow always been overlooking when going for me High Fire Tie Guan Yin fix. 





When I opened it I shot for the moon, using over 10 grams, possibly close to 15, smashing quite a bit in the bottom of the pot.  It yielded an interesting brew, though the first 2-3 infusions were overly sour, a sign that it did not like to age well.  But after those it turned into a rather interesting though mild brew.

Though after quite a few infusions, I had to eat a large chunk of Latvian rye bread to get my stomach to stop demanding food.  Either way incredibly enjoyable, and I should attempt this more often.

It's Winter, time for Gyokuro

It must have been the abnormally warm November and December in Michigan, but I had not thought of breaking out the gyokuro until rather recently.  Coupled with a Testubin that is starting to develop the white frost and a few specks of rust, created a wonderfully candy like beverage.

I do not know if it is gyokuro from Yame that often has the candy like profile, but gyokuro is rather unlike so many different teas in the sense that it can have a near candy like taste.  ( Not as sugary sweet, but when you can start to taste sweetness in most teas, these gyokuro-s are candy like like a good apple has a very nicely defined sweetness.)  Oddly the iron from the Testubin really seems to bring out the sweetness far more than anything else.

Starting tomorrow, and this weekend I hope to really hit the roasted teas, another wonderful winter time treat.  Though in my experience roasted teas like Yancha and High Fire TGY while great in the cold, need a good amount of humidity to really shine.  Without a rainy day or a good bit of humidity outside, they can seem a little lacklustre in comparison.

What is your favorite winter tea or teas?

Happy New Year!

Another year begins in the Gregorian calender, may we all show our age as gracefully as these pieces of teaware.



I myself am hoping to make today a day full of tea, in hopes that it will carry through and be prominent the rest of the year.  Sort of carries through with an old superstition I have heard many times, though the superstition is one involving money, saying if you buy stuff on New Years Day, money will easily flow from your pockets the rest of the year.




Happy New Year Everyone!

The Green Tea Forum is No More

I was sad to learn today that my suspicions as of yesterday have been confirmed.  The O-Cha green tea forum has had its plug pulled.  This prompted quite a bit of thinking, and some worrying, as while it was my secondary tea forum compared to Tea Chat.  Tea Chat is also owned by a company, and anyone that has been to Tea Chat knows it is not a big driver of sales for Adagio, at least not as much as a percentage of users, as it appeared The Green Tea Forum was for O-Cha.

This launched me into action, not really knowing of a great all around tea forum with a friendly atmosphere outside of Tea Chat that everyone could run to should Tea Chat ever meet the same end as the Green Tea Forum ( simply having the plug pulled without any real sign of notification).

As such I am launching the Tea Drinkers Forum, and I encourage all of my readers to join.




I am asking everyone to please pardon the dust, it seems to be in a stable state currently, but I may continue to tweek a few things, and work on the appearance these next few days.... This should have little to no effect on the actual forum functionability.