Is it Spring yet?

Nothing like being in the throws of the worst stretch of days days I remember in west Michigan since I have been here, to really wish that it is Spring.  Those bright sunny days, the slow and steady rains,  and air temperatures that allow for shorts and short sleeves with comfort.  Oh wait, did I forget something?  Yes, Shincha, and other fresh spring harvest teas.

Oddly while I have come to believe that Shincha is no better ( though no worse), than its counterpart the rest of the year.  I am not so sure I can say the same about the Chinese or Japanese counterparts.  Every year I say I am going to try more and more, but this year, I have decided I do not want to run into the situation where I am finishing off my last Shincha order in January.

In fact 2012 was  a rather odd year compared to the previous year.  I had rebounded a little from going hog wild over Japanese teas, as such while I have had a decent bit of Japanese tea to try through swaps and tastings set up on Teachat, I haven't placed a Japanese tea order since last Shincha season.  This actually messed things up quite a bit, it means I've gone quite a long time without both Matcha, and have been rationing Gyokuro like I am stranded on an island.

What are my readers plans when it comes to fresh green teas this spring?

I say this every year but this year I honestly hope to place an order for several small packets of Chinese Green Teas.

While I also hope to place a single order for Shincha (the hard part is picking the vendor).

Tea just helps you be healthy

 

To my regular readers, I apologize for the title, which sounds very much like those spam adds involving tea.  But I the past 10 months I have been working on becoming more and more healthy, through quite a few different avenues.  To really try and become serious about this, I am hoping to run quite a few races this spring, ideally working towards a half Marathon in May.

The key here is I have realized tea compliments work outs in so many different fashions, before a work out it can help provide the energy boost to accomplish your task.  I have also found it helps me recover from a workout again with the energy boost.   In the winter it is incredibly nice, as it is a way to help warm up, and calm your body down.

Now it is time for the nearly compulsory facts on why tea is healthy.  I am not sure how many of my regular readers has this apply to them, but if you often drink a lot of very sugary beverages or even Sodas/ Pops then simply working more tea into your diet, by say replacing one or two cans of soda a day each by a cup of tea ( assuming you leave out milk and sugar) reduces calorie intake by roughly 200 calories.  

The other fact which should be mentioned, though I have only read this about green tea, but tea apparently boosts your metabolism helping you burn calories quicker. As all teas have nearly identical compounds present, just in slightly different quantities depending on type, so it makes sense that what is true for green tea, is also true for oolong, red, white, etc. to some degree. 

Office Tea and Teaware

Barely could believe it myself, but I followed through with an idea that had been lurking in my head, but seemed wrong on so many levels.  Last time I was at the grocery store, I bought tea that came in teabags.  The reason being, while I like drinking tea in my office, the hardest thing is the layout of the building and the offices are so inconvenient for basically anything besides teabags.  Even with an electric kettle at my desk, the kitchen area is located next to the seminar room, so for several hours at a time, almost every day, there is no way to access the kitchen (unless you want to barge through a seminar in progress which is quite frowned upon).

So the teabags are part of an attempt to be able to drink tea in the office.  As I am confronted with a weird situation of liking tea enough that I would rather have mediocre to poor quality tea, than no tea at all.




This is also the Yunomi I mentioned in my last post, which will be brought to the office, as the cup to go with my office tea.  I figure if I am drinking mediocre tea, I do not need mediocre teaware.

Cold Days, Bigger Cups

I have slowly been moving away from the tiny little porcelain thimbles, that are often used for Gong fu cha, unless I am brewing for multiple people.  While a small part of that has to do with the fact that more often then not I am multitasking at least on some level these days, and the bigger cups mean less pouring, and are less likely to turn cold when forgotten about for a few minutes.

It is that heat retention that the larger mass of hot tea has, that has really lead me to think about the cups I have been grabbing this winter.  The colder the day it is outside, the more I find myself reaching for quite large cups.  Even if it requires pouring several infusions into the cup to fill it more than half way, the large cups are incredibly nice to hold and use on a cold day.

This past Sunday, which honestly seemed like the first real winter day I have seen for almost a year in this part of Michigan, where the cold honestly seemed to penetrate deep into everything, causing a deep mistrust of what my thermostat was actually telling me.  I finally think I found a really good use for a Yunomi I have. But the yunomi which is far too dark on the inside to work well with sencha ( impossible to tell the color of the brew), I realized I can use on these cold days to brew up massive amounts of Red tea, and just sip somewhat slowly while getting work done.

I am sure when the temperatures start warming up the small porcelain cups will once again find use, as while tea fosters patience, the hardest part to wait through is when the tea is brewed, and in a cup, but still to hot to drink!