Muses and reflections

Well 2009 is coming to an end.  For tea lovers like me, this signifies that I am getting older and sillier.  But more importantly, my pu erh collection is one year older.  This is a happy thought. 

My tea reflections for the year 2009 are :

a)   I have bought too much tea this year esp pu erh. As most of these tea I had purchased are mainly from 2005  onwards, I will concentrate on new purchases on the older teas.  Lesson – do not buy on impulse.

b)   My tea preferences this year are mainly on the pu erh and oolongs variants.  If possible, I try to brew tea twice a day (morning and evening).  I tend to drink more ripe pu and my consumption of ripe pu is pretty high.  As of now, my 8 tea boxes (meant for drinking) consist of 2005 hong tai chang ripe, 2000 kunming tea co ripe, 2008 gong ting ripe loose, 2007 haiwan lao cha tou, 2006 haiwan ancient tree raw, 2008 da hong pao tea, 2008 alishan high mountain oolong and one empty box.  Good news though, most of these teas boxes are near empty and I look forward to new refills from my tea collection. 

c)   I only give a “finding” of the teas I am drinking.  It is not a review but my simple findings on the tea.  I am not a tea expert, but wish to share my experiences in the tea drinking. The fake pu(nov 6 2009 blog) which I had purchased was an eye opener for me and the pictures posted will help readers be more astute in their tea purchase.  Expensive tea does not mean good tea.  The 2005 hong tai chang 400g (nov 27 blog) costing me about us$20 is considered “my 2009 favorite ripe”. 

The above pictures are of the only ‘made in 2009 pu’ I had purchased this year. This is the Haiwan Laotongzhi pu erh composed entirely of lao ban zhang leaves.  This is a 2kg edition, 400g per cake, packed in a cloth bag and placed in a nice cylindrical cardboard container.

I hope 2010 will be a good and blessed year for everyone.  I hope to make a trip for my tea adventures on 2010, and post more teapot news with my traveling teapot.  I end my tea blogs for 2009 with this quote from Zhou Zuoren on the philosophy of tea:

“In simple terms, drinking tea is a way to get a moment of respite from the hustle and bustle of life and work, to experience comfort and joy in the groans and grinds of this bitter life, to seek fulfillment and harmony in the imperfection and the harshness of present reality and thus achieve a sparkle of peace in the soul that can endure to eternity.”