Happy New Year

Happy New Year.

Today is Chinese New Year's eve.  You will know that many Chinese would be trying to make their way home, these past few days, to attend the new year eve dinner with their family. It is like a Thanksgiving occasion where  families get to eat dinner together.  It is a yearly milestone which I look forward to every year.

To all my readers, Happy Chinese New Year.  Live long and prosper.

2007 Xiaguan T8613 Iron Cake And The Puerh Pliers

2007 Xiaguan iron cake.....I get that. But puerh pliers?

Yes, Valentine's Day is only a few days away and a pair of puerh pliers would be an ideal gift to get for your tea drinking partner. You can almost imagine and hear your partner squealing in delight when he/she used this tool to open up an iron cake.

Pu erh tea drinkers would agree that prying open an iron cake or tuo can be a challenging and sometimes a dangerous task. You would normally use a tool like a small metal letter open or a mini ice pick to open the cake. The very high compression of the tea will normally cause much tea dust when the cake is being pried open. Tea dust are not good for brewing as they clogged up your teapot and may upset the brewing parameters of your infusion times. Moreover, the amount of tea dust from opening up an entire iron cake can be quite substantial....easily more than 20 grams. The element of danger is present as a tiny slip can cause an accident if the puerh knife or pick accidentally poke your hands.

That is where the puerh pliers comes in. Simply grip the side of the tea cake with the pliers, hold down the tea cake, then lift the pliers as if you opening a cap of a soda/beer bottle. As you can see from the pictures, I could get nice small chunks of tea from just a quarter 2007 Xiaguan iron cake within 1 minute. This meant that an iron cake would be broken up easily within 5 minutes....and with minimum tea dust.  I shall name this tea opening method as the 'heartbreaker'.

Sadly, there is no such thing as puerh pliers.  A normal plier would suffice. But use your hard earned money to get your partner an old iron cake. This 2007 Xiaguan iron cake has a very good complication of flavours and aroma. It is like a time capsule as the high compression of the tea seem to make this tea a very vivid tea session where every infusion varies delightfully from each other. Good and strong 12+ infusions.   The broken up smaller chunks of tea are still highly compressed and you will get the 'tea get stronger with subsequent infusions' phenomena.  This is not that the tea was made from gushu, as you may be led to believe, but this is due to the highly compressed tea chunks 'loosening up' with later infusions.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Japan Tea Souvenirs

I bought some tea ware while I was in Japan last December.   It was a little tough for me, in the sense that I had purchased the 1st two pieces during my first day in Japan and I had to hand carry them for the next 2 weeks during my trip.  It was a good and cold holiday experiencing my first Japanese winter.

This new tetsubin is a Nambu Tekki production.  A 800ml capacity, I was drawn to this kettle while I was at the Nambu shop along kitchen street in Asakusa, Tokyo.  The tetsubin was made to look old and rusty.  The embossed dragon motifs on the side of the kettle were very pretty and I made a quick decision to buy it.  I have a soft spot for Japanese tetsubin.  I think this will be the fourth kettle in my collection.  

I bought 2 shiboridashi teapots while in Japan.  The insides of the spout have raised grooves which acts as a filter to allow tea to dispensed when you serve the tea from these teapots.  Unlike regular gaiwans where you had to tilt the cover to dispense tea, shiboridashi allowed me to position the cover properly without any side tilt.  I find the pour out of tea to be more elegant.  You would had noticed that my 2nd shiboridashi is a side handle model which is actually fun to use.  

I would strongly recommend that whenever you are in Japan, getting a Japanese tea ware will be the best souvenir for yourself.  And.....  do not forget the matcha and hojicha tea.