Goodbye 2020 And Hello 2021

 

2020 in one word - Tumultuous.  

This pandemic had taken a physical and economic toil on all of us.  As we welcome 2021 tomorrow, I am sure 2021 would be a much better year for all of us.  

I was not able to travel much this year and I should think I can only fly overseas only late next year.  For many tea drinkers around the world, I had noticed from my email correspondence, many of us are had bought less tea this tea and are instead drinking from our stash of tea.  I am sure we had bought some nice tea in the past and we are now brewing them during these 'rainy days'.  

Pix shows a 2010 Lao Man E's ban zhang 500g tea brick.  This tea is strong from the 1st sip.  There is now some mellowness and a slight hint of sweetness In the tea.  Very strong chi in the tea and I felt a sweaty sensation (for a couple of minutes) from the 2nd infusion. 

I am thankful that all my readers and tea buddies around the world were doing not too badly this year.  To all my readers and tea buddies, Happy New Year 2021.  

Tea for the special occasion

 

I would normally open an older tea to drink and share with my family and friends, This is usually done on special occasions like Christmas or Chinese New Year.

I was most probably showing off when I would take out the cake with its wrapper on, opening or breaking up the cake when we are brew the tea.

I realised now it was a mistake.

The tea is not at its best when you open the cake and prying off some tea to brew on the same day. The tea would be much better if I had broke the cake up and stored the contents in a tea caddy for a few weeks before that special occasion. The taste and a aroma of the tea would be better. Yes call it xin cha or awaken the tea.... it really works. This is especially so for highly compressed cakes from Xiaguan and even Taetea (Dayi) cakes. Both raw and ripe cakes would do very well if they are broken up and kept in a tea caddy for a couple of weeks.

I am opening a 2005 Xiaguan cake. This is not an iron cake but the compression, in my opinion is just as hard as an iron cake. This cake should be nice as I could detect the old Xiaguan signature faint perfume aroma from the cake, I cannot wait for Christmas.  Counting down the days.