travelling teapot

2006 Yuan Rui Chang Ripe Pu erh

2012-01-27T21:02:00.000-08:00

I had included this 2006 ripe pu erh in my latest order from Yunnan Sourcing last month. This inexpensive cake was described as "Made from medium to coarse grade leaves from Menghai area fermented material. 2005 fermentation material, and pressed in 2006. Stored in Kunming for more than 5 years already. Similar to a 8592 blend except without the smattering of tippy leaves on the face of the cake. Nice burgundy liquor both bright and clear! Taste is clean, sweet and smooth, with a camphor aroma."

This 357g cake was very aromatic when I unwrap the tea cake. The cake looked darker than most ripe cakes I had recently consumed and the compression was not too high, in that I could break the tea cake apart, with my hands, for storing the tea in a container. I like such lighter compression tea cakes/bricks as it does not result in lots of tea dust when the cake is broken up.

I have to disagree with the description on the cake provided by Yunnan Sourcing. I found a strong aromatic boiled beans scent and did not detect any camphor scent on the cake. This boiled beans scent is quite pleasant and I found that the tea tasted better when you brew with less leaves. I normally use about 8-10g for a 200ml teapot but this tea tasted better with 6-7g. There is a mildly sweet aftertaste as well. For those ripe tea drinkers who are looking for that boiled beans aroma.......this is a good candidate for your consideration. Inexpensive too.

Happy Chinese New Year

2012-01-22T02:45:00.000-08:00

All Chinese will celebrate the Lunar New Year on 23 Jan 2012. Based on the Chinese Zodiac calendar, this is the year of the dragon. A dragon year is popular among the Chinese to have babies, as the dragon is deemed to be a strong and powerful symbol. And yes, you will see all Chinese homes celebrating the festive new year with lots of food, goodies, fire crackers and red packets.

For the Chinese tea drinker like myself, you would have realized that the prices of tea, especially the new harvest, are more expensive. Higher demand as well as higher production costs had driven up the prices of raw commodities which include tea. I forsee higher prices for 2012 teas as well. At least I console myself that my pu erh tea stash, which I overspent, is enough to last me for a long long time.

For myself, I am drinking lots of ripe pu erh and am starting to explore raw (sheng) pu erh. I am starting my raw pu erh adventures with a focus of those pu erh with a smoky scent in them. Somehow, right now, I feel that the additional smoky scent do enhance the overall raw pu erh brewing session.

I intend to go visit China and Malaysia this year explore the tea scene there. I had made many tea friends from these regions and I look forward again to having "tea-jamming" sessions with them.

The 2nd pix shows a 1997 yiwu raw tea sold in Malaysia. Yes the tea cake looks really worn but in my personal opinion, this particular tea stand outs as a very impressive tea in terms of taste, aroma, woodsmoke, woody camphor and sandalwood notes and a very pleasant herbal-sweet and satisfying aftertaste. Its really very good and very expensive.

I wish all readers every happiness and good health. Time to brew a pot of tea. Happy Chinese New Year.

My Malaysian Tea Purchase

2012-01-14T00:01:00.000-08:00

I took my family to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in the last week of 2011. We had a good time trawling the malls and eating all the Krispy Creme doughnuts almost on a daily basis (its not available in Singapore...yet).

I took one afternoon to meet my teapal, Chua (aka auhckw) while my family caught a movie in one of the huge shopping malls in the city. Chua is very popular in tea forums and is a serious tea and teapot collector. This time, he took me to a couple of teashops trying out the teas on offer as well as meeting his tea buddies, who were 'hardcore' tea collector enthusiasts as well.

I was at JDX Tea Distributors Sdn Bhd, the popular teashop which is also the distributor for Menghai Dayi tea (known as Taetea). I got to sample the special boxed edition of the 2010 Dayi "tien ren ba pu", a raw pu erh cake commemorating the Beijing Opera. The unique woodsmoke and the aroma of this tea, made me buy a cake immediately. This tea is really nice.

Yes, from the last pix, you would have deduced that I had carried back close to 5kg of tea home from Malaysia. I had also purchased a tong of the 2010 Gold Dayi. My tea buddy, Auhckw, was very generous giving me an old 2000 raw tuo and a pack of the Xiaguan iron cakes (pix 3). He also gave me many Dayi ripe samples as well. I am very grateful for his generosity. I intend to visit him again, real soon, to experience his immense generosity again.

I will write about the teashops in Malaysia as well as the tea drinkers and collectors there. Stay tuned.

2008 Xiaguan FT Happy Tuo 100g

2012-01-07T03:32:00.000-08:00

I bought this 2008 Xiaguan happy tuo with much anticipation of the happiness that comes when I brew a teapot of this tea. The term "FT" which you see sold on some Xiaguan tea products, refers to the collaboration between a Taiwan 'Fei Tai' business, together with Xiaguan, that exported pu erh tea from China to Taiwan. I heard rumors that FT Xiaguan pu erh use a better grade tea which may explain the higher prices. I will be ordering and drinking a bit more of these teas and I will give you my thoughts on this rumor.

This 100g tuo is raw pu erh. The compression of the tea is tight and this time, I use a shorter pu erh pick to break the tuo. A shorter pick, in my opinion, is easier to manage and break open a tuo as the pick would not easily slide out and cause an accident.

This tea is very pleasant and nice. Compared to the 2007 Xiaguan teji tuo (13 dec 2011 blog), I felt this tea is slightly more robust. Like the teji tuo, this FT tuo has that pleasant sweet flowery bouquet aroma. Most importantly, this tuo has a nice smoky scent when I brew this tea. This combination of woodsmoke and the nice fresh aroma does makes this drink a happy experience. There was the slightest hint of sweetness in the pleasant aftertaste. I also found that the tea taste better when drunk hot or warm. I did not like this tea when it has cooled down to room temperature and I would heat the tea again before drinking ( yes, many of you readers will frown on my reheating the tea, especially in a microwave.....give me your thoughts)

Overall, this is a nice tea. Not too expensive and Yunnan Sourcing has this tea on their site....I think about $5-6. The wrapper and box looks really pretty and this tea would make a nice inclusion in your next online order.

2011 - Looking Front And Back

2011-12-31T00:01:00.000-08:00

I am grateful and thankful that 2011 was a good year for my family. I made many new tea friends and had the opportunity this year to visit Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Malaysia for my tea adventures.

For next year, I will be visiting these places again as well as Yunnan to learn more about tea. If any of the readers are interested, it would be a pleasure to meet up with you at these places and I would show you the sights and sounds of the tea markets. Free.

I got to drink lots of pu erh tea this year. For ripe pu erh this year, the 2004 Xiaguan ripe, the ‘04 brick from Lau Yu Fat (Hong Kong) and ’06 Hong Tai Chang cake were very impressive ripe pu erh tea in my opinion.

I was also fascinated with raw pu erh that has the smoky aroma. I was smitten with the 2007 Xiaguan te-ji tuo. I found the brew simply delicious and I finished 2 tuos within one month.

For next year, I will endeavor to find out more about smoky raw pu erh tea during my travels and will continue to document those tea I have drank. I intend to revisit some tea I had consumed ….. I did buy doubles and triples ….. and see whether what I had blogged about the teas still hold true.

In one my earliest blog on tea, I stated “For me, its a happy and "at peace" sensation when I taste a good cup of tea.” After 3 years of blogging, that statement continues to summarize my tea drinking adventures.

Thank you for reading. Thanks for the feedback and encouragements. Happy New Year 2012.

Yoda drinks tea - I kid you not

2011-12-23T18:03:00.000-08:00

I was browsing the internet when I came across this website - http://www.thinkgeek.com/caffeine/ea88/.

The picture also from the website, had me started whipping up my credit card to make an order. This is the one.....the tea that Master Yoda drinks. The site describes the tea as "Dagobah Green Tea is the drink of choice of Jedi Masters. Just because a planet is devoid of civilization doesn't mean it's not civilized. Deep in the jungles of Dagobah grow the most delicious green tea leaves in the galaxy. If you need a moment alone to ponder the Force, do it while sipping a hot cup of Yoda's favorite tea." The tea is a blend of green pu erh, white peony and matcha. Each tin has 1 oz of tea leaves which is "enough for 14 cups."

The entire set of Vader's coffee, Hoth cocoa and Dagobah tea goes for US$29.99. Drats! Its out of stock and its only for sale within USA. I have 'vibered' my American friend to get me this order for me. In the movie The Empire Strikes Back, one of Yoda's quotes was "No! Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try."

2007 Xiaguan "te-ji" 100g tuo

2011-12-13T16:54:00.000-08:00

This is the 2007 Xiaguan tea factory "te-ji" tuo. Pu erh tea are usually compressed into cake, brick or tuo shapes before they are sold in the tea markets or shops. This makes for easy storage and takes up less space as well. If you look at the last pix, you can even see the Xiaguan logo when the tea was compressed into the factory mould. There is a hollow at the bottom of the tuo, which I was told, helps to allow moisture to escape during the drying process.

Xiaguan tea factories are famous for their pu erh tuos and iron disc cakes. The latter cakes refers to tea cakes that are compressed and shaped into flat cylindrical discs that normally come in the standard 357g weight. I will purchase this disc in my next teashop visit and will put up the pix of the disc. I should add that these tuos and disc are very tightly compressed and you would need at least a metal letter opener or a tea pick to break up your tea. Be careful......I accidentally poke myself.......drinking tea has its hazards.

I had bought this raw pu erh tuo locally at Amoy Tea at Sims Drive. This "te-ji" (special grade) tuo was sitting in an obscure corner of the shop when I decided to buy a tuo and give it a go. The 1st 5 infusions was, to me, the highlight of this tea. The aroma was a light flowery bouquet with a mild citrus scent. In addition, there was this strong burnt-firewood scent in the tea. I had found out that, during the pu erh processing, the tea leaves are pan fried at one stage, and wood was used as fuel in the pan frying process (there are now tea factories using electrical pans for convenience and I was told, is easier to control and get a even heat). I had mentioned in my earlier blogs to keep all your tea away from odours as tea absorb smells easily and its hard to get rid of that scent. This Xiaguan tuo as well as as many of the Xiaguan pu erh, had absorbed some of the burning firewood smoke, thus the signature smoky scent in their tea.

The highlight, to me, of this tea is that the smoky scent combined with the light flowery and citrus aroma makes this tea a wonderful brew. I would like to add that if you have never tried a smoky pu erh like this tuo, you may need a little time to get used to it. My wife, in her very first sip of this tea, commented on the strong smoky burnt wood scent......I told her that this scent is part of this Xiaguan tuo and told her to evaluate the entire tea again with this scent in mind. And now.....like me, she likes this tea very much.

There are tea drinkers I know that told me the smoky aspect of a tea distorts the true taste of the pu erh. Many will agree and disagree with this statement. For me, you should buy and drink the tea you like. Every tea will have its own distinct aroma and taste and every tea factory have their own style of tea processing.....which is the very reason I enjoy drinking Chinese Tea.......it is a wonderful adventure for me - every time with every cup.

This 2007 Xiaguan "te-ji" tuo comes bagged in hypo-allegernic bag (5 tuos in a bag). I had purchased a single tuo locally from Amoy Tea for $5 to try and subsequently buying a few bags of this tea a couple of weeks later. I would encourage you to try out a tuo if you are at the teashop (I do not have any business interest in the shop and will not receive any commission). Highly recommended - for $5.

2006 Yang Ji Tian Ripe Pu erh Cake

2011-12-03T22:17:00.000-08:00

This is my first Hong Kong pu erh cake that I had purchased in 2007. This is a 2006 Yang Ji Tian ripe pu erh cake. One of the nice things about buying from pu erh teashops in Hong Kong, was that you could, most of the time, sample a tea before you part with your money for that tea. As I drink quite a fair bit of tea, I try to sample the tea before a purchase. Yes, you are unable to sample a tea when you buy from the internet or at certain teashops....... but if its a small amount, its fine but if its expensive, I suggest you buy only from a reputable seller or just buy a sample. I would advise you not to plonk down your money if you cannot do the above as you may regret the purchase when the tea is not up to your liking.

Back to this tea; this 357g cake feels and look thicker and bigger, but this simply means that the compression of the tea leaves is low. I could break up the tea cake gently with just my hands and this resulted in less tea dust and fannings. I like tea cakes with low compression as it is less dangerous for my hands (I accidentally poke myself with a tea pick when I tried to pry open a tuo last week - thats another story).

The aroma of the tea is very strong and fragrant. It has a earthy and a 'chinese herbal soup' scent. This tea has similar taste characteristics of the 2004 Xiaguan ripe (see blog 6 Feb 2012) but with a milder sweet aftertaste. A brew can make 10 very good infusions. This is a nice cake and I had consumed half the cake within 3 weeks.

But I digress - I have, in the past couple months, encountered great difficulties uploading pictures on blogger. It sometimes take more than half an hour for one picture to upload. It is doubly frustrating to see an upload error after waiting for a long time. Posting the pictures for this blog entry was very excruciating this time, and I hope readers can recommend me a solution if this problem continue to persist.

Pu erh news - Hong Kong

2011-11-24T00:13:00.000-08:00

This well written article is from AFP, written by Judith Evans (Nov 3, 2011) titled “Cultural thirst drives China’s high-end tea boom”.

The article:

“Fifteen years ago the Lam family business picked up a consignment of aged tea from a defunct Hong Kong restaurant. Its value has since risen by a factor of 10,000, as the Lams have found themselves part of a boom that is both investment fad and cultural obsession.

"It's like magic," managing director Sam Lam told AFP as he prepared tea according to the Chinese ritual, pouring boiling water through rough leaves and then into tiny cups to drink, and spoke of the profits to be made.

The tea is pu erh, a dark tea that is fermented after drying and whose taste mellows with age. Its history is thought to date back between one and two thousand years, with legends of growers in mountainous Yunnan province ferociously guarding their cultivation secrets.

Over the past 20 years prices for aged pu erh have rocketed, while China has encouraged renewed development of a luxury tea culture which parallels that of wine -- partly as a source of national pride in a home-grown high-end product.

With over 70,000 tea businesses in mainland China, skilled buyers must taste tea in order to assess its quality, which only increases pu erh's mystique and sociability.

"You can tell from the aftertaste, the smoothness," says Lam, pouring out cups with practised hands. The tea is sold in pressed round "cakes", wrapped in paper printed with bold designs that reflect the vintage of each one.

Lam's father set up the business, Lam Kie Yuen, after moving to Hong Kong from the war-torn mainland in 1949.

But the pair say it is only since the mid-nineties that the market for luxury pu erh -- also, in its less refined forms, a staple of cheap restaurants -- has exploded, with middle-class investors joining the wealthy to buy it up.

The Lams are now selling tea from the 1930 to 1950 era for up to HK$200,000 (over $25,000) per 345-gram (12.2 ounce) cake, having bought much of it in cheap truckloads from dim sum restaurants that closed down.

"Growth slowed during the economic downturn, but it's still ongoing," said Sam Lam. "As the price is rising, people are buying it less to drink, and more to collect and invest."

But luxury pu erh is not just bought to lay aside; it is identified with proud, ancient aspects of Chinese culture, in contrast with the cheap "made in China" goods that have spurred the country's economic rise.

In Hong Kong's hectic Mong Kok district, fashionably dressed young men gather at a calm tea house for lessons from qualified tea master Eliza Liu.

"It's like a drug -- I'm addicted now," said student Ngan Kan Shing, 21. "By discovering tea I feel that I've learned about China."

He has been coming to classes for six years, but says: "I still only know the basics."

The group examines the colour of each cup of tea before sniffing and then slurping it in respectful silence, as Liu talks them through the value of the aged tea.

Grown before artificial pesticides and dried naturally rather than at a high temperature, it has a paler colour and a smoother taste.

"Good tea is produced at higher altitude, and also depends on climate," says Liu. "In Yunnan, they say a tea tree can experience all four seasons in one day."

The tea is served from small fine china tea sets, used with a tray that drains off excess water. The first cup of each brew is not drunk, as it is used to clean dust or residue from the leaves. After that, a good tea should taste different with every cup, say experts.

According to China's state-run Global Times, one batch of top pu erh sold at auction for $250 per gram in 2002, while rare Da Hong Pao oolong can also rival such prices.

But Liu and tea professor Yip Man, who taught her the art, are sceptical of the eye-popping prices paid for some teas, preferring to emphasise tea's longtime role in Chinese medicine and thought.

"Tea has a philosophy behind it, and it's about health. Tea has been very commercialised, but a cheaper tea may also be as good (as an expensive one)," said Yip.

"The philosophy is about harmony, bringing people together, peace within the self."

The price of pu erh is acknowledged to be boosted by a tight supply, and sceptics argue that investors buying aged pu erh may be made to look foolish as China's newly affluent drinkers move on to fresh fashions like Phoenix Oolong.

However Lam says that although the astonishing growth of the last two decades may not be sustained, pu erh is still a good investment.

He said a buyer of a good, inexpensive pu erh -- at, say, HK$100 ($13) a cake -- now could expect to make a 10 percent return in a year. "But you have to choose the right tea," he said.

Luxury tea houses springing up in London and Sydney indicate China might succeed in exporting its high-end tea culture. And Liu and her students feel meanwhile that they are tapping into much more than a fad.

Student Ngan is evangelical about pu erh. "Before learning about tea, a lot of my friends believed the stereotype that tea is for old people. But now I think they're changing their minds," he said.”

Yunnan Jing Gu Black Tea

2011-11-18T23:25:00.000-08:00

I had ordered 100g of this black tea from Yunnan Sourcing. This black tea comes from Jing-Gu and the black tea leaves looks golden. It has a nice strong sweet scent but I would suggest you do not brew this tea in a your clay teapot as the aroma, even though is very nice, may linger in your pot for some time and will affect the tea brew when you re-use the teapot for other teas. I suggest you use something ceramic when you brew any scented tea. Dedicate one teapot if you really like a particular strong scented tea. I have a separate yixing teapot for heavy roasted TGY and shui xian.

For convenience, I recommend you take a pinch (about 10 strands) and brew in your mug. Add hot water (a couple of minutes after boiling) and your tea is ready to drink in 5 minutes. This black tea releases a nice nectar sweet aroma. The color of a brewed tea is like a weak ripe pu erh brew. The aroma makes me think the tea is sweet when I drink the tea. Very nice and pleasant. This black tea also makes a nice chilled tea as well.

Costing about $10 for 100g (its quite a lot of tea leaves and will last a long time), I would recommend you include a pack of this Jing-Gu black tea when you place your next order with Yunnan Sourcing.

2005 Haiwan 'Yellow Label' Ripe Pu erh 357g

2011-11-11T23:19:00.000-08:00

I had the privilege to have purchased this tong locally in Singapore. This is the 2005 Haiwan Lao Tong Zhi ripe cake. I called it 'yellow label' for obvious reasons(see pix) as I could not find any recipe number or name for this cake anywhere on the wrapper itself.

This cake was kept in Singapore for 5+ years and the favorable weather in Singapore had helped to make this tea a real treat. Yes, good storage conditions and a good tea are also important factors that help making old pu erh taste good. And - ripe pu erh tea can be aged into a wonderful tea.

Singapore is an island located in south east Asia. The weather is hot and humid all year long. It is common that the average temperature is about 28-32C with average humidity above the 80% region. Rainy seasons can see the humidity reaching the high 90s. For me, I store my pu erh tea cakes in envelopes (single cakes and bricks) and in carton boxes (tongs) in an odour free room and half opening the windows when I am in the house. The weather in Singapore is similar to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, and several tea collectors in this region felt that the pu erh stored here would result in a nice aged tea.

This 2005 Haiwan cake, when brewed, gives off a pleasant aroma of toasted cereal and chinese herbs. Quite an intense scent. It tasted like a nice chinese double boiled herbal soup. It just gives me a smile with every sip. I felt a warm pleasant sensation after drinking a couple cups of this tea. My wife and daughter actually liked this tea - I had observed they drank up the entire cup and sometimes ask for a second round. This tea tasted better when drank hot or warm. I learnt a trick from my daughter - if the tea has cooled down, put it in a microwave and heat it up for 30 seconds (the tea will taste just as good). Do not drink overnight tea though.

The "Lau Yu Fat teapot"

2011-11-03T17:22:00.000-07:00

I was in Hong Kong in May this year and grabbed the opportunity to visit Lau Yu Fat teashop and bought some stuff. ( also see blog entry 28 Jan 2011)

This teapot is designed and sold exclusively by Lau Yu Fat teashop. The 180 ml capacity teapot was recommended to me by Mr Lau (teashop owned and run by father and son) senior. He explained that the rinsing of pu erh tea should be fast, so that you would not waste the tea from prolonged rinsing. He had designed a teapot that allows for a quick pour-out of tea. The 1st 2 pix are that of the teapot I took while I was at their teashop while the last 3 pix belong to the teapot I had purchased. Click pix for larger views.

This teapot has 22 drain holes. This is significantly higher than the average 7-9 holes you find in most teapots. I did a quick comparison with my current teapot (180c) I am using, and this 22-hole teapot was slightly faster in the pour-out race. I did not time that race but for those regular teapot users, I felt that faster time was only like an odd second or two faster. Was there a taste difference in brewing the tea..........For me.....no. I normally adjust my brewing times in accordance to the teapot as well as the tea. Moreover, I am a little clumsy with my teapots; already broke a couple the past 2 years.......and I find that I had to understand my new replacement teapots and adjust the brewing of tea accordingly. Some pu erh teas I am drinking may need a few more infusing seconds before I pour out the tea. But I would like to qualify that this teapot may be quite suitable for those teas that brews fast and strong.

The price of the "Lau Yu Fat teapot" is now going at HK$800 at the teashop. For the tea drinker who have a chance to visit Hong Kong, this teapot does merit a purchase consideration.

Asian Geographic - coffee and tea edition

2011-10-24T19:06:00.000-07:00

I was filling up my car at at a petrol/gas station when I saw this magazine at the newsstand. This was the coffee and tea edition (issue84) of the Asia Geographic. It costs $7.50.

This particular magazine issue focussed on coffee and tea. The pictures were really nice and the articles made good reading, for me at least.

Below is an excerpt from an article about tea as a miracle cure:

"Antioxidants are a little more complicated to understand, but its these chemicals that get the modern medical profession excited. When a substance oxidises it can produce free radicals - atoms.molecules or ions with unpaired electrons that are highly reactive. Free radicals start chain reactions that can damage cells, causing or accelerating degenerative diseases from cancer to coronary heart disease,to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Antioxidants, which occur naturally in tea (in particular, green and white tea) terminate these chain reactions by removing the free radicals and inhibiting oxidisation.

.......A 2005 study at UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center showed that green tea interrupted the spread of bladder cancer.........that green tea interrupted the signalling pathways involved in actin remodelling, instead trigerring cells to bind togerther and remain localised rather than spreading to other parts of the body.

Modern life assaults the body from all sides: pollution, infections, stress and even sunlight take their toll. Put away the dietary supplements, self-help books and punishing lifestyle regimes and go back to one of life's simplest pleasures; drinking a cup of tea. There's never been a better time to put the kettle on. "

The articles made an interesting reading and the photo illustrations accompanying the text were very vivid and beautiful. I enjoyed the coffee article (last pix) on making Malaysian coffee; where the beans are roasted over a charcoal fire, and the coffee is usually drank sweetened with condensed milk. Its a real satisfying beverage and I look forward to visiting Malaysia in the Christmas week later this year,

But I digress - I noticed, I suppose its inevitable, that coffee is considered the beverage of choice in many cities like Singapore. I remember that, not too long ago, coffee machines was a bubbly percolater, where you add a cone-shaped paper filter to the machine, add beans and water to make a brew. Now, the coffee machines......wow, like some futuristic star trek equipment, where you can have combinations of coffee brews with just a press of a button. The coffee machine even takes pride of place in a home. My friend recently called me "come over and have coffee, just bought a &^%# brand coffee machine. The machine was beautiful and mind boggling. The way the coffee is brewed and dispensed seem like some magic or hocus pocus wizardry. Impressive. Its now difficult to ask back my friend "come over for chinese puerh, check out my new gaiwan". To anyone who is reading this and contemplating doing a tea machine......please, get it done quick, I will queue in line for it.

Let me end this blog entry with another excerpt from the magazine:

"Nobody denies the beneficial healing properties of tea, not as medicine as such, but rather a daily ritual, an excuse for a much needed break, a social lubricant. Drink in that spirit, and health, happiness and eternal life will follow."

2005 LangHe Ripe Pu erh 357g

2011-10-14T23:05:00.000-07:00

This 2005 Langhe ripe cake was purchased locally in SIngapore. Yunnan Sourcing gave a description of Langhe ripe pu erh as "Langhe tea factory has been producing teas for more than 15 years. A Menghai based tea factory that specializes in producing Pu-erh tea in the traditional manner. Langhe ripe pu-erhs are special because their fermentation process is "lighter" using less heat and shorter times. The result is a brewed leaf with a slightly greenish-brown appearance. This lighter fermentation process allows for a more gradual transformation into a ripe tea. Langhe ripe teas typically take 2 to 3 years to lose their "dui wei" and become very enjoyable to drink."

Maybe its the light fermentation, but I found that this tea is very forgiving in that its difficult to over-infuse the pu erh. My experience with ripe pu is that most of the pu brews fast and strong and leaving the hot boiling water in your teapot or gaiwan may result in an extremely strong cup of tea. This situation occurs when I exceed 5 -8 seconds for the 2-4 infusions especially when brewing loose gong ting leaves and Dayi ripe tea and lao cha tou. Side note - the color of the brewed tea leaves looked uniformly brown - I suppose its due to the hot humid weather of Singapore and that this tea was stored here for 5 years.

I found the aroma of the 2005 Langhe to be that of cooked rice. There were also hints of toasted bread. Sweet finish. However, I detected a subtle hint of vegetal, something like a green tea finish, when I drink this tea. Its not unpleasant and I do recommend for ripe pu erh tea drinkers - do purchase a Langhe ripe cake in your next tea purchase.

Straits Chinese Porcelain Teacups Pt.2

2011-10-08T04:48:00.000-07:00

There were some readers that wanted more information on Straits Chinese porcelain teacups after my blog entry on 7 Aug 2009. Straits Chinese Porcelain were used in by the Peranakan community in the the earlier half of the 20th century. Most of the porcelain were specially produced for this community in Jingdezhen China.

There were however, porcelain made in Japan, that was used by the Straits Chinese as well. The top 3 pix are Japanese made teacups that are classified as Straits Chinese Porcelain. In my limited handling of Straits Chinese Porcelain, I felt that the Japanese made teacups were more refined in the finish. Some collectors do not recognize such porcelain as Straits Chinese but discoveries of such porcelain in old Straits Chinese homes could not be disputed. Such Japan made porcelain I had seen, had white as the background whereas the China made ones may come in a myraid of colors like white, green, pink, yellow, brown, blue and coral red.

The last pix is an unusual China-made nonyaware (straits chinese) teacup. The coral red color is considered a rare color in the nonyaware range of porcelain.

Earl Grey - New vs Old

2011-10-01T01:15:00.000-07:00

Alan Watkins wrote a very thought provoking tea article, on 29 Aug 2011 in the Daily Mail. Text and picture from the following website: (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2030922/Earl-Grey-drinkers-dismiss-new-recipe-affront-tea.html)

We're pining for our old Twinings: Furious Earl Grey drinkers dismiss new recipe as 'an affront to tea

It is the company credited with transforming tea into the nation’s favourite tipple more than 300 years ago.

But now Twinings has provoked the ultimate storm in a teacup by tampering with one of its best-known and most cherished blends.

Fans of the company’s Earl Grey tea are furious that the firm has altered the traditional flavouring and relaunched it as The Earl Grey.

Trouble brewing: The original Earl Grey which customers say they want back

They say the new product tastes like ‘lemon cleaning product’ and describe it as ‘dishwater’ served up in a cup.

Dozens of angry tea drinkers have posted complaints about the new flavour on the company’s website since the new brand was launched in April.

One wrote: ‘I cannot describe how awful this new tea tastes. The old award-winning tea was in a completely different league to this foul-tasting dishwater.’

Others have simply described the new product as ‘horrid’, ‘vile’ and ‘an affront to tea’.

One wrote: ‘I agree with the other posts here that the new Earl Grey is an awful disappointment!

‘Bring back the old recipe that was refreshing and flavoursome.’

Some tea drinkers are so dismayed by the new blend they have added their names to a Facebook campaign called ‘Bring Back the Original Twinings Earl Grey Tea’.

Several have enquired on the campaign page where you can find old stock of the original Twinings Earl Grey on supermarket shelves.

Twinings, which was founded by Thomas Twining after he opened a tea room on the Strand in London in 1706, is generally acknowledged to have been the first company to sell the first brand of Earl Grey tea.

It launched the blend in 1831, naming it after the Prime Minister of the day, Charles Grey. The distinctive taste is created by infusing black tea with the oil of the bergamot orange from South-East Asia.

Though Twinings was first to market Earl Grey, its origins have been disputed for nearly 200 years.

According to one story, the blend was first created by accident when a gift of tea and bergamot oranges was made to Earl Grey from diplomats in China and the tea absorbed the flavour of the oranges during its journey by sea from Asia.

Others say Earl Grey was gifted the recipe for the blend by a visiting Chinese dignitary.

Twinings’ new The Earl Grey contains extra bergamot and citrus.

According to the company’s website the product has been ‘refreshed’ with an ‘additional hint of bergamot’.

Alex Probyn, a master tea blender who runs the firm Blends for Friends, said: ‘You are talking about changing a product that people have been drinking for decades. A reaction is inevitable.’

A spokesman for Twinings insisted it had carried out extensive market research before implementing the changes.

He said: ‘As with all changes to blends, our new Earl Grey has undergone rigorous consumer tasting, receiving strong preference feedback over the previous blend.’

2006 Hong Tai Chang Ripe Pu erh Cake

2011-09-23T19:33:00.000-07:00

I recently opened a 2006 Hong Tai Chang cake. This 400g ripe cake was purchased locally in Singapore and the Hong Tai Chang has a very pleasant unique ripe pu erh taste and aroma that is the signature of the tea company.

My first encounter with Hong Tai Chang was a 2005 ripe cake in 2009 (see 27 Nov '09 blog entry). I enjoyed this tea very much and I do see this brand being sold on the internet and teashops worldwide. For your information, if you happen to be in Hong Kong, do pop by the Yue Hwa Chinese Emporium, go to the top floor and there is a whole floor of tea and tea products for sale there (go basement for the tinned oolongs). You can sample a few Hong Tai Chang tea there and buy a cake or two. I was there in Jan this year and the prices for this cake was less than US$25.

The aroma and taste of this tea.......I like. It has hints of camphor, slightly minty with a nice herbal aroma. It has a mild sweet aftertaste as well. Please, if possible, sample this tea before you buy as your taste preferences could be different from mine. I have a tea friend who is indifferent to this tea, and would buy other ripe cakes instead. However, to me, this 400g Hong Tai Chang cake is one yummy tea.

The Lady Tasting Tea

2011-09-18T00:03:00.000-07:00

“It was a summer afternoon in Cambridge, England in the late 1920s. A group of university dons, their wives, and some guests were sitting around and outdoor table for afternoon tea. One of the women was insisting that tea tasted different depending upon whether the tea was poured into the milk or whether the milk was poured into the tea. The scientific minds among the men scoffed at this as sheer nonsense. What could be the difference? They could not conceive of any difference in the chemistry of the mixtures that could exist. A thin, short man, with thick glasses and a Vandyke beard beginning to turn gray, pounced on the problem.

“Let us test the proposition” he said excitedly. He began to outline an experiment in which the lady insisted there was a difference would be presented with a sequence of cups of tea, in some of which the milk had been poured into the tea and in others of which the tea had been poured into the milk.”

This were the opening lines to chapter 1 of the book “The Lady Tasting Tea”. Published by Holt paperbacks, 2001, this book explained the birth and evolution of the use of statistics in science. And, tea, was an indirect participant, in one of the earliest use of statistics in a scientific finding. Even though statistics itself is boring, the author, David Salsburg, made this book highly readable and entertaining. A fun and informative read. Below are a couple more excerpts from the book:

“…..The man with the Vandyke beard was Ronald Aylmer Fischer, who was in his late thirties at the time. He would later be knighted Sir Ronald Fischer. In 1935, he wrote a book entitled The design of Experiments, and he described the experiment of the lady tasting tea in the second chapter of that book. In his book, Fischer discusses the lady and her belief as a hypothetical problem. He considers the various ways in which an experiment might be designed to determine if she could tell the difference. The problem in designing the experiment is that, if she is given a single cup of tea, she has a 50 percent chance of guessing correctly which infusion was served, even if she cannot tell the difference. If she is given two cups of tea, she might guess correctly. In fact, if she knew that the two cups of tea were each made with a different infusion, one guess could be completely right (or completely wrong).

…….In his book, Fischer discusses the various possible outcomes of such an experiment. He describes how to decide how many cups should be presented and in what order and how much to tell the lady about the order of presentations. He works out the probability of different outcomes, depending upon whether the lady is or is not correct

……And the lady tasting tea, what happened to her ? Fischer does not describe the outcome of the experiment that sunny summer afternoon in Cambridge.. But Professor Smith told me that the lady identified every single one of the cups correctly."

The state of mooncakes and chinese tea

2011-09-12T06:48:00.000-07:00

Today is the mid autumn festival. In Singapore, this festival is mainly celebrated by the eating of mooncakes and children carrying lanterns in the evenings. In the weekend newspaper, there was an article on mooncakes (click pix 1 for enlarged view). I noticed that the prices of these delicious sweet pastries have gone up substantially over these 3 years since I started this tea blog. It used to be $30 for 4 cakes.....now its close to $45-50. Yes, ingredients to make the cakes are now more expensive, but it is pretty obvious that the use of elaborate and intricate packaging had made the prices of these cakes over the moon. Looking at the above pix, you see mooncakes being packed in a chinese lantern, pix of celebrities on the box of one, and artistic designs in pix 2/3. Its difficult to make an argument, that such elaborate packaging is a waste, if the bottom line shows good profit for the mooncake bakeries.

Anyway, I had also noticed that people here in Singapore are warming up to the use of using the internet when shopping. My wife used Groupon, to purchased a box of mooncakes (pix2) which gave some savings. I find that its quite useful especially when an item you need can yield some savings. Hold tight to your credit cards as impulsive buying may make a hole in your pocket.

The bigger Chinese tea factories have also introduced some elaborate marketing strategies especially these 2 years. You would have noticed that for pu erh tea, there is an increase in special edition cakes. You have the gold labels, tinned and special wrapper versions, anniversary and commemorative cakes. I like to point out that these pu erh cakes/bricks do sell well. Collectors 'chase' after these cakes as they deemed these cakes as investments. Some of these tea were also bought and kept as trophies in their living room. I suppose it makes the house more cultured (joke joke). Its interesting to note that buying to drink these tea is not considered during such a purchase. Just my 2 cents worth of thoughts.

2005 Ai Lao Shan Raw Pu erh 357g

2011-09-02T01:15:00.000-07:00

Readers will know that I drink less raw pu erh compared to ripe pu. Reason being my stash of raw are relatively new about 5+yr old on the average. I found that new raw pu erh cakes though, perfectly fine to drink when new, does taste much better with aging and the taste is less harsh on the tongue (some people says it caused an upset tummy if they drank too much newer raw pu).

It was an article in a tea magazine, "Tea Art Magazine" (see blog 20 May 2011) that a review of some pu erh tea had the review panel confused over the oolong-like taste of the pu erh being sampled. In one of my tea purchases with Yunnan Sourcing, the proprietor Scott had included some samples of his in-house cakes and one of the samples was a 2009 "Ai Lao Jue Se". This was a 100% Ai Lao mountain pu erh tea. I made a brew of this tea and the results was, to me, a floral like scent with a nice flowery sweet finish. The brew had a light oolong tea characteristic. Most importantly, it did not had the harsh finish on my tongue which I had associated with new raw pu. Nice.

I did some homework and these are my findings. Most of the new raw pu erh that has a slightly harsher finish are those raw pu erh that is a blend of pu erh leaves. Pu erh tea that is not a blend but comes and harvested from a single area or region is called single estate pu erh. The taste of this brew tend to be more drinkable, more floral like in the aroma and more pleasant in terms of mouth feel. I would like to qualify the previous statement as I have only tasted less than 6 single estate teas so far, in my findings for this blog. Popular pu erh recipes 7542 and 8582 are examples of pu erh that is a blend of pu from different regions of Yunnan. My teafriend, auhckw in Malaysia told me that single estate pu erh can be more expensive compared to the popular blends and there is a following of tea drinkers that drink and store single estate tea in Malaysia.

When you buy your tea, whether single estate or blend - new or aged.......sample the tea and make a decision based on your preference. Will single estate or blends age better.....I cannot tell you which tea would be better but can assure you with proper storage your pu erh will develop its own unique aged taste and aroma.

I found this 2005 cake at a local tea shop and from the wrapper, this stone pressed cake is from Ai Lao mountains. This tea has the same tea aroma and taste characteristics as the Ai Lao sample I mentioned earlier but it is more mellow overall - aftertaste stayed longer in the mouth. The tea did however gave me a sweaty sensation which lasted about a minute after drinking 2 teapots of this tea. A very interesting tea....quite refreshing actually.

Chinese Tea - A Japanese Perspective

2011-08-19T22:24:00.000-07:00

This well written article is by Aki Omuri, and is from the Daily Yomiuri Online 29 Jul 2011. Article as follows:

"Nowadays, many people are able to enjoy Chinese tea such as oolong and pu'er thanks to its availability in bottles or cans. By making the tea yourself, however, tea time can be a wonderful experience as you can better understand and appreciate the scent and rich taste of the tea.

According to Chinese tea expert Naoko Iwasaki, there are more than 1,000 kinds of Chinese tea, either from China or Taiwan. Iwasaki said Chinese tea is divided into six groups, including green, white and black, and is categorized by the level of fermentation, processing, the color of the leaves and other factors. Although the most common tea in China is green tea, the way it is prepared and enjoyed is different from that in Japan.

Iwasaki, a tea arts master certified by the Chinese government, has run CHAZENsodo, a salon to share the enjoyment of Chinese tea, in Shinagawa Ward, Tokyo, since 2004. She also is the director of the Japan Chinese Tea Culture Association.

For beginners she recommends Chinese oolong tea, the most well-known among blue teas with moderately fermented leaves. "Taiwan oolong tea, in particular, is aromatic and doesn't have any surprises," Iwasaki said. She said uniformly shaped dark green leaves are characteristic of good tea.

The joy of Chinese tea is found not only in the flavor but also in the scent and color. In the making of authentic Chinese tea, small, purpose-built tea cups and pots are used. "With them, you can completely enjoy the scents and flavors. Tea can also be prepared in ordinary, small teapots and sake cups," Iwasaki said.

In the art of making tea, the teapot and cups are first warmed by pouring hot water in them. Iwasaki says that after the water is poured out, about five grams, or two teaspoonfuls, of tea leaves should be put in the pot. The lid is then placed on the pot to let the leaves steam for a few minutes. When the lid is removed, a refreshing and crisp scent fills the air.

At this point, just enough hot water to cover the leaves is poured into the pot and then poured out after a short time. "You can drink it then if you want to, but the first batch of hot water is to make the leaves open," Iwasaki said. She advises that hot water be poured in again, and the tea is ready when about 70 percent of the leaves open. The hot tea in the pot should be poured into a separate container, called yuzamashi, before being served in cups. "You can enjoy the scent in the second serving, flavor in the third and a pleasant aftertaste in the fourth."

While taking in the beauty of the light green tea, you can enjoy the slightly sweet, mellow taste, Iwasaki says. After drying, a pleasant aroma will remain in the cup.

In Taiwan, a special slim cup is used to enjoy the tea's aroma. After the tea is made in the cup it is moved to another container and the aroma remains in the empty cup. I tried it with a cup that was once filled with oolong tea and I picked up the sweet, vanilla-like smell.

"While enjoying the color, scent or flavor, you can also delve further into the art by studying tea utensils or growing areas which may bring you closer to Chinese culture itself. The good thing about this particular aspect of the art is that there are few limits. It is up to you which leaves you use and how much time you spend to enjoy the tea," Iwasaki said."

2005 Xinghai Ripe Pu Erh Cake

2011-08-12T22:17:00.000-07:00

This is a 2005 Xinghai ripe pu erh cake, 357g. I had purchased it in a city teashop in Guangzhou.

Yunnan Sourcing's website gave a short description of Xinghai tea as follows : "The Xinghai tea factory is a medium size Pu-erh tea factory which is located in Menghai county of Xishuangbanna. The tea factory was opened in in June of 2002 with an initial investment of just 700,000 CNY. Boasting 80 workers and producing just 5 different pu-erhs in its first year of production. The boss of Xinghai tea factory, Zhang Jian Li (a woman) is a Menghai county native and worked at Menghai Tea Factory from 1994 to 1999 before striking out on her own to create her own Pu-erh teas. "

According to a teamaster there at Guangzhou, pre 2006 Xinghai, based on his knowledge, used the traditional method of fermenting ripe pu erh tea. This meant that the tea factory took almost 3 months to ferment the tea in their factory. This teamaster believed that current fermentation times for newer ripe pu erh are slightly shorter now.

The aroma from brewing this tea is that of freshly baked bread. The scent reminded me of the aroma of biting into a freshly baked bread roll. The tea is very smooth.....the tea slides down the throat easily, culminating into a nice sweet finish. A very enjoyable tea.

I recommend, for this tea, that you make a slightly stronger brew of this tea and/or extending the infusion times a wee bit. Its a pity I only bought a cake for myself in Guangzhou. Fortunately, I saw the same cake for sale in Qiu Xiang teashop in KL, Malaysia......bought another cake of course (below US$20).

Sea Dyke - San Yin Shui Hsien

2011-08-05T23:08:00.000-07:00

I had purchased this tin of 2007 Sea Dyke - San Yin Shui Hsien at the KL tea expo last June. (see 1 Jul blog). This tea was offered to visitors to the tea expo at a price of 15RM (about US$6).

This 100g shui hsien was advertised as a 2007 edition, though there were no markings on the tin to evidence this claim. Sea Dyke brand is famous for their production of Fujian oolongs and their Lao Chung Shui Hsien is one of the most popular tinned oolong tea (see blog 15 Oct 2010).

This tea can brew 5-6 infusions of oolong tea. Its has a nicely roasted, robust aroma with a sweetish aftertaste. . I myself prefer the other version (lao chong shui hsien) as I prefer a stronger and more robust scent and flavor - a personal preference.

I had found out that current editions (2010-11) of this san yin shui hsien sells below US$5 and in my opinion gives really good value for money. Comes in a nice metal tea caddy. Recommended.

Tea Tools

2011-08-01T18:35:00.000-07:00

There are “tea tools” that one can use to help make an easier and comfortable brew. Pix 1 shows a common tea tool set which you see at tea sampling tables in a teashop. These tea tools can be made from wood, bamboo, plastic or even metal. The tweezer is commonly used to handle the teacups during the tea rinsing exercise. The tea leaf scoop need no explanation. Lastly, the sharp pointed needle tool is to (poke yourself for buying too much tea) help clear any tea leaves that may be stuck on the filter inside the teapot. I usually use this tool only when I am rinsing the teapot after use. This set comes with a funnel that you can place over the lid of the teapot when you pour the tea leaves into the pot with your scoop. Such tea tools set are usually inexpensive ($5) but can be pricey as well ($200+).

The last pix are tools to help you break or pry open a pu erh tea cakes. Pu erh cakes, bricks or tuos are normally compressed very tightly and using your bare hands to break the cake can be quite hazardous. You can use a regular metal letter opener or in my case a swiss army knife. I insert the knife into the cake, at the 12, 2,4,6,8,10 o’clock positions. I could then pry open the tea cake lengthwise and I end up with 2 pieces. It can now be broken by hand to smaller pieces to be stored in your tea box/caddy. It is important that you perform all these steps, I had mentioned, slowly. This would reduce the amount of tea dust resulting from opening the cake. I try not to keep and brew the tea dust as they tend to clog up the filter in the teapot and affects the pour-out of the tea.

There is also a tea pick in the last pix. Most teashops and tea drinkers commonly use this pick to pry open their teacakes. Knife or pick…..it a personal preference.

I would make a brew of the tea after breaking up the pu erh cake. I would, however, make subsequent brews a week later so as to ‘awake the tea leaves’ (see previous blog for my explanation).

2007 Menghai Dayi 7572 ripe pu erh 357g

2011-07-24T00:05:00.000-07:00

I had purchased this ripe pu erh cake during my visit to KL, Malaysia last month. I had purchased it from JDX tea distributor Sdn Bhd. JDX is an official Menghai Dayi (officially called 'Tae' now) distributor in Malaysia. I will write more about JDX in my later blogs.

This is the Menghai Dayi 7572 ripe cake. This is the 2007 (702) version. The '7572', which you see on the front cover of the wrapper (pix1) is the recipe name of the pu erh cake. Many popular pu erh cake uses a blend of pu erh tea leaves that are harvested from the various regions of Yunnan, China. Instead of giving a name to a blend of tea leaves, a 4 digit number is used. This is unlike wines where names like Merlot or Chardonnay are used to describe wine 'recipes'. There are many recipe numbers used in making pu erh cakes and some pu erh recipes like 7542 and 7581 are examples of popular pu erh cakes today.

Pu erh tea factories will make a number of batches of the same tea in a year. In this case, for a 2007 cake, the 1st production of a 7572 cake will be given an addition code - 701. The second production batch will be 702, which I had purchased. You can see the production batch number on the reverse of the wrapper (last pix) or in recent cakes; on the front of the wrapper itself. Is there a difference in the tea, lets say between 701 and 703? Yes, you can see the difference in the pricing of the tea. A 701 (1st production) will be more expensive than a 703 (3rd production). Tea collectors and speculators will tend to purchase the 1st production of the year (something like a 1st printing of a book). This cake is a 4 year old tea, and the prices for a 701 is almost 30-40% more than a 702. Is there a difference in the taste? I cannot tell you. I do not have the privilege to try the various production batches of a year. My tea friends, even in Guangzhou and Hong Kong, have no experience in this matter, although it is an urban legend that 1st production has better grade leaves than later productions. I will try to find out more though.

But I digress. There are sadly fake pu erh cakes being sold at tea markets and tea shops. I have gleaned some information about the fakes and I used the following visual checks to assist me in my purchase of Dayi cakes. Firstly, the wrapper fold should be something like in pix 2, where the final fold of the wrapper has printed information. Secondly, the security sticker should be clearly printed and you can feel the printing on the sticker. Thirdly, there should be 'Dayi' Chinese characters on the silver strips of the stickers. Finally, when you opened up the cake (usually at home, after you had purchased the cake), the inner label should have the silver strips with "Dayi" characters with a line of colored numbers running down vertically on each side of the inner label (pix 5). I know all these pointers I had mentioned are not complete or fool proof but I am currently using these pointers to assist me when I buy the slightly older Dayi cakes.

This 7572 cake which I had purchased, is tightly compressed and you need tools to break up your cake. It is important that you let this tea air out in your tea caddy for a couple of weeks before drinking the cake. This cake will be 'awaken' after a few weeks and the taste difference is much better than if you had brewed the tea leaves immediately after breaking a cake. Some tea drinkers had emailed me expressing their doubts about 'awaking the tea'. I only made this conclusion after drinking through more than 40 pu erh tea cakes. I may be wrong.....may be imagining things....

Back to this cake. The aroma is very pleasing. I can understand why this 7572 cake is very popular among the ripe pu erh tea drinkers. The scent seem to signal that the tea will be nice, sweet and pleasing. It has a subtle scent of nice chinese medicinal herbs as well. Overall, a nice fragrance and pleasing sweetish aftertaste. This tea brews fast and strong, so adjust the tea leaves and infusion times to your preference.

I have no regrets buying this 2007- 702 Dayi 7572 cake.

Glow Dayi Glow

2011-07-17T04:40:00.000-07:00

Our Malaysian tea celebrity, Auhckw, bought an UV lamp and shone the light over his Menghai Dayi collection. Pix courtesy of auhckw; who had generously consented to share his findings with us. The 1st 2 pix are '2010 pu erh while the 3rd pix is a '07. The last 4 pix are '07, '08, '09 and '11 Dayi pu erh.

This security sticker is a big deal for the Dayi tea collector. There are, sadly, a high number of fake pu erh teas that are sold in the tea markets. This is compounded that a majority of the fakes are Dayi brand of pu erh. I myself, look at the security sticker, when I buy Dayi tea. For me, I will examine the silver strips on the sticker and look out for the Chinese "大益" on the silver strip as a guide when I buy the tea.

Dayi in order to protect the customers from buying fakes decided a few years ago to affix security stickers. Dayi, informed their dealers and customers the various features of these stickers like the silver strips, die-cut stickers and the stickers having glowing characteristics under a UV light.

So, are we to conclude, if the Dayi sticker does not glow.....its fake? I do not know the answer. Maybe I might write to Dayi for a clarification.

I would like to thank Auhckw for this interesting finding. He had indicated that he will shed more light on this controversy soon.

One thing for sure, sales of UV lamps will surge a little. You will see strange lights coming out from the Dayi tea collector's home in the next few weeks. Glow Dayi Glow.

Qiu Xiang Tea (M) Sdn Bhd

2011-07-07T20:10:00.000-07:00

Qiu Xiang Tea (M) Sdn Bhd. has 4 tea branches in Malaysia; 3 in KL city and one in Klang. This was one of the tea shops that auhckw had recommended to me to visit during my visit to KL last month.

Readers would be familar with 'Auhckw'. Yes, he is the famous contributor of Chinese Tea information on the internet. He is prolific in his contribution on Chinese Tea. He takes lots of pictures and shares much information about Chinese Tea and on the tea market in Malaysia. He impressed me as very thoughtful and generous. A new good tea friend.

I had stayed in the Chinatown district during my stay in KL as I enjoyed browsing through the daily night market there. At the night market, I could have a piping plate of fried noodles, select and buy from a wide choice of fresh local fruits, purchase a bag of freshly roasted chestnuts, shop for 'luxury' bags and watches all on one street. And.....in the day, just a street away, there is a cluster of Chinese teashops that made me grin from ear to ear.

Qiu Xiang has an outlet on Jalan Sultan. I was there late morning, and a Ms Chen was manning the shop. This tea shop was well organized with a good range of pu erh tea. They even have their house 'pu erh' as seen in pix 4 & 5 (they have quite a good range of house pu erh).

Ms Chen provided a tea sampling session of their house tea. The video showed Ms Chen brewing their house brand '08 ripe pu erh (pix 5). I noticed 2 things about the tea session. The water used was always at boiling point (which I approve). I also observed that the infusion time was quite long.....10 seconds +. She has used about 6-7 g in her gaiwan. She explained that this tea tasted best with a longer infusion time unlike the other ripe teas in the shop. This tea was very good.

I left Qiu Xiang happily with 3 cakes of tea.

2011 Malaysian Tea Art & Cultural Expo

2011-07-01T18:04:00.000-07:00

I went to Kuala Lumpur (KL) last week. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my new tea friend, Mr Chua, who uses the nick 'auhckw' in international tea forums. Many tea collectors and enthusiasts would be familiar with 'auhckw' as he is prolific in his posting of news and pictures of the Chinese Tea market in Malaysia. I am grateful that 'auhckw' has been generous in sharing his tea knowledge and makes every effort posting pictures of tea, teapots and other Chinese tea related materials almost on a daily basis especially on teachat.com.

I had introduced myself to auhckw early last month and had communicated with him on the internet seeking his expert advice on Chinese Tea. He was very friendly and was able to answer all my queries on tea. He had also mentioned that there was a Malaysian tea expo, held yearly, that would be on in July. He suggest that I attend the expo and even give me pointers on which teashops to visit while in KL. He even offered to accompany me to his fav teashop in one of the afternoons (see later blogs). That week was a quiet week and my wife was on vacation. We were in KL before we knew it.

The 2011 Malaysian Tea Art & Cultural Expo was held in Tropicana City Mall. We just took the train and then switch to a complimentary shuttle bus to the mall. The ride there was a breeze.

This blog entry is picture intensive and would give you an inkling of the Tea Expo. You must click the pictures for clearer and enlarged views.

The 1st four pix is a brochure given to visitors of the tea expo. As a treat to visitors, they are allowed to purchase (supposedly at special prices) one item each from Group A, B, and C. Auhckw instructed me to get the Menghai cakes in red tin (2nd pix, lower left). This is the 2011 ripe pu erh. The tin consists of 5 cakes each 150g per cake. Pix 4 shows an ad taken out by one of the exhibitors there. This exhibitor was a teashop specializing in Liu Bao Tea. I purchased some of this aged tea at one of the booths.

Visiting the individual booths was interesting. You could sample some of the teas on offer and buy the tea or teaware at special prices. I bought 2 stainless steel tea caddies while moving around the booths (pix 5 & 6).

Pix 7 is the teapot that was the main highlight on the cover of the tea expo brochures and posters. Auhckw mentioned that its made from Yixing clay, enamelled and painted on the outside. Qing dynasty period.

Pix 8 & 9 was an interesting stop for me at the tea expo. You can buy 200g of raw pu - you choose from different types or grades from the large jars, pay for it and have your tea compressed manually into a cake. Pix 9 shows an assistant standing on a stone press compressing a tea cake. You can even personalize the tea wrapper for your tea cake.

The tea expo was well organized. As it was held in a shopping mall, visitors like me can easily have a meal at one of the many restaurants or fast food joints there. My wife and I had the luxury to do some shopping at the mall before calling it a day. Very enjoyable.

A flawed design teapot

2011-06-29T17:32:00.000-07:00

If you have been reading my blog entries, I tend to be positive with my thoughts and findings on the topic of tea. I had recently returned from Malaysia last week after attending the tea expo there and had brought back some tea (slightly more than 3 kg).

One of the tea purchased was some aged Liu Bao. Liu Bao tea is fermented black tea originating from Guangxi province. It has many similar characteristics of ripe pu erh and there are stories of unscrupulous tea dealers passing off Liu bao tea as expensive ripe pu erh.

Anyway, I had purchased this teapot locally. You can observe from the pix (click pix for enlarged view) that its a nice teapot. The design and color of the teapot is pleasing to the eye and I had no hesitation paying for this 500ml+ teapot.

The design flaw of the teapot became painfully obvious when I brewed some of my precious Liu Bao in this teapot. The mouth of the spout is higher than the lip of the teapot (see blog sept 2, 2010, anatomy of a teapot). As a result, when I tip the teapot to pour out the tea, some tea will spill out from the lip. I tried to slow down the pour but it was quite a futile excercise. Now you know why, you should not buy teapots of such designs.

My wife is happily using this teapot for her plants. Nuff said.

The Tea Box

2011-06-17T23:03:00.000-07:00

My daughter, Ashley gave me a father's day present.

This is 'The Tea Box' written by Giles Brochard. Published by Barron in 2001, this cardboard presentation box contains a 32 page booklet and a 40 A5 size cards. The tea booklet introduces the advent of tea in China, Japan and Europe. This booklet delves on the history on tea and some stories behind the tea. Its an interesting read. The 40 cards are well taken photographs of tea which include more information on tea as well as tea recipes like using tea as pastries and in cooking.

Pix 2 shows the inside of the opened box while pix 3 are photos of the tea cards. The top card in pix 3, is the 'green tea coconut pearls' while pix 4 shows the reverse of the card detailing the recipe to make these pearls. The last pix is a page capture of the tea booklet.

A nice father's day gift.

Kee Heung Chun Tea Co.

2011-06-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

Kee Heung Chun Tea Co. is located at 30A Belcher's Street, Hong Kong. It is located in the Kennedy Town district. It takes less than 15 min by taxi if you start from Tsim Sha Shui.

This tea company is owned by and run by the Lam family (since 1938), now into its 3rd generation. Mr Parker Lam and his wife, as seen in the pix represents the second generation and their son Derek Lam is the current managing director of this tea company.

I visited this tea shop in late April this year and had the privilege of both Mr & Mrs Parker Lam showing me their shop and having a tea sampling session that afternoon.

A couple of things to note when you view the pix (click for enlarged views) - Mrs Lam used her favorite side handle teapot when she brewed pu erh. I have rarely seen such teapots and in action as well. More importantly, note in pix 3 the clear water canister on the right of Mrs Lam. It is common that in Hong Kong, drinking water is usually dispensed from bottled water and the water is usually distilled water. The Lams 'mineralised' the water by putting mineral stones in the water jug and having the water in the jug for at least a couple of hours. These stones, I was informed, are hand selected from the remote river systems in Mongolia. I have heard of such 'mineralising' stones and its a fascination seeing it in use. Ahem - I bought a large packet of these stones. More on these stones in my later blogs.

Kee Heung Chun Tea Co. has a very wide assortment of teas available for sale and there is no pressure to buy after the tea sampling sessions. However, I would like to recommend their supreme TGY (pix 5). It is the traditional, robust, full aroma and flavor tgy. For traditional roasted tgy, I am extremely impressed with the quality and will make repeat purchases of this tea when I am in Hong Kong. Maybe the teapot in pix 4 as well. Anyway Mr Lam informed me that their supreme tgy is normally re-roasted by Mr Lam himself in the tea shop when new shipments arrived, so as to ensure the super taste and aroma standards of this tea.

Worth a visit.

2004 Xiaguan Ripe 357g

2011-06-02T18:30:00.000-07:00

I purchased this tong of pu erh during my December trip last year. This is the 2004 Xiaguan ripe pu erh 357g.

I normally do not purchase old pu erh (below 2004) during my trips to Guangzhou. I am not experienced in old pu erh and I am not familiar with the pricing of such tea. Moreover, my tea dealer friends mainly deal in new teas as these dealers are in the business of supplying new and current teas to tea shops and tea enthusiasts within mainland China. My tea dealer friends tell me that the sales turnover for new teas is faster. Yes, they have the odds and ends of current tea that is not sold but these dealers I know are not interested to sell old pu erh as they think that the sales for such tea is slower and older teas are hard to come by.

During my last Dec trip, one of the tea dealers there had kept aside one tong of the 2004 Xiaguan ripe for me. He explained that one of his important customers had requested for some old Xiaguan ripes and this dealer managed to wrangle a few such tongs from one Xiaguan wholesaler in Guangzhou. I was told that this particular Xiaguan cake was 'hard to find' in the tea market which explained the higher price I paid.

You will notice from the above pix that the tong is tied with metal wires. Beware - these wires may be rusty and untying the wires bare-handed can be quite hazardous.

There are no markings on the reverse wrapper of the tea cake as well as an absence of manufacturing dates on the wrapper. There is also no neifei (an enclosed note), which I normally see in pu erh cakes that normally describes the benefits of pu erh.

This Xiaguan ripe cake is bigger than the normal cakes in my collection. This 'not too tight' compression allow me to break open the cake without using any tools; just literally use my hands to break up the cake. I think that this level of compression is good as I do not get too much tea fanning or tea dust as compared to breaking up a tightly compressed tea cake.

The aromatic levels of this cake when I brew this tea is very impressive. The aroma is pleasantly strong with hints of chinese herbs and a oak-like scent. Together with a nice sweet finish, this tea puts a tiny smile on my face.

2 million pound teapot

2011-05-24T08:12:00.000-07:00

I came across this very interesting and well written article on Mail Online on 21 May 2011. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1388830/Familys-antique-Chinese-teapot-sells-2m--1-7m-MORE-valued.html).

A short excerpt and the above pix from the article as follows :

"A tiny teapot has caused a storm after it sold at auction for two million pounds - 1.7 million over its estimate.

The item was made out of precious white jade and was crafted for the famous Chinese emperor Qianlong during the 18th century.

Despite being 275-years-old, the teapot's condition remained exquisite, having hardly ever been used for tea-making.

It was taken out of China by the British in the 19th century and was put on display at the International Exhibitions in London in 1871 and 1886.

It was then bought by the British aristocrat Hinton Daniell Stewart in the late 1880s and has been passed down through his family.

A relative, who lives in the south-east of England, was the beneficiary of the staggering sum paid by a Hong Kong buyer.

The oriental market is buoyant at the moment as newly-rich Chinese collectors seek to buy back their heritage.

Clare Durham, of auctioneers Woolley and Wallis in Salisbury, Wiltshire, said: 'It might look like a normal teapot to the untrained eye but this item has been made from one of the finest pieces of stone you are ever likely to find.

'It is probable that this piece was made towards the end of the Qianlong reign, when large jade boulders were often carved to make pieces of art.

'You cannot fault its condition. It is a piece of stone that is pretty much flawless. There are no chinks or chips in it.

'It is an imperial piece made for one of the imperial palaces. I'm not sure if it would ever have been used to make a cup of tea but may have been used during the famous Chinese tea ceremonies.

'White jade is particularly rare and is very much sought-after by the Chinese because they regard it as pure."

The teapot is nearly eight inches long and five inches high. It has a compressed circular body and a C-scroll handle with two grooves on the end."

"Tea Art" Magazine

2011-05-20T21:37:00.000-07:00

I bought this magazine in Hong Kong last December. Published by Wu-Shing Books, this "Tea Art" magazine, is entirely written in Chinese and this particular issue has the cover article on Haiwan tea.

This 496 page magazine (read from left to right) that I had purchased deals mainly with Pu erh tea, tea news and a teapot review. It also has numerous advertisements from tea dealers and teashops from around the world. It was interesting to note that there were a good number of Malaysian tea shops that took out ads in this magazine. This information would be useful when I try to make a visit to Malaysia next year. Click on the pix for enlarged views.

The main cover article on Haiwan was very interesting. You can see the passion of the company founder, Mr Zhou Pin Liang despite his old age. Mr Zhou was credited with the development of ripe pu erh tea.

There was even an article written by Chan Kam Fong, aka cloud, who had contributed many tea articles on the internet. In addition, this magazine also covered the various tea expos and shows during the past few months. The pu erh tea reviews were also quite interesting as well. I had received a few raw pu erh tea samples recently and I had found them to be more floral-like unlike the raw pu in my stash. Interestingly enough there was a review on a couple of pu erh tea in the magazine and there was in English the following comments "The last two teas were strange. They tasted like oolong teas that had been compressed as puerh. They weren't particularly unpleasant, but we didn't know how to review them or even rank them. There are many strange things in the Puerh world these days." I will find out more on this and let my readers know.

This "Tea Art" magazine is heavily illustrated with photos and pictures that will thrill any pu erh enthusiast who may not read a single word of chinese.

2006 Menghai Dayi 0562 ripe cake

2011-05-14T23:32:00.000-07:00

This is a 2006 Menghai 0562 ripe cake. The number '0562' merely refers to a recipe number. So for example, if you like the tea of a particular recipe number you can go your tea shop or internet to look for that particular tea. There might be different production years for the recipe cake you are looking for and the older cakes usually costs more than the newer ones.

I had bought this cake in early 2008 from a tea dealer operating from Yunnan. He also sells on ebay under 'Yun_cha' (formally known as awazon). This cake, to me, was considered an expensive new cake costing me about US$25 a cake (inclusive air freight). Well nowadays, I had noticed new 2011 pu erh cakes going for more than US$200 per piece (not counting the freight yet).

Back to this cake. You will noticed that the wrapper of the pu erh states that this was an award winning cake, gaining gold in a tea expo in China. This tea cake is tightly compressed and you would require your tools to break up the cake.

I actually did a second look when I brewed this tea for the first few times. I had opened a 05' Haiwan pink wrapper ripe cake a few weeks ago (see 1 April blog entry) and I thought I had brewed the Haiwan tea instead. The taste, aroma and aftertaste were similar among these 2 cakes. Not that I mind, but anyway the 0562 had an additional very subtle herbal taste to the tea. Both cakes possess a nice sweet finish in the aftertaste (Haiwan, to me, was slightly sweeter). I found brewing this tea makes a very enjoyable tea session.

A look at Chinese Porcelain Teaware

2011-05-11T05:49:00.000-07:00

I would tend to buy a couple pieces of teaware everytime I am in China. I am fascinated by the porcelain teaware in the tea markets as the variety never fails to astound me.

Yes, there are very high quality collectors' porcelain teaware. You can find very intricate artwork on the porcelain or the finishing artwork will make your jaw drop to the ground. I saw a set of tea cups, handpainted with Chinese landscapes complete with beautiful Chinese calligraphy, whose thinness of the porcelain was like egg shells and it has a bewitching translucent quality when you hold the cup against a light. I did not buy this set as I tend to be accident prone when it comes to delicate porcelain. There are collectors who are fans of certain porcelain artistes and would buy every new series when its available. These range of porcelain are usually quite expensive.

The less expensive option for many tea drinkers would be to buy their teaware from the 'mass production range'. They are inexpensive and you can find a wide range of teaware that will appeal to you. The above pix are examples of teaware which are inexpensive and to me, very well made. I found the quality and finishing excellent and they make a tea drinking session more enjoyable (to me).

I must emphasize that in the wholesale tea markets of China, you will get a good price if you buy in bulk. The tea shops may sell you individual pieces but you may be paying a much higher price. One more thing, I tend to hand-carry these porcelain (which can be a pain) as these pieces, if packed in check-in luggage, may end up in several more pieces when you have reached your destination.

Easter week in Guangzhou

2011-05-07T02:11:00.000-07:00

I was in Guangzhou and Hong Kong during the Easter week. The weather was nice and warm that I could go round the city in just jeans and a t-shirt. Getting really warm though.

During this trip, I met up with my regular tea dealer friends and...... made a good friend with a French tea dealer and had the privilege of learning and gleaning more information about tea as well as about the tea business. I was also humbled to meet a few teamasters while in Guangzhou and Hong Kong and had the chance to experience their generosity in their sharing of tea knowledge, as well as they sharing some of their rare teas with me. More on this later.

Most of the green teas from spring 2011 were already available in the tea markets. Some 2011 Pu erh from the established brands were also available in the tea markets. The 1st pix shows Long jing tea leaves otherwise known as dragon well tea. The 2nd pix shows Mao jian tea from Henan province.

The 3rd and 4th pix are of a new product found in the tea markets. This is 'snow mountain chrysanthemum'. Yes, chrysanthemum is a common drink but these really tiny flowers from this area were impressive in that just 5 buds used in a 100ml gaiwan would yield about 6-8 infusions easily. Subtly sweet. Nice and refreshing.

The last pix shows Da Hong Pao packed in small box (cigarette size), two 10g pack in a box and then 10 of these boxes in a carton. This tea, during my tea sampling session, was robust in taste, well roasted and produced a nice full flavor in the mouth that lasted a good few minutes after drinking down the tea.

Contribute Your Thoughts on Tea

2011-04-21T20:53:00.000-07:00

To all readers of this tea blog (if there is anyone out there), you may have some thoughts on the topic of tea and you may have the urge or itch to have your say.

You can contribute a tea article here. I am looking for diverse views on tea and would appreciate your input. You may send your article (some pictures also appreciated) and your contribution will be reproduced in full. Unedited.

This tea blog does not earn any money.....although....I may sell my articles unwillingly for a million dollars. Just imagine me in tears when I unwillingly stuff the money in my jeans pocket.

But on a serious side, do give me your musings on tea. You will be given full credit to your contribution (or stay anonymous if you wish). Thank you. Have a good Easter weekend.

Pix above is a '02 Soong Pin Hao Ripe pu erh.

A Tea Gift

2011-04-15T19:23:00.000-07:00

My neighbour got back from Malaysia and got me a gift. Knowing that I was a little nutty over tea, the gift was tea-related themed.

This 1st pix was a bottle of gum that is 'green tea flavored'. My kids tried it and the feedback was that it tasted like a sweet toothpaste. I suppose this gum is appropriate if you have consumed a garlic dish or some seafood and you need a quick breath freshener.

The 2nd pix was slightly more interesting - green tea shampoo. The label (click for enlarged view) on the shampoo caught my eye - "used by strongest hair woman". Now what am I going to do....now....that I may now have the strongest hair too (after using the shampoo). Let me count the ways. Making whipped tea or tying up my tea boxes. What a yucky thought.

I am sure there will be many more interesting and innovative uses for tea other than drinking it. Stay tuned.

Chinese Tea Playing Cards

2011-04-04T22:27:00.000-07:00

When you visit the major tourist attractions in China, there will usually be stalls near entrances of these attractions selling souvenirs for the tourist to purchase as a momento. In China, these stalls sell playing cards with different Chinese themes. You can purchase a set of cards with themes like Chinese emperors, old paintings, calligraphy, Chinese cuisine and even Chinese tea.

I had purchased 2 decks of playing cards with Chinese tea themes during my last visit to China. An inexpensive purchase, I recall, just under US$2 per deck. Click on the above pix for an enlarged view. You can see these playing cards shown have pictures of old paintings related to tea. I also noticed in the deck, that there were other pictures of teapots and as well as places of tea cultivation.

If you happen to be in China, do consider buying a deck of playing cards. Make a cool gift for a tea drinker.

2005 Haiwan Ripe Cake - pink label

2011-04-01T18:08:00.000-07:00

I broke up this 2005 Haiwan ripe tea cake (357g) with my tea knife (swiss army) as the compression of this tea cake was quite tight. You will noticed that the wrapper of the cake has a pink background. I had checked and had concluded that this pink label first appeared in 2004; a 400g ripe pu erh cake. This pink label was only used again in this 2005 pressing and I have not seen this pink label wrapper used in recent years.

My initial impression while opening up the cake was good as I could smell a nice strong ripe pu erh aroma. I took quite a number of brews; experimenting with varied amounts of tea leaves as well as infusion times before I came up with a brew I liked. It was, to my personal preference, using less leaves (6-7g to a 160ml teapot) and extending the infusion times by a couple of seconds.

The taste was something like dried berries or dates with a hint of cooked asian rice. I particularly enjoyed the aftertaste of this tea very much. Drinking the tea was very smooth and I get a mild sweetish sensation in the back of my throat a few seconds after consuming the tea.

I had bought this tea in Singapore a couple of years ago. I recently went back to the shop to buy another cake but it was all sold out....#%&@ (censored tea language).

Drinking Bubble Tea

2011-03-27T00:32:00.000-07:00

I have noticed that there are new bubble tea shops opening in Singapore. Bubble tea is actually chilled or iced tea that include tapioca jelly balls in the drink.

Drinking bubble tea was a fad about 8 years ago in Singapore. Many people were drinking this chilled beverage and many bubble tea business sprouted out to cater to this demand. This fad or bubble soon burst and the bubble tea business became quiet. There is now a new interest in bubble tea here. New bubble tea shops now offer customers with a wider choice of tea, new flavors and you can dictate the amount of sugar/milk as well. Prices can range from $2-6 per cup (about 500ml)

The 2 pix attached is a bubble tea shop set up in a newly opened mall. I decided to try their roasted milk tea. I was asked my sugar and milk preference before I parted with $2.10 for the drink. I was given a number and when my number was flashed on an electronic screen, My cold beverage was ready (see pix 2).

This roasted milk tea taste like a mild taiwanese oolong tea, sweetened with sugar and milk. Noticed the tapioca jelly balls at the bottom of the cup. The straw provided is wide enough for you to suck up these jelly balls, which is slightly starchy is texture. A nice refreshment for a hot day.

Iced Tea

2011-03-24T18:21:00.000-07:00

"Ice Tea" is authored by Fred Thompson. Published by Harvard Common Press in 2002, this book I am reading is in its 5th printing.

The book contains 50 recipes to make iced tea. The author explains his passion for tea as follows:

"Growing up in the South, I watched grandmothers, aunts and my mother 'make tea' which, in the South, means iced tea. The different versions of iced tea I consumed at home, family reunions, church suppers, and restaurants all had subtle variations in taste. My mother's, of course, was always the best, but all had three things in common: a dark amber hue, copious amounts of sugar, and being made with care. though not sacred, good iced tea is considered essential to a Southerner's happiness and well being. The importance of iced tea can best be illustrated by this old Southern saying : 'In the South, never marry a man until you know how to make his mama's tea'. "

The author had also included a few rules to making ice tea. Some rules were

- "putting hot tea in a cold refrigerator will guarantee cloudy tea. Let your tea cool before refrigerating it.

- Make only what you can drink in two to three days

- Never, ever use anything but freshly squeezed lemon juice.......Why ruin your fresh tasting tea with an artificial flavor."

This book's ice tea recipes mainly used tea in tea bags, sugar and the use of fruits like apple cider and even milk. Click the above pictures for a enlarged view and a more comfortable reading of the recipes. The Solar Tea is very fascinating and the Tea Smoothie (which I tried) was quite popular with my kids.

I found this book a very interesting read.

Use your Chinese tea to make a chilled and refreshing tea drink. Throw a half teaspoon of oolong or green tea leaves in a half-liter water bottle and leave it overnight in the fridge. Its ready to drink the next day. No sugar needed. Try it....trust me.

Tea & Coffee Mix

2011-03-17T17:55:00.000-07:00

One common trend in people living in cities is the consumption of fast food which include 'fast drinks'. Drinks like milk tea, coffee, chocolate and even baby milk can be purchased in a 'ready to drink' package. Its all premixed with water or milk and you can drink it straight away.

You can save a little money if you are willing to do a bit of work. Some of these beverages come in powder sachets, where you empty the contents in a cup, add hot water and its ready to go. Coffee and tea mixes are very common here in this part of the world. We used the phrase "3 in 1" to signify the addition of milk, sugar and coffee/tea. Consumers now have the luxury of more choices as drink manufacturers offer '2 in 1', or less sweet/milk combinations.

The picture show a 25-pack "4 in 1" - coffee, tea, milk and sugar. Each sachet is 25g.

So how is the taste? Quite pleasant actually. Sweetened milk tea with a hint of coffee or its the other way round. Rather sweet but overall a very interesting beverage.

This coffee-tea blend is not new as many people do drink this mix and you can actually ask for such a beverage at most neighbourhood drink stalls. I believe that the nickname for this beverage is called "yin-yang'.

On a side note - when you are in this part of the world, you will noticed some drink stalls selling fresh soya bean milk. They will also sell black grass jelly drinks as well. These drinks are very popular and inexpensive and you can find many such drink stalls especially in Singapore and Malaysia. Yes, people here even mixed these 2 drinks together to make a beverage. In Penang Malaysia, this drink is called 'Michael Jackson'.

Amoy Tea - Relocation

2011-03-11T17:09:00.000-08:00

Amoy Tea has relocated. They are now at Block 45 Sims Drive #01-164. If you are taking the subway (known as MRT here), you exit from Aljunied station, cross the pedestrian bridge and walk towards Sims drive with the MRT tracks on your left. It takes less than 10 min of walking before you reach Amoy Tea. The shop also faces a cooked food centre where good local food are found there. Yummy.

This shop is much smaller than their previous outlet. Moving around the shop is quite challenging as the wide range of tea sold there takes up a considerable space in the shop. There is no sampling of tea in this tea shop although you are offered a cup of hot tea when you are a visitor. Closed on Sundays.

Amoy Tea is one of the shops where I buy my tea in Singapore. The friendly atmosphere, pricing and the wide range of products are good considerations to make a visit to the shop. I noticed some of the tea prices have increased during my last visit. The Sea Dyke brand of lao chung shui hsien that comes in the yellow tin is now $15.

2 grams of tea

2011-03-01T04:21:00.000-08:00

I had just purchased a electronic weighing scale.

Why did I buy it? I had purchased this scale in Guangzhou from my earlier trip in Mar' 10 at less than US$10......and I wanted to know how much tea I am brewing during my tea sessions. I subsequently used it to measure the weight of tea leaves to check my visual guessing of small amount of tea leaves. I found it useful in my subsequent visit to Guangzhou, where a couple of tea dealers there used more tea leaves in their tea sampling.

There is absolutely nothing wrong (in my opinion) in using more tea leaves in a tea sampling exercise. Whether its oolong, pu erh or green tea, using varying amount of tea leaves could be a personal preference or that the particular tea being sampled would taste better with a stronger or lighter brew.

The ripe pu erh tea brick which I had purchased in Hong Kong (4 feb '11) was very impressive when more tea leaves was used for brewing. I had to increase the tea leaves to 9g instead of the average 7g of ripe pu that I used for my 160ml teapot (a 28% increase in tea). However I had to point out that there were instances where I had to reduce the amount of tea used. The Menghai '07 lotus/needle ripe (8 jan '10) and the Haiwan '06 marvin (3 dec '10) are examples where I had to reduced the tea leaves used for brewing. These tea brew fast and strong. I suppose many loose gongting ripe pu erh need less leaves and reduced infusion times as well.

I had noticed that in a couple of tea forums I had visited, some tea drinkers had given their findings on the tea they have brewed. Some of these tea drinkers seem to adhere to a fixed set of brewing technique like fixed amount of tea leaves used and fixed infusion times. An example of a pu erh tasting session ( I am taking a example from a tea forum) would be 6g of tea for a brewing vessel of 140ml, 2 flash rinse followed by 1st brew - 15 sec infusion, 2nd -15sec, 3rd-30s, 4th - 30s, 5th & 6th - 45s.

What am I trying to say? Simply this, you cannot simply just use the above times as a 'finding' or 'review' of a tea. You do not do justice to the tea. The particular tea may be better with a different amount of tea or with different infusion times. I myself had to go through at least 8-10 brews before I find the right brew (to my liking) for that tea.

While I was in Hong Kong, the teamaster, Mr Lau of Lau Yu Fat Tea Shop, uses about 8-9 g of tea in a medium size gaiwan and does a triple flash rinse, with the 1st 4 infusions at less than 5 seconds for the tea being sampled. This pu erh tea which I sampled and bought really require more tea leaves than what I would normally brew. The taste and tea sensations from drinking this tea was good.

Mr Chan Kam Pong (aka cloud) in his book "First Steps to Chinese Pu erh Tea" says "Actually, the infusion time for each interval depends on several factors such as grades of the tea leaves, aging years of your Pu erh tea and the degree of integrity of the tea leaves. There is no fixed brewing time for each infusion. Different Pu erh tea of different ages should have their own brewing time table." For Mr Chan, "The amount of tea leaves required for brewing depends on the size of your teapot or brewing container........that is to say about 8 grams of pu erh tea is enough for a tea ware with 150cc volume while 10 grams of pu erh tea is suitable for 200cc gaiwan."

Thats my 2 cents worth of thoughts on tea......make that 2g of tea.

The Ancient Art Of Tea

2011-02-21T01:39:00.000-08:00

The Ancient Art Of Tea - Written by Warren Peltier from Tuttle Publishing. Printed this year and its already available at the public libraries here.

This book attempts to translate some of the chinese texts and writings on chinese tea and as the author puts it "More Specifically, this book demonstrates the variety of tea brewing skills in ancient times. Much of this knowledge can be directly applied and used in tea preparation today........I hope these translations, many of which have never been translated into English, provide clear insight into Chinese tea culture and help to foster a deeper appreciation of tea."

The author did a a wonderful job in the translations (I myself acknowledge that such translations are difficult as sometimes the meaning or thoughts can be lost in the translation process). Look at pix 2 (click for enlarged views) and you can appreciate that during the olden times, the preparation, tasting and the etiquette of tea can be quite complex. Very interesting reading.

An excerpt from Hu Zai's "Three Don't Pours"

"1. Tea non-new, spring water non-sweet, utensils unclean: first don't pour

2. Foul weather. ugly scenery: second don't pour

3. Uncultured, rude guest: third don't pour."

This book also comes with a few colored illustrations and overall makes a very interesting read for me. Price listed on cover is US$15.95.

Rose Tea

2011-02-10T01:47:00.000-08:00

The general description of the above pictures would be 'rose tea'. I suppose, since there is an infusion process in the brewing method, using the word 'tea' would be more logical and commercially acceptable than 'rose drink or essence'. I myself use the general 'rose tea' label even though there is no single tea leaf used throughout the brewing process.

You will noticed by now only unopened dried rosebuds are used for rose tea. I had purchased this rose tea from Guangzhou, China last December. The rose tea, which I had purchased was imported from Iran, which I was told, produced the best rose tea.

The scent of these dried rose buds was very pleasant. Brewing the rose tea was also pretty simple; just use about 6-8 buds in a 150-200ml vessel, pour hot water and your tea is ready in about a minute. The aroma of the infused rose tea was like a subtle floral perfume. My daughter thought we had fresh flowers in the house when I brewed a pot of this tea.

I found the taste of the rose tea to be subtly sweet. It was a pleasant surprise that there was a creamy finish to the tea. Very light and refreshing. The color of the tea is light yellow. I could also managed a 2nd infusion of the rose tea but found the taste weak.

But I digress - Add one rosebud in your next ripe pu erh brew and you get a very mild floral hint to your pu erh brew. Quite nice actually. Haiwan Tea Co. had sold a production of mini ripe pu erh tuos that incorporated rose tea in the tea some years ago.

2004 Yunnan Ripe Brick

2011-02-04T22:36:00.000-08:00

This is a 2004 pu erh ripe 250g brick. I had purchased this brick from Lau Yu Fat tea shop, Hong Kong (see my previous blog).

The pu erh range sold at Lau Yu Fat tea shop was very good. I could sample any of the tea cakes that was displayed for sale. I chose to sample 2 ripe pu erh bricks from 2003 and 2004. I was fortunate and extremely privileged that the proprietor Mr Lau did the brewing of the tea for me.

Mr Lau skills in tea brewing was silky and fast. As I had previously mentioned, Mr Lau used 3 flash rinse for the brewing of the tea. Sorry I did not have the camera with me at that time. Mr Lau held a kettle of boiling water in his left hand while his right hand managed the gaiwan for the tea rinse. The coordination of the hand movement was like 'art in motion' ; skillful, graceful and artistic. In no time the teacups are filled with tea for my sampling.

The gaiwan used during the tea sampling was about 120-130ml and about 7g of tea leaves was used. My estimation of the weight of the tea leaves was visual. I had been practicing visual estimation of the weight of my tea leaves every time before I have a brewing session. I would then checked whether my estimation was correct by weighing the tea leaves on a electronic scale.

The taste of this 2004 ripe brick was very good. The aroma had a combination of chinese herbs with a good earthly and toasty sensation. It was like drinking a chinese herbal soup that underwent long hours of cooking. Nice color. This tea makes a smooth drink and the aftertaste was very pleasant.

I normally use about 7g of tea and brew it in my 150ml teapot. I could not quite achieve the taste sensations of this tea that I had sampled in Hong Kong. I had to increase the amount of tea leaves by an additional 1-1.5g of tea to achieve the stronger aroma and taste. The additional amount of tea (1-1.5g), which I recommend that you increase, sounds minuscule, but in my case it is a 15-20% increase in tea leaves used. This is a substantial increase. I had also noted that, during my brewing sessions at home, this tea tend to weakened by the 8th drinking infusion. This was fine with me as I usually stop my drinking session at this point.

I had paid about HK$140 for a brick of this tea. The taste and aroma of this tea is, to me, very good. I, however, had to use more leaves for this tea, than what I would normally use for ripe tea, to achieve my preferred brew.

I am happy I had purchased 4 bricks of this tea home ........ I had already used up almost half a brick.

Happy Chinese New Year

2011-02-01T23:11:00.000-08:00

Chinese New Year falls on 3 Feb 2011. This is the main event that is observed by the Chinese around the world. Many Chinese families will have the traditional Chinese New Year's eve dinner and many Chinese will find their way home for this meal even if they are overseas or work far away from home. Its a common sight to see transport hubs in China overflowing with people a week before and after the Chinese New Year (nicknamed the great migration).

Chinese have their own version of the horoscope. They have the animal zodiac where 12 animals take turns yearly to be the zodiac animal of that year. Tomorrow starts the year of the rabbit.

You can observe the 'red' or gold paper packets in the 1st pix has a stylized rabbit on the cover. These packets were issued by the famous Swedish furniture store, Ikea, which was given to customers of their store. I will be filling my red packets with money to give my grandparents, parents, my kids as well as my younger nephews and nieces. Oranges symbolizing gold are given to elders when I visit them. Good food usually follows during such visits.

Pix 2 & 3 shows the various chinese lanterns and firecrackers (fake ones) that were sold in Guangzhou leading to the Chinese New Year. There were literally hundreds of wholesalers selling these festive decorations when I was there. It was really a colorful sight.

As a Chinese celebrating Chinese New Year, I wish all my readers "Happiness and Good Health".

Hong Kong - Lau Yu Fat Tea Shop

2011-01-28T02:25:00.000-08:00

Going to Hong Kong from Guangzhou was easy. We took the express train from Guangzhou East Railway station all the way to Hung Hom station, Kowloon. The train stations at both ends are also subway stations as well. It is advisable to book your tickets at least one day in advance. Its about RMB 170 per ticket (allocated seats). It takes about 2 hours for this trip. I recommend taking the train to Hong Kong as taking the bus tend to be more arduous. Going by air would also incur you additional transport costs and time to travel from Hong Kong airport to the city.

Hung Hom train station is already in the city and getting around from this station is very convenient. I normally stay in the Kowloon area, specifically the Jordan vicinity and its only about a 10 min taxi ride to the hotel (HK$25). I love hotels around in Jordan; good and cheap eats, night markets, shopping and walking distance to a subway. A hotel stay in Jordan would be around HK$700-1200. Check for internet offers.

I had the opportunity to visit Lau Yu Fat tea shop in Hong Kong. Take the subway to Lok Fu, come out through exit A, turn left and you are in a shopping centre. Take the escalator one level up and you can locate the tea shop next to a supermarket.

Lau Yu Fat tea shop is a father-son establishment. They carry a wide variety of Chinese tea and a good range of pu erh. You can sample the tea and I had the privilege to have the senior Mr Lau brewing tea for me. Good news is that the shop takes credit cards ( I think online order as well) and since it was my last day in Hong Kong ....... I ended up buying 4 bricks of ripe pu erh (2004), a ripe cake (2008) and the latest issue of pu erh tea magazine.

I will delve more on Mr Lau's pu erh tea brewing style in later blogs but I observed that Mr Lau practised 3 flash-rinse during my pu erh sampling. He explained that this 3 flash- rinse will wash, hydrate and awaken the tea. "Awakening the tea" concept is practised by some pu erh tea enthusiasts as they believe that the pu erh tea would produced its best aroma and flavor with this practice. My Penang tea expert friend 'awaken his tea' by putting his uncovered pu erh brick/cake in a tin canister for a week before he breaks up the tea for brewing. As for me, I break open a tea cake/brick and place the tea pieces in a cardboard tea box and only start brewing the tea after a couple of days. Does 'awaken the tea' (known as xin cha in mandarin) enhance the pu erh brew? Let me know your thoughts.

I recommend a visit to Lau Yu Fat tea shop. Mr Lau and his staff are very friendly and knowledgeable. Nicolas Tang, a respected tea expert from Hong Kong, in his website www.nicolastang.com rated Lau Yu Fat tea shop very highly in terms of trustworthiness, quality of tea and pricing.

I enjoyed my time at this tea shop very much and look forward to my next visit.

2006 Mengku 'old tree' ripe cake 400g

2011-01-19T19:17:00.000-08:00

This is a 2006 Mengku 'old tree' ripe pu erh tea cake 400g. I had purchased this pu erh during my last visit to Guangzhou. A tea dealer friend there was packing his tea storage room,installing some new shelves, after 4 years in the tea business. That was when he discovered that he had one unopened carton of this 2006 Mengku ripe tea. He had remarked that this was one of his earliest purchase when he started his tea business. He wanted to keep 2 tongs himself and sell the remaining 6 tongs. He tore opened a tong and did a sampling test on one of the tea cakes. My decision to purchase this tea was easy after sampling the tea.

Notice from the pix(click for enlarged views) how the tea cakes are packed and wrapped; 7 cakes in one tong, with natural bamboo wrappers. The bamboo wrapper appears brittle when I opened a tong of tea. Even the cords binding the tongs are also bamboo cords. You can even see faint red chop marks on each tong (translated as 'old tree ripe cake'). There was a green sticker found on the inner label (called the neifei) that has '2005' printed on it.

Brewing this pu erh was enjoyable. The wodui, associated with newly produced ripe pu erh was no longer present. The aroma was warm and toasty, woody and fragrant. Subtly sweet. The color of the tea was pleasing to the eye. This is a straight forward tea that ripe pu erh drinkers will appreciate.

Why did I buy 6 tongs of this tea? 2 reasons. Firstly, I like this tea. I felt it was a good ripe tea; to drink now and hopefully it will get even better with a few years of storage. Secondly, the price offered to me was good. Price was inexpensive, per cake basis, when I compare with some of the new 2010 ripe pu erh cake offerings by the more well known pu erh tea manufacturers. A few tea dealers there have noticed that more people are buying new pu erh and new tea drinkers and collectors are indirectly pushing up the prices of the popular brands of pu erh. I personally believe that about 40-50% of the new pu erh (raw and ripe) produced are purchased and stored away and are not consumed (at least for a couple of years).

Whenever I have the opportunity to travel, I would try to buy tea especially in China and Hong Kong. Buying chinese tea in Singapore is more expensive and the choices here pretty limited. Moreover, the many varieties and options buying from especially China gives me substantial savings in terms of price and postage (if I ordered online).

Any readers (residing or coming to Singapore) reading this can email me to share this tea loot with me - 2 tongs only.

Fangcun - a revisit

2011-01-07T03:58:00.000-08:00

If you are into Chinese Tea and you happen to be in Guangzhou, it is essential you make a visit to Fangcun tea wholesale centre. You will get to see more than 2000 tea merchants selling all things tea and the amount and variety of tea and tea accessories sold there will make any tea drinker enthusiast go gaga for a very long time.

As usual, we had dim sum every morning at the chinese restaurants around the hotel. A dim sum meal with a choice of chinese tea costs US$20 for 6 of us. A dim sum breakfast can be quite filling in that we only get hungry again at around 2-3pm. My kids were pretty fascinated by the piglet red bean buns and made a couple of reorders to fulfilled their amusement.

Well anyway, you can easily get to Fangcun by subway. Its clean, convenient and fast. We used the subway every time we travel in Guangzhou......even the express train station from Guangzhou to Hong Kong (Guangzhou East station) has a subway stop at the basement. One word of advice; it gets extremely crowded on Sundays. As Sunday is a rest day, the trains get very packed. Be prepared to get shoved and pushed on Sunday. I have been on many subway trains in Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, London, Paris, Taipei, Bangkok and Singapore and I can say that the level of 'pushing and shoving' here on Sunday can be pretty intensive. I reasoned the capacity level of the trains were exceeded on these peak hour weekends. Weekday subway rides were however very comfortable.

Back to tea. Fangcun is the place to go for Chinese tea in Guangzhou. I would like to stress again.....you must know your tea you are buying. Be aware of the relative prices and always sample the tea before a purchase. Mostly cash sales even you are buying 50000rmb of stuff.

One of the bigger tea complexes there housed a commemorative giant pu erh cake. Weighs a ton I think. The room even had a guard to prevent people like me taking this cake home as a souvenir.

There were also shops that sells dried floral and fruit infused tea. There were rose buds, dried citrus orange slices and many other wonderful smelling stuff which I could not identify. I bought a bag of dried Iranian rose buds and another bag of unopened chrysanthemum buds.

2011 - a new start and a tea purchase

2011-01-03T23:06:00.000-08:00

I was at the Singapore airport when 2011 rolled into my life. I had just arrived from Hong Kong. I was on a family vacation bringing my whole family to Guangzhou and Hong Kong. The trip did not start well as my camera died on me. I had to share the remaining camera to take a few tea pictures as well as family shots. Anyway, the trip was very enjoyable as my family enjoyed a week's break away from home.

My family arrived in Guangzhou on Christmas morning (4 hr trip from Singapore). Passing through customs was a breeze and there was a subway stop at the airport that took us all the way to Haizhu. This was where our hotel, Grand Continental Service Apartments, was located. I chose this hotel (free broadband) as this area was where all the shopping action is located. Wholesale markets are located here. With a subway station here, getting around was very convenient. The hotel was also a 5 min walk to the upmarket Beijing Rd pedestrian street where renown brands like Nike, Levis and Uniqlo are all represented there. Wholesale markets are also within walking distance from the hotel......I am talking giant malls with each mall singly dedicated to certain products. You have the huge malls just selling shoes, stationary, toys, dried foods (see pix - some areas are open air), clothings and even an undergarment centre. My daughters pointed out at this undergarment mall, there were huge TVs showing a latest American lingerie show and many of these shops are displaying for sale similar lingerie as that on the television program. The electronic malls were also fascinating with many shops concentrating on Apple related accessories like mobile phone cases, cables and covers. You need more than a week to visit a few of these malls.

Food is plentiful in choice. There are lots of american fast foods, high end restaurants and street food. There was a restaurant patronized by the locals near the hotel offering various types of chinese noodles, rice and congee (porridge) which my family enjoyed. Pix showed a piping hot bowl of beef noodles. A dinner meal there for 6 including drinks did not exceed US$12.

I did not mean to buy much tea during this trip. Really. Don't you laugh.....or snigger. But I came back with 8 tongs of ripe tea, a couple of tea bricks and some tea accessories. In Hong Kong, I had a chance to visit a tea shop and bought more tea and other stuff. I will try to explain why I made these purchases in my later blogs.

My Pu erh is one year older

2010-12-24T09:47:00.000-08:00

Looking back at 2010, I had the privilege to be able to make oversea trips to China to learn more (buy more also) about Chinese tea. The tea markets in Guangzhou was a real eye opener and is a worthwhile visit for a Chinese tea drinker or collector. I am visiting Guangzhou again during this Christmas week.

A few readers have asked me the travel aspects of my past trips to Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Kunming. They had requested information on hotel, dining and shopping besides tea. I will include such information in my subsequent blogs when I go overseas to learn (and buy) Chinese tea. Hotel stays for me is about 3 stars (sometimes the internet gives real deep discounts on good hotels)……as long as its clean, safe, has internet and has a hot shower. I do not use the hotel’s facilities as I tend to be out from 8am to 8pm (earliest). I eat regular local food fare but will look out for those preferred or rated eats by the locals there. I might give myself a hotel buffet on my last night there. Travel guides (Frommer or Lonely planet) and internet searches do provide some guide on good hotel rates, dining and subway maps. Most importantly, make all hotel bookings online and you can get the best rates.

Back to tea. I had drank lots of ripe pu erh this year and the Haiwan 06 mavin and the Fuhai 07 large leaf pu erh were the highlights of my 2010 ripe teas which I had opened from my collection. These 2 teas were highly aromatic and tasty as well. Highly recommended. I did not drink much raw pu erh this year as my raw pu collection are relatively new teas (less than 5 years). I have recently acquired a couple of older raw pu erh and I hope to opened them in 2011. The above pix shows a 2003 Haiwan and 2001 Menghai raw pu erh (both had been stored in Singapore for more than 6 years).

For oolongs that I drank this year, the traditional “Sea Dyke” and Wuyi Shuixian, both Fujian oolongs packed in nifty tea tins were, to me, good quality traditional shui xian in terms of robustness, fragrance and taste. These oolong teas are very inexpensive and I have been happily brewing these oolongs a couple of times a week.

Happy Holidays and I hope everyone will have more time for tea.

The Tea Enthusiast's Handbook

2010-12-12T07:50:00.000-08:00

Printed this year by Crown Publishing, 'The Tea Enthusiast's Handbook' is written by Mary Lou Heiss and Robert J. Heiss. A look at the the back of the book (click pix for enlarged views) revealed that the authors are also tea retailers for their shop 'Tea Trekker' in the States.

I found the book very informative and the many photo illustrations make this book an extremely readable one. I found, that the authors took many pictures of the various teas and also the various colors of these tea brews, which makes the reading very pleasant and it was easy to relate and understand the tea information presented by the authors.

The book deals with purchasing tea, steeping the perfect cup and the 6 classes of tea (green, yellow, white, oolong, black and pu erh tea). The authors, in their selection of teas, do provide detailed information of each type of tea and recommend the steeping times for brewing these teas.

The authors also provided some interesting information on pu erh tea which is as follows;

"We had the opportunity to visit the Xiaguan Tea Factory, which is famous for their tuo-cha(nest-shaped) Pu-erh, the very tea we observed in production. The maocha is blended by the workers before they pack it into the perforated mold that will shape the tuo-cha. Two workers sat with two bags of mao cha in front of them, and they put some leaf from each bag into the mold in such a way that the smaller leaves were tucked inside the tuo-cha and the larger, more attractive leaves were visible on the surface.......

Shou Pu-erh is made in tea factories using the wo dui process. Wo dui begins by spreading the mao cha in a deep pile on the factory floor, and the leaf is dampened with mists of water. After the proper dampening, a thermal blanket is put over the pile of leaf. Heat builds up in the pile, encouraging both oxidation of the leaf and fermentation as enzymatic changes start to occcur within the leaf. This heat buildup encourages the viability of the natural bacteria present on the leaf, stimulating and initiating the fermentation process. The pile is turned every day or so a to allow each leaf to spend some time in different layers of the pile. When we visited the Menghai Tea factory, we were told that their wo dui process takes sixty to seventy days to complete. After wo dui is completed, the leaf is dried to a moisture level of approximately 10 percent.

After this stage, the leaf is compressed and shaped in a hydraulic machine. The tea cakes are then put in a drying room where they will rest and continue to dry on racks before being wrapped."

A reading of the above passages seem to suggest the following:

a) it is a normal practice for a tea cake to have nicer or bigger leaves on the outside of the cake and have the 'not so nice' leaves on the inside of the cake. My discovery of this phenomena was highlighted in my 13 nov'09 blog when I found out that the leaves inside a 2000 ripe brick looked different from the leaves that were on the surface of the brick. I suppose it makes economic and marketing sense......in that you can't expect perfect leaves in every production. Sure you will get tea leaves of different sizes not to mention some broken or torn leaves. My recommendation is that you break up a cake totally and and place the pieces in a tea caddy, That way, a brewing of this tea will be more representative of the tea than just peeling bits and pieces of the cake.

b) the authors seem to suggest that the fermentation of ripe pu erh is natural in that the tea factories do not add any enzymes or fermenting bacteria into the fermentation process. Ripe puerh achieved a super fast fermentation process than raw pu erh due to to the added moisture and heat(thermal blankets).

I enjoy reading "The Tea Enthusiast's Handbook".

2006 Haiwan Mavin Ripe Imperial Tea Brick

2010-12-03T23:51:00.000-08:00

This 100g ripe tea brick is produced by Haiwan in 2006. I am a fan of Haiwan tea and this "Imperial tea brick" strengthens my admiration for Haiwan tea products.

This 2006 tea brick comes packaged in a nice presentation box. You will have noticed that the 'English' side of the box had the "Mavin" imprinted on the box. I had the impression that "Mavin" was used to represent the chinese words "Lao Tong Zhi" used by Haiwan. I believe this translation was abandoned as it was not used in later Haiwan products.

Before I forget, use less leaves and do a quick brew, at least for the 1st three infusions. Quick brew here means - pour boiling water in teapot, cover the lid, and serve....no waiting time. This tea brews fast and strong.

The aroma of the brewed tea is "WOW". There is a deep toasty, herbly and earthy scent. Compared to the various ripe teas I have drunk (see a few of my previous blogs), the aromatic index of this tea has been turned up a few notches. Taste is nice and smooth with no bitterness. I could get only 7 drinking infusions from one brew.

For those who like ripe pu erh like me, do consider getting a brick of this Haiwan tea. This 100g brick is also ideal when you order from tea dealers online, especially when you need to fill up your order to round up to the nearest kilogram or pound without incurring additional postage.

A local food critic in Singapore used the following phrase when he wants his viewers to try a dish, and I will likewise use this phrase to summarize my thoughts on this tea - "Die, Die Must Try."

TEA The drink that changed the world

2010-11-26T16:21:00.000-08:00

I was at the public library when I came across this book "TEA The drink that changed the world". Written by Laura C. Martin and published by Tuttle Publishing in 2007.

This book traces the history of tea, tea in China, Korea and Japan, the Japanese tea ceremony and how tea was spread to the rest of the world.

Below is an excerpt from the book:

"During the middle of the eleventh century, the process of creating tea underwent a dramatic change in China as tea masters discovered new ways of processing tea leaves to bring forth enhanced flavor. Instead of being pounded and formed into bricks, tea leaves were dried and powdered, then boiling water was added, and the brew was whipped with a bamboo whisk until foamy. The resulting beverage was called 'whipped tea' and the taste was decidedly superior. It was sometimes poetically called 'frothy jade' because of its green color and foamy appearance caused by the whipping motion. Because the flavor was so much better, this new method of preparation proved to be a monumental step in the development of tea. This type of green tea (which we call matcha today) is still used in the Japanese tea ceremony.

This new whipped tea formed what tea scholars call the 'second phase' of tea. During the first phase, brick tea was the most common form of processed tea, and during the third phase, which we're still in today, tea lovers began to steep loose tea leaves in hot water. The three 'schools' or 'phases' of tea are Brick, Whipped and Steeped, based on the most commonly used preparation method.

There are numerous illustrations in the book from old drawings, sketches, photographs, maps and diagrams. It was a pity that there were no color illustrations in this book. I was disappointed that the author wrongly described ripe pu erh tea as "The second type of Pu erh tea is cooked to speed the aging time."(pg 218)

I liked the author's use of collecting quotations on tea. William Gladstone, the British prime minister (1809-1898) was quoted "If you are cold, tea will warm you. If you are heated, it will cool you. If you are depressed, it will cheer you. If you are excited, it will calm you."

Wuyi Shuixian

2010-11-20T01:00:00.000-08:00

This is Wuyi Shuixian. Produced by Fujian Tea Import & Export Co Ltd (www.teachina.com), this 125g oolong tea was one of the two commercial teas produced by China that was sold in Singapore in the early 1960s. I had gleaned this information from Amoy Tea during my last visit. According to the proprietor Mr Tan, this Wuyi Shuixian and Sea Dyke's Lao Chung Shuixian, were the first two teas that was exported to Singapore during the '60s. (see 15 Oct 2010 blog)

Tea produced in Wuyi is also known as yan cha (rock tea). I had read that the name yan cha was used to label tea that was grown in rocky terrain in Wuyi. Da Hong Pao and Tie Luo Han, renowned oolong teas come from this location as well. A tea dealer told me that even the areas on the outskirts of Wuyi are now labelling their tea 'yan cha' to take advantage of the popularity of this tea.

The flavor characteristics of this tea is similar to Sea Dyke's Shuixian. I noticed that the Wuyi Shuixian is slightly less intense than that of Sea Dyke's oolong. It is still very strong in flavor and very smooth. It literally slips down the throat and is very pleasant. Though it is slightly less popular (also slightly cheaper as well) than Sea Dyke's oolong, this Wuyi oolong has a loyal group of followers. I enjoy this tea very much. I love the robust taste of Sea Dyke's shuixian but I appreciate the slightly delicate but very smooth Wuyi shuixian.

There are very expensive and better grades of oolongs than these two oolongs as mentioned above, but I believe they served as a yardstick to compare or even to start your Fujian oolong adventure. These two oolongs are very inexpensive and in my opinion, good representatives of Fujian oolongs.

Forgot to mentioned that this Wuyi oolong comes in a nifty metal tea caddy that you can reuse for your tea storage.

The Chinese Art Of Tea

2010-11-12T20:31:00.000-08:00

I came across this book at a used book store (such shops are a rarity in Singapore) and I purchased this book to add to my collection. "The Chinese Art Of Tea" is written by John Blofeld and published Shambhala Publications Inc in 1985.

This book deals with the various Chinese teas, history of tea, tea gardens and houses, poems and songs of tea, and tea and health. The book even devotes a chapter on a "manual for practicing the Artless Tea" which the author describes "The art of tea is artless in that it is practised with the maximum of informality and freedom from restriction. There are no rules to be observed other than those pertaining to making fine tea in such a manner that its flavour and aroma are at their best........Getting the fullest satisfaction from the tea requires special state of mind analogous to what the Buddhists mean by awareness. This is achieved by attending to the responses of all the six senses: hearing, smelling, tasting, seeing, touching and consciousness. Once it has become habitual, there is no need to bestow further thought on it."

The 2nd pix shows a tea brewing setup called "tea boat style" where the teapot is placed in a bowl. I am using this method to brew my pu erh teas. This dispenses the use of a tea tray to brew tea. I will pour out the 1st two infusions into this bowl before throwing out the tea. Moreover the tea bowl will collect any spillage when I pour too much hot water into the teapot.

This book is out of print and a new copy fetches about US$90(I checked today) on Amazon. I personally found the writing style a little tedious to read. Click pix 3 for enlarged views. Anyway, I did not have any regrets having this book in my collection.