Xiang Ji JI

This is Pek Sin Choon's most premium hand wrapped tea sold in a tin of 50 packets.  15g per pack, this tea is called Xiang Ji Ji.  The roast levels lies between mid to high roast.  

Pek Sin Choon described this tea as follows : 

"As the standard of living in Singapore improved, the preeminent fragrance was developed in between 1970s and 1980s to cater to the requirement of the tea drinkers who wants to enhance their experience in tea drinking. The tea soup is mild red in colour which is simple at first sip but leave a strong aroma around the throat and produce great aftertaste."

I used half a packet on a small teapot (100ml).  The aroma was cheerful like a fresh bouquet of flowers.  The mouthfeel was good, oily and mouth watering.  I had brewed this tea after dinner and I found it very suitable as a after-meal tea.  A good addition to my oolong stash.

The Art Of Being Stationary

As many countries are slowly reopening their economies in June, we will find ourselves in a slightly different environment.  We are all masked up, always carrying a bottle of sanitiser and keeping a respectable distance from each other when we queue in line to do our stuff.

Many of us are emerging from a lockdown and as avid tea drinkers, we would had been brewing and drinking more tea at home.  We enjoy the brewing ritual and the taste and aroma of the tea.  Somehow to me, I felt it made the lockdown at home more manageable.

I was asked a few times during this lockdown how I drink my tea.  There is no secret and I will share with you what I did.  

Stay still, don't move.

That's it.  For a couple of minutes, be still.  Be stationary. Enjoy the aroma and taste.  The stillness will amplify the tea session even if for a minute.  

Being stationary sounds easy. There are however, many distractions in the home or office that will disrupt this deliberate stillness.  Try it for a minute.  Be still, don't move.  The tea will taste better.  

Sea Dyke Lao Chong Shui Hsien

Sea Dyke brand is a very popular brand for oolong tea.  They had been producing tea and had been exporting their tea worldwide.  In the 70s, many Chinese immigrants that had migrated and set up new homes in South East Asia were loyal supporters of this tea.  They are comforted that drinking this tea was a little reminder of their home province or village.

Sea Dyke has a showroom and outlet in Xiamen, China.  Locals and tourists can gawked at the wide variety of tea for sale and buy some tea home as a souvenir.  One in-house oolong sold at this shop is a Lao Chong Shui Hsien.  This particular grade is only sold at this shop.  A relative had given me a few packets in 2017.  You will notice that this oolong had been packed in 250g aluminium foiled, self sealing bags.

This Lao Chong Shui Hsien is an 'above average' tea.  Not top shelf tea but decent enough to please any oolong tea drinker.  Heavy roasted and a strong aroma that will linger in the mouth for a good few minutes after a tea session.  Makes about 6 good infusions with every brew. I had hoped to visit this shop this year but it looks like I have to defer my travels to Xiamen till next year.  

But I digress.  Many economies worldwide are slowly reopening in June.  Post offices, couriers and airmail are slowly resuming 'operational' status.  I hope to resume tea mail by end June.  I will keep my readers informed.    Stay tuned and stay safe. 

Do You Have Time For Tea?

This worldwide pandemic has extorted a high price for many people.   For most of us , we are staying at home, working from home and simply riding out the pandemic.

There is a silver lining in that we get to spend quality (quantity) time with our family.   If you had been wishing you had more free time to pursue a hobby or interest, you would suddenly found yourself granted this wish.  Many of my friends are learning to cook and bake (they cheated by buying a bread making machine).  Like it or not, I hope you are making use of this lockdown fruitfully.  

If you enjoy your Chinese tea like me, this lockdown period would allow us to explore and appreciate our tea and tea ware.  I find myself more deliberate in my tea brewing.  I try different tea and tea ware, infusion styles and get to drink more tea on a daily basis.  There may be certain teapots that pour slowly...so I reduced the tea leaves.  There are certain pu erh that does better, in taste and aroma, with longer infusion times.  

A few readers had asked me whether I will be buying more tea.  Yes.  I hope to travel nearer the end of the year,  Moreover, with many countries attempting to restart their economies,  many post offices worldwide will be resuming International deliveries by June.  I will update my readers in due course on the reopening of my mini tea store.  

I had just opened a 2007 Lan Tie.  Produced by Jing Mei Tang, this 13 year old cake stored in my part of the world, has a very traditional old style taste and aroma.  It is strong, herbal and medicinal.  Very faint sweet aftertaste and slightly intoxicating.  A fun tea session.  

On second thought, maybe I should get a bread making machine.  Time for my 2nd tea session for the day,    

Working From Home WFH

Help!  I have to move out my tea corner.    Singapore has initiated a lockdown in the country for a month (the government called the lockdown a circuit breaker) and as a result, my whole family are working from home.  I personally support a lockdown as it will help break the spread of the virus within the community and lessen the stress on our medical providers.

Video conferencing is one of the work that is performed daily.  My family members have such daily  'meetings' online and video conferencing 'areas' had been set up at home.  My tea corner had to be given up for this noble cause.  It now appears my tea brewing will be done in the kitchen till I can find another corner for my tea toys. Mornings and afternoons have to be pretty quiet to accommodate these 'meetings'. 

I would like to recommend a few tips on your video chats sessions
- raise your laptop about 5 inches from the table.  You would 'look' better as viewers will not see up your nostrils during the conversation.
-  position yourself from the camera that your shoulders and face can be seen. Not too near in that your entire face occupy the whole screen.
- some lighting on yourself and not depend on the laptop screen to light you up,  You will look like a walking dead character if you do that.

Meanwhile, stay safe and drink lots of tea.  

Internet And Chinese Tea

As we hunker down to sit out the pandemic, the term 'social distancing' should not be misinterpreted during this time.  We should keep a physical distance but socially we should continue to 'socialise' in many ways with each other.  We should keep in communication with family and friends through the internet or the old fashion telephone.  This is especially important when we have older friends, family, neighbours or people with disabilities.  We must check on them frequently and help out whenever we can.  It is the right thing to do.  

Back to the internet.  We do many things on the internet - for work or for play.  We communicate, work, buy and sell things, send money, invest and even learn and unlearn while we are online.  I myself find myself watching movies (Netflix) and listen to music (Spotify) while I stay home during this time.  I am sad that many small businesses; those physical shops run by sole proprietors, are struggling to stay afloat and many would 'go under' during these difficult times.

When it comes to Chinese tea, many of us buy them online.  It is understandable that the internet give us more choices in terms of brands, storage and prices.  There may be a Chinese tea shop downtown but there is so much that a teashop can offer.  Many of these physical tea shops may fold up during this pandemic.  In the tea wholesale centre of Fangchun in Guangzhou China, a number of teashops and small wholesalers have closed their business permanently.  Many such businesses do not (as you can understand) put aside cash to 'tide over'  3-6 months of almost zero sales, while at the same time facing fixed expenses like rent and upkeep of a shop.  There may be rebates given to such business but they would not be enough.  This dire situation applies to other types of business as well.

The outlook for Chinese tea for the next 12 months would be challenging for the tea business.  A looming recession might make tea buying not high on the 'to do or to buy' list. There is a strong possibility that the majority of Chinese tea prices would be cheaper.  Tea businesses require cash flow while tea collectors might have to lower prices to sell their tea if they need the cash.  

For me, I would not be able to travel, for some time, to continue my tea adventures.  I would think the earliest I can travel would be nearer the end of the year.    Meanwhile, time to stay at home after work and drink from our stash of tea.  To all my readers, please stay safe.    

Using Teaware To Amplify A Tea Session

How do I brew my tea?

I use a kettle to boil my water, a teapot or gaiwan (rarely) to brew the tea leaves and a few porcelain teacups to drink my tea.

There is no secret ingredient. I do not sing to my tea. I do not brew my tea in the middle of a rice field or against a backdrop of a waterfall. I am just like you. We mainly brew and drink our tea at home.

In the course of my tea drinking adventures, I want to think I found that there are a few ways to improve or make a tea session more fun and more tasty in terms or taste and aroma when you are at home. I can tweak the 3 main utensils in the tea brewing setup - the kettle, the teapot and the teacup.

Caveat - you must be a serious tea drinker to be able to distinguish the differences in your tea after using such utensils. I would consider a serious tea drinker if you brew and drink Chinese tea at least 3 times a week.

1. Teacup. I found that older Chinese porcelain teacups make the tea taste better. Yes, even my whisky taste better in them. They are still relatively inexpensive. An unused 90s Chinese porcelain teacup can still be purchased for below $5.

2. Teapot. Using a clay teapot can affect the taste and aroma of your Chinese tea. A good seasoned yixing teapot is the preferred brewing vessel used by many serious Chinese tea drinkers. I do recommend you take a look at the Taiwanese Lin Ceramics purion teapot. I found old pu erh tea seems more amplified using the purion teapot. Teapots are overall more expensive than teacups. You will be looking at about $60-$120 for a decent teapot.

3. Kettle. Use a clay kettle or the famous Japanese iron kettle (aka tetsubin) to boil your water. Many tea drinkers claimed the water tasted sweeter or tasty.  Japanese tetsubins are expensive. My last Japanese tetsubin purchase last year was about $200 and it was a small sized one as well.

Such tweaks are not necessary in a tea setup. With just $10, I can have a fantastic tea session as well. A plain white porcelain and 2 porcelain teacups would be more than sufficient to have a wonderful tea session.

The improvements in a tea session using such tweaks can only be distinguished by a hardcore tea drinker.  These improvements are quite small but whether to splash out a little money for these small improvements is a fun discussion among friends during a tea session.   

In the midst of the virus situation, I wish all my readers well and to stay safe.  If you are a essential service provider, I would like to say a big thank you.