2005 Haiwan 'Nong-Xiang' Raw 357g

I was at the Amoy tea shop (one of my fav local chinese tea shop) when the owner Mr Tan, told me that they found a couple of tongs of this 2005 Haiwan raw pu erh in their warehouse and had thought they had previously sold out this tea.  Since I am a fan of Haiwan pu erh especially their ripe/shu range of tea,  I decided to buy 2 of the raw cakes.

The chinese characters on this cake were in traditional Chinese while later versions of these cakes were simplified Chinese.  I also noticed that the inner labels did mentioned the year of manufacture as well.  This pu erh cake seem to smell like a little woody with a hint of dried herbs scent.  I was intrigued as I had opened a 2003 Haiwan raw a couple of months ago (see 22 Sept 2012 blog) and that cake was a nice fruity scent when brewed.  The differences between these two Haiwan raw cakes are quite pronounced.  This 2005 cake has a musky and woody edge to the tea and does have hints of aging.  The 2003 haiwan cake I had, was more fruity with a 'fresh floral bouquet' aroma.  Haiwan tea factory is very famous for their ripe or shu pu erh.  Its distinct Haiwan ripe aroma had gained many followers, including myself.  The raw pu erh produced by Haiwan, in my opinion do offer, value more money as their new raw tea are usually of a lower price when you compare to newer Dayi brands of pu erh tea.  

This 2005 cake does brew to a nice amber color with a slight aged taste when infused.  I tend to add a little more leaves in my brew as I enjoy a stronger tea.  I did noticed a mild bitterness and my mouth/throat did felt a little dry after a tea session of this tea; which should dissipate with a couple more years of storage.    

This tea is quite inexpensive and should be easily available at your regular Chinese tea supplier.    Yunnan Sourcing sells the 2006 version for $24, a price that is comparable to some new 2012 pu erh tea that are being sold in the tea markets today.  ......if you are shelling out $24 to buy a new pu erh cake, you should consider getting a 6 yr old very drinkable tea at this price.   

Yes, I did noticed that the prices of tea are inching up quite quickly.   The cost of living in China and the affluence of the Chinese citizens do contribute to the much higher prices of tea being sold today.  It is my opinion the higher prices are here to stay and may even face upward economic pressures in prices over next few years.  

Sow Mee

Sow Mee (aka Shou Mei) is a white tea that is produced in Fujian, China.  This very inexpensive tea is made of withered tea leaves.  From the attached pix, you would have observed the tea leaves looked brownish  and very dry.  I found that the tea leaves are extremely brittle and breaks easily when I handled the tea.  

I did some reading on this tea and found out that this tea belong to the lower grade end of the white tea range.  The silver needle (aka yin hao) and the bai mu tan are considered better white teas than the shou mei.  I think the term 'sow mee' is another 'lost in translation' description when a chinese word is being translated to English many years back.  

I filled my porcelain teapot with about 1/3 of the sow mee and used 90 degree celsius of hot water (about 194 F), rinsing once.  The tea is surprisingly good.  It had nice hints of sweetness, slightly minty with nice fresh floral notes.  I could make 4-5 good drinking infusions.  This tea is somewhat similar to the bai mu tan, with the silver needles taken out.  A refreshing drink and I believe would taste just as nice if chilled.  

I enjoy my white tea, drinking them about twice a week.  I do drink the yin hao and bai mu tan,  whose fragrance and taste are more pronounced than the shou mei but nevertheless, I regard shou mee as a good white tea as well.  

This new sow mee was inexpensive but older ones can be extraordinary pricey.  It came in a 100g aluminum white foil pack and then packed in a bright yellow box under 'Sunflower' brand.  If you drink white tea, do try out the sow mee.

2006 Mengku Ripe 145g - a revisit

My first encounter with this mini cake was in my Oct 24 2009 blog.  

This is the 2006 Mengku 145g cake.  The wrapper indicated that this was a gold medal award winning cake at a tea competition.  Since I had purchased a few of these cakes and had quite good impressions of this tea, I did a revisit and opened up a cake.

It was a big surprise that when I broke off a chunk to brew; this tea tasted quite bland; nothing impressive.  It was a worrying moment.  Was my storage conditions not good for tea?  Were my expectations of this tea too lofty?  Maybe this was just a regular ripe cake?

I had brewed this tea by breaking off a 9g chunk and started my tea session.  This had deviated from my current practice of breaking up tea cakes/bricks and putting it in a tea caddy for a few days before I start drinking the tea.  I cannot give you a clear explanation on why the pu erh tea would taste much better if the tea chunks had a few days to 'breathe'.  I had consumed a good number of pu erh cakes for the past few years to arrive at this conclusion.  I find that the taste and aroma improvements are more pronounced in ripe/shu than raw pu erh.  Perhaps this is what tea masters call 'tou-chi', a chinese term to describe taking a breather.  Some tea experts have also mentioned about 'waking the tea' (aka xin-cha).......perhaps this is what I might be doing.  I even have a Malaysian friend, that had advised me, that he unwrapped his tea cake (for drinking), enclosing the cake in a biscuit or mooncake tin for a week before he break up the cake.  

Yes, what I have just said would have sounded like a 'believe it or not' urban legend.  I may be wrong.  I may be imagining or bluffing myself.    Anyway, let me know your thoughts. 

So, after a few days of storing my broken up chunks of this Mengku tea cake, my tea session of this pu erh became a very pleasant experience. The aroma and taste of this pu erh is strong and highly aromatic.  This tea would brew to a darker color but its not bitter and its very enjoyable - a very comforting sensation when I drink up every cup. 

Peony Tea S.

Peony Tea S. is an online tea shop.  Owned and operated by Mr & Mrs Derek Chew, they specialize in selling loose tea from China and Taiwan.  Having started the business last year, Derek is slowly but surely adding a good range of teas for sale to tea drinkers around the world.

In his own words :

“It was over 10 years ago when a major paradigm shift was experienced, his parents had returned from Hangzhou and brought back none other than the fabulous Long Jing. Then, prices of Long Jing was not so ridiculous and inferior knock-offs did not flood the market like they do today hence even his parents who were casual tea drinkers could purchase decent quality Meijiawu Long Jing as tourists.

For Derek it was love at first sip- falling in love with the refreshing taste and sweet lingering finish he only knew later as ‘hui gan’. It changed his perspective on Chinese tea completely.

Still his fear of insomnia and packed weekend schedules- he was a teenager (and later a young adult) then after all- meant tea could only be a sporadic indulgence for him. It was only when Derek discovered the humble infuser mug that he was liberated to enjoy tea daily in the office.

Derek always believed that if more people had the opportunity to experience authentic Chinese tea, brewed right without the intimidation and mystique that could frighten novices off, it could gain a mass following instead of being a somewhat niche interest.”

Derek had included his take on brewing a Danchong as follows:

“Fill the gaiwan with 1/3 to ½ full of leaves (depending on the ‘density’ of the leaves)

Rinse with hot water

Add hot water (85°C or 185°F)

Infuse for 30 sec (for the first steeping) – or until my nose tells me it’s okay- and pour out

Increase about 10-15 sec for each infusion

The combination of the lower heat and steeping time allows a fuller release of the nuances of dancong without an excessive amount of bitterness.”

Derek has created a sample set of his tea for sale and included a discount code (WLTT1020 – valid till 23 Nov 2012) for readers if you decide buy tea from Peony Tea S.

I do not have any business interest in this company.  I wish Derek and his wife the very best in his tea business.

www.peonyts.com

2006 Xiaguan Gold Ribbon Tuo 100g

I opened a 2006 Xiaguan 'gold ribbon' tuo today.  This 100g tuo comes packed in its own box and yes, a gold ribbon is enclosed inside as well.  Xiaguan started producing this tea in 2004 (see bottom pix- top tuo) and has been producing this tea yearly due to its popularity among chinese tea drinkers.  Its inexpensive with the current year tuo priced at less than $5.

Yunnan Sourcing promotes this tea as "The "Gold Ribbon" blend was first introduced in 2004, when it was a special order production for a large Guangzhou Xiaguan wholesaler.  Using superior material from Wu Liang, Yun Xian, and Yun Long mountains, and carefully blended to be full of aroma and cha qi.  This has now become a classic premium blend from Xiaguan!"

I noticed a nice delightful pronounced honey aroma when I brew a pot of this Xiaguan tuo.  I normally drink a cup of honey a couple of times a week (half mug cool water and stirring in a spoonful of honey).  The aroma from the tea is like drinking a nice cup of honey -  a sweet, fresh floral scent.  This tea is non smoky unlike the other Xiaguan tuos I had encountered, but I enjoy this tea very much.  A refreshing and happy tea.  I do recommend you include a tuo in your next tea purchase. 

One more thing, do not throw away the tuo box after use.  It makes a mini tea caddy and is especially good for pu erh as this paper box allows your pu erh to 'breathe' especially when you have broken up a pu cake/brick for drinking.

Bottom pix shows 3 Xiaguan gold ribbon tuos.  Top tuo - 2004, bottom left -2006, right -2009.

2008 Tian Fu Yang Ripe Brick 500g

I had purchased this ripe pu erh brick on one of my visits to Qiu Xiang teashop in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia last year.  This is a 2008 Tian Fu Yang brick.  I had sampled this pu erh at the tea shop and decided to buy this hefty 500g brick for slightly less than US$15.  

This ripe brick, as described on the wrapper, was made with tea leaves from the Bulang region in Yunnan.     I would brew 8-9g of this tea in my 190ml teapot and I prefer longer infusions for this pu erh tea.  It brewed up an aromatic scent with a mild sweet finish. The sweetness is nutty like eating freshly roasted chestnuts.  A brew of this tea can yield 8 good cups of tea. 

But I digress.  I had earlier mentioned in my earlier blogs that old ripe pu erh has a mellow taste and can   developed an aged taste as well.  One clear difference between drinking a ripe tea than compared to drinking a raw pu erh tea is the overall sensations when you finish your tea sessions of that respective tea.  There are raw pu erh tea that may give the drinker a sensation of intoxication, or a 'happy high' that last a couple of minutes.  Some raw pu erh  may make a drinker sweat before a nice cooling releasing sensation sets in.  Ripe tea would not produce such results but to me, drinking a good ripe pu would give me a satisfying pleasant, mellow and earthy cup of tea whenever I brew a session of ripe tea.  Yes, there are many more differences, not pointed out by me,  that you the reader would have experienced.  I would encourage all pu drinkers not to stick strictly to drinking raw or ripe tea but to enjoy both types of pu erh tea, so that you can experience the full spectrum of taste, aroma, flavor and sensations of a pu erh tea.  

Tetsubin Tea Kettle

My kid thought I had purchased an antique when I opened a box that arrived from Japan a few days ago.  Inside the box was a used Japanese Tetsubin tea kettle.  "I am going to use the kettle to boil water, and to brew tea with it' - I told my daughter when she had a closer look at the kettle.  Her reply was an exclamatory "whoa".

You, the reader will ask me, after looking at the pix,....why buy an old kettle? Its old and even has some discoloring marks on the inside of the kettle.  

Well, I was chatting with a new tea friend from Ipoh, Malaysia about pu erh in general when I was told to buy a tetsubin kettle.  I was told to get such a kettle as a tetsubin 'sustains heat better from fire to pot so there is little reduction in heat from kettle to pot......and for vintage tea you need really hot water to bring the tea out'.  I laugh in jest.   It could be a psychological enhancement......its all in the mind.  Another user had also  told me the water tasted better.  Curiously, in the back of my mind, I could vaguely recollect that I had seen such kettles in use......at a friend's place in Hong Kong, a tea shop in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and in another tea shop in Taipei, Taiwan.  Water in Singapore can be drunk straight from the tap.  The water here, comes from reservoirs, desalination as well as from a reverse osmosis process (from waste water).  I thought if a Tetsubin kettle can make my tea better.....its worth a try.  I decided to take up the challenge.

A tetsubin kettle is simply a cast iron kettle.  Its made from iron.  Nothing fancy.  Yes, I am sure you have seen iron cast pans and trays used in the kitchen but the popularity of using cast iron kitchenware is waning, at least in my part of the world.  The reason  - it rusts easily if the iron cookware are not taken care of properly.  You can imagine the tetsubin kettle is even less popular in our rush-rush urban cities.

At this point I would like to highlight the difference between a tetsubin kettle and a tetsubin teapot. The teapot is smaller from 300ml to about 1 litre while the kettle starts from about 500ml to more than 3 litres.  The tetsubin teapot is internally lined or coated.  It may be ceramic coated or a layer of 'teflon like" material is applied to the inside of the teapot so that rust would not occur in the teapot.  You would brew tea in that teapot.  A kettle on the other hand has no coating inside, and the kettle is only used to boil water.  Yes, one would place the kettle over a fire and boil the water.  This, as I gleaned from the internet, is where the water, coming into contact with the iron surface, would make brewing tea with this water a more tasty experience.  Further information from the internet said that I should not use any detergent in cleaning the kettle and I should keep the kettle dry when not in use.

There are many websites on the internet selling tetsubin kettles.  I decided to buy a used Japanese model.  I turned to ebay.  I snagged one 2 weeks ago. You would have observed that the surface of the kettle was dotty.  The seller mentioned that these bumps are called Arare design (aka hobnail).  The seller also mentioned that there are 'nambu tekkie' manufacture marks which signifies the popular Japanese foundries in the late 60s.  This kettle holds 500ml of water. It also comes with a matching trivet - where the hot kettle can sit without damaging the table top. 

This tetsubin is strangely captivating.  I realized that this kettle was a little small for my needs as I usually use more than a litre of water in one tea brewing session.  So......I got myself another larger Japanese one today.  "Whoa !".  Stay tuned.