Norbu Tea

Norbu Tea is an online Chinese tea company operating out from Dallas, Texas in USA.  The proprietor of this company is Gregory Glancy (yes, he is the one in the pix).  He sells chinese tea and tea accessories like teapots, gaiwans and tea sets.Gregory tells me that he personally source for all the tea he sells in his store. 

 I am privileged to have an interview with him (via email).  I posed some questions to him and his answers shown below are unedited for your information and reading pleasure.

 Question - tell me about yourself.  Answer: “I was born and raised in Dallas, TX.  Split most of my childhood between our cattle ranch in East Texas and our home in Dallas.  I attended a small University in Texas called Southwestern University, where I graduated with a Bachelors degree in Religious Studies and Economics.  My religious studies coursework was primarily focused on Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam, and I studied how the roots of these traditions have shaped some aspects of modern culture.  Interestingly (and I am still amazed that I was able to pull this off) I ended up writing my senior thesis on food concepts (raw vs. cooked, pure vs. polluting, etc) in the Hindu worldview. My economics coursework was focused on international economics and learning about the developing world. Random facts about me:  I play the Bass guitar and the saxophone.  I have worked as a line cook and a cooking teacher/demonstrator to feed my passion for learning about and sharing cooking techniques and food culture.  I am most passionate about my tea and my cooking interests.”

 Question : why enter into a tea business? Why chinese tea?  Answer : “Ever since I was a kid, I have always been a tea drinker, but in Texas we always drink black tea (usually not Chinese) over ice with some lemon and sweetener if you want it (I still don't use any sweeteners in any of my teas).  I started seriously learning about tea a few years ago when I tasted some decent quality Taiwan oolong for the first time...it was like a lightbulb went on in my head and I realized how much of a sensory experience there can be in good quality tea.  From there, I was on a quest to learn as much as I could about tea, so I started going to local tea shops, shopping online, etc just so I could taste as much as I could and build a frame of reference in my head for what different types and styles of tea can actually taste like.  I tried my first Pu-Erh (a loose leaf ripe Pu-Erh with dried tea flowers mixed in that wasn't very good at all in hindsight) at some point in my tea exploration, was intrigued with it, and decided to try to learn as much as I could about Pu-Erh tea.  There was virtually nothing written about Pu-Erh in English, so I had to dig pretty hard to find any good information at all.   Eventually, I ended up traveling to Yunnan for a vacation.  I spent a few days in the Kunming tea market, and fell completely in love with all the teas I drank there.  When I got home from that trip, I looked around in Asian grocery stores and online, but couldn't find any of the teas I loved so much.  That's when the idea for Norbu Tea was born...I basically wanted these awesome teas to be available, saw an opportunity in the marketplace, cashed in my savings, and started the company.”

 Question:  where do you see yourself and chinese tea in 5 years time?  Answer : “In 5 years time, I hope to be focusing all of my professional efforts on promoting great tea.  Chinese tea has won my heart completely, and I can't imagine not working in this field in some capacity or another.  At this point Norbu Tea has only been online for about one year, so I don't really have a way of predicting whether the company will be a success or not. I just plan to continue to focus on a very high standard of quality and/or freshness of the products I work with while keeping prices as fair as possible.  I think that if I keep these two aspects of the business firmly in my focus that Norbu Tea has a good chance of being successful.  (I'm not happy with the next part of this answer at all, but I can't seem to come up with a better way to communicate my thoughts on the future of tea in China yet...this part is a work in progress)  Over the next few years, I hope that small scale Chinese tea farmers and producers are able to make a good living.  As it is now, a lot of the big commercial farms produce some pretty good quality teas but keep the prices low with a huge supply of inexpensive products for domestic consumption.  The problem is that the small producers of more artisan type products aren't able to offer their products for a price as low as the big factories can, so the world is in danger of losing some of the lesser known but great Chinese teas and tea styles.  If overseas demand for higher quality tea continues to grow over the next few years, my guess is that traditional producers will be able to support themselves by producing traditional artisanal teas.  We'll have to wait and see if the market trends in China will continue to allow more and more domestic consumers to pay a premium for high quality tea as opposed to high quantity tea.”

 Question:  any tea promotions to our readers? Answer : “Sure!  Enter this code without the quotation marks: "E144F86C" in the coupon code box to get 15% off your next order.  New customers will have to register for an account before they can apply the coupon, but we don't EVER share/sell email addresses or any personal customer data with ANYONE.  One coupon use per registered user account.  (Coupon not applicable to shipping charges unfortunately).  Coupon code expires 2009-10-31.” (31 oct ’09)

 Norbu tea’s website provides good information on tea and the brewing aspects of  different teas.  You can also sign up for a e-news letter.  Payment for your orders is done through paypal.

 I would like to thank Gregory Glancy for sharing his information, pictures and thoughts with us and I wish him the very best in his tea endeavors. Check out the website:

 http://www.norbutea.com/  

Speculating of Pu erh tea - a myth?

A recent chinese tea article appeared in time.com (titled Puer tea: China’s next hot commodity.  25 aug 2009 by Emily Rauhala).  An excerpt of the article as follows: 

“There is Champagne, France; Tequila, Mexico; and Parma, Italy — all places turned trade names known for their unique, high-quality foods. Now, if China has its way, there could be another: PuerThis lush corner of Yunnan province in China's south is home to one of the world's hottest teas. Puer tea may not look like much — it is typically sold in heaps resembling cow patties — but one mug of these aged leaves can fetch up to $1,000. The drink is touted for its health benefits and is loved for its light, earthy taste. It is already a hit in Hong Kong, where rare teas are a status symbol among the city's élite, and it is generating hype outside China, too. Three high-profile Silicon Valley techies recently tweeted and blogged their way through Puer tea tour of Yunnan. Dieters, meanwhile, are buzzing about rumors that Victoria Beckham, the svelte former Spice Girl, drinks Puer to lose weight.”

In spite of all the hype that pu erh tea will the next hot thing.  Let me give you my thoughts on this matter.

For discussion sake, lets take a 20 year old pu erh cake as a yardstick.  A late 1980s cake would fetch about US$400 in today’s market.  Buy a new pu erh cake (about $25) today and the money question is whether you can sell your tea cake for $400 20 years later (assume no drastic inflation or revaluation of the currencies).  The answer would be NO because there are now many tea collectors in the world that are keeping these cakes.  This is unlike the late 1980s cake that is now extremely limited in supply as there were few tea collectors then, and people that time drink than hoard their tea.  Good news are that your new tea, if kept in proper storage conditions, will see its price appreciate in 20 years.  I forsee  the price of our current cakes to be about 4-5 times the current value in 20 years time.    I see this as a fair price appreciation as the price would also justify the effort and space spent in properly storing this tea over a 20 year period.   I would like to stress that you must know how to store your pu erh correctly so that you will have aged pu erh  after a period of time.  Pu erh tea stored incorrectly will be worthless.

I am storing some pu erh tea (2003-08) for a 15-20 year period.  I wish to drink aged pu erh tea in 20 years time without paying too much for the tea.  More on  my tea collection next time.   

My order from Awazon

Awazon is another tea supplier (also on ebay) which I get my tea.  This company operates from Kunming, China.  They sell mainly teas that come from Yunnan.  Awazon has a good range of tea mainly pu erh.  Awazon is run by a husband and wife team (surname zhang).   Both are knowledgable in  pu erh tea.  They have produced their own housebrand of pu erh tea, and have received very good reviews in the local Kunming papers on their jingmai and manjing cakes. Overall,  I have found their tea prices and packaging satisfactory.  

My recent order from Awazon arrived in good order.  You will observe from the pix that the packing is generally acceptable.  The tea is well packed to prevent movement during transit (so you will not  get broken cakes).  In addition the  tea cakes are bubble wrapped and sealed; ripe and raw cakes are separated.  A pack of yunnan "white hair silver needle" tea also came packed in an aluminium foil.  

Tea joke - What is the teapots' fave movie ?

E.T.

Tea filled tangerine

The owner of a local chinese tea shop gave me this tea.  A sniff of the tea wrapper reminded me of oranges rather than tea.  This is the "gold horse brand" of tea stuffed in a dried tangerine.  This tea, made from loose ripe pu erh tea, is stuffed in a dried hollowed out tangerine.

The description on the wrapper call this tea "nee er siang" - translates as scent of a lady.  

This tea is slightly bigger than a ping pong ball.  I sliced the tangerine in half and use just one half of the tea leaves to brew a pot of tea(200ml).  The tea is not bitter and is pleasant.  I found this tea reminded me of earl gray tea, but with the citrus scent and taste up a few notches.

This inexpensive tea filled tangerine can be easily bought from chinese tea shops or on the internet.  I would recommend this tea to tea drinkers who like their tea to have a citrus scent or to buy it to add variety to their tea collection.   I found the tangerine scent to be strong , in a sense that the tangerine aroma took centre stage than the tea.  I could easily make 5 drinkable infusions from this brew.  

2008 Menghai ripe pu erh "hong yun" cake 100g

 This 100g ripe cake is from the Menghai brand.  The cake comes in a paper wrapper (2nd pix)) and then housed in a paper box (1st pix).  You can also buy them in a 5 box pack where you can get 5 pieces in a bigger box.  This tea, as I write this blog, is easily available especially on the internet.  It is also inexpensive about us$6 per piece, freight inclusive (I had bought 5 pieces).

The description on the box claims that this is a high quality selected tea with a good and prolong aftertaste.  Yunnan sourcing (which sells tea on the internet) describes this tea as "This is the one of the highest grade premium ripe teas released by Menghai tea factory for the year 2008!  It is also the first release of this mini iron cake which is called "Red Rhyme" (Hong Yun 红韵）.    This collectable mini tea cake is composed of grade 3 and higher leaves, all smaller leaf fermented material with plenty of flavor to give up when brewed".

Observations - tea is well packed with a paper wrapper and housed in a box. This, for the tea collector,makes storage of the tea a breeze.  The tea cake is tightly compressed and I had to use my large swiss army knife to split the cake in half.  I could then break the cake, by hand, into 12 pieces for storage.   I could make 10 infusions (after discarding the 1st 2 infusions) for drinking.  Tea is not bitter with a  pleasant characteristic ripe pu erh fragrance.  I find the taste of the tea nicer, when the tea had cooled down to room temperature.  Well the tea brews well, and you must keep your 1st few infusions of the tea short....about 5-10 seconds (your preference).  It is a tasty tea but  my thoughts on this tea are that because this is a new tea (manufactured oct '08), the potential of this tea may /would be better after a few years of storage.

One advantage of buying this tea, well for me because its  a small cake(100g), and the size allows me to finish the cake in about 12 brews and I can move on  to try other cakes.  I have allocated 4 ripe pu erh containers in my tea cupboard. and I will only opened another ripe pu erh when one of the containers are empty.  At this moment, my 4 ripe pu erh I am drinking are, 07' haiwan lao cha tou, '07 loose royal pu erh I had purchased during my latest visit to Kunming, '02 cnnp, and this '08 menghai.  

One other strong advantage of buying this tea on the internet is  to fill your tea order in terms of weight, to the nearest kg.  You must remember that the postage on your order of tea is based on weight. Example -when you have made an order of tea and it weights 1.7kg,  you can add a couple of these pieces of this tea, or any other tea to make your order's weight within 2 kg, without incurring additional postage charges.

Would I buy this tea again?  to drink now - no because this quality tea has potential to be better after a few years of proper ageing  .  But for storage and filling up the weight for a tea order - this presently inexpensive 100g menghai tea - yes.

Straits Chinese Porcelain teacups

Straits Chinese porcelain is an overglazed enameled porcelain, made in Jingdezhen China from 1900s to 1960s , for the exclusive use of the Straits Chinese community (aka peranakans) found in Malaysia and Singapore. 

 

Common characteristics of this porcelain include peonies and phoenixes.  You may also see insects, and on the borders of most straits chinese porcelain, auspicious chinese symbols.  These porcelain comes in a myriad of colors from white, green, yellow, pink, coral reds and even blue.

 

The pictures attached are straits chinese teacups.  These teacups are used for weddings or birthdays.  In the 1^st pix, this elaborate teacup comes in a beautiful combination of color and design.  You will observe a phoenix in flight amidst poeny flowers.  Notice the border patterns on the exterior rim of the cup. This very rare teacup, which I had the opportunity to purchased as one pair, is so elaborate that the interior of the teacup is also decorated.  The 2^nd pix shows the interior of the teacup decorated with the flowers of the 4 seasons.  The 3^rd pix is another teacup with a stylized phoenix in flight on a pink background.  Some of these teacups come with a lid (gaiwan style – see pix of my blog 27 jan ’09)

 

The lasts 2 pictures are illustrations from 2 books namely, “Peranakan Chinese porcelain” by Kee Ming Yuet and “Straits Chinese porcelain” by Ho Wing Meng. 

Tea may reduce stroke risk

Drinking green or oolong tea consistently is linked to a significantly lower risk of Ischaemic stroke due to reduced blood flow to the brain.

Ischaemic stroke occurs when oxygen-delivering arteries in the brain become partially or completely blocked reducing the blood flow to the brain. Previous research has suggested that tea or its components might reduce high blood pressure and other risk factors.

To ascertain the relationship between drinking tea and risk of ischaemic stroke, researchers studied the tea drinking habits of 838 Chinese men and women, aged around 70 years. Information on frequency and duration of tea drinking, quantity of dried tea leaves, and types of tea consumed, together with habitual diet and lifestyle characteristics, was obtained from participants using a questionnaire.

Of all, 374 participants had a medically confirmed ischaemic stroke, and 464 (the "control" group) had no history of cardiovascular disease or medical conditions that raised their risk of stroke. The stroke group had a higher occurrence of elevated blood pressure, diabetes and smoking. The control group reported higher fruit and vegetable intake and a longer duration of tea drinking. 

The researchers also took into account gender, body mass, level of education, lifelong physical activity, smoking, alcohol intake, the presence of high blood pressure, cholesterol level, diabetes, and diet.

Those who reported drinking at least one cup of tea per week for more than 30 years had a 60 percent lower risk of ischaemic stroke. Those who drank more than 2 cups of tea daily had about a 40 percent lower risk of such strokes. The risks were even lower in those who drank green or oolong tea, a traditional Chinese tea. Those who drank green or oolong tea had 72 and 79 percent lower risk for ischaemic stroke, respectively. Using more tea leaves was associated with a 73 percent reduced risk of stroke.

The above findings are consistent with previous research from Japan that drinking tea cuts stroke risk. However, further investigations are needed to ascertain whether tea consumption can enhance survival of stroke patients.

 

Article from ndtv.com 28 Jul ‘09