Tea For The Special Occasion

 

Do you keep aside some tea for a special occasion? It could be a tea you especially like and this tea is now too expensive, hard to get or simply no longer available.

Many people celebrate milestones in their lives; like a birthday, graduation or buying a new house.....by eating or drinking something special.  It is common to see people popping a bottle of bubbly or having a party to celebrate such occasions.  

I keep some tea I liked for such occasions.  I would make a brew of these tea.  I do not consider these tea to be top grade or expensive tea  but I had purchased them some years ago and drinking these tea make me happy.  You will notice its not much tea.....I will simply replace them with some other tea when I have finished with this batch of special occasion tea. For me tea is meant to be appreciated and drank and not kept as a butterfly collection.   

What A Difference 17 Years Make

 

As I turned on my Spotify to listen to 'What a difference a day makes' by Dinah Washington and at the same time typing out this blog entry (that's multitasking for me), I am drinking a 17 year old 6 famous mountain raw pu erh.

17 years of storage is quite a long time.  Things were quite different ....... we were younger and I believed things were more simple.  This raw cake was produced in 2004 by an old factory called 6 famous mountains. Located in the Menghai region of Yunnan, this factory is a well known among pu erh tea drinkers. 

I remember having a sample of this tea many years back and it did not leave any buying impression to me.  I found this tea again in Singapore and the sampling session this time was a treat.  With 17 years of storage under its belt, this tea is simply smooth, mellow and sweet.  There are complications in taste and aroma that is only achieved through very long term storage.  Herbal, spicy, Chinese medicinal and dried floral notes with an ever so slightly lingering whiff of smoke.  Quietly intoxicating.  I find myself finishing a session of this tea very quickly. 

What a difference 17 years make.   

Aluminium Tea Trays

 

There are Chinese tea drinkers I know that do not like aluminium tea trays.  It is either you like it or you don't. Negative comments include 'it is so metallic' (yes, aluminium is metallic), 'its so shiny', 'wood trays are more classy and traditional' to 'its too cheap looking'.  

I happen to use and own one round aluminium tea tray that I use weekly when I brew tea in the kitchen.....and I had been using it for almost 10 years. I had no issues with it except now that the tea stains are now quite difficult to remove. 

As you can see from the pix, I had actually lined the replacements for my current aluminium tea tray in the event it broke (which is unlikely). I got myself a similar round one and a rectangular version. Both lids are removable and are easy to maintain. They can be washed with detergent can easily be kept away. 

I have to agree that the wood and stone tea trays are visually more attractive. Wooden ones may have a limited life span as the wood joints may deteriorate after long contact with water. The hardier stone trays may be a hassle to stow away especially if you need the tea brewing space for other activities. 

You can even dispense with the use of a tea tray.  All you need is a bigger tea waste bowl and careful pouring of your water and you can have a happy tea session without a tea tray. 

Tea trays are not expensive and one tray would last you quite a long time. Are you using one?

How Do I Brew My Oolong ?

 

When I have an oolong session at home (usually alone), I will literally brew up 5 infusions; one brew a cup.  I might brew up a few more infusions when I had finished drinking the 1st 5 cups.

It is, to me, an easy way to enjoy my tea.  When I am reading or working on my laptop, having a few cups of tea beside me is a good  idea.....it keeps me seated than making one infusion at a time. I do drink the tea fast, about 15-20 minutes. An oolong, like the one in the pix is generally good for about 5-6 infusions before the tea weaken in a hurry.

It is quite similar for pu erh tea.  I brew 5-6 cups at a go, one infusion per cup and repeat this brew for the next 6-12 cups.  It is quite difficult to drink so much tea alone, so I do sometimes keep the later infusions in a vacuum flask where I can enjoy the tea later or when I am out for errands.  

When I am in Guangzhou buying tea, I do ask for a small sample (after I had tried the tea in the shop) on those tea I am interested in and I brew the tea back in the hotel room.  It is not easy to assess the tea in a room but it helps me a little before I make a buying decision.  I do bring along a flask during my travels and get the tea shop to pour a couple of infusions into the flask so I can continue to 'drink' the tea I had shortlisted to buy.  

Readers will know me that I do not describe a tea by each and every infusions but rather by initial and ending thoughts.  I enjoy the complications of a tea, the aging results of storage and the pleasant sensations after finishing a tea session. 

Time for tea.  

Some Thoughts On Oolong storage

Storing your oolong would primarily depend on the roast levels of your oolong.  

1.  Lightly roasted oolong.  Some examples are Taiwan high mountain oolongs like Ali Shan oolong. I had also tried a very high grade (aka expensive ) Tie Kuan Yin from China which is also lightly roasted.  I liked these teas.  It has a refreshing quality, a nice bouquet of fresh flower aroma with a light lingering sweetness in the aftertaste.  

These tea are not meant for aging and need special attention in storing these tea.  Refrigeration is a commonly used to keep these tea.  I suspect the tea leaves may be placed in the freezer.  I had seen, when I was in the Guangzhou tea wholesale centres where high grade Long Qing tea was also kept in deep freezers to maintain the freshness of the tea.  

2.  Medium to high roasted oolong.  I recommend you store them in tea caddies.  The popular tinned versions are, to me, very nice oolongs and I keep them in their factory packed tins. Most of these tins are double lidded.  It is reasonable air tight. Many of these teas do well with age. They do not ferment like pu erh tea, rather oolong oxidised with time. Old high roasted oolong are very highly sought and are very expensive. Even the older canned versions can cost more than $100 per tin.

3. Specialty oolongs.  One of my fav specialty oolongs comes from Hong Kong. Its their 40-hr high roast oolong. The tea taste and aroma is a surprising caramel like. A super tea in my opinion. However, this tea is meant to be drank within a year as the roasted aroma will diminish significantly after a year.  Its a drink now tea.  In spite of its shorter life span, this is a popular tea among many oolong tea drinkers worldwide. I look forward to going to Hong Kong again to purchase this tea. I may consider freezing some of this tea when I return. 

Chinese New Year

 

Tomorrow is Chinese New Year.  This will be the year of the ox (niu in Chinese).  

Good news.  If you are buying tea from my online store.  You can now pay in your home currency, whether in Canadian, yen, aussie, won, euro or any currency. Just drop me a mail and I will send the paypal invoice in your preferred currency payment. 

To all my readers, Happy Niu Year.  Live long and prosper.  

A New Xiaguan

 

I had received a new (pack of 5 tuo) Xiaguan  during last Christmas tea exchange with a tea friend.  This is a 2020 production and I had broken up a tuo and started brewing this tea.  

These are my findings and thought about this new Xiaguan

a) Compression - this was a shocker.  I had expected breaking up a tuo would be tough: especially for a newer one.  It was a surprise that the compression was low.......I used a pu erh knife and broke up the entire tuo under a minute, and with little effort.  So easy.  

b) Taste and aroma - a drink-now tea.  No astringency, nothing rough or unpleasant about the tea.  The tea tasted fresh, almost like a good quality green tea.  It even reminded me a little of long-ching tea; there was a iittle nutty sweet aftertaste.  A sweet bouquet of fresh floral aroma with slightly sweet mouthfeel. The tea brews well giving about 8 good infusions.  

Teashops should be happy. This very inexpensive tea is an easy sell.  New puerh in the past was considered 'difficult to drink' and the tea should be kept for a few years so the tea would be less astringent and mellow.  Now, this tea is ready to drink; fresh and pleasant and even tasted much better than the Chinese tea offered in many Chinese restaurants.  You can now see and taste this 'new' tea phenomena with the popular pu erh tea factories and even from boutique producers.  I would even recommend serious tea drinkers to buy this inexpensive Xiaguan tuo and have a brew of this tea.

But I have a few concerns.  

Pu erh processing is as follows

= tea leaves are harvested

- tea leaves are laid out to dry (oxidation does take place)

- tea leaves are stir-fried (called kill green, stopping oxidation)

- leaves are then rolled (by hand or machine) for shaping

- tea leaves are dried (sun or machine drying)

- leaves are sorted and may be compressed

My concerns are that, even though the entire process of pu erh tea processing remains unchanged, It is my thought that the timing or duration of certain steps are altered, whether lengthening or shortening the time of a process step, that made the pu erh tea today different from tea from 'yesterday'.  Will this new pu erh tea age well?  I do not know. We will find out in 8-10 years time, as many such tea would have aged by then.

Pu erh tea, to me should be drunk when it is old .  Pu erh tea must have some age and with good storage, the tea will have delightful complications in both taste and aroma.  There is an added dimension to the tea once you drink an aged tea.  When you buy an older tea, you are buying the tea and you are buying the storage.  How much weightage do you give to storage when you assess a 10 year old tea.  How about a 20 year old tea?  Generally, well stored old pu erh are highly sought after and you can see the higher prices of these tea as well.  Storing a pu erh tea for more than 10 years or more is very challenging as it takes up real estate space and you have to monitor the storage with  higher vigilance especially if you are residing in a temperate country.  

When I am on a pu erh buying trip (I have too much already though), I will continue buying the older production ones for the reasons above.  

Your thoughts please.