drinking tea that I can reach

Maybe I'll live here for a while

Am living out of suitcases right now while I search for a new flat, which means the contents of my tea cupboard is in my rucksack and in various boxes that're either strewn about the hotel room I'm in or in my friend Wolfgang's extra room.

Under normal circumstances, I think a lot about what the ideal tea is for this or that situation. Lately, I've simply grabbed the nearest sack of tea and brewed up. Sometimes, it's been the dregs of a shipment of Assam Mangalam, which is one of my favourite teas to drink in the morning or other times it's been the Ambagastowa Ceylon, which I got from a new supplier in Reutlingen (Spezialitäten-Compagnie).

However, what I've been a bit surprised at is that I keep reaching for really excellent Darjeeling. I should blog about each of these teas in detail, but I don't have the time for that at the moment. As it is, I found in the past that when the weather was cold and snowy, I didn't avoid tea from Darjeeling, but I didn't gravitate toward it, either.

While I was in Hamburg a few months ago, I got a few really nice Darjeelings from both Teehaus Shila and the first tea shop I used when I got into drinking this stuff in earnest - Claus Kröger.

It's very unlikely that I'll do a traditional tea review of any of these teas (I've simply decided not to waste my time with that ridiculousness anymore), but I do hope one of my upcoming posts can go into more detail about these particular teas. If I'd like to get back into the habit of posting here on my teablog, I could do with a topic or two that I'm passionate about.

Darjeeling tea has never done me wrong on that front. 

1st annual Tea Trade gathering

Although we'd met separately over the weekend, the whole gang finally got together on Sunday afternoon and we went through a nice selection of tea. There was a wonderful surprise organised by Robert, and he wrote about it over at It’s a mad, mad world…








The other not necessarily tea-related surprise was that I invited my bass player friend Jarrod, about whom I've written here periodically, and we started the afternoon out by playing some of my tunes and some lesser-known covers. It hadn't been announced, and the music was well received.

Jarrod was interrogated at the beginning of the festivities about whether he even drank tea, but I quickly assured everyone that he was one of the people I'd lured partially over to the leaf-side. Many of my tea-related experiments have first been tried on Jarrod before I've launched them on the general public. He seems no worse for wear.




Before anyone arrived, I'd brewed the Gu Zhang Mao Jian that I wrote about in yesterday's post, as well as some Nilgiri Thiashola 'Carrington'. Both got nice comments, but the Nilgiri especially seemed to impress. I wrote about it in tea choices for marauding teenagers or Zombie Apocalypse, but you have to read through to near the end of the blogpost to get to the part about the Nilgiri.




In addition to the strong black and earthy green, I wanted to have a decent Darjeeling to offer people as they arrived, so I chose a first flush from the Snowview Estate. Although it's a tea from 2010, it's still remarkably crisp and fresh.

But because the darker tea got such a good reception, I decided to make a strong but not too malty/bitter Assam. I'd written quite a bit about Assam Mangalam, so I decided now was my change to showcase it. If you look in the comments to my blogpost Waking up in Mangalam, you can see what interesting things Jackie found out about this estate and their distinctive clonal Assam. Here's the best part:

From Steepster:
“The Mangalam tea estate is named after Kumar Mangalam Birla, once the son of the estate’s owners and now one of its managers. The estate is owned by Jayshree Tea & Industries, a large company that incorporated in 1945. Jayshree is heralded in the Orthodox world for its special clones that produce a big golden leaf tip, which no one is able to replicate, making Jayshree Assams easily identifiable.”

I couldn't miss an oppurtunity to serve some Flugtee, so I brewed a pot of this year's Singell Darjeeling first flush. From my perspective, this was probably the best tea served today and it certainly got the praise it deserved. One person who nearly always drinks any black tea with milk said that this was the first tea she'd had that was just fine all on its own. That alone made my day.


As good as the tea was to be, the quality of the cake was of extreme importance. Jackie made it clear that good cake was absolutely essential. From what I could tell, she was anything but disappointed.







As people started getting ready to leave I quickly started brewing multiple infusions of my nicest high mountain Oolong from Taiwan. It's called Alishan Zhu Lu Oolong and it really was the perfect tea to wrap up an enjoyable afternoon. Even after six infusions, the taste was vibrant and blooming. No wonder many serious teabloggers spend so much time talking about high mountain Oolongs.

The weekend has been fantastic, and I can only hope we actually do another annual gathering. Maybe Adelaide next year? Or everyone make a pilgrimage to the Chicago Tea Gardens? I'm sure we can find a place centrally located.



Here's yours truly, Jackie, Peter, Sheila, Sabine and Xavier. We were too busy drinking tea and listening to music to take a lot of photos, but there were a few.

a Tea Manifesto

Since the madness in and near Oslo occurred last week, it’s been hard to avoid details of the meticulous organisation of the murderer. We’ve even been shown his manifesto that he released explaining his reasons as well as his regimen of precautions and planning. My first thought was, ‘Wait, does everybody have a manifesto? Is this some sort of requirement of living in modern society?’

So I’ve been trying to devise my Tea Manifesto, and I need a little help. Truly. There’s the obvious stuff about loose-leaf tea rather than bagged. And the whole idea of not selling tea as Darjeeling if it wasn’t, in fact, grown in Darjeeling. Those are pretty straight forward. And at least fellow tea obsessives will in all likelihood be on board with such things. But what else? What else belongs in a Tea Manifesto?

Here’s the problem I found as I tried to come up with a list of platitudes and guidelines: it doesn’t seem like it’ll be easy for me to get terribly rigid about my beliefs here. Something about all this tea drinking that necessitates that I be a bit forgiving if someone doesn’t do things exactly as I expect or demand.

Maybe if it were a Whiskey Manifesto, I could get blustery and radical. And after a pot of coffee, I could imagine my heart-rate boiling and my thoughts turning to a bit of revolution fomenting. But here I’ve just finished a nice day of reading and walking in the park and then more reading. It was all fuelled by pot after pot of delicious tea.

First a bit of Assam Mangalam, then onto some Ceylon Nuwara. After being outside, I turned to a bit of first flush Snowview Darjeeling. It was so good, I infused it once more. There’s another possibility for my manifesto…don’t throw away leaves that’ve only been used once. Some tea really is excellent he second time around.

What do you think? What belongs in my Tea Manifesto? Need your help with this. Desperately. Unfortunately, I’m just a bit too measured in my rabble rousing.

a selection of malty and not so malty Assam

Now that I have my sense of taste back, I've been drinking quite a lot of Assam. I go through phases where I really focus in on one tea that I like at the moment, but several months ago I ordered multiple sorts of Assam from Claus Kröger in Hamburg.

Here's a link to the selection he has on offer: Schwarzer Tee Assam

So rather than sit down and do a traditional tea note on each of these that I like, which I still may do at a later date, I've been brewing two or even three of these teas side by side and then drinking them without a lot of fuss throughout the morning. I love the smell of the Assam Sephinjuri tea before it's brewed. That smell doesn't necessarily come out in the taste of the tea, but it's still a delicious tea.

Since I'm often brewing the tea on my own (without fellow tea drinkers), it's not so easy for me to do some sort of blind taste test of the different teas. In addition, I'm getting to know the tastes well enough that I very likely could tell you which is which even if someone were to hand me a cup without telling me what it was.

But I've been wondering about the cost and whether the more expensive tea is really noticeably better. Going simply by price, the above-mentioned Sephinjuri must be a simple, unassuming tea. Like I say, I find it delicious. Why is it so much more economical? I'm not complaining. When I think back on some of the tea shops I visited in the US and their prices for an ounce of simple black tea, these prices are truly a steal.

Is the Assam Mangalam really that much better? The tips of the leaves are definitely a beautiful golden brown. The smell of both the leaves and the brewed tea are both extraordinary. No doubt about that.

But is my opinion somehow swayed by how much more expensive this second tea is? I guess that's human nature, isn't it? If a tea costs more, it must be of greater value. Right?

I'm probably opening up a topic that we as the end users can hardly begin to comprehend. But I am curious about it. Not only why tea costs what it does, but what factors make different tea from the same region so varied in price? As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Am sure it's not the last time I'll be pondering this.

Waking up in Mangalam

Ordered a selection of Ceylon and Assam tea that I started my blog with last year. I want to see how my tastes have changed, and find out specifically what I still like about these very traditional black teas. Am also excited to exhibit some of the research skills that I've honed in the last year.

The first tea I'd like to reintroduce is Assam Mangalam. This is an excellent Assam with plenty of golden tips. Although it has a typical malty taste, this tea is absolutely not bitter.

Everything I read about the estate is incredibly laudatory. I plan to dig deeper and find out more about its history. No matter how much I enjoy learning about green and Oolong, there's nothing better to start my day than a strong cup of Assam.

So I'm imagining where these tea leaves were grown. The care that was put into growing and processing them. A part of me is falling asleep tonight wondering what it'd be like to wake up on the tea estate. I'm already there in my dreams. Put on your seat belts...this is going to be an eventful ride.

Tea in rough waters

Have had a decent day today. Stressful, but all of what was thrown at me, I dealt with relatively well. To what do I attribute my ability to deal?

Well, tea obviously.

That's a bit of an exaggeration, but only a bit. I dealt with a frustrated client early this morning, and while I calmly explained how I could help him solve his problem, I was sipping on a Ceylon Nuwara.

Then packed up my tea in my bag that I take on the train, and went to an appointment with a client who's not yet paid me for work I did in March. Was still very calm. Somehow. And while I was talking to him, there was Assam Sephinjuri coursing through my veins.

Taught a class to a group of lawyers, while I polished off the Assam, and grabbed a Chai from an evil corporate coffee shop, who I've mentioned before but won't name again.

But the real stress of the day occurred when I got home for lunch and there were multiple emergencies (personal and business-related). I was drinking Jun Chiyabari Oolong at this point, and I assure you it helped.

Now, I'm off to proctor a test that I spent a good deal of the weekend preparing, and I've packed a thermos of Assam Mangalam, as well as a travel mug with China Wu Lu green tea in it.

Am sure I'll be fine the rest of the day. Am even rather certain that the evening will be ok.

Questions? Tea tasting in Dießen am Ammersee

Took a daytrip towards the mountains yesterday and stopped halfway there at the Ammer Lake in Upper Bavaria. Had packed map, dogs and tea into J’s car and we were off. Once we got there, it was unbearably cold by the water, so we sat in the car and did a comparison of the two Assams I’d brought along.

He asked me a few things on our drive. I’ll answer what I can right now, and find out the rest and post it here when I know it. He says he's heard to rinse the pot with boiling water before preparing the tea. Right?

Definitely. I used to think this was ridiculous and still don’t bother doing it with green or white tea. I’m convinced when it comes to black tea, though. It has to be steeped as HOT as possible. Some call it a rolling boil. So preheat your pot with boiling water, before you pour rolling, boiling water over the tea (Sounds like a Sousa March, eh? The March of the Rolling, Boiling Tea).

Next question: how long? This one is embarrassing for me because I was one of those people who told myself I like strong tea, so I’ll steep it a long, long time. Truth is that this doesn’t make the tea stronger. Instead, it only makes it bitter. Here, I have to plead ignorance and say that I was misled by a friend in Hertfordshire. Whenever I visit him, I watch him drop a bag of Tips in his large mug and let it stay in there for ten minutes (or more). I thought 10 plus minutes was normal for black tea. It’s not.

Four to Five minutes (closer to four) is best for most black teas. Anything more and you’re not getting stronger tea. Bitter tea isn’t stronger.

As for our taste test? We compared Assam Mangalam and Assam Khongea. To us, they were both perfect for the blustery weather, but indistinguishable. Guess I need to drink more tea to be able to make that comparison.

The photo is of the little tea shop near the station in Dießen am Ammersee. It was closed. It was Sunday, after all.