fannings aren't always teadust

I'm not a Pu-erh drinker. Not that I have anything against Pu-erh. I'd like to be one. I've certainly drunk it, and I'm always looking for more, but it's one of those few sorts of tea that I've read a lot about and I just don't have enough direct experience with it.

When I first discovered this stuff, I'd read about decades-old cakes that were worth thousands of dollars/euros. So for a while I thought this tea was just out of my price range. There's reasonably priced Pu-erh out there. You needn't start with the most expensive stuff. Actually, I've read that not knowing more about this tea can actually make an amateur more easily duped to believe a highly-priced cake is more rare or more valuable than it really is.

I researched buying this tea with trepidation. Seemed like the whole ordeal was going to be a bit of a minefield. Where to start?

Well, when I was going through the Upton Tea website I came upon this.

It's almost as this blurb was written for me and those of my ilk. And I quote directly: A flavorful Pu-Erh offering suited for those who want a quality, flavorful infusion at a modest price. That's me-that's me.

So the only thing that's worse than ordering tea that you really don't like is getting a tea like this that you like so much. What? Are you really complaining about liking a tea too much? Well yes, actually I am.

The idea of fannings made me nervous. When people complain about teabags, they often say that the teabags were filled with teadust or fannings. I thought these were synonyms.

In the case of this tea, this is definitely not teadust. There's a fermented taste to the cup, and the colour is as dark brown as a cup of coffee. And strong, too. There's no doubt that this tea packs a punch.

Like I say, as good as this experience is, it makes me a bit nervous that I'm getting to the end of my supply. I guess this is a problem I'm grateful to have.

tea that flowers

I've made a point of including topical events in this blog. I continue to believe that anyone can write a blog entirely about tea, but my challenge has been to write about other things going on in the world and their thin or even questionably-existent connection to tea.

So, the Indy 500 is this weekend. I suspect some of the people sitting in their lawn chairs near the Indianapolis Motor Speedway are drinking tea. Not very many, but I could wax poetic about what the perfect tea for such a situation might be.

We also have the Champions League Final this weekend, and like last year, I could watch the match and ponder which tea I might serve each player as they play well or poorly. In addition to that exercise, I described a little about what the Champions League is in Tea Voodoo.

But instead, I'm going to do a very typical teablog post. When we were trading tea a while back, Neil from Neil's Yard gave me a few samples of flowering tea from Canton Tea Co, and I'm only now getting round to trying it. The way the company describes it is quite informative, so check it out here.


It's what they call Golden Glow Flowering Tea, and I felt a bit like the whole ordeal was like a science experiment. You start out with a little wound-up ball of what they apparently want you to believe is tea.




The crucial piece of information is to use hot but not boiling water. Sure enough after just a few moments in the water, the little bulb opened up to show a concoction of flowers and white tea leaves (See the photo at the top of the blogpost). If you see Silver Needle Tea for the first time, you know immediately where it got its name.

I should've stated at the outset that I'm not big on white tea. For a long time, I'd drink it before I went to bed. Later I found out that some white tea has plenty of caffeine. Just because the taste is subtle definitely does not mean that the tea is weak or caffeine free.

So what did I think of this flowering tea? It was tasty, but not overly so. The aesthetic of the flowers were really nice, and I can see why the company advertises that this is a nice idea for a gift. While I was drinking the first cup, I should've poured the second cup out of the glass. Because I waited, that second cup was overly strong. It was a perfect example of why one shouldn't over-brew a tea.

Although this isn't a tea I'd drink everyday, I can certainly see myself serving this to guests who find my everyday black tea to be too bitter. Light and delicate flavours that would be a nice tea after a meal. Either served with dessert or in place of it entirely.

planning to host fellow tea obsessives

This week I found out that a fellow tea obsessive that I met through twitter will be visiting Munich this summer. Actually a couple of tea obesessives. Should be quite the experience. Am already pondering where to take them for tea.

I go on and on about the meagre opportunities for decent tea drinking here in this city, but we do have tea shops/tearooms and I honestly can't wait to show these places off.

My visitors are already very familiar with the city of Munich, but in Southern Germany the people are much better known for their Kaffee und Kuchen (coffee and cake) than they are for their knowledge of tea and tea drinking. This is slowly changing. We have a budding tea culture.



There's the Tushita Teehaus, which I wrote about in a general sense of well-being, and then even closer is the Laifufu Teesalon, which I wrote about in Oolong Nirvana in the Next Street Over. (pictured on the left)






There's a very British place, which I'll talk about another time, where we could have cream tea, and if we're really ready to throw caution to the wind, there's always Afternoon Tea at Die Vierjahreszeiten (The Four Seasons).



So there's no reason for me to get overly excited just yet. Still have to wait several months for the opening ceremonies, but just going through our options for tea in Munich is making me thirsty.

my last tea

I made a mockery of my blog this weekend. I don't mind admitting it. Got caught up in the swell of emotion and ridicule that was The Rapture of 2011. I really couldn't help myself. Ok, I could've. But I didn't want to.

But what if I really only had time for one more tea? I'm not taking the above-mentioned Rapture even remotely seriously, but I am using the event as an opportunity to play with this hypothetical. One more tea? Really.

Not my best tea. I couldn't even begin to decide what that would be. But the last tea. How would I usher myself on the way out of mortality?

So here's my Alishan Zhu Lu Oolong and the precious tiny rolled leaves. I wrote about it here in the dead of winter. It's the kind of tea that just gets better and better.







I write mostly about black tea here. And I like to encourage people curious about tea to take a deeper dive. To come a bit farther in and not be daunted by the obsessiveness of some of us tea people. But there's a reason so many tea bloggers and tea experts get so excited about High Mountain Oolong from Taiwan. I assure you that if I could only have one more tea, this wouldn't be a bad choice. If nothing else, I could drag the time out by infusing it again and again and again.




And here are the leaves after multiple infusions (I didn't count). I wish they'd actually gone through with the invention of smell-o-vision, and you could actually smell these leaves? They're delicious.

Rapture tea

Last year, I live blogged what sort of tea I would serve each of the players in the Champion's League Final. You can see it here: Tea voodoo.

So, I joked about it earlier in the week, but this blog is anything if not topical. What sort of tea should we serve for the Rapture? Now, I'd normally avoid any sort of religious topic on a tea blog. I'd like to do anything to avoid any sort of controversy, and religion will certainly send us down that road more quickly than almost anything else.

But having said all that, what sort of tea would be perfect for just this event. I did only the briefest of research on what specifically the Rapture actually meant. I'm sure I could find plenty more about this, but for our purposes, Wikipedia will be more than enough of an authority.

And I quote: 'Some Dispensationalist Premillennialists (including many Evangelicals) hold the return of Christ to be two distinct events or one second coming in two stages. 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 is seen to be a preliminary event to the return described in Matthew 24:29-31. Although both describe a return of Jesus, these are seen to be separated in time by more than a brief period. The first event may or may not be seen (which is not a primary issue), and is called the rapture, when the saved are to be 'caught up,' from whence the term rapture is taken. The 'second coming' is the public event when Christ's presence is prophesied to be clearly seen as he returns to end a battle staged at Armageddon...'(my parentheses)

So here's my point. All over twitter and throughout the internet people are joking about this Rapture. These people who're getting so much mileage out of this are clearly not in the crowd who're going to be 'caught up' and carried off. It's the doubters among us who're going to be sitting round and not seeing anything.

What sort of tea do we need for just this sort of event? Here's my scenario: I brew up a pot of my darkest Assam, and go sit on my terrace. Looking out over the sky above Munich (with the Olympic Tower in the distance) nothing happens. At least nothing as far as I can see.

I read somewhere that the optimum place for those who really believe this is happening is on a mountain in the French Alps. The citizens and authorities of the nearest village are purportedly less than impressed with the pilgrims who're making their way to this mountain. While they're being carried off, I'll be sipping my Assam on my terrace.

See you on the other side.

*sip*

diplomatic license at Tea Embassy

The Tea Embassy

Wanted to write about this fantastic tea shop in downtown Austin, but was waiting until I had a reason. Now I have a reason. Recently served tea to a friend. Many times I've said that drinking tea with milk and/or sugar is one way to get into tea, but if you want to really taste the tea you have to drink it black. I still drink tea of questionable quality with a bit of cream, but that's because I'm masking the taste.

So my friend normally drinks her tea with milk and sugar. Despite all of my protests. Oh well. But I still take every opportunity to foist unadulterated tea on her. Normally to no avail.

But this time was different. I'd never heard of Jaimisi black, but I tend to focus my attention on black teas. Am always looking for teas from exotic locales such as Kenya or Indonesia or wherever. But here's a sort of Indian black tea that I didn't know existed.

It's a simple black tea. I'd even say it's a nice daily tea. But the best part? It tastes fantastic without adding anything. Anything at all. I handed her the mug, she sniffed it and said it smelled good. But she wasn't planning on drinking that dark unsweetened liquor until I prodded her and said, 'Come on. It's good enough as it is.'

Hesitantly, she sipped at it and then drank a bit more. 'Wow, that's ok. That's really quite good.' And what about me. I started to worry she was going to finish all of it. It was all I had left.

layers of leftover tea

See that orange flask over on the right there? Got back last weekend from several weeks on the road, and that flask served me well. Quite well.

There was a patina left over from all that tea, and I was faced with a dilemma. Many people believe you never clean a teapot. That the caked on remains of earlier tea supposedly enhances your newly brewed tea. Ok, I'm still undecided on this, but that's a teapot. What about a thermos? Is it the same thing?

I've used different products on the German market and good old vinegar is sometimes the most effective at taking away the old tea. But once again, is cleaning my teapot or my flask actually hurting the taste of my tea?

Do you clean your teapot? With what?