A Tea Addict's Journal

Taiwan miscellany

August 9, 2007 · 7 Comments

I’m quite jet-lagged, so I’ll keep this one simple.

In the 48 hours since I got here, Taiwan has had two typhoons pass through it. This morning when I was brewing the Meghma oolong again after reading Mary R’s notes on it, using lower temperature, I felt the earth shake a little. No, it wasn’t the tea. It’s a reminder for somebody like me, whose last experience with tectonic plates moving was more than a decade ago, that I live in an area where this sort of thing happens.

Unfortunately, lowering the temperature of the water did not significantly change the tea. It did lower the bitterness, but I still feel it’s mostly Yunnan gold like taste to me. Maybe it wasn’t low enough? But I already left the water out for a good bit and the cup certainly wasn’t blisteringly hot.

I have a feeling that until I get my teaware back from Hong Kong, I’ll be stuck with drinking random things in a cup for the next few days…

Categories: Old Xanga posts · Teas
Tagged:

7 responses so far ↓

  • Anonymous // August 9, 2007 at 1:56 pm | Reply

    Hm. That’s a shame. It did seem almost like a whole different tea when I brewed it low–very honey-like. Ah well. I liked it enough to decide to follow this estate for the next few years.

    In an unrelated note, I have a question for you. Brent of ‘Tea Nerd’ and I were discussing the Kashanganj Snowbud yesterday, which led to a discussion of Snowbud in general. We realized that neither he nor I knew if it was a traditional Chinese tea or some sort of modern creation. When we tried to research Chinese white teas, all the information we can find makes it seem as though it’s a genre firmly split into two groups, Bai Hao Yinzhen and Bai Mu Dan. Do you have any insight as to how the Snowbud teas came to be and what distinguishes them from the other whites?

  • MarshalN // August 9, 2007 at 9:33 pm | Reply

    Snow bud — I thought this is an Indian white tea?

    There’s a “snow bud” in Chinese tea (actually, more than one) but from what I know they’re green tea, not white.  White teas are basically going to be of the Yinzhen variety (Zhenghe or Junshan being the usual suspects) and Baimudan of some kind.  Baimudan is generally lower grade, afaik, but I actually like those better.  They can also be called Shoumei (sometimes spelled sowmee, or some variation thereof).  That’s how they’re generally referred to when you go to a Cantonese dim sum place and you want white tea.

  • Anonymous // August 10, 2007 at 2:49 am | Reply

    Glad you made it home. Hong Kong closed its Taiwan flights for a day.
    I’ve never had any luck using low(er) the water temperature to encourage a tea to perform.
    The basic characteristics are well established before we get it. Hope your teawrae finds its way home soon .. regards john

  • Phyllo // August 10, 2007 at 5:42 am | Reply

    What freak coincidences! Jakarta and LA and Taiwan all had an earthquake within a short time difference (days).  I felt the earth moved yesterday night…it was a 4.5 on the Richter scale.

  • MarshalN // August 10, 2007 at 7:10 am | Reply

    Yeah, I read about the LA one, didn’t know about Jarkata.  The one here was in Taitung, apparently — and it was a 5.7, which is pretty high, actually, for a small quake.

  • Anonymous // August 10, 2007 at 2:34 pm | Reply

    Thanks for the clarification!

    Now I have to apologize for confusing you. The Kashanganj is indeed and Indian tea. Brent and I were comparing it to the Chinese Fujian varieties also known as Snowbud. Sorry!

  • ankitlochan // August 11, 2007 at 7:28 am | Reply

    hi!

    this indian white tea actually hails from doke organic farm – http://www.doketea.com , a pure white tea producing estate.

    more details about this tea can be found on their website.

    regards

    ankit

Leave a Comment