A Tea Addict's Journal

Tea can be sour.

Yes, some teas turn out sour. They are usually the heavily fired kind, in this case, a tieguanyin from Taiwan.

As I’ve said a few days ago, teas from Taiwan tend to be thin. Tieguanyin made in Taiwan also tend to be heavily fired. My suspicion is that they simply can’t get it to taste nearly as good as the Fujian tieguanyin when they do it qingxiang (which literally means “clear fragrance”) so instead they fire it heavily, making the tea leaves exhibit a reddish brown colour, and the tea will come out tasting very strong, often a bit bitter, and in some cases, sour.

It’s not really supposed to be sour. Generally speaking, a sour tea is not a good tea. This somewhat sour tea that I drank today really ought to be brewed with less leaves, but it was the leftover bits (the last batch) which means that it’s not enough for two sittings, but too much for one. I’d rather have too much for one than not enough (i.e. weak tea) for two. And it came out sour.

A tea fanatic I’ve met at a teashop in Hong Kong has told me that one reason why the Taiwan teas are sour when they are heavily fired is that because Taiwan teas, unlike mainland ones, are rolled more tightly. When they are rolled tightly, and fired, the uneveness of the firing and the difficulty to penetrate the center of the leaves makes it sour because of the temperature differences. I’m not sure if she’s right, but she does know her tea really well and is very generous with sharing. I suppose I wouldn’t find out if it’s true or not easily, if ever, but I tend to trust her on these things. Of course, it helps that she’s let me tried some of her awesome Puerh that are now something along the lines of $1,000+ per cake (330g a cake, you do the math).

Yum, the mediocrity of Tealuxe tea (Puttabong 1st flush Darjeeling).

Tealuxe used to be a great joint, providing a fabulous array of teas for your consumption. At a time when you can barely find a place that serves anything other than Twinings teabags, it was a real blessing. I remember the first time I went in, I was rather impressed. They had many varieties of teas available, including some stuff that you’ll never find in the States. I remember they had a Biluochun. Not necessarily the best Biluochun, but a good one nontheless. Their loose-leaf tea was always a bit pricey, and I mainly just bought their to-go tea when I needed a fix on the go. It serves its purpose.

Alas, those days are gone.

At one point they had quite a few branches, even one in NYC near Columbia. I think they probably overexpanded and their cost structure was out of whack with the revenue they were pulling in. Since then they have obviously tried to cut cost by slashing the varieties of tea that they sell, as well as the branches they have. No more free cups of tea when you’ve bought ten, and no more lots-of-variety either. It is also obvious that for the teas that they do sell, quality has gone down a little. I remember their 165 (Competition Tieguanyin) used to be ok, but now it’s, well, neither here nor there. The price is still the sakme, but the stuff you get isn’t as good.

I still go, mostly because of caffeine need more than anything else. Despite my tag line, I am also addicted to caffeine. Having to be away from tea for a whole day means a nasty headache at 3am. I’m not gona subject myself to that again, ugh.

Today I decided to go with the tieguanyin from Upton again. Last time I felt that I didn’t get a good taste out of it because one of the packs were unsealed, so perhaps the tea got compromised. I used two packs again (at this rate it’ll be gone pretty fast!), and I used my pot this time instead of the gaiwan.

The tea tastes good!! Although it’s not the best tieguanyin I’ve had, it’s really rather good for what it’s worth. The aftertaste is strong, and this time less bitter than last. The signature tieguanyin taste is very present and up front, and it envelopes your mouth after you’ve gulped it down. The tea is “thick” and coats the cup well. I’m really quite liking it. In case you’re wondering, they call it the Floral Tieguanyin, but as far as I can tell, no funny business with flowers in the tea.

Maybe it also helped that I changed the core of my water filter. I use a PUR filter, which so far has served me pretty well. I used to use a Brita, but I’ve found the PUR has water coming out tasting better, with a sweet taste to it. I think it does filter better than your regular Brita. Maybe that has something to do with the tea tasting good, hmmm.

Either way though, I’d heartily recommend it for someone who wants to try a decent tieguanyin. It’s not that cheap, but it’s not bad either (at Tealuxe prices, this is still cheaper than their exotic grade — and this is far better than Tealuxe tieguanyin!).

Today was another nasty day, with heavy rain in the late afternoon. I got home early, and decided to drink some oolong I got from Taiwan during the summer.

Taiwanese oolong is an interesting tea. First of all, they are usually very specific as to where the tea is produced. This one I am drinking today is from Lishan (or Pear Mountain, literally). For the most part, it is a good thing that they identify the tea very specifically by where it was produced. It makes it possible to sort of know beforehand what kind of tea it is.

Taiwanese oolong, in general, is very fragrant, rather vegetal in taste, and brews lightly with a green/yellow liquor. Now, different mountains do have different tastes, and Lishan, for example, tends to be even lighter and more fragrant than your usual Taiwanese oolong. Unfortunately, of course, not every tea labeled from a certain place is going to be exactly from there — there are variations too, since something planted at the foot of the mountain and at the top of the mountain can all be called Lishan tea (or Dong Ding, or whatever). For that, you have to have had some good/bad ones before and have some basis for comparison. That’s not always possible.

Taiwanese oolong sold in the States generally are very stereotypically Taiwanese — fragrant but light. Sometimes though I’ve had some pretty dubious ones that are stronger in taste, although sometimes that’s due to poor storage (or just long term storage) rather than the tea itself being problematic. It is a great tea to introduce someone to finer teas, since it smells really nice, looks really nice, and initially, tastes really nice.

One problem with Taiwanese oolongs in general, however, is that since they are light, the body of the tea is very “thin” and there is scarcely any aftertaste. As soon as you gulp it down, the taste starts disappearing and it goes away pretty quickly. I know some people who don’t drink any Taiwan tea precisely because of this — there’s no follow up to the initial fragrance, which makes the tea a bit of a let down. I can sympathize, but at the same time, it is a great tea to have around for guests and if it is a good one, it can always impress people.

When I first started drinking tea it was difficult to tell the real difference between qingxiang tieguanyin and Taiwan oolong, simply because they look so similar and are both high in fragrance. The main way I use to tell is the body/aftertaste. A good tieguanyin should be very strong in those areas, whereas the Taiwanese tea is not. After a while, I also remembered what kind of taste each particular type of tea is, but once in a while, you have mainland tea farms producing tieguanyin using a somewhat Taiwan style method, which can really mess up your identification. Those are when the experts are needed and I’m not always good about telling them apart. Sigh, lots to learn.

I really should buy a oolong teapot though. Next year when I (hopefully) go to Taiwan to do research, I’ll be drinking it day in, day out (ugh) and I should really put all that tea to good use by dunking it all in a teapot instead of wasting it.

I am a bad boy. I drank tea twice today.

It’s rare for me to do so, since I normally drink by myself and drinking two rounds means a significant consumption of caffeine. I usually get pretty buzzed when I do that, and I certainly was buzzed when I headed out for dinner tonight.

I had a white tea — as they’re all called White Peony, the name doens’t tell you much. The tea is not the broken leaves kind, but rather close to the Yinzhen style white tea. The great thing about white tea is that as long as it’s of ok quality, it’s fairly consistent (so long as you drink it fast) and they’re rarely expensive. The bad thing is that they are also rather boring and can get very stale after a while — they always taste the same.

It’s also a rather warm tea, as it is actually processed by a slower method than green tea, which gets dried in a very hot pan. White tea is always a little warming, which is nice.

One more thing — white tea is great when you go to a Chinese restaurant. The reason is this — if you order something like Puerh, you really have no clue how long and, most importantly, WHERE that Puerh has been. The Puerh can be sitting on the kitchen floor with rats running over it, and it’ll still taste ok. The white tea, however, will taste like absolute crap if it’s been maltreated. So they tend to keep it well, and you are assured of a cleaner tea. Something to keep in mind!

Today’s a nasty day with rain outside, and I had to get up early to show a video to my class (and I realized that it’s a silly idea to show a video at 9am, won’t do it again).

To reward myself, I came home early to brew some tea. I couldn’t really decide on what to brew, but I thought since I got some new qingxiang tieguanyin, I should finish off my old stash, which is getting close to a year old now and still not done. I got this stuff in San Francisco’s Chinatown (no, not at the Imperial Tea Court). It’s not too bad for the price I paid, which was fairly reasonable. Qingxiang tieguanyin is actually a favourite of mine, but it’s hard to get good ones and it does get boring after a while.

Anyway, here are some pics

The tea itself

My qingxiang tieguanyin pot, and this is definitely my favourite pot 🙂

The finished product

The tea I got from Upton is actually somewhat better, I think, although since it’s fresher, that should really come as no surprise. This one is now a little flat and losing some flavour. Oh well, that’s what happens when you put it away too long and not finish it quickly. With a lighter flavoured tea like this, you really have to consume them fast or the flavour goes away. That’s one great thing about Puerh — no expiration date.

Well, today was filled with things to do outside the house (first day of classes) so … I didn’t have time to make tea at home. Sigh, the beginning of the semester means that I won’t have nearly as much chance to drink tea at home as I did during reading period/finals/intersession. Oh well.

I ended up buying a cup of tea at Peet’s. It was their Darjeeling Extra Fancy Kalimpong. I don’t know where Kalimpong is, so I presume it’s some tea estate or another. It IS loose leaf, and it IS, as is usually the case when you buy tea from these places, expensive and somewhat mediocre.

A really good Darjeeling, in my personal opinion anyway, should be astringent but brews a golden brown colour, not too dark (and not too much tea leaves) with a little of what we call a “return sweetness” in the end. I like first flush more than second flush, but nowadays they come out with all sorts of weird Darjeelings that imitate green or white teas, which can produce varying results. This Darjeeling is not bad, but then, it’s not great either. I’ve had better than are both more fragrant and more flavourful.

The problem with buying a cup of tea at these places is usually that the amount of tea they put in can vary very considerably. Not only that, if you buy a Puerh from them they will never wash the tea, if you buy a white tea they will almost always brew it with water that’s too hot, and if you buy an oolong/tieguanyin they are very likely to put an insufficient amount of leaves in. It is annoying, and once in a while they even give you the wrong tea (I’ve been given a Chinese green tea before when I asked for a Darjeeling, go figure). Generally the people who work at these places, even at Tealuxe, have very little idea of the kind of tea they are actually selling. I’ve once heard from a guy at Tealuxe saying that their Genmai Cha is Dragonwell based. Well, what kind of Dragonwell? Not to mention that Dragonwell is unlikely to be used in any real Genmai Cha since Genmai Cha is, well, Japanese. Who knows, maybe they really do, but given how terrible their Dragonwell is, I don’t know about that Genmai Cha…

Another day, another cup (last night I got home late and ended up doing the leaves-in-a-cup thing, yes, I deserve to die for that). Today, another Puerh. This one though is something I got from Hong Kong. It is from a teashop called Sunsing. They’re not the best tea shop in Hong Kong, and the guy who served me was actually rather dismissive (another rant for another day). However, they do sell decent Puerh there, and this one I got is a loose leave Puerh

No flash, pretty close to actual colour I’m seeing

This is my Puerh pot

Anyway, so this is what I’m having today. It wasn’t exactly cheap, but when I saw it in the teashop it looked really good, and I had a taste of a leftover brew (something like 7-th brew, perhaps) and it tasted quite nice even then. I decided to get an ounce, most of which is what you see in the first pic.

The tea leaves smell like nothing, as one would expect of an old aged Puerh that’s well kept (it really shouldn’t smell very strong of anything at all). The tea brews a dark brown, almost black, but not pitch black like the other one I had from Upton.

Taste — very nice, slightly biting entrance, with a decent astringency and a good aroma coming from it. The lingering smell in the cup is that of spices — at least for the first 3 brews or so, that’s the case. Now that I’m on my 5th brew, it changed a bit into a more mellow smell, but still there. You can definitely taste the “raw” character of the tea, telling you that it is definitely an aged Puerh, rather than a “cooked” Puerh that is aged artificially and thus has no real character. The tea leaves, when brewed, is a medium to dark brown. While not cheap, it was well worth the money, I think, and good for variety sake.

The great thing about buying loose leaf Puerh, rather than cake Puerh, is that 1) they are cheaper in comaprison and 2) they are easier to deal with. I have a few cakes, but it’s a pain to have them around and breaking them apart to drink always feels like a waste no matter what, whereas with loose leaf I feel no qualms.

Back to my tea…

So, yesterday was the Puerh day from Upton, which wasn’t so good. Today, I’m trying the new Tieguanyin I got.

Packaging — the thing comes in a small, round tin can. Inside is about 10 packs of tea, each individually sealed and is vacuumed. One bag, however, seems to have the vacuum seal broken. Since one pack is not really big enough, I decided to open two packs at the same time, and picked out one of the regular ones and the one that has its seal broken.

I opened the pack, stuff comes out, green, little beads of tea leaves. The colour is a nice fresh green, at lesat for the pack that is sealed properly. For the pack that isn’t sealed, it is obvious that a little oxidation took place and the colour is a little darker. For the sake of testing, I’m using a gaiwan today, as opposed to my qingxiang Tieguanyin teapot, so that the taste of the tea is coming from the leaves and not the pot.

Taste — hmmm, it is rather interesting. The tea is slightly bitter, but that might be because I used two packs, which is a little too heavy for the small gaiwan I use. Also, the fact that one pack oxidized might have made a difference. The taste is mellow, but it has the proper Tieguanyin finish — a very long aftertaste that lingers in the mouth/throat for a long time. Nice! I don’t think I’ve had Tieguanyin bought in this country that has this taste, so this is a nice change. Taiwan teas don’t do this and it’s a major drawback of their style.

The tea smells like nothing. The lingering smell in the cup, however, is a fairly nice fragrance. For $20, this is not too bad, actually. Like I said, I can probably get this in China for half the price, but alas, you pay for convenience. I might get more of this in the future when I run out. I need some qingxiang tieguanyin to feed my teapot, and it is actually one of my favourite styles of tea. This will be a useful, everyday drinking type of tea for that purpose.

So, maybe I’ll start a blog about tea.

Yes, tea, that magical plant that gives me (and millions others) so much satisfaction. Yes, caffeine has something to do with it, but that’s not the only thing. It’s wonderful. The varieties are endless, and the quest for that great cup of tea never ending. Everyday I drink something different, and everyday it refreshes me.

Today I tried something from Upton Tea Imports for the first time. I bought a sample of their best Puerh, as well as a tin of their best Tieguanyin. The price, of course, means that it’s probably not all that good, but I decided to try it out anyway, since I need a source in the US.

Well, I gave the Puerh a go. The tea is loose, not cake, and it looks suitably aged, although with some white bits on it, which means it’s probably slightly moulded. The smell is very strong, another not-so-good sign. It does look well aged, and the leaves are brown, not black, so it’s probably well post-fermented.

The brew turned out to be almost pitch black, but very mellow. There’s very little bite to the tea, and it comes out a little sweet initially with a slight aftertaste in the end that lingers a bit, but not much variation. I brewed it about 7 times, and it stayed rather constant, which seems to suggest that it was actually “cooked” rather than “raw”. Or worse, it got wet (literally) during storage and thus is eternally messed up. That’s actually more likely.

Not worth trying again, I think I’ll stick to the stuff I get from Hong Kong. We’ll see how the Tieguanyin fares. It is obviously from China and I can probably buy it for half the price in Fujian.