I know, I know, I’ve been awfully quiet lately. But I’ve been busy working on some exciting stuff behind the scenes, which will hopefully be unravelled very soon…

Anyway, I’m very pleased today to share a wonderful post by Linda Louie, a pu-erh tea specialist who runs Bana Tea Company. Linda has sent me a sampling of some of her pu-erhs, which I will be writing about soon. But in the meantime, here is her advice on how to properly store pu-erh tea. Enjoy.

***

A good Pu-erh tea for brewing and consumption requires a quality base tea, careful pre-processing and well-designed post-processing. Pre-processing refers to the preparatory steps to produce the “raw materials” (green mao cha) and post-processing refers to the storage condition under which Pu-erh teas are aged to enhance proper fermentation. In other words, it is not necessarily true that the older the Pu-erh tea, the better. A superior Pu-erh tea for brewing requires that one start with a good quality “raw tea” that is carefully and properly pre-processed, and then aged under optimum storage conditions.

Tea Master Vesper Chan, a pioneer in Pu-erh dry storage, states that the ideal conditions for storage are an environment with between 50%-60% humidity and a temperature range of between 60-70 degrees. As different parts of the world vary in their weather and humidity, Pu-erh teas stored in different environments yield different results. For example, Pu-erh teas stored in relatively dry places like Beijing or Los Angeles will age to become more aromatic, but they will take longer to achieve the smoothness that teas aged in more humid places like Hong Kong or Guangzhou will exhibit.

Pu-erh tea should not be exposed to excessive humidity for prolonged periods of time or it can become flat and dull. During the season when humidity is very high, opening the window to allow fresh air in the room is advisable. Pu-erh tea should be stored well above ground level and be given good ventilation. If you have a large amount of tea, it should be rotated once every six months to even out the tea’s exposure to fresh air. Extreme variations in temperature should be avoided.

Pu-erh tea has a tendency to absorb odors in the environment. Avoid storing your Pu-erh tea in kitchen cabinets or near moth balls or around other items that emit strong odors. With regard to the appropriateness of using a humidifier in places with low humidity, Master Chan opined that it would be fine to use one a few hours once a month to promote faster fermentation. Lastly, if you are storing a variety of Pu-erh, always store the raw Pu-erh and the ripe Pu-erh separately in order for the respective teas to retain their own aroma.

© Eric for Tea Finely Brewed, 2009. | Proper Pu-erh Storage for Best Results | No comments |
Post categories: Pu-erh tea
Post tags: pu-erh storage, sheng pu-erh, shou pu-erh, tea storage

How do you like my new tea set?

I celebrated my birthday last week and got three new tea brewing devices: a porcelain gaiwan, a yixing teapot and this one, a simple Japanese teapot with a large infuser basket.

It has been fun experimenting with the gaiwan over the past week, while I’ve been considering which type of tea my yixing should be devoted to (anyone have any thoughts?). I decided to use the teapot pictured above to make today’s tea, Monk’s Bliss by Mellow Monk.

Monk’s Bliss is a shiraore, which is a green tea with some leaf stems. The result is a mellow green tea that tastes remarkably like steamed vegetables.

As I drank this tea, I kept drawing comparisons to the shincha I tried earlier this year. That too I described as tasting liked steamed vegetables, though I found this tea a much milder beast. Where the shincha delivered three, sometimes four strong infusions, the shiraore gives just two. But there is a warm depth to it, a richness that reminds me of a forest floor. It’s mellow and calming, a perfect accompaniment to a sunny spring morning.

Monk’s Bliss is available from Mellow Monk.

© Eric for Tea Finely Brewed, 2009. | Monk’s Bliss by Mellow Monk | 4 comments |
Post categories: Green tea
Post tags: Japan, Japanese green tea, Japanese teas, Mellow Monk

To those who have made the epic trip to this Chinese teahouse, I salute you.

First up, we’re going to catch the cable car up to where this tea trail begins.

This, my friends, is our trail.

Slippery when wet.

Hang onto those chains!

Don’t get too distracted by the view.

Hang on. Things are getting a bit more steep.

Almost there now!

And at last… Time for a cup of tea.

These photos were originally found at http://www.justaskshirley.com/photos/china/wow.htm. Used with permission.

© Eric for Tea Finely Brewed, 2009. | The Ultimate Chinese Teahouse | 5 comments |
Post categories: Miscellaneous
Post tags: tea travel, teahouse

I am no expert on pu-erh tea, but I’m learning. Over the past few months I’ve tried several loose leaf pu-erhs, as well as a small pu-erh cake I picked up from Ten Ren here in Melbourne. Last week, I made my latest pu-erh purchase: a small bag of mini green tuocha, sold by Tea Leaves (a local Australian chain of tea stores).

Today, I finally got a chance to make this for the first time. As I said, I’m no expert on pu-erh, and for a minute there I stopped and realized that I wasn’t really sure how to brew this. Ardent pu-erh aficionados tend to prefer the gong-fu style of brewing, but I have neither yixing nor gaiwan, so I am yet to venture into the world of gong-fu brewing. In The Story of Tea, the Heisses offer some broad parameters: 2 – 5 minutes with water around 93° – 100° Celsius. Two to five minutes is quite the range though, so I decided to conduct this little experiment.

The Experiment

This a very simple experiment, and one that you could apply to any tea if you want. Here’s what I did:

As suggested in The Story of Tea, I decided to use freshly boiled water. Lately I’ve been leaning towards using my Japanese porcelain tea set, so again I used this. I probably used about 300 ml of water, though that’s little more than a guess.

Four cups of the same tea, just poured at different stages in the brewing process.

The experiment is all about timing. I let the tea steep for a minute before pouring one cup, then waited. At the 2 minute mark, I poured another cup. I poured two more cups, one at 3 minutes and another at 3:30.

The first thing that’s apparent is how much the extra infusion time affects the brew’s colour. The first cup was a very light orange amber, which grew steadily darker with each consecutive cup — by the time I’d reached the fourth cup, the brew was almost black. Based on its colour alone, I was already anticipating that one to be a bit too strong.

Off to the tasting table. I was very glad to have my esteemed wife join me for this part of the experiment.

First up, the 1 minute brew: I could smell very little in this one, but Bec picked up a hint of woody, smokiness — like a bonfire on a farm, as she put it. The taste was on the weak side, with a sweetness bounded by the slightest earthiness. Bec, who ate an entire clove of garlic last night, couldn’t taste much at all.

Next came the 2 minute brew, which had a more intense smoky aroma about it. For Bec, it evoked images of old time, rustic places. I tasted it and found that it had grown earthier in that extra minute of brewing time. After a few sips, I thought I could taste something fruity. A few more sips. Dates!

I could taste those dates even more intensely on the third cup, which was starting to feel a bit too strong. I found it quite drying of the tongue, with more tannins, astringency and a slightly unpleasant sourness. Bec agreed that it wasn’t as nice as the second cup.

Then came the fourth cup. As I’d anticipated, this one was too strong. Far too strong, it turns out. “Yuck!” That was Bec’s reaction to her one and only sip. I tried it and while I think being familiar with pu-erh allowed me to put up with it a bit more, it was obviously far too strong. That astringency that was starting to emerge half a minute earlier was biting now. I ended up emptying half the cup on our beleaguered chili plant.

The 3 Lessons I Learned

It’s good to experiment: Don’t always go by the book (or the instructions on the packet). Experimentation is fun, and it will help you figure out how to make tea the way you like it, every time. Now that I know how much difference a couple minutes of infusing has, I’ll be very careful to time how long I infuse this tea for.

Timing matters: I have a tendency to be lazy about timing a lot of the time, but depending on the tea, it can make quite a considerable difference. Many teas turn out far too weak if you don’t give them long enough, and will make you gag if you steep them too long. Occasionally, you’ll come across a tea that just doesn’t seem to care how long you steep it, but those are in the minority.

Taste with someone: It was really fun tasting these teas with Bec. She would pick up a lot of smells that I would miss entirely, while I tended to be a bit more perceptive on the taste profiles. I loved how the tea would evoke vivid imagery for her. It didn’t do the same for me, but even just hearing how she was experiencing it allowed me to appreciate the tea’s depth a bit more.

© Eric for Tea Finely Brewed, 2009. | The Mini Green Tuocha Experiment | 8 comments |
Post categories: Pu-erh tea
Post tags: experiments, raw pu-erh, sheng pu-erh, tuocha

Those of you who have been following this blog for some time will know that I have a soft spot for teas from Darjeeling. A while ago, I received a wonderful bundle of teas from Benoy, the benevolent man behind Thunderbolt Tea, a Darjeeling-based tea vendor. I’ve been following Benoy on Twitter, and one thing that is very clear to me is how much work goes into picking the best teas each season.

Today’s tea, a lovely 2009 2nd Flush from Giddapahar Estate — the tea is nicknamed Giddapahar Musk — is a testament to Benoy’s great taste. I find it a wonderfully refined tea, with a rich sweet aroma. Second flush Darjeeling teas are renowned for their distinctive muscatel flavour, a flavour which is very dominant here. With that muscatel comes astringency, though it’s quite tame in comparison with some of the other Darjeeling teas I have tasted.

I first tried this tea about a month ago, and I have enjoyed it regularly since. I’ve made it for friends, simply because it’s a very likable tea. As I sat drinking it this morning, struggling to put words to what I was experiencing, I realized I couldn’t. I would describe this tea as smooth, savoury, sweet, rich and deep, but that still doesn’t do justice to it. Nor does it probably give you much of an idea of what to expect!

All I will say is this: If you enjoy that characteristic Darjeeling tea, this will hit your sweet spot. And if you’ve never tried a Darjeeling, start here.

Giddapahar Musk is available from Thunderbolt Tea.

© Eric for Tea Finely Brewed, 2009. | Giddapahar Musk: 2009 2nd Flush Black Tea from Darjeeling | 3 comments |
Post categories: Black tea, Tea reviews
Post tags: Darjeeling, Giddapahar Estate, Thunderbolt Tea

• Mighty Leaf Tea are giving a 25% discount off selected black teas. This offer runs out on September 25, so you have to act quick. If you’re looking for a good place to start, try their Organic Breakfast Tea.
• Numi Organic Tea is offering a 25% discount on their flavoured pu-erh teas. Get 2 boxes of their pu-erh tea for $14.95 when you quote Coupon Code NMP99. This offer runs out after September 30.
• The Tea Spot are donating 10% of all their sales in September to prostate cancer survivors.

© Eric for Tea Finely Brewed, 2009. | Special Deals for September | No comments |
Post categories: Black tea, Organic tea, Pu-erh tea, Specials
Post tags: breakfast tea, Mighty Leaf Tea, Numi Organic Tea, The Tea Spot

I came across this gem on Lucy Knisley’s blog and couldn’t resist reposting it here.

© Eric for Tea Finely Brewed, 2009. | The World’s Greatest Illustrated Chai Tea Recipe | 3 comments |
Post categories: Black tea
Post tags: Chai tea, chai tea recipe, how to make chai tea

But it’s awfully handy having a travel mug, so lately I’ve been checking out some of the options available out there. Turns out there is quite a bit of choice for those of us who like to take their tea on the road. In this post I’ve compiled a list of some of the factors to consider and a run-down of some of the best choices available to tea drinkers.

From left to right: The Zojirushi Stainless Steel Tumbler with Infuser; Teas Etc. Tea Travel Mug; Teavana Dragon Double-walled Travel Tumbler.

7 Factors to Consider when Buying a Tea Travel Mug

There are a number of factors that come into play when trying to decide between travel mugs.

What kind of material is the cup made of?

Stainless steel, glass and plastic are the most common choices, though Teavana also offer a selection of tumblers made of bone china. I don’t know about you, but I really don’t like the idea of a plastic travel mug. Bone china also kind of freaks me out, because I have a tendency to be quite clumsy. Of stainless steel and glass, I find myself leaning towards glass — the last two mugs I had were stainless steel and I found that one of them had a nasty tendency to make the tea taste metallic. Granted, my wife thinks I’m silly to go for glass because I’m so clumsy…

Is it spill-proof?

Of all the factors to consider, this one is the hardest to judge without personally trying the cup. It’s also one of the most important, in my opinion. Ideally, I should be able to stick the cup in my bag without worrying about it spilling tea over the other stuff in the bag. As I more or less expected, most of the cups I read about said they were spill-proof, but reading some of the comments and customer reviews was helpful in picking out which cups are a little more susceptible to spilling.

How long does it keep tea warm for?

Some promise to keep your tea warm for up to eight hours, while others promise less than four. Again, the customer reviews were very helpful in sorting the wheat from the chaff. One rather novel thermos comes with a power cable that plugs into your car cigarette lighter, so you can keep your tea warm for even longer.

How large is it?

The travel mugs I came across ranged from 8 oz capacity to 16 oz capacity. This is a fairly minor factor to me.

How easy is it to wash?

A couple of the cups I saw said they have to be washed by hand. One tumbler, Teavana’s Harmony Glass Tea Tumbler, said it was safe for the top shelf of a dishwasher. I don’t use a dishwasher, so this is pretty much a non-issue for me. However, I do want a cup that can be washed by hand easily, without any hard-to-reach bits.

What does it look like?

Depending on your taste, this might be an important factor or completely irrelevant. Personally, I’m in the latter category, but if you like pretty cups, check out Teavana’s range. Zojirushi also have one very slick-looking mug, which incidentally topped the list in terms of price.

And finally… what does it cost?

The cheapest cup I saw was the VR3 Stainless Steel Heated Insulated Travel Mug, which was $11.37. The most expensive one, as mentioned, was Zojirushi’s beautiful stainless steel mug, which goes for $52. On average, most mugs seem to be priced around the $20 – $25 mark.

My Top 2 Choices

After considering all the factors listed above, I’ve come up with three mugs that I feel — based purely on research — have the edge over the competition.

Tea Travel Mug by Teas Etc.
This double-walled travel mug with a stainless steel infuser holds 12.85 ounces of tea and is very reasonable priced at $19.95 $15.95 (this is a special offer if you click the link above). It has some very enthusiastic reviews — though a few did offer some helpful points of criticism — and comes from a tea company I trust. The combination of price, material and customer feedback puts this one at the top of my list.

Thermos Stainless Steel Tea Tumbler with Infuser
Again, people who own this seem very happy with it, based on the reviews on Amazon. At $22.49, it’s middle-of-the-road in terms of price, but for me the big drawcard is just how happy most people are with it. And it’s made by Thermos — one company that really ought to know about making good travel mugs.

13 Other Travel Mugs to Consider

• Glass Tea Cup Thermos by Summit Tea Company – Glass, with a stainless steel infuser; holds 12 ounces and ticks in at $19.95.
• Glass and Stainless Steel Tea Brewing Tumbler by Summit Tea Company – This is basically the larger version of the previous one by Summit. It holds 16 ounces and costs $24.99.
• Highwave Original Joemo Tea Brew Insulated Mug – A 14 ounce, stainless steel mug that costs $17.
• VR3 Stainless Steel Heated Insulated Travel Mug Cup – This plugs into a cigarette lighter, but the fact that it’s so cheap is a bit of a concern. It also doesn’t include an infuser. Holds 14 ounces and costs $11.37.
• Zojirushi Stainless Mug with Tea Strainer – The designer’s choice. Stainless steel and beautiful, holding 11.75 ounces and costing a whopping $52.
• Trudeau Tea-riffic 16-Ounce Travel Tea Tumbler – A plastic tumbler holding 16 ounces and costing $12.95.
• Dragon Double-walled Travel Tumbler by Teavana – An ornate stainless steel tumbler from Teavana, holding 8 ounces. After reading the reviews, I was a little confused about whether this comes with an infuser — one review said it did while another indicated it didn’t. This ticks in at $39.95.
• Tea Thermos with Strainer by Teavana – This one looks fairly similar to the Thermos tumbler I’ve listed above as one my top choices (except that it’s brown). Why isn’t this one listed up there then? At $27.95, it looks a bit over-priced.
• Harmony Glass Tea Tumbler with Infuser by Teavana – Again, this is very similar to Teas Etc.’s Tea Travel Mug. It’s glass, holds 11 ounces and costs $19.95. So in pretty much every respect it’s the same, except that it holds a bit less than the Teas Etc. model and it’s more expensive (if you take advantage of the 20% discount on the Teas Etc. Tea Travel Mug).
• Golden Dragon Bone China Tea Tumbler by Teavana – Teavana really specialize in these beautiful tumblers. This is another ornately designed one with a dragon painted into the tumbler, which is made from bone china. It holds 8 ounces and costs $27.95.
• Travel Press by Art of Tea – Art of Tea offer this plastic, 16 ounce cup that uses a press instead of a regular infuser. It’s an interesting approach, though the use of plastic turns me off. This costs $15.

Another Option: The Tuffy Steeper

The Tuffy Steeper doesn’t fall into the travel mug category, but it’s an interesting alternative. Instead of lugging around a cup, why don’t you just carry this collapsible silicone tea infuser, specially designed to fit most cups? The Tuffy Steeper is $8.95 from The Tea Spot. I don’t think it’s quite what I’m after, but I see it as a useful option for those who are travelling, or those who have a travel mug that doesn’t have its own infuser.

© Eric for Tea Finely Brewed, 2009. | Tea Travel Mugs: A Buyer’s Overview of the Options | 6 comments |
Post categories: Tea cups and teapots
Post tags: travel cups, travel mugs, travel tumblers

Liquid Jade: The Story of Tea from East to West by Beatrice Hohenegger

I finished university with a double major in History and Spanish. I pretty much never speak Spanish these days — as multi-cultural as Melbourne is, Spanish-speaking folk aren’t that common — and most of my days are spent working on things like newsletters, content management and spam killing for a certain travel community. Despite the fact that my day job really doesn’t have much to do with what I studied at university, history remains a passionate interest of mine.

And so I was very interested to read Liquid Jade: The Story of Tea from East to West, an engaging introduction to the tumultuous and intriguing history of tea.

Beatrice Hohenegger is an expert on the history and culture of tea. Incidentally, she is the guest curator of a traveling museum exhibition called Steeped in History: The Art of Tea, which is currently running at the Fowler Museum at UCLA. She is, without doubt, well qualified to write about tea.

While her research is thorough — and thankfully she includes an extensive bibliography for those of us who want to learn more — Hohenegger writes for the masses, not the academics. Anecdotes and illustrations from the annals of tea history are interspersed throughout the narrative, which leads the reader through tea’s origins and cultural heritage in the East, through to its discovery by the West and subsequent rise to global popularity. The third section of the book breaks away from the narrative approach, instead looking at an assortment of topics relating to tea, including such timeless classics as the caffeine content of tea, its health benefits, and the origin of the word tea. Finally, Hohenegger turns her attention to today’s tea industry, offering a compelling case for fair trade tea, organic agricultural practices and small-scale tea farmers (whose plight is hard in an industry dominated by large tea plantations).

One of the clear messages of Hohenegger’s narrative is the abrupt and traumatic nature of the West’s colonization of the East. At times, this message is a little excessive. The pre-colonial era of tea’s history is written of in adoring tones, while Hohenegger’s discussion of the West’s role in tea history felt somewhat one-dimensional at times. But there is no doubt that the West has much to be ashamed of in the history of tea. First and foremost, the story of how the East India Company used opium to obtain tea —encouraging widespread opium addiction in China to bolster its coffers — is a sinister, shameful tale. It’s fascinating history, but I couldn’t help but feel outraged at the extraordinary greed of colonial Europe.

Liquid Jade is 270 pages long, not counting the appendices. There is a lot to cover in that space. As a result, I found myself thinking of it as more of an introductory text than an in-depth study of tea history or culture. In broad brushstrokes, Hohenegger paints an expansive view of tea’s journey through history. If you want a broad overview of tea history, this is a good place to start.

Liquid Jade: The Story of Tea from East to West is available from Amazon.com.

© Eric for Tea Finely Brewed, 2009. | Liquid Jade: The Story of Tea from East to West (book review) | 3 comments |
Post categories: Books about tea, Tea history
Post tags: Beatrice Hohenegger, Liquid Jade: the Story of Tea from East to West, Tea history

Organic breakfast tea by Mighty Leaf Tea

The nature of a breakfast tea is to be robust. It is there to awaken. And it needs to be able to handle a drop of milk.

As a result, many lower grade breakfast teas tend to be brutish. You feel awake after drinking them, but your lips are puckered, your mouth is dry and you had to choke down those last few sips. Inevitably, the tea used for this is the scraps — the dust or fanning that remains after factories have pushed out the higher end teas. Because the tea is so small, it infuses quickly; but it also lacks the character you will find in teas made with larger bits of leaf.

This morning I started the day with Mighty Leaf’s Organic Breakfast tea, a blend of teas from Assam, Ceylon and Darjeeling. It’s a fine example of how using better quality tea leaves demonstrably improves a tea’s character.

I don’t tend to drink many blended teas, preferring instead single-estate teas, but I did enjoy trying to pick out the presence of the three teas used. I found the Ceylon first, given away by the smell of berries in the dry leaf aroma. Those berries were a little more subdued in the flavour, where the Assam leaf dominated the mix. I tried but failed to pick out the Darjeeling. Against the rather robust and in-your-face characteristics of Ceylon and Assam teas, the Darjeeling’s subtler notes fade into the background.

I see teas like this as being a great point of introduction for people who are accustomed to lower-grade tea and want to try something with a bit more finesse. It’s instantly familiar, but that elevation of quality translates into a smoother cup of tea with more points of interest. Granted, I found this tea to fall a little flat after the initial release of flavours; but as a breakfast tea, it does the job.

Organic Breakfast is available from Mighty Leaf Tea.

© Eric for Tea Finely Brewed, 2009. | Organic Breakfast Tea by Mighty Leaf Tea (review) | One comment |
Post categories: Black tea, Organic tea, Tea reviews
Post tags: breakfast tea, English Breakfast, Mighty Leaf Tea