Goodness how long has it been??

Wow it has been forever since I've made a new post here. Ah, well, that happens to these things, I suppose.

Quick update on life; ran out of money had to switch to in-state tuition school Portland State University, will forever identify as a MoHo anyways, switched majors to Economics as well because PSU's transfer policies for Biology are terrible and I want to work in finance now anyways. Can cry about that later, but I just needed something that'd get me a faster starting career path that had somewhere to go than biological research. Of course there's no way to get me completely out of research after all this time, but more on that one day in the future. Also have a new dog, his name is Meriadoc and he's an adorable large poodle mix with the poodle coat. His 2nd birthday is in 3 days. :) Two best friends are getting married this summer (not together, lol, separately), and I really love Aziz Ansari's Master of None.

Now anyways! Back to the thing we love here the most, tea! For about a year (until recently) I subscribed to the White2Tea monthly tea club. It was great! Except so much sheng. Hahaha. I am not a fan of young sheng. It's just not as good as the older stuff or decent shus to me. I know so many of my tea friends love sheng of all ages, but I have yet to truly be able to appreciate that whiskey, tobacco, and cedar level astringency that most of the young ones have. Beyond that though, it was very educational and delicious! There were a few old sheng samples that were amazing, a bunch of delicious shus, some great blacks and oolongs as well. In particular the Clover Patch oolong blew me away. Insanely fragrant and delicious.

In other delicious tea findings over the last more-than-a-year, Phoenix Tea's Rundu Black needs its own book of poetry it is so beautiful.

Currently almost out of everything that isn't insanely cheap and bad oolong or quality, but young shengs that I'm putting my hopes on for 2020. Awaiting White2Tea's Basic Ripe Puerh set and their 2015 Brown Sugar Ripe Puerh. Every day without them is a very long day indeed... And now that we're caught up here hopefully I'll think of something with more substance to write next time. ;)

The Devil of Budgeting for Tea

I hate budgeting.

However, I love tea.

So budgeting is a must.

I have two separate budgets. One for tea, the other for teaware. This is because teaware is a "capital investment", AKA something I'll have and get use out of over hopefully many years so long as I take proper care of my items. The teaware budget is more of a slowly accumulating one combined with a maximum spending limit than something I put away for each paycheck. For instance, I've been wanting two very large teaware items; getting a Bonavita variable temperature electric kettle (instead of the Breville One Touch), and a larger gongfu drip tray. However, I don't want to spend more than $100 combined... So as I wait for sales and the perfect drip tray to appear somewhere, the money just gets saved up very occasionally, usually from excess monthly tea budget money.

Tea budget money is saved with every paycheck. I don't save it as a percentage of my paycheck, just limit myself to a maximum of $20/month. I don't buy tea every month. Shocking, I know. Its just that I usually drink shu puerh, and 100g is enough to last me about a month and a half if not two months, so therefore I can spend $50 on a 250g cake one day and not really need anymore tea for about 3 and a half months, theoretically saving me $10. If I'm lucky and find a good deal, I can get a 250g cake for around $30 and save even more.

Its a very fluid system, but it is satisfactory. I also make sure I never buy too much tea that I won't be able to drink before it starts to go stale- aka only buying very small volumes of green teas and most oolongs. I've found tightly balled Taiwanese roasted/aged oolongs will last very well (in airtight light-tight storage containers), but not so much for un-balled ones. I know we've got this mentality in the tea world of having prized tea staches, but unless all that tea can age well, I am now very much so against that. To me, its rather irresponsible to pay for tea that you won't be able to drink before its lost its flavor and begun to turn unpleasantly bitter. But people will do what they do...

My Opinion on Lifting Weights While Drinking Tea

A few days ago I came across a newbie to tea on Reddit's r/tea who was looking at purchasing a cast iron pot and wanted to know if we liked the one they were looking at as an intro pot for someone on a budget. I've seen quite a few posts on this subreddit about getting cast irons as a newbie to tea and know that Teavana does its absolute best to encourage all customers to get cast iron pots. I think this is a terrible idea. Here's my entire response which I spent so much time on I decided to use here as well:

"Don't get cast iron as an intro pot, especially if you're on a budget. You might like it for the idea that it won't break, but they're so inconvenient you'll never want to make tea with it. Here is a list of my complaints about cast iron teapots:

1. You'll have to boil your water twice if you're using a small electric kettle because you have to use the hot water to heat up the pot and cups once, and then to actually make your tea.
2. They're extremely heavy. Heavy to the point where it makes it very hard to pour and you'll be spilling almost always. Not to mention it dents everything because one cannot simply put down a cast iron teapot.
3. Rust. Rust. Rust. Rust. If you use it. It will rust. Especially if you're not a consistently quick drinker since I'm assuming you'll use this as your personal pot. I feel like cast irons are for people who actually put in a LOT of effort into their tea drinking and drink with a lot of people. I drink a LOT of tea. I drink tea all the time. However, just right now I've got a pot of tea from 2 hours ago sitting on my table waiting to be drunk (its not a very good tea...). If that was a cast iron pot I would have just pointlessly shortened that pot's life. Its ceramic, so it's fine. And even if you do drink out of it rather quickly, you'll still need to actually go in and dry it. You can't let it air dry because that'll also shorten its life. And you might be thinking, "well, it'll take a long time to rust so it'll be okay", but my ceramic pot will never rust, and it was much, much cheaper than any non-leaded cast iron will ever be.
4. Did I mention how heavy they are? I'm actually really strong. I just don't like lifting weights when making tea.
5. And I forgot to mention, but the handle gets ridiculously hot too.
6. Cast iron pots, or tetsubin as they're called, are Japanese. But in traditional Japan, they're not even for making tea. I have lived in Japan before. I have seen tea ceremonies. I have drunk tea many times there. I basically did my own personal tea tour of the country this last winter. I have never seen anyone in Japan use one for making tea. Its for boiling hot water over a fire pit. (Which I have seen in modern homes, my friend's place had one built into the dining table! It was awesome, but even they used a western stainless steel kettle on it, because tetsubin are very troublesome.)"

I am not actually against using tetsubin for tea simply because that's not what they're most convenient for. I don't have a huge thing against repurposing items. But even the glazed ones which are better (I say reluctantly) for making tea in can still rust because every older one I've seen has had cracked glaze with chunks missing (revealing rusted spots). Some people are diligent about taking care of their tetsubin, are big workout enthusiasts, and maybe they've burned out the nerves in their hands from handling too hot of things (I know a few people like this), but I just don't think that this should be someone's first tea pot. They're practically worse than yixing with how much attention you have to pay to them. Its really not too much work at all, but its more than most people are willing to put into their tea making, and therefore those kind of people should use something that won't be ruined by their tea making style which would make it harder for them to enjoy tea. Being able to make delicious tea is the true purpose of a teapot after all. What good is it if it can't do that? If there's something I don't like, its making something that can be used into an unused and lifeless decoration.

Moving on to LOTS of One Type of Tea and SALT

So just kidding about going to Boston, apparently. Which is fine by me, because now I get to do all the things I originally wanted to do in the Pacific Northwest this summer! Yes, there is disappointment, but cest la vie. Time to drink some tea!

This summer I've been doing something rather strange (for my behavior). Instead of having a few different kinds of tea in a day, or in a week for that matter, I've just been blowing through one tea at a time. First it was some greens, then I moved on to some open oolongs, and now a puerh while I decide which tea to unseal next. Probably going to be a Taiwanese oolong. I'll drink a little of one thing or another in between the big stuff, I have a lot of samples I need to go through (I burnt my tongue on some stupid coffee the other day and had a crazy bought of seasonal allergies preventing me from being at my tasting best haha), but for the most part its just been a lot of multiple gaiwans or pots one right after another. This has allowed me to make some interesting personal observations.

• Green teas make me very happy, awake, and relaxed. They also significantly reduce my appetite, but if I drink too much then I have experienced a lot of symptoms of very low blood sugar. Of course it was fine when I made sure to eat better when drinking as much as I was. Its impressive how significant the blood-sugar lowing effects of green tea were, though. 
• For oolongs, especially dark Wuyi cliff ones, I really don't recall noticing anything too significant. I don't really think I drank enough in a short enough period of time. I was busier when I was going through my tin of Shui Xiang in particular. I'll try this out with a light Taiwanese oolong when I feel like it later this week or next. (I'm out of darker oolongs)
• I love puerhs. Could you tell from my previous blog posts? Haha. Puerh makes me very, very, very relaxed. I also get extremely focused and creative when I've drunk enough. I wrote over 3000 words of a short horror (I love a good horror/thriller) story last night during which I went through about 3 gaiwans worth of puerh. I like drinking puerh at night because it can also help me sleep (or at least doesn't interfere with me needing/wanting to sleep). Note again that these are all preliminary personal experiences with no control for other food intake... 
• I have not drank copious amounts of either white, black, or sheng puerhs like this as of yet. 

I'll probably keep doing this until I feel like switching it up all the time again. So hopefully more observations will emerge!

One of the other things I've been working on testing out finally is SALTING the water that I use to make my tea. I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but I'll explain where I got the idea here again anyways. I'm fairly certain we all know just how much salt is used in cooking. Well when I was reading The Classic of Tea by Lu Yu I noticed him describing adding a little bit of salt to his water as well. I tried it a few months ago and failed to remember what he wrote right after talking about putting salt in his tea, which was to be very careful of not putting in too much. Haha. It was disgusting. I've always hated salt water and tea doesn't really do anything to improve the flavor. It was very sad. However in March I found some Lava Salt, or basically salt with charcoal mixed in it. I have used charcoal to purify my water before (and loved using it), and I was curious about salt, so I figured this would be a doubly cool thing to try out. 

I have tried it with both iodized table salt and the charcoal salt, and I think I've noticed two interesting things. (When I get back to school and my beloved glass electric kettle I'll be able to do better controlled testing)

1. The mouth-feel of the teas that I put salt into becomes fuller and smoother. I think the salt takes away a lot of astringency.
2. I don't have to go to the bathroom as much!
3. I'll test this next week when I start summer Bikram (HOT- you sweat like hell) yoga, but I'm pretty sure this is keeping me better hydrated. Haha

Its too bad I don't have my tea club here over the summer. I'd definitely test this all out on them. Hehehehe. Voluntarily, of course... But if any of you readers try this yourself, please let me know what your results are! I don't hear very often about people really pushing themselves to either drink a ton of one type of tea all at once in order to see the results on themselves or salting their water. FYI I don't put in more than a TINY pinch per 32 oz. Maybe 1/4 tsp. (I'll also test that out more accurately.)

Dear Summer

Sometimes I feel like I live in a hurricane. Nothing is certain until the last minute it always seems like. I don't mind living on the edge like this, but when things don't seem to be working out I do end up longing for some stability in my life. However that never lasts long because I'm fairly certain I would be bored out of my mind without things going on, new horizons to test, new problems to overcome, new things to think about. Of course, this too is only a present moment feeling.

Summer vacation started about a month ago for me, and already it's almost over! I still technically have 3 months of time off from school, but about two weeks ago I chanced upon a lab opening in Boston and got in! So back off to the East Coast with me next week! 

At least I have my tea. Almost no matter where I go in this country or world, there will always be tea. Right now I'm drinking some very delicious Shui Jin Gui Wuyi Oolong from Verdant Tea. I'm very glad I still have some of this because I had just been craving that smooth chocolaty-mineral wuyi cliff tea taste. 

This summer is going to be pretty interesting. There are a lot of big things happening in the world right now, and personally I hope this will also be a big time of growth for me. In the US we just had a verdict today finally on whether or not genes could be patented. I'm extremely relieved that at least one branch of the US Government isn't completely grid-locked and came to the logical and best conclusion: NO. Still waiting to hear on the Defense of Marriage Act and Proposition 8 from California which are the other two current blockbuster cases. Then we've got the too violent and bloody rebellion going on in Syria, the results of equalizing marriage in France, the problems with suppressing free speech in Turkey, Russia's attack on LGBTQ people, Europe's economic troubles continuing, the US' and Japan's economic troubles alleviating, possible corruption problems in Singapore with their last election, I actually have no idea what movies are coming out this summer that look good aside from Star Trek which already came out and I already saw (ITS AMAZING GO. GO. GO. And now I have to watch every single episode while they're still on Netflix....), Avatar: Korra Book 2: Spirits is coming out sometime this year, and a million other pieces of history in the works. Haha. Don't get me started on my opinions on all of that. Right here and now all I'm doing is drinking my tea.

As the summer equinox approaches too I feel like taking a brief glance back at what's happened already this year. I traveled Japan, bought lots of tea in Japan, my beloved cat of 15 years passed away (had her since kindergarten), came back to the US, went to school again, had lots of success starting the tea club at my school, enjoyed my classes, got into a lab for next year where I get to study tea, went to New York City for the first time, went to the Tea Festival there, my sweet grandmother and last grandparent passed away, I learned a lot in my classes and they ended, enjoyed a lot of time with friends at school, summer vacation started and I enjoyed even more time with friends over here, spent time with my cute dog, finally got to visit most of my favorite Seattle and Portland tea shops, spent time with my little brothers, finished Avatar: The Last Airbender with them (and I'm very proud to say that by the last few episodes they had the entire opener memorized), I think I got my littlest brother interested in tea, definitely Japan (yay! Previously he had liked Australia and my complaint was, 'but they speak English there!' Hahaha), now I got into this new internship, and am just enjoying the present, and this delicious tea, as time trundles along. Isn't it amazing how tea is such a big part of our lives, but it happens during and between these other larger events? I'm very glad I'm always able to slow down during the midst of all of this with a cup of tea.

You know, I really can't tell if I'm addicted to tea or not. I have gone without tea for nearly a week in recent months, and have been fine. But then there are days like today when I wake up with massive headaches. If it doesn't go away after a little while on it's own I'll take some pain medicine, but the thing is, when I drink it with water, that reminds me that I should start the pot for tea for the day. So once the water finally boils (it takes forever in my parent's huge stove kettle), usually I don't catch it before then so I have to wait for it to cool down to the right temperature for whichever tea I'm drinking, and by the time I finally put that tea into my mouth it's probably been about 20-30 minutes since I took the pain medicine, and always a few minutes after I've started drinking my tea the headache is gone. Haha. I really need to drink tea without the pain meds when this happens again in order to really test this out. But I've noticed that usually puerh will have the most remarked effect on me. I know I've written about this before, you know how I've said that sometimes when I drink puerh I get the same sense of relief as if a headache has just gone away? I have no idea what that's all about, but I think its pretty interesting.

Now remember that my research next semester will be on the effect of tea on intestinal bacteria: well I read a very interesting article the other day about a correlation between aggressive behavior in Autistic children, gut bacteria, and serotonin. (FYI: I am NOT at all of the vein of thinking that would dare suggest that diet causes autism. However I am always open to research on the idea of how diet affects the brain, because obviously consuming alcohol does, and there are significant (but not completely altering) links between mood disorders and gluten intolerance.) One of the things it mentions in this article is that while serotonin is extremely important in the brain and moods, over 90% of the body's serotonin is found in the gut. Note, this isn't saying that because these children have problems with serotonin levels and their digestive system that they have Autism, but rather noticing that GI serotonin and bacterial overgrowth problems are present in conjunction with a gene mutation at least partially responsible for Autism. Personally I find it very reasonable that Autistic children would become aggressive or have other behavioral problems when they're constipated. That's not a pleasant state at all! Haha. But when thinking about tea/diet, neurotransmitters, and digestive bacteria, I just thought that this article was very interesting. I'm definitely going to check out the book mentioned in the article for one.

And the whistle is going off on the kettle again.

To The Future

It seems that my name is really getting passed around. It makes me very happy, because then I don't have to put up posters. I was asked the other day to do tea for a hall event, which I've just come back from, and tomorrow I'll be doing tea for a general student body event! It was a lot of fun. It was a henna event so naturally that meant masala chai with milk and sugar. Yummy!

I find it really funny though that everyone keeps saying I know so much about tea, and then asking me about tisanes. I don't know almost anything about most tisanes! For one, there are just basically too many. I know a little about catnip, ginko, and ginger, but that's seriously the limit of my decent tisane knowledge. I don't know what most of them taste like, I don't know how to make each of them to best bring out their flavors (not all tisanes like boiling water for five minutes!), I don't know what to look for in terms of sourcing them, I don't know the latin names of them, I don't know where they all come from, I don't even usually know which of them are from trees or shrubs or grasses! There are so many more tisanes than there are teas, and that's saying something considering how many teas there are! So I feel really bad when people say, "So! Tell me about this tea!" and I have to smile and say, "Well, this is actually a red rooibos base spice blend tisane!" when I know they're expecting me to get as passionate about it as I do with teas. Maybe I really should change the tea club to the "Classic Pure Straight No Flowers Or Spices Real True Tea Club". Hahaha.

So I have some studying to do before tomorrow night for the event (never a bad thing to do in the first place). And I'm bringing a real tea so that I can actually gush and go on and on about something that I know about.

My club holds meetings about twice a week and there are about 2-3 people who come to every meeting and several others who come either once a week or once every two weeks or so. And then getting invited to events also makes me very happy. This semester's goal has been to get people to attend, next semester's goal will be to legitimately establish ourselves as a club to get funding and to better organize special events such as tastings and educational workshops. Of course, the ultimate goal all the time is just to enjoy the pleasure of drinking a lot of good tea.

Another very awesome thing happening next year is that I've been accepted into a research lab here where I'll be able to do my own research on tea! My project isn't finalized yet, but I have a general idea about what I'm going to do and we'll just have to see how it goes. Woo! Super excited!! This also reminds me that I should post another review of an article or two here, since I did say that I wanted to do a lot of these for this blog.

Last of all, my very dear grandmother just passed away a week ago today. My mom and I lived with her for a year or two when I was around 5 years old and I would stay at my grandparent's house for a week or so at a time every summer since I was around 14. She called me about every other week and sent me a care package every month since coming to college. We were very close. She was so healthy and doing so well that it was a huge shock when my mom told me she was doing terribly in the hospital all of a sudden. I hurriedly bought a ticket to home and went to see her before she passed away. It's been a very rough week, I still have to keep reminding myself that I don't have to call her this week or anymore in the future, but I have no regrets when it came to my grandma and know that she loved me and that she knew I loved her, so at least there's that. Time keeps passing on anyways, so I figure I'd just better appreciate those around me that are alive while I have the pleasure of being around them. My grandfather already passed away two years prior, so at least they're not apart anymore. 

Rest in peace, Grandma and Grandpa. I love you two very much and will do my best to take care of your daughter, my mother, and my little brothers like you always told me to. Sleep well and don't let the bed bugs bite.

How I Drink My Puerh: A Kind of Review

I know I said I wouldn't really do this, but the purpose of this isn't to tell you all to go out and buy this tea, it's to show newcomers to puerh one of the ways to brew it and how lovers of this tea (or at least just me) experience it. 

Today I'm drinking the 2009 Xinghai Red Label Phoenix Ripe Puerh. I think this is the 3rd cake of it I've bought since I started drinking it in 2011. Its a pretty well recommended one too for newcomers, so its the one I also use to introduce my friends to ripe puerh.


First I'd like to note that I do not drink my tea like this every time I drink tea. Usually I'm doing homework, talking with friends, reading, or messing around online. One time, because I wasn't paying attention to my tea, I accidentally put my strainer on top of my pot. It sounded funny to me so I looked over and saw the ridiculous scene. I try to always pay a little more attention than that now.

I've been seeing a lot of people trying puerh before for the first time on their own, and although that's how I got introduced to it too, I really learned to love it when I went and tasted it with a bunch of other people who showed me what to look for when drinking good tea. Some of these people had been drinking tea for longer than I've been alive, so I really watched what they did. They didn't just make and drink the tea, they really went and experienced it. They noted the flavors, the smell, the look of the broth, and for puerh in particular, paid attention to the Qi of the tea. Qi is a hard thing to explain. I won't even try. Just read on.

First Drinkable Infusion:
Look at that beautiful deep red. This infusion has a warm earthy scent. It sits heavy on my tongue, slowly dragging its sweet and smooth chocolate notes through my mouth and sliding down my throat. I pause between cups to enjoy the almost suede-like feeling that it leaves behind. I know we're going to have a good tasting because the familiar and blissful feel of a headache I didn't know I had going away spreads warmly from the front of my head to the rest of my body. 

Second Infusion:Once you go black you can never go back. (Puerh is in the "hei cha" category of Chinese teas, which translates to "black tea". What we think of as "black tea" in English is actually written as "hong cha" or "red tea" in Chinese.) This time the smell is heavier and inviting. The previous infusion is like me knocking on the door. Now my friend has opened their door and is standing in the doorway with a big smile on their face. And as good friends often do, we accidentally talked too long in the doorway instead of going inside. The tastes that I love so much are, earthy, chocolatey, savory, sweet, woody, and having their own little party in my mouth. And like every good party, the guests are still lingering long after the music has ended and the tea is gone. By now I have a very large smile. 

Third Infusion:The kind of comfort I derive from this puerh is equivalent to the feeling of being wrapped up in a big blanket and sitting in front of a campfire outdoors in late summer just as the sun is setting. My friend and I are now in their house, our talk having moved past all the frivolities and getting into our pleasant shared rantings about politics, some social construct, economic theories, and science fiction. The warmth that started in my head has moved to my chest. These moments of intimacy with the tea is what I love about puerh. I think the most interesting about the flavor as it really reaches this stage is how extraordinarily smooth the feel of it is on my tongue. Its almost like a food instead of a drink. And this is far from the thickest I've ever drank my puerh before.

Intermission:

Unfortunately I just realized that I need to leave or else I'll miss dinner at the last dining hall open before Spring Break. So this next infusion will be after I come back in 30-40 minutes. I'll leave the water in and we'll just have to see what comes out when I get back. This is an okay thing to do in this case because shu puerh will never oversteep to the point of being dry and bitter, but rather just get darker and darker (to an extent), unlike pretty much every other tea. I think though, considering how long I left the last two in and how little leaf I used this time, that we're down to the last 2-3 steepings now. I think I've gotten 9 out of this one before, but with a higher leaf to water ratio (my gaiwan has half the capacity of my yixing pot) and quicker times between steepings (because I don't usually blog about the tea I'm drinking while I'm drinking it). Anyways, we'll see how it goes. I'd like to have a bit longer with my old friend before we part ways.

Fourth Infusion:
I realized as I was walking back and forth between my room and the dining hall that the taste of shu puerh is like a bass guitar. Either that or like the voice of Chris Martin, lead singer for Coldplay. That humming smooth sound. That's the taste of puerh to me. As I suspected, we're on the decrescendo with this infusion. But while the thick mouthfeel is leaving, a new taste moves to the front. This time the tea is very sweet. I've walked out of the forest and into an autumn field.

Fifth Infusion and Finale:
My time with my friend has come to an end. The clock is ringing midnight and we give each other one final hug before I head to the door. Sweetness lightly persists and the smooth heavy mouthfeel waves at me from a distance, almost only a memory now. This has been a good run, leaving me very happy and serene. Considering all the midterms and homework assignments I've had this week, I was in much need of this feeling of relaxation. 

So there is one session with a puerh for me. Normally it doesn't take nearly as long because as I said before, I'm not normally blogging about it as I'm drinking, but it can definitely take me up to two hours to finish a pot.  If I'm with someone and we're focused on the tea (and talking) then it could take as short as 30 minutes to get through all the infusions. Drinking tea is a form of awareness meditation for me. 

Each cup is my first, my only, and my last.