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.

Thank You to Everyone in Japan!

My trip to Japan was one of the best experiences of my life. I met so many amazing people, drank so much good tea, saw beautiful sighs large and small, and made lots of wonderful new memories. I'm just going to give thanks to everyone who made it such an unforgettable adventure in this post. Please comment if you'd like elaboration on any of the stories I briefly mention here.

In Tokyo I have to thank my Chinese friend whom I met when we were both exchange students together in high school who let me stay with her the majority of the time I was there. Without her I could barely have imagined this trip. I miss her so much!!! She was so much fun to be around. I'm also really grateful to /r/tokyo (on Reddit) where I was able to find places to go and meet up with others for day trips around the city. I need to give special thanks to one of my dear American friends from my high school exchange who I got to meet up with in Tokyo and took me and my Chinese friend out to a bar where we met some absolutely side splitting hilarious and very drunk Japanese people. I'm also grateful for missing my train stop on my last day in Tokyo which allowed me to instead meet a really interesting and friendly American from Northampton who I then had fun together along with my other American friend who was studying abroad there. We got to do a lot of things that I just hadn't had time for earlier in my trip and for that I'm very grateful. Also for them putting up with me having to go to the Sumo district of Tokyo to find a poster for my little brother (accidentally got the wrong poster anyways! Hah!). And then I'm grateful to the Northampton girl's relative who invited me to his regular bar where his band was hosting an open mic night and I made a splendid fool of myself singing a song I barely knew on stage with her, but which allowed me to meet some other interesting Americans and Japanese people with whom I had great conversations with. 

In Ito, Shizuoka I am most grateful to K's House where I stayed and who helped me with a map of places to go. I also met some very kind women at a honey shop near there who helped me pack my bursting bags. Haha. They were very friendly and served umai (delicious) honey ice cream cones. I'm also very grateful to the other travelers I met at K's House who enjoyed shochu, tea, Japanese sweets, and extremely late night conversations with me.

In Atami, Shizuoka, I made my best memories at a little Taiwanese tea shop (never expected to find one in Japan) where I met three very, very kind Japanese people and the very kind Taiwanese owner. We drank a bunch of delicious Tie Guan Yin and talked a lot about Japan, the US, and I found out in a Japanese fortune cookie that I'll have great health this year, but bad next, and one of the Japanese woman told me that my lucky color for the year would be orange and gave me a cute little doll bead phone charm (yellow, but we figured it was close enough to orange since that's the best she could find). She told me to name it and keep it as a friend, so I've named it Nanami. Then when I mentioned that I wanted to find a good hot spring in Atami (very famous for its hot springs) the woman was so kind that not only did she walk me to her favorite nearby hot spring, but when it looked like it was closed to anyone who wasn't a hotel guest that day she went in with me and asked at the front desk if they wouldn't mind making an exception for me and I got in! Such amazing kindness! I'm very grateful to all of them and hope to never forget them and send them something back from the US here soon since she gave me her address.

In Hakuba, Nagano, I'm very grateful to the local climate that gave the area at least 3 feet of beautiful powdery snow, and the hot spring over there that was open very late at night and had an out door bath where I soaked and watched the stars with snow all around me, pretty much one of the best experiences of my life. I'm also grateful to K's House there too, and to the very kind woman at the Tourism desk in the Nagano station who helped me find where the hot spring monkeys were! I'm also grateful to the very kind US military personnel there who were really friendly and fun to chat with. And of course, I'm grateful for the monkeys! They were amazing! Even though I got attacked by one, it was still awesome! (It only tried to steal my little brother's gift, which I managed to get back without too much damage, though a lot of cool scratches). And here's a video that I took of the monkeys!

In Kyoto, I'm again grateful to K's House, and to the bar right next to it's bartenders and the very interesting people I met there! I met one man who lived in Wazuka, Kyoto and had worked with the International Tea Farms Alliance there. That was a nice chatty night. And I'm also grateful to the woman at this one grocery store who let me use the employee restroom when I was in desperate need! Haha. They also had good daifuku there. There was a woman who helped me find an Internet Cafe so I could use the internet to get directions to a farther place since my phone died. I also was very appreciative of the help of the shop keepers at all the tea stores around Kyoto and at the antique stores there too who helped me find delicious tea and beautiful Kyoto teaware. They were also so kind and friendly!! And I'm very grateful to the people who helped me take pictures standing in front of things all over Kyoto.

In Kagoshima, I'm eternally grateful to my host family who was super kind once again to let me stay with them! I really miss them so much again already. I'm also very grateful to my host mother's older sister who's hobby is kimonos like mine is tea and helped me find a used kimono gallery where I found a gorgeous blue furisode to wear to the Seijinshiki (Coming of Age Ceremony) a few days later. And I'm also grateful to my old high school teachers over there who welcomed me back so warmly and gave me a delicious cake. 

So many people to be thankful to! And of course, I couldn't have done it without everyone who helped me along in the first place, especially my high school Japanese teacher who gave me such a firm foundation in Japanese.

If you want any more elaborations on any of these stories, please let me know in the comments and I'll tell the story in another post. :) I didn't expect this to be so long, but I felt like this was an important thing for me to express. Like I mentioned, I really loved my time in Japan this winter. Every moment was an adventure and I made so many amazing memories. 

皆さん、どうもありがとうございます。本当にこの旅行は楽しかったです。日本が大好き！！！

One week till Japan!

That's right. You heard me, people. In about one week I am going to lose basically an entire day to airplane travel as I fly over the Pacific Ocean to the Land of the Rising Sun.

I haven't finished my travel plans yet, but for the most part that's perfectly fine with me since I just want to go out and about to as many places as possible. Some others who travel there frequently have suggested that I just get on a train and go to a more rural spot to walk around instead of visiting only the big cities, and I think that sounds like a fun idea. I almost definitely want to do this in a tea growing area too. But we'll see, we'll see.

My roommate has already left for her winter vacation so I'm stuck drinking my tea all alone tonight. I have three new plants that I love and adore. I haven't given them names yet, I suppose I should wait to see if they can survive the winter without me before getting too attached. You know, like how in Game of Thrones the Wildings don't name their children until they're 3 years old? Hahahaha. I'm going to put a bowl of water on top of the heater to humidify the room for at least a portion of the time I'm away, which will hopefully help them out at least some.

In my loneliness without my roommie, I've also taken to spoiling the heck out of my teapets, ShiShi and KanKan.They're just so adorable and sweet that I can't help but pour delicious tea on them! I really enjoy seeing ShiShi turn dark because of the water and tea and KanKan turn light because of the heat.

The other day I was drinking Fenghuang Dan Cong Oolong from Phoenix Tea (which is AMAZING by the way) in the kitchen and noticed something really pretty. There was a rainbow coming from the window and running over ShiShi's nose!

The sweet smell of the tea, the peaceful lack of any noticeable sounds, and this colorful presentation made that a very wonderful morning.

White Whisperings of Peace at the End of the Semester

Hello, everyone! I'm sorry that it's been so long since I've last posted. Things became very hectic this semester at school. It was very stressful for a while and somehow that made me put off tea a little (still drank, just not as much). But I've made some changes and am very happy to be reunited with drinking tons and tons of tea and being much more stress-free.

For those of you who are unaware, it's the final two weeks of the 2012 fall semester here at Mount Holyoke College. To summarize before I lose sight of how this semester went after my classes finish, my favorite classes ended up being all of them. Haha. I've learned so much and feel that I've grown so much this semester. It's been difficult, and while I don't think any printed letters on my transcripts will show anything stellar this semester I've still learned a lot and have been having a lot of fun. (I'm afraid some of you may be going, "Oh my gosh, what on earth did she do?!" right now, but really, I just bomb-dived in one class and finally dropped it, but not after doing some damage to my work in others. ;^; Haha)

Right now I'm listening to the song on the left, Tears of the East by Phillip Wesley. I absolutely love this pianist. He artfully manipulates my feelings through the delicate and thoughtful way his fingers travel the keys.

While listening to him today, I'm finally enjoying a sample from Phoenix Tea that I'd put off for a long while. I was saving it for a really special occasion, but I've come to the conclusion that if paid attention to properly, every moment is a special occasion and should be appreciated as such. In other words I was really impatient to try this White Whisper Tea from Kenya (page 9).

When I opened the little sample pack, I initially thought that there must've been a mistake somewhere. If I hadn't seen the leaves, I would've thought there was a dried apricot in there instead. I will be the first to admit that I do not partake in a great deal of white teas (you all know me as a pu-erh and green tea person by now, I hope), but the majority of those that I have drank have never smelled like this before. Usually they're kinda flowery, maybe fairly grassy like green tea even. But like a freaking dried apricot?? On The Royal Tea of Kenya's homepage right now there is a small video about them. One of the things the woman in it mentions is that a story about a friend of the founder, Joy, who upon drinking a tea from Joy's family's tea farm remarks that drinking their tea is the equivalent of switching from black and white television to color. This tea demonstrates that perfectly.

The apricots I smelled was remarkably conserved in the flavor. The flavor was a lot more flowery than the scent though, but just when I thought my cup was done a shocking sweet aftertaste appeared. Immediately I forced my roommate to drink it with me. She really enjoyed it and described it as very refreshing.

Anyways, I've just finished my 6th brew of this, and I'm literally swaying back in forth in my chair while listening to these lovely piano tunes because I feel just so happy and serene.

And there is one last post I'd like to make in this post. I knew that technically making tea was considered a meditative thing, but I never really was conscious of that until today. But really, out of love for the tea and the art of making it, you have to be so aware of your actions when making tea gongfu style. You are aware of every piece on the tea tray, the temperature of the water and pieces, the smell of the tea, the way the stream flows as it's poured from gaiwan into chahai, its appearance in the chahai if you have a glass one like me, how it's poured, more about the scent, and finally how you drink it, its taste, and how it makes you feel. I was just reading The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh the other day (and I should mention here how impressive it is that I'm able to do out of class reading at this school), and all that above is basically like the excerpts from the manual given to the novices he talked about. I'm not directly quoting, but it said something like, "Be aware of everything as you do it. When you're walking, walking." It might sound like overkill, but this is my experience with tea and it makes it beautiful and relaxing.

Have a happy day and enjoy your cup of tea.

There is such a thing as too many leaves in a pot...

I didn't think it was possible, but I managed to put in too much pu-erh into too little water. This has caused my tea to be so ridiculously thick that it's almost syrupy! Normally I like this, but this is very thick even for me. When I swirl it around it leaves trails that are noticeable from a distance around the inside of my cup. My solution? You betcha I'm diluting it as I pour it. Hahaha. But oh my goodness, this is just too much tea for one person. I wish I'd made this for a group of people. I suppose this is a good lesson about keeping up with dishes for the poor college student.

To be more truthful though, this is a good lesson about utilizing my resources properly. As I keep reminding you all, I'm a poor college student (much more so now that I finally bought my ticket to Japan for winter break!!!!), and therefore I cannot buy as much tea or teaware as I'd love to. I suppose I could convert this blog into a tea reviewing one, but I find all the background stories around tea (the research and just sharing it with people) to be a more interesting writing topic to me. Instead, I have to be very meticulous in not only what I buy, but also in how I consume. There are a few ways I could do this. Drinking less often is out of the question for me. I end up getting dehydrated when I'm too busy to drink tea for a few days, not to mention I enjoy being happy. It's not very convenient for me to put in less tea leaves when I'm making a brew too, because especially for my cooked pu-erhs, I enjoy them thick. However! I have come to the realization that I have one more option. Use a smaller gaiwan! Here is a picture of all of my tea brewing vessels:

 Normally I use either my brown gaiwan or my small yixing in the back. The yixing is actually a bit bigger than the gaiwan, but still not big enough to overfill my fairness pitcher. I use it for my coooked pu-erhs, and when I finally get around to prepping the flat gaiwan I will decide what I'm going to use it for. All of those are good for sharing with about 6-8people maximum. 

I love my beautiful kyusu. But it's big! Hahaha. It's pretty difficult to make anything in it to drink for just myself. I either do pu-erhs that I can just leave in indefinitely or green teas in cold water so that I don't have to worry about over brewing. I heard I could do this with lightly oxidized oolongs too, so when I open up this one I'm currently keeping safe and sealed I'll try that out.

Finally, draw your eyes to the little cute white gaiwan with plum blossoms in the front. I think I have pictures of it up from before, but anyways, this was my first gaiwan! I bought it in a very nice cute little travel set that I used extensively last year since it included a very nice ceramic tea tray. I haven't used it very much this year though, because finally I bought all of the other tea ware you see (except the black and red yixing in the back which I had before), but I've come to the conclusion that it would be best for me to use this one when I'm making tea for myself. 

In the U.S., we are constantly bombarded with "BIGGER IS BETTER!" I think this trend is going away now, but as this was the theme of my childhood it has definitely left it's subconscious impact. When I bought the plum blossom gaiwan set and the previous yixing teapot, I got their small size for the sake of traveling. In fact, I thought that they would be too small for even one person. No no no! From now on I will be using my plum blossom gaiwan when serving myself. It really should make enough for me, especially considering how many times I get brews out of my leaves. I need to get away from this American "big=good" ideology and more into thinking on the smaller side and keeping everything in moderation. 

By using a smaller gaiwan I use less leaves, am more mindful of how much I drink, and will hopefully avoid wasting good tea in the future like I did with making an entire thick pot of a delicious pu-erh in that large kyusu. Mindfulness and moderation are wonderful principals to live by. Let's hope they help me and my wallet along my college journey.

Review: Decaffeination of fresh green tea leaf (Camellia sinensis) by hot water treatment (Liang et al., 2007)

There are many things about college I love, but almost none more than free access to an unlimited amount of academic research journals. Since the start of this blog, I have promised all of you that I one of the things I would do would be to read and review and summarize tea research articles for you. The post before last I gave you some very small tidbits, but this post I will go much more in depth and I hope you will join the discussion by commenting.

This article, Decaffeination of fresh green tea leaf (Camellia sinensis) by hot water treatment (see bottom for citation and reference link), is not the most interesting one I've ever read. What it ends up saying is that if you boil the fresh tea leaves for 3-5 minutes in the step before rolling and drying (basically replacing the pan frying or steaming part of making Chinese green tea), you can remove around 90% of the caffeine without removing the catechins (what we love about tea).

As many of you know, there is a very large and old witch tale flying around that says that if you boil tea for 30 seconds and then discard that, your tea will be decaffeinated. This study just goes to show again that this does not happen. At 1 minute at boiling of fresh tea leaves (not even what would qualify as green tea) only about 50% of the caffeine was removed while you need to reach at least 80% to be able to consider it decaffeinated. Greater than 80% caffeine removal only happened when the time reached at least 3 minutes at boiling water. (Don't forget that what happens to fresh leaves is different from what happens to any type of later processed tea leaves that we drink from too.) When they tried 3 minutes boiling on processed leaves (what could actually be counted as green tea), they found that the leaves were essentially decaffeinated. Unfortunately by then the cell walls were so broken that 90% of the catechins were also removed, therefore making your leaves useless and likely disgusting tasting. Did I really need to tell many of you that, though? Hahaha. I'm pretty sure that when you read "3 minutes boiling on (green tea)" many of you cringed and/or may have nearly cried at the thought like me. Hahahahaha.

So why does processing the fresh leaves into green tea change the amount of catechins removed? Catechin removal requires breaking the cell walls, which happens when leaves are broken by stirring during pan frying and definitely when rolled and dried. I wonder if this then means that there would be a significant difference between the amount of catechins released into the tea from something like Longjing vs. Gunpowder green teas though? Since one is very obviously rolled more than the other.

Another one of the points it makes in discussing how to decaffeinate the fresh leaves is that the water should be at boiling for decaffeination to happen. Somewhere below the boiling point (between 100C and 75C) the caffeine is no longer removed from the fresh leaf. In their table of results from this part (see Table 2), it's interesting to see that while that basically no caffeine is removed from the fresh leaves at 50C (the lowest of the tested temperatures), a significant amount of catechins are (~10% after 5 minutes). Because their study was about decaffeination as opposed to catechin extraction though, they did not test what happened in processed green tea leaves at these lower temperatures. It seems counter-intuitive to me that while normally catechin removal would require breaking the cell walls, brewing at lower temperatures before those steps also released them.

Even after processing the fresh leaves into actual tea, does do lower temperatures affect how much caffeine and catechins go into the water? Or are the cells so broken by then that there is no difference based on brewing temperature? Based on personal experience, I do believe that lower temperatures change the ratio of what goes into the tea since the taste is different. I just wish I had scientific evidence backing me up and explaining exactly what that taste difference was caused by. Maybe I'll find that in another article.

Reference:
Huiling Liang, Yuerong Liang, Junjie Dong, Jianliang Lu, Hairong Xu, Hui Wang, Decaffeination of fresh green tea leaf (Camellia sinensis) by hot water treatment, Food Chemistry, Volume 101, Issue 4, 2007, Pages 1451-1456, ISSN 0308-8146, 10.1016/j.foodchem.2006.03.054. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308814606002998) Keywords: Decaffeinated tea; Green tea; Black tea; Caffeine; Catechins; EGCg; HPLC; Polyphenol oxidase

Quick post about the increase in ads...

Google AdSense is changing things in December, so in order for me to not forget to change how the ads are placed around my blog, I just changed them early. I'm sorry for how annoying they are, but I'm a poor college student and any chance of any tiny bit of income is very necessary for me.

Don't worry about there being more ads, in December a few of those will go away on their own. I hope in general these ads do not deter you from viewing my blog. I sincerely appreciate each and every one of you who read my posts and if you have any complaints about the placement of the ads or anything, please let me know so I can move things around for you.

Research tidbits! Yay!

I've told you time and time again that I swore I was going to do some "reviews" and summaries of some scientific articles, but just haven't gotten around to it. UNTIL NOW!

Quick update on my tea research obsession: I have 43 research papers on tea in my new tea folder. I've switched over to using gmail a lot more recently, and have found that I also really like using their storage space that sorts with folders and all those fun things and is really easy to upload and even work with online directly. All of these articles have to do with a lot of different things. Many have to do with caffeine, but honestly that's pretty much been said and done.

A lot of the new research coming out has to do with genetically analyzing the differences between cultivars, understanding what genes do what, figure out better compound isolation techniques, understanding compound synthesis and metabolism both in the live plant and in the final production of the different kinds of tea, and a lot about the anti-cancer and anti-viral properties of different kinds of tea. There is a lot I'd like to write about many of these, but some of them I need to do a lot more digging in to before I can ensure that I can convey everything about it with pretty much perfect accuracy.


Now to the tidbits~!
1) EGCG and all those catechins are catalyzed into becoming theaflavins and thearubigins in fermentation! 
2) Salt in the soil increases L-theanine in the leaves!
3) Puerh tea can help fight HIV!
4) You have to consume something like 10,000mg/kg worth of black pu-erh tea before any sort of toxicity appears. (Essentially something like several entire puerh bricks)

And next time I'm going to explore the effects of decaffeinating tea by hot water treatment on taste, based on the results from "Decaffeination of fresh green tea leaf (Camellia sinensis) by hot water treatment" by Liang et al., 2007.

Tea and Language

I am finally starting a tea club at Mount Holyoke! This makes me really happy because then I'll be able to share my love of tea with even more people and help spread much better tea knowledge around instead of all that folklore unsubstantiated info that too many companies and people keep repeating. But really, I just hope to inspire more people to enjoy all the wonders of tea like I do.

One of the things I want this club to do is be involved with the tea community outside of our college. I only really know of one good tea shop in the area, but I wondered a bit about whether the extremely large cities on this coast offered any festivals like Seattle does. So to my absolute joy, I found the Coffee and Tea Festival! It has two dates and two locations, the soonest is in Atlantic City and is from November 3rd to 4th this year. Atlantic City is really far away from Mount Holyoke though, not to mention November is really soon, so I looked at the other location; New York City!!! Woo! Not much has been planned for this one up on it's website yet, but it's not until March (and during our Spring break no less!!) so I have high hopes.

I think this will be really great because finally I'll be able to get more in touch with the tea community here on the East Coast. I love my tea stores over in the NW, but let's face it, shipping is a huge pain (especially for a college student). Not to mention that I am severely limited on where to tell people to try or buy tea over here. This also gives me an excuse to go to NYC (which I've been avoiding because of how people describe it here). Hahaha.

As for how tea has been going these first three weeks at school anyways, it's been great! I've had a ton of tea drinking sessions with old friends and new friends alike. It's made me really happy and I think I've changed several people's minds about tea.

The other day I was serving up some tea in the living room and one student told me that she didn't want a cup of tea because she'd already had some earlier that day. I've since realized that when I'm serving a specific tea, I never want to use the word "tea" again. If you're offering a ride in a Lamborghini to someone who has no idea what kind of car you drive, do you simply say, "Hey, do you want a ride in my car?" No! Referring to a Lamborghini like it's any other car is akin to referring to your child as if they're just a random person. I realized that this has become the same with Macs and other large brand name items like Coke and Skittles. They make you think there is absolutely no replacement for them, even though a Mac is in it's general essence simply a computer, Coke is a soda, and Skittles are just candy. This is how I want to make it with my teas. So from henceforth, I will never refer to a tea I'm drinking or offering as "tea", but exactly what it is. On that evening I was serving up Moon White pu-erh from New Century Tea Gallery. When that student saw how much the others were enjoying the Moon White she decided to change her mind and ask for a cup too. It made me so happy!

I've noticed that just saying "tea" has also created other problems. The other night I posted something about having found a new scientific collection of reviews and research articles on Camellia sinensis and tea and my friend commented that he was shocked that tea was so complicated when he couldn't even decide if he liked green or black tea better. From this I realized that people even clump all greens and blacks etc together! Some of them are fairly similar to each other, and there are minor differences when it comes to a specific type just from a different farm or microclimate (in general, such as *the* Da Hong Pao vs. Da Hong Paos from grafts grown on different farms etc), but no one can really deny the difference between something such as Dragonwell and Sencha. Besides not even being from the same country, they taste completely different! In general, I do like green teas and will say that and clump them all together like that, but I don't think my friend even realized that there were multiple kinds of green tea. Most people's jaws drop when I tell them all kinds of tea (except for tisanes!!!) are from the same plant.

These are fairly big problems, but I think it's essential that we work harder to change how we speak about tea in order to influence how others see it so that more people will be able to understand how many wonders tea has to offer. :)

My Theory- Tea and Mountains and Temperature

I really need to go on top of a mountain and make some tea. Why? Because I was looking at mountain pictures or something the other day when I noticed that the climber remarked that while he was going to make a cup of tea on top of the mountain, he didn't expect it to be any good because the altitude was too high to reach 212 F (boiling temp at sea level).

Here's how boiling temperature and altitude go:

Altitude (ft/m)- Boiling Temperature (F/C)

•  0/0- 212.0/100.0
• 250/76- 211.5/99.7 (This is about where I go to college)
• 500/152- 211.0/99.5 (This is about where I live when on the west coast)
• 1000/305- 210.1/98.5
• 2000/610- 208.1/97.8
• 3000/914- 206.2/96.8
• 4000/1219- 204.3/95.7 (One of the lower elevations of good quality tea)
• 5000/1524- 202.4/94.7
• 6000/1829- 200.6/93.6
• 7000/2134- 198.7/92.6
• 8000/2438- 196.9/91.6 (Pretty much the highest elevation of tea I've seen online)
• 9000/2743- 195.0/90.6
• 10000/3048- 193.2/89.6

As you can see, tea isn't even really grown at an altitude that has a boiling temperature of anything lower than 205/96. Higher quality tea from higher altitudes are grown at places where the boiling temperature of water is even lower, far below 200/93!

So why are we trying to boil our tea at 212/100?

I will tell you from personal experience, tea can brew at basically any temperature, especially green and white tea (I haven't tried it with a yellow, but I suspect yellow would be the same, as with less oxidized oolongs). In an older post, you will notice me brewing Japanese gyokuro with snow. I have yet to record these differences well, but the taste of the tea will change markedly about every 10/6 degrees.

You may be saying, "Well that sounds fine and all for the less oxidized and fermented teas, but the darker teas still need really hot water." and I will disagree with you. They grow black tea at those high altitudes too, you know. Very good pu-erhs come from some very high altitudes. Also, I've always suspected that the reason why I hated red tea (black to all of you Westerners who are new here) was because it was being brewed at too hot of temperatures like is commonly done to all other teas. Sometimes I've also noticed that I really dislike my pu-erhs if they're brewed with boiling water, but I like them better at around 195. So that's where I brew my tea at the maximum.

Here is my tea temp range (F):
White: 1-120
Green: 1-120
Lightly oxidized oolongs: 120-160
Dark oxidized oolongs: 120-175
Red (back) tea: 160-195
Pu-erh (and other fermented teas): 185-195

And note, these are not set in stone and are personal preferences. Also, I don't have enough experience with black teas to really tell you that is my minimum temperature for sure. But I do have one that I've been drinking recently that I like (lychee flavored is why hahaha) and I've liked it at 195.

Why are the ranges so high (especially for whites and greens)? Depends on my mood. Some days I want to be hit in the face by my tea's massive flavor (lower temp) and some days I want a more mellow ride and a hot cup in my hand (higher temp).

Note that the amount of L-theanine and caffeine will change depending on the temperature you brew your tea at. More caffeine is released at higher temperatures, contributing to the mistaken theory that darker teas have higher levels of caffeine. L-theanine is more present in tea brewed at lower temperatures, contributing to the noted relaxing effect and false idea that there is less caffeine in the lighter colored teas (L-theanine counters the stimulatory effect of caffeine). Also note that while L-theanine is noted to be in higher concentration in more white and green teas, it is not absent from the others. I haven't figured the exact specifications of that entirely yet, but I'm getting closer. Ask me if you want my sources for anything, I suppose I should just put up a post and update said post with all my sources anyways.

So in conclusion: drink tea at lower temperatures!

Passed 500 views! And how to fill a cup.

Congratulations College Tea Time blog readers! We have managed to pass 500 views! As much as that makes me happy, I don't really think it means too much important though, especially since I still only have 8 comments, and I think at least 3 of those are mine. Hahaha. So I'll cheer a lot more when the number of comments goes up.

On this unfortunately hot summer night I'm drinking more pu-erh like usual, listening to enya, and enjoying frozen fruit popsicles while reading. It inspired me to write another haiku. So here I am, forcing my silly and poor haiku skills on you.

Frozen fruit and tea,
On a hot summer evening,
Makes a happy me.

 

In addition to this, I've been thinking a lot about the best way to fill up a tea cup. Quick note, I don't think this actually affects the way the tea tastes. Hahaha. But it's certainly important for a few things things.

First off, not burning your or your guest's hands/fingers/mouth.

Being that I value my cups and brewing vessels more than my skin (skin repairs by itself for free, but broken teapots/cups/gaiwans do not and cost money), I suffer finger burns quite regularly. It hurts. Only once it's gotten to the point where a blister formed, but I've had to put on burn cream quite a few times anyways, and did I mention it HURTS??? Hahaha. So I've done some troubleshooting. Normally, as an American I think, I love a full cup. When I worked at Teavana, I noticed customers always acted like the shop and I was being really stingy by only filling the little sample cups 1/2 full. 

Dear sweet customers, the tea is VERY HOT and those iddy bitty paper sample cups are not heat resistant at all. There may be a bit of stinginess involved since it takes a long time to make enough tea to fill those things once they're empty and that's especially troublesome when there are a lot of customers, but really we were hoping that you'd be able to taste the tea in a timely fashion and without causing you physical pain. It's not a conspiracy to steal food and drink from you.

If you think about it, there are three causes of this problem and more or less three solutions to keep in mind when pouring tea for either yourself or guests.

You could brew the tea at a lower temperature and just save yourself a lot of trouble. For green and white teas, this is pretty much my solution. Although that's also because I just plain like the taste of those teas better when I brew them in cold or lukewarm water. 

But for herbal tisanes or oxidized teas such as oolongs, blacks, and pu-erhs though, that's really not the way to go. I suppose you could cool the tea down after you make it, but you've got problems with that too. Tea really does just plain taste better fresh. I am not a bottled tea fan, no matter the brand (out of any I'd probably trust Tao of Tea the best, though I noticed that Smith's has released a line of bottled teas too), because I'm pretty sure the longer the tea is in water the more it keeps doing. I don't know all that it does, but it does something. Hahaha. It's most noticeable with green teas where if you brew it at a higher temperature and then don't drink it quickly the tea will (if originally green in color) turn more yellow usually. I'm pretty sure this is the reason why I have never seen bottled green tea that is actually green unless they put coloring in it. But this is also the reason why I don't suggest putting the tea in the fridge. I will do that every once in a while just because I hate wasting tea if I don't have time to drink all that I made, but like I said, it's not my favorite thing to do. 

Putting in ice is also not my choice because then when the ice melts (which the first few cubes will very quickly) you will be diluting the tea. Some people like to dilute their drinks, but cranberry and grape juice is the only thing I'll do that too. Would you dilute your coffee with water? 

Of course, that brings up putting in milk, which I find a fairly acceptable idea for teas with spices or flowers or just plain black tea. I've never done that to an oolong though and I haven't had enough pu-erh that I wanted to waste to try it out with pu-erh except for one time when I was particularly tired which put me into a super childish "let's mix everything!!!" kind of mood. It did taste good though. And it turned out pink which was really weird. But anyways. That's a topic for another day's post.

If you were absolutely desperate to maintain your tea's flavor and cool it down quickly, I think I'd vote for freezing large glass marbles and using them like ice cubes. The glass won't interfere with the flavor at all unlike unglazed ceramic balls (commonly used to clean water and I've heard it improves tea's flavor, but that's still changing it), rocks, or plastic ice cubes (my fear would be that the heat of the tea would release BPA from the plastic into your drink, and plastic is weird in many other ways). If figure large glass marbles aren't particularly hard to find, and I'd think they'd take the change in heat pretty well which is something I'd worry more about with freezing the cup and then pouring hot tea into the cup. (I like my tea cups a lot)

Which brings me to different cup types! There's really more in choosing a tea cup than you'd imagine. You don't just want to find a pretty one or one with a texture you like in your hands and on your lips or a color to enhance your tea's color, but you also want to consider how big the cup is, the shape, and how thick the walls of it are.

You wouldn't believe the debate about which type of cup holds heat better. Thin vs. thick walled cups. I've heard that many people find that bone china (very thin walls, lovely stuff) keeps the heat in well, but I know that in Japan, winter cups are very thick. I haven't taken any thermodynamics yet so I don't trust any theories I have enough to tell you what I think. Maybe I'll test it out here soon. My mother has a huge (and gorgeous) European tea cup collection which will provide me with cups of much thinner walls. (But yet she drinks instant LIPTON. You have no idea how much it murders me when I see her doing that. It's not like she even uses a bag for crying out loud. IT'S INSTANT. *shudders*)

In some countries, tea cups have lids. I think this mostly goes for Asian ones. Almost all the infuser mugs you find from China have lids, and fancy cups for guests in Japan have lids. The idea in Japan at least is if your tea is hotter for longer, your guest will feel more welcome and stay longer.

Then of course, how much you put in the cup probably makes the most and easiest difference. If you fill up a cup all the way, it will take longer to cool down (and to drink, even those little tiny cups can manage two drinks if you fill them up too much) than if you don't. Furthermore, the tea will also heat up the cup. The advantage of European style cups is definitely their handles. Especially initially, the cup will heat up to only slightly less than that of the tea to where the tea level is inside. So if you pour in the tea to the top, the cup is also going to be hot all the way to the top. This makes it hard to hold the cup without burning your fingers when you're trying to pass the cup or just pick it up to take a sip.

If you cannot hold your cup properly, you're also likely going to spill.

Which means wasted tea, a mess, and probably burned fingers as well. 

Not filling up the cup all the way is an easy fix to this, but not a perfect one. People are still going to spill tea and be clumsy. But still, better something than nothing. It's really not like it hurts anyone to force them to have to refill their cups if they want more. Honestly. I could completely rant here about over-sized USA and that NYC law, but I'll just leave it at that. Hahaha.

When your cup is filled too high it takes more times of drinking to empty it, changing the heat between each drink, making each taste colder than the last till finally you're probably like me and throwing your last half of your cup back in to your pot (I don't do this when I drink with people!) because you want at least warm tea.

Drinks and food taste different at different temperatures. Surely you've noticed that you hate cold mashed potatoes (or something), that ice cream tastes terrible when warm, or that Europeans generally think US beer tastes weak and disgusting because they drink theirs warm (sometimes I hear differently, but I really couldn't say since I don't drink beer)? Heat brings out more flavor. You want your tea to be at its best brewed temperature. But of course you want to drink it. Solution? Just don't pour in as much. Then you get to keep the majority of your tea in the pot where it'll stay hotter for longer than it would in your cup.

What's that? All of those problems had a common solution?
Just don't fill the cup up all the way. :) Ta-dah!

Distance Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

As you know, it's been Ramadan since July 20th, which means no eating or drinking from sunrise to sunset. Just out of sheer laziness, and because I had to get up early in the morning, I had also been abstaining from tea since I usually only had an hour or two after sunset to eat and go to bed and I needed to focus more on protein, veggies, and water.

Tonight however, I finally gave in and made myself some tea! The other day I went and bought some more of that shu pu-erh from the Red Robe Teahouse that I love so dearly and went ahead and made it tonight.

I had completely forgotten what a powerful happy impact tea has on me. Hahaha. About 5 minutes after the 2nd cup, I am in HEAVEN. I didn't quite put in as many leaves into the pot as I normally like, and I may have washed the leaves for a little too long, but oh me oh my does this pu-erh make me purr.

I don't know about any of you, but for me, it feels like most of my emotions can be most easily felt in my stomach region. Hahaha. When angry or stressed out it will be tight, when sad it'll be empty, when worried it's like a pit of snakes, when peaceful it's a little warm ball of sunshine on a breezy day, when excited a bag of butterflies, and when full of homemade applesauce made from apples in the backyard and good dark pu-erh tea it's like this:

At full volume too. Not even kidding.