2006 Yi Wu Pu-erh

First time I tried Yi Wu pu-erh. Very delicious. I will definitely buy more in the near future. I am easily finishing the 28 gram sample that was bought from Pure Puer. According to vendor's website the tea was hand picked and made from ancient pu-erh tea that are 500-800 years old. Very delicious.

Factory: Jin Yu Xuan
Harvest Year: Spring 2006
Type: Raw/Sheng
Harvest Area: Yi Wu Mountain

Kaboku Sencha - Ippodo

Delicious asamushi sencha we picked up at the store in Kyoto last year. It has been opened for about a month, so I plan to finish it very soon.  Granted it was not as fresh as when we first opened, but it was still delicious. 

2009 Winter Alishan - Floating Tea Leaves

What a sweet fragrant and refreshing taste! Alishan oolong termasuk dalam kategori Gao Shan (high mountain tea) dari Taiwan. Berasal dari perkebunan teh yang berlokasi di ketinggian 1000 - 2300 meter di sekitar Gunung Ali di Taiwan. Ciri khasnya antara lain medium oksidasi dan daun kering yang meringkel. 

Saya seduh di gaiwan yang berkapasitas 120 ml. Rasanya manis dan light  - enak banget. 

Teas on holiday...

Our office is closed in observance of Chesar Chavez Holiday today. Yippe! We started the day with a delicious bowl of organic matcha Tenkei Tori from Yuuki-cha that has become our favorite.  Since we first tasted this matcha about a moth ago, when we're home, we never start the day without it.    


Around noon before we left the house to run some errands, we enjoyed 4 infusions of Ippodo's Gyokuro Kanro. We always find this gyo to be very concentrated and smooth, but today we were also rewarded with a sweeter taste than ever. We were wondering wheather the beautiful Yamane Seigan cups had anything to do with this?

We finished the day with 7 infusions of 2009 Farmers Choice Baozhong from Floating Tea Leaves with a yummy pecan bars we picked up earlier from our favorite cakes shop, Jamaica's Cakes.  

Matcha Latte

For some odd reason, I was craving for a warm drink with milk this morning but at the same time I also wanted to have my matcha. Preparing and drinking matcha has been my morning routine for a while now and I really enjoy it. So I combined the two and made myself a nice cup of matcha latte!

It was so goooood.... and was very easy to prepare.

Here's my method:

1. Pour 2 chasaku of shifted matcha into a warm bowl or a cup.
2. Add about 100 ml warm water, and whisk with a chasen or a small whisk until the tea gets frothy.
3. Add warm soy milk and stir. 
4. Enjoy every sip of it with a big smile.

I like the taste of matcha by itself so I don't add any sweetener to my matcha drink.

Organic Hojicha from Yuuki-Cha

When I find myself craving a pot of tea in the late afternoon like today, I always turn to hojicha, a Japanese roasted green tea, that is supposed to be very light and low in caffeine. I agree the very light part, but not sure about its low caffeine content as I am always having a hard time falling asleep after sipping hojicha in the evening. I guess it's just me being extremely sensitive to caffeine. I read hojicha is normally served to children and elderly in the hospitals in Japan.

Hojicha that I brewed today was from Yuuki-Cha. I always loved sniffing the aroma of the dry leaf.  Its light smoky fragrant reminded me of the aroma of the banana leaf used to wrap lemper, an Indonesian snack made of sticky rice and chicken. My preferred brewing vessel for this hojicha is a ceramic teapot -  its spout was pictured on this post -, it's a part of a set that was gifted to me by a group of very kind Japanese women in Miyanoshita in 1991. For some odd reasons, the brew from this ceramic pot always came out very mild, smooth and sweet. Just a lovely cup of tea to sip. 

Vietnam Note de Lotus dan Hanami Imperial - Jin Patisserie

The tea adventure continues.....
Hari ini kami mencoba teh hijau Vietnam Note de Lotus dan Hanami Imperial Tea di Jin Patisserie.  Dari informasi yang tersedia di menu, Vietnam Note de Lotus dihasilkan dengan cara mencampurkan bunga teratai segar yang dipetik dengan tangan hanya pada musim semi  kedalam teh hijau. Konon proses pencampuran seperti ini pertama kali dilakukan oleh Raja Tu Duc dengan cara menyebarkan teh hijau kedalam danau yang dipenuhi bunga teratai. Sementara Hanami Imperial adalah teh hijau Jepang (tidak ada informasi jenis yang mana) yang telah dinifused dengan  bunga sakura.  Disebutkan juga bahwa pada awalnya campuran teh dengan bunga sakura ini terbatas untuk kalangan kaisar saja. Tetapi sekarang dinikmati oleh orang Jepang untuk menyambut musim semi dan sebagai atribut ke bunga sakura.

Suami dan saya sepakat kedua teh hijau ini tidak terlalu istimewa, bahkan terasa aneh untuk teh hijau. Lebih terasa seperti herbal tea karena tidak bisa ditraced rasa khas teh hijau sama sekali, terutama Hanami Imperial. Mungkin karena kami berdua cenderung lebih menyukai rasa teh hijau murni tanpa campuran apa-apa. Tapi pada akhirnya kedua teh ini dihabiskan  tanpa kesulitan dengan dibantu oleh sepotong venetian - flourless chocolate cake untuk saya dan poire - Poached pear flambé wrapped in dark chocolate mousse & Pear William crème -  untuk suami. Rasanya kedua jenis teh yang kami coba lebih cocok untuk dinikmati sebagai teman minum home-made cakes mereka yang rasanya memang boleh dipujikan.  

Teh yang tersedia di cafe ini berasal dari Theodor, Tea House di Paris.  

Megami Sencha - Royal T

Our tea adventure today brought us to Royal T Cafe in Culver City. It's a tea cafe, shop and art gallery combined. The main space is very open, bright and has a cool ambience.  It's really a fun place to enjoy your foods if you don't mind your wait staff wears French maid outfits. 

We scouted down their tea menus before checking out their lunch items. I decided to get one of their classic brews, Megami Sencha from Kagoshima region. To go with it, I ordered roasted beet salad. The husband tried Iced Kyoto Sunset from their modern brews list.  It's a premium Ceylon black tea with apricot flavor and a peach syrup on the side. He enjoyed it with Kobe beef burger which was really tasty. The sencha was delicious with spinach, slightly grassy flavor and very smooth. I will definately include Megami sencha in my next tea list. The color of the liquor reminded me of the color of ocha we had in one restaurant we visited in Tokyo