Tea in Paris

Pictures of our tea moments in Paris early this month. 

Darjeeling Oolong Fancy at Mariage Freres Tea Salon

Castleton, SFTGFOP 1

Mariage Freres Store

Tea Menu at Mariage Freres Tea Salon

I was pleased to find the hotels we stayed in served good Japanese teas. So glad to be able to enjoy those greens at breakfast.  

Genmaicha, my breakfast tea at Park Hyatt Vendome

Sencha, breakfast tea at Hyatt Regency Madeleine - loved the pot!

We found salon de thé everywhere in Paris. A decent pot of tea we had in a cafe across from Museum D'Orsay.

Tea at Le Royal Orsay Cafe

Had a wonderful time in Chajin, a cute Japanese tea room near our hotel in Madeleine. The owner, Carol Negiar used to be an Angelino as well. It was nice to chat about familiar places and sites.

Sencha at Chajin

Gyokuro at Chajin

My husband and I had a perfect experience at Mariage Freres tea market and salon on our first day in Paris that we decided to repeat the experience again before we left the city a week later.

Jungpana SFTGFOP1

Marco Polo White Tea

Mariage Freres Tea Museum

Kenya Silverback Silver Needle - Green Tea Lovers

I participated in an online group tea tasting organized by Chip over at TeaChat. I signed up for Silver Needle round and received the following 5 samples, 8 gram each:

GreenTeaLovers Adam's Peak from Ceylon 

Kenya Silverback from Green Tea Loveres
Rishi Silver Needle Premium Organic (Bai Hao Yin Zhen) from Fujian
Adagio Silver Needle
Rishi Fuding Grand Cru

I tried Kenya Silverback today and used the group tasting discussion as the guidelines. I used 4 grams of tea and 4 ounces water, brewed at 170 for 2 minutes in a shiboridashi.  I found the dried leaves have an unpleasant smell. It smelled like an old tea to me or "bau apek" in Indonesian. (Couldn't find an English word to accurately describe the smell). The aroma of the brewed tea on the contrary, was sweet and had a nice fresh floral scent. I quite enjoyed the sweet flavors of this tea but had to stop after the first brew. Since I am very sensitive to caffeine, one session of white tea is enough to keep me awake all night especially if I drink it this late. So I will continue brewing this tea tomorrow.  

Edit: So  the next day after leaving the spent leaves in the fridge overnight, I had the second and third infusion before noon. The color of the brew as well as the aroma and flavor didn't change much. It's quite refreshing actually. The flavor from the fourth and fifth infusions  was less sweet but it was still enjoyable to drink. Overall I really like this tea. Hope I will like my other 4 samples of SN too.

Blue Moon from T Salon

So we went to T Salon in the West Hollywood neighborhood this afternoon.  It is  a sustainable tea cafe, bar (for teas of course) and market. The store has a huge selection of loose teas.  Most of them are blended teas, which I am not a big fan of.  After smelling about six tea blends, I decided to try the blue moon, a blend of white tea, blueberry and flowers. Out of the six, it was the one that has the least floral aroma and didn't smell like perfume. My husband tried the white darjeeling.

I was pleasantly surprised with the smooth taste of the tea. I liked the aroma of the tea liquor and was glad to find it didn't have strong floral smell either. Yes that's my tea cup on the table. I brought my own cup because that's one of my favorite cups to drink my tea from. While I couldn't brew my own tea at a tea house, this cup will enhance my enjoyment in sipping a cup of tea. 

Lion Mountain Keemun and Snow Leopard White Tea

Lion Mountain Keemun
Setelah sekian lama hanya minum teh hitam yang decaffeinated dan sekarang perlahan-lahan mencoba beralih kembali ke teh hitam biasa, pagi ini saya dan suami mencoba Keemun, teh hitam dari Cina di Peets Coffee & Tea.  Seperti biasa teh disajikan dalam teko keramik yang sudah diseduh oleh baristanya.  Kurang lebih satu menit kemudian, seluruh isi teko dituang ke cangkir besar untuk menghindari daun teh di dalam teko mengalami penyeduhan yang berlebihan.  Air seduhan berwarna coklat kemerah2an dan warna kuning keemasan pada bagian luar seperti cincin tipis di sekililing air teh.  Aromanya sangat khas tidak seperti teh hitam dari Assam atau Ceylon. Agak sulit buat saya mendeskripsikan aromanya secara rinci dikarenakan belum canggihnya indera penciuman saya dalam mentrace aroma teh. Walaupun terasa sedikit strong, tidak ada rasa pahit yang menganggu. 

Karena saya agak sensitif dengan caffeine dan sudah cukup banyak teh bercaffeine saya nikmati dari kemarin, Keemun pun berpindah tangan ke suami yang menikmatinya dengan sedikit gula dan susu.  Setelah saya coba ternyata rasanya memang lebih nikmat. Senikmat teh yang saya minum hampir setiap sore dengan teman-teman seflat di Bournemouth awal tahun 90an. Setelah Keemun berpindah tangan, saya berkonsentrasi ke teh putih yang oleh Peets diberi label Snow Leopard. 

What peets.com says:"smooth, sweet taste characteristic of the finest Keemun teas. Hints of pine and incense. Keemun teas are grown in an area with dense forests and many mountain springs, on hills that form the northern tip of the Huang Shan mountain range. Lion Mountain Keemun is a rigorously graded tea, with only the smallest orange pekoe grade leaves selected for this type. The result is a highly uniform leaf, deep green to almost black, with little visible tip. The tea has a complex aroma, containing perfume-like orchid and smoky incense notes, while the cup is rich and concentrated with sweet, flinty, plum-like flavors. Keemuns are the best keeping of all black teas, mellowing with age but keeping their sweet and aromatic character." 


Snow Leopard
Teh putih yang betul-betul smooth, light dan mempunyai clean taste ini berasal dari Fujian, Cina. Daun teh Snow Leopard aka Snowbud ditutupi semacam debu halus berwarna putih. Rasanya sangat mellow dan relaxing. Saking enaknya, tidak terasa tiga cangkir teh Peets yang cukup besar dihabiskan dengan mudah. 

What peets.com says: "Snow Leopard is the finest quality white tea of the style known in China as Pai Mu Tan, and is made from specially selected varietals of the tea bush. White teas go through minimal processing, but are highly dependent on environmental conditions for their quality. Plucking must occur in spring when the “flush” is at the correct size, and there is no rain or dew on the leaves. The fresh-plucked leaves are first briefly withered in direct sunshine, and then brought into open-air sheds for full withering/drying for a couple of days, where the wind moving over the tea is regulated by shutters on the shed walls. The final removal of moisture is done by very low baking. The resulting leaf style is open and irregularly shaped, composed of whole wilted leaves with whitish tips. Snow Leopard is smooth, with a fragrance reminiscent of herbs, fresh grass, and flowers, finishing with a white grape sweetness." 

Tea in Shanghai

During my short visit to Shanghai last month, a group of us went to South Beauty Restaurant in Pudong area for dinner. I ordered white tea and was surprised to find dozens of leaves floating in my cup. That was the first time I was served tea in China. One of my colleagues then explained that was the practice of serving tea in China. The water is boiling anyway, so you wait for a few minutes until the leaves eventually float to the bottom of the cup. But if you don't want to wait, you can use the lid to hold back the leaves being sucked in while sipping your tea. The wait staff then refills your cup throughout your dinner. The tea was delicious. But of course I forgot to ask the name of it :-( 

My cute cup or gaiwan