Tenshin

Our teacher will go back to Japan in December so today was the last day of our tea lesson.  As always we had a great time studying, eating delicious Japanese sweets and drinking a lot of koicha. Around noon, the teacher asked us to stop practicing because she was going to serve tenshin (a light meal for tea gathering). What a wonderful surprise! I have been eating vegan only for the last 5 months, I could have given the grilled salmon and sashimi to the other students.  But I decided to eat them anyway. She thoughtfully prepared all dishes and it was a special day after all. The least I could do is showing my appreciation for her efforts and kindness. I didn't regret it. Thank you sensei. Mata ai ma sho. 

Honyama Tokuju shincha

Drinking the sweet tea water of Honyama shicha from the 5th, 6th, and 7th infusions. After the 4th infusion of the morning session, I put the tea in the fridge and brewed it in the afternoon with boiling water for 3 minutes, 4 mins, and 5 mins respectively. 

Decanted the tea into my Pink Shino Chawan by Chris Chaney and enjoyed it after it cooled down. While it obviously didn't give me the bold flavors (and the astringent and grassy character were gone as well),  I enjoyed its delicate and lighter taste. And it was also good with Amedei Chuao.

Today's Matcha

Honzu matcha harvested in Ogura, Uji from Postcard Tea in Michael Coffee's chawan.

2009 Lalashan - Floating Tea Leaves

Setelah menikmati oolong dari Alishan dan Lishan (termasuk dalam kategori high-mountain tea dari Taiwan), sayapun ketagihan dan ingin mencoba variasi lainnya dalam kategori ini.  Pilihan jatuh ke teh oolong dari Lalashan, perkebunan teh yang berlokasi di Taoyuan yang konon hampir sepanjang tahun tertutup kabut, suatu kondisi yang ideal untuk perkebunan teh premium. Disebutkan juga belum banyak orang yang mengenal keberadaan Lalashan oolong, termasuk di Taiwan sendiri.  Konon daun teh yang dipanen di Lalashan dibawa ke Lishan dan di jual sebagai Lishan oolong. Kolega saya yang orang Taiwan dan sempat  bekerja paruh waktu di pabrik teh di Taiwan saat usia sekokah malah bengong ketika saya tanya tentang oolong Lalashan ini. 

Lalashan yang saya coba dari FTL adalah medium roasted yang dipanen pada musim dingin tahun 2009.  Daun teh keringnya  bulat meringkel mirip oolong Alishan dan Lishan. Air seduhan sangat bening dan bearoma fruity dan terasa manis. Saya mencoba mentrace rasa peach seperti yang disebutkan beberapa vendors. Karena Lalashan merupakan daerah penghasil buah peach, banyak yang menyebutkan oolong dari Lalashan mempunyai rasa  seperti buah peach, yang sayangnya tidak saya rasakan. Yang jelas teh ini terasa sangat potent, rich dan walaupun diseduh sampai 7 kali, rasa dan warna air seduhan tidak berubah. Daun hasil seduhan terlihat mulus dan utuh, tidak bolong-bolong. 

Tea with a view

The view from Les Remparts

During our trip to France, we visited several beautiful small towns in the Cote d'Azur aka the French Riviera. One of them was Eze-Village, a small medieval village located between Nice and Monte Carlo, sits on a narrow rocky tip overlooking the Mediterranean sea and St jean Cap Ferrat. 

Darjeeling from Dammann Freres  

The tea above was enjoyed at Les Remparts of Château de La Chèvre d’Or. 


The site was pretty spectacular where souvenir shops, galleries, cafes were carved into the stonewall. There were no crowds when we were there. So it was really nice to leisurely walked around the site without having to bump into other tourists. Strolling the narrow lanes made me feel like I was wandering around a fairy tale village. 

Eze-Village

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

2010 Kanayamidori Shincha

Vendor: Yuuki-Cha
Type: Asamushi
Varietal: Kanayamidori
Origin: Shimizu, Shizouka
Brewing vessel: Kuro Sendan Tokoname kyusu (with a sasame ceramic strainer) by Houryu

2010 Spring Alishan - Floating Tea Leaves

Varietal: Chin Hsin Oolong
Region: Alishan ZhanShuHu 
Varietal: Chin Hsin Oolong

Iced Matcha au Lait

The warm weather continues......
No hot matcha today.  Instead, I had this delicious and refreshing cold drink: Iced Matcha au Lait. Yum.

Here is my method:
1. Pour 2 chasaku of sifted Matcha into a cold glass.
2. Add 100ml iced water, and whisk with chasen (bamboo whish) until the tea gets frothy.
3. Add soy milk and stir.  Then add ice cubes and enjoy!

Cold brew Teas

The weather has been hot lately as June Gloom is finally over.  The thought of having a cup of hot tea is not really appealing so I decided to cold brew my teas this week. After searching online for how to prepare cold brewed teas, I decided to try brewing my teas with iced water and left it overnight in the fridge. First try was saemidori shincha. Wow I really liked the taste!  It was sweet,no bitterness, less astringent and very refreshing. 

Then I tried other type of teas that I normally brew hot; oolong, darjeeling and matcha. I liked all of them too. I am very pleased to know that I can still enjoy my teas even in very hot days! Life is good.  

2010 Farmer's Choice Bao Zhong from Floating Tea Leaves

2010 Organic Honyama Tonkuju Shincha

This is one of my favorite shincha teas this year; it has a sweet and delicate taste which I really like for my green tea. Look at the beautiful leaves!

The spent leaves do not look bad either. 

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.

Today's Matcha

Organic Marukyu-Koyamaen in Ericka O'Rourke's chawan

2010 Spring Farmer's Choice Baozhong - Floating Tea Leaves

I really liked the 2009 Winter Famer's Choice Baozhong from Floating Tea Leaves. So while in Seattle early this month, we stopped by FLT to see if Shiuwen, the owner of FLT, brought the 2010 Spring harvest of this Baozhong from her recent trip to Taiwan. I was glad she did. She kindly invited us to have some teas with her.

I tried the Baozhong today and compared it with the 2009 Winter. While the 2010 version was not as great as the 2009 version, it was still delicious!

1st and 2nd infusion