Roughage

Roughage drank Huo Shan Huang Ya by Canton Tea Co

I was really looking forward to this after having a yellow tea in Shanghai many years ago. I had not seen any since, so it was with great anticipation that I made a pot. The vegetal note was immediately evident when I sniffed the aroma. I drank a bit and let it swirl around my mouth. The tea did not disappoint. As I held it in my mouth the flavour developed: slightly grassy, sweet and slightly nutty making my taste buds tingle for a while after swallowing. Lovely. Although it did not blow me away the way the Anji Bai Cha did, it is definitely among my favourites and I would highly recommend it. I made my pot at 75 degrees with four teaspoons of leaf for 400ml of water and brewed it for 2 minutes.

So, I made the first cup and wrote the notes. I then followed it up with a second steeping, which my wife tried and she commented that it was really citrusy. She also drank most of that cup! I managed to get half a dozen steepings out of the pot without any great loss in flavour, increasing the length of time I steeped it for a little each time until the last one was three minutes. This is a cracking good tea and is on my repeat list now.

2011-12-02 15:10:57 -0500

165 °F / 73 °C

2 min 0 sec

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I am a professional Vikingologist and I like tea! To be honest, I have always liked decent tea, but in 2011 I started working at learning what good tea really is. I am busily expanding my tea horizons quite significantly, much to the chagrin of my wife, who despairs of my enthusiasm. My favourite teas are Darjeelings and sheng puerhs, but I struggle to find black teas (other than Darjeelings) that really float my boat. My absolute favourite teas at the moment are Anji Bai Cha and Dong Fang Mei Ren both from Canton Tea Co, neither of which are shengs or Darjeelings. Seems odd, but that’s the way it is. I do wonder if the scores I give out actually reflect my predilection for Darjeelings and shengs.

I am slowly adding to my experience by trying as many different products as possible. I like to think that I am developing my palate and becoming more learned about tea, but I suspect that may be wishful thinking!

I find rating the teas difficult. Often a particular tea will appeal to me because of my mood, even though it does not get a top rating on here from me. As a general guide, I use the following ratings:

0-25 Undrinkable
26-50 Really not to my taste
51-75 Ok to good
76-99 Always welcome in my pot
100 – There ain’t no such thing as a perfect score!

As I rate teas, I try to revisit my scores and check that my old scores are in line with the new ones.