I hope I don’t die. Well, I know I will die someday, but I mean right away, because I am doing something I probably shouldn’t do and have never done before. I am steeping leaves from over 24 hours ago! O.O
If you don’t see any more posts from me, please send my husband a card. And tell my kids I said I love you, clean your room.
This tea has a learning curve! But I am enjoying learning about it! I should never have used that whole chunk in my small pot, even in a big pot! Today as I poked through the leaves I saw how ferociously compressed these are! This is a lot of leaf. I took two bundles about a rounded teaspoon in size and put them in a larger pot than I used last time. This may be a wee bit on the weak side though, so next time I would use three. This has been through multiple steeps but there is still nice flavor here. The liquor is golden brown and there is a pine-y taste or maybe it is cedar! It is sweet and smooth, like tea aged in a wooden cask. This reminds me a wee bit of that taste in Mengku Palace Ripened Golden Buds – a sense of antique wood polished with Murphy’s for decades, maybe centuries. Minutes later, the sweet aftertaste rises like a soft breeze, like a gentle ocean wave rolling in. Aaahhhh. This is a tea to which you want to pay attention!
I can’t buy any more of this right now because I just ordered the Moroccan Mint glasses they sell at Harney and Sons! (Missy, that is why I havent tried those samples you sent me yet! I want to do a head to head comparison between them all in the real glasses. LOL!)
When I build the tea budget back up, though, this one is on the list.
If anyone else tries it, I recommend doing whatever you must to get that clump broken, remembering it will expand GREATLY and you don’t want to waste it!
Thank you, Russel and Harney and Sons for this special treat!
People who liked this
Comments
I had an e-mail on how to save leaves. Spread them out to dry then cover for use later. You want to prevent bacterial and mold development. I live in a super dry climate so leaves dry in 20 minutes. I save leaves all the time. Reuse for iced beverages or elongated brews.
Oh, thanks, Bonnie! I will definitely do that! I will be saving these for more infusions and more experimenting. This is a fun tea! I guess it is mostly because it is a new type for me.
I reuse leaves from the day before all the time. Especially sheng or sheng-like teas.
I find that if you keep them damp, they steep better, but obviously that radically shortens the amount of time you can keep them.
As for the compression of the leaves and how much to use. Yes, you want a big, open space. I have read people who use yixing and then cram it full of leaves, but I genuinely believe this is not the best approach.
I do a lot of my steeping in open top pyrex and I’m finding with sheng and sheng-like tea that less leaf is actually better because you avoid the extremely sharp, biting flavor that comes from lots of cramped leaves.
When I do sheng in my gaiwan, I’m only using an ounce or two of leaf at this point. The results are fantastic.
Yes, Jim, and this tea was fine while it was still so tightly compressed because there just wasn’t much actual leaf exposed to the water. As it loosened up, I could see there was waaay too much in the pot to continue! I often steep leaves a day after, but I think I actually drank this one Monday, so it has been sitting in a one cup measure in the kitchen since then! I read when I first started looking at steepster to keep the leaves wet for resteeping, but you are right, I think that should only be if you will use them the next day . There is so much leaf here I will not be able to do that, so I will dry part and keep part wet for steeping throughout today.
Hey, you’re pouring boiling water on it. What can go wrong?
Lol I totally get it. I have tea faceoffs too. :)
I had an e-mail on how to save leaves. Spread them out to dry then cover for use later. You want to prevent bacterial and mold development. I live in a super dry climate so leaves dry in 20 minutes. I save leaves all the time. Reuse for iced beverages or elongated brews.
Oh, thanks, Bonnie! I will definitely do that! I will be saving these for more infusions and more experimenting. This is a fun tea! I guess it is mostly because it is a new type for me.
I reuse leaves from the day before all the time. Especially sheng or sheng-like teas.
I find that if you keep them damp, they steep better, but obviously that radically shortens the amount of time you can keep them.
As for the compression of the leaves and how much to use. Yes, you want a big, open space. I have read people who use yixing and then cram it full of leaves, but I genuinely believe this is not the best approach.
I do a lot of my steeping in open top pyrex and I’m finding with sheng and sheng-like tea that less leaf is actually better because you avoid the extremely sharp, biting flavor that comes from lots of cramped leaves.
When I do sheng in my gaiwan, I’m only using an ounce or two of leaf at this point. The results are fantastic.
Yes, Jim, and this tea was fine while it was still so tightly compressed because there just wasn’t much actual leaf exposed to the water. As it loosened up, I could see there was waaay too much in the pot to continue! I often steep leaves a day after, but I think I actually drank this one Monday, so it has been sitting in a one cup measure in the kitchen since then! I read when I first started looking at steepster to keep the leaves wet for resteeping, but you are right, I think that should only be if you will use them the next day . There is so much leaf here I will not be able to do that, so I will dry part and keep part wet for steeping throughout today.
Hey, you’re pouring boiling water on it. What can go wrong?
Lol I totally get it. I have tea faceoffs too. :)