pimli

I’ve tried brewing this in a gaiwan about thrice before, with lots of leaf and short infusions, and my results were always off. Either my water must be too hot or my brew times too long. Anyway, just for fun, I tried two pinches of this tea in my 120ml yixing (that’s right. I was probably high on my flu meds o_o) and… steeped for about 2 mins, got the best tasting brew I had so far. However, the second brew came out a little clay-ey, where I could taste the metallic (iron?) factor of the pot.

Would probably not do this in a yixing again. :P However, will def do western style from now on, in my small gaiwan. Also, will try the ‘top-throw’ method, of adding the water to the leaves, instead of pouring water over the leaves. Yay tea-experimenting!

Previously I’ve brewed this western style, with good results. Today I tried 5g in my 100ml gaiwan. 10 second rinse. THEN: I got distracted by the election results on TV (first time I voted today, yay!) and completely overbrewed it. _ I was trying to go for [20, 15, 20, 30, 45 etc], but ended up doing something like [30, 20, 35, 55, 70?, 3 mins??]. You know what I’m not even sure. I was counting silently in my head then it got all jumbled when those heavily hairsprayed people with extremely white teeth on TV started rattling out other numbers.

But thankfully this tea still came out alright, despite my mishandling. I drank all steeps, shared some with my mom, and she even asked for seconds. I did manage to pull together enough attentiveness to get one fantastic brew though, I think it was the third. Now if only I could repeat that…

{_falls on knees_} I’m so sorry Alishan! Next time I promise to accord you the mindful brewing you deserve! ;_;

It’s okay (= not horrible!) brewed Western style in a glass teapot.

And because I was feeling ornery, I poured an extra-strong brew into little plastic baggies and popped them in the freezer to make little ice lollies. A few hours later, peel off plastic, pop into glass/water bottle, pour lukewarm water/tea over it… Et viola! Iced Tea made from, uh, iced tea. .’

PS. Belated Happy Mother’s Day!

This is for the 2009 Spring Buddha Hand, that I got on sale. Admittedly at first sip it didn’t make such an impression, but after a week of letting it settle in its new home, I tried again.

The first steep was at around 1 minute. I didn’t weigh but the dry leaves covered the bottom of my gaiwan. And just to try something out, I used off boiling water (around 95C). Previously I used water that was a little cooler, but I guess this experiment paid off because all I can say is: YUM! I don’t know if it’s supposed to taste like this but it’s like soy milk! It feels so nommy in the mouth, too. So… creamy. Even when it cooled/lukewarm down it was still good.

I steeped the second infusion for less than 30 seconds, and the third at 40-ish, and they came out a little bland. Maybe because I tried a lower temperature. So next time, I’m using off-boiling water for all infusions.

Side note: I gave my mom a glass whistling kettle for mother’s day (Happy Mother’s Day all cool Steepster moms!), and, uhm, borrowed it from her for this session. This is probably the dorkiest thing to say but it was really neat seeing the fish-eye, crab-eye, string of pearls thing going on through the glass. Can’t get that in a plastic/metal electric kettle. So now I’m trying to figure out a way to strap on a thermometer to the kettle so I can practice on eyeballing the temperature through the size of the bubbles.

Last note: omg GIANT LEAVES! No wonder, Buddha Hand. I had a ‘doh!’ moment with that one. The things you learn everyday.

I quite like a good Jin Xuan for breakfast, and this really hit the spot this morning. 5 grams in my 120mL yixing, brewed for good five rounds (30-60, 40, 40, 50, 65) then I surrendered. When my mom arrived near lunchtime I was able to squeeze out two more rounds (wasn’t really counting, probably under two minutes) to fill a huge mug for her. I love this tea. Along with baozhong and alishan, formosa oolongs have been topping my list this month. I really should try more greens…

For the last of my tea experiments for the day, I tried the ice-brew method. I layered about a tablespoon of this gyokuro at the bottom of my banko houhin and plopped a chunk of ice on it. 45 minutes later when the ice melted I took a sip and it was like…. cold veggie stew. I get the sweet, and happily no bitter, but I feel this will probably taste better to me when just a little warm. But this was really fun to try. Might revisit this method again, with ice made from a different source of water.

Satisfactory pseudo-scientific session with this tea tonight. Used a yixing teapot and set up four aroma-tasting cup pairs, into which I poured portions of the tea at different time intervals, noting the batch which tasted just about right to me. Ended up with: 1st round: 50 sec. 2nd round: 45 sec. 3rd round: 55 sec. Could probably have gone for a 4th infusion but was already feeling full.

As always, when I have a victim— uh, family member around, I try to get them to taste with me. Teenage brother’s comment was that it was good, “like iced tea, but hot”. I think it must be the fruity taste, which doesn’t register as ‘peach!’ to me, but just a hint of some fruit. I like it that way. Using aroma cups was also a treat, because the smell hits you, like when you open a can of powdered tea mix and some of the powder gets into your nose… Ahaha. Sorry for the pedestrian references. I grew up in a household of cola and chips, not tea and biscuits. :P

Usually I try to do the ‘observe spent leaves’ step, just out of obedience to routine, but my reaction is often “Ookay, wet leaves. Moving on.” But this was one of the few times I oooh-ed a bit at what I saw. Before steeping, the dry leaves look like a confused mix of brown, green and white. But after steeping the leaves were a beautiful glossy dark red, with some dark green. Looked very much like autumn.

Last side note is that after sipping quite a bit, I felt a fuzzy, powdery layer on my tongue. Maybe tea dust? because I didn’t use a strainer, nor did I rinse. Guess I’ll try that next time.

Quite a yummy afternoon cup. Brewed 3g in 8 oz water, in a small glass teapot because the two separate layers of green leaves gently swaying below, then the light brown rice bits and the occasional white puff floating on the top look so… cute? Idyllic? I don’t know what I’m saying. But it was a joy to make this cup. Will go for another tomorrow.

I must be doing something wrong, or I’m having a bad tea week (but only with this tea?) because my sample tin is almost gone and I still have yet to produce a cup that has all that supposed honeyed peach ginger lychee goodness that other Steepsterites are raving about. I tried brewing in two different porcelain gaiwan, a glass gaiwan, two different yixing pots… using different water temps (from 190 to 200+), diff quantities, diff times… Gah. I even tried leaving the container open for a minute to let the leaves ‘acclimatize’. The best result I had was when cold brewing, but there was a rubbery taste I got like when I brew the Adagio peach oolong. Maybe my taste buds are off, maybe they’re wired wrongly and instead of “mmmm peach” they like to send me “ech, rubber”. Just for fun.

But, I will persevere! At the very least, I’ll have an empty tin to use to store other more cooperative teas.

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Cold brewed by plopping a heaping teaspoon into a large water bottle (around 20oz), filled with cold water and left in the fridge for a couple of hours. I have one of those I bottles with a removable strainer at the bottom, so when the tea looked nicely tinged just inverted the bottle, screwed off the bottom lid, took out the strainer with the spent tea leaves, then screwed the lid back on. Very easy! And what I got was a sweet, refreshing drink that was good to sip on even when it turned lukewarm. (Some teas taste bad/blah to me when not taken hot.) Great for summer. Definitely trying this style of preparing Four Seasons again.

Prepared in a huge glass gaiwan so I could see the leaves swirl. So pretty. At first I was getting blah washwater brews because I was so afraid of scorching the leaves that I used lower temperatures. But using water near 190F actually tastes a lot better. Yum.
Leaving the ‘root’, I was able to get two more infusions.

Must try it chilled some time. I’m quite happy with this. Of course, I can’t compare it to the more expensive Nonpareil grade, but to my untrained palate this mid-level Superfine tastes pretty good. (and quite a lot better than my sampler from Adagio. Good thing I didn’t give up on Dragonwell so soon.)

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Steeped in ingenuiTEA, with more leaf than usual. Then added brown sugar and served iced. It’s okay, but has a rubbery (??) afterscent(?) I’m not too fond of. Nobody else seems to notice though. Left this out in the open— and not locked up in my special tea cabinet :P— for public consumption.

mmm…. Yummy!

This was one of the four oolongs I got in the Competition sampler pack, and I can see myself having this particular one quite often. Can’t wait to try it cold-brewed.

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I have this in the “Light Classics” packaging which says this is a “delicate tasting tea”. Uh. Not.

I first followed the instructions on the envelope, which said to steep for 3-5 minutes. I decided to go with 3 minutes. I took a sip, and promptly spit it out. I know Darjeeling is astringent, but geez. That was horrible.

However, steeped a little under 2 minutes, it’s alright. I like the light golden color, and the faintly floral smell. Having it now iced with a little sugar, and it’s like the watery stuff you get in restaurants. I’ll try to use it up this way (I got a box with 50 bags. sigh) but I don’t really like it enough to buy again.

It’s actually okay. I don’t know the exact difference between this one (with the chinese character on the box, and individually wrapped bags) and the regular “Clear Green” tea bags, but I prefer this one. Perhaps it’s a little less bitter. Yummy in the morning with a Nutella sammich.