Pu-erh anyone?

last week i went all out, i got the fanciest, most expensive tea in the place. At $20 for 4 ounces pu-erh is easily the most expensive tea i have had. apparently the store i go to only keeps one can on hand, due to price, rarity, and that nobody buys it.

Pu-erh is a specialized tea from the same region of china as the last tea, yunnan. it is made specifically from old growth plants that closer resemble trees, these stands of wild tea trees are fairly rare and it makes the tea pricier. the whole story is available on wikipedia, it is pretty interesting. another interesting tidbit: it is fermented and pressed into pucks which make it necessary to use a pot instead of making a cup at a time.

pu-erh is thick and dark with a funny fermented smell. it looks like coffee. meg takes her tea with milk (i know, freak) and that really made it look like coffee with a reddish tinge. its flavor is very different from regular black tea, which it is considered to be. it has only a slight similarity and instead is very nutty, it remains surprisingly smooth as opposed to the harsh bitterness of coffee. the fermented flavor does permeate the brew which will take some adjustment, a very interesting sidetrack to my tea tasting adventure, and while not bad it will probably not be one i go back to buy more of when its gone.

Yunnan Fancy

In my continuing quest for tea snobbery i tried yunnan fancy. Yunnan is a region of china, and the tea is black. It was very good standard black tea. it wasn't smoked over anything weird, or fermented extra long or anything out of the ordinary. it was light, and finished clean with a hint of citrus. very much like an earl grey with only the smallest amount of bergamot. the leaves were black, medium length, with occasional yellow long leaves that really accent it very pleasantly.

meg said she liked that one best so far. so much so that i had to buy extra steepers so that we could have it at the same time.

one interesting note about the commercial origins of these teas is that they are all from Peet's Coffee and Teas. It feels kinda illicit to be a starbucks employee and sneak off at night with my tips from work and go buy tea from a competitor. but their tea selection is impressive, and the staff knows all about them, which is refreshing, and if this is wrong, i don't want to be right. Starbucks on the other hand has tazo brand teas (owned by the company) most of which are adequate if not particularly interesting. Though my favorite tea is their "joy" available only during the holidays. i have been told that tazo will be offering whole leaf teas in the coming year, so that may change my opinion.

veteran's day lament

Last night i got an email from the college that said i needed to prove i had gotten my vaccinations (in case i bite the other students, apparently) and so i went rummaging through the archives to find my navy medical record.

as a former corpsman i take pride in the nearly exact facsimile of my actual service medical record that is held in a warehouse in indiana--i think. i know where everything is in it. and i took a moment to look it over before getting to the shot record. I saw dozens of names, most of which i knew, some of which were friends. and i recalled specific instances, like the time i got acute pharyngitis onboard ship in southeast asia and had to get antibiotics every six hours. and i started my own iv. i got to sleep in the hospital ward, in a full sized bed, instead of the cramped racks below. but it was the day before we left the ship, so i had all my worldly possessions with me to carry around.

i saw the work that my compatriots and i did reviewing medical records, holding shot standdowns. mostly i just wondered where they all were now. That is the small burden i bear from my military service. I didn't have to watch them die or lose a limb, and for that i am fortunate and grateful. i made it through my tour uninjured, and again grateful. but i wonder where my brothers are, usually on veteran's day or the 4th. i hope they are happy and well and that their lives have become more than they hoped it would. i'm doing my best to make that happen for me, and i pray that they are doing the same in whatever form that takes.

its amazing the effect that groups of people with different backgrounds all packed together, like they are in the military, can have on one another. i have been molded by their company and their absence.