Loyal readers let me first apologize for my neglect, it has been several months since i brought you up to date on my tea snobbery. so long in fact that i had to go back to reference which ones i'd mentioned. i am sure that your anticipation has forced you to throw yourself over whatever rocky cliff is nearby, and as your body tumbled and scraped its way--homer simpson-like--to your doom, your only concern was to end the nights of sleepless yearning for new and rapturous tea experiences. your wait is over.
Mildly disappointed by pu-erh, i offered it to some friends at work who had given coffee up for lent. since it needs to be steeped in a larger container, it was really for more than one cup at a time. having made it for them, to show them how (recall that the instructions are a bit odd), i tasted it with the triple filtered, softened, starbucks water, and it was quite good. much better than at home from once filtered tap water (which i tend to prefer).
after pu-erh, i tried lion mountain keemum, another china black tea. it was warm and honey-like, but had a smokey taste like burned paper. not to be confused with the lapsang souchong that was very piney. keemum was tolerable, but not particularly noteworthy. even with the teas that i know after the first cup are stinkers i finish the whole 4 oz., which takes approximately a month. so i try to make the experience better by adjusting steep times, temp, and any other variable i can find to get the best cup possible from that batch.
with keemum out of the way, i moved from china to india black teas. there are only two species of true tea plants (you can make an "infusion" of anything by adding hot water) camelia sinensis which is chinese tea, and camelia assamica which is indian tea. chinese tea has smaller leaves, and more caffeine (generally), most "english breakfast" teas are mostly indian with some chinese added.
first up was assam golden tip. this was a harsh, malty tea. it was very bitter, which is possibly related to the condition of the leaves. Peet's has two offerings of assam, golden tip ($7.50), and extra fancy ($12.50), the difference is leaf condition. golden tip is made of broken leaves, and therefore, lower grade and cheaper price. the result is better than that of tea bags which are the next lower grade as they include "dust and fragments (tea dust, not dust-dust)". the finer the pieces, the more acidic, and bitter (also more caffeinated) the tea. it was very potent, superior to lipton tea bags, and on par with twinings english breakfast for flavor, but slightly harsher.
after that i got darjeeling fancy organic, i had heard of darjeeling teas from a number of pop cultural references, not the least of which the movie darjeeling limited (which i thought was pretty good, but i like wes anderson films). darjeeling, i have heard, is the preferred tea of queen elizabeth 2. well she can have it. i am still almost done with the tin after 4 months. its not that its bad, it just tastes like peanut shells. after enjoying some peanuts, i end up with a container of moist shells that have had all the salt sucked off. if i were to take that container, and then pour assam tea into it and drink it, i imagine it would be similar to the experience of this tea. no adjustment can rid me of the peanuts.
so to depart from darjeeling i got ceylon fancy, a sri lankan tea that is supposed to be lighter and cleaner than mainland indian teas due to differences in elevation on the plantations. i poured a cup for my wife, who subsequently exclaimed "chinese restaurant tea", and she had nailed it. it tastes like the tea in chinese restaurants, which is odd as it is not a chinese tea, but what are you going to do? it is light and citrus-ey, and a little grassy (not orchard grass, just lawn grass). its not bad for the afternoon, but its too weak to drink in the evening.
the final tea for this post is assam extra fancy, which i was apprehensive to buy after golden tip. why buy more of the same when you can get an equivalent experience in bags for cheaper, was my thought. after the first cup i felt like a fool. it was black and acidic, and rather like coffee, not at all what i had in mind. it was terrible. part of the problem was this, i had recently switched from a spoon like steeper with a few largish holes to a mesh ball steeper with fine holes all over. so the mesh steeper is slightly larger and allows for faster expansion and infusion, more holes make it quicker for the tea to get out. it actually changes the flavor and character of the tea, perceptibly. so i tried steeping for 5 min instead of 15 (i like it strong-but not bitter{like my women-forgive me}). and the resulting cup was very strong, and rich, but still a little acidic. so by accident one day--i was in a hurry--i steeped it just less than a minute. the resulting cup was still very flavorful, and rich, but considerably smoother than golden tip and twinings. so far this is the best tea i have found. to give an indication, i still have 2 teas i got before it, and it is long gone.
Mildly disappointed by pu-erh, i offered it to some friends at work who had given coffee up for lent. since it needs to be steeped in a larger container, it was really for more than one cup at a time. having made it for them, to show them how (recall that the instructions are a bit odd), i tasted it with the triple filtered, softened, starbucks water, and it was quite good. much better than at home from once filtered tap water (which i tend to prefer).
after pu-erh, i tried lion mountain keemum, another china black tea. it was warm and honey-like, but had a smokey taste like burned paper. not to be confused with the lapsang souchong that was very piney. keemum was tolerable, but not particularly noteworthy. even with the teas that i know after the first cup are stinkers i finish the whole 4 oz., which takes approximately a month. so i try to make the experience better by adjusting steep times, temp, and any other variable i can find to get the best cup possible from that batch.
with keemum out of the way, i moved from china to india black teas. there are only two species of true tea plants (you can make an "infusion" of anything by adding hot water) camelia sinensis which is chinese tea, and camelia assamica which is indian tea. chinese tea has smaller leaves, and more caffeine (generally), most "english breakfast" teas are mostly indian with some chinese added.
first up was assam golden tip. this was a harsh, malty tea. it was very bitter, which is possibly related to the condition of the leaves. Peet's has two offerings of assam, golden tip ($7.50), and extra fancy ($12.50), the difference is leaf condition. golden tip is made of broken leaves, and therefore, lower grade and cheaper price. the result is better than that of tea bags which are the next lower grade as they include "dust and fragments (tea dust, not dust-dust)". the finer the pieces, the more acidic, and bitter (also more caffeinated) the tea. it was very potent, superior to lipton tea bags, and on par with twinings english breakfast for flavor, but slightly harsher.
after that i got darjeeling fancy organic, i had heard of darjeeling teas from a number of pop cultural references, not the least of which the movie darjeeling limited (which i thought was pretty good, but i like wes anderson films). darjeeling, i have heard, is the preferred tea of queen elizabeth 2. well she can have it. i am still almost done with the tin after 4 months. its not that its bad, it just tastes like peanut shells. after enjoying some peanuts, i end up with a container of moist shells that have had all the salt sucked off. if i were to take that container, and then pour assam tea into it and drink it, i imagine it would be similar to the experience of this tea. no adjustment can rid me of the peanuts.
so to depart from darjeeling i got ceylon fancy, a sri lankan tea that is supposed to be lighter and cleaner than mainland indian teas due to differences in elevation on the plantations. i poured a cup for my wife, who subsequently exclaimed "chinese restaurant tea", and she had nailed it. it tastes like the tea in chinese restaurants, which is odd as it is not a chinese tea, but what are you going to do? it is light and citrus-ey, and a little grassy (not orchard grass, just lawn grass). its not bad for the afternoon, but its too weak to drink in the evening.
the final tea for this post is assam extra fancy, which i was apprehensive to buy after golden tip. why buy more of the same when you can get an equivalent experience in bags for cheaper, was my thought. after the first cup i felt like a fool. it was black and acidic, and rather like coffee, not at all what i had in mind. it was terrible. part of the problem was this, i had recently switched from a spoon like steeper with a few largish holes to a mesh ball steeper with fine holes all over. so the mesh steeper is slightly larger and allows for faster expansion and infusion, more holes make it quicker for the tea to get out. it actually changes the flavor and character of the tea, perceptibly. so i tried steeping for 5 min instead of 15 (i like it strong-but not bitter{like my women-forgive me}). and the resulting cup was very strong, and rich, but still a little acidic. so by accident one day--i was in a hurry--i steeped it just less than a minute. the resulting cup was still very flavorful, and rich, but considerably smoother than golden tip and twinings. so far this is the best tea i have found. to give an indication, i still have 2 teas i got before it, and it is long gone.
3 comments:
I find this blog informative but without pictures....it's a snooze. D
i know, but what kind of pictures do you want? dry tea, containers, color of the drink? how do you photograph flavor and essence? the peet's website has good photos, you can cross reference there.
sorry
Tea pictures.....exactly!!!
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