Saturday Morning Tea

Jun14

Good morning, dear tea friends! For those of you in my part of the world, I hope you’re enjoying some beautiful, warm late spring weather. It’s been rainy this week in my area, and my garden is in full blooming glory, soaking up all that moisture. Watching flowers bud and come alive in bloom is so rewarding and healing.

Speaking of flowers, my morning tea today is a floral tasting Oolong called “New Style” Fairy Oolong, a special Pre-Chingming production from Hunan province in south-central China. The name Hunan translates to “south of the lake”, the lake referring to Dongting Lake, a floodbasin for the famous Yangtze river. Dongting Lake is famous as the place of origin of Dragon boat racing, a watersport with ancient roots going back 2,000 years. The boats are decorated with Chinese dragon heads and tails for competition events. So much rich history in China!

As you can see, the leaves of this tea are enormous and filled up the infuser of my little glass teapot. I steeped the tea for 4 minutes in 190 F water. The aroma of lilacs wafted up, its fragrance filling my kitchen. Lovely.

After steeping, this leaf released its tightly rolled shape to reveal an amazingly intact leaf.

The pale yellow-green liquor has a soft floral fragrance reminding me of lilacs and orchids. This floral aspect carries over into the taste as the main flavor note. The taste is also rich and buttery smooth with some creamy hints. There’s a whisper of vegetal quality, like fresh greens, in both the aroma and the flavor.

I’m sipping this fragrant tea out of one of my favorite tea bowls, purchased here. The birds are singing merrily outside my window, and I believe I spy a few peeks of blue as the clouds slowly clear. The promise of a walk on the bike path is in the air.

I’ll be back again next week with a new tea to share with you as my daughter is having her house warming party in two weeks. I hope that you all have a wonderful week filled with many cups of delicious tea!

“And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

Saturday Morning Tea

May31

Good morning, dear tea friends! I’m sharing a new tea with you this week because next Saturday I’m leaving early to go visit a dear friend in her new place up on the north shore in Newburyport, MA. It will feel great to go and breath in the fresh sea air and have a wonderful visit with my friend. On to tea…

This morning’s tea has a unique appearance as it is all tea buds. Harvested in Hunan province in China before April 5th, it is called Pre-Chingming Ya Bao white tea.

As I’ve shared with you before, Pre-Chingming teas are harvested before the festival of Qingming (Chingming), usually celebrated on the 15th day from the Spring Equinox. Any teas harvested before that date are referred to as Pre-Chingming teas. In other words, harvested in very early spring.

I steeped the Ya Bao buds for 3 minutes in 175 degree F water. As you can see, the buds retain the same appearance after steeping.

The essence of spring – a new bud just beginning to open.

Can you see the fine downy white hairs on the bud? That’s what gives white tea its name.

The tea liquor is so pale that it looks like water. It has a fresh melon-y aroma that carries over into its sweet delicate flavor. A vegetal hint lingers into the finish.

This is the perfect tea for this tea bowl as it reveals the beautiful spiral shape on the inside of the bowl.

As the tea cools, more sweetness comes out. This would taste lovely iced, with a slice of fruit.

Thanks for joining me for a cuppa today. See you in 2 weeks!

“A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.”

~Elbert Hubbard

Saturday Morning Tea

May24

Good morning, my dear tea friends. It’s been awhile since we’ve shared a cup of tea together. I have been helping a cherished friend make his last journey out of this world. It has been a very hard time. This past week the sky has been weeping cleansing rain from gray clouds with peeks of blue here and there. I have found that grief can be very much like that – torrential rain one minute and then peeks of blue sky the next. I am hopeful that the combination of cleansing raindrops and peeks of sun can bring a rainbow for healing. It takes time though. Tea has been such a solace and comfort. My morning cup today is called GABA Oolong.

GABA, or Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid, is a compound that naturally occurs in the human body. It is the main inhibitory neurotransmitter and prevents over-excitement in our nervous system. Neurotransmitters are what neurons send to each other to either excite of inhibit a signal. You must be thinking – what does this have to do with tea? Well, in the 1980s, Japanese scientists were experimenting with different ways to preserve food and discovered that when tea leaves were exposed to nitrogen, it increased the levels of GABA in the tea. GABA tea then became a staple in many Japanese diets because they believe it has a wide range of health benefit because of its calming properties.

To create the tea, tea plants are shaded for about 10 days prior to harvest, which increases the levels of glutamic acid, a precursor to GABA, in the leaf. After harvest, the tea leaves are placed in stainless steel drums and the oxygen is then replaced with nitrogen for about 8 hours. What does GABA do exactly? I have read that it increases the alpha brain waves, which can improve mental focus and promote a greater sense of well being. That said, my question then is how does the GABA get past the blood brain barrier? A good question for the scientists out there.

I steeped the leaves for 4 minutes in 180 degree (F) water. The gentle aroma is quite sweet with fruity nuances.

The light golden tea liquor is also quite sweet and buttery smooth with notes of cantaloupe and tropical fruit. This lovely fruity tea would make an excellent iced tea!

Thanks for understanding about my long absence and I’ll see you in two weeks when I’ll be reviewing a new Pre-Chingming tea. Until then, dear tea friends, enjoy your tea!

Saturday Morning Tea

Apr26

Good morning, dear tea friends! Since we’ve last shared a cup of tea together, I’ve traveled out to Michigan and back to visit with my family. It was a wonderfully relaxing time, a time to share great food and conversation and, of course, many delicious cups of tea. When I returned home, I found more flowers blooming in my garden – sunny daffodils, crimson tulips, snowy white bleeding heart, pink and purple hyacinth and the tiny purple hyacinth called muscari. Oh, joyous spring!

Of course, it was inevitable that I share a brand new first flush Darjeeling with you! This selection is from the Balasun Estate, located in the foothills of the majestic Himalayan mountains.

Established in 1871, the Balasun Estate is located in the Darjeeling tea district amidst rolling hills and its namesake, the Balasun river. At this time of year, blooming magnolia, rhododendrons and orchids grace the surrounding moss-laden forests, the region being a popular spot for hiking and bird watching. In addition to tea cultivation, the estate also grows oranges, ginger, cardamom and broom grass. It sounds like a lovely place for growing tea.

I steeped the leaves in my glass teapot for 3 minutes in boiling point (212F) water.

The leaf is so green! The aroma is quite vegetal with nuances of floral perfume.

I was so sorry to hear that they’re experiencing a severe drought in northeastern India, a drought that is affecting both Darjeeling and Assam. It hasn’t rained there since February and the leaves are scorching on the plants. They can’t apply fertilizer because it’s so dry and now they are worrying about pest infestations as well. Oh dear. Let’s hope and pray that they receive rain very soon in that part of the world.

The pale golden liquor tastes smooth and very fresh with sweet notes of flowers and an overall pleasant vegetal quality. As I sip a first flush Darjeeling, I always feel like I’m drinking the essence of springtime in my cup. How about you?

My daughter and her boyfriend recently gifted me with a lovely set of tea bowls from Japan. Japan at Epcot, that is, as they vacationed in their favorite place, Disneyworld. I love the wide mouth on this beautifully speckled bowl, perfect for enjoying my tea.

It’s a wet, gray day today with a white blanket of clouds that’s releasing a steady, gentle rain to quench the thirst of the spring plants waking up from their winter sleep. A good day to stay inside, drink tea and play with my beads.

Until next time, enjoy the spring and enjoy your tea!

Saturday Morning Tea

Apr12

Good morning, dear tea friends! It’s first flush season, one of my favorite times of the year. After a long, cold winter, I always look forward to the fresh new teas of the spring. In my cup this morning is a first flush tea, however, as you can tell from the photo, it’s darker with none of the usual green bits of leaf. What’s up?

I’m happy to introduce you to a first flush Assam tea, this one from the Towkok Estate.

The Towkok Estate is located in the Assam district of northeastern India. Surrounded by a nature preserve teeming with wildlife, the western side of the estate borders the Towkak river. The story goes that the tea garden was named after the dancing tortoises found in the river as the name Towkok means “dancing tortoise” in the native Tai language. Thinking of this story as I sip my tea makes me feel happy.

I steeped the leaves for 5 minutes in boiling point (212F) water.

The “Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe 1” leaf designation is of a whole leaf but, as you can see from the photo of the wet leaf, it means big pieces of leaf, not necessarily whole, intact ones. The leaf designations result from a sieving and dividing the leaf process after the tea has been withered, rolled, oxidized and dried.

The amber red tea liquor has a malty aroma with a refreshing minty quality. The flavor is smooth and malty with crisp, bright notes of mint. The flavor lingers ever so gently, enticing me to take another sip.

In the past, I’ve had first flush Assams that are so light-bodied they remind me of a Darjeeling tea. Not so with this tea. It’s rich and malty and easily identified as an Assam tea. That said, the refreshing minty quality sets it apart from the usual flavor notes of second flush Assam offerings.

What have you all been up to lately? I’ve been taking a watercolor class and enjoying playing with the flowing colors. I’ve been teaching myself geometric beadwork and have completed a number of cuffs, which I’m looking forward to sharing with you as soon as I take some pictures. I’m looking forward to visiting my family in Michigan in the coming week. So, lots of abundance in my life to be grateful for!

I’m also looking forward to being back in two weeks when I’ll share a brand new first flush Darjeeling! Oh happy Spring!

“…I hear the sounds of melting snow outside my window every night and with the first faint scent of spring, I remember life exists…”

~John Geddes, A Familiar Rain