Saturday Morning Tea

Jun18

With summer officially arriving on Tuesday at 5:16pm, I’m hoping that it heralds warmer, sunny days. Aside from a brief hot spell in May, it’s been mostly cool and rainy this spring in MA. I find it interesting that the start of the warmest season also brings the start of the sun’s descent southward, shortening our days until winter solstice in December when they start lengthening once again.

Last week I reviewed a white tea scented with jasmine flowers. This week I’ve decided to brew up another jasmine tea, this time a green tea called Jasmine Pi Lo Chun.

You probably recognize the second part of the tea’s name as it’s a very famous green tea from China. You may read more about Pi Lo Chun tea here.

While many of the green leaves unfurled from their distinctive curled shape, I found this little guy in my pile of wet leaves.

I didn’t find one single blossom in either one of these teas. That’s because they remove all of the spent blossoms after each scenting cycle. Wow, if you think about it, that’s amazingly tedious work to pick the flowers blossoms out only to do it all over again the next day. For a week!

Sometimes I will talk to someone who is only interested in a jasmine tea that still has the dried flowers mixed in with the tea leaves. I think that there are some available like that. Perhaps they feel it lends the tea a more attractive appearance, looking more like the tea has been actually scented with flowers because they’re visible. Perhaps they feel it lends a more “jasmine-y” flavor to the tea. I’m not sure but I think that both of these teas, the Silver Needles and the Pi Lo Chun, have quite a pronounced jasmine flavor without any dried blossoms at all.

That being said, I find the green tea to be stronger in flavor overall than the white which gives the feeling of a stronger jasmine flavor. Candy sweet and quite floral. Very, very nice…

Next week I have an art guild meeting on Saturday so I’m going to try something that I’ve never tried before. In my 4 years of reviewing teas, I’ve never repeated a post before! Well, I’m going to give it a go next Saturday. I certainly have a library of tea reviews to choose from!

Have a great week, dear tea friends. I hope that you are able to carve out a moment to sit down and relax with a wonderful cup of tea.

“Within your heart, keep one still, secret spot where dreams may go.” ~Louise Driscoll

Saturday Morning Tea

May21

It’s been raining here all week in New England, in fact, the whole northeastern part of the country has been wet. We seem to be stuck in one of those circular weather patterns that just keeps spinning round and round. Much like life when we can get stuck in a certain belief or thought pattern and it keeps going round and round in our mind.

Ah, you wonder….now what the heck does that have to do with a cup of tea? Well, as with anything else in life, we can also develop certain opinions about different types of tea even if we haven’t fully tried them. I’m guilty of this myself.

When I started working for my company back in the mid 90s, I didn’t like green tea at all. Yup, that’s right. I didn’t like green tea. I thought it had a “funny” taste, one I wasn’t used to, one that didn’t match with what I thought of as the beverage “tea”. As with a lot of Americans, I had grown up with just black tea and then pretty much only had a cup when I wasn’t feeling good. And yes, there was a string and a tag sticking out of my cup.

All that changed when I started working at a tea company that has the philosophy of providing the finest loose leaf teas to its customers. I slowly learned to appreciate all of the different types of tea for what they were and yes, I finally opened my mind and my heart to green tea. I learned to stop comparing its flavor to black tea and love it all on its own. I invite you to do the same.

This morning I introduce you to a green tea from China called Green Mao Feng Imperial. “Mao Feng” translates to “Fur Peak” or “Hairy Mountain”, referring to the downy white hairs on the leaf when it is plucked and also to the location where it is grown and harvested. During its processing, the full leaf is rolled into long, thin strands, characteristic of this style of tea.

And just look at the gorgeous intact plucking of this tea. Wow! I find it amazing how the leaves can stay together like that despite all of the rolling around during their processing. I would guess that this leaf has been entirely hand processed.

The tea liquor is a pale straw color with a slight tinge of green. The aroma is sweet and floral which carries on into its flavor.

More sweetness bloomed as the tea cooled, making this an excellent choice to explore as an iced tea. This tea is only slightly vegetal.

As you can see from the reflection in my teabowl, the clouds are finally parting to reveal patches of blue sky. That makes this gardener very happy.

Have a wonderful weekend, dear tea friends!

“Today a new sun rises for me; everything lives, everything is animated, everything seems to speak to me of my passion, everything invites me to cherish it.” ~Anne De Lenclos

Unless otherwise noted, all text and photos are the property of Karen Park Art and Tea, copyright 2007-2011. Please do not “lift” any of my photographs or blog posts for use on your blog or website. Thank you so much for your respect and kind attention.

Saturday Morning Tea

Apr9

I’m still anxiously awaiting the arrival of this year’s first flush Darjeeling teas, as I know I’ve mentioned many times before, one of my favorite times of year. Still not here yet though. There’s been some political upheaval in Darjeeling that resulted in a strike of the workers. So, the first flush season has experienced some ups and downs. I’ve heard that tea is being plucked and processed once again but the first flush season is just about over now. I’m hoping to be able to enjoy a cup by the end of April.

All that said, we were very pleasantly surprised by the arrival of some Pre-Chingming teas from China yesterday. So, in my cup this morning, a Pre-Chingming Pi Lo Chun.

Just look at that fresh, gorgeous leaf!

Chingming, or Qingming, is a festival in China, usually celebrated on the 15th day from the Spring Equinox, or April 5th. It is a day for going outside to enjoy the return of greenery and tend to the graves of departed loved ones. So, Pre-Chingming refers to the tea being plucked before this festival time.

I steeped the leaf for 3 minutes in 180 degree F water. The delicately spiraled leaf shapes unfurled to reveal their spring green glory. Pi Lo Chun tea is one of the most famous types of green tea produced in China. I’ve written about it before here. This tea is from Fujian province.

Because of its very early plucking, the tea is quite delicate, the straw-colored liquor resembling the color of a white tea. The aroma and flavor are light, fresh and vegetal but not overly so. With my first sip, I detected a hint of smokiness that vanished as the tea cooled.

I am giving this early 2011 tea a place of honor in my Hawaiian teabowl. So smooth, so refreshing, so sweetly delicate.

This beautiful spring weekend will be spent walking on the bike path and hiking in the woods. I love getting out into nature at this time of year to smell the fresh air and celebrate all the little shoots peeking up out of the soil. So far, clumps of sunny yellow crocus and one lone daffodil are blooming out in my garden.

What’s blooming in your life?

“Smells are surer than sights and sounds

to make heartstrings crack.” ~Rudyard Kipling

Saturday Morning Tea

Apr2

A clear, bright day dawned today with the promise of warmer temps and a long walk on the bike path for this tea lover. Only a thin, wet layer of snow remains as the only trace of yesterday’s April Fool’s Day snowfall. I bet it’ll be all melted away by day’s end.

This morning’s tea is another selection from the Nepal Jun Chiyabari estate called Pine. Back in February, I reviewed their Pouchong Jade.

Whereas the Jade is a Pouchong tea, meaning a slightly oxidized green tea, this Pine is processed as a true green tea, meaning no oxidation of the leaf at all.

I steeped the beautiful spring green leaf for 3 minutes in 180 degree F water. The aroma arising from my glass teapot is light and vegetal.

The liquor is the color of morning sunshine. Its flavor is light and smooth with only a vegetal whisper. A sweetness lingers in my mouth with each sip from my teabowl.

With April’s arrival and, hopefully, some warmth here in New England, I’m beginning to think of teas that would be great iced and this is surely one of them!

Perhaps you’ve noticed that I’m now marking my photos with a copyright symbol. I think the reason that I’ve never done that before is because I didn’t want to take away from the photo’s appearance. However, I’ve lately discovered that a website is lifting my blog posts on a regular basis and will not stop even though I’ve sent them a letter asking them to do so. I also saw that someone lifted one of my photos to use as their Facebook avatar. In that case, if the person had asked me first, I probably would’ve said yes but they never asked. I find this all very discouraging and have even considered just giving up my blog and bowing away from having an internet presence altogether. However, what’s really stopped me from doing so is that I so enjoy sharing my love of tea with you all. And also my art, of course. So, I will move forward and not let these thieves stop me from doing something I love. Thanks for being there, my dear tea friends.

“April, the Angel of the Months.” ~Vita Sackville-West

Saturday Morning Tea

Feb19

As I sit here and sip my tea, I can feel my whole house shake from the strength of the wind outside. It’s a bit unnerving. We’re experiencing an incredible drop in temps from almost 60 yesterday to the 20s later on this afternoon. The winds are sweeping in a big change. What can I say? It’s late winter here in New England…..

On to my tea…. a lovely Pouchong style tea from the Jun Chiyabari estate in Nepal, called Jun Chiyabari Jade. A Pouchong tea is a very lightly oxidized green tea. Because of the oxidation, some consider it an Oolong tea. I’d like to think of it as being in its very own category, a very unique and distinct tea. The word “pouchong” means “the wrapped kind”, referring to the ancient practice of wrapping the leaves as they were drying.

Back in 2000, brothers Lochan and Bachan Gyawali realized their dream of starting their own tea garden/company and Jun Chiyabari, meaning “moon tea garden”, was born. I wrote about their amazing story here.

A recent article in the Nepali Times wrote about their commitment to empowering women in the tea business. Nearly 80% of their over 230 work force is women.

This is a great photo from the article, showing the women gathered round sorting the tea leaves. A circle of women. Very powerful.

They do a great job. Look at the beauty of that intact tea leaf.

I steeped the leaves for 3 minutes in 180 degree F water. The aroma is sweetly floral, like a lightly oxidized Jade Oolong.

The golden liquor is amazingly sweet, almost as if I had added sugar to my tea. Hints of melon and apricot whisper in the flavor.

I think they’re producing some great teas out of that tea garden. This tea was delicious. And I say “was” because my cup is now empty.

Time to go make another pot!

“You must have a room or a certain hour of the day or so where you do not know what was in the morning paper…a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are, and what you might be…At first you may find nothing’s happening….But if you have a sacred place and use it, take advantage of it, something will happen.” ~Joseph Campbell