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

Mar26

The sun is shining in a deep blue, early spring sky as I begin my day with a cup of Darjeeling. I wish I could tell you that I’m enjoying a cup from this year’s first flush harvest season but they haven’t arrived just yet. This is a cup of an autumnal Darjeeling from the Sungma estate, harvested last fall.

Darjeeling, located in northeastern India, has 3 plucking seasons, first flush, second flush and autumnal. Sometimes there’s a plucking that’s not quite first or second flush and is called “in between”. The autumnal harvest isn’t as famous as the first and second flush, however, it produces a wonderful tea with the characteristics of Darjeeling yet with a much mellower and smoother flavor profile.

As I do with most Darjeeling black teas, I steeped the leaves for 3 minutes in boiling point (212 F) water.

The rich liquor glows like dark honey in my glass teapot. As I pour my first cup, a delicate fruity aroma wafts up.

The flavor is incredibly smooth with bright notes of fruit. This would be a great tea for those tea lovers looking for a deeper yet mellow Darjeeling cup. It doesn’t have any of the green astringent notes of a first flush or the bold muscatel notes of a second flush.

I love how the deep blue of the sky mixes with the rich color of my tea.

Sky and earth, water and fire.

My grandkids are visiting from New Mexico right now and I am having such a grand time immersing myself in the little ones’ world. Monday we’re headed into Boston to visit the New England Aquarium. Ella can’t wait to see the fishies!

Enjoy your weekend, dear tea friends!

“The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience.” ~Emily Dickinson

Saturday Morning Tea

Mar12

My thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Japan and all those affected by the earthquake and tsunamis. May they find shelter and comfort during this tragic, frightening time.

A couple of weeks ago, I reviewed a Shawlands estate Ceylon OP1 here. One of my readers requested that I review another lot from that very same estate, this time the Shawlands BOP1, BOP meaning Broken Orange Pekoe, more simply a broken leaf tea.

The long threads of leaf really don’t look broken to me, their appearance being very similar to the OP1 leaf.

I steeped the leaves for 4 1/2 minutes in boiling point (212 F) water, the same as the OP1.

After steeping, the broken pieces are revealed along with pieces of stem, the long threads I saw in the dry leaf.

You might be thinking to yourself, now why aren’t these teas the same since they come from the same tea estate? The subject of single estate tea lots is an interesting one, a subject I usually address at least several times a week at my job. Customers will wonder why we “discontinued” a tea. In other words, we sold a particular tea and now they want to purchase it again but we’re unfortunately sold out of it. Can’t we just get more? Well, we might be able to purchase another lot from that estate depending upon what is produced the following year but it won’t be the exact one that sold out because that lot was from a previous harvest.

Ah, what gorgeous color – a glowing copper that invites me to take my first sip.

Tea is plucked and then processed as individual lots. Each lot will be different from the others even though it might have come from the same tea estate, the same land, in the same country. This is because there are so many factors that contribute to the ultimate flavor of the tea, including the exact moment of the leaf’s plucking, or harvest, and its processing.

All that being said, the flavor of this tea IS very similar to the tea from 2 weeks ago, however, the mintiness is much less pronounced. The tea liquor itself also feels thicker in my mouth with a smoother character. I enjoyed its medium body very much without milk or sweetener.

A beautiful, deep blue sky, just on the cusp of spring, is reflected in my cup. Joy…

I encourage you to try cupping 2 teas from the same estate, side by side. Notice the difference in the dry and wet leaf, the color of the tea liquor, the aroma and the flavor notes. It’s fun to do and also helps to refine your tea drinking palate. Enjoy!

“The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience.” ~Emily Dickinson

Saturday Morning Tea

Mar5

The hard edges of winter continue to soften as temps creep up over the freezing mark and snow and ice transform. As we start the transition from one season to the next, it’s almost as if nature is holding its breath waiting for just the right moment to burst into life. I find my mood these days to be just in the same place – poised and waiting. Waiting for warmth. Waiting for growth. Waiting for nature to rebirth itself in its continuing cycle.

I’ve strayed a bit from my usual choice of Darjeelings this morning. Not a first flush, not a second flush, not even an autumnal but a Darjeeling Oolong. Tindharia estate Oolong tea.

Most of the teas produced in the Darjeeling tea growing region of northeast India are black teas. Some are green teas, rarer are white teas but rarer still are Oolong style teas. I don’t have any information on the oxidation level of this Oolong but if I had to guess, I would say it’s low.

The leaf is much bigger than a Darjeeling black tea and wow, look at that intact fine plucking of the upper leaves and bud. I love to find a leaf set like that as I sift through the wet leaf. Taking photographs of the tea in all its steeping stages has given me a finer appreciation of how the tea leaf makes its journey from bush to cup. It gives me an awareness that I wouldn’t usually have. It’s amazing what you see when you look at something very closely.

I steeped the leaves for 4 minutes in 190 degree F water. I find its light golden color to be more in line with a green or white tea as well as the vegetal, almost herbaceous flavor notes and aroma.

Isn’t this a gorgeous teabowl? My friend got it for me in Hawaii on his recent vacation there. The glazing reminds me of cake icing. Mmmm…

As my tea cools, I detect a fruity, almost muscatel flavor note. Oh, there you are, Darjeeling flavor. A whisper of peach reminds me of a Fancy Oolong from Taiwan. This tea has an incredible range of complexity.

I love the pattern of cracks on my teabowl. I wonder if they fired it in such a way that it was intentional. Intentional or not, I love its character. It makes me want to peer more closely at it to discover its wonders.

Just like with my tea leaves…

“We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.”

~T.S. Eliot

Saturday Morning Tea

Feb26

Can you feel it? The air is softening with a glimmer of hope as we near the month that will bring us the very first day of spring. Ah, music to my ears!

Hello March, you are most welcome here in New England where we’ve felt winter’s brutal force most keenly this season.

To celebrate March this week, I chose a fresh, bright Ceylon called Shawlands estate OP1.

Many teas from Sri Lanka and India have letters after their estate name, in this case, “OP” which stands for Orange Pekoe (rhymes with echo). It doesn’t refer to the flavor of the tea. It is simply a leaf designation. OP refers to a whole leaf tea. If you’re interested in learning more, you can read about this subject here and here.

I steeped the OP leaves for 4 minutes in boiling point (212 F) water.

The Shawlands estate is located in the Uva district, found in the southeastern area of the island of Sri Lanka. The second largest province in Sri Lanka, Uva is a beautiful place of hills and valleys with abundant wildlife, including elephants and leopards and many species of birds.

The tea liquor is as bright as a new copper penny, with quite a pronounced refreshing minty aroma. This might sound strange but the aroma reminds me of the paste I used many moons ago in kindergarten. It is a minty smell I find very comforting.

The brisk, full-bodied flavor brings notes of mint and sweet raisins to my palate. I’m not usually a Ceylon lover but I find this tea deliciously appealing.