11/24/07

Today I had the Darjeeling. Not sure which 'flush' it is. I've discovered that for this tea, the timing of the picking of tea makes a difference in its taste. The #1 from Adagio is better than the #22, but the Darjeeling I have from the Soulard Market is somewhere in between. And then there's the strength of it. I need to start making it in the pot more to figure it out. When I like it better is when it's not too strong. It can't be too weak, either. If I do it right, then it has the wonderful cooling sensation that I like so much, even though it's hot.

11/23/07

Today, we're drinking coffee. Not at work today, at my sister's. Duncan Donuts coffee. Vanilla something coffee. It's good stuff.

Yesterday, though, I had some waayyy strong tea. My sister's in-laws are Iranian, and they made Earl Grey tea, but he steeps it for 20 minutes! It makes for a very strong, bitter cup of tea. Yikes! I was offered some baklava to go with it. It was about the only way I could keep drinking it. It was loose tea as well. When I found out that they had it, I had to have some! I was surprised when he said how long it would be before it would be ready, then I found out why. Whew! It was a good day yesterday.

My brother in law's mom said that English tea is the best. Since I'm not sure what that is, I don't know. I didn't think to pursue it, since there was so much activity at Thanksgiving at her house.

11/22/07

Thanksgiving day. Normally I drink my tea at work, as part of my 'getting started for the day' ritual. Today I'm home, drinking tea made in my teapot. Organic Nilgiri. I got it in the Soulard Farmers' Market in St. Louis is July. I don't remember the name of the shop, but they have all kinds of coffees and teas and spices, and a bunch of other stuff. It's a very Old World kind of place in the New World.

The tea itself is also unremarkable. I guess I'll have to do some research to find out why people seem to like this tea. I've seen a few people sing its praises in their blogs, but I don't get it. It just doesn't thrill me.

11/21/07

Today we're having Assam Melody. I'd tried it at home, in my teapot, but at first I'd made it too strong, and then tried it again and it was too weak. The process I use for making tea is different at home, since I have a teapot, than at work, where all I have is a coffee cup (with different words for coffee on it, like espresso, or roast amaretto -- I love the irony of it), and a stainless steel infuser, about the size of the cup. It works out well. I have a better idea of how much tea to put in the infuser than in the teapot.

The teapot didn't come with an infuser, which is a pain, since you have to pour all of the tea out of the pot when it's done steeping, since you can't take the tea out. What's worse is that there's no hole in the lid for the chain of a basket infuser, and no space for one that sits in the pot.

Back to the tea itself: it's not a very distinctive tasting tea. It's kind of plain, and ordinary. Doesn't really stand out.

11/20/07

So, we're having Yunnan Jig today. It's a great tea! Very smokey, though, but not in a bad way. I think I'm done with double brewing my tea leaves. It makes for a weaker, less flavorful cup. I'm also concerned about the caffeine part, since I saw a method decaffinating tea by brewing it for 30 seconds (which gets out 80% of the caffeine), and then brewing again in fresh water for the remaining brewing time. This means that I'm getting far less caffeine out of the second cup.

Another issue that I come across is that my cup gets stained by the tea. I have to scrub out the stains, though I guess I could bleach involved, but that's no fun, either. I need to bring my tea pot to work.

One last thing. It's taken me a while to realize that the different teas from Adagio have musical names: Harmony, Concerto, Sonata, Melody. I guess that goes with Adagio…according to Wikipedia's disambiguation page

Adagio (from Italian ad agio, 'at ease') may refer to:

Adagio, in musical notation, a tempo marking indicating that the music is to be played slowly

I imagine that they want you to drink your tea slowly, or maybe simply be at ease.

11/19/07

Today, we're drinking Ceylon Sonata. I'm not sure how I did it differently today, since it doesn't have that same flavor as the first time I had it. Maybe the tea itself has changed since I've opened the tin so much. Maybe I didn't make it as strong. Just don't know. I'm also experimenting with steeping the same leaves twice, just to see if the tea holds up for the second cup, (Ooops. I rhymed. Sue me :-) because I saw it on a website/blog about tea. I tried it yesterday with the Golden Monkey, and that turned out okay. Today, I just got brown water, without much flavor. I'm finding that I like stronger teas, but not too strong.

In other tea news, I forgot to bring my teapot, and forgot the other two tea tins. Maybe tomorrow. (Lot of maybes today)…

Went to the Empress Tea Room, and it really is a room. Okay, two rooms. And almost exclusively women. High tea was all that they were serving on Saturday, and it is $16.95 per person. Yikes! There's a British place out on North Dale that does tea for $5. Haven't been there yet, but worth exploring.

11/18/07 First Post

Today, we are drinking Keemun Concerto. It's got a smokey aroma to it, both in the leaves and the brewed tea, and as it cools it's got a slight bit of citrus-y flavor, without the sweet or tart. It's also pretty smooth. I looked up the word "keemun" on wikipedia, and it says "fruity" or "pine"…I had Keemun Encore before in my first batch of teas, and loved that one, not so sure about the Concerto.

The Ceylon Sonata is more of a traditional tasting tea, like the kind you would get out of a tea bag. It's just richer somehow…I lack vocabulary for describing all of these tastes and flavors, and don't care much for what vocabulary there is for describing flavors, because it seems pretentious…

The Golden Monkey is a great tea! It wasn't bitter, or have an unusual flavor…it's in my top tier of great teas. I have about 3:Darjeeling #1, Keemun Encore, and Golden Monkey.

So there ya go. :-)