11/30/07

Keemun Concerto...I must have made it strong enough, because I feel the jitters a bit from the tea. But it doesn't have much flavor, though it is a bit cooling, and very smokey. I got a tea booklet in Missouri over the summer, and I was reading through it the other day. Very interesting...I'll have to remember to comment about in more detail later. Meanwhile, not much to say.

11/29/07

When I do it right, I love it! The Assam Melody I did with the just the right strength, and it turned out wonderfully! I don't think I was as much a fan of this before, but it had the right color, and taste, where I could taste it without it being too powerful. This tea turned out great. It's moved up in my list of 'teas that I like'.

Meanwhile, I have found that with the infuser, the tea dust that settles in the bottom of the pot doesn't usually come out until I hit the dregs. So I get good tea out of two cups, and then the dregs I can just pour out. No cloudy tea, no tea dust, no leaves.

11/28/07

Today, we're drinking the Ceylon Sonata. Still figuring out the strength, and how to handle the infuser problem. Maybe it doesn't have a solution, except to refashion an infuser that's deep, and wider, and has a better handle, and refashion the lid, too. I wonder why no one has done anything like that.

As for the strength, any time I see a picture of a cup of tea, it's far lighter than I would prefer it, in terms of color, which presumably means it would also be less strong.

I wonder what secret there is that people have with tea leaves remaining in the water for too long. How do they do it? No one seems to say. They just enjoy their tea, have great pics of tea plantations, and that's it. Maybe asking for mechanical details of this process is too much. Too much minutiae...

11/27/07

Today's tea was Yunnan Jig. Not sure what happened today, but the tea tasted good, yet there was a metallic flavor in there. I'm not a fan of my teapot, nor the infuser, since it doesn't go deep enough in the teapot, which doesn't allow for the tea leaves to expand right, and the lid doesn't go on with the infuser in there...When I do drink the tea, it is faster, because it cools in the cup quicker since I brew in the teapot, and I drink it faster since I can just pour another cup, rather than have to go through the brew in the cup process all over again.

And let's talk about stimulation! With me drinking the tea faster, I've gotten quite a boost! Sometimes I'm just jittery, though yesterday I felt extremely alert and aware of what was going on around me, almost like someone had lifted some kind of veil. Today I'm not so "extra aware"...maybe because I didn't sleep that much last night.

I'm not sure why it's so hard to get a decent teapot/infuser combo, either. I've done some looking, and can't seem to find anything. I wonder if there's any philosophy on this that I'm missing. Maybe someone can get me a book on tea for Christmas.

11/26/07

Today, I'm drinking Golden Monkey. Ahhh pleasure! It's soo good after drinking the unappealing darjeeling. I think I'll throw the darjeeling out when I get home. It smells good when it's brewing, but that's about all.

Back to the Golden Monkey. I think I made it a tad too strong, but it's still enjoyable. I brought my teapot to work...I do have another one at home, I forgot! I can leave the blue one there. Because the blue teapot makes three cups, and I drink two, I'm trying to share what I have with someone, but not sure who. I've got to be careful, though, because making that much more at once means I'll go through it more quickly...

11/25/07

Darjeeling again. I'm beginning to think that this tea has had its day, as its flavor and 'coolness' has gone. It's just kinda plain and ordinary. I played with the amount again, using less this time, and it just turned out to be lighter without any real benefit in taste change. I should just use it up quickly so I can get some more.

Separately, I find the process of making tea to be crude somehow. Tea leaves, dried, placed in hot water. Then they get into your cup. The teapot drips a bit out of the spout. The time to steep, the cloud that sometimes gets into the cup, other details. It doesn't seem very elegant. You have to get the tea leaves out of the cup, or the pot, and it's messy, and wet, and you have these brown, unfurled leaves to deal with. They don't come out of the pot well, or the tea basket infuser, or they sit in the bottom of your cup. Then your cup gets tea stained, and you have to scrub it, or bleach it (no, I don't bleach my cups).

I don't drink tea for the health benefits, but because it's interesting that something simple like a plant in water could have so many flavors. Or something. Maybe I just think it's exciting to drink tea. It really is quite an experience.