Tea anyone ??!!

Ok don here is What I can tell you about lapsang souchong. When I make mine I put about 2.5-3 scoops of leaves into my pot. I don't use a gaiwan for it. When I steep it, I let it steep for about 4.5-5 min.

I once brought some tiger tea (a particularily strong smoky variety of lapsang) to work. I was steeping a cup in my office when my boss came in and asked me if there was something burning. He was not joking :)

Okay, gang, I have three separate posts to come. This first one will be dedicated towards the two cups that I ordered from O-Cha.com.

Eccole:

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Both are ceramic; the one on the left is holds about 6oz with a cream glaze and a...I dunno...fish type design. I don't really know what it is. The one on the right holds about 3oz, which I'll use for higher grade teas, with greeny glazed goodness!

You'll see more of the white cup in one of the next posts, which I'll be posting after I've eaten! Won't be long...

Round two. Here is my second order from Yuuki-Cha:

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So, from left to right—2013 Kagoshima fukamushi shincha asatsuyu; this year's first harvest, a deep-steamed sencha of the asatsuyu cultivar from Kagoshima Prefecture.

2013 Kagoshima shincha saemidori—this year's first harvest; deep-steamed saemidori cultivar sencha from Kagoshima. THis is expensive, so I'll be interested to see how it compares to some of the other fukamushi sencha I've had.

2013 Kagoshima shincha 'Kirishima No Kaori'—first harvest asamushi sencha from Kirishima in Kagoshima Prefecture (yabukita cultivar). If you remember, I bought some of this last year, so we'll see how the shincha compares to regular ichibancha.

Next post will be along later this evening...

Very nice cups, and wonderful teas Pighog!

Thanks, I'm really pleased with them and they're great to drink from!

Here's the real post then—the opening of the Haru bancha:

So normally, I'd make bancha on the stove, boiling it and then letting it simmer. With hindsight, I still could have done this but I only wanted enough for a few cups this evening, to try it out, so I steeped it in a kyusu instead.

Now, there's nothing wrong with that method but, without having any definitive brewing times, I found it rather difficult to get everything right and I was surprised by the amount of difference that made.

I started by using sencha-temperature water (i.e. poured into the pot, then the cup, then onto the leaves—I don't use a thermometer) and, on a whim, steeped for about two minutes plus pouring time...say two minutes, fifteen seconds. The tea comes out a deep golden-yellow (but not brown), it was surprisingly light and had a faint sweetness but didn't feel right.

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I'm conscious about experimenting with this tea too much, if only because it's a 50g packet, so there's not much in there and, as you can see, the leaves are also quite large.

I went for a second steep, where I left it for about a minute longer than before, using hotter water as well. This cup was wonderfully spot on! The colour was similar but the flavour was rich and kind of spicy-sweet, almost like a sweet chilli sauce!

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I drank most of it before taking this photo but you can still see the colour and the leaves are opening up even more—broken into chunks but pretty much whole leaves. (Sorry if the angle makes you feel sick!)

Third and fourth steeps, I brewed for longer again but they weren't the same so now I'm striving for that perfect cup! I think tomorrow I'll try the old stove-top method. Knowing how well the longer, hotter second steep came out, I feel it'll give much better results like that.

On a side note, I just had the last mouthful from my cup that'd been sitting there while I typed for the last ten minutes and I think that it'll definitely make a nice iced tea, too!

Hope I haven't been too long winded tonight. Hopefully over the weekend I'll open the saemidori, too...just to keep you on the edge of your collective seats!

pig, i must admit, i find your posts on sencha somewhat unique, i dont know anything about japanese teas, then again i am a self educated moron on most of what i do know about chinese blacks that i do drink. keep it up, the long windedness isnt a bad thing

My first order from Origintea just arrived ... interesting 'minibrick' pack ..

[which is actually much easier to get the tea out of]

only 1 tea from 2013 .. Alishan Zhang Shu Hu

bit of a quiet, almost shy, start to this one, gets better Origin Tea

I received a gift today from Steph and I couldn't wait to put it to use!! Awesome new tea glass!! I am breaking it in with some Bouquet de Fleurs #108. Thanks Steph, I love it!!

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My black tea favorites:

Twinings Earl Grey
Twinings English Breakfast
Bewley's Gold Blend