Some news, Hao Ya "B"

Thursday:

Yesterday's tea - Six Summits from Teavana, has me confused. I was wandering around Steepster http://www.steepster.com/ and found a few people talking about this as if it had raspberries in it, which mine did not. Nor did I get a berry flavor from the tea. However, when I went to the website for Teavana, there it was, full of raspberries. When I got mine, there were none, nor did they say it was flavored. I have contacted them about this and am waiting for a reply.

By the way, if you are looking to try a new tea, go check out Steepster and see what others are saying about them.

Bits of News:

Twinings is introducing Green Mint Tea to India. In the past few years they have introduced several teas there, including a health and wellness line and Assam! What was the saying about "Coals to Newcastle"?
Chariteas is opening a new shop in Sandy, OR. Read about this interesting place on their blog http://chariteas.blogspot.com/. The owner wants to use her shop to build community.

The weather in India has finally improved, and so has tea production - The autumnal pluck is up by about 9% over last year. We'll see how the flavor is after a year of odd weather.

Today's tea for tasting is Harney's Hao Ya "B". It is a China black from the spring, said to be stronger than English Breakfast, not as intense as the "A". The dry leaves are very small, very black with bits of brown to liven things. It smells smokey, winy, tobacco-y, with a hint of tanned leather. I brewed this at 3, 4, and 5 min at about 212. The tea smells incredibly fresh, and is a lovely dark amber when brewed. The leaves are tiny because they were chopped. The liquor itself tastes earthy, tannic, mushroomy at 3 minutes, with a hint of dark chocolate. As brew time goes up, so does the tannin and the mushrooms start to ferment - I don't like the later brews - my husband, of course, loves it. I like it better with milk in it and as it cools. I am undecided about it, on the whole. I think I will try it again with less leaf and see how it goes.