It is a stunningly gorgeous morning. The birds are singing, the sun is shining on rain sparkled flowers and it is cool!!!!!! All my windows and doors are open to catch the breezes, the cats are stalking mice, the front garden smells delicious and the compost piles are cooking. Asters and golden rod are carpeting the fields with purple and gold and my tomatoes are almost ripe enough to pick. Hooray for today in all its glory!
I am celebrating with a special tea from Steepster. It comes from Verdant Tea and is Laoshan Black tea. This tea comes from the small 15 acre farm of the He family on Laoshan Mountain, which is already famous for their Laoshan Green tea. The leaves are black , slender, twisted. Their dry aroma is first chocolate, then autumn forest, nuts and dry or drying leaves.
I brew it for 3 minutes with boiling water. The scent now has shifted to a strong, oakiness with some chocolate, but it is also sweet. The liquor is a pale medium amber. It feels silky and it has a rich, sweet taste of chocolate with an overlay of acorns and oak. It's a lovely tea and I am going to get more. This one is special.
Oh, speaking of acorns, we can also celebrate the summer acorn drop, which occurred this week. That will make room for bigger ones in the fall. it is not nearly as abundant as it was last year. But this has been a drier and hotter summer, on the whole.
Showing posts with label Steepster. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Steepster. Show all posts
Monday, August 6, 2012
Friday, February 17, 2012
Radishes For Tea
I have made a tea sandwich discovery. I have seen recipes for radish sandwiches but never tried them. Today I had a bunch of radishes needing attention, so I decided to make some. What an eye-opener. The bread and butter tone down the sharpness of the radishes and it all makes a lovely crunchy sandwich with just a small hint of bite, and these were large, i.e. hot, radishes. Guess I know one thing on the tea table this summer.
I am finally catching up on tasting some of the teas I got through the monthly tea tasters from Steepster Select on http://www.steepster.com/ This is a really nice program and much less expensive than many monthly tea clubs, since it is only $19 and you get quite large samples. Today's is Shade Grown Tie Guan Yin from the Norbu Tea company. This is an Oolong which hails from the Anhui Province of China. It is also called "Iron Goddess of Mercy Tea". Growing tea in the shade tends to concentrate both chlorophyll and taste in the leaves. It is very, very, very floral smelling in it's dry state, as well as being almost so many verys green. It is rolled in tight little balls and the first thing I did was rinse it with almost boiling water. This relaxes the leaves and prepares them to unfurl. And unfurl they did, into great long leaves, some about 3" long..
The liquor is a very soft pale yellow green and the aroma, while still strong, has softened a bit and smells like a cross between magnolias and mock orange, sweet, heady stuff, almost too much. This is the taste as well - very floral, almost meaty in feel and just about too much to drink on its own, as the floral component was so strong. I diluted it a bit with more hot water and used it as an excuse to have a cookie with it and then it was fine. Next time I'll use a bit less tea.
A pleasant street in a small Rhineland village. Most of these houses are from the 1600's and have been restored. Then tourists like me can come along and take lots of pictures! lol.
I am finally catching up on tasting some of the teas I got through the monthly tea tasters from Steepster Select on http://www.steepster.com/ This is a really nice program and much less expensive than many monthly tea clubs, since it is only $19 and you get quite large samples. Today's is Shade Grown Tie Guan Yin from the Norbu Tea company. This is an Oolong which hails from the Anhui Province of China. It is also called "Iron Goddess of Mercy Tea". Growing tea in the shade tends to concentrate both chlorophyll and taste in the leaves. It is very, very, very floral smelling in it's dry state, as well as being almost so many verys green. It is rolled in tight little balls and the first thing I did was rinse it with almost boiling water. This relaxes the leaves and prepares them to unfurl. And unfurl they did, into great long leaves, some about 3" long..
The liquor is a very soft pale yellow green and the aroma, while still strong, has softened a bit and smells like a cross between magnolias and mock orange, sweet, heady stuff, almost too much. This is the taste as well - very floral, almost meaty in feel and just about too much to drink on its own, as the floral component was so strong. I diluted it a bit with more hot water and used it as an excuse to have a cookie with it and then it was fine. Next time I'll use a bit less tea.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Yunnan Rules!
The back of a Swiss choir stall.
Steepster, that very good "peer review" tea site, has added some new things, as well as updating their site. One of the newest is "Steepster Select". For $19 a month, you will be sent 3 different teas to taste and review or at least, enjoy, along with appropriate tasting notes and some information about tea. From some of the "tea of the month" offerings I've seen, this is quite inexpensive. Go to http://www.steepster.com/ to check it out. The initial offering only has 100 spots, so you might want to hurry. I signed up and I'll let you know all about it.
It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood. All the windows are open, the cats are running in and out, the sun is shining, back lighting the trees at the edge of the lawn. The chicory and golden rod are making a wonderful blue and yellow show, along with some milkweed and Joe Pye weed to add their pinks to the mix. In my garden, I am especially proud of my 7 inch yellow spider daylillies that look so good next to the maroon ones with yellow throats.
The tree people are here with their giant clawed machines, clearing away our 90 poor, dead and dying trees. My favorite tree is gone - it had a lovely configuration of branches. I'll miss it. I hope they take the one that is so cosily leaning against the sugar maple. Shade is a wonderful thing, welcome cooling in the summer's heat.
Have you noticed how many new tea books have been coming out? More than ten in the past year. Surely this is another indication that tea drinking is here to stay and on the upswing! Maybe even more civility in general life. We could all use some of that, and the time to slow down and appreciate the world around us, no matter how busy we are.
I just made German potato salad for our supper. it is from my friend Gerta, who would make 100 pounds of potatoes plus the other ingredients, for our church's strawberry festival. There was never any left. The recipe is for 5 pounds, but it is easily halved or doubled. If any of you want it, let me know, and I'll put it up here, it's easy and sooo good., but not for the super dieter.
Today I am having some more Upton's. It is ZY84, Yunnan Rare Grade. The sample is just enough for my 8 cup pot at 1.5 teaspoons at 212 degrees for 4-5 minutes. Oh my, the dry leaf smells so good, like a flowery, spicy meadow. There is a lot of gold dust from the abundance of fat yellow buds. The brewing aroma is spicy, with a honey twist to it and the tea in the cup - ambrosia! It is sweet, smooth, spicy, with a great hint of cocoa at the end. This is the best Yunnan I've had in a while and I will run right over to their site and buy me some more. Yunnan, as you may know, is one of my all time favorite teas and this one is super.
Steepster, that very good "peer review" tea site, has added some new things, as well as updating their site. One of the newest is "Steepster Select". For $19 a month, you will be sent 3 different teas to taste and review or at least, enjoy, along with appropriate tasting notes and some information about tea. From some of the "tea of the month" offerings I've seen, this is quite inexpensive. Go to http://www.steepster.com/ to check it out. The initial offering only has 100 spots, so you might want to hurry. I signed up and I'll let you know all about it.
It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood. All the windows are open, the cats are running in and out, the sun is shining, back lighting the trees at the edge of the lawn. The chicory and golden rod are making a wonderful blue and yellow show, along with some milkweed and Joe Pye weed to add their pinks to the mix. In my garden, I am especially proud of my 7 inch yellow spider daylillies that look so good next to the maroon ones with yellow throats.
The tree people are here with their giant clawed machines, clearing away our 90 poor, dead and dying trees. My favorite tree is gone - it had a lovely configuration of branches. I'll miss it. I hope they take the one that is so cosily leaning against the sugar maple. Shade is a wonderful thing, welcome cooling in the summer's heat.
Have you noticed how many new tea books have been coming out? More than ten in the past year. Surely this is another indication that tea drinking is here to stay and on the upswing! Maybe even more civility in general life. We could all use some of that, and the time to slow down and appreciate the world around us, no matter how busy we are.
I just made German potato salad for our supper. it is from my friend Gerta, who would make 100 pounds of potatoes plus the other ingredients, for our church's strawberry festival. There was never any left. The recipe is for 5 pounds, but it is easily halved or doubled. If any of you want it, let me know, and I'll put it up here, it's easy and sooo good., but not for the super dieter.
Today I am having some more Upton's. It is ZY84, Yunnan Rare Grade. The sample is just enough for my 8 cup pot at 1.5 teaspoons at 212 degrees for 4-5 minutes. Oh my, the dry leaf smells so good, like a flowery, spicy meadow. There is a lot of gold dust from the abundance of fat yellow buds. The brewing aroma is spicy, with a honey twist to it and the tea in the cup - ambrosia! It is sweet, smooth, spicy, with a great hint of cocoa at the end. This is the best Yunnan I've had in a while and I will run right over to their site and buy me some more. Yunnan, as you may know, is one of my all time favorite teas and this one is super.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Hurry, Hurry, Hurry
Steepster www.steepster.com is having a super contest with something like $800 worth of tea stuff as the prize. This includes one of the most interesting teapots I've seen. Just go there and sign up for it - it's just a drawing so there's not much you have to do.
While you are there, check out the site. It's nifty site for rating teas. Most ratings are brief, unlike my wordy blog. So if you want the short version of me, there I am. You can sign up to join for free and read lots and lots and lots of tea reviews, participate in discussions, keep track of teas in you cupboard,etc. It's a fun site and it's free.
While you are there, check out the site. It's nifty site for rating teas. Most ratings are brief, unlike my wordy blog. So if you want the short version of me, there I am. You can sign up to join for free and read lots and lots and lots of tea reviews, participate in discussions, keep track of teas in you cupboard,etc. It's a fun site and it's free.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
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.
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.
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