WARNING! THIS POST CONTAINS GRAPHIC PHOTOGRAPHS OF OVER-BREWED HUNG CHA (BLACK TEA) THAT MAY BE OFFENSIVE TO SOME VIEWERS! IF YOU ARE UNDER 18 YRS OF AGE, HAVE A HEART CONDITION, OR ARE ON MEDICATION OF ANY KIND, PLEASE D O N O T R E A D F U R T H E R ! [...]
I was talking to a friend awhile back about aged teas, and the fact that aging can be good for teas other than Pu-er (depending on a lot of variables, of course). I was having a hard time explaining how aged oolong is different, so in the end, I got out a sample I picked up [...]
For a long time, I had believed (because I was told, naturally!) that pu-er was the only aged tea, and that other teas should be finished within 6 months to a year at most. I now know that, like English grammar, in tea there are more exceptions than there are rules. Case in point, this aged [...]
Success!! The Jin Hsuen came out very nice – less astringent than light-roasted oolong normally is, but very refreshing. It wasn’t as cold as it should have been because I wasn’t able to keep in a cooler, but I’m planning to experiment with a few other teas and do a comparison test to see how [...]
With summer on the way, it’s time to start working on my ‘cold brew’ techniques. Here’s a new one I’ve just learned, and am trying out for the first time. I’ll let you know how it comes out tomorrow. I’m using some Jin Hsuen Oolong, which has a light, slightly milky flavor, and is one [...]
Last week, I showed up at A-Liang’s shop for my weekly tea lesson. I knew I was in trouble when I saw him putting out sets of testing mugs (10 mugs in all), and he said, “I’m preparing your lesson for today.” Fortunately, he’s not a strict taskmaster, and he was partly kidding anyway. He’s [...]
Traditional Oolong (left) and Tan-Pei Oolong (right) I stopped in to see Master Tsai last week, and we got to discussing oolongs and their different processing methods. High mountain oolongs are very popular right now in Taiwan, and a lot of people I speak with seem to think that anything grown below 1,000m isn’t worth drinking. I [...]