Tea in Azerbaijan

Being in a huge tea-drinking culture here in Azerbaijan, I figure it’s worth it to discuss my tea related adventures here. Black CTC tea is the norm here, over steeped throughout the day and diluted heavily with hot water. There are cayxanas (tea houses) everywhere, but it’s a men only space where they drink tea, smoke, and play backgammon. Drinking over steeped and diluted black tea abhors me as a Chinese tea drinker, but I’ve come to terms with it. I don’t see it as “tea,” but as a beverage. People here suck on sugar cubs to sweeten their tea, so it’s not surprisingly that anyone over the age of 25 probably has at least two gold teeth. I’m madly in love with my host mother’s home-made grape flavored sugar cubes, so I indulge in that every once in a while.

The tea is drunk from handle-less glasses on to of saucers. Sometimes the tea is too ht, so it’s poured from the glass and into the saucer, and then it’s drunk. I usually drink dozens of cups of tea this way, especially if I’m visiting as a guest.

A side-effect of my Peace Corps service is my isolation from the tea community. Although I can technically catch up on blogs, none of it is relative to my life here. My pots are at home, and I have no way of sampling tea. Just getting samples here would be such a pain. Also, life here is just too damn busy for a gong fu session of tea. I’ve been drinking medium roast Dong Ding, as well as a bunch of shu. I fear I’m losing my tea palette, and when I go to China after Peace Corps I won’t be able to judge young sheng anymore. I still remember what is good sheng, but I’m afraid that I won’t be able to compare. Maybe I should get the samples of sheng I have at home sent over, just so I can keep in practice.

But unfortunately the tea world is moving on without me, so I have no clue about the state of young puerh right now, and I’m afraid when I go back I’ll be out of the loop. So for any people who still read my blog…what’s going on with puerh these days? What new stuff has been good that I should look out for when I come back.

Finally!

As some of you may know, I've been in the Peace Corps application process for almost a year now, but I've finally been invited to serve in Azerbaijan, teaching English. I know this isn't tea-related but it's pretty big news. Also, this is an opportunity for people to send me tea! (just kidding, but not really). I'm planning on bringing some tea, but not a lot since I have to travel light. Probably just the basic balled-up oolong, since wiry type tea takes up more space and is more prone to breakage. This may also mean that I won't be updating this anymore after I leave, since it'd just be me drinking the same kind of tea over and over again.

For those who wish, you can follow my adventures in Azerbaijan over at my other blog here

A Tea Party

I recently had the opportunity to brew tea for some UCLA students on behalf of UCLA Natural Complementary & Alternative Medicine student group, as part of a tea presentation in which Imen of Tea Habitat was the speaker and presenter. Will had asked me earlier if I wanted to volunteer, knowing very well that I'm not too confident with my brewing skills. Eager for an opportunity to discipline myself in the nuances of gong fu cha, I accepted. Luckily I had the chance to practice the weekend prior in a young sheng fest. The fact that my fellow tea heads, especially the pu-erh expert himself Jason Fasi, approved of the tea I brewed boosted my confidence a bit.

I was so focused on the act of brewing tea that I totally forgot about the other aspect of a tea tasting: the conversation! Esoteric and random tea facts shot out of my mouth, as if my mind's filter on the mouth broke. A simple question such as "what is the best tea that you've tasted" lead to a very precise and detailed description of the aging process, which then led to the story of Da Hong Pao's name. I only hope that the participants didn't think I was a madman.

At least I looked graceful brewing tea

An important lesson I learned from this event though was the importance of pacing/timing in a tea tasting, especially when there's a time limit. Since I'm usually drinking alone I take many infusions with a tea, and I did the same that night, not realizing that I was working with a time limit and a number of teas to go through. How many infusions to go through a tea before moving on? Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, I was the last person brewing, but I was relieved that a fair number of drinkers actually sat through the whole thing.

my pig cha chong was a huge hit with the ladies ... and a good conversation piece!

Thinking back, and confirmed by the photos of the event ... my table seemed to be dominated by Asian girls! Especially in comparison to the other tables. I don't know if they gravitated towards me since I must brew better than the others since I'm Asian (definitely not true) or if thought my tea set-up cute. Unfortunately, I felt that I made some assumptions in what I talked about, since I assumed that they've had oolong before. In some ways though my group being mostly female helped a bit, since I feel more "natural" talking to the opposite sex. I kept the conversation light and made a few jokes here or there, including some at the expense of a particular girl who always wanted seconds, pictured below to my left

One person I thought was pretty interesting was a guy who was sitting directly across from me. He did the "finger tap" whenever I poured tea, and he picked up the differences in quality from tea to tea. All in all, I had fun brewing and would do it again if I had the opportunity.

ack, a tea faux pax ... having the guests pour the tea.

To be fair, I only had them pour amongst themselves just so I could use the time prepping the next tea.

Reader's Poll

My parents have always regarded my tea habit with curiousness . After all, I'm sharing the same interests with my grandparents, who are more or less triple my age. The "tea" gene skipped my parent's generation and hit me hard. When I visited some tea shops in Asia the owners always asked me why a youngster like me wanted to buy tea (this was when I was a bit younger than I am now). And within my circle of local tea friends, I'm the baby of the group, in both age and experience. In most of the blogs I read the writers are "grown-up" with real jobs, a house or an apartment, and perhaps even kids! And here I am, working part-time, living with my parents, and basically waiting for my Peace Corps invitation to get here so I can get a move-on with my life.

So I wonder if this is actually do, so if you would oblige, please participate in the poll in the top left-hand side. Don't be shy to answer truthfully. If you're much older than me I'll envy you for your wisdom, and if by chance you're younger, than I will envy the youth that's giving you an edge on collecting young sheng.

Self-Made Blend

A line in MarshalN's blog about blending puerh (see here) struck me in particular:

"Instead, I think the answer might be for us to start blending our own tea -- an aged Bulang with a young Yiwu might make for a pretty interesting combination."
As I was thinking this morning, I dug through the numerous samples that I have, coming across an aged Bu Lang (my remaining sample of the 1997 Hen Li Chang Bu Lang) and a younger Yi Wu (the 2001 Ding Xin Cha Zhuang Yi Wu). The Bu Lang had a nice and thick after taste that coated the tongue with a good kind of bitterness. The Yi Wu had some nice fruitiness going on in the flavor/aroma, working more "up front." I used 2.5 grams of each for a 100 ml gaiwan. A shot of the dry leaf:

The Yi Wu seems to have more complete leaves, since the Yi Wu was pryed from a chunk whereas the Bu Lang pretty much arrived in a loose leaf format. Hopefully this won't affect how the tea blends.


Another difference between the two is that the Bu Lang is a bit "bud-heavy," but I'm not sure what bud-heaviness does to a tea...maybe make it sweeter?
The combined leaf:


So how did it taste? Better than combined parts, surprisingly. I'll probably have to try this again in different proportions, but it seemed to taste more "complete" in the mouth, with a great more deal of complexity. The bitterness that the Bu Lang was teeming with was a bit toned down and there was a nice fruity youthfulness that came courtesy of the Yi Wu. As the infusions went on though, it became easier to distinguish the components, as the Yi Wu faded a bit earlier than the Bu Lang.

The wet leaf:
The larger leaf, which is lighter in color, is more or less the Yi Wu, whereas the darker smaller bits are the Bu Lang. Looking into my gaiwan between infusions, it seemed more or less even distributed.

Changes

It's interesting to see how our tastes in tea change over time, even in a short interval of time. I remember last summer I was in a phase with Japanese greens, which is something that I haven't had in a long time. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that I bought so much that drinking it became a chore. Well, I recently placed a pre-order for this year's shincha from Yuuki-Cha, so I'm looking forward to that. Only ordered one thing, so hopefully I won't be forced to drink it all up ASAP. As I was thinking about tea to try, when my eyes glanced over my yancha pot, and it just came to me: I haven't had a yancha in almost two months. And it's probably my favorite kind of tea too! So what happened?

Well, I've chanced upon some pretty amazing yancha, that the ones I usually drink don't excite me anymore. Yancha can get pretty pricey, and I brew it in a style that burns through ALOT of leaf (a normal session usually calls me for at least 10 grams for a 100 ml pot). My attention has also been focused on another things, especially pu-erh, which I've been finding more exciting these days.

Even though I was jonesing for some aged pu-erh, I decided to take yancha pot out for a spin. I have some high-fired DHP stashed away to settle down and maybe age a bit. It's mellowed over this past six months and the charcoal taste isn't as strong. It's a decent tea, not great, but not terrible.

Oh well

Secrets

A recent conversation with a tea friend has touched upon this, but I'm sure that this something that everyone thinks about in some way or another. If it doesn't, than maybe I'm being too paranoid so just ignore me.

Secrets, tea secrets. Not so much trade secrets like processing technique or whatever (though I'm sure for farmers this is probably an issue). I'm talking about secrets regarding teas/tea-ware that you like. So why would this be a problem? Well, this is actually more of a problem with pots and pu-erh than it is with other stuff, since the former can be rarer and limited in quality. Especially when there are only one or two cakes left, it can get kind of tense because there's the fear that someone will buy it up. So if I, as a blogger, praise said tea highly...well, some random reader comes along, reads it, and decides to snatch it away from me.

This is more of a problem with random readers than it is with the couple readers that I've corresponded with, who I can trust not to purposely screw me over. Of course, this is capitalism, so it's really every man for itself...but just to keep the odds in my favor, well, maybe I'll be a little less specific about the teas I like.

Anyway, onto the tea of the day...which actually falls into this category of limited availability so until I decide to buy it I won't give it away: but if you're really curious, I might let you know.

This is a late 90s tea, that's seen some slight wet-storage, but luckily that doesn't really seem to affect the tea's quality, though I'm a partial to wet-storage. What's so surprising is that it's still go some bitterness on it, and not the bad kind. It's a good bitterness, one that melts away into a sweet aftertaste. It's like some sort of bitter tea that my parents drank growing up in Taiwan. I'm surprised that it still has that kind of edge on it, since the few teas I've tasted with similar maturity have been mellower. Good strength, excellent tenacity, and thick/luscious mouth feel, this is something that I could see really turning into something after more years or again. Of course, I need some sort of approval from the local tea-heads before actually buying it.

Oh yes, there's also the fear that a vendor will see a good review and jack up the price because of that...though I seriously doubt that vendors are bored enough to base their pricing on the ramblings of a tea neophyte

*EDIT*

and it was the 1997 Hen Li Chang Bu Lang from Essence of Tea. And although I said I would confer with my local tea heads, after tasting it again...even if they said it tasted like Satan's piss I would still buy it, because I like it. Unfortunately, I grabbed the last one; however, he might be restocking it in the next few months. Wary of a price hike in the mean time (which just recently happened with a 2001 Yi Chang Hao Yiwu I was so enamored with) and the fact that it may never be restocked...I quickly snatched it up. Keeping my fingers crossed for an eventual restock, since I really want more of this one.