The Most Useful Tea Device ... Ever

The following is the most important piece of tea equipment, and yes, it's more useful than a tea pot, cups, fair cups, etc. It's importance might even exceed that of the tea itself!

Okay, so I'm clearly joking here, but these competition tasting sets are really useful. I'm kicking myself for not buying a few earlier. I ordered these from Adagio, for the modest price of $9 each ($54 for 6 so you save $5). I received them the other day but there were some minor chips on the cups (the packaging was so poor that it was asking to be broken). But they're shipping me a new set of cups, and I'm glad they were so prompt it getting back to me. However, the replacements are being shipped from the East Coast, and they won't be here until next Tuesday. No biggie, since I'm not actually drinking directly from the cups.

But before I get to singing praises about the usefulness of a tasting set, how the hell does one use it? For those who are familiar with using these, you may scroll down at your leisure or feel free to correct my technique.

Step One

I have heard there are different standards, but what I've heard is either 3 grams for 5 minutes or 5 grams for three minutes. Granted, you can go longer or shorter depending on the type of tea at hand, but at the very least make sure that you have consistency across the board. Have someone else put the samples into the lidded cup so it's a blind tasting, and please have the person write down what sample they put in what lidded cup, as to ease any confusion.

Step Two

Pour the water into the lidded cups, and I believe the temperature should correspond with what tea you're dealing with. Greener teas will need cooler water while roasted teas can deal with hotter water. Of course, things like this are highly subjective so do what you normally do. Now put the timer on. Than wait, but don't wander too far; 3 or 5 minutes can go by faster than you would think.

Step Three

Decant the lidded cup into the bowl, starting with the lidded cup in which you poured the water into first. The lidded cup is position in such a way that it lies perfectly balanced on the bowl, as shown below. So you don't need to hold the cup while decanting. Continue as necessary until all the cups are decanted. Please be quick when decanting, because there isn't a spout, so the tea can "dribble" down the cup if you're not quick enough. Put the lidded cups aside for now. See the following:



Step Four

Place a porcelain spoon into the bowl. Ladle some of the tea into a separate cup using the spoon, and after doing so smell the spoon to catch the aroma, both wet and dry. Taste the tea and make notes, either mentally or physically. If you're tasting with someone else, talk about it. Two heads are better than one, and more ideas are created by the interaction of opinions. Continue this with how many different tasting cups you have, and feel free to go back to a particular one if you need a double-take.

So What's the Point of All This?

There are several advantages to using the tasting set, and these are just off the top of my head. First, this is how many competitions are judged, and this method allows for more consistency in preparing the tea. However, judging a tea competition style is only one way of judging a tea, because some teas don't perform well under competition brewing standards. Or you have a tea that does well brewed competition style that doesn't perform well when brewed regularly. Tasting a tea brewed competition style is one aspect of judging a tea, IMO. The other aspect is judging a tea brewed normally. So it's important to do both.

If the tasting is done blind, it frees you from much of the bias that may happen if you knew what the teas were. Of course, there is still some bias because you're frantically trying to guess from previous knowledge/expectations, but it still allows you to taste tea(s) "as they are." I'm surprised at how accurate I am about my preferences, and at other times I'm horrendously wrong. Some of the teas that I love perform well under competition standards, while others perform abysmally. It's also a way to notice similarities or differences within the same type of tea, i.e. if you're competition brewing all Shui Jin Gui, or Bu Lang, etc.

Finally, it offers a very good way of comparing teas. You can brew several teas over the course of a day or a few days, but because you're not brewing it at the same time, it's more difficult to make comparisons. So brewing something competition style gives you the chance to compare a whole slew of teas at the same time. Of course, you don't have to use competition sets...similarly sized gaiwan or even bowls/cups would work just fine too. I think that brewing competition style could definitely be a good way to narrow down a list of potential purchases, and thus saving a lot of money.

Luckily for me, brewing my favorite sheng competition style has only confirmed how much I like them, so my short list of what to buy hasn't changed at all. I think I'm going to have a fun time competition brewing the same single-estate teas, just to notice the similarities/differences between them, if any, and maybe even see which ones are "better" examples of said region.

The End of a Phase

As of today, I've reached a crucial point in my tea journey. I finally have a dedicated yixing for every tea I drink on a regular basis (at least once every two days). It might be surprising to some that it's taken me this long (a whole year into the journey!) but I've made some bad tea-ware purchases along the way. Well, not bad per se, but just not good in the long run. I had thought that shape = most important factor, but I think now I'm beginning to think that clay is more important.

I've also learned that matching teapots to teas is mostly a personal thing, but as a result of many personal experiments, here's what I like: for roasted/harsher teas I like to have a softer, more non-porous clay such as Zi Ni. Softer clays round out these roasted/harsh notes that I don't really enjoy in excessive amounts. Duan Ni, in my opinion, can sometimes be too rounding, and should be reserved for the really roasted/harsh stuff. For more lighter roasted or delicate teas, I like to use a more non-porous clay, such as Zhu Ni or Hong Ni. I do this because non-porous clays bring out the "sharp" flavors of a tea. This is just what I like, and you're free to do whatever you want. I've actually "broken" some of these rules myself.

Here's a photo of the family:

From left to right, from top to bottom, these pots will labeled as 1 - 6

1. Chao Zhou Pot: 120 ml, from Tea Habitat: I bought this about two months ago, and I've been using it for (surprise surprise) Dan Cong. Even though Imen recommends multiple CZ pots for the different types of Dan Cong out there...I don't drink enough Dan Cong to justify multiple Dan Cong pots. I might upgrade to one of the more expensive Wu pots, at which point this will be dedicated to young Sheng Pu'er. Some hairline cracks have developed at the bottom of the pot, but so far these cracks are only on the outside, so I'm trying to be a little more cautious with this one...Very thin walls, excellent lid fit, and a fast-medium pour.
2. Modern Zhu Ni/Hong Ni Pot: 130 ml, from The Tea Gallery: I bought this a month ago, and it's first purpose was to be filled with medium/light roast yancha. It's now been dedicated to lighter balled-up oolong, and it's done wonderfully. I love Shui Ping, and I immediately had to buy this one out of all the ones Winnie showed me. The clay is very high-fired, and it has the best sounds of all my pots. It sounds closest to the Early R.O.C. Zhu Ni in this video here, courtesy of Guang from Hou De. It's a contemporary pot, and it was made on special order by Bill Lee from China Flair Tea. A very fast pour and excellent lid fit. Balances perfectly on water w/lid on.
   
3. Late 70s/Early 80s Sand-Blended Zhu Ni: 100 ml, from Hou De. My newest purchase, which just arrived today. Even though I haven't used it yet, it's going to be dedicated to light roasted yancha. I was looking for a pot for light roasted balled-up oolong, but I realized that the Shui Ping would be perfect for that, and this would be perfect for light roast yancha. Even though this is my first "authentic" Zhu Ni piece, it's sand-blended so maybe it doesn't count. I theorize that the sand-blended nature, which increases porosity (?) would help soften (just a little little bit) the roast, while the Zhu Ni portion would help protect the flavor/aroma. It has very thick walls, and a pretty thick base as well, which is also perfect for keeping in heat.
   
4. 90s Zi Ni: 80 ml, from Nada. My newest purchase also, also arrived today (daily double for me!), will be dedicated to high fired balled oolong. The previous pot I had dedicated to high fired oolong was also a Zi Ni. Why did I decide to change it? Well, the pot was cumbersome to pour (for me at least), and it wasn't really easy on the eyes. The lid fit is excellent, and the pour is medium-slow, but that's fine for me. I love the silver lining on the lid and spout. It's as if the pot is "pimped-out." Very thick walls too, and quite solid/heavy for its size.
   
5. 80s/90s (?) Pin Zi Ni (?): around 80 ml, fished from my grandmother's house in Taiwan. It seems to be an authentic piece from Zisha Factory #1, since the potter's name is stamped under the lid. The clay is very soft, and maybe it's just me, but it seems quick to absorb tea oils. The lid is kind of loose and there's a chip on the lid (not my fault, but my grandmother's). This is probably one of my favorite teapots, sees usage at least once a day. It's dedicated to medium-fired balled oolong. The clay, while not high-fired, seems more high-fired than #4, and this has been "proven" with personal experimentation. Balance is very good, would be perfect if there weren't a chip on the lid, IMO.
   
6. 00's Zi Ni (?): around 120 ml, from Ching China Cha in Washington D.C. My second tea-ware purchase, I actually haven't used this until the last few months. I had originally used it for Dan Cong, but between the thick walls and something...it just didn't brew right. I had it sit in the corner, thinking that it would be dedicated to Sheng Pu'er when I start getting into that. I tried it (on a whim) with high-fired yancha, and it did very well. I had previously used a Duan Ni pot with high fired yancha, but the Duan Ni rounded out the flavors a little too much, IMO. It's got thick walls and excellent lid fit. Surprisingly, the lid between this and #2 are interchangeable, and the fit is perfect too! The heaviest of all my pots, it looks like a modified version of the classic Shi Piao shape. I like to call it "the tank."

And actually, this is a distant cousin of the family. He's a little weird and shy...so he had to take a picture by himself:


This is the one pot that I don't use on a regular basis. I bought it from Yunnan Sourcing about a year ago, and I've been drinking shu pu'er with it. I drink shu pu'er with my meals, so this fits with that perfectly. The clay is now a nice dark color, and the pour/lid fit is really nice as well. It's one of the cheapest pots I have (if you count the slip-cast knock-offs I bought from China), and it exceeds well beyond its price. I think if you want to buy a good modern pot at excellent prices, you can't go wrong with Yunnan Sourcing.

I don't have the kind of money or space to be a collector of pots yet, so this is it for me for the time being. I don't like making tea-ware purchases unless they fill a void that exists or it's a noticeable improvement on what I have now. So maybe in the late future I'll buy more pots, but I like to focus on raising a few pots than having to juggle between tons of other pots. I might pick up a pot or two for aged oolong, but I don't have much experience with that yet, so it can wait.

*UPDATED*
I recently decided that the CZ clay was too stifling on my DC, so it's been re-allocated for young sheng pu'er. I decided that it's too complicated (IMO) to have two pots for wuyi, so the ZiNi pot is now dedicated to whatever aged sheng I happen to come by...

A Visit to Tea Habitat

There are tea shops, and than there are tea shops. The former consists of obnoxious vendors such as Teavana to well-meaning shops that carry okay quality loose-leaf, the kind of stuff that would be nice everyday tea, but could not satiate the refined palate of experienced tea drinkers. The latter, in my mind, consists of the “legendary” stores strewn across the country, the places that carry teas that make people cry out to the heavens…places such as The Tea Gallery, Best Tea House, Floating Leaves, Tea Habitat, etc.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity of visiting a tea shop in the latter category, Imen’s Tea Habitat, nestled in a most unlikely place as any teashop could be…across from a T.J. Maxx. I apologize for the lack of photos. I had brought my camera, thinking to snap a few photos of the teas I was sampling, but I quickly forgot as I surrendered my mind to the Cha Qi. Hopefully my words can try to capture at least 25% of the amazing experience I had there.

I also neglected to take any tasting notes, but that was fine, because the tea lingered in my mouth for hours after I had left. Those that stood out in my mind included her Li Jai Ping Lao Cong, Song Zhong #5, ’78 Vintage Dan Cong, and Tian Yi Xiang (the name conjures up a fragrance equal to heaven. I think the Jade Emperor would have pressed his nose down towards the earth for a whiff).

After this experience, I realized that being a tea master isn’t just about brewing tea perfectly; I like to think a larger part is creating a cultivating environment for enjoying tea. My mother and grandmother found the first tea she brewed, Zhong Ping Lao Cong #4 (I think), to be too faint and delicate in flavor. Quick to think on her feet, she quickly switched it up to the heavy hitting Ba Xian, and not only did my mother/grandmother enjoy the teas more, the conversation also became livelier.

Imen was also a great conversationalist, answering my mother/grandmother’s questions, and turning their questions into focal points for even more conversation. I was initially afraid that it would be awkward because my mother/grandmother don’t really speak English, but luckily Imen’s command of the Chinese language is much better than my own. Imen told us that drinking tea between three people is best, because with one person it’s kind of lonely, while with tea the conversation can get a little stilted, while with four people the conversation tends to jump all over the place, or in my experience people often “break” into pairs (forgive me Imen, if I botched up your more elegant description).

Even though I’m unable to elaborate on it, but I definitely felt a difference between using a stainless electric kettle and her Chao Zhou kettle. Of course, there definitely was a difference in brewing skill, but the water tasted sweeter, and most of the teas left a pleasant coating over my tongue. Even though she didn’t use her newly arrived Wu Chao Zhou pots, I had the chance to feel them for myself, as well as inquire the differences between the Wu pots and the cheaper Zhang pot I got. The Wu pot had much heavier walls, and there was none of the “make-up” clay my pot had. The texture felt more familiar to Hong Ni/Zhu Ni. I’m para-phrasing what she told me, but brewing in the Gaiwan protects aroma, while brewing in a Zhang pot “mutes” the aroma, while giving the tea a better “mouth-feel.” The Wu pots protects both aroma and gives the tea a better mouth-feel. This was very interesting, since because the Wu pots had thicker walls, I thought aroma would be protected less.

Anyway, back to the actual tea tasting. I think I enjoyed the ’78 Dan Cong and the Li Jai Ping Lao Cong the most. I had actually intended to just buy her ’98 Hai Mei Zhan, but I liked the Li Jai Ping so much I just had to buy some too. The ’78 Dan Cong started off with a dry leaf aroma and initial flavor similar to Pu’Er, but the similarities quickly ended around the 5th-6th infusion. Around that time, the familiar sweetness of Dan Cong returned, and there was a “nourishing” taste, very reminiscent of chicken soup…not the actual flavor of chicken soup, but just the thick feel you get in your mouth. The Li Jai Ping Lao Cong left a nice coating of something on my tongue…it was very unusual, but a delightful experience nevertheless.

The hours past, and it came time for us to depart. We left in high spirits and with a longing to someday return, and I definitely will, not only for the vast selection of teas, but also for the enjoyment of tea in the most ideal of environments.

*EDIT* Just realized that my visit to Tea Habitat coincided with the "official" anniversary posting of my blog...what a fitting way to celebrate an anniversary

Dedicating Yixing

Although I’ve heard tons of interesting theories as to which clay types/teapot shapes are best for what tea, some of which I agree with; however, I think the only postulate in this process is testing a pot out with different types of tea. The method I use originated from the folks over at The Tea Gallery, which I heard second-hand somewhere

1. Pre-heat a yixing teapot (or two, if you’re doing a triple comparison) to account for any temperature differences.
2. Brew 3 infusions gong fu style (I usually brew like six so I can do more comparisons if needed) using a gaiwan
3. Pour the tea into the yixing teapot(s), removing the pre-heated water of course, and save some of the original to serve as a “control” (this isn’t exactly a control, but it’s the most neutral).
4. After leaving the tea in the yixing teapot(s) for about a minute or so, and pour it into separate fair cups.
5. Taste each one, and compare. I personally like to drink some water between each sample to clear the taste in my mouth.

So instead of enjoying my tea, I am doing this taste pretty much every day, trying to see which teapot is better for which tea. My friend WY let me borrow this shui ping hu.

there's something sexy about the water level-ness of shui ping

He’s pretty certain that it’s a fake, but if it is it’s a pretty good one. It has a pretty nice pour, and it even has good floating balance on water. The clay seems pretty high-fired, maybe some kind of Hong Ni IMO. The walls are medium-thick, and it seems pretty durable.

So maybe not completely balanced on water, but still better than sinking.

I thought it would go well with lighter high mountain balled Oolong, because the less-porous clay would protect the aroma better. Comparing with a gaiwan, the aroma seemed a little better, but what I noticed the most was the improved mouth-feel coming from the yixing. It’s pretty hard to differentiate between the two; it’s enough for me to only say which one is better. If you ask me why, I’d probably be a little hard-pressed.

Even though it did well with greener oolong, I thought the thicker walls might make it suitable for medium roasted oolong or lighter roasted Wuyi. For medium-roasted oolong I compared between the Hong Ni, a gaiwan and a Lin’s Purion, while for the lighter roasted Wuyi I compared between the Hong Ni, a Zi Ni and a Gaiwan. The Hong Ni failed all of these tests, so I think I’m pretty set on dedicating this to greener oolong, until I find my own, “authentic” Zhu Ni pot for green oolong and I can return this back to WY.

Of course, this presents a conundrum for my most recent acquisition, a 130 ml Hong-Ni/Zhu Ni mixture (I think), very thin and high fired shui ping from The Tea Gallery. It hasn’t arrived yet, but hopefully it’ll be here by Saturday…just in time for extensive tests. I had bought this pot with the expectation of using it with lighter roasted Wuyi, but judging from the results from WY’s shui ping, the results may not be favorable.

The Wuyi I used for the Hong Ni was more of a medium roast, but I ordered some of The Tea Gallery’s Bai Ji Guan (quite possibly one of my favorite Wuyi) so hopefully it’ll work out. If not, I might just dedicate this pot to greener oolong, and just stick to my Zi Ni pot for all my Wuyi, heavy to light roasted. (There aren’t too many light roasted Wuyi, are there? I wonder if it’s even worth it to dedicate a separate pot to it).

Anyway, the testing continues…

Wen Xiang Bei

Hobbes has an excellent article here on wenxiangbei (smell aroma cup), which I first stumbled across when I was looking over Tea Nerd's tea ware guide here. I had come across wenxiangbei when I was sampling tea in Taiwan, and I fell in love with the practice. I like to judge food/drink by smell, because touching doesn't really do anything (and for drinks it's a social faux-pax), and if you taste something bad...well, it takes time to spit it out. If something smells bad, you can immediately turn away. Anyway, that's not the point here...

I told myself that I would buy a set of wenxiangbei, but more "important" purchases came in the way: tea ware, tea, even more tea ware. I was serving tea to my mom and grandmother, and in force of habit, after I poured the tea liquor into the faircup, I took it up to my nose and sniffed. My mother looked a bit appalled, saying that it looks out-of-place and would be impolite in front of company. I told her I did this because I didn't have any wenxiangbei. She said, "oh, I think grandfather left a set up in the attic."

I love being part of a Taiwanese family, especially one with a tea-drinking grandfather. It means free tea-related stuff for me!

I'm not usually a fan of blue and white porcelain, but I like this because it's very subtle and simple in design

Painted with standard blue-and-white motifs, the porcelain is quite translucent. If I hold it with cup facing me, I can see a faint outline of the painted chop on the other side. I've been using my porcelain-lined Zisha cups, but I like these much better. They display the tea's color so much better.

This is a terrible picture, it's actually more translucent than I make it seem

My Sencha looks more vibrantly green than it usually does. I love the concentrated aroma from it, and I'm able to pick up some of the higher notes (beidixiang "cup bottom scent") which were often elusive to me beforehand. I'm particularly fond of longer-lasting scent of lengxiang ("cold scent") which happens when the wenxiangbei cools down. I read a hypothesis someone put forth that the beidixiang is the water-soluble particles, while lengxiang is the water-insoluble particles, which might include things such as essential oils. I think I agree with this theory.

Anyway, I've been practicing the motions of using the wenxiangbei. Is it considered improper if I use two hands when flipping it? I can do it with one hand but it looks clumsily awkward. I thought I would grow tired of using wenxiangbei after a while, but after a week I'm still loving the ritual of it all.

On another note, I just received some of Just4Tea's roasted TGY, which I was thrilled to trade for via TeaChat. I had actually wanted to buy some myself, but when the opportunity came up I swooped in on the offer. I'll write a comparison review later, but The Tea Gallery's Classic Roast TGY wins...hands down (but the Just4Tea version puts up a nice fight for the price)

*Note* I just realized that I really need a few of those wooden tablets to hold these things...hmmmm

What was I thinking?

I'm not old yet to experience this phenomenon, but it's portrayed often in popular media. You have a normal-looking adult who looked completely different in their high school days. I.E. you have high school nerds who turn into studs, conservative Christians who dressed like goth punk, etc.

I just had the experience with my tea-ware. When I first got into tea drinking, I was studying abroad in China. In my limited experience/knowledge of brewing tea, I knew that Yixing was the way to go. I proceeded to buy a collection of these Yixing, not paying attention to size or quality of clay. They were mammoth pieces, about three times as large as the teapots I use now. I paid about $50 for eight of them, so it wasn't a bad deal.

I had shipped them from China to the United States. By the time I got back (I spent the summer in Taiwan) in the fall, I had moved past large Yixing and brewed tea gong fu style. I decided I would relegate my larger pieces as decorations when I moved into my own place, so I didn't bother to remove them from the bubble wrap, to save me more trouble later.

I was looking for my peeing ceramic boy...er, it's a clay figure of a little boy, and when you pour hot water over it, it um..."pees." I think it's mostly a gag thing that you keep on your tea table/tray to mess with people. But back to the story...I was curious about my large Yixing, and in a moment of sheer spontaneity, decided to free them from their bubble-wrap prison.

Group "A"

Group "B"

Wanting to test how far I've come, I put the pots through various tests, including the tapping test, the stop-pour test, and the smell test. First came the tapping test, which means I took the lid and tapped it gently against the handle, and body, and the spout. I was surprised by hot "metallic" sounding some of these sounded. Of course, the larger hollow body might have contributed to that. Although they didn't sound like bells, group "A" made some pretty nice sounds. The ones in group "B" sounded dull and flat.

Next was the stop-pour test, in which I tried to pour out water with my thumb held over the "blow-hole." Well, some of these didn't have it, so yeah...the ones that did though failed miserably. It was as if I didn't stop the "blow-hole" at all! I sniffed the pots after I poured in some hot water, and it seemed okay, they all had a clay smell to them. I'm not surprised by what I found out about these pots, although the results of the tapping test are very interesting, although I don't know what that says about the quality of the clay, though the metallic sounds might mean these pieces are high-fired?

The food chain in the Teapot World

I had thought that these pots might actually be usable enough that I can trade them away for some tea samples or whatever, but these things are so darn user-unfriendly that I'd be one dishonest salesperson if I did that. But, if anyone wants these teapots for decoration purposes, let me know and maybe we can agree on something. Still, I can't believe that I actually bought eight of these ridiculously large teapots before I learned that small = better. I'm tempted to just destroy the whole lot, since they're so ungainly large and really poor quality.

Note: My teapot and tea from Imen arrived today. I already brewed the Zhi Lan in my gaiwan and I was supremely impressed. Prepping my teapot as we speak....*sigh* I can't believe I have to let it sit there overnight, and since I work tomorrow I probably won't be able to put the badboy to use until tomorrow night...but anyway, this is just a tease so you can keep following my blog (yes, I know I'm desperate/cruel).

Matcha Matcha Man!

*Title borrowed from TeaChat thread topic*

These past few weeks have been a whirlwind of different events. Firstly, I am official employed. Even though I'm happy I'll no longer be a burden to society or to my parents, it will keep me away from my tea exploits. I'm only working part-time though, so it's not that terrible.

Even though I told myself to wait a month or so before plunging into a new world of tea, I could not resist the allure of new tea-ware; especially when you've studied Japanese art before. So I bought a Chawan off of Rikyu, and the rest of the stuff from Yuuki-Cha. My matcha of choice: The Yuuki Midori, which they promote as their "best-selling matcha." Even though I've heard good things about the Yame, I wanted to give their best-selling matcha a try (plus, the 10% off didn't hurt either).

The rest of my equipment came before my Chawan, which is somewhat ironic since my Rikyu was EMS, and Yuuki-Cha was plain old airmail. My first experience was in a rice bowl (Japanese also), which seemed fitting since the first Chawan were also rice bowls. I picked one with similar dimensions to my Chawan, and it hit me for the first time: Wow, Chawan are pretty small!

I used two scoops, and sifted through a handled-infuser basket. I poured some water in, about 160 F but I eyeballed the measurements and whisked away. I was a little too rough, and I broke the ends of about two tines. I'm glad I got the 100 tine version. By the month's end, it'll probably be a 40 tine Chasen.

It was very creamy and the flavor hit me right away. There was a little bitterness, but in a bittersweet dark chocholate kind of way. It seemed very vegetal, which I expected since I was drinking the entire leaf, not just an infusion. Since there were only two sips or so, I felt a little unsatisfied, and unsure if I was really tasting the right thing. I tried again three more times, until I was a little more satisfied. I was pretty wired by the end of the whole ordeal.

The next day, when my Chawan finally arrived.

Notice the Ensō, more on that later

The kodai, with a glaze beauty mark

I think using a proper Chawan makes a difference in the matcha preperation, but maybe it's all mental. Ensō is a Japanese word meaning "circl," and and is a symbol closely associated with Zen Buddhism. Connotations it carries include the universe and the void, which seem like c
pretty contradictory concepts. Some artists, usually Zen influenced ones, will use it as their signature. I chose this particular piece because I think it represents the philosophical qualities of the Zen, which I studied a bit of when I took a Religions of Asia course at my college.

I'm also reminded of the Japanese character mu "む" or written with kanji, "無" which means "nothingness." I love this Chawan, because it feels so rough in my hand, yet so smooth. It "glistens" when I pour hot water to pre-heat it, although this has lessened recently. I look forward to owning many more Chawan (I'm eyeing a Hagi next), but I promise myself not to purchase one for a few months, until I get a little better at preparing and tasting Matcha.

Broken Teapot

The title speaks for itself I think. I was brewing some Muzha Si Ji Oolong from Hou De, when I sneeze and dropped my teapot. It's really unfortunate, because it broke from being dropped from a mere height of five inches. It just happened to land on the handle which is pretty fragile compared to the rest of the teapot. It was pretty tragic because I wasn't done brewing the tea yet, so for the duration of the session I had to actually hold the teapot with my fingers.Rest in Peace: 1950-2008

This particular teapot held some significance for me, because I actually inherited it from my grandmother, which I've mentioned before. It's been used for the past 50 years at least, so I feel like I just broke a precious family heirloom. But there is some good news, however, because this means I get to buy a new teapot. I'm going to a local tea store in Washington DC called Ching Ching Tea, which seems to be highly recommended for tea drinkers in this area. Will update with review of said teahouse and pictures of new teaware

Teaware Collection

This is my first post, so please bear with me here. I only started drinking a few months ago, and this blog is dedicated to sharing my experiences, and gathering insight from my journey towards tea nirvana. I guess it would've been appropriate to start with a tea review; however, I think it's important to introduce the equipment that makes the tea drinking experience enjoyable. Because I am so far from home, I could only bear to bring a small portion of my tea ware collection.

1. The Yixing Teapot
I inherited this tea from my grandmother in Taiwan, who used to drink more day "back in the day." Keeping with the teapot's heritage, I usually use this with Taiwan Oolongs. It's a bit small, about 75 - 100ml. I don't know exactly because I can't measure its volume with the resources I have. It has a nice coating of patina that gives the teapot a lot of character.


2. Lin's Ceramic Studio Purion Teapot

I picked up this piece from Yingge, Taipei which is a mecca for various ceramic goods. But what exactly is Purion? Well, the pamphlet that came with the teapot explained it as "a mixture of natural mineral ore and pottery clay." The pamphlet recommends that the teapot is better for heavy oolongs that have been charcoal fired. Appropriately, I use this teapot specifically for Wuyi Yencha. This little fella here is roughly 125 ml.

3. Faircup and Teacups:
I feel that it's necessary to feature the kind of faircup and teacup I use, because I feel that these secondary tools of the tea-drinking process can heighten the experience. I usually use a glass faircup at home so I can expect the tea liquor more carefully, but this particular one just happened to be smaller, which makes it more convenient The teacups are composed of yixing clay on the outside with a glazed porcelain lining

4. My Tea Collection:
Why, all these teapots and faircups and teacups would be useless without actual tea leaves, right? Well this is only the small subset of tea that I decided to bring to college with me. There are Taiwanese oolongs, Wuyi Yencha, White teas, and green teas. Over the course of the next few months I'll be reviewing all these teas, hopefully providing knowledge to reviews while receiving it through feedback. I look forward to being an active participant of the tea community, and I hope that readers will provide valuable feedback so I can continuously improve