Month: December 2019

I’ve mentioned “Gong Fu” tea brewing before and talked a bit about the necessary paraphenalia (Paraphenalia for Gong Fu Brewing).

It turns out the Gaiwan (Gaiwan) is the most controversial aspect of Gong Fu Tea Brewing with some of my friends, some complaining they didn’t feel they were coordinated enough to operate Gaiwan. Always burning their fingers, spilling tea, and what not.

As I probably destroyed a bunch of nerves in my fingers working as a line cook in restaurant kitchens in my 20s, my finger tips are no longer so sensitive.

However, I was looking for something that would be a bit more convenient and simple for gong fu tea making while traveling.

When I was at the San Francisco International Tea Expo, I saw quite a few vendors using a small combo strainer and share cup, and it put it into my head to track one down.

This pot and strainer combo from Kamjove, (KAMJOVE Glass Gong Fu Teapot with Filter, 300ml,) looked pretty good.

You put your tea in the top compartment. Cover with hot water. Then wait a few seconds. Push the button on the top and the tea strains through a filter into the carafe. Repeat as necessary. When your tea leaves are spent, tap them into the compost pile and rinse out the two sections.

I like that it is mostly clear glass (the strainer section is clear plastic, though the filter itself is fine metal mesh). The tea it makes is good. A bit different tasting from most of the gaiwans and tea pots I’ve used, tea from every type brewing vessel is different, but it is a lot simpler to use than gaiwans and easier to get the tea leaves out of than tea pots, especially early in the morning when you’re not quite awake. If I were to venture an opinion, I would say it makes good green and black tea. As a bonus, the fact that it has a filter strainer, means it will work fine for both whole leaf and broken leaf teas. I don’t think I’d use it for Puerh or Oolong, the thin glass loses heat too quickly.

It’s a good compromise between convenience and quality for hassle free loose leaf tea.

#Tea #Cha #DrinkTea #GongFuTea #KamjovePressArtTeaPot

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Dripd O’Bitters, 2019, from White2Tea.

Dripd O’Bitters is a ripe PuErh tea which has been blended with chenpi.

There are two big classifications of PuErh tea.

The main type, and traditional type, is called Raw or Sheng PuErh.

It is basically green tea, made from a specific type of tea plant from a specific region, which is partially dried and then aged for years or decades.

The second type is called Ripe/Cooked or Shou/Shu Puerh.

Ripe Puerh was invented in the 1970s The idea behind Ripe Puerh was to accelerate the aging process of the tea so it could be sold sooner. While what they ended up producing isn’t exactly flash aged PuErh, it is a tea that is worthy of contemplating for its own merits.

Ripe and Raw Puerh start the same. Leaves and buds of the tea plant are picked, withered briefly, then mostly dried to form what is essentially a rough looseleaf green tea, or maocha.

For Ripe Puerh, the maocha is put into a big pile, kept damp, and repeatedly turned using implements like rakes for a month or two, allowing it to ferment and further oxidize before being completely dried and/or formed into cakes.

If Raw Puerh is sort of like funky green tea, Ripe Puerh is more like funky black tea. Especially if it is a freshly made tea, Ripe Puerh can have very strong funky taste, (wet pile taste,) reminiscent of certain Belgian farmhouse ales. There is some Brett happening in there, for sure. While the funk of Raw Puerh increases with age, the funk of Ripe Puerh tends to calm down with age. Older Ripe Puerh can exhibit stonefruit or chocolate flavors, alongside the usual notes for PuErh tea, camphor, mint, etc.

For Dripd O’Bitters, White2Tea took an already somewhat aged Ripe PuErh and blended it with a type of citrus peel called “chenpi”. Chenpi is the dried peel from a small orange. Chenpi sometimes used in Chinese medicine for a variety of ailments, “to regulate ch’i (or qi), fortify the spleen, eliminate dampness, improve abdominal distension, enhance digestion, and reduce phlegm.” As near as I can tell, chenpi seem very similar in flavor and character to the Italian Bitter orange called, Chinotto (Citrus myrtifolia).

In traditional Chinese medicine, foods are often divided by their warming or cooling natures. Teas are also divided up this way. Unaged Green and white teas, including puerh, are considered cooling, while aged Puerh, Aged White, Black, and Ripe Puerh are considered warming.

Chenpi also have a strong warming element, making drinking a ripe Puerh and Chenpi blended tea, a good choice for weather where you need to warm yourself up.

However, according to wikipedia, “Traditional Chinese medicine urges caution in using Chenpi when red symptoms occur such as red tongue or redness in the face. In addition, pregnant women or those who have menstrual problems should use it carefully.”

In any case, Dripd O’Bitters’ flavor does remind me a bit of Chinotto soda or certain Italian Amari, especially Torani Amer or Amer Picon.

The funk of the Raw Puerh is noticeable in the first few steeps, and not overpowering, while the flavor of the orange develops later, as an aftertaste, or in the later steeps, noticeable as a pleasant bitter flavor on the sides of your tongue. Dripd O’Bitters as a young tea doesn’t have a great deal of re-steepability, but it is a tasty, and warming, diversion for a chilly day.

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#tea #cha #White2Tea #RipePuerh #ShuPuerh #ShouPuerh #TeaOfInstagram #DrinkTea