Verser du gaiwan directement dans les coupes (vidéo)

Les jardins de la famille Lin à Banciao renferment plusieurs plans d'eau, comme ce magnifique bassin à nénuphars dans l'ancienne chambre d'études des enfants! (Ce lieu servait aussi de lieu de concert de musique). L'eau est un symbole de fortune dans le feng shui chinois, l'agencement traditionnel des maisons. Et il est donc naturel que la famille Lin, la plus riche de Taiwan lors de la construction de sa propriété, ait fait attention à ce que cette ressource ne vienne pas à manquer. Hier, j'ai même trouvé un nouveau point d'eau dans ce lieu exceptionnel: un dispensateur d'eau bouillante!! Cela m'a permis d'infuser mes Oolongs sur place.

Voyez comment verser directement d'un gaiwan sans chahai (tout en prenant la vidéo sur un portable de la main gauche):

L'impression de plonger dans une toile de Monet!

Le Oolong de Da Yu Ling d'hiver 2014 rivalise de beauté en bouche et se montre à la hauteur de la situation.

L'ami qui m'accompagne me dit qu'il a essayé une dizaine de gaiwans différents et que c'est celui-ci le plus aisé à manier. Il sait se faire oublier afin qu'on puisse se concentrer sur ce qui compte, le thé.

Merci pour ta discrétion. Les meilleurs accessoires, ce sont souvent ceux qu'on finit par ne plus remarquer, tellement ils se fondent dans le geste et l'image.

Class no 2: classification of tea

Here's a quick recap of today's second weekly tea class. (Sorry for the poor quality pix, due to poor lighting conditions).

The subject: tea classification. Tea names can be confusing with their poetry. The classification helps to make sense of what's most important to a tea's character. It's not the cultivar or the country of origin, but the process. The Fujian tea master Chen Chuan (1908-1999) has come up with the 6 colors classification we still use today:

- White teas: the leaves are simply dried at low temperature
- Green tea: After withering and before any oxidation occurs, the tea is subjected to a high temperature. In China, this usually occurs in a pan, in Taiwan in an oven and in Japan over steam.
- Yellow tea: similar to green tea, but the leaves are allowed a light oxidation,
- Qing (Oolong) tea: the leaves are partially oxidized,
- Red tea: the leaves are fully oxidized.
- Black tea: the leaves are fermented. This obviously includes shu puerh and similarly fermented teas from nearby regions. This category also includes raw puerh, because this tea will naturally ferment as it ages.

To better understand the importance of the process, we brewed 3 teas from the same cultivar, Qingxin Dapang, but made with very different oxidation level.

Above, left, is the Qingxin Dapang Wenshan Baozhong and on the right is the green tea. Both from this spring. The brewing method is quite different for these 2 teas. What surprised the students most was that we used off the boil water for green tea also and that it tasted so good (provided the water is poured gently)!

The color of the brew is also impacted by the color of the porcelain. We can see that the same green tea looks yellow or green depending in which cup it is poured.

The leaves for the green tea are harvested smaller than for Baozhong. And despite this Baozhong being only very lightly oxidized (the leaves looked still very green), the difference in character between these 2 teas was huge. This shows that the cultivar is indeed less important than the process in classifying a tea.

It's within the same category that it makes sense again to look at differences in cultivar.

Giovanni switched from a medium sized handmade gaiwan to my smaller ivory gaiwan and found it easier to hold and handle. Practice also helps.

This comparison also showed that each cultivar has a category that suits him best. And while the green tea and Baozhong were very pleasant, it's the highly oxidized traditional Oriental Beauty made with Qingxin Dapang as well that impressed most. This was especially the case for the prolonged first brew. It had so much complexity, flavors and aftertaste... and didn't taste bitter.

But beyond enjoying great teas, what mattered most was to experience the variation of taste due to the process and the brewing. For a same tea, we used the same amount of leaves, the same gaiwan, the same water... The only difference was how the water was poured in the gaiwan and how long. Becoming aware of how much tea can change and taste differently due to this is the first step to understand the importance of the brewing process and to start paying more attention to it.

To a very successful next class! (To be announced on the TeaMastersBlog Facebook page).

Impressions de lecteur et la bonne quantité de feuilles

Greg m'envoie ces 2 photos et m'écrit ceci:

"J'ai enfin pu déguster le da yu ling. Forcément un thé exceptionnel et très nouveau pour moi, ce qui s'accorde parfaitement avec cette soirée dans ma nouvelle maison! Bref le re nouveau d'une vie et un nouveau chemin qui se dessine.

Je suis très satisfait de tout ça et je pense que mon état d'esprit à contribué à rendre ce moment de thé magnifique! 

Pour tes thés, maintenant que j'ai pu étudier en profondeur certains d'entre eux je comprends mieux pourquoi tu Infuses souvent avec moins de feuilles. Leur qualité est telle que je n'en ai jamais connue de semblable auparavant."

Je suis probablement l'un des rares vendeurs de thé à recommander d'utiliser moins de feuilles au lieu de plus! Greg a maintenant compris pourquoi: leur qualité supérieure permet des infusions plus longues et moins de feuilles suffisent pour obtenir le même niveau de concentration de l'infusion. Certes, ce genre d'Oolong haut de gamme est plus cher au gramme, mais la différence est moins importante si on ramène cela au coût d'une session (avec l'avantage d'avoir dégusté un meilleur thé!)

Comment savoir quelle quantité de feuilles utiliser?

Ce thé 'rouge plaisir' est un bon exemple. Je l'ai dégusté ce matin en pensant au froid pré-hivernal qui touche actuellement l'Europe. Un thé fortement ou entièrement oxydé convient toujours très bien au froid et à la grisaille. Voyez combien peu nombreuses sont mes feuilles!

Il n'y a pas de formule magique, mais quelques règles et astuces pleins de bon sens. En effet, chacun aime le thé à des degrés de concentration divers. Les plus extrêmes sont souvent les fermiers. Utiliser beaucoup de feuilles leur permet d'exagérer le caractère du thé pour facilement discerner ce qui va et ne va pas. Nul besoin de finasser l'infusion ainsi.

Dans un style plus cartésien on trouve juges professionnels. Pour eux, ce sera toujours 3 grammes et 6 minutes d'infusion en porcelaine. C'est une bonne méthode pour comparere et apprendre à connaitre un thé, mais ce n'est qu'un début.

A chacun d'essayer et de trouver sa plus petite quantité possible à plaisir constant. Mieux vaut donc commencer à tester un thé avec peu de feuilles et aller croissant les prochaines fois si on trouve le résultat trop faible.
1. Les saisons vont jouer un rôle: plus il fait chaud, moins on cherche à boire concentré,
2. La porcelaine perd plus vite en chaleur que les théières Yixing ou celles en argent. Avec une extraction moindre, on a besoin de plus de feuilles.
3. Plus on peut pousser la durée de l'infusion sans que le goût devienne amer, moins on a besoin de feuilles.

4. Les bourgeons infusent plus rapidement que des feuilles entières, mais ils sont aussi plus concentrés en arômes.
5. Plus on est calme et concentré, plus on sera sensible aux détails et moins on besoin de feuilles.
6. En extérieur, il y a de nombreuses distractions. Mieux vaut alors utiliser plus de feuilles pour un thé plus puissant.
7. Penser aussi au caractère du thé. Un thé vert se boira plus léger qu'un Oolong.

Trouver le bon équilibre passe par un dialogue franc entre le thé et ses papilles. Soyez critique pour progresser, mais bienveillant pour apprécier ce que vous pouvez améliorer. Si tel accessoire donne des mauvais résultats, changez-en! L'important est d'arriver à obtenir des arômes nets et un goût harmonieux, agréable et prolongé.

Mon thé rouge d'aujourd'hui m'a donné plus qu'entière satisfaction. Le plaisir de ces quelques gorgées fut sublime: les fragrances fines, le goût à la fois moelleux et vivace comme s'il dansait dans mon palais, et cette impression de chaleur relaxante qui part du ventre vers tous mes membres. Génial!

Chabu fun

L'automne est l'occasion de créer de nouvelles ambiances pour le thé. Cela passe notamment par les Chabu, ces nappes qui donnent une ambiance, un décor aux accessoires à thé.

Ce fut aussi la première semaine fraiche à Taiwan. Les appareils à air conditionnés restent éteints. Dans la pénombre frisquette du matin je retrouve mes envies de boissons chaleureuses et douces.

Thé rouge de Hualien, Baozhong torréfié, puerh 7542 ancien... les variations d'humeur et de style apportent leur touche de sensations à chaque journée.

Tea class on October 15th in Banciao

I'll host a first tea class tomorrow morning in Banciao, New Taipei City.
Time: 10 AM to noon.
The subject is Oolong brewing and I'll be teaching the content of my guide to brewing Oolong tea in English with some practical applications. This first class will be free of charge.

Please contact me (stephane_erler@yahoo.com) if you'd like to attend and then I'll send you directions.

Universe tea - San Hsia 100 years tea fragrance and poetic music

The library of the National Taipei University in San Hsia is currently holding an exhibition about Taiwanese authors and artists who have contributed to the cultural life of San Hsia. Teaparker being of them, the university organized a Chaxi event with Teaparker's students and accompanied by Chinese music.

At 3 PM, we arrive on campus and we set up the Chaxi near the Heart Lake.

It's a huge Chaxi, because this outdoors stage is very big! Most of the Chaxi was thought of and set up by my friend Evon. But several students contributed to complete it and make the whole event possible.

I brought the white Nilu, my bamboo basket and the upside down Jianyang black glazed bowl (see above). The presence of the basket (and most objects on the edge of the Chabu) wasn't just aesthetic, it also prevented the wind from blowing the fabric away! The Sung style bowl served the same purpose, but also had a conceptual meaning: since we were going to use Yuan dynasty style cups, the upside down bowl would represent the overthrown Sung dynasty preceding the Mongols (Yuan).

My good friend John helped prepare the water and feed the Nilu with charcoal. (I also thank him for taking the pictures of myself at the end of this post). We would even take turns to brew, making this event a team effort!

For this special occasion, Teaparker chose 2 green teas connected to San Hsia's tea culture. This is why we used silver teapots and rather big cups for both teas.

This university sponsored tea event is a great reminder of the connection between tea, culture, history and arts. The word 'university' also makes me think of how tea is 'universal'. Each Chinese dynasty has created its own tea culture. Even different countries have their own rituals. Tea has no boundaries. On the contrary, tea is freedom and what you want to make out of it. 

This is the approach that suits me best. First, learning about the classics and then turning the tea experience into a creative process. The Chaxi is a playground for tea lovers. Everybody was taking pictures!

Red leaves for an autumn feeling.

Tea can be connected to almost any subject. Sometimes, it's like meditation.

Or it's connected to history: San Hsia started to make green tea at the request of generals of Chiang Kai Shek's army who had retreated to Taiwan and couldn't purchase their tea in Hangzhou anymore. The local qingxin Ganzhong was very suitable for green tea and San Hsia farmers started to make their own Longjing and BiLuoChun in the 1950s!

After the speeches, we had the privilege of hearing a concert of traditional Chinese music that put us in a relaxed and happy mood, ready to enjoy tea! Enjoy a few moments with this short video:

Evon started to brew a 10 year-old Xihu Longjing, the kind of tea the Nationalist generals were longing for!

You may be wondering why we would be brewing green tea that is a decade old. The reason is simple and is at the very heart of all our tea pursuit: because it still tastes delicious!

Good, dry storage and top quality are the key points. The finest pleasure then comes from finding freshness within these ancient aromas.

The tea I'm brewing is even older. It's a SanHsia Longjing from the 1970s! These are the last leaves from Teaparker's stash of this tea. It's an honor and privilege to brew them for our attendees and to have 2 pretty tea friends helping me with the service.

That's why you see me dressed up, but not wearing a costume. Even when we are performing in front of an audience, we wish to show that brewing tea with style and technique is rooted in our daily life. No need to wear a certain style of clothes. Just feel comfortable and elegant would be my advice.

Since we are outdoors and can't wash the cups and teapot properly, we decided to use a different tea set for this second tea. A silver teapot, plated with gold, Dehua porcelain dragon cups and silver cha tuo.

The smell of the tea is sufficient to trigger salivation in the back of my mouth! It seems to dance with freshness and warmth, a little bit like this day of October. It's difficult to describe the complexity of these contradictory, but pleasant aromas.

This difficulty in describing this intense pleasure of such a tea experience creates a mystery and a space for your imagination. This may lead to poetry, creativity or even spirituality. "What you do with tea is different for everybody", I remember a tea friend saying to me recently. It's rooted in culture, traditions, education.

What doesn't change is the search for quality leaves and brewing them the best possible way. This is how a partial cloudy autumn afternoon in San Hsia can turn into a tea event seen and discussed worldwide.

Tea knows no borders. Tea is universal.

Fall is puerh season

The Tea Masters Blog is now also present on Facebook! This and the start of the fall season are 2 good reasons to offer you 10% discount on all the puerhs of my selection:

C'est fait! Je me suis mis sur Facebook et vu le temps que j'ai passé dessus ce weekend, je comprends l'aspect addictif de ce support. Mon seul bémol: il y manque des beaux Chaxi, mais nous allons y remédier! Et pour fêter cela et le début de l'automne, c'est tout naturellement que je vous offre 10% de remise sur tous mes puerhs.

The Yixing teapot Exhibition at the Tea Institute at PSU - Shaping the teapot

 After the clays and the clay making, let's examine how Yixing teapots take shape. As part of this lecture, Teaparker asked the students of the Tea Institute to draw the same Xishi teapot from where they were sitting. This exercise forces them to look at the teapot very carefully and see its details.

The actual making of an Yixing teapot can be seen on this video.

The teapots can then be categorized into 3 big categories:
1. Geometrical shape (mostly round, square, hexagonal...)
2. Petal shapes (pumpkin or flower shaped).
3. Inspired by nature. Let's see a few examples of this style. See the handle of this teapot: it looks like bamboo. And the spout looks like the branch from a tree.

 This Jianquan teapot dates back to the early 20th century. Beside the painting, we can also see that some decoration (a branch of a pine tree) has been applied on the body of the teapot.

 And on the cover, it's plum blossoms that come alive on the otherwise dead branch!

 This style of Yixing teapot, based on a log from tree, is a good example of how Yixing teapot makers have been using the same shapes for a very long time.

Sometimes, it's adapted to a certain fashion, like the coloring of some important parts of the teapot on the previous and this teapot.

 An important principle to study ancient Yixing teapots is to head to the museums where the origin and date can be most trusted. For this log and plum flower shaped teapot, I could find a very similar piece from the 19th century online from the Freer and Sackler Galleries.

The details of this younger teapot are nicely executed but the inside of the teapot still needs some brushing.

 The following zisha teapot, however, starts to shine naturally as I have started testing it.

 This clay has a chocolate color that looks so delicious!

 The plum flowers are not colored, but a different clay is used (duanni).

Plum blossoms are the rare flowers to bloom in winter. Here, the winter is represented by a log, a piece of wood without leaves. It's almost dead already (in the winter of its existence), but the plum blossoms (mei) are beautiful. They represent hope, the fact that in the hardest conditions you can still find ways to blossom.

 These classic shapes continue to be used or reinvented today.

 This zisha teapot dramatizes the handle and the wood attributes.

 The plum blossoms are also made with a different, slightly redder clay.

These nature inspired teapots have more complexity than most round teapots. They carry also more symbols rooted in Chinese culture! These wood/log shaped teapots are a nice fit for the autumn season! They bring us close to nature and into the woods!