Chinese New Year vacation coming

1999 Menghai Tea Factory 7542 puerh

I inform you that I'll be off for the Chinese New Year from February 2nd to February 14th. That means that you can still place your order until January 31st for a delivery on February 1st. Otherwise, you'll have to wait for February 15th, until the Post office opens up again.

My second announcement is that I have a -20% reduction on my plain ivory and light celadon tea cups until this Sunday. The same way wine only tastes right in a wine glass, it's important to use a fine porcelain cup to taste the fine aromas of tea. (You'll find all TeaMasters' specials here.)

Le Nouvel An chinois approche. Aussi, je vous informe que j'enverrai les derniers colis avant mes congés le 1er février pour toutes les commandes passées le 31 janvier ou avant. Sinon, il vous faudra patienter jusqu'au 15 février pour les prochains envois.

L'importance d'une bonne coupe en porcelaine pour déguster le thé ne saurait être assez soulignée. C'est pourquoi, je réduis le prix des coupes ivoire et céladon clair de -20% jusqu'à ce dimanche. Retrouvez toutes les promotions TeaMasters ici.

A great cold day for tea

A couple of days before the historic snow fall in Taipei, I practiced my Chaxi for tea class. And thanks to very cold temperatures, I felt like using my Nilu with charcoal fire. I was pleasantly surprised by how much heat a few pieces of charcoal can produce!

For a cold day and with Chinese New Year approaching, I felt that the red color would be a nice choice to warm things up.

Preheating teapot and cups is essential. The cold even guides my choice of cups: the ivory flower cups. Their tall shape means there is less contact between the tea and the cold air. This helps preserve the warmth of the brew a little longer.

And the ivory color is also a good fit with the tea I've chosen: a high oxidized traditional Oriental Beauty.

The color of the brew appears a little bit warmer.

High oxidized tea creates a sweet warmth that extends from the palate to the whole body. This Oriental Beauty adds a silky, refined taste and dark spice flowery notes.

The lion dominates this peaceful world from his white cloud. That's where I pour the hot water with calm and concentration.

And in the cups, the passion of tea and fire brings back an endearing summer feeling.

It's a joy to drink an Oriental Beauty on cold day!

Drink your cloud, un hommage aux morts de janvier

Ce mois de janvier nous apporte chaque jour la nouvelle d'un décès d'artiste ou de personne proche. Ajoutons à cela la mémoire des attentats de janvier 2015, un temps gris et froid, et on a là un cocktail de déprime parfait!

C'est en pensant à tous ces disparus que j'ai voulu faire ce Chaxi noir et blanc et déguster mon puerh cuit de la fin des années 1980. Un thé si calme et doux, comme un long sommeil... Ce genre de puerh cuit est d'ailleurs très apprécié dans les temples bouddhistes. Or, hasard de la vie, un moine bouddhiste, lecteur de mon blog, m'envoya cette calligraphie lors de sa récente commande:

Son maitre parle souvent du nuage pour enseigner l'absence de naissance et de mort. Le nuage est un changement insaisissable, comme la vie. Il se transforme en pluie qui deviendra de l'eau dans notre coupe de thé. Bowie chantait "Ashes to ashes", mais le corps c'est avant tout de l'eau qui se transformera en nuage! Alors, "boire son nuage", c'est nous rappeler que notre thé contient cette eau qui fait partie du cycle de la vie.

L'image du nuage me fait aussi plus penser à celle de l'âme qui s'élève vers les cieux! Et l'idée de se transformer un jour en thé est originale et pleine d'espoir!

La mort d'une de mes proches la semaine dernière me montre aussi que l'argent (qu'elle avait à profusion) ne rend pas heureux si l'esprit et le coeur ne sont pas ouverts à la vie et au changement. La crispation des muscles commence par la crispation de l'esprit. Et la crispation musculaire est ce qui engendre tant de maladie psycho-somatiques...

Le meilleur remède que je connaisse pour apaiser son esprit, c'est de boire un bon thé en se prenant le temps, avec de beaux ustensiles adaptés au thé.

Et laisser les arômes, les saveurs et les couleurs nous envahir et nous faire bien... C'est parfois si bon que je me croirais déjà au Paradis!

Et quand ce n'est pas parfait, c'est qu'on a quelque chose à apprendre et à améliorer! Voilà qui rend le thé si intéressant. Il nous apprend l'attitude positive qu'il faut avoir face à la vie: pile, je gagne, face j'apprends.

Et face à la vie et la mort, c'est: pile, je bois du thé, face, je deviens le thé.

De nuage en nuage,

Notre âme s'élève

Doucement survole

Le noir chaxi

Vers les cieux.

Unsolved Mystery Oolong

Last November, I introduced a new fresh winter Oolong and launched a tasting contest to have you find out where it comes from. The prize for the right answer would be 25 grams of Oolong from Da Yu Ling.

This is the kind of test that we often get in tea class with Teaparker or that tea farmers subject you to when you taste a tea with them. They ask your opinion of the tea they have just shared to assess how good your tasting skills are. This will often determine what type of tea they will offer you.

Most of the time, they'll see you are right and will praise your tasting skills, no matter what you answer. They are polite and there's no reason to make their customer unhappy...

A tea master, however, likes to have fun with his students and show them Socrates' paradox: know that you don't know and you already know something! Tea is tricky and never finishes to amaze me. This was again the case with this Oolong and I wanted to share this amazement.

The answers I received for the origin of this winter Oolong are: Da Yu Ling, Fushou Shan, Lishan, Alishan and Shan Lin Xi. And they are all wrong!! Nobody found from which place these leaves are from.

The right answer was a little bit tricky: the Feng Huang village in the Dong Ding area! This plantation is one of the highest there, but its elevation is nevertheless still slightly below 1000 meters and shouldn't be technically called High Mountain. However, the light oxidation of these big leaves and their fresh light scents make them very similar to High mountain Oolong. It's so good that you are all forgiven for thinking they came from higher elevations! It's a very well made Oolong, but it still lacked a little bit the fresh component of higher mountain Oolong.  

Since there were no right answers, the 5 winners are the first 5 people who submitted their answers. Congratulations! I'll contact you soon to send you your Da Yu Ling Oolong prize. Thank you for your participation. I hope this type of exercise will help you to taste the character of your Oolongs with more attention in the future. I also hope this will help raise awareness about how simple it is to misrepresent the origin of high mountain Oolongs.

The best way not to be fooled is to educate yourself with teas from a trusted and knowledgeable source!

Enjoy and learn about amazing Oolongs!

Tea lesson: brewing mid aged Oolong and puerh

Cold temperatures call for warm, sweet and rich teas. For this lesson, I wanted to show that we can find such nice combination in mid aged teas that are 10 to 15 years old. Good tea can be enjoyed at any age. The point should never be to brew an old tea for its age's sake, but for the pleasure it brings.

Brewing with a gaiwan is a challenge when it's cold, but it remains the best tool for learning how to brew well. Preheating is essential. 
We started with my 2001 spring Concubine Oolong and the three of us brewed it alternatively on 2 Chaxi.

The first brew of Serena and Israel were very different and then mine was also unlike these 2 brews. This was the first take away from this class: the same tea, brewed with the same water will taste notably different when prepared by different people. The reason is that we pour the boiling water in the gaiwan with different speeds and different level of control (some are more steady, while others pour at uneven speeds). Another reason is the length of the brew.

For the first 2 pours, it's best to pour slowly, because aged Oolong has unfurled a bit and doesn't require much energy to open up. The other detail that helps improve the flavors is a good preheating of the cups. We preheated them again for each brew and then it's best not to empty them too early, but wait until a few moments until you're about to pour from the gaiwan in the cups.

Good leaves are forgiving when they are not brewed perfectly, but when you do they give an incredible crisp, sweet and delicious taste that lasts comfortably for over ten minutes.

I was happy that Serena got her third brew right after following my instructions. "This is the best cup of tea I every brewed!", she said.

Then we switched to my beautiful 2003 wild Yiwu puerh qizi bing. It already smelt fabulous dry. It also delivered a powerful aftertaste that lingered well beyond the end of the class. Its energy was pleasantly felt in the body. And like the Concubine Oolong, each brew turned out a little bit different, depending how the water was poured in the gaiwan. The rewards of getting it right make learning and practicing tea brewing so interesting!

These 2 mid aged teas still had a lot of power and freshness, while already feeling more rounded and deeper. They also showed that it's not so much the age that matters, but the initial quality of the leaves and good storage conditions. 

Thank you Israel, my longtime tea blogger friend, and Serena for sharing and supporting my tea passion.

Cours d'infusion du Hong Shui en gaiwan

Israel est un ami blogueur avec lequel je correspond depuis 2007. Ce fut donc une joie de le rencontrer pour ce cours d'infusion de ses thés préférés, les Oolongs torréfiés. Nous utilisons mon gaiwan en porcelaine pour infuser ce Hung Shui Oolong de Dong Ding d'hiver 2013 à forte torréfaction. Après ma démonstration de ma méthode (expliquée dans mon guide), je cède ma place à Israel afin qu'il la pratique. En effet, même s'il lit mon blog depuis près de 10 ans, il n'infuse pas tout à fait comme moi, avec peu de feuilles et des infusions plutôt longues et versées en douceur.

A ce propos, cette semaine, un lecteur (George) m'écrit: "Ca y est, j'ai goûté chaque Oolong. Ils sont tout simplement délicieux. Alors, un grand MERCI pour la qualité de tes sélections.(...) Tes astuces sur la façon de verser l'eau (dans ton guide, ndlr) m'ont fait redécouvrir certains thés. Bluffant !​"

Le thé de qualité ne s'apprécie pleinement que si l'on sait bien l'infuser.

Class 10: What Yixing teapot is suited for aged Oolong?

Before the tea class, I took the Penn State's Tea Institute members to hot springs in Wulai. The view on the green mountain behind the river was just stunning. It was like staring at a Chinese Shan Shui painting while soaking in hot water.

We brewed 3 teas while we were there. The winter 2015 Da Yu Ling felt fresh and pure. For Ryan and me, this was the perfect match with the hot spring experience. Teddy and Sam loved the thicker and fruitier Alishan Tie Guan Yin, while Andres preferred the warm and sweet winter 2014 Concubine Oolong.

The teas added to the hot spring experience. Their pure aromas seemed to clean us from the inside, while the hot water was cleaning us from the outside. It gave us a feeling of complete satisfaction.

For their last class in Taiwan, we brewed the same spring 2003 Hung Shui Oolong from Yong Lung using 3 teapots made from different Yixing clays to experience how each teapot impacts the tea. We didn't just use the same water and kettle, I also instructed that we use a medium strength pour for all the teapots for the first brew. So, Teddy, started with a zhuni teapot. It had a certain sharpness, powerful scents and depth.

I continued with my antique zisha.

The brew was the most balanced between the roasting and the freshness.

Then we tasted the mellowing transformation of the duanni. This one was the smoothest and sweetest.

As a bonus to this comparison, Sam also brewed with my golden silver teapot. The scents were particularly bright and the taste light, almost superficial! (Note: we used fewer leaves for this teapot, because its high heat conductivity provides the most flavor extraction).

This teapot isn't very suited to the character of a Hung Shui Oolong, but it's interesting to see how few leaves can release so many wonderful aromas! Like a neutral porcelain gaiwan, the silver doesn't hide any defects and actually magnifies the good and the bad from the tea. So this was a good way to appreciate the quality of this tea and then compare how the Yixing teapots underline the scents, the sweetness, the harmony and/or the freshness from the tea.

We were able to achieve very good results with all 4 teapots. The zisha and the duanni felt the most suited to express the complex character of this aged roasted Oolong. However, we also noted that a careful brewing also mattered to get the best results from the teapot. Once you know how your teapot performs, you can adapt your brewing in accordance. For instance, since the duanni is good at making the tea harmonious and mellow, I poured the hot water with more strength than for the other teapots on the second brew.

Tasting this aged 2003 Hung Shui Oolong left us completely relaxed with a warm and sweet feeling leaping from the mouth to the rest of our body. This felt again like a hot spring shower, one that relaxes and calms you from the inside!