Documenting tea: the new Les Blank film

Update:

Jamie of Tea on Tap (thank you Jamie) asked about the Les Blank documentary. Unfortunately I have not seen it. I arrived for the first showing to find it and the second (and final) showing that evening sold out!

I missed last night's screening at Numi Tea in Oakland but the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology will show the movie and host a tea tasting with Les Blank on February 7. Additional screening information can be found here.

In the meantime, if anyone has seen All In This Tea, please consider writing a review for Notes on Tea.


Source: All In This Tea web site

Director Les Blank has just released a documentary titled All In This Tea about handmade tea, traditional tea making, and contemporary tea factories in China. I have not seen the documentary, so this is not a review. However, I intend to watch it this weekend at the El Cerrito Speakeasy Theater in El Cerrito. The press kit is available here and a trailer can be viewed here.

It's pouring tea

"When it rains, it pours" goes the old saying. In the past month, I have received three tea packages. The first was a tea guide to the San Francisco Bay Area. The book was followed by an order of four teas I placed with Upton Tea Imports. The third package was The Way of Tea, a birthday present. I enjoyed reading the latter and will share some interesting tea-bits in a future post. I am still reading the tea guide and hope to develop and share a few itineraries with you.



The Upton teas: I've drunken several cups of the Hyson China Green and enjoyed each one. (It is a good pairing with jasmine pearls.) I have yet to prepare the Bond Street English Breakfast, the Extra Bergamot English Earl Grey (I can smell the extra bergamot through the tin), or the Baker Street Afternoon Blend. The teas are part of the Old South Meeting House Sampler. The meeting house is located in Boston, MA and a portion of the tea sales support the landmark.


top: left, English Breakfast; right, Afternoon Blend
bottom: left, Earl Grey; right, Green

Tea Friday

While many Americans are walking the aisles of department stores, on this Black Friday, I was browsing the bulk tea aisle of my local Whole Foods. I purchased two quarter-sized Pu-Erh cakes by Silk Roads (variety Tuocha) for $5.60 (!) and 1/8lb of Up N Atom Chai without black tea for $2.39.

For Thanksgiving, we prepared a lunch for nine followed by tea: Black with Apple Caramel (loose leaf) by Premium Steap (not a misspelling) in Philadelphia. I purchased 2 ounces this summer.

I am still preparing my order for Upton Tea Imports.

More tea and cupcakes

Last Christmas my sister-in-law made a delicious batch of cupcakes (see below). I cannot recall the type of cupcake now, but I remember eating several and being very happy. She used a recipe from Cupcakes which I browsed through and came across a photograph of a teapot that I own! This teapot and cups were a gift from two dear friends, one of whom regularly supplies me with tea.

Two favorites in one

Pam, Toby, and Oscar (of The Office t.v. show) form a tea and book club called the "Finer Things Club." In this scene, their gathering is interrupted by Kevin noisily extracting a can of soda from the vending machine and Phyllis preparing microwaveable popcorn.

The two favorite things are the t.v. show and tea; it's three if you count the book club.

Tuesday afternoon tea cupcake

My passion for baking for baking was ignited this summer (this is an incredibly cliched sentence). I started with Clotilde's (of Chocolate & Zucchini) chocolate and zucchini cake. It was amazingly delicious both times I baked it. I also baked a yogurt cake (also from Clotilde's cookbook), breads, cookies, and now cupcakes. I've baked cupcakes before this point but with help from a mix.

The Tuesday afternoon tea cupcake recipe is based on two recipes: (1) plain cupcake by Lillian at cheflillian.com and (2) lime tea cupcake by Mary at alpineberry.blogspot.com. The recipe is my entry for Cupcake Roundup II, sponsored by Cheryly at Cupcake Bakeshop and Garrett at Vanilla Garlic.



Ingredients
1 1/4 cup unbleached flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt (I used ground grosso salt)
1 teaspoon cinnamon (I used Thai cinnamon)
8 tablespoons butter, room temperature
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 eggs
11/12 cup whole milk
2 1/2 teaspoons of loose leaf Assam

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Heat milk then remove from heat and add tea. Let steep for 15 minutes. Sieve the liquid to remove the tea leaves.
3. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Mix together butter and sugar until incorporated.
5. Add one egg at a time to the butter-sugar mix, incorporate thoroughly.
6. Add dry ingredients to the butter-sugar-egg mix in two batches. Alternate the dry batches with the milk tea.
7. Fill each cupcake cup halfway. (I used a silicon cupcake cup sheet.)
8. Bake for approximately 20 minutes.



My batter yielded 10 cupcakes. Serve the cupcakes with cinnamon and a cup of (Assam) tea. Note: I baked my cupcakes on Sunday, but ate most of them on Tuesday (and Wednesday), by which time the flavors had fully melded.

Dong Ding at Numi Tea Garden Open House

So many Numi teas at the Numi open house in Oakland, but I drank Peet's Coffee, Mateveza Ale (brewed with yerba mate), and Dong Ding tea (Dong Ding means cold top (of mountain)). The latter, a Taiwanese oolong grown in the same latitude in China, was prepared by a Numi employee. He described the taste as buttery, but I detected a yeasty dough flavor which I liked. Not only did I taste a new tea, I also observed the art of preparing tea in a clay pot.


The set up


Rinse and warm the clay pot


Add leaves using a wooden spoon


Add hot water (180 degrees F, pour liquid into glass pot, warm and flavor cups with the first rinse


Add new water, pour water over clay pot - when the pot is dry (the water evaporates), the tea is ready to be served (about 20 seconds), upturn the clay pot into the glass pot, serve


Note the buttery color (yeast flavors)
Culturally, a guest's cup is only filled half way (I learned this from another Numi employee, who speaks Mandarin, Cantonese, and one of the mountain dialects where Numi purchases its leaves).

French press tea

I meant to write this post from a wifi-enabled cafe while drinking tea and eating a pastry, but an unexpected meeting thwarted my plans. I am writing from home, in the kitchen to be exact where I do a lot of my tea drinking. Another place in my home that I drink tea is on the futon in the living room. I like to drink tea when I watch British comedies or mysteries.

Anyway, I've spent the last week or so making tea in a French press. A gift of green tea from a friend who recently returned from China made me ask the question: I don't have a gaiwan or other appropriate accountrements, so aside from my teaballs, how else can I prepare loose leaf tea? My husband told me that a colleague in his office makes tea with a French press so I decided to give ours a try (or several). The leaves were steeped for approximately 4 minutes. The combinations were very enjoyable with the exception of the admittedly unusual pairing of Pu-Erh and jasmine pearl.


Pu-Erh and about 7 pearls


Pu-Erh, cinnamon stick, cardamom, and clove


Green leaves and jasmine pearls


Two teaspoons of tea leaves gave a slightly bitter taste to the tea (note the before and after size of the leaves).


Green leaves and a piece of Jamaican hibiscus
A winning combination of citrus from the hibiscus and earthy nose and end note from the green tea.

Tea-of-the-morning: Teance White Peony

Last Wednesday I went to a local grocer to purchase a few items. On the way to the yogurt section I stopped at a tea sample table hosted by Tracy Paulding of Teance. The Teance tea room is located off 4th Street in West Berkeley.

I sampled the Green Jasmine in a biodegradable serving cup though the teas were prepared in porcelain gaiwan. Despite the small amount, I enjoyed the Green Jasmine, though I failed to record any tasting notes. I do remember a smooth vegetal taste and warm grass aroma. I guess there must have been a floral - jasmine - aroma as well.



I received a White Peony sample of a new product, the FreeLeaf. Here is the description from the Teance website:

In a hurry? No time to steep or drink that refreshing pot of tea? FreeLeaf™ makes perfect whole leaf tea on-the-go. Place a tea bouquet in your thermos or commuter cup, add hot water, and it’s as simple as that.

White Peony FreeLeaf

I steeped the sample this morning to drink as I read the Sunday papers. I warmed my teapot with almost boiling water then added the FreeLeaf bouquet and the remainder of almost boiling water. I poured the tea at 1 minute, 4 minutes, 8 minutes, 14 minutes, and 17 minutes.



1 minute: There was no discernible taste or aroma. The steep was a very light green color.



4 minutes: I detected a slight floral taste, but having no experience eating or drinking peony I could not positively identify the taste as such. The steep had deepened in color. Also, the bouquet had expanded and the liquid in the teapot was a moss green.



8 minutes: The steep exhibited a yellow-brown color, a raw rice smell, and a more complex taste. I no longer detected a floral note but the end note reminded me of the taste of a California grape leaf: sharp and tart.



14 minutes: The steep was golden yellow and had achieved a full-mouth taste. The aroma and taste of raw rice was still detectable as were new smells and tastes - of soba noodles and steamed brown rice. The final pour was made three minutes later. A slight floral aroma had returned. In addition, a floral end note alternated with the sharp tartness exhibited at minute 8.

Overall, I enjoyed the tea, but I prefer the immediate bold flavors and aromas of teas like Assam, Puer, and Lapsang. It was my first experience steeping and drinking a white tea, so it is possible that I incorrectly prepared the tea. I would like to try again, possibly with a gaiwan. Finally, the tea became more complex with time; it was the most flavorful after 8 minutes thus living up to its description as a commuter tea.

Catalogue tea sets

A while ago a reader asked about my favorite place to buy teacups. I did not have an answer at the time and don't now. Most of my teacups have been gifts which is not to say that I have never bought a teacup. I purchased two Chinese steeping teacups from the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, one for my mother and one for myself. I am often tempted to buy sets in estate thrift shops or in catalogues. The other day I received an unsolicited catalogue, Acacia, a "physical and spiritual well-being, fitness, and natural decor" catalogue, which featured a "striped stoneware tea set." It is a set of four cups and saucers (microwave safe) and bamboo-handled, 24-ounce, teapot. The set costs $49 and can be viewed at the catalogue's website.

The Peabody Essex Museum Shop offers lots of teaware including a "teardrop-shaped tea set." The set includes a teapot, two demitasse cups, creamer and sugar bowl, and two tea trays. I am not tempted to buy this set; the design seems more appropriate for display rather than tea service. In fact, the tea set is listed in the Home Decor section of the museum shop!

Finally, like the museum in Salem, Hawkes Winery in Healdsburg, California has a teapot gallery. And like the museum, none of the magnificent pots are for sale.

Related posts
Bean, paper, tea
Tea rooms and tea objects
Tea art in Salem, MA

What's in a teaspoon?

I asked this question after using 1 teaspoon of home-made spice mix when the recipe called for 1/4 teaspoon. I had used the teaspoon for the assam loose leaf and accidentally used the same measure for the spices. The first sign that I had done something wrong was the cloudy nature of the water in my tea cup. The second sign was the almost mucus-like quality of the unfurled leaves and mix. The tea smelled wonderful as it steeped (warmed ginger and cinnamon and the earthiness and spice of the cardamoms and peppercorns), but the resulting tea was thick, similar to peanut butter. It lacked the smoothness of correctly portioned chai.



I decided to prepare my own chai after finishing a 2 ounces of Black Blend from Steap Premium Tea in Philadelphia. I like drinking black tea in the morning and did not want to open my second 2-ounce pack of Steap tea, Black with Apple Caramel. I could have purchased bagged tea, but I have made a commitment to drinking loose leaf tea when I can. I searched the internet for chai recipes (for one) and found my favorite recipe from Chai!.


left, spices
Incorrect measure of spice mix

Recipe
1 teaspoon of tea (I used Assam loose leaf I purchased from the grocery store)
1/4 teaspoon of spices (see below)

>> Spice mix
1 1.5 inch cinnamon stick
4 cardamoms with shells
3 peppercorns (I used Sarawak Black from Penzeys Spices)
3 cloves
1/2 teaspoon ginger powder (I used powder made by Frontier Culinary Spices)

>> Grind the ingredients

Spirited tea

A spirits distillery was the last place I expected to find tea. A group of us ate a picnic lunch on the grounds of St. George Spirits in Albany Alameda, CA and followed our meal with a tasting. We sampled several vodkas and whiskeys (one glass to four people) as well as Qi Spirits (which is produced by Qi Spirits in San Francisco the same company). We tasted Qi Black and White Tea Liqueurs, neat. The white spirit was dry, astringent and slightly fruity while the black liqueur was smoky and smooth, reminiscent of lapsang.


left, white liqueur
black liqueur

A week before the tasting, I read an article in the San Francisco Chronicle's "The Coctailian" column about a white nectar cocktail made with Numi White Nectar organic tea (Numi is located in Oakland, Ca). A web search on tea and cocktails yielded sites devoted to the Zen Green Tea Liqueur and an article on tea-based cocktails. I think I will remain focused on the numerous teas and steeping techniques I have not tasted and tried before I add the tea-cocktail to my repertoire.