Foojoy's guide to types of tea

One of the things I enjoyed about the In Pursuit of Tea's Tea & Cheese Pairing I attended a couple of months ago was co-founder Sebastien Beckwith's simple explanation of the five types of tea -- white, green, Oolong, black, and Pu-erh.  Similarly, the brochure included with my box of Foojoy's Lungching has an excellent tea guide.

Image: Foojoy Lungching Green Tea (screen capture via Amazon.com)

White tea: Tea leaves are dried and steamed briefly, without rolling or oxidization, making this the least processed tea.

Green tea: Fresh tea leaves are allowed to wither, and then are pan-fired or steamed and later rolled and dried.  Green tea leaves do not undergo oxidization.

Oolong: Leaves for Oolong teas are allowed to oxidize only partially, and Oolongs range in color from a golden brew to deep amber, depending on the amount of oxidization and the extent of firing.

Black tea: Black teas...comes from the same plant as green teas, but leaves for black teas are allowed to oxidize fully, resulting in chemical changes that produce a dark amber color.

About Pu-erh from the In Pursuit of Tea website: Pu-erh tea is aged, post-fermented, and often compressed into bricks. Its name comes from the town of Pu-erh in Southwestern China. Pu-erhs have a strong earthy taste that gains complexity over time.

Gift Guide: For the girl who loves tea sets

I spied this darling tea set -- L'heure du thé by Moulin Roty (note: the website has sound effects) -- at a Kate's Paperie.  A great on-the-go set of teapot, cups, saucers, and napkins. The girl who loves tea sets can be young or older.

Gift Guide: For someone with a modern design sensibility

The Marimekko Shop at Crate & Barrel carries beautifully decorated tea pots and wares, perfect for the tea lover who likes Danish Finnish design.

Gift Guide: For someone without a garden

The Arta Tea Leaf Infuser is perfect for the tea lover on your list who loves plants but does not have a garden. Also check out Arta's clever Tea Infuser Saucer -- fill the pod with tea and invert the saucer over a cup of hot water for steeping.

Gift Guide: For someone with a sense of humor

The Ducky Floating Tea Infuser is perfect for the tea drinker with a wacky sense of humor.  For an image of Ducky floating in a cup of tea click here.

Cup of Tea, Fresh Made, 2d (2 pennies)...

So reads a *vintage* sign, below, displayed in the East Wind Tea shop in Beverly Farms, Massachusetts. 

I went into the shop last weekend and it was packed with shoppers.  I have ordered from East Wind Tea several times and have always been satisfied with the teas.  While I did not purchase anything during my last visit, a few moments ago I ordered White Tip Oolong, Nokcha, and Sobacha, a roasted buckwheat herbal.  The latter is not currently available on the website but I emailed Curtis Vouwie, the owner, and he will add a 50g packet to my order.

Short list of Afternoon Tea service in NY City

Image: Mary Cassatt, Afternoon Tea Party (source)

I picked up a free copy of Big Apple Parent at my local library because of the "Hot Chocolate and Teas for Holiday Cheer" article by Kaitlin Ahern, Alexandra Budd, and Nancy Chen.  Obviously more interested in the tea shop recommendations, I skipped the sections about hot chocolate.  Here is a list of afternoon tea spots in Manhattan and the boroughs:

• Alice's Tea Cup, www.alicesteacup.com, 3 locations on the Upper East and West Sides
• Lady Medl's Tea Saloon, www.innatirving.com, Inn at Irving Place
• Tea & Sympathy, www.teaandsympathynewyork.com, 108 Greenwich Avenue
• Sweet Melissa Patisserie, www.sweetmelissapatisserie.com, 2 locations in Brooklyn

Wordless Wednesday: Grounded tea offerings

Three Assams from Munich

Technically Assam is grown in India but we were introduced to three in Munich: Dallmayr Assam (bagged), Ronnefeldt Mokalbarie Sommer GFBOP Assam (also bagged), and Tee-Treff Assam SF FTGFOP1 'Greenwood' (loose).  GFBOP is a broken leaf designation which means golden flowery broken orange pekoe while FTGFOP stands for fine tippy golden flowery pekoe (medium whole leaf). 

Our favorite was the Ronnefeldt Mokalbarie Sommer with dark, malty, cocoa flavors and smooth with or without milk.  Unfortunately, we could not find any in the markets near our hotel.

Our second favorite was the Tee Treff Assam and we purchased 100g twisted leaf tea with golden tips.  The Tee-Treff shop was staffed by a wonderful woman and the decor was surprisingly British.
 

We found the Dallmayr subtle even with a long steep time.  We liked the window display in the central Munich store but the store was overly crowded and the customers pushy.

Harney's Risheehat Darjeelings

Note the darker liquor of the second flush Darjeeling.

This is the final post in the series about the October Harney & Sons tea tasting in New York City.  The tasting workshop was concluded with cups of first flush (harvested in the spring) and second flush (harvested in the summer) Darjeeling from the Risheehat Estate.  The teas were served with three tea sandwiches and a scone as well as a roasted garlic clove.  The first flush was malty with a lingering finish.  The second flush was also malty and was well complemented by the tuna tea sandwich!

Mike Harney listed these Darjeelings as "British Legacy Teas."  In The Tea Enthusiast's Handbook, Mary Lou Heiss and Robert J. Heiss wrote,

In the nineteenth century, the reputation of Darjeeling tea became firmly established in England as a "fancy tea."

The series
Tasting 1: White Teas
Tasting 2: Green Teas from China and Japan
Tasting 3: Harney's Taiwanese and Chinese oolongs
Tasting 4, part 1: Chinese Black Teas

Louisa Shafia's spring sassafras tea

I don't like to wish time away but here I am wishing for spring so I can find sassafras (Sassafras albidum) to prepare Louisa Shafia's Sassafras Tea.  The recipe is from her book Lucid Food: Cooking for an Eco-Conscious Life which I borrowed from my local library.  I'll need sassafras roots, a cinnamon stick, ginger slices, maple syrup or honey, and sparkling water.

Image: Sassafras albidum (source)

Louisa Shafia blogs at Lucid Food and graciously allowed me to crosspost her interview with Tay Tea's Nini Ordoubadi on this blog in April.

Glossy tea settings

I enjoy seeing tea used in magazine layouts.  Three recent examples from Martha Stewart, American Baby (Nov. 2010), and Fast Company (also Nov. 2010) are presented below.

Image: Earth Mama Angel Baby tea and teaware

Image: Porcelain Tea Pod Set by clamlab on Etsy (see other clamlab teapots)

Tea Cupping - Tasting Harney & Sons Taiwanese and Chinese Oolongs

From the title you can guess that this post is about oolongs drunk in Tasting 3 of a recent Harney tea tasting in New York City.  I drank two Taiwanese (Wenshan Baozhong; Champagne Oolong) and one Chinese (Top Ti Quan Yin) oolong.

The floral taste of the Wenshan Baozhong became sweet and creamy after eating a Taiwanese egg prepared with Earl Grey (and soy sauce, vanilla, and Chinese five spice).  The egg was also a good complement to the Top Ti Quan Yin.  Both teas acquired a creamy taste after eating the egg.

The second Taiwanese oolong, Champagne Oolong, had a floral nose and an astringent taste.  A glass of Dom Ruinart was served at the end of this round of tea tasting.

Stay tuned for the final post in the series which will be on British Legacy Teas (Tasting 4, part 2).

Related posts:
Tasting 1: White Teas
Tasting 2: Green Teas from China and Japan
Tasting 4: Chinese Black Teas

Spout Tpot

Designed by Paige Russell, the Spout Tpot is sold with a recycled wool sweater cozy.  The teapot is made of a matte white glazed stoneware and holds 800mL.  

Image: Screen grab of Spout Tpot by Paige Russell (source, h/t swissmiss)

Tea Cupping - Tasting Harney & Sons Chinese and Japanese Green Teas

In our last post, we jumped ahead to Tasting 4 (Chinese Black Teas) of the Harney tasting in SoHo.  In this post, I present my notes on Tasting 2: Green Teas from China and Japan.  We were served two Chinese greens (Mejiawu Lung Ching (aka Dragonwell) and Gunpowder) and three Japanese greens (Scent of Mountain Sencha, Bancha, and ceremonial-grade Matcha).

As expected, the wet leaves of the Dragonwell exuded sweetness.  The liquor tasted of asparagus and as the tea cooled, it became astringent.

Harney's tasting notes described the Gunpowder's aroma as "steamed bok choy & toasted walnuts."  I smelled tobacco and tasted dirt.  The woman to my left tasted spinach.

Turning to the Japanese greens, we were served a Sencha, a Bancha, and a ceremonial-grade Matcha.  Also, each participant was served a plate of tea treats.  Nori roll snacks were paired with the Sencha and Bancha.  The Sencha's liquor was less intense than the sweet nose of its leaves.  The nori snacks complemented this tea as well as the light lemon flavor of the Bancha.

My favorite of the Japanese green teas was the Matcha which was served shaken and chilled.  The Matcha was bitter so the dark chocolate square from Mariebelle Sweets (on Broome Street) was a perfect pairing!

Previous posts in this series include one about white teas and another about Chinese black teas.  Stay tuned for posts about Oolong Teas (Tasting 3) and British Legacy Teas (Tasting 4, part 2).

Tea Cupping - Tasting Harney & Sons Chinese Black and Puerh Teas

I am skipping ahead to the first part of Tasting 4: Chinese Black Teas of the Harney & Sons SoHo tea tasting. I received my order of Keemun Mao Feng this afternoon! And as I remembered from the tasting, it smelled and tasted of rich, dark chocolate. There is astringency in later infusions but not enough that one would think of adding milk, though this early season tea from Anhui Province would not be spoiled with milk.  We have read that Keemun Mao Feng has fruit flavors.  While we detected a slight floral flavor in the serving at the tea tasting, we did not taste flowers in the cup(s) steeped at home.  We'll see what emerges from future cups of this tea.

Attendees at the Harney & Sons event also tasted a 1990s Yunnan Puerh. This bing cha (round tea cake) puerh had a leather and tobacco nose; bitter at the start with floral notes at the end of the cup.

Related post
Tasting 1: White Teas

Tea Cupping - Tasting Harney & Sons White Teas

Tea is made from the buds and/or leaves of the tea plant, Camellia sinensis.  At a recent Harney & Sons tea tasting, we were served a buds-only tea -- Ceylon Silver Tips -- and a two leaves and a bud tea -- Bai Mu Dan.  Both are white teas.  Since Silver Tips is composed of buds only, the tea was little body or aroma.  In the Harney & Sons catalogue, the flavor of this tea is described as "light, sweet, sublime."  Also, note the lighter color of the Silver Tips liquor.

This was in contrast to the Bai Mu Dan or White Peony which smelled like a crushed evergreen shrub and at room temperature was vegetal and creamy.  Bai Mu Dan is listed as Chinese White Mutan in the Autumn 2010 Harney & Sons catalogue.

Stay tuned for the next post in this series of reviews of the Harney tea tasting in October 2010 at the International Culinary Center.  Read the first post in this series: Yunnan pu-erh meets Kentucky bourbon.

Yunnan pu-erh meets Kentucky bourbon

Last week I attended a fabulous tea tasting workshop led by Mike Harney (of Harney & Sons Teas) at the International Culinary Center (ICC) in SoHo. Fourteen teas were served -- two whites, four greens, three oolongs, and four blacks -- and I will devote a post to each type of tea. This first post of the series is about the tea cocktail which was served at the end of the tasting.

Composed of pu-erh, lemon, agave sugar, and bourbon, it was the most unusual use of tea I've encountered.  The cocktail was premixed and served in flutes chilled by liquid nitrogen.  My sip tasted too strongly of bourbon, but I fondly remembered the Yunnan pu-erh served in Tasting 3 4: Black Teas.

Snacks with Bamboo Mountain "Zhu Shan"

Tao of Tea's Bamboo Mountain "Zhu Shan," an oolong from central Taiwan, is green, with a grassy nose and liquor.  There is a hint of oolong at the back of the throat -- roasted sweetness. This flavor can be intensified if you rinse, then steep several teaspoons of the beautifully curled leaves with boiling water.  With only one teaspoon, the liquor is very floral; too much so for me.  Aged cheddar and spiced almonds perfectly complement this oolong.

Madame de Pompadour Tea/Breakfast Service

I did not visit the Moroso showroom looking for a tea service but I found one.  (Note: I did not purchase this service!)  The Moroso showroom in New York's SoHo has a 21-piece Madame de Pompadour (nee Poisson) Tea/Breakfast Service by Cindy Sherman (1990) and produced by Artes Magnus, USA.  The service is for sale for $7,000.  The original service, according to the Barbara Krakow Gallery, was commissioned in 1756 and the image on the service is of the artist dressed as Mme. de Pompadour.  More images of Sherman's service can be seen here.

In "Porcelain Stories," the Seattle Art Museum described Mme. de Pompadour as "the greatest benefactor of the porcelain manufactories of France."  In a history of porcelain tea ware, Sakuraba Miki (trans. Jenine Heton) noted that dejeuner or breakfast services for tea or coffee was developed at the Vincennes porcelain kiln in 1753; the kiln moved to Sevres three years later and became the porcelain factory of choice for French royalty, including Madame de Pompadour.  What differentiated this new tea service from the prior one was the inclusion of a matching tray thus "elevating the level of refinement of form to new levels and unifying the design of all included tea ware."

From the Flagstaff House Museum of Tea Ware

And to think the title of this blog is Notes on Tea and I did not take any notes from my visit to the Flagstaff House Museum of Tea Ware in Hong Kong!   

The museum was the "first...in the world specializing in and devoted to the collection, study and display of tea ware."  Part of the Hong Kong Museum of Art, the museum was established in 1984 in the former house of the Commander of British Forces in Hong Kong with a donation of approximately "600 tea ware items and other related vessels dating from the Western Zhou (11th century BC-771 BC) to the twentieth century" from Dr. K. S. Lo.  A year before his death in 1995, Dr. Lo donated an additional "25 Chinese ceramics and over 600 stone seals" and a new wing -- K. S. Lo Gallery -- was dedicated in December 1995.

Zhena's Gypsy Tea review

I was lucky to get two new teas from a sister-in-law, both Zhena's Gypsy Tea -- one, Chocolate Chai and two, Coconut Chai. I was excited to prepare the Coconut Chai because my sister-in-law and I really enjoyed a coconut chai at the Crosby Street Hotel afternoon tea.  However, I was disappointed by the tea, as was my sister-in-law.  Overall, the liquor was weak.  It did not have the body of Ceylon or Assam, the two black teas that formed the base of this chai.  The nose was promising -- of ginger and cardamom -- but the liquor was not spicy and was weakened with the addition of chai's traditional complement, milk.

On the other hand, the caffeine-free Chocolate Chai of Rooibos and Roasted Carob was excellent!  A five-minute infusion yielded a full-bodied tea.  The liquor matched the nose -- chocolate from the carob and cacao powder and a rich yet smooth flavor from the rooibos.  Well complemented by milk!

Perhaps I should prepare the Coconut Chai using a longer than recommended steep time and eat something with lime flavor to enhance the coconut -- like a lime-coconut cupcake!  Here's a recipe from Green Door Tea Pastries.

Tao of Tea order

Our Tao of Tea order is here!

• Bamboo Mountain "Zhu C Shan"
• Sencha
• Royal Phoenix
• Golden Pu-er
• Black Dragon 'Anxi Tieguanyin'
• Kali Cha
• Jade Oolong

I think I'll start with the Bamboo Mountain oolong described as

Full, sweet, floral fragrance in the classic Taiwan green oolong style. Lighter bodied than the more roasted oolongs, but with an equally long finish and multi-layered character.

* I'll let you know how it tastes.

Bowl shows sencha color at its best

The title of this post was inspired by a poem by Shu Zhe included in The Story of Tea by Mary Lou and Robert J. Heiss.

Water with bubbles like crabs' eyes
Retains the youthful zest.
Bowls with fur's hair glaze
Show the color best.

The poem illustrates a section of the book about the Song Dynasty or the Romantic Period of Chinese Tea Drinking, specifically the manufacture of jianzhan bowls with "sensuous glazes...to complement the color of the tea liquor."

A dear friend made for me the bowl pictured above and I think it complements well the muddy green color of Japanese Sencha (Kagoshima, Jing Tea).

Staging with tea

Here's a job for me: staging rooms with tea ware!  The images below were scanned from a Crate and Barrel catalogue.

White peony presentation tea

Mary Lou and Robert J. Heiss write that presentation or blooming teas or "hui fa cha" were banned in China during the Cultural Revolution "because they were considered wasteful and frivolous."  A blooming tea can be enjoyed as a centerpiece after steeping by placing the ball in cold water and changing the water daily.  The bloom pictured above is a white peony from the Teance Tea Room in Berkeley, California.

French pressed Dragonwell

I prepared a perfect cup of Dragonwell this morning using a small French press.  I added a generous serving (about two tablespoons) of Tao of Tea Dragonwell to the French press, poured approximately 250mL of hot water (boiled water cooled for several minutes) over the leaves, and steeped the leaves for three minutes.

New teas in the pantry

Thanks to a couple of my sisters-in-law for the new additions to my tea pantry:

• Zhena's Gypsy Tea - Chocolate Chai (Rooibos and Roasted Carob)
• Zhena's Gypsy Tea - Coconut Chai
• Jing Tea - Jing Chai
• Jing Tea - Japanese Sencha (Kagoshima)
• Jing Tea - Oriental Beauty (Peipu, Taiwan)

5 Hotels for High Tea

One reason I enjoy flying is the airline magazine. This month's Delta Sky magazine recommends five hotels offering high tea that "everybody's talking about." The hotels are:

1. Palm Court at the Plaza, New York City
"Moms and daughters savor elegant cheese sandwiches while on the lookout for the hotel's famous tenant, Eloise."

2. Peninsula, Hong Kong
"...nibble on scrumptious scones and chrysanthemum tea..."

3. The Drake, Chicago
"Queen Elizbeth, the Empress of Japan and the late Princess of Wales, have taken tea at this historic hostelry."

4. The Fairmount Empress, British Columbia
"Try the Empress Blend while overlooking the majestic Victoria Harbour."

5. The Berkeley, London
"Pret-a-Portea features tea and treats inspired by the latest runway fashions."

Cut-tear Dilmah

My loose leaf black tea from Dilmah (Sri Lanka) appears to be cut-tear not cut-tear-curl or CTC.  Mary Lou Heiss and Robert J. Heiss, in their fantastic guide The Tea Enthusiast's Handbook, wrote that CTC is one of two manufacturing processes typically used for tea produced in Africa, India, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia.  The other process is orthodox or "well-twisted" whole leaves.  Here is a photograph of CTC manufactured assam from Japan:

Source: Wiki Commons / USAGI-WRP

By the way, I am also reading Mary Lou and Robert J. Heiss's The Story of Tea.  (The New York Public Library is such a wonderful resource!  Hoping for my own copy of the handbook, though.)  You can find out more about the Heisses at teatrekker.com.

Related post: Dilmah Breakfast Tea