Get Up and Go! A blend I made for Matt.

I said in an earlier post that I have nothing against tea that isn't "tea" or tea blended with things other than tea.  Although I rarely drink blended tea myself that doesn't mean I can't enjoy it once in a while!  This is the first time I blended some tea to package up.  Usually if I do I stick whatever it is in the pot with the tea right before brewing.  This time I had to make sure everything was completely dry and evenly mixed.  

I named the blend "Get Up and Go!" as it consists of yerba mate, which contains much more caffeine and theobromine than tea made from c. sinensis, ginseng oolong, known to be invigorating, homemade candied ginger, and dried orange peels.  I added little of the last two ingredients as I wanted their contribution to the flavor to be subtle compared to the yerba and ginseng, though I thought their flavor would pair nicely with the overarching character of the blend.  

Japanese black tea.

My friend Chase recently gave me some Japanese grown black tea.  This was my first time trying it and I was very excited because of how much I enjoy other Japanese teas.  

Here is the Japanese black tea(right), next to some broken leaf Assam(left).  

The leaves are similar in size and shape, however the Japanese tea lacks almost any scent at all.  If anything it smelled like dry ground.  

I used my kyusu because it's a Japan grown tea.

I expected to have an astringent vegetal black tea, that would share at least some qualities with sencha as this tea most likely comes from Yabukita (the cultivar or breed of tea tree that 80% of all Japanese tea comes from).  This tea met none of my expectations and left me at a loss for why it tasted the way it did.  

It wasn't malty like an Assam is or vegaetal like sencha is.  The only word I can describe it with is earthy.  It was earthy to the point of shu puerh.  It had no fishy taste which was a plus, but it was earthy to the point of not being pleasurable to drink.  I will try more Japanese black teas in the future as this is probably an exception rather than a rule.  

Cheers!

Mickey

Tea as a whole

I've always enjoyed tea.  I used to drink tea from teabags.  Things simply labelled "green tea" or "Ceylon Tea".  Not because I had no appreciation, but because I had no idea how deep and complex a thing tea is.  Tea is not only a drink.  Tea is a pastime, a tradition, a culture, a way of life, a connection to one other, and a drink. Tea can put us in touch with deep transcendental values that are worth much more than, caffeine value, health benefits, and weight loss.  

Last fall I stumbled upon Teavana.  I was fascinated by whole leaves and these new teas I had no idea existed.  At that point I didn't even know what oolong was.  I wasn't however, fascinated with the prices.  They were prohibitive and I didn't end up purchasing anything.  

I went home, started reading and interest turned into obsession.  I would devour every scrap of information I could get and ordered loads of samples of unblended tea from adagio.  I couldn't get enough! I started searching for a local tea shop to fuel my new found addiction.  I found Tea Harbor and discovered how good Chinese tea can get!  Then I discovered The Green Teaist where I learned about Japanese tea.  

Now I get most of my tea from specialty websites because I'm always searching for something new and unusual or just really good tea.  That's not to say that non-specialty shops don't have good tea, or that good tea is limited to the exclusive or rare.  In fact I wouldn't consider tea an exclusive thing whatsoever! Many people obsess over this saying that "True tea only comes from the camellia sinensis,".  I say as long as it's steeped in water, and you enjoy it, it's tea!  I'll add that I like to say that coffee is arguably a type of tea, however heretical it may be.

The tea was good by the way!  It was Tie Guan Yin from Tea Harbor!  I think it's not oxidized enough, closer to baozong style than Tie Guan Yin.  Great none the less!