Thursday, January 22, 2009

Yunan Bo-Nay

Today I am finishing Yunan Bo-Nay (acquired from Holsome Teas in Princeton, NJ). The tea is from Yunan Province (as the name may suggest) and the tea is also a pu-erh, or aged tea (Bo-Nay is one of many synonyms for pu-erh). The dry leaf has a spicy aroma along with the earthy smell of many pu's.





The liquor of the tea seen here is after the first 2 minutes of steeping, I kept the leaves in the pot and by the end the tea I poured out was black and almost syrupy. The first cup was very pleasant, it was light and warmed my stomach and my body with a mild sweet and earthy taste. I am now on the last cup and the tea has grown astringent and it creates a numbing sensation in my mouth after I drink it.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Chiran Kanayamidon

Today I am drinking Chiran Kanayamidon (which I procured from Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar). Chiran refers to the place where the tea is from--Chiran is now part of Kagoshima Prefecture, which is in the South of Japan. The area is also home to the kamikaze museum. The meaning of Kanayamidon is still being researched at this time. Like so many of my recently purchased teas, I have been drinking this almost exclusively and I am on my last steaping.



The tea leaf is dark green and has the characteristic look of many Japanases teas--namely the fine cut nature of the leaf. The liquor of the tea is an emerald green and the taste of this tea is slightly vegetal with much less astringency than most other Japanese Teas.



Above are the spent leaves, again one can see how the leaves are cut to pieces.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar

I visit Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar almost every time I travel West (for example: Nashville, or hiking in the Blue Ridge). It is located on the downtown mall in Charlottesville, Virginia, and it is one of the few tea shops that stays open after dinner. Their selection of tea is on the smaller side, but they do carry some of the most interesting teas in Virginia. Highlights include a selection of Japanese Green Tea that goes beyond Sencha and Matcha and rotates frequently. They also have a decent collection pu-erhs, blacks, greens and white teas. Below are some photographs from the tea shop at night, when the scene changes a little from enjoying tea to more of a hookah bar and music venue.


Above is a view of their "shoeless" sitting area for enjoying tea. The seating is not for lounging but for contemplation and tea enjoyment.


The mirror wall.



The counter with tea tins in the background.

While there I enjoyed a pot of Gyokuro and left with a cup of pi lo chun to go.

Friday, January 9, 2009

More tea travels

For the holidays I traveled to Nashville, stopping briefly in the Asheville and Knoxville. I used google and teamap to help me scout locations before my trip. I found three possible tea locations in Asheville, one in Knoxville and one in Nashville. All of the places I found on google and teamap were a disappointment. Two of the locations did not carry tea-just stuff, most of which was not related to tea--one place was no longer, one place served high tea but did not have a wide selection of tea and was more concerned with the art of Victorian High Tea than tea the drink.


I found the most interesting tea shop that I have been to in Nashville--and this one I found by word of mouth. The shop was mostly a kitchen wares store with a corner in the back piled high with tea bags--large bags full of loose leaf tea (see picture). I talked with the owner about tea and I tried to get him to show me some tea so that I could decide what I wanted to purchase--at this point I was in need of tea replenishment. At first he was reluctant to show me any teas--it was as though I first had to prove I possessed great knowledge of tea by telling him what I was interested. I could not just say that I wanted green tea, I also had to tell him the type of tea I wanted (gyokuro, sencha, dragonwell, etc) as well as the location I wanted the tea to be from. Once we got past this step and I started to decide on some teas, he warmed up to me (and, I suppose, me to him). I was still, however, skeptical of the way he stored his tea; in a disorganized fashion in plastic bags. It was also hard to decide on teas because the smell of plastic overwhelmed the smell of the tea. After smelling numerous teas, I decided on a Dragonwell from a freshly opened bag and a Tung Ting Oolong. I also received four sample teas when I purchased the Dragonwell and Oolong, the one I am most looking forward to is called "witch's brew" and is a long leaf pu-erh.

This store was a welcome find--and the only one of the two places worth writing about--after being disappointed in Asheville and Knoxville. I do, however want to share the rest of my tea adventures in Asheville and Knoxville.

Asheville is a cool city with lots of good coffee shops, it however lacks a shop dedicated to Tea--in the sense that a shop carries a wide variety of tea and its primary concern is tea, the actual brew. Below is a photograph of the one place there that billed itself as a tea room and actually served tea (there are at least two other "tea rooms" in Asheville, one sells clothes, the other jewelry and other assorted house gifts).

I do not have a photograph of the tea shop in Knoxville because I called them beforehand and asked them what tea they carried. The answer, "ummm... I don't know..., Earl Grey and Constant Comment." This sentence along with the fact that it was called Applecake Tea Room is why I decided to skip this establishment.

The last tea shop I visited was in Charlottesville on my return from Nashville. I have been here many times, and it deserves its own seperate post.


Tea shop in Asheville




bags of tea piled high in Nashville