Tea Writings

Today I brewed some Big Red Robe for myself. I had already had some bottled tea with my lunch, at a Middle Eastern shop near my house called Wrap-Pro. Very delicious shwarma, baba ghanooj, and falafel at this place which is on Mass. Ave. between Porter Square and Harvard Square. (In Cambridge, Massachusetts, for those of you for whom those landmarks mean nothing.)

I deigned to drink a Lipton bottled tea product which had the word “natural” repeated all over it on the label, which told me it was supposed to be Green Tea with Honey flavor, “Natural Flavoring with Other Natural Flavorings.” (No, I have no idea what exactly that last was referring to, only that it was printed on the bottle.) The overwhelming flavor, natural or not, wasn’t of tea, but of honey. That was actually all right, since it was a very pleasant honey flavor, and honey goes very nicely with middle eastern food.

But as a result I didn’t deem myself to have had TEA yet. On returning home to sit down to write for the afternoon, I brewed up a nice hot pot of Big Red Robe or Da Hung Pao. (more…)

Maybe it was STAR TREK that started the Earl Grey craze? Or maybe it was always so popular and I just never noticed it until Captain Jean-Luc Picard started requesting it from the ship’s replicators all the time.

But as I have learned, like with most teas, not all Earl Grey’s are created equal. If you’re in the mood for it, you can nearly always get it in the tea bag selection at restaurants and from hotel room service, so it is reliable in that way. And it is a good one for covering up the lingering taste of coffee if your only source of hot water is a coffee maker. But what a fine light flavor it can have when only lightly steeped (two minutes) and served without milk! That is, if it is a good Earl Grey.
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Today I am drinking Rishi brand’s Citron Oolong. I originally bought this tea because I liked the Rishi Orange Blossom blend, but couldn’t find that in the store, so bought this instead.

My first impression of this tea was that it was as lemony as Lemon Pledge. Which is to say, too strong. But now that I am reaching the end of the can, where all the little specks and bits of things are, it tastes fine. This makes me think I might have liked it better all along if it had been run through the spice grinder once quickly before steeping…?

Not only that, I am now on my third steeping of this basket of leaves, and it’s still quite delicious. Maybe I’m just in a more citrus-y mood than I was in all winter, but I think I’ll have to give this tea another try… but mix it better first. Or just go back to the Orange Blossom.

I’ve also really enjoyed their sencha yuzu, which is very expensive, but very very nice if you like yuzu. If you hate the taste of grapefruit, you might want to avoid yuzu flavored things.

UPDATE: Fourth steeping was still quite delicious! I could easily get a fifth out of it that would be a pleasure to drink. I’ll clearly be digging to the bottom of this can the next time I buy it.

Milk oolong was the first tea I drink regularly that I noticed is best when it is a little cooler. Some teas I like to sip when they can practically scald my tongue, but the sweet creaminess of milk oolong comes out when it has cooled in the cup just a little. Upon discovering this fact, I started trying to taste all my “grassy” oolongs that way, and have gained a whole new sense of enjoyment of them.

Today’s tea is a “jian xuan” milk oolong from Holy Mountain Trading Company. It is fragrant in the cup and sweet on the tongue, but this particular batch of it is not as good as the previous year’s. The milk scent/flavor does not survive to the second steeping very well. But milk oolong is as variable as fine wine, and just like wine is dependent on the weather. Although there are some “milk” oolongs that are actually infused with milk or milk flavor, the classic milk oolong is achieved only through a trick of the weather, (more…)

The majority of the vanilla teas I have had are black teas. Both in canned varieties from the Chinatown grocery stores (usually in an oval pink can) and the gourmet flavored teas (like the Mighty Leaf Orange Dulce seem to always mix vanilla with black.

Indeed, one of my favorite recent acquisitions is a black vanilla jasmine from Tealuxe. A friend gave it to me in a sampler pack for my birthday, and not only is the idea of black jasmine a revelation, but the mixture of vanilla with the jasmine makes one of the most incredibly mellow cups ever. Jasmine can sometimes be sharp or the perfume can turn bitter, but not when vanilla is rounding everything out like a white puffy cloud in a blue sky. (more…)