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| Collective wisdomAs we all know, many brains is better than one when it comes to solving problems.... so I need your help :)
Along with the broken pot, I bought another one that turned out has a bit of a crack on the outside (didn't see it because, well, it was covered in dirt). That's not the real issue though.
Looks nice enough
Until you see the inside
And this is AFTER cleaning it with BLEACH. You don't want to know what it looked like before -- imagine a white covered interior that feels like it is caked on for ages. I have no idea what it is, or how it is so stubborn. I've already removed most of it, although you can see how it still has that brown base that makes the whole bottom sort of spotty looking.
How do I clean this thing?
I've heard you can use citric acid to melt things away like this, but I've never tried it. Aside from that.... what else can I do? I mean, I'm not sure if this pot is really that usable, since it is cracked (although it does not leak -- cracking is only on the outside, strangely enough). Either way though, I'd like to at least have it be clean.... | | |
| All look sameMr. Lochan sent me quite a few samples. I only went through two. Today I thought I'd pick up the third one.
One thing about Darjeelings, at least first flush, high grade darjeelings, is that they all look sort of the same
Which really makes me think... can the average buyer of darjeeling tell them apart, if tasted blind -- especially with English brewing methods? This is a good tea, with all the right notes for a darjeeling. However, I can't quite remember how this might or might not be different from the other ones I've had so far. Perhaps they're from the same estate, so the taste is only minimally different -- since there are no names, I can't tell for sure. Or, maybe because I'm brewing it in an approximation of English style.... the differences aren't as obvious. I wonder if I should switch to a small pot to make these things. | | |
| Border teaLew of the ever expanding Babelcarp kindly gave me this sample when I was in New York
The tea is from Taipei -- a store that I actually visited once or twice, and then through a friend of his came into his possession. When I first saw it and smelled and looked, I told Lew that I think it's a "border tea", which generally means non-Yunnan tea made into some sort of puerh. On the back of the bag it says Yiwu Maocha, but every maocha out there is Yiwu....
The reason I said it's border tea is because it smelled like it, and it also looked like it -- long, wiry, thin stems with that twisted look. Yunnan tea generally looks a little fatter and shorter. I have a cake of this stuff, and also some various assortment of loose tea that are almost certainly border tea -- most likely of Vietnamese origin. They also have this distinctive smell -- it's best described as somewhat spicy, and after trying a number of these things, quite common.
They also tend to brew dark
And they look dark when wet
The taste is usually of the same spicy note you'll smell, and tend to be a little thin in terms of body. Mind you, they're hardly bad -- I'd drink this anytime. They're just not Yunnan in origin, and is often passed off as higher grade stuff, which it decidedly isn't. The most famous border tea that is easily obtainable is probably the 1980s or 1990s Hongtaichang, which you might see quite often. They have a squarish neifei with about four columns of words and usually no wrapper. I've seen them sold at various places, including M3T in Paris and shops in Taiwan, as genuine Yunnan puerh with the price to boot. If you find them in places that sell them for what they are, they are fairly cheap (under $50 a cake). For a 1980s or 1990s tea, it's not bad...
Thank you, Lew, for the nice sample. I tend to like these mellow, easy to drink things. It's less stressful to make than younger or harsher teas. | | |
| A new pot of sortsA new little thing came in the mail a few days ago
The owner of the pot clearly loved it very much, and used it very, very heavily
And so it took some damage over the years
But because of repeated use -- it has the nicest patina I've seen in a while
Too bad it is broken... and has a hole in it to boot.
I'm not sure what I will do with it. I got it because it looked like really nice clay, and I wanted a reference pot -- something to compare others against, and also, perhaps, something to experiment on. There are simply too many conflicting theories out there on zhuni, what it is, what it isn't, etc. I think I now have some idea of it should be, but the variation out there makes it hard to say with certainty whether a pot is or isn't real zhuni, especially, of course, if you only see a picture of it. In some ways, buying a broken pot might be the best bet of getting the real deal. | | |
| Location, location, locationStorage is important, I think that's a point that has been hammered home many, many times by now by a wide variety of people, on or offline.
How important is it, exactly?
I went to the City today, and in the afternoon met up with a few tea friends at The Tea Gallery. Among the teas we had was a side to side comparison of a cake that Michael, the proprietor of the place, that are of the same batch. Except -- although it was one batch of tea, some stayed in Hong Kong for an extra three years while the others he brought with him three years earlier to New York.
While we brewed it a little too heavily, so it was rather difficult to swallow, it did, in some ways, accentuate the differences between the two teas. It was immediately obvious that the New York cake brewed a lighter colour, and hte leaves of that cake is also of a greener hue, while the Hong Kong one is darker overall. The Hong Kong cake tastes a bit older, especially if you drink it side by side with the New York one, and less green -- it has something extra. The three years definitely made an impact.
What was rather interesting was that the last cup, Michael mixed the two -- and the tea was actually more interesting, although, it was also weaker, and having endured a number of rather bitter cups, maybe it just wasn't as strong? I'm sure he'll be brewing it tomorrow (because the leaves are hardly spent), and I might hear about it again. | | |
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