A Beautiful Autumnal Buncheong Style Tea Bowl By Uh Sang Myung

This bowl is autumn.
Everything about it seems in harmony with the goings on outside ones window these days.

Its traditional blotchy buncheong style holds ones attention. Most bowls of this style seem to emulate the onset of spring, the colourful blotches representing the blossoming spring flowers outside. This bowl is not your ordinary buncheong bowl.

The dry look-gloss sets the overall mood of the bowl- the feel of autumn. The dry feel is especially apparent as one cradles this bowl in attentive palms. It feels soft but rough, dry but not abrasive.

The muted, neutral, lighter blue hued grey of the bowls sides provides a perfect backdrop for the colourful spots. Like the changing leaves outside, these spots have a center that is being infringed upon by encroaching colour.

The pattering on the inside of the bowl captures the movement of falling leaves. The sparse blotches near the wood-brown rim of the bowl seem to act like leaves blown from tree branches, accumulating in piles on the shallow of the bowl.

This movement is made more profound as frothy green matcha is sipped away from its insides.

Vibrant green changing to autumnal reds.
Summer to Autumn.
This is the movement of now.

Peace

2009 Margaret's Hope Estate Oolong 2nd Flush Darjeeling

This is something one has never tried before- an oolong from India. Let's tear open the foil pack and see what it's all about...

The dry leaves are a mix of colour from distinct whites, greens, and browns. They smell very light with a touch of that infamous musketel mixed with faint cloudy chocolate raisin.

The leaves embrace ceramic and water fills the pot. The lid covers the transformation inside. When the time is right the resulting infusion leaves the pot and makes its way into cracked ceramic cups. Cups to lips.

This tea is very smooth. It is light with a juicy feel- a mild stimulation that takes a while to develop in the mouth. It is full of flavour as soft sour tones approach sweet. Soft raisin is left in the mouth.

Another infusion allows the raisin tones to become more pronounced. The juiciness evolves into manageable bitterness that cloaks the flavour and drys out the tongue. This tea is light and cheery but lacks a deep bottom.

As more water is put through, a flowery taste becomes prominent especially in the aftertaste. The tea loses taste but still has that bitter bite and fullish dry feel.

This tea becomes thinner and thinner as the session rolls along. It gets a bit chalky in the mouth, choosing to stay mostly in the front of the mouth. Some noticeable fruity and flower tones still hang on.

The energy found in this tea is a lot smoother than most Darjeeling. Smoother. More Gentle.

The wet leaves reveal small leaves and lots of buds that are mainly torn. Not ideal leaves for an oolong but even the smell of the wet leaves make one ponder another pot.

Peace

A Rounder Shaped Tea Jar By Kim Kyong Soo

This is a more typical shape for a Korean tea jar. It is more rounded, soft, and subtle than the cube jar. This gritty, oxidized finish is a signature of Kim Kyoung Soo works.

Peace

A Cubic Shaped Tea Jar By Kim Kyong Soo: A Discussion On Cube Vs. Cylindrical Tea Jars

You don't see many cubic shaped tea jars around. For energetic purposes tea is primarily kept in a cylindrical jar for storage. The cylindrical shape helps maintain the strength of the tea's qi. It also creates general harmony as these jars are usually placed on a square shaped table or shelf. On top of that, it is simply easier and more natural to produce cylindrical jars.

A cubic jar such as this could be used for a different purpose. Instead of energizing the tea, cubic jars subtly mellow the qi of the tea. This could be beneficial if you wish to age an especially rough, over-the-top tea. It could also create harmony on a circular surface.

This jar by master Kim Kyong Soo is beautifully crafted to mellow without exhausting the qi of the leaves within.

Its base is smaller than its top which acts to channel energy down. The wide pyrmid-shaped knob atop the lid also channels energy downward. The top of the jar where the lid rests has a defined ledge that holds the energy within.

If you look closely at the jar you will notice that each side is actually curved not straight. These curved lines create harmony within this piece and remove the harshness that could be created by hard lines. This smoothness prevents the harsh straight lines of this jar from depleting the qi of the tea that rests inside.

Beautiful work.

Peace

Yunnan Sourcing Mystery Sample 'Epsilon' ( Later Found To Be: 2009 Ban Zhang Chun Qing)

On a cloudy morning one tares open this foil pack marked 'Epsilon'.

The dry leaves are a pungent, earthy roasted, almost musty smokey smell. The look of the dry leaves also confirm the smell, the leaves all have a greenish hue but present a true diversity of colour- reddish, whitish, brownish, and yellowy tones.

These leaves are piled into yixing then hot water is added. Rinse. The deliciously pungent odour of these leaves are thickened by the steam that carries them upwards into ones nose, into ones mind, into ones soul.

More hot water is added. As this tea hits ones mouth things start watery, pungent mushroom and vegital roastiness evolves to cream before becoming brisk and spicy. The finish on the breath is soft, dry, and retreats into blandness. There is a back note of things to come, some kind of pungent spice. The tip of the tongue turns chalky as the tea is swallowed.

More hot water is put through these leaves, and more delicious tea is born. The lips and front of the tongue numb before coating the mouth in bland silk as the sensation just barely dips into the throat. Interesting depth of flavour is coxed out of each sip. Tree bark tones elapse with creamy notes. There is fruity underpinnings of spicy persimmon.

This tea rolls through infusions with deep flavour hidden amongst a wonderful, bland, chalky mouthfeel and tingling lips. Soft, deep forested pungency breaks for sweetness. It slowly turns during many infusions becoming more grainy and sweet and less bland and pungent. The tea in someways feels more rounded and complete when this transformation happens. Also the flavour seems to lengthen a bit with each infusion until breaking off.

It doesn't take too long before this tea wares down. When it does, it reveals very simple, slightly creamy, licorice puerh notes. The aftertaste is bland and discloses little. The mouthfeel is still considerably full.

One meditates with this tea as bright patches of sun and blue sky finally break through dispersing late afternoon cloud. The chaqi is smooth, gentle, considerate, and compassionate. The the slow breaking of the sun though layers of cloud, the slow microscopic turning of a rheostat, this tea slowly illuminates ones soul.

Note: Please follow this link to the tea tasting disscussion on the Half-Dipper.

Peace

Yunnan Sourcing Mystery Sample 'Gamma' (2009 Bu Lang Shan Yun)

There is a pungent deep forest sweetness then depth in these dark brown, slightly more mature, loosely pressed, dry leaves. Yummy.

These leaves are widdled into the pot, flash rinsed, and before not to long the first infusion is ready for tasting.

The liquor pours out orangey-gold. The syrupy thick, silky smooth tea glides over ones tongue leaving behind a remnant of caramel and plumb. This tea feels so good in the mouth. A nice sweetness is left on the breath.

More hot water is put through the pot and this tea develops somewhat of an edge, although quite a kind edge. Sweet caramel, and faint plumb tones dominate mainly at the start of the flavour profile. Sometimes one can even sense a roasty-chocolate taste that is mixed into rough dirty flavours- the showings of age starting to develop around the corners of this tea.

After more infusions the sweetness picks up malty metallic undertones. The mouthfeel seems to thin with each resulting infusion but is still velvety in character. A bitterness also develops somewhere along the middle of ones session. The bitterness eclipses some of the sweetness and some of the malty tones which this tea has now developed. It cuts short the length of flavour and sweetness leaving a bitter aftertaste in the mouth.

In the last pots of this session the thick, syrupy character of this tea is long gone. Malty and fruity flavours skate on thin bitter viscosity. Nevertheless, some enjoyment can still be had by such taste so one drinks this tea for quite some time.

Although one drinks and drinks, the chaqi of this tea never seems to flourish. Instead it fumbles around in the background. Unnoticeable, unbothered.

And so this is the way one drinks this tea.

Note: Please follow this link to the tea tasting disscussion on the Half-Dipper.

Peace

Yunnan Sourcing Mystery Sample 'Delta' (Later Found To Be: 2009 Wu Liang Lan Xiang)

These darkish brown dry leaves reveal a musty, pungent bittersweet depth. They flake into ones pot and succumb to the hot water that follows.
The tea which tumbles from the spout is a vibrant-electric yellow. This yellow embraces ones lips, ones soul. This tea first flashes an interesting, unrecognizable deep taste which is sensed after a strange micro-delay. Then comes sweet, creamy depth with a very unique salty vegital finish. A nice full mouthfeel is immediately apparent. The chaqi is very upward moving, lifting, alerting. One can feel it almost immediately.

More of this tea is pushed out of the pot. It develops an initial spice in the mouth which turns sweet before the sharp edge of astringency chokes what is left away. The mouthfeel becomes stronger and resonates even in the throat. The qi develops a downward push to couple the upward pull.

When more water is added the bitter-dry astringency becomes even more prevalent. The sweetness almost becomes 'a blast of sweetness' before the muscle of bitter astringency represses it. The true depth of this tea is hidden beneath. The qi can't be hidden like this, it moves quickly through ones body- making ones senses sharper, ones mind more free.

Throughout infusions the initial 'blast of sweetness' carries with it some flavour. Banana, then ginger, and later into the session, a woodiness. With the woodiness comes a bit of grainy cereal. These tones are merely a quick flash in the mouth before the onset of bitter dryness. Far into the session the dryness becomes interestingly tangy. Truly, there is an overall lack of full taste with this tea.

The chaqi of this tea peaks in the middle of the session pushing one into a bit of a tea euphoria. Later as things wind down, the qi becomes turbid making ones head feel stuffy and on the brink of a headache. This is how one feels while drinking this tea as its flavour diminishes into fruity, flat, cereal tones.

Note: Please follow this link to the tea tasting discussion on the Half-Dipper.

Peace