A Shelf Full of Rustic Beauties: Tang Gwans (Tetsubins) by Kim Jeong Hoon

This shelf of tang gwans in a local Daegu shop sure catch ones wandery eyes. Each holds excessive rugged character beyond its years. Each contains such individuality that its hard to even group them together. The details allow one to stare at each for a long time, admiring the rusty spots on their handles, the rugged edges along their sides, the textured earthy clay of their body, the minute detail of their unique knobs, and their overall thought provoking shape. They're all so beautiful and yet so different.

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One wonders how they would cuddle the boiling water, what would be the sound of their trembling lids as water vapor struggles to escape? How wonderful would it be to pour steaming water from their spouts?

What little detail do you like on these tang gwans? Which one would you take home?

Peace

2001 Yiwu Jin Yeh Hao from Nada Cha

One hates to pick favorites but this sample from Nada is one of the best teas ever brewed up in ones old little yixing pot. It shouldn't be that suprising that these big, juicy, 100% old growth, all hand processed leaves from the Zheng Shan region of Yiwu produce such amazing tea.

One opens the plastic baggie and dumps the sample into outstretched palms. Bring the palms toward ones nose, one took in the dank, freshly turned fallen leaf smell. It smells like a rotting tree just unearthed from being buried in soil. This scent immediately captivates.

The tea is prepared in a small yixing that only incurred a slight chip on the lid from the long journey from Korea to Canada. The energy of the little pot is a perfect match for the sample of big, full, dark chocolate brown leaves that are mixed with yellow and reddish varieties all of which look excessively healthy. The look of the leaves push curiosity to new levels.

This first brew is juicy and sweet and hints at unbearably complex underflavours, suggesting a nice long session. The tea is soft but immediately full in the mouth. Particularly, the nice light fruity air of this tea heightens expectations.

The following infusions draw out berry flavours from vague fruitiness that slip under this teas smoothness. Wet converts to spice on the tongue and lips. All of this takes place over a rich blanket of the taste of newly disturbed fallen leaves- such rich decadence. Fresh and juicy mingle with deep and rich. There is such depth in its earthiness.

The cha qi brings quick clarity and peace, its energy is undeniably soothing. One meditates deeply with this tea for hours- infusion after infusion after infusion.

One is strongly moved by the way this tea feels in the mouth. Someone with no sense of taste would even fall in love with this tea. The liquor is such a vibrant dark orange/yellow it makes the mini Sel Young Jin erabo style cup radiate with unrivaled pride.

Flavour modestly evolves and after the first 10 infusions is just starting to reveal its true self. Later infusions beget more of a woody caramel taste with just as much complexity as before. Actually this tea remains sweet and full bodied late into its twentieth to thirtieth infusions. Its mouthfeel remains somewhat full and a spiciness still haunts the breath.

Peace

2009 Darjeeling First Day, First Flush, Hand Sorted Goomtee Estate White Tea: A Grape (Great) Tea

This tea was a gift by kind Mr. Rowatt, the manager of Goomtee Tea Estate just outside Kurseong. It was the same tea that one had sampled on March 3rd, a parting gift.

One removes the staples from this tightly wrapped sample. The nose wastes no time in diving into the package and taking deep huffs of tea scented air. The breaths smell of strong rubber with light back muskel evergreen forest notes over a fine flowery scent. The mini multi-green tips have weathered the long journey quite well. Upon closer inspection many are coated in a fine white hair, no leaf is the same as its neighbour. The resulting collage is a pleasure for the eyes.

After admiring these leaves for way too long, one scoops two full cha chiks and dumps them into a large buncheong pot. Eighty Degree water is added then removed from the leaves after about thirty seconds. Light grape notes in extraordinarily fresh, juicy soup is revealed with a flowery after taste. There is a full throatiness with pleasing astringency that stays in the mouth for a while.

The next infusion is done at about eighty-five degrees and is left on the leaves for about thirty-five seconds. The result is that undeniable, Darjeeling white, “Did I just bite into a concord grape?” taste. This particular infusion actually evolves much like it would if consuming an actual grape. It opens juicy like when just piercing the skin of the grape, puncturing its juicy center. Then the flavour hits and is followed by a dry mouthfeel and astringency that comes as the tannins in the peel are chewed. The grape flavour in this infusion is especially pronounced.

The next infusion is for forty seconds at just over eighty-five degrees and brings grape but more flowers than previous infusions. The flowery taste is light daisy and reminds one of the oncoming spring.

The infusions continue with water temperatures and steeping times that follow a similar increasing progression. The flavours become less pronounced with the light flower notes dropping off faster than grape. The mouthfeel stays relatively stable if not becoming more dry. This tea has great stamina compared to other Darjeeling whites that one has tangled with.
The cha qi is also surprisingly warm for a white tea. Although it still demonstrates the coolness that characterizes whites, it seems warmer than most.

Note: One decided to include brewing perimeters on this post, something that one usually tries to deliberately avoid. One decided to add them after experimenting with this tea with near boiling water in a yixing pot for longer steeping times. One tried a similar Darjeeling brewed like this before in Korea and the result was surprising. It brought out the flowery edge of the tea. When one brewed it in this manner it was definitely more flowery but the over-the-top astringency and shortened stamina of the full flavours of this tea put one off in brewing the remainder of the sample like this. Perhaps one must use less dry leaf.

Anyways...

Enjoy the new grass, the new 2009 teas, and all the other joys of spring.

Peace

Nurturing Health With 1988 Puerh

One whizzed through Darjeeling in a matter of days, there seemed to be a limitless number of wonderful estates to tour. You could really spend a few months here and not have hit them all.
One thought about the possibility of hitting some famous tea areas in the south as well as some in Nepal. But after being infected with a bad case of amoebic dysentery and spending a few days in an unhygienic hospital in Agra, it was time to end ones travels.

Recovery was undoubtedly assisted by the consumption of lots of fresh fruit, vegetables, yogurt, old puerh, and quality hwang cha (Korean semi-oxidized tea). Ones oldish stash of peurh took a big hit last time one stomach got a bit shaky in November of last year. Digging through some boxes one unearthed a sample sent by Toki, an 88 shang puerh from the Tea Gallery- the perfect thing to rehabilitate a recovering digestive system.

Upon opening the esthetically pleasing white sample pack, dark leaves showing age revealed an odour of oak, deep dry cherries, and healthy nitrogen rich top soil. These leaves are dropped into ones new large yixing pot (more on that one later) and hot water follows. Rinse.

Early in the session comes deep rich soil flavoring with undercurrents of honey in watery liquid. Soft tobacco occasionally nudges its way into the profile before quickly dropping off. After a number of potfulls are consumed the depth of the tea really expands resulting in a dance between rich soil and subtle sweetness. This dance of nuances plays out in the theater of a mouthfeel that is full and coating. The lips are sometimes left numb, the tongue gently hairy by waves of astringency that evolves into sweetness left on the breath.

The energy of this tea first stimulates ones stomach warming it. Later infusions ease off and surrender, the transfer of energy is wonderful.

This session is strung out for days over great conversations with family and friends and lazy dogs that would surely make Toki proud. Its mouthfeel hardly wavers allowing it to feel complete even into late infusions. Overall, it is quite a solid puerh and in the end, along with doses of Korea yellow tea and lots of yogurt, ones stomach is nurtured back to health.

Peace

Touring Darjeeling: The Darjeeling Planters Club

After visiting Giddapahar tea estate it was late in the afternoon. We grabbed a bite to eat at a restaurant that overlooked the tea fields in Kurseong. There Mr. Lochan suggested we stay at the historical Darjeeling Planters club, a 150 year old building that overlooked Darjeeling. What a perfect place to rest after a tea filled day.

The old colonial building was once a gathering place for the very first English tea planters in the area which established a gentlemen’s club in 1868. In the aging building not much has changed. The lobby in the front is adorned with antique cannons. The billiard room has tiger skins dangling beside black and white old boy club shots, on faded walls.

Not much has changed in the rooms either. The furnishings are rundown, authentic pieces from ages ago. And at exactly 7:00 PM an old man, seemingly as old as the place, will come in and start a fire in the large fireplace beside the bed.

Sipping on a cup of Darjeeling orange pekoe by the night fire, pen in hand, is the way Darjeeling was truly meant to be enjoyed.

Peace

Touring Darjeeling: Proper Darjeeling Orange Pekoe Tea At Giddapahar Tea Estate

After Goomtee we made our way back to Kurseong and, along the way, we stopped at Giddapahar tea estate to take a look at their gardens and production facilities.

Mr. Lochan walked us through production at the facility. The very first leaves picked this season were wilting in the wilting troughs. The smell and sight was quite pleasing. We walked through the factory as Mr. Lochan explained how minute details in the production of tea here has changed as newer and time friendly techniques and machinery has replaced the old. While he was saying this, an old Indian lady was sifting newly processed leaves by hand using an old traditional bamboo sifter.

From the production facility we went into a cozy cottage-like building where we were served tea in a fancy, hand painted, white porcelain, English style tea set. The orange pekoe from last year was fragrantly delicious. True to Mr. Lochan’s site which describes the tea from Giddapahar as “delicate owing to the lower temperatures and being covered by mist for much of the year forcing the bushes to grow slowly producing a fine bouquet with great aromatic quality and delicate floral nose.”

The tea was only to be overshadowed by the delicious traditional Indian cakes and cookies that accompanied this tea. Some of which were coated in decadent gold foil and others silver.

One left the Giddapahar estate smiling, feeling perhaps more buzzed off the sweets than the tea.

Peace

Touring Darjeeling: Tasting The First Darjeeling Teas Of 2009 In The Goomtee Tea Estate

One was picked up from the train station by Rajiv Lochan, of Lochan Tea. After morning tea and breakfast with his family, we were off to the area around Kurseong. As we climbed the winding road to Darjeeling, tea fields began to dominate the mountain sides along with tinny train tracks.

Our first stop was the famous Goomtee tea estate established in 1899. Its tea bushes lay low along the mountain side while its production facility, over 2000 meters above sea level, sat stately overlooking the maintained tea growth. The buildings outer walls were decorated by ancient symbols and paintings of the Buddha with labels in English. Inside, one went through the production method with S.S. Rowat, the manager of the estate.

One could blog on and on about Goomtee’s history, gardens, product, and production methods but why reinvent the wheel. Goomtee has an amazing web site which outlines all this and much more is such detail, please do click on this link and snoop around for a while. The site is a real gem.

Actually, we didn’t even get through the tour of the facility. Mr. Rowat became a bit sidetracked, and for good reason. While he was walking us through old rooms and massive machinery used to produce Goomtee’s quality product, the first cupping on the very first day of first flush tea picked for the 2009 season was commencing. Basically, we just took a B-line right to the tasting of the tea- tea that was produced just hours before.

We sipped from large cups of classic Darjeeling green and a rather fancy Darjeeling white. We sipped, pondered, shared our options, and sipped more. This infant tea, like others consumed hours after production, has a certain kind of taste, a taste of youth that all greens seem to carry for just hours after production. Mr. Rowat said that this taste is the ‘fire’ that remains in the leaf for a few hours after production but latter dissipates. This ‘fire’ also seems to affect the qi. The initial qi possesses a youthful energy that always hits the stomach hard, another characteristic of all recently produced green tea. These tastes and feelings from drinking such young tea reminded one of sipping recently fired tea beside the cauldron in Handong, South Korea. There is something about this experience that is almost spiritual, a celebrated birth of tea.

Mr. Rowat mentioned that the tea here in Darjeeling is so sought after that it sells before it is even picked. He mentioned how the first flush white tea will go to a German tea company this year that is egger to have this wonderful spring delight before Easter. He said that they purchased it without even tasting a sample of this year’s product. Apparently, due to the overly dry conditions in Darjeeling, this year’s first flushes won’t be as good as the last few years (but still amazing when compared to other teas) but that the second flush should be of the highest quality. They can apparently determine this all from the weather conditions.

Viewing the fields below, one sipped these fresh samples with a big smile and found no fault in them.

Peace