Tea with the Black Dragon

Some people often wonder what to do with the spent leaves of a tea, once they are done with a tea session. Personally, I try to use as much of a tea as possible as the making tea is a very time consuming process that requires a lot of effort, especially if you're buying from farmers versus corporations that make tea.

I have been a writer all of my life, and I have kept journals over a number of years -- work notes, travel journals, personal diaries, etc. Personally, I find journals useful to track history, to learn things, or to rediscover things I had forgotten.

It's a new year, and 2020 was a very interesting time , as they say. I had all of these intentions to really blog about my path on the tea journey in 2020, starting with my trip to Japan. My intent to publicly blog did not manifest, but I did continue on the path of Cha Dao during 2020 as it really helped me to focus and be more mindful of the present, while dealing with the stress of the pandemic and our shelter-in-place situation.  I'm going to try and capture much of this journey over this blog through more tea tastings, personal anecdotes, and the ilk.  I hope you enjoy my continual and never ending journey.

Today was a lesson in being mindful on my journal of Cha Tao. I opted to make this particular sheng puerh so I could compare it to its 2017 counterpart that I enjoyed yesterday. However, I was definitely multi-tasking while getting to know this tea -- listening to a podcast, looking at my phone, writing, etc. I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing and I, certainly, wasn't being mindful of my main task at hand --- drinking this tea. I was holding my tea when I accidentally turned my hand over reaching for my phone...resulting in tea all over my notes; and fountain pen ink isn't too forgiving. I mopped up the spill along with most of the ink. I had to read the faint words and re-create them with a gel pen instead. OY! Afterwards, I took the hint; put on some quiet calm music, and set my mind to actually getting to know this tea! Lesson learned. The Way of Tea starts with being mindful and present in the here & now. Denong's Notes from their Web...

This morning, I wanted to have a tea session with a shou puerh. I feel like I'm finally making headway on developing a taste for puerh...at least ripe puerhs. So, I grabbed what I thought was Denong’s Ripe Puerh sample that I got from the San Francisco Tea Festival this year. I measured out the tea, made the first infusion, took a sip, and thought...wait, this can’t be a shou puerh. I might not have fully developed my puerh tasting chops, but I know enough to distinguish most shous from shengs. So I took another look at the sample box, and nope, it wasn’t a ripe puerh at all,  but it turns out it was the sheng sample...oopsie. Sometimes, the tea has to decide for you. Denong's Notes: The 2017 Mountain Oasis, is quickly becoming quite well known for its unique floral, fruit and menthol like characteristics it developed from the 2017 drought harvest. It had become a favorite of many Pu-erh tea drinker and will continued to be remembered for years to come. Tasti...

When I try a new tea and if it leaves something lacking, I try it a couple more times before I make my decision on whether it's worth it to drink more, buy more, etc. I think you often have to sit with a tea to see what it tries to tell you. Not all tea sessions will be good; you could be 'off', your water isn't at the correct temperature, or maybe you don't have enough tea.....any myriad of reasons could be why you might not like a tea. (It's not the tea's fault!) So, here's one example of a tea that I tried several times over. Here's the description from Yunnan Sourcing.com "Yi Mei Ren" ( 彝美人 ) means literally Yi (Minority) Beauty.  This tea is named "Yi Mei Ren" as its made from Wu Liang Mountain material, an area inhabited primarily by Yi Minority people and bears similarity to both and oolong and a black tea in its fragrance and taste.  Yunnan large-leaf varietal material is used and the tea is wilted and fermented like a bl...

This tea is part of a large order I put in with Yunnan Sourcing back in September 2019 and received in November. Since it's the American Thanksgiving Holiday this week, I took this week off to get some personal work and tea tasting done! Tea: High Mountain Red Ai Lao Mountain Black Tea Spring 2019 Merchant: Yunnan Sourcing From their website: High mountain tea grow at 2000 meters on Ai Lao Shan in Zhenyuan area of Simao.  Picked and processed only from the first flush of spring this black tea is lightly oxidized and processed similiar to Taiwanese black tea or Wu Yi Rock tea.   There is a still a greenish tinge left to the leaves!  The brewed tea is rich and thick with hints of dried Longan fruit with a protracted mouth feeling! The tea is grown at almost 2000 meters making it one of the highest black teas we offer.  Mr. Guo was born and raised in central Taiwan and his father had a black tea factory there.  Mr Guo, traveled to Thailand and event...