2013 Margaret's Hope FTGFOP 1 1st Flush Darjeeling Tea‏

This tea comes as another gifted sample from Lochan Tea. Like the Giddapahar SFTGFOP 1CH SPL and the Goomtee SFTGFOP 1 EX 2, this tea is also available from Tea Trekker.

This is The brightly coloured dry leaves give off bright sweet-lime high notes with a soft high piercing quality to them.

These leaves are steeped up and the inital taste is of strong, sweet, sugary high notes. There are pure mango tastes in there as well. The taste is light pure and vibrant. The mouthfeel is slick and makes the mouth salivate. The fruity notes stretch into the breath. Saliva pools in the mid throat.

The second steeping brings out more middle foresty-chalky notes that meld with muted mango fruity notes that appear more on the breath in the aftertaste. This tea has a nice harmonious tone to it.

The third pot is a creamy, smooth, very fruity-mango taste with creamy hits of nuts underneath. The creamy furity taste is very long and lingers on the breath even minutes later. There are faint floral notes that linger in the mix as well. The qi of this tea is just as smooth, undulating like a wave throughout the body.

Peace

The First 2013 Korean Teas Are Now Available

It has been a cooler winter than average which has been the trend in Korea over the past decade. As a result the Saejak harvest is now underway. Most dealers here in the West don't start getting their Korean teas until after the saejak and then jungjak is picked. English speaking dealers on the ground in Korea however can start offering them immediately. Gabe from the Jiri Mountain Tea Shop has done just that.

The Jiri Mountain Tea Shop was the very first online tea shop to sell the 2013 harvest starting last week. The tea in question is a completely traditionally made first pick ujeon tea from one of the most traditional tea picking areas of Jiri mountain- land on the banks of the Seomjin river. The tea is produced by Lee Deok-Ju whose family has been producing traditional tea from the same area for 40 years.

The Jiri Mountain Tea Shop web site also offers a sample pack of 2013 Jirisan "Wild Korean Rock Tea". It is likely an balhyocha produced in a way similar as this traditionally made tea.

One has just updated the List of English Online Korean Tea Vendors and Their Korean Teas. Watch in the coming weeks as new 2013 teas make their way to these sites.

Peace

Aged Korean Tea: A Reroasted Four Years Aged Kim Jong Yeol Balhyocha

The concept of aging Korean tea is a new one, even 8 years ago, you would be hard pressed to find a Korean tea shop owner or drinker that had even tasted aged Korean tea. Back then a few tea masters that one respected both said that ddokcha can and should be aged. Conversely they also claimed to have never tried a balhyocha (Korean yellow tea) that had improved tremendously with age. They had claimed that often people store balhyocha in oongi wear and some claim that balhyocha stored and aged in this way does, in fact, improve with age. Years ago one had stock piled many boxes of Jukro Uricha to age but, after aging experiments with 2 years old and 3 years old boxes. One had come to the same conclusion as those wise teamasters, it tastes much better consumed fresh within the first year or two. The high price of Jukro balhyocha (uricha) simply made it not worth the risk of storing and the boxes were easily consumed.


Enter Pedro of O5Tea. In 2009, Pedro acquired a large amount of Kim Jong Yeol's (Butea) balhyocha and sold it under the now defunct Dao Tea label. In many great conversations and tea meetings with Pedro that followed he decided not to order the 2010 balhyocha and instead sell off the leftover from 2009. If you ordered any balhyocha from Pedro in 2010 you, in fact, received balhyocha from the 2009 harvest year. This was done as the teamasters he consulted with recommended that balhyocha was certainly just as good if not better when left to age for a year. Many producers don't even release their balhyocha until a few years pass (see the comments in these posts on Jukro Balhyocha and Ssangkye Chun-Go-Hyang).


It just happens that Pedro had recently found a bunch of leftover 2009 Kim Jong Yeol (Butea) balhyocha. Walking though the door of this O5Tea shop in Vancouver a few months ago the air was filled with the scent of slow roasted balhyocha. That same balhyocha first sampled at the Victoria Tea Festival three years ago was in a frying pan on top a conduction heater set to very low heat and had been roasting for a hour or so. One picked up a bag of that tea and had let it mellow over the last few months. With the pot of water boiling... let us prepare some of this tea...

The leaves smell of distinct piercing dark chocolate they have a slight edge of buttery odours and faint woods under the distinctly chocolate smell.

The first infusion delivers a muted, very light, peach taste with slight creamy-soapy finish. There is even a slight spicy cinnamon edge to the taste. The mouthfeel is watery, very very light. Hotter water is needed to push this tea harder than a fresh balhyocha.

The second infusion is prepared with much hotter water and delivers a mellow, very soft fruity banana peach taste with almost unnoticeable suggestions of chocolate. The tea has a thin mouthfeel with saliva pooling somewhat in the back of the throat. The taste profile is simple, soft, and light. The qi is very relaxing-tranquil in the body. It is noticed especially in the head, softening it.

The third infusion gives the mouth malty, smooth, barely woody, mainly indistinct fruity taste. This light malty-fruit taste is terribly simple but nice. A woody note spans the taste profile.

The fourth infusion is a watery, flat-juicy-dry faint fruit taste. The mouthfeel is thin but coats the entire mouth, even the mid throat where the feeling is slightly dry. A gummy-raisin very faint aftertaste is found a few minutes after swallow.

Infusion number five is much the same simple profile as above now a bit more dry and woody. It slightly scratches the throat now. This tea delivers a very mellow qi. There is an almost licorice-wood finish minutes later on the breath.

The next handful of infusions deliver soft, fruity monotone wood and indistinct peachy-fruity taste. The thin all-coating mouthfeel becomes more dry. There is a lingering peachy aftertaste in the mouth minutes later. With each infusion, more flavour is lost until it becomes barely flavoured water.

It is put to an overnight infusion which gives off a tangy, flat wood taste.

Compare the above notes to the notes of the fresh 2009 balhyocha or to other tea bloggers notes on this fresh tea.

Peace

2013 Badamtam SFTGFOP 1 1st Flush Darjeeling Tea

Badamtam Estate is located in Darjeeling's West Area. It is the source of this sample gifted by Lochan Tea...


The dry leaves smell of musky, rich, pungent, foresty-deep fruity scents. There is a slight coco note that lingers in the many low notes of these leaves.

The first pot is steeped up and an initial tastes of soft, gentle, watery, creamy vague, maybe pear or papaya, fruits linger softly in the mouth. These tastes slowly evolve into soft creamy, smooth deep forest and slight coco tastes. The mouthfeel is smooth here too. It has a very quite roundness about it in the mouth and is mainly felt on the tongue.

The second infusion has an initial taste is once again very smooth and quiet with some creamy fruity notes that meld with a soft creamy bitterness. The notes of these tea are deep but harmonious, showing no high note range but rather a continuous, very simple, deeper fruity measure of taste. The mouthfeel has become more coarse in the mouth and tugs at the mid-throat, drying it slightly. An aftertaste develops of slightly bitter, wood and coco.

The third infusion is now intermixed with almost creamy foresty-coco bitter notes with the arrival of simple fruity notes later in the profile. The fruity notes are flat and intermingle with a wood taste.

Peace

2013 Goomtee SFTGFOP 1- EX 2 First Flush Darjeeling Tea

 This tea was gifted by Lochan Teas. This tea is available from them or alternatively it is also available from Tea Trekker. Tea Trekker does a great job of vetting only the best first flush teas. Often the first flush teas Mary Lou Heiss and Robert J. Heiss choose to sell are also some of ones most enjoyable. This is one of the reasons why tea shops in North America have their place. Goomtee Estate makes fine first flush teas consistently year to year, this year is no different...

The dry leaves emit a very light, juicy sweet, full on grapey assault of the senses. These same mix of multicoloured leaves also have a distant floral quality and a pungent foresty feel under the distinctly grape odour.

The first pot is steeped up and a very pure, light, smooth sweetness is found in the initial taste followed by a gradual evolution towards very soft tangerine and grape notes. There are very light but fresh forsest and candy sweet notes in there as well but are much less recognizable then the others. The mouthfeel is as soft and delicate as the taste, just faintly covering the tongue. In the aftertaste a barely recognizable bitterness starts to develop.

The second infusion delivers strong, pure uncomplicated grape tastes at the onset. These grape tastes evolve into deeper grape tastes. The flavour isn't overly complicated and deep, but rather pure and distinct. The mouthfeel is more full in this infusion filling the tongue with a light, airy, sticky quality that reaches into the throat and gets caught in the gums. The qi is also very light and uplifting as it moves freely throughout the body. Only very slight edges of any bitter appear in the aftertaste but are almost unrecognizable.

The third infusion the light, fresh, pure grape notes are still obvious but become just slightly more muddled. The aftertaste develops a light candy sweetness over a slightly muddled grape-foresty, barely bitter taste. The mouthfeel is fullest, now coating the whole mouth and even mid throat in a very light, airy but substantial coating.

The fourth infusion pushes out much the same but much less vibrant now and more brackish, almost rubbery tasting. There is still the dominant taste of grape even this late into the session.

Peace

The Types of Tea and Their Chaqi: Aged Liuan Tea

Liuan tea has been used as a medicine for hundreds of years. Its qi is drying and has the ability to dispel dampness which accumulates in the body. Its bitter flavour is attributed to this health property as the bitter taste has a draining and often diuretic effect on the body. Conversely the tea also has hydrating properties as well. Aged Liuan tea becomes thermally warmer in nature as it ages. This gives the tea the ability to harmonize the body's energy with the heat of the summer. The result is a hydrated body and mind.

Traditionally it was often administered and drank in the summer in the Southern provinces of China. In this region of China the summers are unbearably hot and humid and aged Liuan was thought to remedy the imbalances created by these climatic influences. The symptoms of Summer Heat which include fever, sweating, heavy sensation of the limbs and head, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, bloating, dehydration- Luian tea was thought to treat these symptoms.

Traditionally Liuan tea is packaged in a bamboo leaf basket imparting the energetics of bamboo into the tea leaves. Traditional infusions of Liuan tea always include a piece of the aged bamboo basket in the pot of tea along with the dry leaves. Bamboo leaves have been used in traditional Chinese medicine for thousands of years to reduce fever, detoxify, calm the mind, and drain dampness. These are some of the same medicinal properties of thought to be contained in Luian tea. When both bamboo and Luian tea are steeped together they are thought to enhance the medicinal properties of each other thereby creating a infusion that is more than the sum of its individual parts. The result is a delicious tea perfect for the hot humid summer.

Sipping away at some 1980s Liuan today, one hopes to review some of this tea as well as some other Liu An in the coming weeks and months.

Peace

A Tasting of Three Korean Powdered Teas: Hankook Tea Gamnong Matcha Powdered Green Tea, Hankook Tea Teuksun Powdered Green Tea, SsangKye Organic Sejak Powdered Tea

Hankook Tea Gamnong Matcha Powdered Green Tea

This is the boldest of Korean powdered teas. Not only does it flaunt the name "matcha" along with "powdered green tea" in its name but it was also produced by the Yang Won Suh of Hankook Tea, the only recognized grand master of Korean traditional foods for matcha (powdered green tea). Yang Won Suh passed away this year so those wanting to try the last of the matcha overseen by this teamaster should get to trying it. The can that one will open today is one of the last with his living blessings.

Hankook offers a good description and the details of its Gamnong Matcha on a blog post here. It states that this hand picked tea is stone ground from first flush, sejak grade, tea leaves (the same tea leaves used for its Gamnong Jaksul Green tea). However the leaves are shaded briefly before picking.

Let's open all the packaging and give this tea a try...

The smell of the deepish green powder is very sweet and honey-nut. It has a slightly hickory note of tamari almonds, and a grainy like odour under there as well.

The tea is whisked to a froth in the Korean powdered tea ceremony. A soft, light, grassy wood-bark initial tastes with a slight sweetness appears for a short time. A bland-wood aftertaste builds in the mouth then turns a bit sweet over the predominantly bland-wood taste. The mouthfeel turns a heavy chalky taste. Fruit tastes fail to materialize in the profile over these stronger notes. The tea leaves the tongue and mouth dry and coarse. The qi of this tea is soft and not so noticeable.

This tea is also available from Good Green Tea.


Hankook Tea Teuksun Powdered Green Tea

This tea is made from shade grown, junjak grade, second flush leaves. It shouldn't be confused with Hankook Tea Jaksul Powdered Green Tea which is a sejak first and second flush available also from Good Green Tea.

The sample package is opened and the dry powder is appreciated. The dull green powder smells of dry, woody, bitter, dusty odours.

When it is whisked up in the Korean powdered tea ceremony it yields a slightly creamy very simple wood initial taste. It turns into a sweet berry taste over top a dry wood base flavour.

The mouthfeel is thin and carries somewhat of a sticky-fine-sandy texture in the front of the mouth. The qi is unpretentious as it brings one up a bit.


Sssangkye Organic Sejak Powdered Tea

This tea is an organically grown ceramic ball milled sejak powdered green tea. Good Green Tea stocks this.

The dry pale lime green coloured powder smells of dry-woody notes with slight piercing, almost pungent-like, deep foresty notes very similar to a Jiri Mountain seajak grade tea.

The tea is whisked up in the Korean powdered tea ceremony. Strong, bitter, stale-wood, deep foresty tastes arrive first then slowly makes its way to sweet-juicy cherries in the mouth. This transition to sweet cherries is slow and uncomplicated. The mouthfeel is dry and coarse. The strong, bitter initial tastes strongly reels in and sharpens the senses.

Peace

Edited April 30/2013