Lew Perin @babelcarp@social.tchncs.de

For the other place renamed after a #tea, see: http://babelcarp.org/babelcarp/babelcarp.cgi?phrase=simao

and: http://babelcarp.org/babelcarp/babelcarp.cgi?phrase=puer

and: http://babelcarp.org/babelcarp/babelcarp.cgi?phrase=Ninger&define=1

I just learned this Chinese county got renamed with a #tea reference: http://babelcarp.org/babelcarp/babelcarp.cgi?phrase=Chongan&define=1

That says something about how important tea is in China.

Who remembers another Chinese jurisdiction renamed in favor of tea in this century?

I’ve been on a green tea bender for two months now, but I needed something that wouldn’t be murdered by stewing in the #tea jar today.

The answer was all-forgiving huangpian puer: http://babelcarp.org/babelcarp/babelcarp.cgi?phrase=huangpian+&define=1

They were giving away Veuve Clicquot-branded cozies to keep champagne splits cool.

My wife realized one would work just as well to keep my #tea jar warm.

Left: phone booth. Right: Superman.

Everyone interested in #puer #tea is familiar with the idea that plantation tea (taidicha) doesn’t taste good and is loaded with nasty agricultural chemicals, that what you should drink instead comes from old/tall/wild trees.

This article says the taidicha=evil idea is way out of date, that plantation tea practices are much better than 20 years ago, and so is the result in the cup: https://deadleaves.club/2018/06/03/what-is-good-plantation-tea-translated-article/

To the extent that this is true, it’s big news.

Cf. http://babelcarp.org/babelcarp/babelcarp.cgi?phrase=taidicha&define=1

You couldn’t make a 3-layer cake with different leaf grades drawn from the same pile — that would be like unscrambling eggs.

/end

His reason for this is, different types of leaves will need different lengths of time in the pile to gain the same degree of fermentation, which makes sense to me.

He’s not writing about building a 3-layer cake, but Menghai must be piling veneer and core leaves separately.

This lends support to what my favorite Chinese puer blogger Feiyang said: if you’re going to make shu blending different types of leaves, you’d better ferment the types in separate piles and blend them only when they’re done.

This reminds me that the practice of wrapping a core of chopped, coarse leaves in a veneer of intact, finer ones is common in ripe (shu) puer.

It’s no secret that the famous Menghai shu recipe cakes are made this way.

There’s a genre of puer video showing a cake getting steamed. There are also hypnotic videos of a cake getting wrapped.

What I want to see is someone building the interior of a cake out of chopped, coarse leaves and then surrounding it with a thin layer of pretty leaves.

#tea #video

It’s pretty good in the cup, I think. It’s a bit smoky for the first couple of steeps, but then it settles down to a fairly rich, woody beverage.

In a blind test, I probably would’ve guessed it was Sichuan or Hunan heicha rather than puer.

I got my hands on a 2004 Xiaguan Tibetan Flame brick not because I expected it to be superb—they’re pretty cheap, actually—but because I’m interested in tea technology and history.

It’s highly compressed and full of tiny fragments: not their best raw material.

A while ago I read the Chinese puer blogger Feiyang saying that in the first ½ of the 20th century puer was made from “rammed tea” rather than plain dry maocha: http://babelcarp.org/babelcarp/babelcarp.cgi?phrase=zhucha&define=1

He also said Xiaguan still uses zhucha in its bricks made for the Tibet market.

#puer #tea

There’s a new Yunnan noodle restaurant on W. 8th St. in Manhattan, Yun Zhi Nan, serving complimentary shu puer #tea that, unlike the shu at all (?) other #NYC Chinese restaurants, is strong enough!

A few days ago, I posted about the freshness of green #tea. I also posted on Twitter, and there a conversation ensued that I found useful: https://mobile.twitter.com/babelcarp/status/1000129668010344448

Because I like to see the color of the #tea I’m drinking, I normally use a white cup, but somehow this #cup calls to me.

I still wouldn’t use it for green tea.

Also on 86 St in #Brooklyn, this surprisingly isn’t a bubble #tea joint but a middlebrow Chinese tea bar with a bewildering array of Japanese snacks.

Plus, they sell double-walled tea jars: http://babelcarp.org/babelcarp/babelcarp.cgi?phrase=Shuangceng+bolibei&define=1

At Rangoon Spoon, a Burmese restaurant on 86 St in Bensonhurst, #Brooklyn, they make “Burmese #tea” with these black tea leaves.

Since the beverage is dominated by sweetened condensed milk, I really can’t say how good the leaves are.

This time of year, last year’s green teas are heavily discounted, but are they worth those low prices? Basically, I feel clueless.

So far this spring, I’ve had two different 2017 green teas. One was great, the other stale. Both were from vendors I respect.

For the record, the great one was Gyokuro, and I’ve heard that Gyokuro stays fresh for a while.

The other was Anji Baicha; the leaves had yellowed, and the taste was way stale.

#tea

I just learned something about actual Chinese #tea culture, as opposed to westerners’ idea of it: http://babelcarp.org/babelcarp/babelcarp.cgi?phrase=natie&define=1