YAY! MY FIRST SAMOVAR ORDER IS HERE!!! It took forever to get here though! The tracking said it was out for delivery at 7:48am, but didn’t get here til 1:30pm. My UPS guy is normally here ~11.
After forcefully pulling myself away from my (first) yixing pot, I made this. Someone (takgoti?) said that steeping instructions come on the packaging, but I was deeply disappointed that it did not. Also, it’s in a silver bag that is not resealable… bummer… 2 disappointments already and I haven’t even opened it. I went online to contact them, but the only contact info they give there is email and I wanted to drink this now so I looked them up in the yellow pages and called. Meg, the woman I spoke to, said I should steep it using the steeping parameters: 1tsp/160 degrees/1-3min… argh… generalized steeping parameters. Another disappointment. Oh well, this is not “3 strikes and you’re out” so I use the other suggestion I got, from Networld and steeped it like a premium Gyokuro (2g/140 degrees/2.5 min.
Mmmm… The yellowish green may look like a lot of ordinary green teas, but it definitely smells like matcha as the raw leaf does. The aroma is very grassy and vegetal w/ just a bit of bitterness. My brain just doesn’t know what to think of tencha yet. On one hand, it tastes a lot like matcha, but the mouth feel is so much thinner… Definitely a tea for those that love matcha as well as those that don’t like the texture of matcha. I can’t wait to nail the steeping parameters for this!
Preparation
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Sounds like your having an all around good day. New yixing pot and teas :)
Congrats on your first yixing teapot! Mine hasn’t arrived yet :( but if that other oolong glass teapot is any indication, should be a dear little thing! Can’t wait to try the tencha from Samovar! Things to look forward to!
The yixing smells like black pepper… yes I’m a tea dork and smelled my yixing…
And why not? Tea is all about the senses!!! Are you going to season your little yixing pot (maybe you already did)? You know, 15 minutes on the rolling boil w/ water, 15 minutes boiled with the tea of choice (oolong?), and the naming of the teapot ceremony, too!
I know what seasoning it is. This one will be for raw pu erh. No, I haven’t done it yet- but I’d be really upset if it smelled like pepper after I seasoned it. I don’t believe in naming objects though.
Ok. I named my yixing (21 oz) mugs. The one for Oolong, I named Serenity because I want to be serene when I drink from it, the one for Pu-erh Tuo Cha I named Tranquility because I want to be tranquil when I drink tea from it, and the one for Lapsang Souchong I named Harmony because I want to be harmonious with all when I drink from it. Silly, maybe, but something to strive for, too.
It’s not silly to strive for those things at all- I just don’t see the need to name things after desirable character traits. Harmony from Lapsang Souchong… hmmm…
I want to devote this mug http://www.stashtea.com/products/Yixing+Beehive+Tea+Mug.aspx?category=TEAPOTSCUPSMORE to 52teas Mayan Chocolate Chai… do you season your mugs as well?
What a charming mug (look at the little feet on it!)! Yes, I did do that whole seasoning procedure — the puerh mug smells good (like puerh) and so does the lapsang souchong (smells very smoky!) but unfortunately, the oolong mug doesn’t smell like it yet (only drank from it three times so far – I guess needs more time).
Do you fill the mug up to the top w/ tea when you season it? That would be a LOT of chai so I’d probably use a cheaper version to season it. I don’t want to waste all that wonderful chai! :(
2nd infusion, 3min 20 sec. More green liquor. Not bitter at all, so sweet and yummy!
I added like 6 tablespoons of the intended tea (and 6 pellets of the puerh tuo cha when I was doing that mug) in the boiling pot but I used a smaller pot that had sufficient space (about 3 inch clearance around the mug and tea towel) which submerged the mug totally. I know, I felt a moment’s hesitation, too, using up all that tea! And now, after I drink from a particular mug, I do a last infusion in the mug, full to the brim and leave it in the mug for 30 minutes to an hour (depending on when I get to it again) before dumping.
@Lauren i name everything, my car, my computer, if i need to use it daily i want to call it something! not just ‘one of the multiple pots’
@AmazonV – I now have to try and remember the names – my memory being what it is (somewhat non-existent at times!). LOL : )
Oh yeah Tencha! I forgot about this. Mine comes in tomorrow =]]
Congrats! What else was in your order? That tea mug is just darling with the little round feet.
Chrine, I didn’t get a mug I got the yixing and the calendar.
For anyone interested, I talked to someone (via email) from Den’s Tea and while they do not sell it and he was not completely sure, he did also suggest steeping it similar to a Gyokuro so you could either steep it as a regular grade Gyokuro or a Premium Grade Gyokuro, as I did here. For info on where to start steeping Gyokuro, here’s Den’s suggestion: http://www.denstea.com/index.php?main_page=perfect_brewing. And then there’s also the room temp method…
All this advice would be so useful if my Samovar order including this Tencha would get here, pronto! Still waiting for my order, though, UGH!
Sounds like your having an all around good day. New yixing pot and teas :)
Congrats on your first yixing teapot! Mine hasn’t arrived yet :( but if that other oolong glass teapot is any indication, should be a dear little thing! Can’t wait to try the tencha from Samovar! Things to look forward to!
The yixing smells like black pepper… yes I’m a tea dork and smelled my yixing…
And why not? Tea is all about the senses!!! Are you going to season your little yixing pot (maybe you already did)? You know, 15 minutes on the rolling boil w/ water, 15 minutes boiled with the tea of choice (oolong?), and the naming of the teapot ceremony, too!
I know what seasoning it is. This one will be for raw pu erh. No, I haven’t done it yet- but I’d be really upset if it smelled like pepper after I seasoned it. I don’t believe in naming objects though.
Ok. I named my yixing (21 oz) mugs. The one for Oolong, I named Serenity because I want to be serene when I drink from it, the one for Pu-erh Tuo Cha I named Tranquility because I want to be tranquil when I drink tea from it, and the one for Lapsang Souchong I named Harmony because I want to be harmonious with all when I drink from it. Silly, maybe, but something to strive for, too.
It’s not silly to strive for those things at all- I just don’t see the need to name things after desirable character traits. Harmony from Lapsang Souchong… hmmm…
I want to devote this mug http://www.stashtea.com/products/Yixing+Beehive+Tea+Mug.aspx?category=TEAPOTSCUPSMORE to 52teas Mayan Chocolate Chai… do you season your mugs as well?
What a charming mug (look at the little feet on it!)! Yes, I did do that whole seasoning procedure — the puerh mug smells good (like puerh) and so does the lapsang souchong (smells very smoky!) but unfortunately, the oolong mug doesn’t smell like it yet (only drank from it three times so far – I guess needs more time).
Do you fill the mug up to the top w/ tea when you season it? That would be a LOT of chai so I’d probably use a cheaper version to season it. I don’t want to waste all that wonderful chai! :(
2nd infusion, 3min 20 sec. More green liquor. Not bitter at all, so sweet and yummy!
I added like 6 tablespoons of the intended tea (and 6 pellets of the puerh tuo cha when I was doing that mug) in the boiling pot but I used a smaller pot that had sufficient space (about 3 inch clearance around the mug and tea towel) which submerged the mug totally. I know, I felt a moment’s hesitation, too, using up all that tea! And now, after I drink from a particular mug, I do a last infusion in the mug, full to the brim and leave it in the mug for 30 minutes to an hour (depending on when I get to it again) before dumping.
@Lauren i name everything, my car, my computer, if i need to use it daily i want to call it something! not just ‘one of the multiple pots’
@AmazonV – I now have to try and remember the names – my memory being what it is (somewhat non-existent at times!). LOL : )
Oh yeah Tencha! I forgot about this. Mine comes in tomorrow =]]
Congrats! What else was in your order? That tea mug is just darling with the little round feet.
Chrine, I didn’t get a mug I got the yixing and the calendar.
For anyone interested, I talked to someone (via email) from Den’s Tea and while they do not sell it and he was not completely sure, he did also suggest steeping it similar to a Gyokuro so you could either steep it as a regular grade Gyokuro or a Premium Grade Gyokuro, as I did here. For info on where to start steeping Gyokuro, here’s Den’s suggestion: http://www.denstea.com/index.php?main_page=perfect_brewing. And then there’s also the room temp method…
All this advice would be so useful if my Samovar order including this Tencha would get here, pronto! Still waiting for my order, though, UGH!