2006 Xiaguan First Grade Raw Puerh Tea, 100g

This is pretty solid for something I picked up on ebay as an afterthought when I was ordering a new gaiwan. I brewed it up in my Jianshui teapot and gave it a couple long-ish rinses to get the compressed chunks to open up – I think that’s the way to go with these Xiaguan tuos. The dry leaf had a pretty signature Xiaguan smoky/tobacco aroma to it, but I didn’t get much of any smoke in the flavor.

I didn’t take particularly detailed notes as I was busy talking to a couple teafriends as I brewed this out. There was a slight floral sweetness and I also got a fruity note that reminded me of apple interestingly enough. I once or twice got a touch of bitterness, but even when I accidentally oversteeped it by a decent amount, it wasn’t at all bad. I’ll definitely want to revisit this and pay a little bit closer attention, but I’m pretty happy with this one after this session.

From the Pu TTB Round 5

Brews up a light amber color. Tastes of tobacco, peat, slightly smoky with mineral and warming spice notes. Slightly musky incense-like aroma. Not much green left, but moderate in bitterness and light sweetness. In short: tastes like Xiaguan. A good daily drink semi-aged sheng and I might need to pick up a tuo or two.

Completely unrelated and unusually blog-ish for me: Several years ago I fell in love with the sounds of North Indian/Hindustani music. I saved up a pile of money and bought myself a beautiful sitar. I started off really into it, but a major bout of depression caused me to lose interest and it ended up living in my closet.

I’m managing my depression much better now, and the other weekend I went to I really inspirational sitar concert by Ustad Shujat Kahn, son of Vilayat Kahn. I decided to open back up the sitar case and completely restrung it (takes hours) and I’ve been practicing from a book and DVDs daily. I knew from experience that I would need a teacher if I really wanted to learn, so I contacted the shop that sold my the sitar and asked for recommendations.

Last weekend I had my first skype lesson (good sitar teachers are few and far between) with the owner of the shop, and by his recommendation I’m going to take lessons from his teacher, Indrajit Banerjee, in the future. I’m really excited! Unfortunately I’ve been drinking less gong fu tea and doing more big pot brewing (hadn’t done that in a long time) haha.

Anyways, I’m really exited and feeling much more motivated in day to day life