12 responses to “Master One Tea – InBetweenIsode #12 w/ Denny”
Just want to say that I’m loving the inbetweenisodes; both yours and James’. I love the information about adjunct things in relation to tea. I think it rounds out the regular reviews really wonderfully. Keep on keepin’ on!
Thanks a ton Addi! Glad you like them and I’m so pleased that these eps are filling in the gaps — glad our tea musings and additional tastings can bring even more to the site/show!
The Inbetweenisodes are great. I think it helps up the pacing and potential monotony of the standard episodes, which are generally longer and focus more on tea reviews. Variety definitely helps me maintain interest. I’m not always big on watching every review of teas I haven’t tried and likely won’t try anytime soon, so the inbetweenisodes are great in that regard, even if some of them are reviews as well. The short length is easy to watch.
I don’t think I could master a tea in a hundred days, much less 10! But I love the challenge you issued. I know from experience that you really can notice new things about how a tea reacts to different brewing parameters and hone your brewing styles with repeated experience with that one tea. Sometimes it even leads to breakthroughs with how you brew other teas of the same type.
Here’s a challenge of my own! On at least one of those ten days with one tea, brew that tea in a Western style, or in the “tea tasting” style that the tea industry uses, where the tea is steeped for several minutes in one shot so you can taste all the good and bad qualities of that tea at once. I learned loose tea through Gongfu style brewing and only brewed it that way for about a year and a half. I’ve only recently been experimenting with Western style brewing due to several friends asking for tips on how to brew teas that way. I had no experience with which to give them advice, so I started trying it. It may be seen as too casual a method for some of us tea enthusiasts, but it has it’s own advantages as well as disadvantages. I have found that brewing teas in the western style can actually help you learn a LOT about those individual teas, if you’ve only ever brewed them Gongfu style. Give it a try!
I’ll definitely have to do this and yes, this points to exactly what I’m trying to achieve through this process: learn the polar limits that a certain tea can go through!
Interesting episode. I’ve been doing this with japanese teas, where you need to go through 100g of leaves in a very short period of time so it stays fresh.
Considering the volume of tea (ml) you can brew with a few grams of puerh, how can you keep drinking this same tea every day and still be able to drink something else?
Or maybe the question should be: how many days do you keep the leaves that have already been brewed (and how do you keep them – in a gaiwan, with the lid on?)?
I have also had much more experience brewing the same tea every day when it’s something like a green xincha/shincha where you want to drink it as fresh as possible. Now that I drink more puer than sencha or longjing I’m less motivated as I’m not worried about letting a tea I bought ride for a few months or years after I buy it, ’cause it’s probably just gonna get better. However I do know first hand as a coffee drinker the benefits of brewing the same thing over and over to get it right/really know it (though I love tea with all my heart, I am a true Portlander: my day begins with good coffee and ends with good beer, tea is in the merry middle). Again it’s a matter of a bag of coffee needing to be drunk within a couple weeks. This video presents a great point though, I should treat my next cake as if it’s a bag of coffee or sencha that cannot be ignored. But then I might want seven cakes to see how they age… The moral is to buy tongs 🙂
Hi Denny
Great idea. I like Lion’s additions to the challenge as well. It would take me sometime to figure out what tea I would want to ‘master’ in this way. I really like how the BetweenIsodes complement the ‘main’ episodes and how you and James complement each other.
Best
John
It’s funny, when I first saw this episode in the sidebar, I thought that “Master One Tea” was a very cheekily named tea 🙂
After reading Petr Novák’s blog post about it here: http://potsandtea.blogspot.cz/2013/01/drinking-whole-cake.html, I tried to drink through a cake of Hai Lang Hao’s Star of Bulang: http://yunnansourcing.com/en/hai-lang-hao/383-2008hailanghaostarofbulangrawteacake357g.html. Sadly, after a week of brewing the cake I had to give up the experiment, as the tea was too young for me to drink daily. I could have possibly continued the experiment If I brewed the tea quite weakly, but I didn’t think I’d find that too enjoyable, not to mention that it would extend the experiment. One thing I can say with confidence after the experiment though, is that ten days would not be enough!
I’m curious, with your xiagaun tuo, did you get to the point where if the tea came out oddly you could say with confidence – ‘it’s not me, I must have gotten an odd chunk of tea’?
I’ve meant to give this another go, though I wuss out and choose a tuo or minibing this time. Thanks for the reminder!
12 responses to “Master One Tea – InBetweenIsode #12 w/ Denny”
Just want to say that I’m loving the inbetweenisodes; both yours and James’. I love the information about adjunct things in relation to tea. I think it rounds out the regular reviews really wonderfully. Keep on keepin’ on!
Thanks a ton Addi! Glad you like them and I’m so pleased that these eps are filling in the gaps — glad our tea musings and additional tastings can bring even more to the site/show!
Cheers!
-Denny
Hey guys!
The Inbetweenisodes are great. I think it helps up the pacing and potential monotony of the standard episodes, which are generally longer and focus more on tea reviews. Variety definitely helps me maintain interest. I’m not always big on watching every review of teas I haven’t tried and likely won’t try anytime soon, so the inbetweenisodes are great in that regard, even if some of them are reviews as well. The short length is easy to watch.
Scarves, I love them. I bought a lovely shemagh recently that has been doubling as a tea tablecloth. Pic here, if it’ll let you see it: https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xaf1/t31.0-8/10862553_10101007842138738_3751304757079793602_o.jpg
I don’t think I could master a tea in a hundred days, much less 10! But I love the challenge you issued. I know from experience that you really can notice new things about how a tea reacts to different brewing parameters and hone your brewing styles with repeated experience with that one tea. Sometimes it even leads to breakthroughs with how you brew other teas of the same type.
Here’s a challenge of my own! On at least one of those ten days with one tea, brew that tea in a Western style, or in the “tea tasting” style that the tea industry uses, where the tea is steeped for several minutes in one shot so you can taste all the good and bad qualities of that tea at once. I learned loose tea through Gongfu style brewing and only brewed it that way for about a year and a half. I’ve only recently been experimenting with Western style brewing due to several friends asking for tips on how to brew teas that way. I had no experience with which to give them advice, so I started trying it. It may be seen as too casual a method for some of us tea enthusiasts, but it has it’s own advantages as well as disadvantages. I have found that brewing teas in the western style can actually help you learn a LOT about those individual teas, if you’ve only ever brewed them Gongfu style. Give it a try!
Thanks for the nice video, Denny.
Oops, in that first line, I mean’t I think it helps mix up the pacing. Typo.
*meant. I give up! Lol
Awesome suggestion!!! and terrifying! 🙂
I’ll definitely have to do this and yes, this points to exactly what I’m trying to achieve through this process: learn the polar limits that a certain tea can go through!
Great ideas! 🙂
-d
Hey Denny,
Interesting episode. I’ve been doing this with japanese teas, where you need to go through 100g of leaves in a very short period of time so it stays fresh.
Considering the volume of tea (ml) you can brew with a few grams of puerh, how can you keep drinking this same tea every day and still be able to drink something else?
Or maybe the question should be: how many days do you keep the leaves that have already been brewed (and how do you keep them – in a gaiwan, with the lid on?)?
Honestly, I just don’t brew my daily drinkers out super far and/or will throw the leaves in a waterbottle after the 5th steeping and drink that.
Good Q!
-d
I have also had much more experience brewing the same tea every day when it’s something like a green xincha/shincha where you want to drink it as fresh as possible. Now that I drink more puer than sencha or longjing I’m less motivated as I’m not worried about letting a tea I bought ride for a few months or years after I buy it, ’cause it’s probably just gonna get better. However I do know first hand as a coffee drinker the benefits of brewing the same thing over and over to get it right/really know it (though I love tea with all my heart, I am a true Portlander: my day begins with good coffee and ends with good beer, tea is in the merry middle). Again it’s a matter of a bag of coffee needing to be drunk within a couple weeks. This video presents a great point though, I should treat my next cake as if it’s a bag of coffee or sencha that cannot be ignored. But then I might want seven cakes to see how they age… The moral is to buy tongs 🙂
Hi Denny
Great idea. I like Lion’s additions to the challenge as well. It would take me sometime to figure out what tea I would want to ‘master’ in this way. I really like how the BetweenIsodes complement the ‘main’ episodes and how you and James complement each other.
Best
John
🙂 Thanks for bringing new tea into my life.
It’s funny, when I first saw this episode in the sidebar, I thought that “Master One Tea” was a very cheekily named tea 🙂
After reading Petr Novák’s blog post about it here: http://potsandtea.blogspot.cz/2013/01/drinking-whole-cake.html, I tried to drink through a cake of Hai Lang Hao’s Star of Bulang: http://yunnansourcing.com/en/hai-lang-hao/383-2008hailanghaostarofbulangrawteacake357g.html. Sadly, after a week of brewing the cake I had to give up the experiment, as the tea was too young for me to drink daily. I could have possibly continued the experiment If I brewed the tea quite weakly, but I didn’t think I’d find that too enjoyable, not to mention that it would extend the experiment. One thing I can say with confidence after the experiment though, is that ten days would not be enough!
I’m curious, with your xiagaun tuo, did you get to the point where if the tea came out oddly you could say with confidence – ‘it’s not me, I must have gotten an odd chunk of tea’?
I’ve meant to give this another go, though I wuss out and choose a tuo or minibing this time. Thanks for the reminder!