It is yet another Monday morning and I've got, well, not a 'sick' kid home from school today but a kid home nonetheless, feeling 'icky' and so it is not appropriate for me to delve deeply into a much desired first morning tea session, as my focus, (what little of it I possess on any given Monday morning,) is on the 'napping'(aka using her iphone under the bedsheets I suspect) child in the other room. SO! What to do? Must start the day off right, but can't think about it too much. Aha! I remember I have a
new western style mug with fabulous looking, shiny and large infuser basket, my first, from
Quantitea along with a 'flight' of 12 teas, already pre-measured so I just grab one! Ah! A Sheng. This is not a Sheng morning so I dip back into the flight of teas and pull out the Huashan Huanya yellow and YES, it off to the Bonavita!
First steep, maybe one minute, I lose count but it turns out lovely, not over-brewed, and a full mug of a high quality yellow tea is right there in front of me with minimal effort on my part. This is more than I could have hoped for before getting this set-up from Quantitea. This is very nice indeed. If I were in an office or for situations like this, where I need something as quick and easy as popping a pod into a Keurig which is of course barbaric, than this Quantitea 'system' is a blessing.
More on the tea itself from Quantitea's website:
Huoshan Huang Ya is a classic tea from China that isn't very common in the US. The process to produce this tea is similar to green tea, but the 'men huang' (seal yellow) step is added to mellow the green tea chlorophyll/green flavor profile. Men huang is performed by heaping & covering with occasional application of steam. This produces a tea that has a unique flavor and mouthfeel, the tasting notes are: white pepper, asparagus and a smoothness some called “waxiness”
Plant: Camellia sinensis var. sinensis
Type: Yellow
Origin: Anhui Province, China
Harvest Date: Early April
Plucking Standard: bud and first leaf
Process: Wither, Fix Kill Green, Heaping, Drying
Brewing Parameters: 185F for 2 min, 5 steeps
