Going deeper down the rabbit hole I discover Liu Bao.

I am finding this adventure taking yet another unexpected turn as I have my first Liu Bao, a sort of tea I know nothing about even as I steeped it for the first time. It smelled like Puerh, but was choppy and 'piecey' like a Rooibos, god what a mess I made. Grumbling, 'This better be worth it' or something in a similar vein I rinsed twice, then tasted the first brew, and it was Good. Yes, with a capital 'G'. Like how God said it after he made creation.
I cannot compare it to anything else though for it truly is a one of a kind experience, all I can do is to hope to learn more and to have the opportunity to try more of this sort of tea. I can tell you this was a gift, a small sample from Camellia-Sinensis in Canada and is marked, 'Liu Bao 2008 0612-01' and its origin is indeed China.

The flavor is everything I like from a Shou Puerh, it is woodsy and leather, no astringency in the after-taste at all, very mild and almost sweet which is a huge plus for me. Of course, being a first timer with this and only having a small amount I chose to brew only 3 grams and used my smallest gaiwan of 100ml to do so. Temperature was 205f.
Delicious and very intriguing. I am now eye-balling some other Liu Bao offerings from this company and am very tempted by some of the older, and of course more pricey items for sale. efore I do that though I still have one more sample to try from them, the Liu Bao Lao Cha Po Puerh 2006. Yep, that is what the package says, lemme go look online to see if I got that right, the handwriting on the package is elegant but not as easy to read as my old eyes would prefer. Hey, that looks good too, doesn't it? Large leaf is more my personal preference so I am now off to try Liu Bao numero two!

From my first steep of Liu Bao, so messy and yet so worthy!

Teas from Thailand that make us take notice...

Tea-Side's 'Red Tea From old trees aka #3' is a damn good tea. Visually its a stunner, long rolled whole leaves of a vivid and almost Lucy Ricardo red, a gorgeous amber brew, and a full flavorful mouth-feel that lingers a long time. Caramel, fruit, and semi- sweet but not as sweet as Tea-sides Red Tea #6, which makes it second in line for me as I really adored the sweeter tones of the #6 almost to the point of tea-worship.
Tea-Side is a fascinating vendor of teas from Thailand, not the usual place one buys their loose-leaf teas, but very interesting. In their own words;

About Us

TeaSide is a company that produces and sales thai tea. Our main warehouse is located in the far north of Thailand, in the mountains, close to tea gardens and plantations.

In our web-shop you can purchase oolong, pu-erh, red, black and white tea, medicinal herbs. We specialize exclusively in tea and herbs of Thailand.

What is Thai Oolong Tea?

These are Taiwanese oolong varieties. The tea is produced by Taiwanese farmers and by Taiwanese technology, but the bushes are grown on the high mountain slopes of Thailand.

It is known that tea plant (camellia sinensis) is very picky about the quality of the land. Tea bushes and trees form a large vegetative mass of leaves and shoots that requires a large amount of nutrients and water. This is a very "gluttonous" plant. However, the wide cultivation of tea has begun in Thailand not long ago. Mountain slopes suitable for tea gardening are not yet exhausted of fertility, unlike many places in China and Taiwan.

Therefore, here in Thailand many factories produce organic tea, they have no need to use hazardous inorganic fertilizers.

Thai terroir is ideal for oolong tea. In the mountains here is a lot of fog and a lot of sun, which allows to cultivate a truly delicious tea.

Are There Tea Trees in Thailand?

Pu-erh's, red tea from trees and a quality white tea is not easy to find even for those who knows tea places in Thailand. Historically, most of tea factories are engaged exclusively in plantation teas, which means tea bushes. Only few people know that in Thailand grow old tea trees. Almost all the raw materials from the trees is exported to China and then there is blended.

We believe that the Thai tea from young and old tea trees has surprisingly distinctive taste. It worth a particular attention among other teas.

Some kinds of our Pu-erh teas we produce by ourselves.

Our Collection of Thai Tea is Unique.

Thai tea is still rarely found in tea shops. But we try not to abuse this rarity, range of teas in our store is always changing and growing. Our goal is to create a high-quality collection, without reference to the exotic nature of the product.

TeaSide has no exclusive work commitment with any tea factory, I always choose the most delicious tea, inspecting all interesting and serious tea producers. Sometimes it happens that from the whole range of large factories we buy only one, the best variety. Every season I spend extensive testing over again. I arrange parallel brewing and tasting of four-five best representatives of the same kind for almost each tea. More often, only one instance will be included into our assortment.

Is 'Tea-Drunk' a real thing?

Someone posted on one of the tea pages I belong to a 'poll' asking this question. I am glad to report most respondents said 'tea-drunk' was in fact real. I think it is fair to say if you don't believe in tea-drunkenness you are most likely a rather blase lover in bed, and do not carry a very poetic spirit within. You may have many other fine qualities and attributes, just not any I personally am interested in.
Tea-drunk may or may not have its foundations in physiological fact, but when one approaches tea like a lover, there is no doubt, there is a sensation, long and lingering, heady and full, thick and full-bodied that for lack of a better word we call 'tea-drunk.' This is not a caffeine buzz, oh no. This is more like a true connoisseur/alcoholic/Hemingway sort-of person who could write throb-inducing paragraphs about how the whiskey feels running slowly down his throat. Its why I both loved straight whiskey and even more, hot Sake when I used to imbibe. The spreading warmth, the chi of certain liquids triggers many un-nameable(by me) and unknowable(by me) myriads of interior circuitry to flush and swell, memories trigger sensations, headiness follows, and sometimes, yes, it is like a caffeine high, but not in its primacy. First and foremost it is a sensation of head and chest and heart swelling, opening to the coaxing of the elixir at hand.
For me what follows is often moaning and a really awesome and loud belch. If the after-effects had been so innocuous with alcohol I might never have ventured past my senchas and fallen so hard for all these oolongs and dark story-telling puerhs.
I drink tea and I fall in love. I fall in love with the moment, the tea, the various shadows that fall in between my lips and the cup, the room, the great always right-there-for-me NOW.
As I age and this skin dries out, cracks, crazes, thins and blood flow slows, tea is the thing that brings me back to a youth that is far beyond numerical years but takes me into the ageless eons where I am part of everything, and the tea is simply the most elegant and understated post-it-note reminding me of that one true thing. I am here. Now. Whatever the life circumstances around me are, and with no intention beyond being present in this chair, at this time, with this cup, this friend, this alone-ness, this family, this sip of tea.
And that make me drunk.

A lovely and unusual rolled green from Indonesia by way of Baraka Teas out of London!

I am tempted to start this post with a happy rant about how great life is, for drinking this tea is a sharp and poignant reminder of that very fact. (Yep, here I go, cannot help myself.)
That I am able to sit in the backyard of my Los Angeles bungalow, watch the huge flocks of wild Mexican parrots screaming from the palm tree that looms over-head, read a thousand page book on a small compact thing called a 'Kindle' and at my side a gongfu set up of gorgeous tea-ware and a small cup of this tea-broth ready to be sipped again in mindfulness, attention and pleasure? I mean, come on! I am waiting for that other shoe to drop. And I know it will and it will be a big old shoe, full of rocks and it will most likely break my nose, but right now, the other shoe is an accepted and seemingly faraway event, and Baraka Teas Indonesian Pearls is a part of this perfect moment in which I find myself.
Baraka Teas is a great 'boutique' seller of teas, and by this I mean they have a limited and very exclusive group of offerings. As I mentioned in a prior post about Baraka, I find this very, very attractive, for I am the sort of person who does better with four options instead of forty. Especially when I know all four are going to be the very best representations available.
Baraka sources only the best, organic, single estate teas they can find from around the globe, hence my opportunity to try an Indonesian green. This tea was picked by hand from the Halimun Mountains in West Java and are frankly delicious, easy to brew, and surprisingly long-lasting, as I re-brewed the leaves for two hours over a long game of 'Clue' with my family, which I lost, as usual. I find drinking good tea and winning at board games hardly ever go hand-in-hand. This tea is sweet, floral, delicate but is still full of flavor and very sip is a revelation of, once again, how good life is.
I drank this in the morning in the sun and I drank this in the evening in the warm light of my family's hearth and it fit in to both scenarios like a pro. A friendly, happy-to-be-with-you-tea that also hints about how big the world is, and how you simply must, at some point research this part of the world where this tea hails from and marvel even further at how amazing the whole darn planet can be.

My own personal stockpile in case of Armageddon.

You can take my oolongs, my bulangs, the shengs and (most of the) shous. You can hand out my sencha, the tencha, the matcha and the bancha to whoever is in need but do not touch, I say, do not touch my Mountain Tea 1980 Shou Puerh. 
Where did it come from, why is it so special? How come you were able to afford it? Who cares what you, a newbie dumb-dumb wanna-be tea expert hoards or hides? Who? Anybody?
And I don't know, dear readers; I do not know if anyone cares and I do not know if this is an actual 1980 shou, but if Mountain Tea says its so, that's good enough for me. They are some of the good guys, I like them, and I am choosing the believe this shou was affordable simply because they are amazing human beings and chose to bless their part of the universe with it at an affordable price.
At $17 for two ounces, I was able to buy half a pound and am nestled into my bungalow ready for anything awful that comes my way. I got the shu-pu, I got the dogs, I got the ten zillion other amazing teas, but really one taste of this shou back when it was a sample, was enough to make me know I could live for EVER with this tea on my tongue, I could ride the waves of apocalypse and I can withstand all my own stupidities and mediocrities and those of the world at large, if only I can be at home with my darlings( human and otherwise) and this damn wonderful tea.
Regardless of my fixation, I am willing to share it, but dudes, you have to come to me!
And bring cookies.

From Mountain Tea:
"We acquired this Shu Pu-Erh from a close friend in China who had been aging it since 1980.  This clean, sweet Pu-Erh is everything you want in an aged tea.  Woodsy aromatics imbibe the senses while your taste buds delight in sweet, earthy tones."

Imperial Anxi Tie Guan Yin Spring 2015 and David Foster Wallace help get my ass off the couch.

Tea and literature as serious medicinal helpmates. I can see that. Today was a day where perhaps nothing could have pulled me from this stuffed-head, allergy-fogged dreariness aside from something as good as a really nice Tie Guan Yin.
Certainly nothing else was working, not the Oriental Beauty, not the English Breakfast, (Yes, I went there, I was desperate) not the quinoa-cucumber salad from Costco I love so much, not the warm fresh challah bread with lemon curd, nothing. I could taste nothing.
I lay on the couch for an hour and let myself get lost in the undeniable pleasure of reading David Foster Wallace's essay on being on a cruise-ship for seven days, a fabulous thing to read and laugh and wake your brain up with entitled, 'A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again.' Click the following link to the PDF, and enjoy!

Once I had finished reading that, I felt somewhat buoyed, (no pun intended) by this now-lost-to-us-genius and brushing the dogs off my middle-aged and ample thighs, I went straight for the tea 'vault.' The one drawer, out of my eight drawer locking wood cabinet where I keep 'the stuff' I know for sure is really good, and I felt that window of opportunity opening up as I did so.

(The 'vault')

Reading Wallace can only steer one to the best of teas, where Earl Grey might be for Luisa May Alcott, and Steinbeck for blacks, Plath for puerh? No, I do not even pretend to read Plath, alas, I am not in my teens anymore, so how about Billy Collins for all other oolongs? In any case, I brewed that top notch TGY over and over and here I am reconstituted and re-imagined, much like the tight little knots of tea-leaves I've awoken in my gaiwan, into something living and verdant, vibrant and awake, albeit a little snotty and surrounded by used tissues. It's just good to be back. I'll thank the Iron Goddess Of Mercy most humbly and now off to pick up 'Infinite Jest' from where I left off a year ago, or even better go to youtube and listen to that commencement address DFW gave called 'This Is Water' while I keep steeping the last of this glorious tea.

Tea-Village in Thailand introduces me to a 'Puerh style tea' quite unusual!

Tea-Village is a tea company in Thailand with some truly interesting things to try. Take this for example,
So Thai teas! Who loves them, who knows about them, who wants to share? This is the first one I have tried from Thailand, but still have a Bai Hao Formosa(Oriental Beauty) and an Oolong #12 ( Jin Xuan) from Tea-Village to try out yet. I've been in a Puerh state of mind lately so decided to explore this one first, especially since I find the idea of a 'Puerh style' tea to be fascinating. Amazing smell came out of the bag upon opening it, very unexpectedly fruity and sweet.

Steeps up a lovely color right away, two quick rinses, sipped the first and second rinse, liked the first, not so much the second, and then a few steeps at 30-60 seconds. Used the whole sample, seven grams in a four ounce gaiwan, maybe I shouldn't have done that, I am undecided as of this writing.
In any case, this doesn't taste like a Chinese Puerh, that's for sure! As of steep five I like it a lot, it has a pretty high novelty value to it that I am riding high on, and recognizing that, I have stopped brewing at five steeps, and will come back to it a little later this afternoon to retry with a fresh mind.
Initial reactions are good, though there is a after-taste that is alien to me, not unpleasant, but it makes me wish I were sampling this tea with one of the Puerh experts I know, I am sure there is a word for this that isn't yet in my tea-vocabulary. It's certainly not 'astringent', nor 'bitter', it is something else, not over-powering and not to be labelled lazily 'unpleasant'. In fact with it lingering as long as it is, I might grow fond of it.

This cha comes on with a strong pretty intense flavor, nothing of peat moss, old leather, nothing like that. It's bright and sweet really, with a terrific aroma. The taste is not like the bag scent, and the scent of the wet leaves is not like the taste. Hmmmmm. Again, I am going back in an hour or so, perhaps a little less high on the novelty factor and the tea-high this intense little sample has got me grooving on!

A few hours later and the tea is mellowing out even furthering an I am finding it has more to offer me than just the novelty of being a 'puerh-style tea', it is warm and gracious and very, very delicious!

The funny names of tea that made me buy them. This lack of maturity at my advanced age horrifies, yet good tea is often the result.

My first steeping session has just concluded with a Buddha-Hand oolong. I realize I chose this tea out of all the offerings by Teance because the name charmed me, not the description, the cultivar, the reviews but just the name was enough to make me want to try it.
So I started to think about the other charmingly named teas I have purchased, some of which were definitely chosen for their names. There is Longevity Eyebrow, Big Red Robe, Green Spring Snail, King Of Duck Shit Aroma and most certainly Dong Ding.  I admit that in the very beginning of my tea journey, that was indeed the motivation for buying my first Dong Ding, a name I have since decided is really not all that funny, now that I am slightly more educated and sophisticated about Chinese words, mountains upon which tea grows and so forth. But back when I first heard it, I giggled moronically. Hell, I giggled moronically last week when I bought the Duck Shit Aroma, for certainly, in that instance at least, it was a charming name chosen for marketing purposes, right? (Please note, I am somewhat afraid to open the package.) In any case I am hopeful I have not yet unearthed all the silly names of teas I would like to try but those might be far and few between as I am only interested in single leaf teas with historically adorable names, not the ridiculous blend names some vendors give their teas, with names like 'Tell Them Raspberry Sencha' but then again, I would never, ever be drinking a raspberry flavored sencha. I may be new-ish to tea but my good taste and desire to explore the world of tea would never have me venturing down Candy-Land Lane.

As a new year approaches, it's time to renew and recommit to the healthy joys of Gongfu Cha over the ills of alcohol. One former drinker takes a moment to share how she got sober without A.A. and into the far more pleasurable world of tea.

Right before discovering Gongfu Cha, Chinese and Taiwanese tea and the whole ritual of tea I was once again on the verge of heading to the local tavern, bored into drinking. Japanese teas which had held my interest for almost three years were losing their powers of novelty and I did not yet know about the world of Gongfu into which I now know I needed to discover so badly. Here is what happened just this past summer. 

I sit at my 'bar' in my sunny, Los Angeles bungalow kitchenette. I have my Takaname kyusu. I have my Takaname yazamashi. I hold one, then the other, I caress them. I love the feel of the clay, I love the people who made them, the company they came from, I am awash with love, in fact, for everything, except for the tea I will soon bless them with. Senchas, Gaimachas, Hojichas, Banchas, Fukamidori, Fukamushicha, even Gyokuro is losing its appeal.

I start to think about chocolate martinis, muddling my own gardens organic mint for something with gin perhaps, I start to think about how I am going to drink my tea and not think about the far lustier and sensational vibes I might be getting from imbibing something you have to be twenty one to get your hands on.

This goes on for about five years. Sometimes I wake up from my nap in time to get dinner on the table and sometimes the tea keeps me on track, but nonetheless my love for Japanese teas is losing its hold on me. The one option that still 'does it for me' are my own Matcha 'lattes'. The ritual I create of sifting the powder into an even more fine powder, the tools I use, all so lovingly handled and cared for by me. The finest Matchas I can find, nothing store bought, always the matcha snob, but it is the ritual that keeps me meditative, calm, focused and gives me the sense of wholeness the other teas lack.

The poet always love a ritual, how the sliver of sunlight shines on the Raku bowl, the whisking motion in my wrist, the way the froth reminds one of the oceans churning. And so on and so forth.

But I am out of matcha.

I throw the I-Ching coins to distract myself from thinking about heading to the local sushi bar for some of that good and rare sake the owner likes to share with me, I try to think about deep green teas and I feel nothing. The I-Ching does not help in any way I can make sense of today.

Let us fast-forward to hours later, where I am enraptured watching my first Gungfu ceremony on youtube, so ACCESSIBLE to me, a westerner, so unlike the overly intense discipline of the Japanese ceremony which I would never in a million years attempt.

I fall in love with the tea trays, the words I am hearing from Denny and James on TeaDB; words like liquor, mouth-feel,Tieguanyin, Yunnan....

Fast forward again, if you will, one quick week later and my first sip of tea not Japanese nor Earl Grey in nature. It has come as a gift from Shiuwen of Floating Leaves Tea along with the starter set for Gungfu I have ordered. It is in a small package and hand written upon it are only the words, 'Oriental Beauty'.

I am delighted she has sent it as I had forgotten to buy any tea! Other than that small neglect,for a newbie I am well prepared after watching a lot of videos from various sources. I have warmed the gaiwan, ( another word I fall instantly in love with!), I have measured out, with my new digital scale, 5 ounces of tea, I have sniffed the lid, and I have rinsed the tea. I realize my mouth is watering as I bring the cup to my lips for the first time. In fact, my mouth began watering in this wholly new and unusual way before I even poured the tea from the gaiwan into the fairness pitcher and into my tiny, gorgeous new celadon cup. It began, I realize, when I smelled the still dry leaves 'cooking' in the warmed gaiwan. Something stirred in me not unlike my intense desires for chocolate and sake!

And then that first sip. A moan. Was that me? Holy crap, I don't moan. And then again, and then a sigh and a sense of awakening to a new potential for pleasure in my life. My life as a fifty year old woman who doesn't get bored from the lack of variety in either her tea or her daily existence, who has just found a hint of a path; a verdant, sometimes roasted, lightly oxidized, shining and fabulous path that offers to lead me into this second half of my life with a new 'beginners mind', an open mind, a mind not clouded by booze consumed in hopes of feelings it can never produce. Yet this tea, this simple leaf has given me that feeling so often sought for and I start a new adventure, 'sober', (if tea-drunk and peeing every thirty minutes eight hours a day is indeed sobriety,) and grinning my foolish face off, sip by sip, as I learn a new language of life, of tea, and of unending potential for adventure.

An 'OMG' tea-moment that lasted an hour. Floating Leaves Jin Xuan Spring 2015. OMG. No, really, it's that good.

Floating Leaves was the first company I bought tea from. In one afternoon, I found TeaDB, watched some videos and that very day, ordered from Shiuwen at Floating Leaves Tea my first tea and tea tools. It is many months later and I have ordered many teas from floating Leaves but today I had my ( almost) favorite to date. certainly a new and wondrous oolong experience for me, and I am delighted I followed Shiuwen's advice and bought it! It is Jin Xuan Spring 2015 and it is fabulous. I love that she knew it would be hit with me based on my feedback on other teas she has 'turned me on to.'
I just went back to the website and cannot believe how affordable such a wonderful oolong is, and am delighted to report it is still available. Those of you who asked me about, and then ordered Oriental Beauty from FLT and loved it as much as I did will want to take note, this is just as good in a different way of course!
Apparently this tea is also known as Milk Oolong and Taiwan Tea #12.
It's a very popular tea and rightfully so, very easy to drink and a lot of fun to brew. It is the best lightly oxidized oolong I have had to date. Tightly rolled, very small balls that ring like bells in the gaiwan, I woke this tea slowly with a high-pour rinse of water 195 degrees, then proceeded to experiment with temps up to 205. Six steeps of real pleasure before it began to get weak.
Just adore this brew and will be noting it as one of those I intend to purchase in bulk once I run out of oolongs to try, and one that I bet will be a daily drinker for me for years to come!