Rock Milk Wuyi Oolong. Multiple steep times yield more and more! Amazing!

Verdant Tea Company. Spring of 2022 by the Li family. The only thing I like more than the various tastes of this tea is the way it smells after the leaves have been wet and on the top of my gaiwan. Sticking my nose deep into the empty vessel almost touching my nose to the still-hot leaves, I feel I can pick up dark cherries, chocolate and a hint of something floral. Stone fruit, warm mineral-y rocks is the taste, however, to my still infantile palate.  

A very fun immersive tea and terrific for waking the senses and one's curiosity first thing in the morning. Pairs great with a good understated butter cookie too!

From the verdanttea.com:

Rock Milk or Shi Ru is an uncommon varietal that the Li Family cultivates on their mist-shaded, mountain spring-fed biodiverse plot within the Wuyi Ecological Preserve. The naturally rocky elements of this tea come through even stronger as they take in the deep minerality of the volcanic rocky soil. As a rare offering, Mr. Li takes the time to bring out the rich mouthwatering lingering yun sensation of this tea through the hand firing at low heat for hours needed to bring out the very best. This varietal is an excellent chance to taste the terroir of the region

June in Kentucky. And so it begins.

 Early morning back-porch tea sessions will have to start even earlier than this one is, as the humidity begins to announce itself behind my neck.

But having a rare Oriental Beauty from Floating Leaves tea in my old Celadon vessel makes me want to sit out here all day.

The sounds and the company have to measure up to this particularly good tea so I have Deva Premal singing the Moola Mantra, Daisy Gerber, my parakeet and even my tortoise here with me!

Tea photo download from the long weekend!

 

Autumn Loashan Green

 

Shade-grown, hand-picked, cold-climate tea from the He Family picked in the cool autumn weather with notes of cashew, pastry, and arugula.

October 2022 ♦ Laoshan, Shandong

Crafted by the He Family

Pioneers and community leaders, the He Family is dedicated to making a name for their stunningly smooth, malty, rich teas cultivated in China’s coldest, northernmost growing region.

 

Grown using old-school organic farming techniques on the rocky foothills of Laoshan, protected by ocean mist and fed by sweet spring water.

This harvest is picked in the cool autumn air after resting the plant through summer. The result is crisp, fresh flavor with more savory green bean and cream that Laoshan for which Laoshan is famous. The He family's signature green tea is fed by mountain spring water, picked by hand, and cultivated sustainably using traditional chemical-free farming techniques including growing rows of soybean between rows of tea to restore nitrates to the soil. The extreme northern climate means cold winters and short growing seasons, but the He Family perseveres, protecting their tea in greenhouses over the winter. The result is a deeply sweet and delicate green tea unlike any other in the world.

'Rock' tea from Verdant tea.

• 
  
  
  
  
  DATE OF PICKINGSPRING 2021
• WUYISHAN ECOLOGICAL PRESERVEWuyishan, Fujian
• ELEVATION600
• ROU GUITea Varietal

Rou Gui is one of Wuyishan’s most famous and sought after varietals, and one of the Li Family’s most awarded teas. Rou Gui is known for so transparently showcasing the terroir, the unique microclimate, of specific subregions within the Wuyishan Ecological preserve. The Li Family took the audacious step this year of setting aside a portion of their widely-respected award-winning Rou Gui and trying an experimental new finish, allowing the tea to slowly sun-oxidize into a black tea instead of going through traditional oolong finishing. The result is a stunning but extremely-limited harvest of spice and mineral-driven Rou Gui black tea, bolstered by an intensely creamy backbone and a building oolong-like aftertaste. They’ve achieved the nuance and staying power of an oolong but with the honeyed allure of a black tea.

Revisiting the sweet, rainy pavement flavors of Liu Bao

It is time to try something totally new, and after discovering Camellia Sinensis Tea House the same day I learn about Liu Bao, I decide to take them up on a sweet and generous offer!

What I am told about Liu Bao teas helps me make the decision to try them next, and it is simply thus: It is a fermented loose black tea, and if I like Oolongs and am working on getting used to and opening up myself to Puerhs this is a natural progression of that interest.

That's good enough for me and so when asked to choose any three teas by one of the owners, Kevin, I choose three Liu Baos.

From the company's website I learn that Liu Boa are teas originating in Gaungxi and that this tea is said to illustrate the effect of time on the appearance of leaves and the flavor profile of the liquor. They tell me it is aged in bamboo baskets, and although it is post-fermented it cannot be called Puerh as that name is reserved for the teas that comes from Yunnan Province.The website describes the tea as you see below. I am off to try it for myself and will share my thoughts!

The lustrous black infusion contains warm mineral nuances of undergrowth and root vegetable (beet). Its silky smooth liquor is easily enjoyed offering subtle notes of pepper and dairy. The feeling of a forest walk in the autumn rain.

Four steeps in and I am not yet  ready to describe it, the leaves are waking up very slowly and only at the fifth steep am I beginning to taste  some subtle nuances coming through the earthy and soil-like taste just in the back of my throat.

Camphor? Eucalyptus?Menthol? Something that leaves my breath slightly cleaner than before the session began. There is a mild and steady earthiness, a taste of peat-moss, no bitterness and no stringency. It reminds me of a old trunk, cedar-lined that's been in an attic for a long time. Opening it up one feels the contents waiting to be unfurled, the dust shaken off, and for the ghosts to be allowed room to move their formless limbs. It tastes old and more than a wee bit haunting is what I am saying! An acquired taste undoubtedly and one I am not yet sure I will be given the gift of acquiring. Moving on to my next Liu Bao tomorrow, which will be quite a bit younger and perhaps a little more kind to my newbie senses which have a slight fear of decay and age. But that is about me, and turning fifty five years old, I recognize my 'own stuff'! Best in tea and teas yet to be...

Need to get out of your head? Drink some tea!

Reviews of meditation helpmates coming soon!

You asked, and I will be publishing a series of reviews next month! Deepening my practice for forty years and still going strong!

Liu Bao days. Tea fermented in baskets?

It is time to try something totally new, and after discovering Camellia Sinensis Tea House the same day I learn about Liu Bao, I decide to take them up on a sweet and generous offer!

What I am told about Liu Bao teas helps me make the decision to try them next, and it is simply thus: It is a fermented loose black tea, and if I like Oolongs and am working on getting used to and opening up myself to Puerhs this is a natural progression of that interest.

That's good enough for me and so when asked to choose any three teas by one of the owners, Kevin, I choose three Liu Baos.

From the company's website I learn that Liu Boa are teas originating in Gaungxi and that this tea is said to illustrate the effect of time on the appearance of leaves and the flavor profile of the liquor. They tell me it is aged in bamboo baskets, and although it is post-fermented it cannot be called Puerh as that name is reserved for the teas that comes from Yunnan Province.The website describes the tea as you see below. I am off to try it for myself and will share my thoughts!

The lustrous black infusion contains warm mineral nuances of undergrowth and root vegetable (beet). Its silky smooth liquor is easily enjoyed offering subtle notes of pepper and dairy. The feeling of a forest walk in the autumn rain.

Four steeps in and I am not yet  ready to describe it, the leaves are waking up very slowly and only at the fifth steep am I beginning to taste  some subtle nuances coming through the earthy and soil-like taste just in the back of my throat.

Camphor? Eucalyptus?Menthol? Something that leaves my breath slightly cleaner than before the session began. There is a mild and steady earthiness, a taste of peat-moss, no bitterness and no stringency. It reminds me of a old trunk, cedar-lined that's been in an attic for a long time. Opening it up one feels the contents waiting to be unfurled, the dust shaken off, and for the ghosts to be allowed room to move their formless limbs. It tastes old and more than a wee bit haunting is what I am saying! An acquired taste undoubtedly and one I am not yet sure I will be given the gift of acquiring. Moving on to my next Liu Bao tomorrow, which will be quite a bit younger and perhaps a little more kind to my newbie senses which have a slight fear of decay and age. But that is about me, and turning fifty four years old, I recognize my 'own stuff'! Best in tea and teas yet to be...

Tea friends. I write to you today to praise, once again the thrill of a good Bai Hao Oolong, also known as Oriental Beauty.
Its been six months since my last confession, er, article on tea and I admit to you, dear readers that I blame none of you for worrying about me or for totally forgetting me. But here I am and guess where I am! California? You assume, or back in Portland which is where she lived and loved before. But no! I am, as of three weeks ago an official resident of KENTUCKY. Yes, Louisville Kentucky,  and I am writing to you with frozen toes on a chilly and wet December day from a BASEMENT. Me! In a basement. Tea-child of open spaces and fresh breezes! Until a month ago I had never even seen a basement and I now own a house with one. Hey, California friends! Did you know the wall sockets are four feet up on the wall inside of cleverly hidden by the baseboards? BASEMENTS! Did you know there are walls made out of cement and no matter how hard you try you CANNOT get a nail in to hang your Buddha art? BASEMENTS!
And yet somehow after three weeks I find myself in perfect contentment as I sit here in this basement. And I have Oriental Beauty specifically the good stuff from www.floatingleaves.com to thank.
I have multiple unpacked boxes of teaware, both rare and common. Eight different sized white porcelain gaiwans for example, three gooseneck kettles, hundreds of cups both mass produced and one of a kind artist created, but today I learned to reach perfection, all I need is one pot, one water receptacle for refuse, one cha hai, a digital scale and some tea.
I've been asking myself for three weeks, " Can I live here? NOT just survive but thrive? Are my tea writing days behind me?"
Today I dragged in the old tea table where the Bekin's movers dumped it in the icy garage three weeks ago, grabbed a Bonavita gooseneck kettle, ( I have THREE, as previously mentioned; one for the car, one for the kitchen, and one for the holy tea-space), the tea and a cup Andrew Goodman of Smatcha gifted me with, and I used that cup from him to toast my new life. As a Gong fu Cha devotee, right goddamn here in Louisville, Kentucky.
So! No more shall I sit here like a lump of fuckin' terducken, I am BACK!
New reviews pending!