Differences in gongfu tea brewing

When practicing gongfu tea making, I have realized that making tea using different implements, at a different place, or different time of day, can sometimes make a huge difference in how the tea turns out during the session. Case in point: I had a really good session of Phoenix Dancong last week, using my very small gaiwan, boiling water, and short steeps. The tea had very fruity notes of lychees, and I was really impressed by its sweetness, so much so that I wanted to recommend it to my other tea-drinking friends.

Today, I had the rest of the Phoenix Dancong at the office, with my Kamjove portable gongfu tea brewing mug, and the results were completely different. I don't know if it's the humidity (it is extra humid today), my mood, or the tea mug, but I felt that I just couldn't bring out the full potential of the tea today. In some of the later steeps, it even became quite bitter, but with a little persistence, I think I managed to wrangle some sweetness from the leaves in the end.

I think the lesson here is that sometimes, one may have to sacrifice flavour for convenience, and while I hope that this is a one time fluke, I have a feeling that I will have to bring out my gaiwan to brew the rest of the Phoenix Dancong that I have right now. I've heard that Phoenix Dancong are really difficult to brew correctly at the best of times, so I'll just have to pay more attention to it next time.

Constantly thinking about tea (or, a Year of the Monkey post to revive a blog)

I find myself constantly thinking about tea. I drink tea everyday, and talk about tea everyday, and read about tea everyday, but I found myself having difficulties writing about tea. I post the occasional photo of a cup of tea to Instagram or Facebook, but at the moment I am far from being a tea blogger. So much so that I have decided to post this on my old blog instead of starting a new one. I suppose that I view tea as a current part of my life that doesn't need to be separate from my previous life. 

I have had the intention of starting up something new that relates to tea, but the prospect of a "professional" tea review blog seems too daunting with my current teaching schedule. Not to mention the fact that most weekdays I can only manage to drink teabags (oh the horror!) and that I spend many weekends touring the many abundant tea houses in Hong Kong instead of whittling my tea collection. 

Let's see if I can spend some time writing good quality tea writings here, before I try anything too drastic. 

Here's a picture of a 1970s CNNP Simplified Character raw puerh tea cake that I had the fortune to sample earlier this month: 

I cannot describe the feeling of having the opportunity to taste a tea that is 40 years old (that's older than me!) except that it is a taste that I have kept in my memory and will try to recreate with some of my teas marked for storage. Hopefully I will have a nice aged tea collection by the time I retire!!

I have earmarked a tong or two for long-term storage, let's just see how it goes, since the future is so uncertain nowadays. 

Here's a picture of a set of new tea pets that I got from Verdant Tea for the Chinese New Year of the Monkey (which is tomorrow). They are adorable, and fits into the theme of the year nicely. 

Here's wishing everyone who reads this a happy, healthy and prosperous Chinese New Year !