This is another one from The Tao of Tea. Tasting this tea was like coming home. I make no qulms about having a preference for sencha... As long as its production was a labor of love. And yes, I can tell when it was or wasn't.
From the Tao of Tea Website: Among the very best and affordable of the early season green teas. This April sencha is made from a fine leaf grade possessing a polished, deep green appearance and rich, intense aroma. Infusions of Sencha Shinrikyu have a sweet, green fragrance and a tantalizing ensemble of flavors. Shinrikyu is a connoisseur's sencha.
They describe this one pretty well. I would add that this is one of those teas that can be over-brewed. So be careful to either serve all of the tea after a minuet or so or remove the leaves from the serving vessel otherwise your tea will go foul, which is not a fault of the tea itself as it is just doing an excellent job of being tea. the good news is that if you want you can definitely go for more than one pot from a basket of leaves on this Tea. Which is important in my house where I take a pot before and after morning ZaZen.
9 comments:
Hello Jordan
Favorite drinks pre zazen
1) Coffee
2) Roobois/Mate Vana tea
3) Matcha baby!
Honorable mentions, are chai teas, are other varietals of black and green tea.
Come to think about it, with the addition of water this covers 90% of what I drink. As for the other 10%, spirits and post-work out shakes are the order.
Take care,
"Y"
Sorry,
meant to say, "and other varietals of black and green tea>"
:-)
Hey Jordan, your tea reviews make me want to come by to drink tea with you....are you ready?
Today's daily zen quote seemed fitting:
"With red leaves left after frost
That you gathered under the trees
You brew tea, call me in
A most generous thought!
We sit here not speaking;
The mountain window is still,
But pine winds from ten thousand peaks
Stir in the kettle."
- Gensei (1623-1668)
from http://www.dailyzen.com
I oscillate among a variety of teas. First thing in the morning is to (a) heat some water, (b) put some steel cut oats on the stove, and (c) feed the cats.
By that time the tea has brewed - nothing fancy, just in a cup.
Then it's downstairs for practice. 9 bows. Some chanting. Then a few sips of tea before sitting.
Sometimes, if my timing goes off, the tea is bitter. Yuck. Then I sit for a while with a bitter taste in the mouth - which is, after all, familiar enough in this life.
After as much sitting as I can take, back upstairs for the now-ready oats and another cup of tea. usually have much better luck with this second cup.
Lately I've been enjoying a guanyin-style tea from Taiwan - a light oxidation oolong that has a wonderful floral quality.
When I've been karmically well-behaved, a friend in Korea will sometimes send a jar of "chak sol cha" from Korea - "sparrow's beak tea." This is tea made in the springtime from the tinest leaves at the tips of each branch - leaves as small as sparrow's beaks. My favorite comes from wild tea plants that grow on the mountainside above a Zen temple on the southern end of the Korean peninsula. These plants were brought from China 1,500 years ago by Zen monks and have naturalized on the mountain.
Ahhh....
Yamakoa,
I used to be a heavy coffee drinker but that changed on my last deployment where the coffee served on the USS Duluth pretty much turned me off of coffee. After that float the desire to drink coffee never really came up again. I don’t think I have ever had “Roobois/Mate Vana tea.” As for Matcha, I am kind of a heretic and like to use it to powder lower grade sencha or to liven up sencha on the third infusion. I get sencha from time to time from my wives friends when they get care packages from Japan. So that makes up most of what I drink. Only once did I get a tea so bad that I had to put it in the bin. I think it was actually a shreaded tatami mat placed in a tea pouch. When the supply of tea from frends run out I sometimes go for the “My Green Tea” Sencha, it is rare that I find a tea that I enjoy as well as theirs, althought there have been some contenders. As the weather gets colder I have not been drinking enough water…
Thanks!
Jordan
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Erin, That is a long drive for some tea, maby you could pick up Barry and my friend Ted on the drive down here! But of course I am always ready for a friend.
Thank you for your comments and sharing today’s Daily Zen!
Jordan
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Hi Barry,
I am spoiled and have a hot water pot so I always have hot water available, I can even set the temperature for lower temps to accommodate the better Japanese sencha teas. I have a small teapot I use to brew about 2 & ½ cups at a time. But my first mission when I get up is always to feed the cat. Failure to comply with that directive meets with loud and streaming complaints by said cat. So it is feed cat, Make tea, pour a bowl of cereal, drink tea, eat cereal, sit, drink tea, sit, then on a weekday brew another pot to put in a travel mug and head off to work. Mostly I get Japanese green teas here. Someone gave me a marigold tea once. That was interesting but I would not wish it on anyone (ha) but I am mostly a beggar when it comes to tea, so I appreciate what I get!
Thanks for your fellowship!
Jordan
Coffee or puercha for me.
Puercha's Chinese, it's probably rotted, and it's the mildest, subltest hongcha you'll ever have.
Plus, it's miracle tea! You can brew pot after pot after pot after pot after pot with the same leaves and it still comes out strong, but not bitter!
wow, that tea definately produced a lovely looking liquor, to bad we cant smell it through the computer,lol... Ive had to make do with a few boxes of stash chai lately, but im not complaining, I love all tea! Its very rare that I come across I tea I dont really enjoy, and even then I can usually find something to appreciate about it,lol... Oh, a very interesting and FREE tea is pine needle tea! get the freshest needles on the tree and basically steep it like you would loose leaf tea, it tastes like christmas! I actually find it rather pleasing, plus its VERY high in vitamin C, even higher than oranges!!! In face, I think I may go pick myself a cup right now,lol...
Curator,
I will have to look into that!
Thanks!
Jordan
Mumon,
I will be happy to try some puercha some time.
Stay warm!
Jordan
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