Tea

Journey

I guess having a page dedicated to tea means I really enjoy it :smile:! I have been drinking tea regularly (or shall I say seriously) for over 15 years now, which I guess I refer more-so to loose leaf teas and the like as I've always enjoyed tea since I was a kid (where by I mean sweet tea or sun tea in the summer we would have around the house growing up).

Before tea, I used to drink coffee, all day long, where now I usually have a cup of coffee in the morning and then tea throughout the day. Coffee I consider more of a morning digestif and I haven't been able to break that routine

The first loose leaf teas that got me into tea were strong earthy black teas and mixed black flavored teas; different variations of earl grey and black / fruit teas (black mango was a favorite). I have a habit of liking something and sticking with it, where I stayed in the realm of black teas for a long while until venturing out; also coming from coffee, I was mostly interested in stronger black teas only. I also came to like the chocolate flavor that came with yerba mate varietes from my local tea store and tried a pu-erh sample which was really to my liking, slightly pungent (in a good way) and earthy, with an aftertaste of joy

Pu-erh

The pu-erh I had access to came in smaller bricks and ball shapes, which were both enough to split each into two, to save for future use; one of the great things about pu-erh is the amount of times you can brew it, without losing much flavor, I usually brew 6-7 times (or sometimes more) throughout the day, where the black teas I had been used to would lose flavor after about 2-3 steeps. Sometimes I would oversteep my traditional black tea on its last use for sometimes up to 15 minutes, which would allow me to get the last out of it. It is common to "rinse" pu-erh on the first steep to "awaken" it, which confused me as I didn't want to waste the flavor but after overdoing my first steep once, I was borderline nauseous, where now I also get why some are accustomed to enjoying tea with bread, crackers or cake, which helps offset a very strong tea. Other than the mini-bricks, I also tried the "green mandarin" variety, which came in a bulk jar, which I still have a few left to this day, purchased in 2017.

After learning more about pu-erh and lurking tea sub-reddits, I found out about Yunnan Sourcing, which has an impressive inventory of pu-erh and other great teas; over the years I have ordered a handful of cakes, which are discs (or other shapes) of pu-erh in 100g, 400g, 500g sizes just to name a few, which are highly compressed and can be broke apart for use. It is useful to have a pu-erh knife for cleanly breaking these apart into portions per session, so you can wrap it back up and store it. Some come with a desiccant to absorb moisture so your pu-erh does not; but keeping them sealed and in a dry area, you are probably fine. I've also ordered from Mei Leaf which was also to my liking.

Pu-erh is a fermented tea which originated from Yunnan province in China. There are Raw (sheng) and Ripe (shou) varieties, where Raw is aged / fermented naturally and slowly over time and Ripe is in a sense, forced to ferment faster through other methods; due to this, Ripe pu-erh is generally cheaper and more readily available. I've also seen Ripe-raw varieties but I have never tried one, which seemed gimmicky to me and just a way to market Shou as Sheng.

Green tea

I have come to appreciate green tea more as time goes on and usually have some on hand. I enjoy sencha, genmaicha, matcha, sometimes gyokoro and lately I've tried tencha which is the type of tea that is ground into matcha; tencha and gyokoro differ as they finish their growth under shadecloth for the last few weeks before harvest, which changes the flavor quite a bit and allows for a stronger tea.

Kombucha

I also have been experimenting for some time with kombucha, which is fermented with beneficial yeast and bacteria (SCOBY), which is supposedly good for your gut (Oh no, he knows about the spice melange!). I have a kombucha page with the recipe I used for all my batches.