Lewis 4/13/06

Michael Plant writes:

Lewis 4/13/06

writes:

Michael wrote:
Speaking of which, talk to us about your 12 year old green Menghai.

Brewed in my beloved, leaky 5$ Yixing pot it´s mellow and complex, a
pretty dense, "round" and savory spectrum with sweet notes of algae
and warm spices, delicate flashes of clove, very dynamic through the
steeps, sweet and silky almost creamy lingering aftertaste.

I think I know (and love) what you mean by algae: the taste and smell
of a freshwater pond in summer. For years I've thought that, if by
some miracle - which might be good or bad - our vocabulary for
describing tea gets standardized, the word for this will be "pondy".

Pondy it is, and I wonder if it could be what I affectionately call "musty"
on occasion. Michael

Well, it isn't what *I* call "musty": a kind of mammalian scent, I'd
say. When I think of the mustiness of a nice young Pu'er, I think of
my cat Buster's fur. We aren't getting this thing standardized, are we?

/Lew


No, we're not. But it's in the discussion of the words rather than the words
per se that get us there. Once we're standardized, we're boring. (Hey, some
of us perhaps accomplish that feat already.) I'll see if Jenny's fur works
as well as Buster's. I think perhaps that smell is "soupy."

Michael