This past Sunday, one of the groups more recent members, Troy,
hosted a tasting of Chinese teas here in Portland. Seven
attendees along with a young chef and Troy himself gathered at a
downtown sushi restaurant after hours for a evening of tea and
food and talk.

The teas themselves were shipped from China direct by Troy's
fiance. We were presented for tasting eight teas in all,
interspersed with about five dishes of nibbles to keep us thirsty
for more. For most all the participants, this was a first
encounter with the broad spectrum of what Chinese tea has to
offer. Troy realized this and so made an effort to touch on all
the major categories. He did pretty well in this regard, offering
the group a few Oolongs (Li Shan, Rou Gui, and Gui Hua TGY), a
green (Bi Luo Chun), a couple Puerhs (Ye Sheng and Jin Gua Gong),
a jasmine (Zhen Zhu Wang), and the visual treat of a blooming tea
(Hua Xian Zi).

Before brewing up each variety, Troy passed around a little bowl
of the dry tea itself. As for the brewing, a glass pot of some
sort was employed. Maybe Troy can explain a little more, but
these were not just simple glass pots, for they held a central
brewing chamber to keep the leaves in. At one point, Troy
expressed some dissatisfaction one of the pots, saying it wasn't
allowing the tea leaves full contact with the hot water. While a
teapot and no messy wet leaves is comforting for newcomers to tea,
perhaps next time Troy can try a gungfu style. New tea drinkers
who might be turned off at this more fussy yet sloppy style can be
reassured that making tea this way is just better for tastings in
large groups.

As for the teas themselves, for me, the Li Shan was most
appealing. As most of you probably know, I'm a devoted Japanese
tea drinker, but I won't turn my nose up at a good green Oolong
when I can find one. And this one was pretty good, much better
than I can find in town locally. This was the first tea Troy
offered us, and so maybe some performance anxiety was at play,
because I really felt this tea had much more to offer, had we all
taken the time to give it proper attention. But no worry, as the
taste was enough to convince me to try more. I'll be having a big
bag all to myself in short time, so I'll find out soon enough.
The hit among the other attendees were the Puerhs.
Puerh...my thoughts on the subject have been well documented in
this forum. I will say it paired well with the miso smeared,
bacon-wrapped asparagus coated in black and white sesame seeds and
drizzled with ponzu. But if that's what it takes for me to down
some Puerh, it ain't gonna be happening on a daily basis.

All said, a very fun night out with tea. I thank both Troy and
his chef friend John for their hospitality in hosting the event.
Here's hoping another tasting can be planned come spring when the
new tea harvest is available.

--crymad

crymad wrote:
> This past Sunday, one of the groups more recent members, Troy,
> hosted a tasting of Chinese teas here in Portland. Seven
> attendees along with a young chef and Troy himself gathered at a
> downtown sushi restaurant after hours for a evening of tea and
> food and talk.

[much snippage]

> All said, a very fun night out with tea. I thank both Troy and
> his chef friend John for their hospitality in hosting the event.
> Here's hoping another tasting can be planned come spring when the
> new tea harvest is available.

Do please keep me posted ... I'd like to sit in on the next such event.

How many of us Portlanders are there on this NG?


stePH
NP: King Crimson, "Neurotica"
in cup: Dragonwell (bulk) from Limbo*, 2nd infusion
(I find this dragonwell brews up much tastier at a lower temp, about
150-160)

*on 39th, next to the Trader Joe's.

Cary -

Thanks for the write up!

I think the evening went well, and I'd like to give a
special mention to John Kim, the sushi chef who paired the
food to the tea. Amazing work, IMHO.

As for the tea pots -- well, the larger tea pot was an ill
designed Bodum creation with a plastic filter basket. The
main issue there was that the filter basket was only
perforated half way! the bottom region of the basket is
solid. This works for certain kinds of tea, but with other
ones it's a real problem.

I was on the fence about what method to use for brewing, and
choose to go with the glass pots for this event, mostly
because of the convience, and the size. It was the only pot
I had that would both display the teas so all could see the
leaves, and also large enough to serve the entire group in a
single infusion. I really didn't want to serve half of the
guests the first infusion, and half of them the second,
which would have been the situation with a smaller capacity
pot.

A common work around for that, that I've seen used in China
is to use a larger retaining pot and mix the infusions
together, creating a uniform brew for all, though lacking
the obvious differences between the seperate brewings. That
might have been a better option. Hard to say.

John and I are planning to hold another tea tasting soon.
The date is not set yet, but this next one will be
completely focused Oolongs, and I will brew with the Gongfu
method, complete with the cute long thin sniffer cups.

We're also planning for the next-NEXT tasting after that
one, which will take place just after the early spring
"first rain" harvest comes in, and be completely devoted to
those freshly harvested white, yellow, and green teas. We'll
have a good selection to choose from, including some organic
teas. Brewing will be by the GaiWan method.

Anyone in the Portland (Oregon) area who is interested in
these events, please email me, and I will put you in the
reservation list. I'll send out emails as I get things more
definate. (illium37 at yahoo dot com)

(that means you, stePH! and whoever else is lurking here
from the Rose City)

Also, for those of you who are interested in buying tea,
I'll have a complete list of our currently available Pu Ers
in the next few days. This has been slow in coming, because
my fiance has been inordinately busy recently collecting
documents for her *finally* approved VISA application. So
you'll all be able to meet her soon at one of the future tea
tastings! Sorry for the delay, but this one's worth it.


Thanks,
Troy
..