Tags
While hiding from the chilly weather outside under a blanket on the sofa, it occurred to me that I have not blogged about tea in a while. So I opened up to the front page and I was rather surprised at how long it has really been…a year and a half! Upon reflection, it is true I haven’t been imbibing much camellia sinensis due to caffeine sensitivities and lack of quality hot water at work. I must have pulled out my yixing maybe fives times at most this year. Recently if I do have any hot drink, it is usually some herbal tea at home. Due to a flare up of psoriasis that has worsened since this summer, I recently began drinking Pau d’Arco tea from Traditional Medicinals along with Vitamin D and Milk Thistle supplements. Basically, I’m trying everything I can before resorting to seeing a dermatologist to be prescribed the typical dosage of drugs/steroids with all their horrible side effects. While doing research on alternative treatments for this blight upon my skin, I also read that green tea can be effective. Somehow, it shames me to think of “using” tea in such a manner. For me, tea – that is the real tea, camellia sinensis – is an art, a meditation, a spiritual respite. I always cringed when people talk about it as just another dieting or health supplement fad. Such ignorance! Disrespect! But maybe I’m just being an oversensitive, tea snob?
On the positive side, I found a convenient excuse to buy some more tea and teaware, which I had been eyeing for quite awhile but had put off due to space and time limitations. For “health purposes” I decided to stock up on Japanese green tea rather than Chinese or Korean due to the lighter processing. I finally placed an order yesterday with two vendors I’ve been meaning to try for a very long time – Ippodo and Yuuki-cha. I was probably overzealous since I can never get through Japanese green teas fast enough, especially matcha which gives my head a jolt and the rest of my body the chills.
I’m still working through some gyokuro purchased this summer from O-Cha. I even bought the requisite shiboridashi to brew it, but as of late I’ve been just drinking the stuff grandpa style to get through the bag before it goes stale. Initially, I had brewed it with Volvic water to compare with my usual Brita filtered water at the recommended temperature. The Volvic brought out the umami, but my tastes buds were overwhelmed by the highly vegetal flavor. I found plain filtered water at boiling temp brews a softer, sweeter tea more agreeable to my taste buds.
茶叶记 