Ebb and flow

Sometimes passions become less than what they were. I haven't ordered any new tea for a while, but that is okay. I'm enjoying what I have already bought slowly. I've put a lot more attention towards fishing. For some reason hobbies always seem to be an up and down thing for me. I need a constant. That constant must be Christ. But I digress. This blog is a blog about things like me. One thing (as it's easy to notice) that has certainly been put on the back burner if you would, is my desire to write. I've noticed that life is worse for me when I don't write. Not that writing makes me happy. I have my reasons why I write, and if I'm not writing, that means my heart isn't in a very good place. I write when I'm passionate. I write when I care about something deeply. I write when I'm depressed or joyful. I write when I'm feeling lost. I write when I'm trying to figure things out. I don't write when I'm lazy. I don't write when I'm apathetic. I don't write when I'm going through the motions. This blog isn't really an accurate gauge as to whether or not I've been writing. But, I can tell you that my journals don't get tickled by a pen nearly as much as they used to. I think that's about to change.

Hello again bloggers

It is high time that I start writing again. These last months have marked a stressful time in my life. Thankfully, I still have had the opportunity to have tea, which always slows me down if just for a moment. What I have learned from my tastings these past months is that variety is the spice of life. I only have seven assorted bengs in my collection of tea, which is quite meager in my opinion. But, a man has to start somewhere. If I had an unlimited budget, I would probably have an unlimited amount of tea. I however am a simple man, with a simple income. This isn't a bad thing. If anything, it allows me to be more engaged with my hobbies. In the lovely world of tea, I have to be selective with every one of my purchases. This forces me to be well informed. It forces me to learn. It forces me to hunt for those treasures that can be had at a bargain. So far, I have not done terribly. There is still much to learn however. There are still more treasures to be found.

With that being said, I look to you my readers for help. I will be making a purchase soon for around forty bucks. There won't be any sampling this time around, just gambling. There is something special about buying a beng without having sampled it. So far ive only made one purchase I regret in this fashion.

At any rate, I am open to your suggestions. List a tea or two and tell me why you like it. If you win me over, I will make the purchase and write a review of the tea just for you.

Happy drinking.
Pbr

Mixed batch.

I stumbled across a post of hobbes some time ago where he explained he kept all of his loose leaves from tea sessions in a container of sorts. I decided that I would start doing the same, and today I had a little tea session with my own mixed batch. My 'mixed batch' contains some ten different teas. Some are blended and others are single estate. There's even a little shu mixed in there which makes things even more interesting.

The results? A thick orange soup that had a little bit of everything going on. It's not the best tea session I've had but it was certainly interesting. I must say it is a fine way to store loose leaves rather than just tossing them in the trash. Seeing as how many more teas are always being added to my collection, my mixed batch will be ever changing. Who knows, perhaps ten years down the road when many of those scraps have aged nicely, I might have a luxurious one of a kind product in my hands. You never know.

So, much like hobbes suggested, next time you're thinking of tossing those little fragments away, store them in a little container instead. You never know what you might end up with.

2004 Menghai 7542

If you've ever decided to dive into the puerh world, menghai (dayi) is probably the first place you'll end up looking. Everyone who is a semi-serious tea drinker knows about this famous tea factory. In terms of production volume, my estimate is that dayi is king.

The 7542 is where my official puerh journey began. Apparently the 7542 recipe is a great starting point. It is a middle of the road cake that both experts and beginners can enjoy.

The cake I have is from 04 and has been in my possession for roughly over four months. My particular specimen is rather dry, and extremely fragrant. I generally notice minty, grassy, and floral smells. It's always a pleasant experience when I take the cake out of it's packaging because I'm immediately hit with all those nice smells (mine came in a special gift box from red blossom tea in San Francisco).

The liquor is a dark yellow to light orange, and the texture of the liquid is actually fairly watery. I've noticed that this tea really takes you on a roller coaster.

The first infusion is always very light, while the next couple of infusions open up rather dramatically. During those early infusions I'm hit with a large amount of bitterness, followed by a nice sweetness and floral tastes. The huigan on this tea is certainly present, but doesn't knock your socks off. The mouth feel is pleasant enough. This tea makes my mouth and the back of my throat water.

I'm currently just finished drinking my 6th infusion or so, and the huigan has increased. I've got a great sweetness that lingers in the back of my throat and a slight tingle on my tongue. The very noticeable astringency in the first infusions has taken a back seat to mild floral and sweet flavors.

This is an enjoyable tea. It's not my favorite, but my sessions with it are generally consistent and I know I can always count on it to deliver. The only thing missing in this tea is a stellar Cha qi, but it's still there.

I look forward to seeing how this cake ages through the years. Hopefully I don't drink it all first!
-PBR

For Hobbes

I already have another blog where I cover more serious issues if you will. I figured it might be beneficial for me to have a place where I can write on things of a lesser magnitude. And what will I write about? My hobbies of course! You might see a little bit of everything in here. There will be posts about fishing, books, food, perhaps even video games.

However, I assure you, that this will mostly be a place where you will find my thoughts on those wonderful little leaves plucked from mountains in china and usually compressed into fun shapes. Puerh!

If you're a teahead, you can always skip the other topics. Same applies to you fishermen and what not. But, like I said, this is a blog that is mostly, well, for me.

And so now, you've made it past the worthless Drivel. Hobbes, this then is a post for you. For you other readers (if there be any of course), Hobbes is a fellow who I read often who happens to love the leaf (puerh) much more than I (or so it seems). At any rate, his posts have inspired me to start a little blog of my own.

I won't start with a review, but simply my story into the world of tea and eventually puerh. Years ago I did an internship at a church and met one of my now current dear friends, Mr. Matt Gallion. Matt had a peculiar interest that intrigued me. Every morning he would start his day off with some tea. But it was not just any tea. Matt had a variety of loose leaf greens, and I believe a few oolongs were mixed in there as well. This caught my attention. The only tea I was used to drinking was the kind grandma serves at the farm: iced, with a heaping of sugar. It's not a surprise that his hobby intrigued me. Prior to my entrance into the tea world, I was a lover of another kind of leaf: tobacco.

At any rate, I tried a couple of his teas that summer. None of them held my interest. A year had passed and I decided I wanted to give this tea thing another whirl. So, I went out to a herbal store that sold tea and they had something called puerh, a tea Mr. Gallion had told me about but had never tried himself. I picked up a couple of ounces and decided it was worthless junk that no one should ever bother to put in their mouth. Boy was I wrong...

My stop to the herbal store had left a bitter taste in my mouth. I walked away from tea for probably another years worth a time. Something though, was different when I gave tea a third try. I can't altogether remember why I decided to give tea another shot, but I'm pretty sure my current wife had a large part in the process. Unknowingly she pushed me toward tea. You see, my dear Mary Beth can't stand tobacco. I happen to love it. Mary Beth and I were due for marriage in about a 5 month period. I knew the ol baccy' needed to be kicked from my life out of love for her.

I figured there was much more to this tea thing than I ever could've guessed. I hopped online and starting reading about the teas that were out there. I stumbled across this nasty tasting puerh tea again. I'm surprised I read about it at all, but something caught my eye. I do believe mr. wikipedia told me that puerh tea could be aged. Now this was what I was after. I loved cigars, still do in fact. I love that they can be aged and get better with age. When I found out puerh was much the same, I had to read on. My studies began to show me that this tea not only could benefit with age, but also varied greatly from mountain to mountain. This tea was very similar to the cigar world it seemed. I was hooked without ever having tried any that I liked.

I knew that the sample I tried before was likely a fluke and I needed to give things another shot. So, I went out to several local tea stores in kansas city and picked up multiple puerh samples. All of them were much the same: fishy smelling, dark earthy, foul tasting liquid. Puerh tasted more like POO-AIR to me. So with those samples, I was off to the books again. My studies quickly brought me to teachat, where I asked some knowledgeable folks about this mysterious puerh. They quickly told me that my acquisitions were likely cheap 'shu' puerh.

Shu, yes, the tea I was drinking tasted like shoe. Little did I know there were two different processing methods to this glorious liquid. Shu- a process of fermentation used to make puerh accelerate in it's aging process. Sheng- Unprocessed puerh.

I knew what I had to do. I had to find myself some sheng puerh. And so my search began, but with little luck. I knew I could buy some online but was too scared for some reason. I wanted to hold some in my hand, smell it, examine it before I took the plunge. I gave mr. Gallion a call and told him about this new glorious find. Somehow, I talked the gentleman into buying a puerh starter kit from jas-etea.

Finally, I'd get to try shome sheng pu. It wasn't as glorious as I thought it would be. It was very bitter to me, and strange. After this tasting, I stuck with Oolongs until one fateful day. About 1 month before my honeymoon with Mary Beth, I found a blog called the half dipper. Hobbes was the author of this blog and his reviews intrigued me. The tea he was drinking sounded delicious. It looked delicious. Then, I saw a picture of his office with his sobering collection of puerh tea. If someone was that wild about the stuff, I knew some of it had to be good. I figured all the stuff I tried was simply bad tea. Mary Beth and I were planning to head to San Francisco and I heard they had a great china town, so I figured I could look for some puerh there. Hobbes, you have no idea what you did to me...

Fast forward to honeymoon! Woo, Mary Beth and I are married now and celebrating our marriage in San Francisco. What a wonderful city! It just so happens sanfran has a wonderful little china town. We spent two days in this hot spot, and a lot of my time was spent simply looking at tea related goodies. At this point, I was drinking oolongs daily and enjoying them very much. It was in san fran where I bought my first gawain and tasting cups. But more importantly, it was here that I bought my first puerh bing.

I stumbled across several 2004 menghai 7542. I had no idea what the numbers meant. I had heard the name menghai once or twice from my studies. It was an impulsive buy. I figured, why not? I'm on my honeymoon, you only live once. We bought it and made our way to our motel, which was torture. I had nothing to boil water with there, not even a microwave. I spent the rest of the trip smelling the intoxicating bing. For some reason I knew this was different from all the puerh I had tried. This smelled tasty. That had to be a step in the right direction.

Let me tell you, it was a step in the right direction. Nearly five months later and I'm a puerh junky. I even happened to find some shu I like. I have a total of 7 bings/bricks and my humble collection grows monthly. I have my wife, Mr. Gallion, and Mr. Hobbes to thank.

Thank you for reliving the journey with me. I hope you all enjoy your stay.
-PBR