Derok's TGY

Ello all,

My new tea arrived today, so im quite excited to try them. But i have promised myself that before i even look at them, i would type up the notes for Derek's sample of tgy. And so here we go.



This tea was one of the prepackaged oolongs that contain enough for one session. An estimate is it's about 3-5 grams.

Opening the bag, i found a subdued aroma with a slightly fruitier tang to it. hmm this tea has probably been oxidized a tad more than the TGYs im used to.

The leaves themselves are a tad dry, and darker than usual, again giving a hint to the degree of oxidation.

It also seems a tad more roasted, with the pellets being smaller in size.

I brewed this with near boiling water.

The first steeping yielded a deep yellow liquor with a syrupy cherry aroma supported by a nice thick mouth feel. Lingering notes of raisins, berries and with a creamy....hmmm...oh gosh...whats the word... 'fruitcake'-esque base. Not that floral at all.

Second steeping, slightly longer than the first was pretty much the same as above, only lighter. Floral notes however are becoming more noticeable, with hints of rose/gardenia flavours gaining strength over the fruitiness. The softening character also reveals slight acidity and that familiar 'straw' base.

The final steeping is light yellow in colour, and only floral fragrances are noticeable now, the straw base grows increasingly noticeable signaling the end of its endurance. Its warm sweet water now haha.

the spent leaves are what derek would refer to as 'hrrgh' in quality :P lots of fragments, but still relatively thick and strong.

Overall, a pleasant, comfortable tea!

Funalliance 'Tie Guan Yin KING (2009 Spring)'

Ello all,

I have up to this point, mostly been able to generally, remember my thoughts on every tea I drink quite well. However, memory is indeed fallible and so its probably a good idea to actually type some stuff down.

This is actually a tea from last month (i think), I've only gotten around to an actual focused session tonight haha. Right, so first impressions; the dry leaf is dense, vibrant green but lacking a good sheen, so little dull.

The dry fragrance is encouraging; floral and lemon top notes with a fruity middle note followed by a base of straw.

The steepings: water is boiled and allowed to cool for a min or two.

The first steeping (30secondish) greets me with a heavily floral/lemon fragrance, the infusion is bright yellow-green with reasonable clarity. Sipping the tea yields an unexpected umami depth with acidity. The body is light and extremely smooth. Not a single trace of bitterness or astringency.

Things get interesting at the second steeping (also 30sec) with the fragrance opening up a tad more to reveal a more fruity (for now, specifically what kind of fruitiness is indiscernible) scent backed up with a straw base. With a deeper yellow colour, the tea is incredibly smooth and relatively viscous (two traits that hit the nail right on the head in terms of my tastes), while the

the amino acidy umami quality gives way to significantly more sourness. A slight, but noticeable drying astringency is also present.

Third and final steeping (about 1 min) the nose detects predominantly straw, while the floral scent is almost completely dominated by a lemon/berry notes. The acidity tapers off at this point leading to a smooth but slightly flat straw. This probably signals the limit of the brew's endurance.

The spent leaves are thick, leathery and have relatively good structural integrity.

Overall, for such a low price (about $13 including shipping) its an enjoyable casual tea.

Roger's TGY

Ello all. Yeah this post aint really much of an update, i just promised a friend of mine (roger) to post a few notes on some TGY he picked up.

Alrighty, i must begin by saying im officially disappointed with this tea :P

Dry leaf comments: The leaves looked a tad dull and brown (which TGY should not look like), aroma was dry and lacking the floral fragrance characteristic of this class of oolong.

This time i chose to do the infusions in a gaiwan, no particular reason, it was just convenient haha.

Brewing parameters:
-Water temp: Cooled for a few sec after boiling
- Steeping times: 20 sec, 20 sec, 30 sec, 50 sec
- Amount of leaf: I dunno, all of the sample roger gave me.

Tasting notes:
Aroma was very subdued, slightly floral, took on a more roasted fragrance afterward, i suspect this tea has gotten quite old and the vendor just re-roasted it in an attempt to give it some oomph.

Colour, deep clear yellow. A tad too yellow, amber in fact, again shouldn't be so- not like TGY at all.

Taste: flat... however, the mouth feel was epic (only good thing i think:P) it was smooth and heavy, great stuff.

Wet leaf: wrinkled, brown and broken, very poor leaf integrity (easily torn under the slightest pressure)

Overall: yikes, that wasn't a very good tea, but ah well we all run into this stuff sooner or later.

Don't worry roger, there is plenty of good tea out there, your quest aint over yet haha

Once more unto the breach

Ello all!

Its probably time for another blog update, a few people have been pestering me to do so.

Alright! its '09 and the lunar new year has just come great. More generic Tết stuff...sticky rice cakes, red pockets, visiting relatives... bleargh, maybe I'm an exception but I have an incredible dislike for this hubbub.

Good that its all over now.

Unfortunately the holidays are pretty much over too... Is it just me or does everything i plan to do in the holidays just melt away on the first day and gives way to mindless clicking on the net?? Then again, i suppose i have managed to accomplish a few things- catch up on some reading (my latest is Stephen Hawking's 'A Brief History Through Time' which Steven graciously lent to me, *thanks again Steve, if your reading*)..cook a different meal each day and for once get an average of 10 hours a night sleep. Oh not to mention watching most of the TED sci/tech talks (some really good stuff there). Great

Anyway, so back to school tomorrow! The looming HSC is creeping ever so closer... and the work will pile up once again. Well not that i don't enjoy the work... i just hate a specific subject- english. The most superficial, superfluous, irrational and irritating steaming pile of bovine excrement I've come across in quite a while. Too bad its mandatory...

At least i will be able to replenish my tea supplies (courtesy of derek) who often ventures to the city (conveniently for me, near a tea vendor). I'm completely out of the good stuff- been living off apple juice for the past two days...

Well i suppose that sums up the past few uneventful months.

See ya guys later!

Until they think warm days will never cease

Ello all!

A little rant first. My father decided (about 5-6 months ago i might add) to re-concrete our driveway... and as soon as i heard that he was going to do it by himself, i GROANED. You guys must realise by now, that my father isn't the most efficient of DIY-ers and never actually FINISHES what he starts....bleargh... so he goes of and hires a bunch of excavation vehicles and digs up the place....crushing the grass on my backyard i might add.... and so for the last 6 months or so, i have been living in pretty much what one would be inclined to call a swamp....in a battle field....with trenches... wonderful.

The paved area(above)
This is the driveway...wait this 'was' the driveway....

aaaand sooo that's what is left of my once perfectly functional backyard....

On a lighter note,
Just bought some new tea from 'Teaspring.com' in the past week.( I wish i had done so earlier, since the financial crisis the AUD has plummeted and i pretty much had to pay double. Belargh.) Anyway, so i have four new teas to experiment with and I'm gonna post my thoughts up here.

I've only tried one of them today and i still have quite a lot of variables to muck around with to fully appreciate the tea, but i think i have the gist of it. Anyway, the tea I've spent my morning fiddling around with is 'Yunnan 'Pure Gold' Black Tea' also known as Dian hong which apparently is just harvested in spring '08. Awesome. sooo lets have a look at this tea:

As soon as i opened the packet i was greeted with a wonderfully heavy chocolate-esque/malty aroma.The leaves really are gold! As you can see are long, feathery and uniform, free of breaks and flakiness. Friggen awesome!

anyways, lets go onto the brewing conditions.

Steeping times were 1 min, 1 min, 1.5 min, and massively long for the fourth steeping. ha ha

as this was a black tea, i allowed the water(filtered) to come to a rolling boil.
anyway the steeping themselves:

First steeping, 1 min:
The scent was quite complex, initially the choc-maltiness of the tea hits the nose, providing the deep 'body' of the scent, then i began to notice the fruity undertone of sweet berries.


The taste itself was indeed reflected in the scent. The tea had quite a body, smooth and mellow with an incredibly creamy malty character. Just the slightest hint of astringency with the almost undetectable smokiness (similar to lapsang souchong)


The aftertaste had two qualities, firstly a lingering sweetness and then complimented by a fleeting sourness that dances across the tongue.


The liquor itself was clear, deep amber with bright coppery leaves.


(Oh by the way, on the right there is my makeshift gaiwan :P i really need some better tea ware... also i noticed how much my pitcher resembled a beaker hahaha.)


anyway, here is a closeup of the tea-liquor:
The nectar of the gods! ha ha

Alright, the second steeping (1 min):

The fruity berry quality of the tea seemed to lessen somewhat in this steeping, revealing a deeper chocolate/malt almost coffeeish aroma.

In terms of the taste, the interplay between the fruity sourness and the velvety maltiness continued and the smokey undertone from the first steeping became more pronounced. Still very smooth.

Now the third steeping (1.5 min) was interesting:

I was very much surprised by the aroma-which completely reversed! Where the fruity undertone of the first and second steepings were heightened to the point that it became the major fragrance, while the malty quality diminished to a light fleeting scent.

The taste however, diminished quite dramatically. Although it retained its smooth mellowness, the more interesting characteristics were almost gone. It was nearing the tea-coloured-water stage.

I hoped to push it further to the fourth steeping....which didn't really work out... ah well 3 steepings is quite a good run!

Anyway, lets take a look at the wet leaf:













AREN'T THEY JUST AWESOME! XD The very tips! smooth, velvety and unbroken. The effort put into these leaves is unmistakable! (on a little side note, don't they look like their made of chocolate?:P)

Well, in short, that was an awesome little tea experience. Ill probably spend the next week finishing off this tea before i move on to the others. Expect more reviews!

and hopefully....by the next review, my house will still be in one piece hahaha.

SPINNING DALEKS!!!!!

Ello all!

Well its been what... 5 months since my last post, things are getting a tad dusty... anyway due to my lack of blogging, people have been jabbing at my sides for quite some time. Well ENOUGH! Alright people, you have gotten me peeved enough for a rant. I'm complaining again, you happy? talk about schadenfreude...

it was probably time for an update anyway.

Sooo first thing is first!

Holidays. I am some what ambivalent to holidays.....when i was younger i used to almost piss myself with anticipation (....any of you who take that literally will find a putrid fish on their doorsteps.....what the hell is wrong with me? PUTRID FISH wtf!!!) at the very thought of the holidays. However, as time passed i become less and less enthused about the thought of staying home. Probably because thesedays, i tend to do more work at home than i do at school. Belargh to that!

Oh and i'm pretty sure that this will seem familiar to everyone -every holiday i make promises to myself:

"Peter, with these two weeks, your going to do something PRODUCTIVE.Your not going to sit around pressing 'Stumble!' (have i mentioned how MEGGAHELLAAWESOME stumbleupon is? seriously guys google it up!) all day! your going to improve your fitness! do your kung fu forms, eat better, sleep better...."

so on and so forth. Just two days into the holidays and what do you catch me doing? im sitting in a chair for hours on end with a packet of cheeto's munching and mindlessly stare at clips wobbling jelly at 2 AM(no seriously you guys WATCH THIS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDn8y7j8kSk ) Greaaat.... But then again is this not the essence of the holidays? The mass procrastination, the accomplishment of three fiths of the square root of bugger all?(i dunno, my mathematics teacher seems to be fond of that expression....hah thats what you get for having the same math teacher for a few years....*Shudder*)

Hmmm now onto my second point- I have recently begun watching Doctor Who.....I must thank lemur for this one. Few weeks ago, due to torrential rain (just going of tangentially, have you realised how many ways 'rain' can be written phonetically? rain, rane, raine<--not quite sure about this one....raen, rayn....ok this is just foolish...or should i say fewlish....or fullish....) AAANYWAY..... ah yes due to torrential rane sports was cancelled....that would logically make that day a Wednesday....which is also irrelevant.....anyway, so lemur and i decided to go spend our time in the computer rooms. Lemur had fortunately brought a usb full of dr who episodes along....and i, having nothing better to do, agreed to watch....the concept of a TARDIS almost ripped every neuron inside my head apart...waaay tooo coool. Anyway, watched the finale of season...4 is it? i dunno the most current season what ever it is.....now for those of you(who havent watched the epp) and think im about to reveal the ending, dont worry -im not going to. All im going to say is SPINNING DALEKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! right. well....that...was messy, i can never seem to write properly while im blogging.....its very spontaneous. Third rant/topic thing- i recently bought some new tea, Mao Feng.....i acquired it after a long hard day of tutoring....biggest mistake ever......im still kicking myself because of it. Apparently Huang Shan Mao Feng is really awesome, problem is, after what...5 hours of continuous mathing....my wits...were obliterated. So as soon as i saw 'mao feng' i thought 'awesome gimme!' and so i bought it......and suddenly on the way home, it hit me......that was definitely not good quality mao feng -if its mao feng at all. leaves are dry, withered, and the tea itself is well very 'ku' and i didnt even overbrew or burn the tea!! i mean seriously a 1 min steep at like 70 degrees......geez crappy tea.

The black one is my tea....the one on the left is Huang Shan Mao Feng..... yes...exactly..... still kicking myself.....belargh.

Anyway, thats all for now! perhaps i can have an early night for once.

Goodbye all!

Yay, Red Envelope Money!

Ello all.

Happy Lunar New Year to all out there that celebrate it!

It's strangely quiet it my house on NYE for some reason. Which is ironic. Everything has settled into a nice comfortable contentment. Which is fine nonetheless. Tad unusual though.

But besides that, everything is more or less typical of a NYE celebration:

The alter is up, the candles are lit and the ever so pleasant smell of incense comes wafting into my room. Pity though, dad insisted on buying the 'non smoke' variety. Defeats the whole purpose of burning incense in my opinion.

Bah, doesn't matter, keeps him happy... Anyway, as usual I am going off at a tangent.

Every year, around this time, and old family friend usually comes around to do some well wishing and normally that involves bringing a delectable sticky rice cake thing...uhhh 'Banh Chung' i think its called. Hmm i will see if i can get a pic of it to post up here....oh hell i might as go and get one now. Ill be back in a bit....

There we go! Banh Chung in all its prism-esque, banana-leaf-wrapped glory. Traditionally its eaten on NY day I think.

Hmmm what else? Oh yes, school.

So its been how many days?....*ill go check my calendar*... Ah 6 days of school, and i must say I'm loving it! Two reasons mainly.

One is my subject choices. Ah Steve (My cousin if all you others are wondering), if your reading this, THANK YOU!!!! BIOLOGY IS GREAT! I can't believe i was going to take visual arts or something like that *cringe*... So yes, half of my lessons now consist of physics, chem and bio and the rest is math. Well....yes i have English too, but nothings perfect. And English itself ain't bad im doing Thomas More's Utopia. I've always wanted to read that, and now here is the perfect chance.

The second reason is im in senior school. My ascension itself is nothing important, but the little privileges that come with it is the metaphorical cherry on top of the Triple-Choc sundae that is my subject choices. No longer will i have to wait outside those damned science rooms!

Pity though, my science head teacher had to retire.....he is an uber teacher. I would have had him for chem and physics. Bah.

Anyway, today sport was canceled and so i left school early....spent a whole hour walking in the sweltering hot sun, mercilessly bombarding me with intense solar radiation. Well...yes im over exaggerating... but it was rather warm. My shirt was practically sticking to my back by the time i got home. No matter though, i treated myself to a nice cool glass of coconut juice. Hmm that stuff officially makes my favorite beverages list....not that i have a favorite beverages list. But if i did, it would have been on there somewhere, of course after tea. NOTHING beats tea.

Yep well that pretty much sums it up for the week. Oh one more thing, the vlogs are soon going back into full swing. And yes the link will be on my personal message on my msn name. So check it out when you see the date updated.

Yeah so im probably gonna spend the rest of my evening drinking tea and reading or what not.

Have a great new year!