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....
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 haAlright, 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.
