Sunday, April 12, 2009

Den's Tea Houji-Kukicha Revisited


I first tried Den's Houji-Kukicha about a year ago and enjoyed it. Later I tried Hibiki's Houji Karigane but didn't care for it as much. Now I am giving Den's another try and I sill prefer it.

Its simplicity appeals to me. Add a heap of leave with some boiling water and lett it sit for a minute or two or three, whatever, and you have a cup of warm, roasted goodness. Nothing fancy but pleasurable.

If you are looking for a roasted kukicha, my advice is to go with Den's.


Monday, April 6, 2009

Adagio's Keemun Rhapsody


Spring is here, and with it soon comes the new harvests, particularly shincha--I am making my last bit of sencha stretch as long as I can. So in the mean time I continue to dig through my dwindling tea stash.

This is another one of the four new hong cha that Adagio released some months back.

The leaves smell...like keemun. The aroma reminds me of BBQ sauce. Kind of sweet, not smokey...hickory? I am pulling hickory out of my ass, as I have no idea what that smells like. Let's go with it.

The liquor is a clear, cola-brown. No hints of red.

The tea is pleasant enough. A some what mild keemun. Not bad, though I don't see myself ever yearning for a cup.

I am so off my game today.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Adagio's Golden Spring


Hello again. Did you miss me?

Golden Spring is one of the four new hong cha that Adagio added a few months back. They were all quite good, particularly for the price. I very much enjoyed the Yunnan Noir in particular, but I drank it all. A proper review on that one will have to wait till I get some more.

The Golden Spring has a typical aroma. The dry leaves smell of honey and grain, while notes of its Fujian heritage come out in the medium brown liquor with a subtle golden hue.

It has a smooth and mellow flavor with a lingering sweetness that develops as the tea cools. A fine example of hong cha at a good price.

I very much love this pot. It is by far my favorite. I have had it for years now I have yet to tire looking at it. Its so simple and eligant. While most end up deleted, when every I use it to review a tea, I spend half the time snapping pictures of it.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Can't Stop the Signal


For the foreseeable future, Another Tea Blog is still on hiatus, at least until I work out the issues with the photography. Yes I could still post reviews without my pictures, but it just doesn't feel the same.

I will not give up on this blog. It has been too much fun, and I honestly feel like it is just getting started. So thank you for your patience and continued support, but I promise this is not over.

In the meantime I will be working on wikiCHA. Some friends started it a while back and have been working on it, and it has the potential of really taking off, so be sure to check it out.

Friday, January 2, 2009

New Year, New Home, New Problems

Nothing much tea related to post today, but I did want to check in and let everyone know that posts will be resuming shortly as promised. Thank you for your continuing interest in my humble blog. During my two month hiatus, I expected my hits to take a nose dive, but I was pleasantly surprised.

I have settled in nicely to my new home, and I love it. Problem is I have been here for three weeks, and I am now sure that the sun never directly touches my apartment. This is nice for sleeping in and watching movies during the day, but is dramatically effecting my photography.

What light I do get is very blue. This is easily corrected with a little editing (pictured), but still doesn't leave me with sufficient light for good quality close up shots.

I am a lazy and spoiled photographer. I am used to simply waiting for the sun to come up, adjust my exposure, and go. Now I am going to have to get a lot more familiar with white balance, and light boxes or flashes or whatever else that the less luminous blessed folks have to use.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Its that time again.

I hope to get around to reviewing the new sencha from o-cha, the Chiran, but other than that it is not likely I'll be updating till January. The holidays are here and kicking my ass. Also I'm wrapping up the divorce, and I'll be moving mid December.

If I already had pictures taken and ready, I might still try to squeeze out a few reviews (and I probably will), but for the first time I'm caught up. I feel short on inspiration, I feel tapped out. I expect that the move, being in a new environment will help with that.

Furthermore, I have not been entirely pleased with the direction the blog has taken. It has been fairly random, reviews only on whatever tea finds its way to me, as I haven't been buying much tea myself. On one hand this has been nice, and I've been able to share some unique teas, but I prefer to have a bit more control and focus than that.

In short, updates will resume in January, hopefully stronger and inspired.

In the mean time, check out Adagio's new black teas from China.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Fruit Flavored Tea

Brittiny posted this on her blog, My Steeped IdentiTEA, yesterday, and I'm reposting it here 'cause it also expresses my feelings towards tea that doesn't taste like tea. And its just fucking funny.

George Carlin on Fruit-flavored Teas:

I would like to talk to you about fruit-flavored teas. These would be teas that are flavored like fruit. Fruit-flavored teas. You need to understand that. These are not fruits. They’re teas. But they taste like fruit. All right? They have names like strawberry kiwi, lemon berry, orange mango, wild cherry, blackberry and cranberry. They taste like fruit. And they sound like fruits, too, don’t they? They’re not. They’re teas. Fruit-flavored teas. And frankly, I don’t understand this.

Personally, I’ve always been of a mind that if you’re looking for fruit flavor, if you’re genuinely interested in something that tastes like fruit, and you find yourself in the tea section, you’re probably in the wrong aisle. My advice is, if it’s fruit flavor you’re after, play if safe, go ahead and get some fruit. I have found in my experience that fruit almost always turns out to be reliable source of fruit flavor.

Another good place you may wish to look for fruit flavor would be in fruit juice. Fruit juice is made by squeezing the juice out of the fruit. Apparently, the juice that runs out of the fruit has fruit flavor. Perhaps that’s why they call if fruit juice. It doesn’t taste like tea. For tea taste, you would need to get some tea.

So let’s sum this up: If it’s fruit flavor you want, you can’t go wrong with fruit. Or, as I’ve pointed out, fruit juice. Don’t be ordering tea. Tea has tea flavor. It’s not like fruit. It’s more like tea. If you want tea, I say order tea. That’s a different experience. It’s known as “having tea.”

Have you noticed, by the way, there are no tea-flavored fruits? Take a clue from nature.

Brittany, reading that made my whole night better, so thanks for sharing it.