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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Hawaiian Black Tea

Onomea Tea Co. is a small and growing "boutique tea estate" in Hawaii. As I recall, their selection includes white, black, oolong, and steamed or pan-fired green tea. One can not yet purchase the tea from their website, but I hope that changes soon, as I would like some more.

It's a black tea, and the leaves smell like black tea. The aroma is a bit generic, ubiquitous, but the leaves are beautiful, like a marriage between yancha and dian hong.

I used three grams four 4 minutes, but I would recommend using more leaf, as much as five grams. In fact I think this tea yearns for gong fu for the best results.

The liquor is a honey brown, like a pale ale.

It has a malty, brisk mouthfeel paired with a thinner body, similar to a ceylon. Honey notes, a subtle sweetness, and no astringency again bring to mind dian hong. The over all flavor has similarities to bai hao oolong. It was much better than I expected. It has the potential of being one of my few favorite black teas.


An afternoon with a book, some coffee, and a walk in the park has left me feeling more relaxed, more centered, than I've been in weeks.

Shikoku Awacha

This tea was given to me, so I don't know much about it other than it is a sencha from Shikoku, the smallest of the four main islands of Japan. I presume this tea comes from an area formerly known as Awa, now part of the Tokushima Prefecture.

It has a strong aroma, spicy, cilantro and tomatoes come to mind. The leaves are coarse and thick, with bits of twigs.

It tastes like asamushi, light with subtle hints of karigane, a faint sweet finish, and a whisper of astringency. Yet it has a hearty mouth feel. I like it.

Use lots of leaf. Good for 2-3 infusions.

My Favorite Oolong

I almost never buy the same tea twice, aside from one or two exceptions, staples. Even with the best tea, I simply file away its awesomeness for later and move on. This is particularly true with oolong.

But I can't stop drinking the Signature Roasted TGY from Just4Tea. After finishing the initial sample June sent me last December, I've purchased it twice, and soon I will place my third order. This TGY hits the spot for me and has become my favorite oolong; I drink it more days than not.

It's high roasted but not over powering. Similar to yancha, lots of chocolate, but with fruity nuances that bring a subtle complexity. Very smooth, not sour, and only astringent if poorly prepared.

Sometimes I'll brew it using a larger kyusu, which will yield a few delightful but simple infusions, good for meals and casual drinking. Other times I'll gong fu it with a much smaller yixing. I can get a half dozen or more infusions. These tend to be sweeter with more fruit.

Tea Nerd and Bears have also reviewed this tea, among many others.

Taiwan Wuyi

A wuyi oolong varietal from Taiwan. It came from Floating Leaves Tea and was a sample given to me by a kind person who continues to expand my oolong horizons.

The leaves are a dark, rich green with the occasional stem. It smells like berries. I stuffed my little pot and used short infusions.

It tastes like peaches and apricots with a friendly astringency, sweet after taste, and medium mouthfeel. Similar to this dan cong from Tea Spring.

2008 Nok Ya Won Wild Hadong Ddok Cha

This was a delightful sample of traditional Korean style tea that I received from Matt. If you haven't visited his blog yet, you don't know what you're missing. I often go over there just to see his wonderful photos.

According to Matt, "this tea was produced in eight steps. The first step involves the hand picking of this tea, in the clean and serene Jiri Mountain valley at a wild tea plantation just outside Hadong on the 10th of May, 2008. Secondly, the tea is dried in a large, gas-fired aluminum cauldron for 20 minutes. This acts to partially stop its oxidization. Next, the tea is removed from the cauldron and is placed on a rough, fibrous rush mat where it is violently rolled by hand. At this step the leaves break a little giving way to a reaction between tea and air. Then the tea is shade dried where it is exposed to the open air of the mountain valley for 48 hours. Next, the tea is separated and weighed into 100 gram piles. Then the leaves are steamed to soften them. When the leaves are supple they are pressed into cakes. Finally, they are left to dry in a warm room for 3-5 days."

According to Cha Dao, ddok cha "is a form of Korean compressed tea. The term ddok refers to the pounding method used to process the tea. In tradition, a pestle and mortar or a mallet and plank were employed. The name ddok is popularly thought to come from the sound of pounding with a large, wooden mallet on a large, thick wood plank: ddok, ddok, ddok."

The leaves smell fruity and light, similar to many Chinese greens I've had. When put in a heated kyusu, a caramelized sweetness emerges. The tea itself is light, fruity, sweet, with a distinct green finish and a delicate but full mouthfeel with layers of nuance. Everything that I like about Chinese green tea, only better.

Matt, thanks so much for my first introduction to Korean tea.

Rishi Shu Puerh 125 Gram Cake

This is my first puerh cake. I was kind of excited to get it. I only dabble in pu from time to time, but this one was Fair Trade Certified and affordable, and I had been in the mood for some shu-pu, so I went for it.

I use 5-6 grams for a 5 oz pot.

I put the leaves in a heated yixing to enhance the aroma. Smells like pork, a bit more bacon-esque than the sweet, sausage notes I sometimes get from puerh.

This tea wasn't very good. It wasn't offensive, not like many of the mini tuo cha I've stumbled across, for example, but it was rather bland. Rishi's description of "smooth and mellow" is accurate; there is little to no astringency, but it is completely lacking nuance or complexity.

I'm a little disappointed it didn't turn out better, but not surprised. Puerh is not Rishi's strong suit, in my opinion, which is a shame, since it is about the only Fair Trade Certified pu I've seen.

Teance "Monkey Picked" Tai Guan Yin Medium Roast

First things first, "monkey picked." Tea vendors will use this phrase to indicate that the particular tea is high quality, and perhaps also as in attempt to add a little exotic appeal to the product. This phrase should instill in you the same warm fuzzies I get from McDonald's "Premium" Coffee. It's a bygone phrase ('cause seriously, have you seen what monkey's do with their hands all day? Do you want them picking you tea?) from a time when supposedly they used trained monkey's to climb to the tops of trees to pick the tea leaves (now China can just use kids).

Yes, a company can add the phrase to a legitimately superior tea, that is quite good and worth your money; buyer beware, that's all I'm saying. If you find yourself thinking, "oooh, monkey picked," your bull-shit detector may need adjusting.

Second, medium roast my ass; this, and to be fair to Teance, every other medium roasted TGY I've tried, tastes lightly roasted at best to me. Maybe there is something I don't understand about roasting.

The aroma is somewhat typical but more complex than usual, sweet, toasted grain, caramel and honey with greener bits that come and go. The aroma of the rinsed leaves reveal a surprising and faint hint of peach.

The first time I brewed the tea, it was indeed peachy, like a dan cong, and I was very pleased, but I have since been unable to replicate it. It has a flavor similar to a gao shan, but not as floral and with a heavier body and thicker mouth feel.

I'm still hunting for roasted TGYs, but they seem to be going out of style.

And on the subject of Chinese mythology, meet Yu Zhi, daughter of Xiwangmu, Queen Mother of the West. The pictures is taken from a Ukiyo e woodcut by Nishikawa Sukenobu. Just the outline so far, color in about a month.

Hibiki-an's Houji Karigane

I'll cut to the chase. This tea is good, but it failed to elicit the same excitement and passion for houjicha that Den's Houji Kukicha awoke in me earlier this year.

Nice and toasty, a sweet finish, no astringency to speak of, but somehow lacks the pizazz of Den's. The prices are comparable, but you can only buy Hibiki's in 200 grams, meaning if you choose to try it, you better have plans to drink it for a while. Also, Hibiki's is less flexible. With Den's, I couldn't make a bad cup, but this one has turned on me once or twice.

Still, as I said, this is a good tea, but I'd rather have Den's. It would be interesting to try the two side by side and see if I'm full of shit.

Edit: I realised later that I wrote this assuming who ever reads it knows what kukicha and karigane are, which are essentially the same thing, Japanese twig tea. Kuki (twig) cha (tea). Karigane translates to wild goose or something. From what I have heard, karigane generally refers to kukicha from Uji. If you didn't know this, you might have been wondering why I was comparing kukicha to karigane.

Please read the comments for further disscusion on the true nature of karigane vs kukicha.

Rishi's Jade Cloud

It's been a while since I've talked about one of my earliest tea passions, Fair Trade, but the conversation on TeaChat today has inspired me to get off my ass and finally post this review. (I took these pictures three months ago).

There have been two recent changes with Rishi's line of Green Tea Retail Tins. 1) They've been packaging the tea with an inner bag to increase freshness (pictured), and 2) The tea gardens in Hubei, China where they source the Jade Cloud and a few others is now Fair Trade Certified.

Jade Cloud is harvested in the early spring using organic farming, grown at high elevation in tea gardens situated in natural pine and bamboo forests.

The aroma is nutty, sharp, vegital--asparagus perhaps.

The tea is mellow but has a pleasant and rich mouth feel and a desirable, low-level astringency. Nutty up front followed by a slight sweetness, which becomes more apparent in subsequent infusions, and a vegital finish. It tastes like it smells. As my palate is more accustomed to Japanese green tea, I'd say the overall flavor and strength is comparable to a good asamushi.

Georgian Old Gentlemen

Thanks to Mary, I've had the chance to try something new, a black tea from Georgia. I didn't even know they grew tea in Eastern Europe.

This tea is made by Iuri in the village of Nasakirali and was picked in the Spring. The leaves look more like a yancha than any other black tea I've seen, long and twisted, fluffy. It has a very mild aroma, just a bit of fruit.

I think the parameters of 3g per 8 0z for 4 min. was perfect, though gong fu would be nice, too. The liquor is a beautiful honey brown.

To fully appreciate this tea, I think it must go unadulterated, lest you over power the nuances. It has the simplicity of a good Ceylon with the honey-sweetness of a dian hong and hints of fruit and spice in the finish. Classy, to use an emotive descriptor.

By the way, those seedless concord grapes were amazing.

POKKA Oolong

No shit, the single best canned or bottled RTD tea I've ever had. Dr. Weil can go back to his day job. I found it at Whole Foods yesterday, and bought one with low expectations, expecting something greenish, astringent, and unremarkable.

Nuh-uh.

Yancha. Perfectly balanced yancha. Not too mild or watery and without the astringent bite that many unsweetened RTD's possess. I'd place it on par with Rishi's Wuyi Oolong. Not a lot of depth or nuance, but a very good, classic example. Great Flavor. It's Wuyi cha better than I could brew it.

No sugar, preservatives, calories, or coloring. Thanks Pokka!

Bubbies Green Tea Mochi Ice Cream

Mochi is a rice cake made from glutinous rice, and is used to make many of the Japanese sweets, Wagashi served with tea. Mochitsuki is the traditional process of making Mochi.

Mochi ice cream is relatively new, having started in the early 80's in Japan. It's a ball of mochi with an ice cream core available in a variety of flavors. Recently we started carrying the green tea mochi from Bubbies, a Hawaiian company. A Japanese sweet using tea; all the excuse I needed to consume a whole box. You know, for research.

The outer layer is chewy, doughy, and the ice cream, well, it's ice cream, sweet, creamy and tastes of awesomeness with a very distinct green tea profile. It tastes like they use food grade matcha, and not just powdered sencha. A unique and fun treat.

Ito En's Fujian Jin Xuan

Jin Xuan is a high mountain oolong typically from Taiwan, however Ito En's comes from Fujian, China. This is one of my favorite types of oolong, beautiful three-leaf clusters rolled into tiny, green pellets.

This tea has the usual aromas I find in green oolong, honey, toasted bits of cereal, followed by vegital and floral notes that just smell green.

This Jin Xuan is flexible, hard to over brew, and has an over all mild flavor, delicate, soft. Hints of honey and floral nuances, with a sweet mouth-feel and vegital finish. Refreshing and pleasant.

I bought one of the Bodum Pavina double wall glasses today, and I'm very much in love with it. It was a spontaneous purchase. I've seen them used by other tea drinkers on TeaChat, and I had hoped it would provide clearer photographs.

This one is a perfect size, 9 0z, suitable for almost every tea pot and gaiwan I have. The glass is light weight and just feels nice in the hand. Not as artsy or as wabi sabi as my other tea cups, but a pleasure to use, nonetheless.