Ten minutes before seven on a Friday night, and Teance was already half full. The guys were handing out Lavender Mint as a preface, which I suppose could make a great palate cleanser. I was focused on snatching a seat…
Teance Spring Harvest Party
Category: Chinese
Flight of five, or 5-course tea session
Tiana, Kristen and I went on a tea date today, the perfect thing to do on a post-finals Sunday afternoon. And we don’t tea-date half-heartedly, we did a flight of 5 teas (people normally do flights of 3), with mochi(*)…
Anji Bai and Longjing revisited
Last night I made a list of teas that I haven’t tried at Teance. Four of them are green teas, and three are from China. So today I asked Cheryl, but the Dafang of this season hasn’t arrived, same with…
Pre-rain Dragon Well (Longjing) from the Lion Peak
About a month ago, I learned that Longjing (Dragon Well) is the sweetest tea with the highest theanine content among green teas. My experience with green teas, minus the Korean sejak(*), has been less favorable than with the light oolongs,…
Blind taste tests: Green versus Oolong
In my mind, green teas are more monotonic and oolongs are more multi-flavored, greens are lighter and oolongs are roastier. I can tell the category of tea from the type of gaiwan/pot that we use at Teance, the water, and…
Sunday 15/04 – Sesame mochi and teas
Sesame mochi is different from the other mochis. The coat is hard and chewy. The black sesame filling oozes out as I press the fork down. The filling, salty, sweet and resembling wet sand, is addictive. It’s a wonderful mochi.…
Wednesday 04/09 – Four Season oolong, Mao Jian, and warming the yixing pot in style
We had two blind taste tests today to distinguish types of tea. In the first one, I failed horribly: mistaking an oolong (Baochong) for a white tea because it was so light, and thinking that a green tea (Lu Shan)…
Wednesday 4/4 – Jasmine white, Baochong and Tuocha Pu’er
While listening to John Kokko about the benefits of tea, we tasted a white, an oolong and a pu’er. I’m ashamed to admit that I thought the oolong was a green tea. 1. Jasmine Silver Needle: white tea infused with…
Phoenix Pomelo Fragrance
Today I went for a pot of Phoenix Pomelo Fragrance, a rare Chinese oolong. Normally, oolongs must be rinsed with hot water (205 F) before the first steep, but this particular type is instead only steam-rinsed: you warm the gaiwan…
Wednesday 14/03 – Pu’er, the Chinese Black
Back then Darius told us that there are 2 main tea varietals: Camellia sinensis sinensis and Camellia sinensis puer. Obviously, pu’er tea comes from the latter. It’s the only kind of fermented tea. Fermentation and oxidation are two different things:…