In May I stopped browsing the menu at Teance. I’ve read it too many times, and I’ve remembered all the names. Most of them I’ve tried. Some were out of stock. The Nanjing Rain Flower (Yu Hua from Nanjing, Jiangsu…
Nanjing Rain Flower
Category: Green tea
Shiso Mochi and Spring 2012 Sencha
This must be the fifth time I’m talking about sencha, but the Spring 2012 harvest is a world difference from last year crop. To top it off with Masood’s steeping skill, who I’ve heard is the person to make sencha,…
Purple Bamboo tea (Zi Sun cha) at Imperial Tea Court
Until today I’ve tried 5 different kinds of Chinese green tea: Longjing (Dragon Well), Anji Bai, Lu Shan, Mao Jian and Bi Luo Chun. That doesn’t sound like a whole lot, and I’m waiting for Dafang and Nanjing to arrive…
Teance Spring Harvest Party
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…
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.…
Sencha and yomogi mochi
The third pairing of mochi and Japanese green tea. Perfect! Yes, finally a mochi that goes perfectly with sencha. Yomogi (Japanese mugwort), julienned into tiny strings and mixed with the mochi dough, gives the mochi a clean, refreshing taste, which…
Tea mixing – Jasmine White Down and Sencha
The tea purists will never forgive me, but I’m not a purist. I like to experiment. This tea studying thing started as me trying to learn as much about tea as possible to pair it with food or to cook…